CON 



187 



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are sometimes consumed before it can be extinguished. 

 On its first appearance, the alarm is given by beating a 

 great chum from two high towers; and the night-watch 

 immediately patrole the streets, crying in a lamentable 

 tone, Yan-gun war ! " Fire, fire." The sultan is then 

 summoned, and, when the conflagration has lasted an 

 hour, is obliged to attend in person, and to distribute 

 money among the firemen, who are very inactive until 

 he arrives. The general method of stopping the flames 

 is by pulling down the adjoining houses. But some- 

 times so rapid is the progress of the flames, that whole 

 streets are in a blaze at once ; and on such occasions 

 mimbers of the unfortunate inhabitants perish. Such 

 is the constant apprehension of danger in which they 

 live, that no one thinks of going to bed without some 

 kind of outer garment ; and the women commonly sleep 

 with all their trinkets of value about them. It is also 

 the custom of every family to keep their most pre- 

 cious effects in a little box, which is set upon the table 

 every evening, that, in case of alarm, it may be hastily 

 carried off"; and when at any time the whole family 

 goes out, it is always carried with them. In 1633, 

 70,000 houses were reduced to ashes; and in 1788 the 

 conflagration was so extensive as to tlireaten the univer- 

 sal destruction of the city. The houses, however, are 

 speedily rebuilt, and in the space of a month, scarcely 

 any appearance of the calamity is left. It is believed 

 that these conflagi-ations have been more frequently oc- 

 casioned by intention than accident; and it is no un- 

 common circumstance for the Janissaries, when displea- 

 sed with the Grand Vizier, to set fire to different parts of 

 the city, and to repeat it until the minister is removed. 



The plague sometimes desolates Constantinople for 

 years together ; and from 1783 to 1785, it is said to 

 have swept away about 100,000 children and young 

 people. It is, however, very difficult to calculate the 

 number that die of this disorder, for their want is scarce- 

 ly perceived, there being such a constant influx of peo- 

 ple from the country to the capital. 



The police of Constantinople is equal to that of any 

 city in the world ; and such a strict watch is kept in 

 every part of the city, that scarcely a malefactor can 

 escape detection. The city guard consists of a body of 

 Janissaries, with their colonel, to every gate of the city 

 and the most frequented streets ; and each of the streets 

 have besides a party of two or three men. A continual 

 patrole parades the city day and night. One hour af- 

 ter sunset all the gates are shut, and entrance strictly 

 prohibited; and as soon as the last Muezzin has called 

 the hour of evening prayer, every sober Mussulman re- 

 tires to his home, and the streets become like a desert. 



The population of Constantinople has been variously 

 stated. Habesci makes it a million and a half, while 

 Eton reduces it to less than 300,000 ! Dallaway cal- 

 culates it at about 400,000, which is the most probable 

 computation ; and tells us, that according to the regis- 

 ter of the Stamboul effendissy, or mayor of Constanti- 

 nople, in the end of the last century, there were 88,185 

 houses, and 1 30 public baths. Of its inhabitants, scarce- 

 ly one half are Turks, the rest are Greeks, Jews, Ar- 

 menians and Franks. East Longitude of St Sophia's 

 Church <28° 55' 15", North Lat. 41° 1' 27". See Dal- 

 laway's Ancient and Modern Constantinople, passim ; 

 Macgill's Travels in Turkey, &c. vol. i. p. 249; Habes- 

 ci's Ottoman Empire, p. 354 ; Eton's Survey of the Turk- 

 ish Empire, p. 281 ; Gibbon's Roman Empire, vol. iii. 

 p. 1, &c; Olivier's Travels, vol. i. p. 13, &c. ; Clarke's 

 Travels, part i. p. 688, and part ii. p. 1, &c. ; Neibuhr's 



Travels, vol. i. p. 8; and Pouqueville's Travels in tfie Comtella- 

 Olloman Empire, p. 240, &c. (p) tion 



CONSTELLATION. See Astronomy. _ " 



CONSUBSTANTIATION. See Transubstantia- C^^ 



TION. 



CONSUL. See Rome. 



CONSUMPTION. See Medicine. 



CONTACT. See Boscovicn's Theory. 



CONTAGION. See Infection. 



CONTINUITY, Law of, is the name given by 

 Leibnitz to a law, in virtue of which every thing that 

 is done in nature is effected by infinitely small degrees. 

 He maintains that Nalura non operatur per solium, and 

 therefore that nothing can pass from one state to ano- 

 ther, without passing through all the intermediate de- 

 grees. This law was slightly noticed by Galileo, but 

 Leibnitz had the merit of adopting it as a leading prin- 

 ciple in his philosophy. The argument by which he 

 establishes the law of continuity appears to be conclu- 

 sive. If a moving body receives an increment to its 

 motion without the lapse of time, then the same body 

 at the same instant is in two different states, which is 

 absurd ; and if the body receives the increment at the 

 commencement of its motion, then the body must at 

 the same instant be both at rest and in motion. 



It is obvious, that when a ball is discharged from a 

 cannon with a velocity of 1800 feet per second, it can- 

 not be Supposed to have acquired this velocity without 

 the lapse of time. The ball must have had every as- 

 signable velocity from to 1800 feet per second. In 

 like manner, when a moving body changes its direction, 

 it cannot move in the new direction without describing 

 a portion of a curve, and moving in every possible di- 

 rection between the one direction and the other, (o); 



CONTRACT, in Law, is a voluntary agreement be- 

 tween two or more persons, whereby something is to 

 be paid or performed by one of the contracting parties, 

 for a valuable consideration to be given by the other. 

 Contracts, from their nature, imply consent; and, there- 

 fore, those whom the law holds to be incapable of con- 

 sent, as pupils, idiots, &c. cannot become parties to a 

 contract. 



The doctrine of contracts must necessarily occupy a 

 considerable portion of the legal code of every civilized 

 country ; but the limits which our plan prescribes, will 

 only permit us to exhibit a very short view of the seve- 

 ral species of contracts, and to glance at the rules of 

 law which are applicable to them. 



By the Roman law, which, so far as regards this 

 branch of jurisprudence, forms the basis of all modem 

 systems, contracts were divided, according to the differ- 

 ent modes in which they might be perfected, into real, 

 verbal, writ/en, and consensual. Real contracts were 

 such as required that something should be actually 

 paid or performed by one of the parties, before an obli- 

 gation could be constituted against the other. Of this 

 description were the four contracts of loan, commodate, 

 depositation, and pledge ; for the peculiar properties and 

 effects of which we must refer to the civilians. See al- 

 so the articles Loan, Hypothec, Pawn, and Pledge. 

 The verbal contracts of the Romans, so far as they could 

 be made effectual by action, were such as required to» 

 be perfected by certain verba solennia, or words of style. 

 All other verbal agreements, in which this precise form 

 was neglected, were considered as nuda pacta, on which 

 no action lay. The written contract of the Romans, or 

 literarum obligatio, as its designation implies, required 

 the intervention of writing ; in which the granter ac~ 



