TRAVELS IN BARBARY. 
249 
the inhabitants of the towns, on whose good dispo- 
sition they depend almost entirely for continuance 
in power. 
The sovereign of Tunis is called Hamooda Bey, 
and is a person of extraordinary vigour of charac- 
ter. He has now reigned twenty-nine years, with- 
out any attempt being made to shake his authori- 
ty, a circumstance almost unique in a Moorish 
reign. It is the more singular, from his not be- 
ing the legitimate heir to the throne, which, ac- 
cording to the regular order of succession, ought 
to have descended to his two cousins ; yet he not 
only allows them to live, but continues on habits 
of intimacy with them, without any dread of the 
consequences. He superintends himself all the 
departments of government, and decides, in per- 
son, all the questions of civil or criminal justice. 
He has entirely thrown of? the yoke of the Turks, 
and extends the protection of the law to Christians 
and Jews, who before were considered as entirely 
without the pale. Tunis has, therefore, under 
his government, assumed a much more mild and 
civilized aspect than formerly. His chief fault, 
as a sovereign, is boundless avarice, which, in the 
administration of justice, makes his hand ever open 
to bribes, and, in commerce, leads to the most op- 
pressive monopolies. His ministers and favourites, 
' as happens usually in such barbarous despotisms, 
are drawn from the very dregs of the people. The 
