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EUROPE AND AFRICA
Algerian Government would be restored and thereafter pro-
tected; and their financial claims properly adjusted. The
Dey of Algiers and France were to exchange consular agents;
and the representative of the latter country was to be ac-
corded a position of honor and to enjoy a complete super-
vision over all French subjects in Algeria.
The memory of a Barbary monarch, however, was as short
and his word as fickle as his character was unstable. In a
few years the terms of the treaty were forgotten or ignored
and the French found it practically impossible to secure the
fulfillment of Algerian financial obligations. Little respect
was paid to their authority or to the rights of French sub-
jects, and the protests of their consul were unheeded. At
length, in 1827, when the French agent attempted to press
the claims of his Government against two Algerian Jews, he
was deliberately and publicly insulted by the Dey Hussein
himself. No adequate apology or reparation being offered
by the Algerian ruler, the French navy blockaded his seaport
capital for three years without results. Finally, exasperated
into drastic action, the French Government sent out an ex-
pedition of 40,000 men from Toulon, which landed success-
fully on June 14 and took the city of Algiers on July 4, 1830.
Wellington, then British Premier, tried to extract a pro-
mise from the French authorities that this occupation would
not be permanent. Polignac, however, declined to commit
his Government to any definite policy, for Charles X was
hoping to brace up his tottering throne by popular military
successes in northern Africa. Thus it came about that the
French occupation was from the outset purely a military
affair, and their first North African possession a military
colony. They deposed the Dey and proceeded to take con-
trol of his possessions by force of arms, without making any
serious effort to win the confidence of his people or to con-
ciliate their chosen leaders. But weary years elapsed and
