e qui ont des comptoirs dans differents ports pourront avoir des
courtiers attaches a chacun de ces comptoirs et jouissant a ce titre de
la protection francaise....

Il est entendu, que les cultivateurs, gardiens de troupeaux ou autres
paysans indigenes au service des Francais ne pourront etre l'objet de
poursuites judiciaires sans que l'Autorite consulaire competente en soit
immediatement informee, afin que celle-ci puisse sauvegarder l'interet
de ses nationaux....

(De Card: "Les Traites entre la France et le Maroc" (Paris, 1898), pp.
221-22.)

* * * * *

(_c_) THE CONFERENCES OF MADRID (1800) AND ALGECIRAS (1906).

Through the efforts of the British Minister at Tangier, Sir John
Drummond Hay, who had negotiated the Treaties of 1856 and who was
strongly opposed to the abuses of the Protection system, a Conference of
the Powers and other interested States was held at Madrid in 1880 with
the object of introducing reforms.[102] A new Convention, containing a
few fresh restrictions, was agreed upon, but, as a matter of fact, the
Conference was a failure, owing to the reluctance of France to abandon a
system which gave her an advantage against Great Britain in promoting
her influence in Morocco.[103] For obvious reasons, Jewish influence
was also largely used to the same end. The Jewish factor of the problem
came out very prominently in the debates of the Conference. All the
proteges referred to by name were Jews, such as the families of
Benchimol, Moses Nahon, David Buzaglo, and Isaac Toledano.[104] One of
the few reforms carried out by the Conference was the abolition of
hereditary protection. An exception was, however, made in the case of
the Jewish family of Benchimol, whose rights in this respect had been
guaranteed in the Convention of 1863 with France, and a special
reservation to this effect was inserted in the new Treaty.[105]

The Conference also dealt with the general questions of Religious
Liberty in Morocco and of the treatment of native Jews. In 1864 Sir
Moses Montefiore, as President of the Jewish Board of Deputies and with
the support of the British Government, had undertaken a mission to
Morocco in order to secure an improvement in the treatment of the
non-Mohammedan population, and more particularly the Jews. He succeeded
in obtaining from the Sultan a remarkable Edict assuring to the Jews a
perfect equality of treatment with all the other subjects of the
Sultan.[10