426 
iitade in other countries of the name of the Grand 
Seignior, men generally represent to themselves a des- 
potic Sultan; whose word is law, and who takes no 
other counsel than his own caprice. Let them undeceive 
themselves. There is not a greater slave in the world 
than the Grand Seignior* His steps, his movements, 
his words throughout the whole of the year, and in all 
the events of his life, are measured and determined by 
the code of the court. He cati do neither more nor less 
than is prescribed for him. Reduced to the condition of 
an automaton, his actions are determined like the result 
of mechanical impulse, by the Code, the Divan, the 
Oulema, and the Janissaries. He is covered with dia- 
monds, intoxicated with incense, surrounded with flat- 
terers and worshippers like the Great Lama, or a living 
divinity, but his existence differs in no way from that 
of a machine; and as such, he will always be viewed 
with the greatest indifference by people who have 
neither harm nor good to expect from him. The whole 
power is in the hands of the subalterns, as I have al- 
ready shown in adverting to the deposal of Selim, and 
the installation of Moustapha; events which did not 
cause the least sensation in many of the Turkish pro- 
vinces which I was then traversing. 
This indifference of the people towards the sovereign, 
is one of the principal causes that facilitate and strengthen 
the rebellion of the Pachas in the provinces. It is well 
known during how many years a Djezzar, a Paswan- 
Ogluy a Kadri-Aga, Sec. maintained their authority; 
and there are at this moment a Mehemed Ali in Egypt, 
a Kouchoisk Ali in Syria, a Mustapha Pacha* in Bui- 
* This was the celebrated Moustapha Bairaktar, who latterly- 
dethroned the Sultan Moustapha, and who perished in the revolt* 
(Note of the Editor.) 
