lack of sanguine expectation on the part of its professed friends and champions. In the opinion of many of these latter, indeed, there was no actual reform wanted. "What is all this nonsense," they say, "about the oppression of Christians in Turkey? The Turks are the most tolerant people in the world. It is only a pity that the Christians have not been equally tolerant ; Christians have persecuted Christians; but as to the Turks, they have never done so," and they add that as to civil matters, Christians are already judged by their magistrates and bishops, and Ottomans by the Cadi, while disputes between persons of different faith are disposed of by mixed tribunals." There may be some truth in these assertions, and there have been, and perhaps are, qualities in the Mussulman which make him a more respectable being than his long-enslaved and degraded Christian fellow-subject. The question lies not in the nature of the people, but in the dealing of the Government towards them, and it may be admitted that in certain localities, and in certain respects, the condition of the Mussulman is even worse than that of the Christian, inasmuch as this latter manages to place himself under the protection of some foreign Consular agent interested to see him righted while the Mussulman has absolutely no person to whom he can apply for redress.

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Certainly the insurgents in Herzegovina cannot expect to be rewarded for their rebellion; but there are friends of Turkey who contend that there is no such thing as a Herzegovinian insurrection. "It is an insurrection in Herzegovina, but not an insurrection of Herzegovinians. The men in arms are not natives of the Province, but only bands of brigands invading it from the Servian, Montenegrin, and Austrian frontier. It is difficult to see on what ground the advocates of the Turkish Government place their reliance on the means it possesses of overcoming its enemies. They contend that "the Turkish Army is one of the most compact bodies in the world; that the Mussulmans are bound together brother to brother, constituting a most extraordinary force of resistance." They refer to the early stages of the war of 1854, where "the Turks twice defeated the Russians," and suggest that, "if the countries on the frontiers of Turkey are unwilling or unable to prevent the invasion of Turkish territory, the Porte

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The Turks had been the most tolerant people in the world. Had the Christians been as tolerant of one another as the Turks had been of Christians? Christians had persecuted Christians; but the Turks had never done so. There was no oppres sion, and, upon the whole, the Christian people were loyal to the rule of the Sultan ; and he believed they thought themselves better off under the tolerant rule of the Sultan than under the military despotism of the Czar. Turkey was a most hospitable country. It was a country where all refugees were welcome, and not only welcome, but had much done for them. A considerable part of the people of Turkey were Circassians and Tartars from the Crimea, and they had been driven out by Russian tyranny and found refuge in Turkey, where they had been provided with land and houses by the Turkish Government. If they had come to England they would have had to shift for themselves. Turkey was more than an asylum-it was an hospitable country, and at the present time there were upwards of one milllon refugees there protected by the Government; and those refugees had come from Russia.

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They heard of an insurrection in the Herzegovina: but a book he had, written by ALI SUAVI, a Turk, said there was an insurrection in Herzegovina, but not of the Herzegovina. He believed very little of what he read in the papers on this question; but he believed there had been a continual influx of adventurers-invaders

across the frontiers of the Herzegovina, coming from Servia, Montenegro, and, he regretted to add, from Austria: and the single observation he should make upon the subject was this: the Ottoman Empire appeared to have committed the same mistake, owing to which the insurrection in Candia lasted for so many years. The insurrection in Candia was supported pretty nearly entely by invasion from Greece. After many years the Ottoman Government at last said, "Well, if this goes on we shall invade Greece;" and, the moment they said they would do that, the whole thing stopped. The Turkish army was one of the most compact bodies in the world. The Christians in Turkey

should put down the insurrection at its very sources by carrying the war beyond its frontier, or, in other words, by bidding defiance to Servia and Montenegro, and, if necessary, to Austria and Russia. But they do not reflect that twenty-one years have greatly altered the circumstances both of the Ottoman Empire and of its powerful neighbours; that Russia has gained in strength as much as Turkey has lost; and that, if the power of the Porte were really as well organised as they assert, its inability to subdue a few bards of ill-armed mountaineers, whether native or foreign, after six months' struggle, would be a most inexplicable phenomenon.

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The Turkish advocates, also, are fully satisfied with the conditions and prospects of the Ottoman finances. "There has been no repudiation," they say, "for the Turks are not unwilling, but only unable, to pay, and, indeed, they are anxious to pay all they can;" forgetting that inability to pay arises from mismanagement and malversation of the public money, and from the Sultan's unwillingness to curb bis extravagance. Even at the moment I am writing, two new ironclads are expected to come in, and orders have been sent out for the construction of another; and the building of the new mosque, which will cost no one knows how much above 2,000,0007., has not been suspended, nor is there any stint in the outlay of money to supply the unbounded luxuries of the palace. As I telegraphed to you, there is now little doubt that the 1,700,000l. required for the payment of half the coupon

were divided into various religions, but the Mussulmans mere bound together, brother to brother, and they constituted a force for resistance which was most extraordinary. They were a nation of soldiers, and to suppose that Russia could easily occupy Turkey was perfectly absurd. Those Mussulmans would fight to the last drop of their blood, and their resistance would be something unheard of in the world. All the trade of the Black Sea had to go through the Bosphorus, on each side of which were Turkish forts; and if Russia troublad Turkey, the Turks had only to close the Bosphorus, and thus extinguish the Black Sea trade with Russia. It was true there were stipulations affecting the closing of the Bosphorus in the Treaty of Paris; but if Russia were to tamper with the integrity and independence of Turkey, it would break that treaty; and if Russia broke the treaty why were the Turks to keep it? The one breach would dissolve the whole fabric; and consequently the moment an attempt was made against the integrity and independence of Turkey the answer would be to close the Bosphorus. When they looked at the great force Turkey possessed in her Mussulman population, and the great power it had to operate against Russia by closing the Bosphorus, he could only say that it seemed to him that nothing was wanted but a little courage and decision at headquarters to dissipate all those alarms that frightened people so much in this country.

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They were compelled to look upon the introduction of the loan system into Turkey as a pure and simple evil, from which no benefit whatever had been obtained. He would not go into the history of the loans which succeeded that of 1854, for the reason that the history was well known. They followed one another, until at last they reached the enormous sum of two hundred million pounds, involving a charge of between thirteen and fourteen millions upon a revenue which did not much exceed twenty millions. The introduction of this debt into that unhappy country caused a degree of disorder in money matters not to be described, and which could not have existed under the old system, by which the money had to be painfully raised by taxation, and could only be spent as it was raised, instead of being anticipated in this manner. Under these circumstances the demand

due in January will be forthcoming. But by what terrible grinding of the subjects has this money been scraped together! Here I subjoin intelligence from various provinces in Europe and Asia, on the authenticity of which I can safely reply.

In some of the Provinces of Asia Minor, where British and American residents heroically exerted themselves to assuage the ravages of the recent famine, the people address their benefactors in these words:

"Alas! you had better have let us die of starvation last year with the rest. All would then have been over, and we should have said the crops have failed; but now we have the bread which God has given through you taken out of our mouths to pamper the great men at Stamboul. May Allah requite them!"

It is at this price that the holders of the Ottoman bonds may expect to receive their half-dividend in January. How a revenue collected by such exhausting means will be equal to the payment of subsequent sums remains to be seen. In the meanwhile, people are here eagerly looking forward to the arrival of Messrs. HAMOND and BUTLER-JOHNSTONE, and the realisation of their compromise. Doubts are, however, entertained-first, as to the unanimity of the bondholders to give in to the projected arrangement, and, secondly, as to the willingness of the Turkish Government to accede to it.

for interest becoming greater and greater occasioned what had been called the Turkish default. The term repudiation could not be applied to it-repudiation meant the denial of a debt, and the refusal and unwillingness to pay. This unfortunate Government had paid as long as it could, and it had stopped payment because it could not pay any longer. Inability was not to be confounded with unwillingness.

There was but one danger to Turkey, and that was the danger of finance; and he hailed with the greatest satisfaction the coming forward of Mr. Hamond to endeavour to put the matter on a true basis. The Turkish Government did not say they would not pay, but that they could not, and wished to put off the payment; but Mr. Hamond came forward, and a good many were with him in London, and said to the Turkish Government, "Don't do that: we propose to you to remit to you that part of your debt which has not been received by you"-which, according to Mr. Hamond, amounted to 71,000,000. -"and to take interest upon that which we really have paid." Those were the two simple principles in Mr. Hamond's proposal; and he asked them with the utmost confidence to empower him to write to Mr. Hamond, and to assure him that their most earnest though humble efforts would be given in support of his noble purpose.