Algiers

the capital, has streets, public buildings, shops, and hotels, modeled on those of French cities. Ancient Algiers lies farther back, along narrow, dirty, upper streets. The milkman drives his flock of goats from door to door. The houses have thick walls designed to exclude heat. The flat roofs command a magnificent view of a fine harbor and its shipping. The harbor is protected by a long mole of immense concrete blocks, dropped in a curved line to form a defensive embankment.

Algeria is in all essential respects a department of the French republic. There are public schools, both Arabic and French. Freedom of religious worship is secured to all. Newspapers, mails, telegraph and telephone lines disseminate information. Political rights are guaranteed by the privilege of sending three senators and six representatives to the National Assembly of France.

In Roman times Algeria was noted for its fertility. It was called "The Garden of the Empire." Then for centuries, until the French took hold of it, Algeria lay desolate. Considered from a sentimental point of view, it is not right for a strong nation to take possession of the territory of its weak neighbors. Theoretically, Great Britain, France, and later, Germany and the United States are wrong in occupying foreign shores and imposing new forms of government on weak people; but practical experience has demonstrated that a country like Algeria is better off as the possession of some nation which is able to enforce laws for the protection of property and persons. At certain stages of development, government is of far more importance than independence.

STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest to be had from trustworthy sources:

See Berbers; Esparto; France; Africa

During the Napoleonic wars, the Dey of Algiers supplied grain for the use of the French armies; it was bought by merchants of Marseilles, and there was a dispute about the matter which was settled as late as 1829. Several installments had been paid; the dey demanded payment in full according to his own figures, while the French government, believing the demand excessive, required an investigation. In one of the numerous debates on the subject, Hussein Pasha, the reigning dey, became very angry, struck the consul with a fan, and ordered him out of the house. He refused all reparation for the insult, even on the formal demand of the French government, and consequently there was no alternative but war. The expedition launched from the port of Toulon for the chastisement of the insolent Algerine comprised 37,500 men, 3,000 horses, and 180 pieces of artillery.... The sea forces included eleven ships of the line, twenty-three frigates, seventy smaller vessels, 377 transports, and 230 boats for landing troops.... It was finally agreed that the dey should surrender Algiers with all its forts and military stores, and be permitted to retire wherever he chose with his wives, children, and personal belongings, but he was not to remain in the country under any circumstances. On the fifth of July the French entered Algiers in great pomp and took possession of the city.... The spoils of war were such as rarely fall to the lot of a conquering army, when its numbers and the circumstances of the campaign are considered. In the treasury was found a large room filled with gold and silver coins heaped together indiscriminately, the fruits of three centuries of piracy; they were the coins of all the nations that had suffered from the depredations of the Algerines, and the variety in the dates showed very clearly that the accumulation had been the work of two or three hundred years. How much money was contained in this vast pile is not known; certain it is that nearly 50,000,000 francs, or 2,000,000 pounds sterling, actually reached the French treasury.... The cost of the war was much more than covered by the captured property....Many slaves were liberated....The Algerine power was forever broken, and from that day Algeria has been a prosperous colony of France.--T. W. Knox, Decisive Battles Since Waterloo.