6] This Edict had not been observed, and, at the instance of
the Pope, the Madrid Conference adopted a Declaration calling upon the
Shereefian Government to give effect to it and at the same time to
assure Religious Liberty to all its subjects. The result was to extract
from the Sultan a formal reaffirmation of the Montefiore Edict.[107]

A similar course was pursued by the Conference which met at Algeciras in
1906 to consider the Moorish question in its wider political aspects.
The intervening quarter of a century had been as barren of reforms as
the period which elapsed between the granting of the Edict of 1864 and
the meeting of the Madrid Conference. The maltreatment of the Jews had
continued, and had been the subject of frequent complaints by the
Alliance Israelite, the Anglo-Jewish Association, and the American
Jewish Committee, and of remonstrances by their respective Governments.
Accordingly at the instance of the United States Government, the
question was brought before the Algeciras Conference, and, at the
sitting of that body on April 2, 1906, a resolution was adopted, again
calling upon the Sultan of Morocco to see "that the Jews of his Empire
and all his subjects, without distinction of faith, were treated with
justice and equality."[108]

No steps, however, were taken to enforce this resolution, and it was not
even made a treaty obligation. That, however, was of little consequence,
for, very shortly after, the Moorish Empire virtually disappeared, and a
French Protectorate was proclaimed. The Jews of Morocco are now in the
same situation as their brethren in Algiers and Tunis, which, however,
is not to say that it is entirely satisfactory.

DOCUMENTS.

* * * * *

EXTRACTS FROM PROTOCOLS OF THE MADRID CONFERENCE (1880).

_Protocole No. 3.--Seance du 20 Mai, 1880._

Sur la question de la protection hereditaire, le Plenipotentiaire de
France rappelle que la Convention de 1863 accorde formellement cette
protection a la famille Benchimol. Les raisons qui ont motive cette
exception ont ete dument appreciees a cette epoque par le Gouvernement
Marocain; elles ont conserve toute leur force, et il est impossible au
Gouvernement Francais d'abandonner une famille qui jouit depuis 17 ans
de la plus juste consideration. Il demande le maintien de cette
exception si legitime.

Le Plenipotentiaire du Portugal, tout en maintenant dans toute son
etendue le droit au traitement de la n