Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/413

 ADMINLSTRATIYE DIVISIONS. 8M this respect also the Mohammedan poi)ulutionH appear to be gradually cutifonning to the usages of European civi limit ion. The social transformation now going on creates a hope that all the ethnical elements may ultimately become fused in one nutionulity, and that the prophets of evil may thus be belied. " All those native populations," said one of them, " must die out ; those who escape one disaster will perish by another, or b(H»me infected by the contagion of our blighting civilisation. Where we pass, everj'thing decays." The extermination of the natives might have seemed inevitable during the first decades of the occupation, when the country was wasted by razzias, when the Arab " rebels " had neither corn nor cattle ; when their women, held as hostages, were bartered for live stock, or sold by auction like beasts of burden ; when a price waa set on heads, and human ears paid for at the rate of two douros a pair. In those days Arab prisoners acquitted by the courts were nevertheless executed, because " it was necessary to make an example ; " nor were there wanting philosophers to justify any acts of injustice or cruelty against the natives. " Without violating the moral law," said Bodichon, "we can fight our African enemies with jxjwder and the sword combined with famine, intestine feuds, brandy, corruption, and disorgani- sation." No one would now repeat such sentiments in Algeria, although many acts of injustice are still committed, and the conquerors continue to abuse their power against the weak. If the natives are being crowded out in many places, the Mohammedan population still goes on increasing, slavery exists only on the verge of the desert, and the wretched Khammes peasantry have almost everywhere ceased to be true serfs, such as they were till recently on all the estates of the great feudatory chiefs. The Arab has no longer the power of life and death over his wife, whom he fears even to maltreat, lest her cries should reach the ears of some " accursed Rumi." Administrative Divisions. For administrative purposes, Algeria is divided into two sections — the civil and military territory. In the former, which comprises a portion of the Tell, the officials are dependent on the Minister of the Interior, while in the latter they all belong to the military class. In the one, affairs are administered with the same routine as in France ; in the other, the tribes are governed by a form of martial law. In the civil territory the three great divisions of Algiers, Constantine, and Oran are designated by the name of "departments," like the modem circumscriptions in France; in the military districts (*' Territoire do Comraandement ") the old appellation of " provinces " has been preserved. As in the mother country, the department is divided into arrondissements administered by sub-prefects. The arrondissements are again subdivided into districts, and these into communes, which for the most part are "depleinexercice," that is, fully privileged, their organisation being about the same as that of the French communes.