406 
ОТЧЕТЪ О ТРИДЦАТЬ СЕДЬМОМЪ ПРИСУЖДЕНІИ 
vousness on the occasion of returning a mémorandum in Turkisli winch had 
been secretly communicated to him by my direction. 
The System, wliicli the Sultan thus succeded in establishing, is not entirely 
without advantage as a necessary part of it is, tliat every communication 
whatever, addressed to the Ileis-Efendi in relation to foreign politics, must 
pass at once into His Highness’s Cabinet. I am assured, that even the verbal 
communications of the Dragomen on objects of secondary importance are 
noted down and conveyed without loss of time to the immédiate knowledge 
of the Sultan nor is there any reason to believe, that the System is intended 
otherwise, than impartially applied to the wliole diplomatie Body, though 
it is evident, that its effects must be feit in the greatest degree by those 
Missions, wliich are at any time called upon to recommend the adoption of 
measures unpalatable to the Court. 
The personal character of the Sovereign becomes under tliese circum- 
stances an object of the highest, one mightalmost say, of exclusive importance. 
That of the reigning Sultan must be sufficiently known to you through the 
correspondence of my Predecessor. You must be aware, that Ilis Higlmess 
is by no means déficient in the natural qualities of judgement and resolution; 
that he is rather severe than unjust; and prejudiced rather, than ill inten- 
tioned; that lie is capable of great perseverance in the pursuit of a favourite 
idea, and that lie lias so far succeeded in confirming his authority over 
the Turkish portion of his subjects, as to enlist their fears of his personal 
vigilance and severity in aid of their general respect for the Head of their 
religion and the possessor of the throne. But how is any eulargement of 
mind to be derived from the éducation of the Seraglio? And what is to be 
expected of a Sovereign, who from the liour of his accession lias made it the 
principle of his Government to preserve power by remowing abruptly or 
cutting off insidiously not the turbulent alone and aspiring officers of the 
Janissaries, but every distinguished candidate for the honours of the State? 
Witli such complété success lias this principle been applied, that there is 
not now a single man of superior capacity in his employment with the ex- 
ception perhaps of the Pasha of the Bosphorus, who lias manifested his energy 
by an unsparing execution of refractory Janissaries and bis shrewdness in 
being the first to remind his Master, that lie is the only survivor of tliem. 
The exclusion of ail superior talents from the departments of the admini- 
stration is not unmarked by the populace of Constantinople and, if what 
I liear of the language lield by the lower Orders be true, a trille might at 
any time suffice to occasion a serions insurrection. 
That despotic authority, whicli the Constitution of the Turkish Empire 
assigns to the Sultan, is thus essentially and practically ceiitered in the 
