The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-21 00:00:00

THE SUN.

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 21, 1862.

In a recent number of the lndependanee Beige,
under the vague and generalised heading of "News
from the East," there appeared an argument so curi-
ous in its way, as throwing at least some small pro-
portion of light upon the influence beginning to be
exercised by modern civilisation upon the Govern-
ment of Tunis—that we are tempted here, very
briefly, to refer to it. The argument in question, it
may be briefly stated, at once originated in the
manner following. A correspondence had be en
published in the columns of the Independance about
a month previously—a correspondence from Tunis
illustrative in some measure of the results flowing
from the original publication and vigorous inaugu-
ration of the Tunisian Constitution. Apropos to
to the purport of those month-old communications,
the Belgian organ to which we are now referring
has received very recently, also from Tunis, a cor-
respondence (if we may strictly call it so) of a
very different character. Certain European resi-
dents at Tunis, manifestly, from their names,
Frenchmen and Italians for the most part,
'with a sprinkling of Germans and Dutchmen,
have, in point of fact, transmitted to the Independ-
ance a round robin, setting forth their own peculiar
notions as to the probabilities of justice being
awarded to European litigants in the regular tri-
bunals of the country, on the one hand, or through
the exceptional and irregular jurisdiction of the
respective Consuls of those said Europeans ! Differ-
ing altogether from the conclusions arrived at by
their correspondents—all of whom are as a matter
of course more or less engaged in mercantile avoca-
tions—the Belgian newspaper frankly gives the
benefit of its circulation, nevertheless, to the opinions
expressed in the document; publishing the latter in
its entirety verbatim et literatim. Yet, even before
giving the argumentative Protest of its correspon-
dents, the jndependance warns its readers generally
that it iiklnlY to be regarded as a new and signal
evidence, of how time and habit, in the eyes of the
greater ember, readily enough give a varnish
of legitimacy
a-uses which in themselves are
directly counter to the most simple and the most
universall.ly admitted
Principles of Public Right.
In effect, argues the " direet„r„
or " redacteur" of
the Inderendanee, in the course
of his prefatory
observations, the persons who have subscribed this
protest reduce us absolutely to the necessity of •
remarking in their regard, that if the capitulations
to which they bind themselves down to
day with
such a very singular determination could Emu be 1
in any way advantageous—indispensable even
though they undoubtedly may hove been at another
epoch—they cannot possibly be regarded as
such any longer, particularly nowadays,
'ore especially in a country endowed, like
the Kingdom of Tunis, with institutions
Nvhich might be envied by' more than one Euro-
pean State ! Nay, further than this, the lnde
nendance goes on to remark (certainly with some
truth) that those guarantees, that it was formerly
conceived to be necessary to find in solemn conven-
tions, imposed upon the powers of the Levant, as
it were, by main force, and in violation of their
indisputable rights of sovereignty, can now be more
effectually secured--through the simple influence