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Show TURKEY It is somewhat difficult for a stranger to understand the condition of the Turkish empire. It is a dual thing because it is both a political and religious affair. It is, however, not united politically, while it is united religiously. Politically it is as many ancient works it possesses, and as some which it produces - a mosaic. Here is a [unreadable word] protected by the Sultan, and submissively paying taxes. There next is one that is not protected by the Sultan's reign, and not paying any taxes to support the empire. This is true of provinces near the capital as well as distant. Those not subject to the Sultan, consider him as an usurper on the [unreadable word]; they consider his house is not the one that should reign, because they have supplanted another and older house more highly [unreadable word]. This is a great weakness in this great kingdom, and makes trouble and burdens and fears through the realm; and well it may. When we say the empire is united religiously, we man, of course, only the Mohammedan part of it. Here at Constantinople only half the population are Mohammedans, one fourth Greeks; one-third of a quarter Armenians and the Frank and the Jew. And they are the more vigorous half of the capital population. Of course, in case of a religious war, you can see how within cities one half would be arrayed against the other half, beside all the opponents in Europe outside. The empire is thus fragmentary in its aspects both civilly and religiously. The inhabitants everywhere are fearfully tired of exorbitant taxation. There is no instinct of conservation in the Turk. This appears in the gates of his house, in the tower of his morgue, in all particulars of his management of municipalities, in the [unreadable word] and other aspects of his general government. Without the instinct of conservation so prominent in our own Yankeo kingdom, everything must be broken, left unprepared, and is actually swiftly going to decay. The doom of this empire in Europe is so discerned by the old Mohammedan himself, that, if he dies in Constantinople, his request is to be buried at Sontari, on the Asiatic side of the sea of Marmora. It is pleasant sail from Pyrrhons to Constantinople. You pass islands whose lands are high and mountainous, as you bid farewell to the Athenian ranges. Matylene, where Sappho was born and lived, in eight of isles celebrated in Homeric hues, is full of serated pictures of hills, with vales of length and fertility. The plains of Troy are looked upon with stenily gaze and long, and the mount pointing to where the recovered relics were found of Prium's palace, which are now in the South [unreadable word] Museum, London. Mount Ida towers in the distances; the entry to the Dardanelles soon follows, and then the Hellespont, with ancient and modern associations. Here begin the strongest fortifications Turkey can build; but no vain, as Sebastopol assures; and they might be taken in the rear also. Soldiers line the shores in barracks and tests. In fact, with trouble on her western border, and suspicious of Russia and Greece actively preparing for conflict, Turkey's best show of soldiers is not in city barracks, but on all her borders her troops are rosting. Are they paid? It is rumored that the police force of this city has not been paid for two years, and that they are partly in colloision with thieves to get their pay. Robberies are successful here in a very public way, for some cause unexplained. Letter from Constantinople. |