ALGERIA. 



ALLEN, WILLIAM. 



27 



On March 10th, M. Albert Gr6vy was ap- 

 pointed Civil Governor of Algeria in place of 

 General Chanzy. General Chanzy, in a fare- 

 well address to the inhabitants of Algeria, re- 

 viewed his efforts for the gradual assimilation 

 of the colony to the mother-country. Out of 

 853,000 Europeans, 846,000 are under French 

 common law, as also 1,200,000 natives, mili- 

 tary government being confined to 8,000 Euro- 

 peans settled round advanced posts and 1,267- 

 000 natives inhabiting remote regions. Moder- 

 ation and justice have been shown toward the 

 natives, and the best relations exist with Tunis 

 and Morocco. The sequestration inflicted on 

 the insurgents of 1871 has been completed, 

 and the law of 1873 on native proprietors is 

 being carried into effect. Educationally, French 

 Algeria figures among tlie most advanced 

 states, and higher education is being arranged 

 for. Harbor-works, roads, and the reclama- 

 tion of marshes are in full activity, while 700 

 kilometres of railways are in working order, 

 650 under construction, and 1,150 projected. 

 The commerce with Europe amounts to 380,- 

 000,000 francs per annum. Within six years 

 176 fresh villages have been founded, and the 

 European rural population has increased by 

 nearly 50,000. General Chanzy leaves the 

 country with the satisfaction of seeing it in 

 the path of progress, and with thorough confi- 

 dence in its future. In a second address to 

 the army, he remarked that, after generously 

 shedding its blood in the conquest of a bravely 

 resisting people, it has been and is still the 

 most powerful instrument of colonization and 

 progress. 



M. Gr6 vy on taking possession of his post 

 issued a proclamation to the inhabitants, in 

 which he said that the system which might 

 have been suitable in the early and laborious 

 stages of the colonization of Algeria runs the 

 risk, if prolonged, of compromising the devel- 

 opment of the country. The government 

 would, therefore, be essentially civil. The 

 new Governor-General then dwelt on his in- 

 tention vigorously to carry out the extension 

 of the railways and high-roads and all the re- 

 forms feasible to make Algeria for the Euro- 

 peans and the Frenchmen, whom it attracts 

 more and more, an image of the mother-coun- 

 try. As to the natives, they might count on 

 the kindly disposition of the Government, 

 which, along with the consciousness of its 

 power and rights, is imbued with a sense of 

 its duties toward civilization. By widely dif- 

 fused education, justice, and order, the tribes 

 will acquire a taste for French institutions. 



On June 1st the General-in-Chief telegraphed 

 that unforeseen disturbances had broken out in 

 Aures, in the province of Constantine, among 

 the tribe of the Uled Daud. Several natives 

 and six Spahis accompanying a French officer 

 had been killed, and the latter had escaped 

 with difficulty. To be prepared for any con- 

 tingency, he had sent three battalions and two 

 sections of artillery from Algiers to Constan- 



tine. The revolt was declared suppressed by 

 the middle of the month, after a few engage- 

 ments. The property of the insurgents was 

 sequestered, and they were required to pay a 

 minimum contribution of 800,000 francs. The 

 leader, however, escaped to the oasis of Zori- 

 bel-el-Wid, from where ho could reach Tuni- 

 sian territory. 



In July a commission was appointed by M. 

 de Freycinet, the French Minister of Public 

 Works, to report on the feasibility of a rail- 

 way from Algeria to Soodan and Senegal. 

 The population of the Soodan, M. Freycinet 

 remarked, is estimated at 100,000,000. The Ni- 

 ger traverses half of it. The inhabitants are 

 industrious. The moving sands, formerly con- 

 sidered universal, are only a local accident, and 

 the soil is everywhere similar to that of Euro- 

 pean soils. A railway from Algeria to the 

 Niger would not exceed 2,000 kilometres, and 

 would be much less costly than the projected 

 Panama Canal. A preliminary commission 

 had already recommended the scheme, one 

 ground being that it would repress the internal 

 slave-trade ; but it enjoined circumspection on 

 account of the imperfect knowledge of certain 

 parts of the Sahara. It therefore suggested a 

 survey of a line of 300 kilometres between 

 Biskra and Wargla, to be connected with the 

 Algiers and Constantine line, and that explora- 

 tions should be made beyond Wargla toward 

 the Niger. The Budget Committee of the 

 French Chamber and the Senate Committee 

 on Algerian Eailways had also pronounced in 

 favor of France taking an active part in the 

 opening up of Central Africa. 



ALLEN, WILLIAM, a Governor, Senator, 

 etc., was born at Edenton, Chowan County, 

 North Carolina, in 1806. By the loss of both 

 parents he became an orphan in infancy. As 

 there were no common schools in North Caro- 

 lina at that time, nor in Virginia, to which he 

 subsequently removed, he had no public op- 

 portunities to obtain instruction. By private 

 aid and his own efforts he obtained the rudi- 

 ments of an education. While at Lynchburg, 

 Virginia, he supported himself by working as 

 a saddler's apprentice. At sixteen years of 

 age, with his bundle in hand, he started on 

 foot for Chillicothe, Ohio, to find a sister 

 whom he had never seen, and who was the 

 mother of Senator Allen G. Thurman. Here 

 he was sent to the town academy, and contin- 

 ued under the supervision of his sister until he 

 became a law student in the office of Edward 

 King, a son of the distinguished Rufus King of 

 Revolutionary fame. He was admitted to prac- 

 tice before ho was twenty-one years of age, 

 and soon attained considerable reputation as a 

 criminal lawyer. Public speaking had always 

 presented great attractions to him, and he cul- 

 tivated the art of addressing juries and assem- 

 blies successfully, with more diligence than 

 the learning of cases and the acquisition of 

 pure legal habits of thought and statement. 

 He had a fine figure and a powerful voice, and 



