2-979-112 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Algiers, 1857. 'A very interesting lecture was delivered at the Literary and Scientific Institution of Frome...by the Hon. Major Boyle, M.P., on "The French Occupation of Algeria"...[Major Boyle gave] a history of Algiers, now called Algeria. The origin of the quarrels by which France had gained Algeria, and thus obtained a large accession of territory bordering on her own, had been extremely simple, but the earlier proceedings of the French Government were frightfully cruel. He intended on that occasion to confine himself to the French occupation. The Moors, notwithstanding the severe lesson they had received from the bombardment in 1816, by Lord Exmouth, were still the terror of the sea, a horde of pirates, to whom plunder was trade from their youth, and honour was unknown...The lecturer then described the peculiarities of the country, and its adaptation for colonisation'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.