The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-10 00:00:00

EVENINi EDITION.

THE SCHAH OF PERSIA AND HIS

GRAND VIZIER,

(From the Indian Review.)

" When the Persian army marched to the siego
of Herat, Captain Wilbraham sought the opportu-
nity to make this autumnal excursion, and, previous
to his departure from Tehran, had an audience of

leave of the new Shah. As we have not met with

rate an activity so foreign to their own, and the
Moors, Turks, and Arabs who leave the city are re-
placed by numerous emigrants from the Balearic
Islands, Malta, the coast of Italy, Germany, and
even Switzerland. The visitor must penetrate the
narrow streets of the upper town to find the native
habitations which have escaped European contact.
The high price of provisions is a consequence of
this new population, whose voracity astonishes
the Mussulman, accustomed to live upon so little,
and impoverishes him without opening a prospect
of change. Rents have increased enormously, on
account of the limited space of the city. A simple
restaurateur, who is however making a fortune,
pays 9,000 f. a-year for the first-floor of a house,
and there are shops which are let at quite as high
rents as those of the Palais Royal. A dark and
low bureau de tabac islet at 2,5001. a-year. The
occupation of the French has ruined the middle
classes, to raise the lower orders from the de-
graded state in which they were vegetating.
The middle classes, many of whom lived upon
the incomes derived from the posts which have
been suppressed, and others upon revenues
which are now unequal to the increased prices of
all the necessaries of life, and whose misery is be-
coming greater and greater every day, either live in
the midst of privation, or solicit even the meanest
employment for bread, or the most fanatical of them
expatriate themselves, leaving their wives and
daughters behind to a course of life which is be-
ginning to excite serious attention. The lower
classes, however, under the protection of the laws,
now raise their heads, are becoming industrious,
and get rapidly reconciled to European habits, and
above all, to the money of their new masters. The
mania for hoarding up, so common in the East, is
very strong among this ignorant population, who,
it is said, have not buried less than 30,000,000 f.
since the conquest of Algiers. The cultivators of
the environs of Algiers have been great gainers by
the increased consumption occasioned by the presence
of the French. The markets are as well supplied
those of Paris, and the environs are as busy with the
movement of horses, mules, camels, and carts laden
with provisions, as those of the capital of France.
The gardens are let at enormous rents, old
houses are constantly disappearing to make room
for new buildings, and the legal interest on capital
in all transactions is 15 per cent. Everything in
the vitality of this African city shows that it has
richness and strength. Toulon, in spite of its
arsenal and its marine, has the air of a ruined city,
if its tranquil monotony be compared with the
feverish activity of Algiers.
" The Sahel is an immense plain or plateau in-
terposed between the coast and the Metidja. Its
surface is unequal, divided by deep and abrupt val-
lies ; but it is of extraordinary fertility, and in point
of picturesque appearance equals in many respects
Italy itself. It extends from Cape Matsfou to the
promontory of Sidi Ferruch, and is covered with
farming establishishments and country houses, many
like Provençal bastides or Italian villas, The trees
that grow on it attain immense size, but it is in
many parts covered with thick brushwood, or with
unprofitable produce that resists the efforts of the
cultivator. Behind this district, adds M. Blanqui,
extends the plain of the Metidja, which all the
persons who come to settle in Algeria look
on as the promised land,' but which in reality
has proved to too many the seat of death.
M. Blanqui compares this plain to that of Aleria,
in Corsica, and maintains that it is impossible to
colonize it properly without measures having been
first taken for rendering it healthy. The consequence
has been, that the mortality among the settlers has
been very great, and that it was speedily found by
Government that it would take too great a number
of troops and too much money, to say nothing of
the risk of the lives of the soldiers from the climate,
to allow of the colonists being protected in the way
that might be desired. All that has been found
practicable has been to form a double line of road
along the base of the Atlas, and to make other roads
diverging to it from Algiers as a common centre.
These lines communicate with detached camps,
some of which are in more salubrious posi-
tions than others, but in all of which great
mortality among the soldiers has occurred.
The towns of Blidah and Koleah are in exceptional
situations at two extremities of these lines of de-
fence. Bouffarick is on the verge of the Sahel.
He mentions as instances of the fertility of the land
that bulbous plants which grow on it in great abun-
dance have bulbs sometimes attaining twenty pounds
in weight. Nothing, too, can be more beautiful
than the extraordinary luxuriance of the weeping
willows, and all kinds of African plants, that cover
the surface. The Jewish population is the only
one that really amalgamates with the French one
—the Arabs not. Many French have adopted the
Arab costume, but not a single Arab the French
one. The children of native families show great
aptitude to acquire the French language, but
those parents who allow them to do so are only of
the lowest classes. The Moors of Algiers have
only hitherto sent three or four children to the
college of Algiers, and at a ball lately given to
the Duke of Orleans not a single Moor-
ish woman was present, though there
were seven or eight Jewish ladies. All
the public revenues are on the increase. The
department of Enregistrement et Domaines has
produced during the first half of the current year
20,0001. more than during the corresponding pe-
riod of 1838 ; the octroi and other minor duties
have been increased 64,000 f. ; the post department
33,0001. ; steam-packet department more than
25,0001. The total excess of the revenue for this
period over the corresponding period of 1838 has
been 206g000f. Commercial returns show similar
results. In 1838 the exports of wax from Algiers
amounted to 1-22,715 f. ; the first six months only of
1839 have given an excess of 100,000 f. on thi a ar-
ticle alone. Leathers, in 1838, were exported for
746,000 f. ; but during the first half of the current
year they have increased to 1,396,427 f.; the trade
in wool is 800 per cent. greater than it was last
year ; leeches have been exported from Algeria for
more than 3,000,000 f. during the current year.
" M. Blanqui concludes this part of his report
with pointing out the difficulties arising to colonists
from the tenure of property in Algiers, calling it a
great evil, and promising to notice it in his nex
communication.'

FRENCH POSSESSIONS IN NORTH AFRICA.
No. 2.
At the last sitting of the Academy of Moral and
Political Sciences, M. Blanqui continued the read-
ing of his report on the condition of the French
provinces in the north of Africa. This second

; part of his memoir was to the following effect :
It appeared appeared difficult to explain the
stationary character of the colonization of Algiers,
considering the great activity that reigns in the
town and its environs, and the various symptoms
of the prosperity to which he had already alluded,
such as high rents, high rate of interest, and other
indications of colonial progress. In spite of all these,
the colonization of Africa languishes, a circum-
stance which he attributes to the complicated regu-
lations connected with the possession of property.
When the French army took possession of A;friers,
property was subject to laws very different from
those of France. These laws were the resu!t of
two authorities equally despotic—military and reli-
gious power, and were in direct opposition to the
philosophical and liberal principles of French legis-
lation. The Civil Code and the Koran were brought
into a conflict, which is not near its termination.
When the French system of government suddenly
replaced that of the Dey, there were several
kinds of property—that of the State, which is
called doiruzine in France, and in which was in-
cluded the personal property of the Dey ; corpora-
tion property, which was a sort of collective pro.
perty possessed by partners or associations, some-
times by whole tribes; and the property of
individuals. As far as the property of the
domain and of the Dey was concerned, the
change pas effected without difficulty, the con-
queror simply exchanging places with the conquered.
The difficulty began ;lien the Government at-
tempted to lay its hands on the property of corpora-
tions, some religious and others charitable, or pre-
tending
to be so, and asserting many rights liable
to dispute, one of which was that of holding and
managing possessions, the heirs of which were ab-
bpyro pty were ab-
sent. When the French attempted to inquire into
the title
whicher thedi
held,
descriptions of cor-
poration
complaints arose on
every side, and a formal article of the capitulation
having guaranteed that property should be respected,
it was made the ground of defence for every abuse.
Speculators fell upon all kinds of property without
4jstinction, with ideas of European tenure, and
without forieeieg perils which, great as they are,
have not put a stop to this fatal passion of acquisi.