Show TUNIS its country inhabitants govern nien t and resources for the herald ane troubles of the french gov with this turkish dependency ency in northern africa have of late occupied such a prominent part in ill the news of the day that it may be interesting to give our readers a few glimpses of the country and its inhabitants the regency of tunis no nominally minall y under turkish euzera suzerainty i nty measures square miles of which 23 per cent are fertile low lands 32 per cent plateaus and the rest desert region the latter arc are situated in tho the south where tunis minis merges almost imperceptibly into the dreary desolation f tho sahara the climate is exceedingly favorable tho the soil very fruitful and enjoys the advantages of ever increasing cultivation the productions of the country are wheat barley maize millet pulse olive oranges figs w i egra nates almonds da dates tes cotton cattle horses ories li sliced dromedaries dro salt saltpetre salt petre quicksilver and lead many of the veins of the latter mineral mag being eing auriferous rich in gold the population numbers about consisting consi consisting stin c chiefly of arabs the rest bein being a very vary heterogeneous mixture of afi all tho the races and tribes Gae Gre duli phoenicians Phoenicia ns romans vandals Van dala greeks and and moors who followed each other in the succession of the centuries As to the religious feature inhabitants are jews roman catholics greek catholics protestants the remainder belong to the faith of the prophet of mecca the tribes of tho the mountain regions re on enjoy almost unrestrained independence cc industry and commerce arc are already considerable but arc are almost exclusively in the hands of europeans in 1876 the imports amounted to marks mark 25 cents while the ex exports r t reached the ille sum of boon marks the capital tunis numbers about inhabitants it is situated about 45 kilometers 30 miles from the sea mediterranean at the extremity of tho the salt lake el bahira at tho the point where this lake is connected with the seny sea we find the city port and fortress of la goletta which commands access to the capital to the northwest of Tunis about 15 kilometers 10 miles distant lie the ruins of carthage once the queen of the mediterranean tunis has narrow dirty streets animated by the loiso loiso offo tradesmen thure are jews and christians the bey the ruler resides in tho the palace kasbah an all imposing moorish structure but ut the seat of the government is in the ar t strong castle tle in the northwest of the city which latter contains also the state vi prison son and a school the h e e city it moreover lias has nume numerous rovis bazars bazar sl hotels baths five large and many small mosques synagogues two libraries f fifty nine nino elementary schools a university a I lyceum twenty two jewish schools etc after tunis had successively belonged to the carthaginians romans vandals vandal and greeks in A D it was conquered by the arabs under the kalif othman and after a while degenerated into one of the most dangerous nests of pirates louis the saint of france in 1270 undertook a crusade against tunis in which he lie lost his life in 1535 charles V brought his powerful army against tunis conquered the ca capital pital and liberated christian ti all slaves in 1575 selim II 11 subjected tunis to the suzerain suzerain power of the sultans and at that occasion also conquered la goletta which had hitherto remained spanish 13 since that period tunis was ruled by beys boys deys until hamada 1872 1814 threw off the ascendancy of the turkish rule afterwards mi which supported and aided abdul kader who in alge biawas causing great trouble to the tile french Fren cli got into difficulties with france but as soon as the porte the government at constantinople showed its intention to subjugate re tunis the bey sidi mehmed made overtures to io france and introduced european manners and customs into tunis with assistance of his minister the italian buffo he however aided the porte in the war against russia in 1858 thero the reformer sidi mahammed Ma hommed ascended tho the throne he granted tho country t r a constitution but drove the moors mors and of tile mountains to revolt he died as early as 1859 whereupon his suc cmor the present bey mahammed Ma es maddok repealed the constitution in 1871 the porte recognized the auto mony self government of tunis granted the family of the bey the hereditary right to the throne by primogeniture to the first born and only retained the investiture and the decision over war and peace pence in the last war against russia the bey aided the porte with several thousand troops tr OM T the political and social conditions odthe of the regency are the most d deplorable plo rable imaginable in III former times the soldiers were omnipotent until ITam Ha ramada mada ridded kidded the country of them by wholesale slaughter of the janissaries but even after this the military retained certain privileges such as the collection of the taxes tills this lias was done twice a year with the greatest violence and the most heinous outrages against the helpless population the runis tunis under achmed and sidi Maho as with all turkish rulers was only a sham and there were numerous relapses cla ap es into the pristine arl stine barba barbarism arism such as assassinations ass amsi of christians persecutions 11 c u eions of jews after the french c had conquered algeria it lay in their interests to sec see a well ordered condition of affairs in the neighboring country of tunis they therefore from lime to time insisted on reforms which however either remained ineffective or were ivere soon repealed the beys were e cither either themselves cruel violent unscrupulous and immoral or allowed themselves to be ruled by favorites with those characteristics mahammed Ma hommed cs es maddok is good natured Z but irrational and immoral and his zeal for reforms is ts rather questionable thus lie devolved his harem ret retaining a in only one wife but lie created a harem harein of boys who greib up into favorites and were permitted to ruin the country by their thur extortions extort ions tho tile present 31 minister mustapha is one of that despicable ilk it is evident that the favoritism favori tm costs linich much money and is a most exhausting drain on the public resources the state revenues amount annuala annually to about fres but it sometimes happened that the bey needed for which he won would id issue treasury notes what value these had is easily divined at one time tho bey sent a confidential confidential agen agent t with worth of such notes to E europe arop to change them ill into liard hard cash and he realized 10 arcs in coin the bey i has his abolished judicial torture bu but t retained tho the prison for debts where every one avo who cannot board himself is left to starvation even the abolition of the torture is as as years ago the A minister inister of war invented and introduced in into to use the serpent t den the victim of this inhuman proc process ms was led before a dec deep pit filled with hideous toads writhing snakes iad venc moua scorpions and if he lie did not co confess nAss ho lie was cast into the bottom bottoli I in in order that others at the horrible si spectacle ecta cle of the bodies eaten by ali the disgusting vermin should be induced to confess even now the taxes are collected by semi annual military raz this is the only on I occupation of tha military which is the most contemptible one on earth even E ven when on guard in the very capi capital ital and at the gates of or the citadel the soldiers knit stocking ig or weave baskets to earn a little of discipline there la is not even the slightest pretense the whole army goes barefoot about ten years ago the bey took a notion to have the army provided with shoes he lic granted an ap appropriation aaion of bics in treasury notes but aa he put the contractor the condition to furnish also a uniform trimmed with gold for the bey the appropriation was consumed by the uniform i and the army goes yet barefoot the bey is also said to hav have murdered his own brother although lie had pledged himself under oath to the european consuls to do his relative no harm the war force of tunis consists of about men mostly irregulars if the 40 independent tribes furnish their contingents this makes 80 men more the navy comprises vessels vessel with 10 cannon the commercial fleet ships the state debts amount to arcs with an annual budget of |