THE FINANCIAL CONDITION OF TURKEY.

BEFORE attempting to lay before our readers any statement as to the financial condition of Turkey, it is indispensably necessary to enter into some explanation as to the origin and nature of property, as it emanated from the conquest. At the time of the division we find the territory divided into three portions; the one being given to the Mosques, to pay the expenses of the religious worship, the maintenance of schools, and hospitals; the second shared among the conquerors, or left to the ancient inhabitants, upon certain conditions, which rendered it a species of private property; the third remaining in the possession of the state. Hence originated three varieties of property-the ecclesiastical, patrimonial, and domain.

The first, under the name of Vacufs, were subjected to an administrative system, and peculiar laws to which we shall presently refer.

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As for the patrimonial division, a fundamental distinction was made therein from the outset, according as the lands were allotted to the Muhammadan conquerors, or remained in the hands of the ancient holders. The former were declared titheable or decimal estates, that is to say, burthened with a quit rent, equivalent to a tenth part of the produce: the others were called tributary estates, that is, subjected to the payment of tribute, or Kharadj. This consisted of a double tax; the personal or capitation, and the manorial tax, which was laid either on the soil, or on the produce.

The domain-lands were divided into nine classes. 1. The domains, whose revenues belong to the Miri, or public treasure.

2. The waste lands (adiyèt).

3. The private domains of the Sultan.

4. The Imperial perquisites, royalties, consisting in a great measure of the confiscations, or property which fell in to the Sultan in consequence of the decease of individuals who left no legitimate heirs.

5. The appanages of the Sultana Mother, the Princes and Princesses of the Imperial blood.

6. The fiefs attached to the offices occupied by the Vizirs.

7. The fiefs of the Pachas of two tails.

8. The Arpalyks, or fiefs assigned to the Mir-livas, and the Ministers and Officers of the Palace.

9. The military fiefs (ziamèts and timars), granted

to the Sipahis and civil officers, and even to private persons.

The last formed the most numerous class, and the following is the account D'Ohsson gives of them. "Fiefs were established in nearly all the provinces of the empire, at the period of their conquest, for the double purpose of providing for their defence, and recompensing military services. The horseman (Sipahi), who had such a grant made him, received for his own use the product of the public taxes raised on the land cultivated by the Muhammadan and Christian peasants, over whom he exercised at the same time. a seignieurial jurisdiction. Though the latter were the proprietors of the land, when they left it to any members of their family other than their own son, the legatees could not take possession without obtaining the Sipahi's leave, and paying him a quit-rent. If the proprietor left no heir, the estate was given by the Sipahi to the next neighbour of the defunct.

"The fiefs, thus constituted, were divided into three classes, according to their extent; the timars, the ziamèts, and the beyliks. Each fief was bound to furnish one horseman for every three thousand aspers of the revenue accruing from it. There were 50,000 fiefs of the third class, 300 of the second, and 210 of the first. The Timariotes marched under the command of the Zaims, the latter obeyed the Beys, and the Beys ranged themselves beneath the banners of the Pachas of provinces."

But this relative dependence among the possessors of the fiefs, as well as their obedience to the governors, was frequently only fictitious, and, on the accession of Sultan Mahmud, a great portion of these feudatories had succeeded in rendering themselves almost independent, by compelling the Porte to recognize the hereditary succession. On the death of a Ziamet, or a Timariote, the Sultan received a year's revenue from the lordship, and then gave it into the charge of the son of an Agha, Sipahi, or any other military man, especially to any one who, by a brilliant action, had distinguished himself in battle; either by mounting the breach first, penetrating into the enemy's entrenchment, killing a great number of the infidels, or aiding in their rout. But when the Sultans resigned the fatigues of war and the dangers of battle for the tranquillity of their seraglio and the pleasures of the harem; when cupidity caused a portion of the places formerly designed to reward valour and merit to be disposed of by auction, the lordships became the patrimony of the rich and of intriguers. The courage of the soldier was no longer rewarded, and thus the Ottoman armies, so formidable to their enemies, became an object of contempt or pity, and the vast empire was forced to seek foreign assistance to save it from utter destruction.

The Agha obtained, during his lifetime, with tolerable facility, the grant of the lordship which he enjoyed, in favour of one or more of his sons, for a

sum of money inferior to that which it would produce by auction; but if this precaution was neglected, his son was dispossessed at his death, unless he outbade the competitors, or if, powerfully protected, he did not at least pay the price offered by another.

Most of the Aghas, little accustomed to the fatigues of war and the privations it entails, exempted themselves, under various pretexts, from military service; they always found the Pachas and Sandjak-Beys disposed to receive a present from them, and grant the exemption they requested. They frequently had their place supplied by some volunteer; if they themselves found their colours, they never wanted pretence for quitting them before the end of the campaign and returning to their home.

The cultivators were free and independent, in consideration of the quit-rent to which they were subject; they could establish whatever culture they thought the most suitable to their interests, without the Agha having a right to molest them; but too frequently the latter abused his power, his riches, and, above all, the police authority which he exercised in the village.

With the scourge in his hand, he exacted the gratuitous labour of the cultivators for those lands which he held in his own hands; he caused provisions (with the exception of wine) to be sold to him at a price which he himself determined; he made the advancement of the Kharadj at a fearfully exorbitant rate of interest; in a word, he tormented, in every possible