Former governors of this place have managed their own garrison and fort without distracting Spain or Morocco; this governor, then, must have been selected for the work he has performed. The qualifications and antecedents required are those of a soldier. Out of all the army, one only could be selected on whom had been inflicted the penalty of professional disgrace for heading a mob against his sovereign’s troops:--that one was selected. The selection was the subject of astonishment, and it was felt by the service to be an insult. It was indeed inconceivable that a man who had been in his own person guilty of the greatest outrage upon discipline, should have been chosen for the command of the most military garrison in Europe, so as to exhibit to every youth who commences his military career in the garrison,--and every regiment takes its turn,--that mutiny is compatible with the highest honours, and is even the road to preferment. This outrage upon discipline was perpetrated by the head of the British army, and the strictest of disciplinarians. In 1817 there was a pamphlet published which, with equal ability and foresight, exposed the great error which had been committed at the congress of Vienna, in looking to France as the power from which future danger would emanate. In that pamphlet it was shown that by an undue depression of France the future peace of Europe was placed in jeopardy: its text and conclusion was, “_Alexander has inherited Europe from Napoleon_.” The author of this pamphlet had henceforth to be classed amongst the men peculiarly deserving the attention of the Russian cabinet. He is that governor, selected, in defiance of all decency, to send to Gibraltar, and there overstepping the limits of his functions, he nearly embroils England and France. A Russian steam-vessel of war was admitted to the quay of her Majesty’s vessels to get coal, which was furnished her from the royal stores, while French men-of-war were allowed no such indulgence; on departing she _was saluted by the fortress, with twenty-one guns_![64] This I witnessed with my own eyes and heard with my own ears. The assembled crowd said, “Es loco,”--“He is mad.” A foreign consul, the next day, used these words, “Now this appointment is explained.”[65] I may here set down some matters connected with the recent land and sea raid of the French in Morocco; but, like the father of history, I will give what I have heard without vouching for it. BOMBARDMENT OF TANGIER. On the 2d of August, 1844, Mr. Hay received the submission of the Sultan to the demands of France. On the 5th, the intelligence arrived at Tangier. A telegraphic despatch dated that day, reached Paris on the 11th, and the peace with Morocco was officially announced. But five days before--that is, on the 6th--Tangier had been bombarded!