334 
Why should the fairest of territories be 
allotted to the foulest of rulers? 
The first volume is divided into six 
sections, and seventy-two sub<divisions ; 
the second into five sections, and se- 
venty-three sub-divisions, which treat of 
the situation, climate, natural history, 
geographical distribution of the environs, 
and topographic peculiarities of Con- 
stantinople, of its suburbs, of the Euro- 
pean and Asiatic shores of the Bospho- 
rus, of Seutari, and the islands near, and 
of the different classes of inhabitants. A 
learned preface marshals and reviews 
the principal publications cf other tra- 
vellers concerning this most interesting 
district. 
As to the libraries of Constantinople, 
the following information occurs, which 
secms still to allow the indulgence of a 
hope that Greck manuscripts hitherto 
inedited may remain in being. 
Three clergymen, a French, an Italian, 
and an English one, the Abbé Sevin, 
the Abbate Toderini, and Dean Carlysle, 
chose, for the main object of their travels, 
the examination of the Seraglio library, 
without entirely realizing their hopes. The 
abbé was told that the ancient collection 
of manuscripts-had been burnt, the abbate 
obtained a catalogue of a library extant in 
the Seraglio, and the deau succeeded, 
through Lord Elgin’s protection, in obtain- 
ing a sight of the oriental library attached 
tothe Mosk Bostanjamissi, in the garden 
near the kaven, in which, however, no 
trace was found of any Greek or Latin 
manuscripts, I[f the intelligence given to 
the Abbé Sevin, that the remaining Greek 
manuscripts had been burnt, if the inconsis- 
tent intelligence given to the French am- 
bassador Girardin, that they were sold at 
Pera, should prove groundless, and that 
there are stili any where some remains of 
the ancient library of the Greek emperors, 
they are not to be sought in the garden 
library visited by Carlysle, but ina library 
which exists in the inner seraylio; and in 
which, according to tae annals of the Turk- 
ish empire, all the books hitherto scattered 
in different parts of the palace were united 
and deposited.. As a passage so important 
to the history of the seraglio library es- 
caped the notice of the three clergymen, 
in consequence of their ignorance of the 
‘Turkish language, I here give a translation. 
‘C Whereas, until now, in the year of hedjra 
1158, (that is, 1718), varions costly books 
and manuscripts have been left abandoned 
tu dust and werms in the ancient chests 
and shrines, and are thereby exposed to 
oblivion and destruction, it has pleased his 
majesty the emperor, witii tie illumination 
of God, to order that the said books and 
manuscripts be collected and transferred 
‘to the imperial maer court, and that a 
library be there fitied up for the reception 
Novelties of Foreign Literature. 
[May 1, 
of the said volumes, and that the use 
thereof be conceded to ‘persons able to 
avail themselves of the same. Accord- 
ingly, in the month Rebiuleovel, the grand 
vizier, the mufti, the commanders of the 
land and sea forces, and others, were in- 
vited into the seraglio, when the emperor 
laid the first stone of the new repository, 
which deserves the prayers and blessings of 
the people,”—Vol. 1, p. 956. 
Now that the British ambassador is 
on such confidential terms with the 
Turkish emperor, it is much to be 
wished that our universities would de- 
pute proper persons to attempt a learned 
examination of thisselect library, founded 
in 1718. 
Not only all the other libraries, all 
the churches and mosks are described in 
detail ; but, the various passages in the 
Byzantine historians relative to their 
foundation, or to any ancedotes of which 
they were the scene, are cited with a 
pedantic profusion honourable to the 
learning and the patience of the author, 
but sometimes tedious, and sometimes 
iterative. Iu the enumeration of the 
fountains, hospitals, public wells, and 
other charitable institutions of Constan- 
tinople, it is observed of the lunatic 
asylum— 
One praiseworthy arrangement, which 
Enropean receptacles for the insane might 
imitate from the ‘Turkish, is, that a band 
of singers and musicians is always provided 
by the institute, in order to subdue by 
song and music the paroxysms of the in- 
sane, and to cheer up the spirits of the me- 
lancholy, ‘The cruelty of contining sound 
persons, under pretext of mental derange- 
ment, only occurs here in cases of apos- 
tacy. A renegade, who has embraced 
Moslemism, is liable to the ptinishment of 
death if he relapses; when this happens, 
the humanity of the mufti commonly gets 
the culprit declared insane. I saw, m 
Sultan Almed’s mad-house, two such per- 
sons who had avoided the halter of the 
apostate by putting on the fetter of the 
madman.—Vol, 1, p. 509.' 
In describing the tuverns, coffec- 
houses, and baths, it is observed, that 
they are much haunted by dancing: boys, 
ealled Koiskek, the extreme lascivions- 
ness of whose attitudes passes the limits 
of European decency. 
A. vast collection of inscriptions, both 
in the oriental and classical languages, 
opens the second yolume, and a close 
German trauslation is given of each. 
No department ef topography’ is omit- 
ted, and the compicteness' of the infor- 
mation on every topic is admirable. /In 
the cloister ‘of the’ Mevlevichane ‘is no- 
ficed the tomb of ‘a French adventarer, 
named Bonneval, who turned nes 
an 
