ments; and the most revolting atrocities, if they only serve 

 to circulate the gold of the provinces into the imperial 

 treasury, are not thought averse from the ends of a bar- 

 barous despotism. 



'The same system is followed by the muphty in filling 

 the offices within his jurisdiction. As these are in general 

 held for only eighteen months, and as the number of cadis 

 in the empire is very great, the revenue arising from these 

 frequent changes must be enormous. But the intervention 

 of bankers is here more frequent than in the former in- 

 stance, and the offices which regard the administration of 

 justice are tossed about with stock-jobbing dexterity by 

 Jews, Greeks and Armenians, till some Turk is found who 

 is willing to pay all the profits, and who gives those slaves 

 of Mammon a price which the equitable discharge of his 

 office can never reimburse. These statements depict the 

 cupidity of the government, and a cupidity so blind must 

 necessarily terminate in brutal oppression ; they also show 

 how systematically this destructive system is pursued. 

 The provinces in the meantime are made deserts, and 

 malversation is introduced into every branch of the 

 government. 



The first of these effects we will explain in the words of 

 Beaujour (author of the Tableau du Commerce de la Grece) 

 a candid and well-informed writer; speaking of Salon ica, 

 he says, 



"Le Pacha a la dsime d'une vingtaine de villages qui 

 relevent immediatement de lui il n'afferme cette dime que 

 soixante a soixante dixj mille piastres; mais il percoit une 

 pareille somme en droits casuels. II fait ensuite au moins 

 cent mille piastres d' avanies; et quand il n'estpashumain, 

 il en fait deux cent mille ; s'il est avide et rapace, dans six 

 mois il a devore le pays. Moustaphe Pacha tirait de son 

 pachalik trois cent soixante mille piastres, et ce pacha pas- 

 sait pour un homme desinteresse ; il I'etait en effet pour un 

 Turk." 



Here we see a pasha extorting from his province six 

 times the amount of the tithe which was due, and yet pass- 

 ing for a disinterested Turk. As the karatch, or poll-tax, 



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