declining condition, and had so completely exhausted every resource of fiscal tyranny, that the sultans were unable to feed their armies in many provinces except by receiving payment of the land-tax in kind. As long as able sultans controlled the collection and employment of that portion of the produce of the soil which the government received, the natural abuses of this wretched system of taxation were restrained. The early government of the Othoman Empire was a vigorous and intelligent despotism, and the habits of the sultan's officers were then extremely simple. None but slaves and tributechildren for some time occupied the highest offices in the empire; and as the sultan was the heir of all his officers, there was no great inducement to avarice. Accordingly, we find that for more than a century after the conquest of Constantinople, even the Greeks boasted of the fiscal moderation of the Porte. But the whole nature of the Othoman government was changed when the corps of janissaries became a hereditary militia. The amount of the sultan's moneyrevenue then became the measure of the imperial power. All agricultural taxes were farmed, and every kind of monopoly and extortion was pardoned to those who brought ready money to the Porte. No words can describe the cruelties which were perpetrated by the pashas, who were partners of the farmers of the revenue, and who monopolised the sale of various articles of produce. Men have been impaled by the road-side for selling the remainder of their crop after they had paid the tenths; and we have known a man killed in full divan with a battle-axe, for refusing to sell his crop to the governor of the town in which we were residing at the time.

We will not attempt to describe the fiscal oppression that takes place daily in Turkey, because we might be suspected of exaggeration; for we are aware that in some districts the public revenues are collected with moderation, and liberal concessions are made to the tax-payers. The system, however, operates universally to keep agriculture in a stationary condition, even under the mildest rulers. We may take the Greek kingdom as offer

ing the most favourable aspect under which this mode of taxation can exist. The land-tax is voted every year by a chamber elected by universal suffrage, in a kingdom where every adult is armed. The judicial administration at Athens is respectable, and the city is filled with professors and statesmen, who are always talking of their superiority in political knowledge, and of the great advantages they derive from the liberty of the press. Yet, in spite of universal suffrage, liberty of the press, Albanian perseverance, and Greek vanity, the condition of the agricultural population-that is, of about three-fourths of the inhabitants of King Otho's dominions—is one of medieval barbarism. The soil yields the minimum of produce, the labour of the husbandman is wasted, fiscal regulations to guard against fraud prevent all agricultural improvements, and cause a waste of the gross produce of the land, and a loss of the labour of the cultivator. The whole grain crops, as in Turkey, remain exposed in the open air, where they may be seen by travellers near the temple of Theseus, and under the columns of Olympian Jupiter, for many weeks, with the families of the peasantry encamped round the threshing-floors; and the King and Queen of Greece may very often also be seen riding past with their suite, without a feeling of shame that their kingdom is in such a state of barbarism. A proprietor has been refused permission to house his crop, and use a threshing-machine in his own yard, on the plea that the tax-collectors could not prevent frauds should the practice become general. From this it is evident that a great loss is inflicted on society by the ignorance of the Greek statesmen who perpetuate this wretched system. The whole agricultural population of an agricultural country is kept in a state of forced idleness, and their labour is withdrawn from the cultivation of summer crops at the very period when that labour could be most profitably employed. The increased stringency of the fiscal regulations in Greece has already compelled the peasantry to abandon the cultivation of several articles of produce which they formerly exported. But it is needless to adduce examples of the ruinous con

sequences of the financial incapacity of the liberated Greeks. The small amount of agricultural produce raised in the kingdom, the miserable quality of the greater part of this produce, the failure of all attempts to improve cultivation, the impossibility of employing capital profitably on the land, and the great accumulation of arrears of the land-tax due to the government -all testify that no improvement in the condition of the agricultural classes can take place under the present system.

Another great evil of this system of taxation, both in Turkey and Greece, is, that it leads the government to neglect the rights of property, and thus increases the aversion of capitalists to employ their money in the purchase of land, or in the cultivation of the soil. The proprietor of the soil who neglected its tillage, was, even by the Roman law, viewed with less favour than the squatter who occupied it. The hope of increasing the revenue of the State by extended cultivation was supposed to be of more advantage to the government than the tolerated invasion of the rights of property could be injurious to the public. The Othoman legislation, and the laws of the Greek kingdom, have adopted this provision of the Roman emperors; and any person who can contrive to till the land of another for a year without molestation, obtains a right of possession which leaves the lawful proprietor to establish his right of property before he can eject the intruder. This is notoriously a very imperfect remedy for a great injury, for, all the world over, possession is nine-tenths of the law. It would be waste of time to describe all the evil results of the insecurity of property caused by this law. In our age, capital is the symbol of civilisation and progress; and whatever prevents capital from vesting itself in the soil, tends to retain the agricultural classes fixed in a barbarous and indigent state. The condition of liberated Greece affords an admirable illustration of the evil effects of the Eastern system of taxing land, and of the Roman law, which prefers the right of cultivation to the right of property. Though Greece has enjoyed the protection of the

three great Powers for more than twenty years-though she possesses a German king, a luxuriant crop of courtiers, court balls, and court carriages, a constitutional government, and an orthodox church—still agriculture is not more advanced in the plains of Attica than in the most secluded districts of Asiatic Turkey.

There is, however, one vice of the Othoman administration from which liberated Greece is exempt. The rapid depreciation of the metallic currency which has taken place in Turkey, at intervals, since the commencement of the present century, has undoubtedly aided in accelerating the decline of the agricultural population. Indeed, they have ultimately borne the whole amount of the loss inflicted on society. Whenever the specie in the Sultan's treasury has been found inadequate to meet the immediate payments, the deficiency has been supplied by the addition of the quantity of base metal necessary to augment the bulk of the precious metals in hand; and in this way, a debt of three ounces of silver has often been paid with two ounces of silver and one ounce of copper or tin. This depreciation of the Turkish coinage is an evil of old standing, and has been going on ever since the conquest of Constantinople. In the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, a Venetian sequin was worth sixty aspers. At the death of the late Sultan Mahmoud II., it was worth six thousand aspers. The asper, which was originally a silver coin of the value of sixpence, has long been an imaginary piece of money. Perhaps no measure of the Turkish government has tended more to annihilate capital and impoverish the landed interest in the Sultan's dominions than this mode of defrauding his subjects.

The first step towards the social improvement of the population of Turkey, must be to commute the tenths, and devise some other system of taxing the land which shall leave the agriculturist at full liberty to conduct his farming operations and employ his time at every season in the way most conducive to his own profit. The change can at present only be introduced in the vicinity of large towns, which afford an immediate and

constant market for all kinds of agricultural produce. Unfortunately no change can be introduced in the distant provinces until roads and bridges are constructed, and all kinds of transport both by land and water greatly facilitated. The peasant can neither pay a money tax, nor become a consumer of taxable commodities, until he can command a sure and profitable market for his produce; and no such market is likely to exist, where even the heaviest articles must be transported by pack-horses. In all civilised countries, a very great diminution has been made in the expense of transport since the conclusion of the last war in 1815. But in Turkey, the expense of transport has of late years been increasing, and hence the culti vation and export of several articles peculiarly adapted to the soil and climate have diminished. There are also many moral and political evils connected with the prevalence of the pack-horse system, both in Turkey and Greece, which must not be overlooked, when measures for the improvement of the agricultural classes are under discussion. Small as the amount of transport may be supposed to be in these countries, it nevertheless occupies a considerable part of the rural population. A numerous class of semi-nomades is formed along every great road, and the constant exposure of a considerable amount of property on the wild mule-tracks that run through uninhabited districts invites and perpetuates brigandage. A part of the agricultural population acquires the unsettled habits and the carelessness of life and property which characterises nomade and border races. When any person at home feels inclined to talk of the comparative security of life and property in Turkey or Greece, let him procure a list of the robberies and murders which have taken place within ten miles of the great mercantile city of Smyrna, or within twenty miles of King Otho's palace at Athens, and he will see convincing proofs that in no other portion of the habitable globe have life and property been so insecure during the last ten years. There cannot be any permanent improvement in the condi

of the agricultural population, in Turkey or Greece, nor can

the people acquire the national or political consistency necessary to arrest the progress of any foreign invader, until their interests become connected into masses by the formation of roads, the construction of bridges, and the establishment of water-carriage. But if these things were done as accessories of an improved system of collecting the land-tax, the proprietors and cultivators of the soil would soon be enabled to better their condition, and to increase in numbers and wealth. A single year would be sufficient to enable the Christians of Thrace, and the Mohammedans of Anatolia, to export large quantities of grain. Twenty millions of the Sultan's subjects would be placed in an improving condition, and their interests would induce them to support his government. On the other hand, as long as the present system prevails, it is futile to expect any real union or true community of feeling and action between the agricultural population of Turkey and the Othoman government. Every year sees an army of tax-gatherers, or farmers of the revenue, issuing forth, and treating the whole agricultural population as a race of thieves. Every agent of the fisc is known to make use of the suspicion with which the law views the cultivator, as a means of increased extortion; and consequently the government is hated by the people.

But even should the Sultan succeed in reforming the mode of levying the taxes now paid by his subjects who are engaged in cultivating the soil, something more would be required in order to secure the integrity of his empire, and something which depends entirely on the central administration. Equal justice must be administered to all his subjects, whatever may be their religion or their race. Until this be secured to every inhabitant of his dominions, any increase in the numbers and wealth of the Turkish population would only increase their bigotry, and excite them to measures of oppression against the Christians; and, on the other hand, any increase in the numbers and wealth of the Christians in Europe, whether Sclavonians, Bulgarians, Albanians, or Greeks, would only increase their discontent and insolence, and add to the embarrassments of the central government. For

tunately for the Sultan, the absolute necessity of adopting measures for dispensing equal justice, and securing an equality of legal rights to Mohammedan, Christian, and Jew, is generally recognised even by the bigoted Mussulmans. The landed interest, without any reference to race or religion, makes common cause in demanding justice against the agents of the fisc. This must have struck every traveller in Crete, Macedonia, and Albania. The Seljouk Turk, the Turcoman, the Arab, the Curd, as well as the Greek, the Albanian, the Bulgarian, and the Vallachian, all unite in demanding the same reforms from the Osmanlee. The time has arrived when these reforms must be made without any reference to religion. If no reform takes place in a short time, a convulsion is to be feared that, in all probability, will dismember the Othoman Empire; for the Seljouk Turk of Asia Minor, the Curd, or the Arab of Syria, is as likely to make the attempt as the Greek of Thessaly, or the Sclavonian of Macedonia and Thrace.

The Court of St Petersburg has acted on the conviction that it is beyond the Sultan's power to establish tribunals in which equal justice shall be awarded to Christian and Mussulman. Many persons conversant with the East share the conviction of the Russian Emperor. Nevertheless, there are some who are well acquainted with Mohammedan society in Asia Minor who entertain a different opinion. We own candidly that we cannot venture to decide the question. In our intercourse with the landed interest in Asia Minor, we felt as if we had awakened from a dream. Longcherished delusions passed away. We found a society which had perpetuated its existence in an unceasing unceasing combat with the Othoman administration; and we found that we had arrived in time to catch the last echoes of the Seljouk feudal chivalry which had perished in the contest. We found that the Mohammedan aga in Asia called as loudly for justice as the Christian farmer in Europe. Like the Emperor Nicholas, we had believed the prophesy that the sick man was to die when the clock struck twelve, and, as we were listening to

catch the sound, to our amazement the clock struck one. We found the patient talking learnedly of his symptoms, his friends confident of his recovery; and we saw the Russian and Greek attorneys, who had met to forge his will, compelled to escape in a pelting shower. Nevertheless, we could not avoid perceiving that some time would be required to reinvigorate his constitution, and that there was much to be done in order to reestablish order in his household.

At present, the Mohammedan proprietors are quite as well aware as the Christian of the necessity of an equitable administration of justice to secure the existence of the empire. They see and complain of the defects and corruptions of the existing system, from which, they assert, with some appearance of reason, that they are greater sufferers than the Christians, as being more constantly compelled to submit to its abuses. They proclaim that it has infected the whole fabric of society, and undermined the moral strength of the Sultan's authority, and on these grounds they demand its reform. But they despair of a change, for they know that it will be opposed by the Ulema, and by all the Othoman officials at Constantinople.

It is not our province to venture an opinion on the details of any measure of judicial reform. The subject must be discussed at Constantinople, and the Christians best acquainted with the language and laws of Turkey are by no means safe guides on all the complications of interest which the question presents. There are many reasons for believing the reform practicable. Common interests bind all the agricultural classes together in one body, without distinction of race or religion. The despotism of the central government has annihilated all the ancient privileges of the Mussulmans. And the attempt now making by the present Sultan to extend the rights of the Christians is by no means the first attempt of the kind. The necessity of giving equal legal rights to the Christians was acknowledged as early as the year 1691, when the Grand Vizier Mustapha Koeprili, called by the Turks "The Virtuous," issued ordinances for se

curing legal protection to the Christian cultivators of the soil, against the oppression of the fiscal agents of the treasury. All pashas and local governors were then ordered to treat the rayahs with equity, and were strictly prohibited from exacting any addition to the haratch or capitation-tax, as fixed by the Sultan, under any pretext on account of local objects. This reform, like the subsequent attempt of Sultan Selim III. to reform the janissaries, was called the Nizam Djedid, or New System. It proved abortive, on account of the inherent corruption in the whole organisation of judicial affairs in the Othoman Empire. The social difference between the true believer and the infidel was then too great to be effaced by a feeling of equity. The pride of a dominant and conquering race then aided the corruption of the Ulema; but that day has long passed, and the Mohammedan in Asia is now as eager for a Magna Charta of the empire to defend him against fiscal tyranny and corrupt judges as the Christian in Europe. The great social distinction which at present exists between the Othoman Empire and the Greek kingdom lies in the administration of justice. Though the monarchical government of a Bavarian prince, with its centralised and bureaucratic administration, has done nothing to improve the social condition of the agricultural classes, whether Greeks or Albanians; though the university of Athens is richer in political quacks than learned professors; and though morality and religion have made no great progress in liberated Greece,-still, the population of King Otho's dominions may appeal with pride to their judicial system, and assert, without fear of contradiction, that it separates them by an immeasurable distance from the social degradation of all other Eastern nations. The code of civil procedure which M. Maurer introduced into Greece, immediately brought its motley Albanian and Greek population within the pale of modern civilisation, which is struggling to make the law more powerful than the centralised executive. We know that many and great defects exist in the administration of justice at Athens. We know that the King can command

a decision of the tribunals, for he can remove any judge at pleasure, and send him into a dreary exile; and we know that political corruption of every kind is rife in Greece; but, nevertheless, an independent body of lawyers exists, and by their learning and character they exert so great a control over the courts of law as to enforce the voice of public opinion, and arraign the judges before that great tribunal. This is the proud distinction which at present exists between the Greek kingdom and the Othoman empire.

The equal administration of justice marks the line of separation between Christian and Mohammedan society; and the solution of the Eastern Question will most probably be settled by the success of the Sultan's measures to make all the inhabitants of his empire equal in the eye of the law. If he cannot succeed in doing this effectually, it will be almost impossible for his allies to uphold the integrity of his empire for any length of time. Unless an empire so extensive as the Othoman can support itself, there is no chance of its finding permanent assistance from strangers. The Arab, the Syrian, and the Čurd, are just as likely to raise the standard of rebellion as the Greek, the Albanian, and the Sclavonian. Unity, if preserved at all, can only be so by crushing every attempt at change into submission by an overwhelming military power.

Fortunately for the Sultan, the foundations are laid for the introduction of an equitable code of civil procedure in his empire. Hitherto the Othoman administration has treated the Mohammedan landed proprietors with as much injustice as the Christian. The Seljouk Turks in Asia Minor have been quite as much oppressed as the Greeks of Thessaly. The whole agricultural population of his empirethat is, about twenty millions of his subjects-are, consequently, as we have already said, eager to support any measures which promise to secure an equitable dispensation of justice in all civil and fiscal causes, without distinction of race or religion. That some difficulty may be found, at first, in procuring the deposition of witnesses, or in weighing the value of their testimony, is not improbable;