Where a theocratic system, or religious jurisprudence 

 exists, as among the Turks, every innovation is an act 

 of impiety; and if the body of men who feel an interest 

 in its maintenance possess influence with the people, all 

 chance of social improvement is at an end. When we 

 come to consider the character of that body which unites 

 the sacred and judicial functions in Turkey, it will be 

 seen how it has promoted the sinister tendencies of a per- 

 verse system, with a view to the promotion of its own 

 interests. 



The vices of the Ottoman code are not corrected by 

 the manner of its administration. The law being com- 

 posed in a great measure of fine-drawn deductions from 

 inadequate texts, is often a mere tissue of subtilty and 

 equivocation. The Cadi is infected with the general 

 avarice ; he pays for his office, which he holds for a very 

 limited time; the plaintiff may choose his court, and of 

 course make sure of the judge beforehand, and no appeal 

 lies from his decision ; he who gains the cause pays all the 

 expenses, consequently avanies or vexatious suits are not 

 discouraged, and the attendance of witnesses is not com- 

 pelled, so that few give their testimony who are not paid 

 by the party whom they assist. These facts will be suffi- 

 cient to refute the praise which has been bestowed on the 

 administration of justice in Turkey, and will explain why 

 in the dramatic exhibitions occasionally seen in Constan- 

 tinople, the plots of the pieces usually turn on the injustice 

 of a cadi. But there is one circumstance which strongly 

 marks the barbarism of the Turks, which is, that they have 

 no police ; if one Turk threatens to kill another, no one cares 

 to prevent him ; and the murderer who eludes immediate 

 detection may afterwards boast of his crime with impunity, 

 and will be admired for his hardihood. The laws of the 

 Prophet were designed for the rovers of the desert, and the 

 Turks, though so long the inhabitants of populous cities, 

 still cling pertinaciously to the manners of the wilderness. 



In Turkey every man is by turns a despot and a slave ; 

 each within his own little sphere indulges in all the para- 

 phernalia of greatness, and, as ignorance is easily imposed 

 on by appearances, pomp and ostentation distinguish the 



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