Mr. J. Curtis, twenty years a resident in Morocco, gives
his opinion in the Pall Mall Gazette of the chances of the Shereef. He says that the Emperor's Government is detested by all his subjects, partly from its habitual injustice, but chiefly from the- peculations of its agents, who constantly extort in taxes the whole produce of the crop. The Shereef, a quiet man, who some years ago divorced his wives to marry a Miss Keene, is, on the contrary, so popular that he could raise a rebellion throughout•. the whole empire. Mr. Curtis believes him unwilling to do this, but adds that his wife is a most energetic woman, and that he has recently been so persecuted by the Emperor, that he has been compelled to place himself under the protection, of France. It is quite possible, therefore, that his reluctance to upset the Emperor has disappeared, and that he may be sup- porting M. Ordega's plans. This is evidently the belief in Italy,. where the Morocco affair is creating such bitterness that rumour of an appeal to Germany to protect Italian interests in the Mediterranean was for some hours believed. This is, of course, untrue ; but it is true that M. Ferry's protestations are disbelieved, and that Italians expect the Tunis scene to be enacted again in Morocco.
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