OF THE TURKISH MONARCHY. 



15 



has contributed to diminish the population of it. In the families 

 of that class of Turks, who abuse the permission of their legislator, 

 the children are found fewer than in those of Greeks, Armenians, 

 and Jews. " None of the women in the great Harems, (says Russell,) 

 speaking generally, bear so great a number of children as the 

 married women in the inferior ranks of life," i. 279. The remark of 

 Bruce, who says that in the south and Scripture parts of Mesopo- 

 tamia, Armenia, and Syria he found the proportion to be two 

 women born to one man, has not been confirmed by succeed- 

 ing travellers. It will probably be found by those who in their 

 future visits to these countries direct their attention to the question 

 of the numerical proportion of the two sexes, that in the cases 

 where the women appear to be in greater numbers than the men, 

 they have been brought away from the neighbouring villages to the 

 houses of the great and rich in towns and cities.* 



The general indifference shewn by the Turks to subjects of poli- 

 tical arithmetic, renders it very difficult to obtain satisfactory ac- 

 counts of the population of the great cities of the empire. There 

 are only three modes by which any approximation to an accurate 

 estimate can be obtained. The first is by ascertaining the weekly 

 or yearly consumption of corn in a city j? ; the second is by taking 

 a plan of different towns J, and comparing them with the size and 

 dimensions of other places in Europe ; the third is by consulting the 

 registers of those who pay the capitation tax ; but the number of 

 Greeks, Jews, and Armenians only, could be obtained in this 

 manner. Additional information would also be derived from know- 

 ing the amount of the duty levied on houses in some of the cities of 

 the empire, and from the details which the priests of different 



* This is the remark of Porter, the British Ambassador at Constantinople. Philos. 

 Trans. 49. 



f The calculation made by the Maronite priest of the numbers in Aleppo is partly 

 founded on this method. Russel, i. 362. D'Arvieux gives the daily consumption of 

 grain and other articles of provision, i. 6. 



+ This is the mode suggested by Niebuhr. 



