CONSTANTINOPLE. 
the leather used for shoes and boots is so bad, 
that it can scarcely be wrought ; hats, hosiery, 
linen, buttons, buckles, are all of the same cha- 
racter ; of the worst quality, and yet of the 
highest price. But there are other articles of 
merchandize, to which we have been accustomed 
to annex the very name of Turkey, as if they 
were the pecu iar produce of that country; and 
these, at east, a foreigner expects to find; but 
not one of them can be had. Ask fora Turkish 
carpet, you are told you must send for it to 
Smyrna; for Greek wines, to the Archipelago; 
for a Turkish sabre, to Damascus; for the sort of 
stone expressly denominated turquoise, they 
know not what you mean ; for red leather, t v,r v 
import it themselves from Russia or from Africa : 
still you are said to be in the centre of the com- 
merce of the globe ; and this may be true with 
reference to the freight of vessels passing the 
Straits, which is never landed. View the ex- 
terior of Constantinople, and it seems the most 
opulent and flourishing city in Europe : examine 
its interior, and its miseries and deficiencies 
are so striking, that it must be considered the 
meanest and poorest metropolis of the world. 
The ships crowding its ports have no connec- 
tion with its welfare: they are, for the most 
part, French, Venetian, Ragusan, Sclavonian, and 
Grecian vessels, bound to, or from, the Mecliter- 
