4 



CAUSES OF THE WEAKNESS AND DECLINE 



3. The condition of the provinces has been also affected by an 

 alteration in the mode of appointing the governors of them. 

 Formerly they were bestowed on slaves who had received their edu- 

 cation in the seraglio ; who considered the Sultan as sole master of 

 their destiny : pretended to no sovereignty over their districts but 

 that which flowed from his good will, and were prepared to resign 

 them at his command, and return into the obscure situation from 

 which they had been taken.* But when the nomination to these 

 principalities could be obtained by paying great sums to those who 

 held power and office at Constantinople, many parts of the empire 

 were exposed to plunder and oppression. The Turkish Pasha, like 

 the Roman Proconsul f, is obliged to satisfy the rapacity of the 

 officers in the capital ; if the demands of the Porte increase, the 

 provincial governor must comply with them ; the continuance in his 

 district must be purchased by new contributions, or by sharing some 

 part of the treasure accumulated by him for the purpose of pro- 

 curing another government, upon his removal from that which he 

 possesses. Uncertain, in the meantime, how long he may enjoy his 

 present dignity, he is regardless of gaining the attachment or appro- 

 bation of his subjects ; his time is not employed in projecting works 

 of public utility, or forming schemes for the general improvement 

 of the province, or for securing and facilitating the intercourse 

 between different parts of it. 



4. The labour and industry of every country, whether they are 

 directed to agricultural or commercial pursuits, are regulated by the 

 manner in which wealth is diffused among the inhabitants. The 

 very unequal distribution of it in Turkey, forms a great impediment 



* Russell's Aleppo, i. 335. 



+ " The governors of the Roman provinces, were, if I may use the expression, the 

 Pashas of the republic." Montesquieu, B. 2. These rapacious governors acquired vast 

 wealth. " Even Cicero," says Melmoth, " who professed to conduct himself with exem- 

 plary disinterestedness in his province, was able in the course of a single year to acquire as 

 much as 17, 6001. of our money, and that too from a province by no means the most 

 considerable of the republic's dominions." 



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