MOROCCO. 



MOTT, LUCRETIA. 



547 



as the result of its deliberations put in the hands 

 of the envoy of Morocco a memorandum signed 

 by all of the eleven plenipotentiaries demand- 

 ing of the Emperor liberty of conscience and 

 equality of rights for his Christian and Jewish 

 subjects. The Emperor replied to the propo- 

 sitions of the conference with a letter to his en- 

 voy at Madrid, which was attached to the pro- 

 tocol of proceedings, in which he said that he 

 wished all his subjects to be on an equal foot- 

 ing before the tribunals, and that he deprecated 

 and would punish all outrages against those 

 who were not Mohammedans. The protocol 

 of the conference was signed by all the pleni- 

 potentiaries on the 4th of July. Very little, if 

 any, actual amelioration of the condition of the 

 people was expected to result from these pro- 

 ceedings, for it was generally believed that, 

 whatever the Emperor might profess to desire 

 or promise to do, he was wholly incapable and 

 unwilling to carry out any genuine reform. A 

 correspondent holding a consular position in 

 the empire was quoted by the "Pall Mall Ga- 

 zette " in July as writing : " Nothing that has 

 been published can be more than a pale reflec- 

 tion of the condition of humiliation and degra- 

 dation in which the Jews of Morocco exist under 

 the rule of Muley-Hassan. I can not say 

 whether the promises made to the Madrid con- 

 ference by the representative of the Sultan will 

 produce any improvement in their state. I 

 confess I doubt it. But it is only fair to say 

 that the Jews do nothing to escape from their 

 wretched condition. . . . The demand of Mo- 

 rocco at the conference came to nothing less 

 than the almost complete removal of foreign 

 protection ; yet, if there is one country more 

 than another where this protection ought to be 

 increased rather than diminished, it is Morocco. 

 It is unfortunate that the European powers are 

 not of one mind on this subject. Instead of a 

 single concession, their representatives ought 

 to have asked Mohammed Bargash if his master 

 would try to introduce a little civilization into 

 his country, and what means he would employ 

 to rescue Morocco from its present position as a 

 hot-bed of fanaticism and barbarism." 



The outrages on Jews continued. An old 

 man was bastinadoed in August on an accusa- 

 tion which was said to be false. The Governor 

 of Arzila summoned the members of the Jew- 

 ish community before him, and made a threat- 

 ening address to them. A Jewish messenger 

 who was sent by the Italian minister plenipo- 

 tentiary with a dispatch to the Sultan was at- 

 tacked and beaten in the streets of Fez for 

 wearing shoes in violation of the law which re- 

 quires all Jews in the principal cities to go bare- 

 footed. Other outrages were reported in No- 

 vember ; and the Government showed a dispo- 

 sition to be punctilious in carrying out the 

 rules established by the convention of Madrid, 

 by limiting the number of Jewish subjects to 

 whom it gave protection, according to their 

 exact letter. 



The Emperor in March informed the foreign 



legations in Tangier that he would not recognize 

 the naturalization of any Moorish subjects in 

 foreign countries. The internal condition of 

 the country was disorderly, and disturbed by 

 insurrections ; and the Emperor's authority 

 was defied in many towns. 



A proposition has been made by M. Bom- 

 bonnel to the French Government, for the con- 

 struction of a railway through Morocco to Oran 

 in Algeria, for the sake of doing away with 

 the sea-voyage from Marseilles to Algiers. M. 

 Bombonnel shows that the scheme involves no 

 great difficulties. The line to be taken through 

 Morocco would traverse a country without ra- 

 vines or mountains, inhabited by an industrious 

 population who would favor the scheme. The 

 only sea-passage necessary in connection with 

 it would be one of a quarter of an hour from 

 Gibraltar ; and the length of railway to be laid 

 down would be only five hundred kilometres, 

 costing, it is estimated, a hundred million francs. 



MOTT, LTTORETIA, the Quaker philanthro- 

 pist, was born on the Island of Nantucket in 

 1793. Her maiden name was Coffin, and her 

 progenitors belonged to the Society of Friends. 

 She was educated partly in Boston, partly at 

 the Friends' Boarding School in Dutchess 

 County, New York. She must have been pre- 

 cociously advanced, for, according to her own 

 statement, she was already a teacher at the age 

 of fifteen. In 1809 her parents removed to 

 Philadelphia, where she was married in 1811. 

 She was fluent in speech, and as early as 1818 

 was widely known as a preacher in the Society 

 of Friends. When that body was riven in 

 twain by theological dissensions, she cast her 

 lot with the Hicksite or Unitarian branch. 

 Long before there was any organized agitation 

 on these topics, Lucretia Mott was antislavery 

 and woman's rights in her proclivities. She 

 took part in the first Antislavery Convention, 

 which was held in Philadelphia in 1833, and 

 which organized the American Antislavery 

 Society. The following year the Philadelphia 

 Female Antislavery Society was founded, of 

 which she was a zealous member. As its emis- 

 sary, she lectured throughout the Northern 

 States, where the subject was then unpopular. 

 She also extended her tours into some of the 

 slave States. In 1840 she was one of the fe- 

 male delegates sent by the Philadelphia soci- 

 ety to a World's Antislavery Convention, as- 

 sembled in London. These women were re- 

 fused admission, and the fiery indignation 

 caused by this action led to the establishment 

 of woman's- rights journals in England and 

 France, and to the calling of the first Woman's- 

 Rights Convention in America. This was held 

 at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Its presi- 

 dent was James Mott, the husband of Lucretia. 

 This is the sole public mention made of him, 

 but he is understood to have echoed his wife's 

 opinions. After the disposal of the anti- 

 slavery subject, she devoted herself to woman's 

 rights. She actively promoted the founding 

 of the Woman's Medical College, of Pennsyl- 



