Called into existence in 1869, the Commission worked up to 1884 with satisfactory results to both Tunis and its creditors.

Under the arrangements made by the International Finance Commission, the total public debt of Tunis stood fixed in 1884 at 125,000,000 francs, or 5,000,000l., the whole bearing interest at five per cent., besides a floating debt of 822,4681. By a decree of the President of the French Republic of May 28, 1884, and a similar decree of the Bey of Tunis of May 27, a loan was guaranteed by the French Government by which the Tunisian debt has been consolidated into a sum of 125,000,000 francs, or 5,000,000l., and the floating debt 17,550,000 francs, or 702,000l., or a total of 5,702,0007. The loan was emitted as a perpetual 4 per cent. rente of 6,307,520 francs, or 252,300l., divided into 315,376 obligations of a nominal capital of 500 francs. These were to be sold by preference to the holders of 5 per cent. Tunisian obligations at the price of 462 francs. The International Commission has been succeeded by a staff of French civilian controllers.

The general administration of the country costs far more than it did before the French occupation, when the total was set down at 60,0531. The cost of maintaining the French army corps of occupation is entered in the Budget for 1886 as amounting to 6,745,106 francs, or 269,6041. The corps of occupation, according to the budget statement for 1886, consists of 15,771 men. The cost of maintaining this force is to be borne partly by the budget of the Republic, and in part by the Regency. For religious purposes the whole of the Regency is included within the Archbishopric of Algiers.

Area, Population, and Trade.

The kingdom or 'Regency' of Tunis, formerly one of the so-called Barbary States, comprises the tract of country included in the ancient Roman provinces of Zeugitana and Byzacium. It takes its present name from its modern capital Tunis, the Roman Tunes, the Acur Túrnra of Diodorus of Sicily. The present boundaries are on the north and east the Mediterranean Sea, on the west the FrancoAlgerian province of Constantine, and on the south the great desert of the Sahara and the Turkish Pachalik of Tripoli; and reckoning its average breadth from west to east to be 100 miles, it covers an area of about 42,000 English square miles, including that portion of the Sahara which is to the east of the Beled Djerid, extending towards Gadamés.

The number of inhabitants is only known by estimates, no attempt of enumeration having ever been made. It is stated in the 'Almanacco Tunissino' for 1877, that the total population is

calculated to number 2,100,000, comprising 2,028,000 Mahometans, 45,000 Jews, 25,100 Roman Catholics, 400 Greek Catholics, and 100 Protestants. But according to other and more trustworthy reports there are, at the utmost, 1,500,000 inhabitants. According to all accounts, the population, which numbered 17 millions in the tenth century, and 5 millions in the middle of the eighteenth century, is gradually decreasing. The majority of the population is mainly formed of Bedouin Arabs and Kabyles; there are 45,000 Jews.

The capital, the city of Tunis, is situated 10 miles southeast of the site of ancient Carthage, built on the western side of a lake, some 20 miles in circumference, which separates it from its port Goletta. The city walls measure five miles in circumference, and the inhabitants are variously estimated from 100,000 to 145,000, comprising Moors, Arabs, Negroes, and Jews; there are 20,000 Christians.

There are twelve ports open to foreign trade, but the bulk of the commerce passes through Tunis-Goletta. The total foreign trade averages 2,400,000l. per annum, comprising 1,100,000l. imports, and 1,300,000l. exports. The exports in 1884 amounted to 38,141,99 piastres, the imports being 19,572,710 piastres. The princip articles exported are wheat, esparto grass, olive oil, wool, skins dates, and barley. The principal imports are cotton, silk and woolle goods, liquors, sugar, and flour. The foreign trade is carried a mainly with Italy, France, and Great Britain. The exports from Tunis to France in 1884 are given in the French returns 9,959,389 francs, and imports from France to Tunis at 13,634,2 francs.

The commerce of Tripoli and Tunis with Great Britain has bec entered at the Custom-House under distinct headings only since the beginning of 1881. The following is a summary of the returns the Board of Trade for the four years 1881-1884 :

--:

Imports of British home
produce into Tunis
and Tripoli

The principal article of export from Tunis to Great Britain the year 1884 was esparto grass, for making paper, of the value 117,3741. while the principal article of import of British product .consisted in cotton manufactures, of the value of 82,7907.

The trade in esparto grass will probably increase considerably

under the operations of an Anglo-French company, who have obtained large concessions in the south of the country.

In 1883 3,753 vessels of 1,518,909 tons entered Tunisian ports, of which 1,222 of 1,018,535 tons were French; 1780 of 392,923 tons Italian; 154 of 59,023 tons British.

Tunis has several lines of railway, running from the capital to Goletta, and other places in the environs, with a line to the Algerian frontier; in all 256 miles in 1885.

There were 2,500 miles of telegraphs in operation at the end of 1883.

British Consul-General.- Lieut.-Col. R. L. Playfair.
Consul.-T. B. Sandwith, C.B.

Money, Weights, and Measures.

The money, weights, and measures of Tunis, and the British equivalents, are as follows:

The Piastre, of 16 karubs.

MONEY.

average value 6d.

The gold and silver coins of France and Italy are in general use.

The pic. or principal long measure, is of three lengths, viz., 0·7359 of a yard for cloth; 0·51729 of a yard for linen; 0-68975 of a yard for silk.

Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning Tunis. 1. OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Correspondence respecting the establishment of French tribunals, and the abrogation of foreign Consular jurisdiction in Tunis. London, 1884. Journal Officiel of Tunis.

1885.

Report by Mr. Vice-Consul Dupuis on the trade and commerce of Susa in 1875, dated Susa, January 1876; in 'Reports from H.M.'s Consuls.' Part IV. 1876. 8. London, 1876.

Report by Mr. Consul-General Wood on the exports and imports of Tunis ; in Reports from H.M.'s Consuls.' Part I. 1877. 8. London, 1877.

Reports by Mr. Vice-Consul Dupuis on the commerce of Susa; in 'Reports from H.M.'s Consuls.' Part IV. 1877, Part III. 1878, and Part II. 1879. 8. London, 1877, 1878, and 1879.

in

Report on the Trade of Tunis, 1880-1883, by Consui-General T. F. Reade, Reports of H.M.'s Consuls.' Part XI. 1883.

Report by Acting-Consul-General Arpa on the Trade and Commerce of Tunis, in 1883, in Reports of H.M.'s Consuls. Part VIII. London, 1885.

Trade of Tunis with the United Kingdom; in Annual Statement of the Trade of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions, for the year 1884.' Imp. 4. London, 1885.

2. NON-OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Broadley (A. M.), Tunis, Past and Present. London, 1882.
Charmes (Gabriel), La Tunisie et la Tripolitaine. Paris, 1883.

De Flaux (M.), La Régence de Tunis. 8. Paris, 1866.

Dilhan (Ch.), Histoire abrégée de la Régence de Tunis. 8. Paris, 1867. Hesse-Wartegg (Chevalier de), Tunis, The Land and the People. London

1882.

Michel (Léon), Tunis. 2nd edition. Paris, 1883.

Playfair (Lieut.-Colonel), Handbook of Algeria and Tunis. London, 1878 Reclus (Elisée), Geographie Universelle. Vol. XI. L'Afrique Septentrionale, Paris, 1885.

Rousseau (F.), Annales Tunisiennes. 8. Paris, 1864.
Tchihatcheff (M.), Algérie et Tunis. Paris, 1880.

Temple (Sir G.), Excursions in the Mediterranean. 2 vols. 8. London, 1856.

ZANZIBAR.

Government, Revenue, and Population.

Sultan, or more correctly, Seyyid, Bargash bin. Saïd, G.C.M.G., son of the late Seyyid Saeed, ruler of Muscat and Zanzibar, succeeded his elder brother, Majid, who died October 7, 1870.

The Sultan has (1885) five brothers, of whom the eldest is Sultan of Muscat. He has one son, born in 1877. There is no definite law of succession to the throne.

The island of Zanzibar was conquered in 1784 by the Imam of Muscat from the Arab princes who held sway over it, but the Sultan is now independent. It has an area of 625 square miles, but the Sultan's authority extends along the coasts of the mainland, from Warsheikh, in 3° N. lat. to Delgado Bay in 10° 42' S. lat. The population of the Zanzibar dominions consists of Somalis and Gallas in the north, and of negroes of many tribes further south. The Sultan's dominions cannot be defined inland, his influence extending but a little way from the coast, except along a few travel routes. At present (January 1886) a Joint Commission, representing Great Britain, Germany, and France, are fixing the boundaries of the Sultan's territories with reference to those of independent chiefs and those acquired by Germany. The population of the iskand is variously estimated at from 150,000 to 300,000. There is a considerable foreign population, mostly engaged in trading. Of British born subjects in 1884 there were 90, and the total British protected subjects exceeds 6,000. There are also 35 French, 12 German, and 9 American subjects, besides 700 Goanese. The town of Zanzibar has a population estimated at 90,000, and Bagamayo, on he opposite mainland, 10,000. There are besides on the coast of be mainland many large and important towns, three of them ports f call for British mail steamers and the headquarters of British ice-Consuls.

The revenue of the Sultan is mainly derived from Customs' dues nd taxes on produce, besides a considerable private income, the tal annual amount being about 220,0007.

Mahometanism is the religion of the country, the natives of the ast and islands being Sunnis of the Shafi school, while the Sultan d his relatives are schismatics of the Ibadhi sect. There are

ristian Missions (Church of England, Wesleyan, Independent, & Roman Catholic) on the island and far into the mainland. There is a regular army of about 1,200 men, and an irregular b of natives from Arabia, chiefly employed on the coast.