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NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

MOROCCO.

WHATEVER complications may arise from the invasion of Morocco by a Spanish force, it is quite certain that the existence of a land of bigoted fanatics, hostile to Christianity and civilisation alike, rebels and plunderers by land and pirates at sea, whenever they can be so with impunity, and that at the very entrance into the Mediterranean, is a state of things which ought not to have been so long tolerated, and cannot continue to be tolerated with safety to Europe. It is possible that Providence would not have allowed the rock of Gibraltar, the keys of the straits, to have been held by one European power to the exclusion of others, and that for so long a period of time, had it not been for the infinite good done by that power in checking piracy, and preserving, during the past century and a half, thousands of poor Christians from slavery and torture, or from a fate that to many has been worse than death. But still Great Britain has by no means done all that behoved her in so important a trust. There has, in the language of Mr. Richardson, been too much of "that crouching and subservient policy which the Gibraltar authorities have always judged it expedient to show towards the Maroquines."*

M. Rey, a Frenchman, has also exposed the system pursued in a few bitter sentences. "Voluntary humbling of European nations, always ready to pander to Moorish rapacity, even without reaping any advantage for it, and who submit themselves to be uselessly ransomed. As to the English, they show suppleness and prudence, sacrificing national dignity to the prosperity of commerce; the sultans are not backward in taking advantage adroitly of a situation so favourable and so almost unique; such is the picture of the diplomatic relations we have sketched."+ It was not to be expected that our intelligent consul-general, Mr. Drummond Hay, would back such assertions to their full extent. There is no doubt that Mr. Hay has done all in his power to uphold British dignity as far as the "system" permitted him; but the system that tolerates obsequiousness, never indicates the rights of nations, and upholds the perfectly Chinese system of exclusiveness of the Sherifian court, is not only erroneous-it is degrading. The spirit of the Christian West, which has invaded the most secret councils of the Eastern world,

* Travels in Morocco. By the late James Richardson. Two Vols. Charles J. Skeet.

† Souvenir d'un Voyage au Maroc. Par M. Rey. Paris.

Jan.-VOL. CXVIII. NO. CCCCLXIX.

B

Turkey, Persia, and all the countries subjected to Ottoman rule, is still excluded by the haughty sherifs of the Muhammadan West.

The Prince de Joinville was once going to open Morocco, as it has been attempted to open China; but bullets and shot, which his royal highness showered upon Tangiers and Mogador, only closed faster the approaches and routes of this well-guarded empire. The French boasted that they had obtained from the emperor permission for Europeans to travel in Morocco without let or hindrance. But not only is the interior tabooed to the conquerors of Isly, but it is equally so to the English, whose so-called "diplomatic intercourse" began in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and although sustained on the distant terms of a humiliating friendship ever since, has never procured for them the right to travel, without the special permission and cognisance of the authorities.

The toleration of so exclusive, haughty, fanatic, and hostile a power at the very gates of Europe is, indeed, one of those stupendous blunders that can only find its explanation in the fact that it arises from the mistaken jealousy of one European nation over another, and by which they are led to uphold, as at Constantinople, a barbarous system, rather than that any one of them should enjoy advantages by putting a stop to such a state of things to the exclusion of another.

The very industrious classes of the country itself-Europeans, Jews, and even Moors-call aloud for protection from the rapacity of their own government on the one hand, and the oppression of a lawless populace on the other. It may suit civilised nations to ignore this state of things, but the day of retribution and of downfal must one day come, as will be the case also with that sublime farce yclept the Ottoman Porte. One nation will do its duty if another will not, and those who have held aloof from taking the initiative may puff and blow and talk about rights, and insist upon non-occupation, but the edifice is so utterly corrupt and bad, that, once in it, the instinct of self-preservation will show the necessity for remaining there, and a tenure not at first contemplated will become with nations and people so circumstanced an act of charity and justice to others, forced upon the first occupants. Such a result may not follow at once, but it must inevitably come with the progress of time.

The hold of that fine strip of land, which corresponds to the Mauretania of the ancients-the Moghribu-l-Aksa, or extreme west of the Arabs--by the descendants of the Moravedi, is, since the French have become possessed of Algeria, or Moghribu-l-Ausat, an anachronism and a solecism. It is the rejection of the scum of Muhammadanism into the most remote prolongation of Atlas, the last figment of Barbary, and then the upholding of it there by international jealousies, for the express trouble, and annoyance, and misery of every civilised nation in the world. The time for a purely selfish and egotistical policy of any nation, however great, is now gone by. It would be well if this was more generally understood and accepted. If Great Britain, notwithstanding the prodigious advantages given to the opening of commerce by the use of steam-boats of light draught, has failed to utilise the great rivers of the East-the Burramputer, the Irawaddy, or the rivers of Siam, Cambodia, and CochinChina-it cannot feel surprised that others should enter into occupation of the lands they water. If France obtained the assistance of Spain to induce the stultified, betel-chewing Annamese to open their ports to commerce

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