The empire of Morocco may be considered under two aspects, as to its extent, and as to its influence.  It may be greatly circumscribed or expanded to an almost indefinite extent, according to the feelings, or imagination, of the writer, or speaker.  A resident here gave me a meagre tableau, something like this,

  The city of Morocco 50,000 souls.
        " Fez 40,000 "
        " Mequinez 25,000 "
                        -------
                        115,000 "

The maritime cities contain little more than 100,000 inhabitants, making altogether about 220,000.  Over the provinces of the south, Sous and Wadnoun, the Sultan has no real power; so the south is cut off as an integral portion of the empire.  Over the Rif, or the northern Berber provinces, the Sultan exercises a precarious sovereignty, every man’s gun or knife is there his law and authority.  Fez contains a disaffected population, teeming some years since with the adherents of Abd-el-Kader.  Then the Atlas is full of quasi-independent Berber tribes, who detest equally the Arabs and the Moorish government; finally, Tafilett and the provinces on the eastern side of the Atlas, are too remote to feel the influence of the central government.

As to military force, the Emperor’s standing army does not amount to more than 20 or 30,000 Nigritian troops, and all cavalry.  The irregular and contingent cavalry and infantry can never be depended upon, even under such a chief as Abd-el-Kader was.  They must always be fed, but they will not, at any summons, leave the cultivation of their fields, or their wives and children defenceless.

As to the commerce of the Empire, with fifty ships visiting Mogador and other maritime cities, the amount, per annum, does not exceed forty millions of francs, or about a million and a half sterling including imports and exports.  Such is the view of the Empire on the depreciating side.

Another resident of this country gives the opposite or more favourable view.

The Sultan is the head of the orthodox religion of the Mussulmen of the West, and more firmly established on his throne than the Sultan of the Ottomans.  His influence, as a sovereign Shereef, spreads throughout Western Barbary and Central Africa, wherever there is a Mussulman to be found.  In the event of an enemy appearing in the shape of a Christian, or Infidel, all would unite, including the most disjointed and hostile tribes against the common foe of Islamism.

The Sultan, upon an emergency or insurrection in his own empire, by the politic distribution of titles of Marabout (often used as a species of degree of D.D.) and other honours attached to the Shereefian Parasol, can likewise easily excite one chief against another, and consolidate his power over their intestine divisions.  His Moorish Majesty, at any rate, has always actual possession in his favour; and, whether he really governs the whole Empire or not, or to the extent which he has presumed to mark out its boundaries, he can always proclaim to his disjointed provinces that he does so govern it and exercise authority; and, in general, he does succeed in making both his own people and foreign nations believe in his pretensions, and acknowledge his power.