The demonstrations in Rome on Friday last when popular demand was voiced for the return of Tunis, Nice and Savoy, will if it is insisted upon bring up new questions between Italy and France at a time when it was hoped it could be possible to bring about a betterment of relations. It was after 1862 that the Kingdom of Italy commenced to take a deep interest in the future of Tunis, and, when the country went bankrupt, control over Tunisian finances was established by British, a French and Italian controllers, In 1880 the Italians bought the British railway from Tunis to Goletta, this with other circumstances leading the French to cross the Algerian frontier and compelling the bey to accept a protectorate, which was recognized by the British in 1883. Others followed suit with the exception of Italy which did not re cognize the full consequences of the French protectorate until 1896, and today Tunis is pointed to by some authorities as the best and wisest example of French administration over an alien land and race. Savoy was annexed to France under Napoleon III, when it and Nice were taken, in 1860 as a counterbalance to the increase of the new Italian Kingdom. The history of Nice is particularly interesting. It is stated to have been founded about two thousand hocæans pf Marseilles, and in uries of independence placed itself under the counts of Savoy, who in turn lost it, until 1696 when it was restored to them. The French besieged' the place in 1705 and the following year destroyed the citadel and ramparts, but in 1713 it was again restored to Savoy. From 1744 to 1748 it was in French and Spanish occupation, passing eventually to the Sardinian King who lost it to the French in 1792. Twenty-two years later it again reverted to Sardinia, but in 1860 as the result of a treaty between the King of Sardinia and Napoleon III the city again went back to France the cession being ratified by 25,000 electors out of 30,700, an early example of the use of the plebiscite,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.