The result is paralysis, nothing is attended to in the right time, and everything gets out of joint.

CIVILISATION TOO COMPLEX FOR THE SULTAN.

It is easy to see how this has arisen; it is even easier to see how it must work out. The Sultan, believing only in himself, will do everything himself. He and no other is the chosen of God. He therefore and no other must decide everything, sign everything. He is the delegate of Omnipotence without permission to redelegate his supreme power. This was possible when Sultans had little or nothing to do in the government of the provinces which they conquered. In the primitive barbarism of the Ottoman there was little trouble taken about the civic government. The Cadi sat under the palm tree administering justice; the Sultan lived in his tent in the midst of his soldiers leading them on to battle.

Bajazet knew nothing of the endless minutiæ of administrative details which harass Abdul Hamid. Amurath did not concern himself with regulating café chantants. A multiplex civilisation with innumerable wants has invaded the primitive Ottoman state, and the Sultan who tries to deal with it single-handed is about as helpless as the baggage master of Julius Cæsar would have been if he had been suddenly called upon to handle with his old ox-carts the goods traffic of the London and North-Western Railway.

OUR ABDUL HAMID AT WESTMINSTER.

And yet it is not for Englishmen to be too hard upon the poor Shadow of God who sits this day and every day in the Yildiz Kiosk laboriously engaged in the labours of Sisyphus. For what is our House of Commons, weighed down with arrears of business, hampered by obstruction and hopelessly inefficient to despatch its work, but a British Abdul Hamid, a clotted and congested mass of excessively centralised administrations, not less but rather the more unwieldy because it is controlled by six hundred and seventy minds instead of by one? The House of Commons is jealous of its power, just like the Sultan. He refuses to decentralise and abides stolidly in the ancient ways.

THE G.O.M. AND THE SULTAN.

Another defect of the Sultan is recalled by a British precedent. Our Liberals are at this moment in an even

to command the confidence or excite the enthusiasm of his party. The Sultan is to his pashas what Mr. Gladstone was to his colleagues. He is everything. They are but his instruments. In Mr. Gladstone's case this was due to the ascendnecy, natural and legitimate, of transcendent political genius and unequalled experience. In the case of the Sultan it is due to his supreme position and the distrust natural to a sovereign who owed his throne to the conspiracy of the ministers of his predecessor. But to whatever it may be due, the result is the same. Shadow of God trusts no one but himself, and is served not by statesmen, but by temporary tools whom he uses for a time and then throws on one side. Now it is possible to govern an empire by one man, if that one man sticks to Imperial work. But if, in addition to being Emperor, the one man insists upon being cook, footman and butler as well, the machine will break down.

HIS INTERVIEW WITH MR. HEWITT.

The

The Sultan would be omnipotent, but he is not omniscient; and it is impossible, imprisoned in the Yildiz Kiosk, to know what is going on in his distant provinces. Mr. Hewitt, one time Mayor of New York, told me of an interesting conversation which he once had with Abdul Hamid at Constantinople. Mr. Hewitt, who is a shrewd and observant American, had been much impressed during his travels in Asia Minor by seeing a peasant cut down a fine date tree that grew at his door, because he was unable to pay the taxes. He was driven permanently to impoverish himself in order to escape a levy which he had not means to meet. When he returned to Constantinople, he told the Sultan what he had seen, and laid great stress upon the folly of killing the goose which laid the golden eggs. Abdul Hamid was most sympathetic, thanked him cordially, and dismissed the official responsible for collecting the taxes in that particular district. But he lamented the impossibility of keeping an eye on all parts of his Empire, and he begged Mr. Hewitt, with an effusiveness that rather touched the New Yorker, to write to him whenever he saw anything or heard of anything which he, the Sultan, ought to know. I rallied Mr. Hewitt for not embracing this opportunity of becoming the eyes and ears of the Sultan, for he had not availed himself of the advantage. Mr. Hewitt was, however, much impressed with the sincerity of the Sultan's anxiety to do right, and the bitter sense of impotence under which he laboured.

THE POVERTY OF THE PEASANTS.

The financial condition of the Empire is much improved from the point of view of the Stock Exchange. But there is reason to fear that the improvement in Ottoman credit has been achieved by levying taxes with a severity which has dried up the sources of the prosperity of the peasants. Mr. Caillard, the English member of the International Commission of the Public Debt, reported as long ago as 1889 that the condition of things in the provinces was growing desperate:

The peasant, in the interior, has reduced his wants to their simplest expression, and signs are to hand which show him to be less and less able to purchase the few necessaries he requires. For instance, a few years ago in any decent peasant household copper cooking utensils were to be seen. Now they are scarcely to be found, and they have been sold to meet the pressing needs of the moment. Their place has been taken by clay utensils, and, in the case of the more affluent, by iron. The peasant's chief expenses lie in his women-folk, who require print stuffs for their dresses and linen for their underclothing; but of these he gets as little as possible, since, as often as not, he cannot pay for them. This smallness of margin is one of the reasons why the amount of importation

increases so slowly. The peasant. hardly ever pays for his purchases in cash; what little he has goes in taxes. He effects his purchases by barter. Another significant sign is the increase of brigandage which has taken place. New bands of brigands are continually springing up; reports from the interior are ever bringing to our knowledge some fresh acts of violent robbery. This simply means that men desperately poor, and refusing to starve, take to brigandage as a means of living.

THE WEALTH OF THE SULTAN.

At the same time the peasants are growing poor, the Sultan is growing rich. He has by one means and another acquired immense estates. According to an American antiquarian who has spent

66

YILDIZ KIOSK.

as

HIS DAILY LIFE.

No Sultan has mounted the throne of Mohammed II. more blameless in private life or endowed with more sentiments of general humanity. The hideous custom of the murder of infant nephews has ceased under his reign. He is modest in the requirements of his harem. Like the Pope, the Sultan eats alone, seated near a window overlooking the Bosphorus, except on special occasions, when he receives with the most finished courtesy royal visitors, ambassadors and their wives, every European luxury being understood and served upon the board. Habitually he drinks only water, brought to the palace in casks under special precautions. His food is extremely plain, consisting chiefly of vegetables, served in silver saucepans presented to him at table sealed. No one works harder than Hamid. He takes but few hours of sleep, and sometimes passes the entire night, pen in hand, signing every document himself. from the appointment of a Governor to the lowest officer at the palace.

Abdul Hamid is a nervous man. Ever since the tragic death of his uncle he has obstinately refused to move from the small kiosk or palazzetto called Yildiz, about three miles from the city, on the European range of hills bordering the Bosphorus. The way to Yildiz lies through the draggle-tailed streets of Pera, into comparative country. After going up and down hill at a break-neck gallop, the outlines of a palace kiosk, modern and small, reveals itself rising out of a cincture of dark groves. This is Yildiz Kiosk, where lives the Commander of the Faithful. It is not a palace at all, but originally was a summer villa. The park, which is well wooded, is spacious, with grassy slopes, diversified with other kiosks, also shaded with groves descending to a quay on the Bosphorus. It has most charming views over land and sea, Europe and Asia. Near at hand is the broad channel of the deep blue Bosphorus, with its frieze of white palaces, steamers, caiques, and vessels with sils set gliding by every instant.

FROM DAWN TO SUNSET. Like most Orientals, he is an early riser. After the prayers and ablutions enjoined by his religion-and he is eminently a pious Turk-he drinks a cup of coffee, and then begins smoking cigarettes which (as was the case with Louis Napoleon) he continues all day. At 10 a.m. he receives the reports of his ministers, works alone or with his secretaries till one, when he eats; then he drives in the grounds, or floats in a gilded caique on a lake for a couple of hours, never leaving the park of Yildiz except to go to the mosque, after which he returns to preside at the Council of State, or to receive ambassadors or ministers. His dinner is at sunset, when the national pillaf of rice and sweets are served with sherbet and ices. After this he betakes himself to the Selamlik to receive pashas and generals of high rank, such as Osman Ghazi, or oftener he disappears into the harem to pass the evening hours with wives, mother and children.. Music is his delight, and

in private he himself takes his place at the piano. Turk and Ottoman to the backbone, he is convinced that his soldiers are the best in the world, the most enduring and amenable to discipline. In speech he is a purist, speaking well in a slow monotonous voice, but sometimes the flood of expression is let loose, and he is said to burst into something like eloquence. The mollahs and dervishes find in him a ready listener and a liberal protector; indeed, he is liberal, and takes pleasure in rewarding those who serve him well. His gifts to European ladies are especially magnificent in gems and pearls, of which he has drawersful in the old seraglio.

AT THE SELAMLIK.

It is only on Friday, when the Sultan goes to mosque, that he ever leaves the shelter of the park. All the troops are turned out, the ministers are in attendance, an immense crowd gathers to catch a glimpse of the Shadow

of God. A newspaper correspondent thus describes the scene when the Sultan appears:

The silence suddenly becomes absolute as the Sultan leaves the apartments, and then, as he appears, it is simply broken by the equivalent to a Turkish "hurrahı" from the Marine Guard, given from hundreds of throats as with one voice, in three or four ringing syllables. At a gentle trot the open barouche slips past. On the right sits a small bowed figure, with eyes cast down and hands clasped on his knees. The beard is a dusky grey and the skin sallow and earthy. The Sultan looks ten years more than his age, one might say ten years older almost than he did in 1892. On his left is Ghazi Osman Pacha, who is growing old by the side of his great master. Under the windows filled with foreign spectators, amidst a curious hush, under the fire of every eye, passes the carriage with its terrible freight, the inscrutable will on which depend the lives of millions. As Abdul Hamid Khan II. is assisted up the steps of the mosque, the shrill cry of the Muezzin cleaves the blue stillness as he stands out a mere speck on the minaret rail against the sky.

Then the doors close, and the act is over. The curtain figuratively falls, and tongues are loosed. An American remarks that the Sultan looks so like Mr. Jay Gould did last year that if the latter could now be placed by the side of Ghazi Osman, as he then was, and were so to drive back, not one in the crowd would detect the difference.

In half an hour he comes out again, enters a Victoria, takes the reins of the two grey horses, and drives away at a walking pace.

THE SULTAN AS HE LOOKS.

Miss Elliott, when she saw him, remarked:

The Sultan is the most wretched, pinched-up little sovereign I ever saw. A most unhappy-looking man, of dark complexion, with a look of absolute terror in his large Eastern eyes. People say he is nervous, and no wonder, considering the fate of his predecessor. Yet this is to be regretted, for if he could surmount these fears, his would be an agreeable and refined countenance, eminently Asiatic in type, and with a certain charm of expression. All I can say is that his eyes haunted me for days, as of one gazing at some unknown horror, so emaciated and unnatural is his appearance that were he a European we should pronounce him in a swift decline. I hear that his greatest friend and favourite is his physician. And no wonder, for he must need his constant care, considering the life he leads. How all the fabled state of the Oriental potentate palls before such a lesson in royal misery! The poorest beggar in his dominions is happier than he!

HIS DREAD OF ASSASSINATION.

It is not surprising that Abdul Hamid should fear assassination. Abdul Aziz was so afraid of being poisoned that he lived chiefly on hard-boiled eggs. Abdul Hamid never stirs outside his park. He refused to accompany the German Emperor to Sophia :

Some grand duchess whom he received at his Court, on his complaining that his health was indifferent, advised him to take more exercise and change of air, and to drive about the country. On her departure he is reported to have said, "What harm have I done that this woman should desire my death? Why does she advise me to run into such dangers?"

ESPIONAGE UNIVERSAL.

He lives, like Domitian, in constant suspicion of all around him; and all who surround him are believed to live in imminent peril of their lives, should their imperial master suspect they meditate designs against his life. He changes his bodyguard every week, and never allows his ministers to go out of his palace without a written permission. Everywhere he has his spies in the Ministry, in the harem, in the street. Brother can hardly speak to brother without one suspecting the other to be a spy. The Sultan lives in the midst of this

atmosphere of suspicion. It is to him the breath of life. If the butler could but trust the cook, the Sultan's life might be taken in the night. He distrusts every one. He once put Osman Pasha-Osman the Victorious, Osman the hero of Plevna-under arrest for three days, owing to a false report that he had saluted Reschad, heir apparent to the throne. No one is to be anybody but Abdul Hamid.

The press is gagged. Ministers are reduced to the position of mere puppets. If any one distinguishes himself in any way, his very distinction is his doom. He is banished, lest the discontented should rally round him. No one must be conspicuous. Every one must be reduced to the universal dead-level of abject mediocrity.

THE TELEGRAM TO LORD SALISBURY.

But while he thus silences criticism within his dominions, he is tremblingly alive to the comments of the press outside Turkey. He is as sensitive as Lord Rosebery was to the printed criticism of anonymous and insignificant journalists. Instead of letting the scribblers of Little Pedlington rave to the desert air, he has their leaders carefully translated for his special benefit. The world was astonished, and not a little amused, by the Sultan's pathetic appeal to Lord Salisbury. The Sultan said he had been very much pained by Lord Salisbury's incredulity, and that he was resolved to execute what he had undertaken. "I have already told my ministers so. The only reason why Lord Salisbury should thus throw doubt upon my good intentions must be the intrigues of certain persons here, or else false statements have been made to cause such opinion." After some intermediate observations which Lord Salisbury did not quote (at the Brighton meeting where he read this historic document), the message went on: "I repeat I will execute the reforms. I will take the paper containing them, place it before me, and see myself that every article is put in force. This is my earnest determination, and I give him my word of honour. I wish Lord Salisbury to know this, and I beg and desire that his lordship, having confidence in these declarations, will make another speech by virtue of the friendly feeling and disposition he has for me and for my country. I shall await the result of this message with the greatest anxiety." ran the famous message from Abdul Hamid to Lord Salisbury-a significant indication of the decadence of the Sultanate. Imagine the descendant of the fierce warrior who swore he would feed his horse with oats on the altar of St. Peter's in Rome, telegraphing to the Prime Minister of the Infidels, begging him to "make another speech by virtue of the friendly feeling and disposition he has for me and for my country!"

THE STORY OF A "P. M. G." TELEGRAM.

So

Mr. Cust, the brilliant and successful editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, who visited the Sultan this year, told me a curious story of his own experience, which better than anything else illustrates the present position of affairs at Yildiz. Mr. Cust saw a good deal of the Sultan, and at one of his interviews, Abdul Hamid informed him that it was his intention to carry out some reforms which the Powers had not even asked for. He was going to do this, he said, as a proof of his goodwill and his anxious desire to meet the wishes of the Powers. Mr. Cust, thinking that it might please the Sultan, decided to send a telegram to the Pall Mall Gazette embodying the substance of the Sultan's message. He drafted the telegram and sent it in to the telegraph office.

Next morning a mountel messenger galloped in with a message from the Sultan summoning Mr. Cust at once to Yildiz. When he arrived there he found the Sultan in deep cogitation over the telegram, which had not been Would despatched pending the Imperial pleasure. Mr. Cust consent to some alteration in the telegram? "That depends," said Mr. Cust, " upon what the alteration is."

So the Sultan and his ministers set to work to re-draft the telegram. After a time it was brought out. Would Mr. Cust object to this form? He glanced at it. The amended Imperially edited message began somewhat like this: "Another proof of the beneficent goodness of His Imperial Majesty is," etc. "Nonsense!" said Mr. Cust; "it would only make the Sultan ridiculous to publish such a telegram in London." So the message went back to the Sultan. The poor inan tried again; then came another draft. It was equally impossible. A third

time his advisers laboured over the redacting of this telegram. A third time their efforts were abortive. At it they went again, until at last, after seven mortal hours of incessant lucubration, the message came out in a form which, although perfectly inane, was not positively ludicrous. All the compliments were dropped, and the announcement which was made of his good intentions in the original telegram was toned down to nothing. Mr. Cust, who had only written the telegram at first thinking it would please the Sultan, consented to despatch the finally revised

despatched to the Pal Mall Gazette as a mere matter of courtesy to the Sultan! This is surely the ultimate of irrational centralisation and imbecile vacillation.

"THE DEVIL'S CHARIOT."

The Sultan has not the gift of administrative perspective. He bothers himself about the veriest trifles, prohibiting bicycling in and near Constantinople as immoral and "dangerous to the State," and an officer of an Italian corvette was taken into custody for having been found riding a bicycle, or a "devil's chariot," as the Turks name it No dictionary is allowed to circulate containing such words as evolution, equality, liberty, insurrection, as such words are likely to "excite the minds of people. Again, theatrical pieces such as "Hamlet," "Macbeth," Victor Hugo's "Le Roi s'Amuse" ("Rigoletto") cannot be acted on any stage. "Othello" is allowed, but in a mutilated form.

Even the Bible must be expurgated to please his censors. The passages which are particularly objected to are those relating to the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, and to the Kingdom of Christ. The phrases "Kingdom of Heaven," "of God," or" of Christ" must be omitted. The words "Jew" and "Hebrew" must be left out. The words "According to the law of the Jews" cannot be admitted, because the Jews have no law separate from that of other rayahs in the Ottoman Empire. The reference to the "Queen of the South," contained in Matthew xii. 42, is for some reason ordered to be left out altogether. And all the time when these momentous trivialities are being discussed whole provinces are being desolated, and the great Empire is settling down to ruin.

[November 29, 1895.

From Clk.]

version, which represented the net result of seven hours' deliberation. So he took it to the telegraph office and thought no more about it.

Next morning, however, came another messenger from the Sultan. Again he had to go to Yildiz, this time to learn that the Sultan had delayed the despatch of the telegram in order that he might sleep upon it. He had slept upon it, and the result of his meditations was that he thought on the whole the telegram had better not be sent! Into the wastepaper basket therefore it went, and there was an end of it.

REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM.

But what a picture we have here of the irresolute fumbler who occupies the throne of Mohammed! For these seven long hours the whole administrative machine of the Ottoman Empire was at a standstill, while Abdul Hamid and his Grand Vizier, with the aid of Osman the Victorious, and I know not how many pashas beside, concentrated their brains upon the momentous task of iedrafting a trumpery telegram which was to be

VI.-WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

The atrocities which have recently startled the world in Armenia are nothing new. I doubt whether they should be regarded as a count in the indictment against Abdul Hamid. He is simply doing as Turks always do, and always will do as long as the Ottoman Empire exists It would be as absurd to complain of a dog for biting or of a cat for mewing as to arraign the Grand Turk for resorting to that which has Leen for centuries the recognised method of maintaining the State.

"LET DOGS DELIGHT, ETC, FOR TIS THEIR NATURE TO."

No one knows this better than the Rev. Canon MacColl, who in his latest article expressly admits and asserts it in the following passage, which is as true as it is vivid