The following were the Government disbursements and receipts from 1830 to 1840.

In the foregoing pages we have briefly sketched the progress of events in Algeria, from the time when the French first took possession of that country until the close of the year 1841. To have brought down our history to the present time would have exceeded the limits of a single article, and it was our intention therefore to have concluded the subject in a future number of this Review. Circumstances, however, prevent our fulfilling this intention; but we nevertheless present these pages to our readers, which we believe contain a faithful and succinct account of the carly portion of the history of this colony.

It will have been seen that a great part of the obstacles which the French Government had to encounter in establishing a colony in Algeria arose from their own indecisive measures, their immatured plans of action, and their erroneous views of the aim and means of colonization. In the course of ten years no less than ten successive Governors were placed over the colony,-besides three other Generals who held the command ad interim. Such continual changes are dangerous in any new settlement, but they are fatal in a young colony like Algeria, surrounded by enemies, who are ever on the alert to take advantage of any weakness in the councils as well as in the operations of the colonists. Whilst the French were thus manifesting an indecision of purpose and action,—at one while treating with the Arabs and courting pacific arrangements, at another pursuing a wholly opposite course of action -appointing a Governor, and in a few months supersedir?

VOL. XVIII.—No. XXXV.

Y

their appointment, with apparently equal absence of consideration and prudence,-Abdel-Kader took advantage of those weapons which his enemies themselves put into his hands, and, with a far inferior power at his command, baffled for years the tactics, skill and armies of the French Government. The prosperity, as well as the security, of Algeria rests materially upon the stability of its Governor, and upon the adoption of a successful and profitable scheme of colonization. So long as the attention of the Government is necessarily centred upon the military tenure of the colony and measures of aggression and warfare, the possession can prove only the gain of a loss-of a loss serious and progressively increasing. The Governor of Algeria ought to be appointed for a certain number of years, and his recall should be the consequence only of a special inquiry for urgent state reasons. This permanent tenure of office would render necessary the greater circumspection in the choice of an officer. He ought morcover, before being appointed, thoroughly to understand the history and position of the colony, and the nature of his duties,-to be ready to identify himself with its prospects and success,and to be a man of a high position in society, who would devote the advantages which rank and talents give him to the service of those over whom he was placed. The colony would thenceforward become his country; and not regarding it as a land of exile, or his life as one of ungrateful sacrifice, he would view his position and his duties as high and honourable, as investing him with the means of raising a new people and developing the germs of prosperity, civilization and power.

There is another source of prosperity which is of peculiar importance to Algeria,―colonization. As long as the French settlements are limited to fortified towns or the sca-coast, there can be small hopes to France from such possessions. Like the Turks, they encamp, but they do not take root in the soil; and whilst this is the case, there is no security of tenure but what the armies sent from France may afford; there are no internal elements of self-defence, and consequently no sound principle of colonization. There is, as we have said, but one means of accomplishing this object,-to colonize, and thus to create a population whose interests in the soil will enlist them in the defence of its possession.

There is a choice of various measures of colonization, but that choice should be regulated by the nature of the country and all the circumstances of time and place: these are the conditions of success in this national experiment. It may be well to consider the advantages of the military colonies established, with such systematic prudence, by the Carthaginians and Romans in this very country; in which the occupation of the land extended gradually from a centre, and was secured by strong military outposts and enclosures. But this question we must leave, and shall here conclude our article, summing up our remarks with one observation, that, so long as the possession of Algeria is secured only the presence of a large standing-army, it may remain in the occupation of the French, but it can never become, in the proper sense of the term, a colony to France.

INDEX

TO THE EIGHTEENTH VOLUME OF

THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN REVIEW

OR EUROPEAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL.