Morocco continues to afford the world a spectacle of un-
paralleled comedy. The Shereefian troops are drawn up on one side of Tangier, and Raisuli and his men on the other. The Minister of War, however, means business, and has formally read to the chiefs a letter deposing Raisuli from his Governor- ship and calling upon the tribesmen to submit to the Makhzan. The Times correspondent in a most interesting article in Thursday's paper thinks that Raisuli will not fight, since his mountain Moors are cowards at heart, and that the fate of the famous brigand is sealed. Europe has demanded order, and there can be no order while Raisuli is at large. He gives a biographical sketch of the great bandit which disposes one to a certain sympathy with him. His story is the conven- tional one. He adopted the profession of cattle-lifter, which is as honourable in Morocco as it used to be on the Scottish Border. Betrayed by his greatest friend, he was arrested and kept by the Sultan in captivity for seven years. On his release he found that his friend had become Governor of Tangier and had confiscated his property, whereupon he took up his old profession, made himself the terror of the land, and became so powerful that he extorted from the Sultan the deposition of his enemy and the gift of the Governorship to
himself. His administrative capacity was remarkable, and it must have been no common man who "terrorised and yet protected a city of 10,000 inhabitants, the seat of a dozen Legations."
