did not possess those great and vigorous qualities of a master mind necessary in a man who undertakes the difficult task of regenerating a people. At the commencement of his reforms we see him, with a bold hand and great energy, destroy the only element of his power-the confidence of his Mussulman subjects -without having replaced it by the more numerous class of his subjects, the Christians; and notwithstanding he saw insurrection at home, and his country at the mercy of an invader, he still remained bewildered and undecided, and with the clouded intellect of an every-day mind, had recourse to half measures and a vacillating policy, which completely failed in attaching to his rule any class or creed among his people.

Unfortunately for the prosperity of the country, and the advancement of civilization and order, the government of his successor has not profited by the errors of the late Monarch; we see the same indecision in its acts, the same absence of a sound enlightened policy-now truckling to the Rayah by granting some half measure of reform, and then stopping short to calm the effervescence of the privileged class — a system of governing which can never permanently

succeed in attaching any.

The hatti-sheriff of Gulhané, which invested Christian and Mussulman with equal civil rights, has

only had the effect of making an enemy of the Mahometan, and a discontented subject of the Rayah; the former, irritated at seeing himself deprived of a privilege accorded to him as a True Believer, cannot submit to the degradation of being placed on a footing of civil rights with a despised Christian, and revenges the affront by having recourse to rebellion; while the latter, finding himself all at once emancipated from observances the most degrading and servile, believes the boon conferred upon him to have been accorded solely through fear, and perhaps for the first time in his existence moralizes: he pictures to himself the numerous indulgences still conferred upon the privileged class, of which he is deprived, above all, their political and religious rights, their exemption from the degrading pol-tax, the badge of their slavery; and now that there is war in the Turkish camp, he numbers the milions of his Christian brethren, empares their vast stren_tà with that of the reigning class, the Mahometans, and ecmes to the conclusi a that, in the event of another outbreak, the ruår must give way to the ruled.

Whin the stuk lity of a state is in per require res remanization, such vigumus measures must be resorred to as may be fund necessary to impat :) : renewed sanngth, s k to be able to surtig una &fedcities. It is evident that the Turks Geront

A pusus buis ont succreont 1

attracting the sympathies of any class of its subjects; and having in some measure destroyed the line of demarcation between Mahometan and Christian, it must be prepared to fall back upon the old system of governing by Beys and Spahis, or completely equalize all distinctions of caste and creed. The Christians of these provinces, the most numerous, industrious and energetic in the empire, form a party whose influence, if they are permanently attached to the rule of the Sultan, we confidently believe can alone preserve the Turkish monarchy.

We live in troublesome times, and if the Sultan, influenced either by party prejudice, ignorance, or apathy, should continue to withhold from his Christian subjects, the fundamental rights of man, he deserves to fall. He should be warned by the example of Servia, Tchernegora and Modern Greece; he must be aware of the agitation which is now secretly carried on in these provinces by a host of clever propagandists, under the name of Panslavists, Panhellenists and Probatiists; facts which a traveller becomes acquainted with in his intercourse with the inhabitants, cannot be altogether unknown to the authorities, unless they are blinded by apathy and indolence. We have seen, only a few months since, a mighty sovereign hurled from his throne for stubbornly refusing to listen to the demands of his people on a simple question of reform,

powerful empires shaken to the foundation, and yet the claims of the inhabitants of civilized Europe for the amelioration of their social condition were but trifling, when compared with the grievances of the millions of Christians in these provinces.

CHAPTER XV.

Political state of Turkey-General observations.

HAVING now laid bare the weak points of the Turkish Government, it is but just that we should point out those that are deserving praise, and which have had their effect in holding together an empire that has already withstood so many shocks, internal and external.

At a very early epoch, the Princes of the house of Othman, aware of the tendencies of its Slavonian subjects towards a patriarchal form of government, with great foresight divided the provinces of European Turkey into several principalities, curtailing those that were extensive, and reviving the names of others which had by lapse of time become merged in the state of some powerful Kral. Each of these petty states was allowed to elect its own Kodji-Bachi,