It is foreign to the purpose of the present work to enter upon the history of the occupation of Tunis. The question is a purely political and military one, in which Mgr. Lavigerie had not to take any direct part. France and Italy had long been seeking to obtain an exclusive influence over the Government of Tunis: the former for the sake of her extensive Algerian colony, of which Tunis forms one of the boundaries; the latter because of the close vicinity of Sicily, and of the great number of Italians already settled in Tunis, as well as out of regard to her own commercial interests.

Up to the year 1880 the two Powers had contented themselves with watching each other's proceedings, and endeavouring so skilfully to manœuvre at the Court of the Bey as to gain those advantages which would secure for them the coveted preponderance. But in 1880 the representative of Italy at Tunis, having succeeded in assuring himself of the support of the favourite of the Bey, unexpectedly assumed an attitude which French agents considered eminently disrespectful to France. He boasted that, far from being disowned by his own Government, his proceedings were supported by it; and after an interview with King Humbert, he redoubled his irritating behaviour in regard to France, openly asserting that he was authorised to pursue this course of action, and imprudently allowing himself to be urged on by the Italian colony in Tunis.