350 EXTORTIONATE RULE OF MOORISH SULTANS, ch. xiv. 



region which they claim to govern, the Sultans have left 

 to anarchy the mountain region into which the best part 

 of the population was compelled to retire when driven 

 from the fertile lower country. Over the provinces wherein 

 they are able to enforce it, the rule of the Moorish Sultans 

 is little else than an organised system of extortion, in 

 which unchecked license is given to the agents of the 

 central authority, on the sole condition of making this the 

 final depositoi-y of whatever wealth the country can pro- 

 duce. The springs of industry and enterprise are broken ; 

 no man can dream of improving his own condition or that 

 of his family, unless by elaborate fraud and concealment 

 he can hoard up wealth, which he dare not employ in any 

 way useful to the community.' 



When we inquire what prospect there may be of any 

 escape from the miserable condition to which Marocco is 

 now reduced, no hopeful answer can be found. The most 

 sanguine believer in the future of the Mohammedan races 

 can suggest nothing better than the chance of the appear- 

 ance of a Sultan, intelligent and energetic, and powerful 

 enough to revive the traditions of the better days when 

 rulers took some thought for the welfare of their subjects, 

 and who might initiate an era of security and progress. 

 But, to say nothing of the improbability of the appearance 

 of such a man in a family that by frequent intermixture 

 with the black race has become more Negro than Moorish, 

 it seems a pure illusion to imagine that even an extra- 

 ordinary man seated on the throne of Marocco, and sur- 

 rounded by such agents as he would have at hand, could 

 accomplish salutary reforms, and, more than that, to sup- 

 pose that these could have any permanence. It is con- 

 ceivable that if the Moor and Arab did not stand in the 

 way, and the Berber stock were restored to their original 

 inheritance, a great ruler might overcome their fatal tend- 



' The stories and fables given in Appendix G afiord a striking 

 commentary on the working of the existing system of so-called govern- 

 ment in Marocco. 



