age of the Tunisian system is
apparent on all sides. The expense is less, the excuses for
irregularities are greater, and the natives still remain a nominal
power in the land, instead of being considered as near serfs as is
permissible in this twentieth century.

The results of the French occupation were summed up to me by a
Tunisian as the making of roads, the introduction of more money and
much drunkenness, and the institution of laws which no native could
ever hope to understand. But France has done more than that in Tunis,
even for the native. He has the benefit of protection for life and
property, with means of education and facilities for travel, and an
outlet for his produce. He might do well--and there are many instances
of commercial success--but while he is jibbing against the foreign
yoke, the expatriated Jews, whom he treated so badly when he had the
upper hand, are outstripping him every day. The net result of the
foreigners' presence is good for him, but it would be much better had
he the sense to take advantage of his chances as the Jew does. Many of
the younger generation, indeed, learn French, and enter the great army
of functionaries, but they are rigidly restricted to the lowest posts,
and here again the Jew stands first.

In business or agriculture there is sure to come a time when cash is
needed, so that French and Jewish money-lenders flourish, and when the
Tunisian cannot pay, the merciless hand of foreign law irresistibly
sells him up. In the courts the complicated procedure, the intricate
code, and the swarm of lawyers, bewilder him, and he sighs for the
time when a bribe would have settled the question, and one did at
least know beforehand which would win--the one with the longer purse.
Now, who knows? But the Tunisian's principal occasions for discontent
are the compulsory military service, and the multiplication and weight
of the taxes. From the former only those are exempt who can pass
certain examinations in French, and stiff ones at that, so that Arabic
studies are elbowed out; the unremitted military duties during the
Ramadan fast are regarded as a peculiar hardship. To the taxes there
seems no end, and from them no way of escape. Even the milkman
complains, for example, that though his goats themselves are taxed,
he cannot bring their food into town from his garden without an
additional charge being paid!

With the superficial differences to be accounted for by this new state
of thin