small shops and humble houses. The remains of its former greatness have, no doubt, here, as elsewhere, been dragged away and built into the modern dwellings.

As the guide-books give full descriptions of the antiquities to be seen, we will only call attention to one remarkable Greek one remarkable Greek inscription which is still legible upon the magnificent portal of the great mosque which was once a Christian cathedral:

"Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.'

The fact that this inscription is allowed to remain in the midst of a fanatical people may be attributed in part to the fact that few are able to decipher it, while those who know its meaning may willingly allow it to grace the Mussulman conquest as a tribute to the more enduring character of the dominant faith.

On a former visit to Damascus we accompanied the American Minister Resident at Constantinople, who made an official tour through Syria in 1859. An escort of Turkish troops was furnished by the courtesy of the Governor-General at Beyroot to accompany us through his satrapy. As we approached Damascus we were met by an aid from the Governor-General of that province, accompanied by a band of music, and during the remaining ten miles of our journey, we were saluted by a regiment of regulars, and by bands of irregulars, known as Bashi-bazouks, and Cossacks and Circassians, stationed in squads along the route. Several military officers, vice-consuls of the different powers, and consular dragomans and janizaries, came out a mile or two to present their compliments to the American "Ambassador." Fresh horses gayly caparisoned with gilt trappings were led by sable grooms in order that the Ulshi and his suite might ride as guests of the authorities,—a courteous mode of offering us the freedom of the city.

Dinners and soirées followed each other in quick succession, and gave us an opportunity of seeing the principal houses and families of the Damascenes. Among the Moslems we were fed with every luxury from gold and silver plate, but were not permitted to enjoy the society of the Turkish ladies at the table or in the salon, though the ladies of our party were received in state by the ladies of every harem they visited. Among the Christians we were entertained with music and dancing, with Oriental jugglery

VOL. XIV.-10.

and buffoonery. The Arab ladies, Jewesses, and Christians alike were pleasingly affable, and conversed fluently upon subjects with which they were familiar, and many of them played gracefully upon a stringed instrument resembling the Spanish guitar, but with strings indefinitely multiplied. Their style of dress and personal adornment would tax the ingenuity of a New York fashion reporter in an attempt to describe their garments, jewelry, and cosmetics; but the reader is familiar with the braided and bejeweled hair, gazelle eyes, pink-and-white complexion, full bust, embonpoint, henna-dyed fingers, and invisible and betrowsered feet.

The interior of each house is of a pattern peculiar to itself as to ornamentation in gold, marble, wood-work, fountains, and each constitutes a subject for conversation, in which the ladies of the house are always fluent, and one which takes the place of "the weather" which is sometimes discussed in more variable climates. "Old Probabilities" would find no occupation here. does not rain in Damascus for six months of the year, of course almost every day is fine, and any remark on such monotonous weather would seem very flat.

As it

The houses are all alike in one respect,

It

in being constructed in a hollow square, with house-tops so flat and so protected that they afford places of retirement and repose to those who would be alone. is not unusual, however, to see entire families sitting together upon the roofs of their houses, and in some parts of Syria the people sleep on the roof. During this visit, made before the massacre, we made many acquaintances among the native gentry, and were grieved to learn that in 1860 some of these estimable people were killed in the streets, and their wives and daughters carried out of the city to the harems of the rural Moslems.

One interesting feature of this official visit was the formal calls made by the Patriarchs of the Greek, Greek-Catholic, Armenian, Latin, Syriac and other religious bodies whose Syrian center is at Damascus. They talked freely of the condition of their sects and of their relations to the dominant Moslems, while the Ulshi gave, through our interpreter, elaborate explanations of our government and the constitution of our country, which recognized no state religion, but protected all religious communities alike. This suggestion of toleration and of freedom of conscience seemed to impress them somewhat dubiously, as either one of

these "heads of communities" would, if in power, put down the others and show even less toleration than the Mussulman. We did not see Abd-el-Kader, the famous Algerine chief. In his own country he was a prince, and here he was in exile and did not make visits, on the ground that he gave all his time to religious meditation. The Ulshi did not make first calls, and so these representative men did not meet. This was a matter of regret to us, as Abd-el-Kader subsequently saved the lives of our vice-consul and his family, and those of twenty thousand Christians beside, when the fury of a fanatical Moslem population seemed bent upon the extermination of all Christian residents in the city. In recognition of these services he received handsome presents from our own and European governments, and still exhibits them with pride to those who call upon him.

Nor did we call upon Lady Digby, once the wife of Lord Ellenborough, who was living quietly as the lawful wife of Sheik Miguel, the most popular escort of travelers to Palmyra. But on a subsequent visit to Damascus we were presented to her, at an entertainment given by the British consul, Mr. Rogers, and found her full of intelligence, with much of the remains of her former beauty. We heard of nothing which detracted from her reputation since the date of her marriage with the sheik, as a kind, genial, and quiet member of the European society. She had been greatly annoyed by the indiscreet curiosity of travelers who had invaded and described her boudoir and surroundings in letters to the newspapers in England and America, and she was not fond of strangers; but those who knew her well seemed to feel a hearty sympathy in her persistent efforts to redeem a life which had not been happy in its influence upon herself or others. We were pleasantly received subsequently at her house at Damascus and at Hums, a city of Northern Syria, when she took us to her stables and showed us her fine Arab mares, which were brought out by the grooms one by one, and all their fine points described. We sat on chairs in her reception-room, but when her swarthy husband entered and was introduced he sat cross-legged upon a divan in a corner, and smoked while the conversation continued. He has not a commanding figure, or fine personal presence, and we wondered what could have induced the daughter of Admiral Lord Digby, outlawed though she was, to enter the harem of this small Bedouin,

where she was obliged to divide the honors with another wife. But he was a young chief with influence among the tribes. She had before her the example of Lady Hester Stanhope, who became queen of the Arabs by means of her money and influence among the Bedouins of Palmyra. With her income of £6,000 per annum, she was able to live in state, and she was still able to command admiration and wield a scepter, although her court was less cultured than that which surrounded the young and beautiful Lady Ellenborough.

Rashid Pasha, governor-general of Damascus, received the American minister and his suite. Courteous, hospitable, educated after the school of Paris, he performed gracefully the duties of host, talked French with fluency, and dressed in good taste. But these qualities could not redeem his great faults; for while he imitated Sardanapalus in his vices, he had not the courage to die as a soldier. While the Christian quarter of Damascus was in flames, and Christians were being slaughtered by thousands, and their women carried off into slavery and concubinage, his Excellency spent his days in his palace reading French novels. And so, when six thousand French troops were landed in Syria, as the police of Europe, to protect the survivors, the Grand Vizier Fuad Pasha came down from Constantinople and took his Excellency out of his palace and away from his French novels, and had him degraded in the public square by stripping him of his uniform, and then caused him to be shot like a dog, in the presence of the representatives of the European powers.

Who can predict the future of this "eternal city" of the East? That it will outlive many modern cities of the West we can well believe, and that it will continue to be the stronghold of Islam, long after the followers of Mohammed are driven from the European provinces, there is as little reason to doubt. It may not be a comfortable home for the European, and the native Christian and Jew may be exposed to periodic outbreaks of Moslem fanaticism, but the past history of the Moslem Arab shows his toleration of unbelievers who pay tribute and who accept the government of the Sultan. Moslems and Christians have lived side by side for centuries, but never upon terms of equality. When the native Christian claims a representation in the local government, in the army and navy, and in the civil service, concessions are grudgingly

made by the Porte, and these are not cordially assented to by the people, so that there will always be turmoil and strife. But it is not certain that there would be less crime or religious intolerance if the same races and creeds were under the rule of the Czar. The Russian government is less liberal than the Porte, and an attempt to carry out its customary policy of reducing everything to a dead level by the introduction of the Russian language and the Russian religion by imperial ukase, would produce more bloodshed in the Moslem districts than has resulted from the policy of the semi-tolerant Turk. This could be accomplished only by the extermination of the native races.

It is probably written in the book of fate that the Danubian provinces, where Christians are most numerous, will become independent or pass under the protectorate of Russia. But when the Moslems are driven out of Europe, their rule in Syria will be less tolerant than heretofore, and the fanaticism of the people will be less easily curbed. Since the atrocities in Bulgaria, the Christians of Asiatic Turkey will be more cowed than before. Education and a purer faith have been making rapid progress, through the disinterested efforts of the noble men who have labored there as missionaries for two score years, but it is doubtful whether the most enlightened of the natives would willingly relinquish their present semi-independence for a less tolerant foreign yoke. And if Moslem rule is to continue in Syria, the friends of true progress may be thankful that though "propped by buttresses from without like the walls of a decayed monastery," the Porte permits all creeds to flourish, all churches to exist, and admits the missionary, the newspaper and the school throughout the empire.

The recent project for a national council, in which Christians are to have a part, is not of a nature to inspire confidence, for similar reforms on paper have not been accepted in the interior. The Christian members of provincial councils are generally time-servers, and are too abject in their servile submission to the Turk and too much in his power to secure any real influence in the local government; and this would be the case in any attempt to establish a national parliament, which would fail at Constantinople for the same reason that it has failed in Egypt,-because it was established as a form with a view to deceive. The hand may be the hand of Esau, but

An inci

the voice is the voice of Jacob. dent within the writer's knowledge will serve as an illustration. A Christian member of the provincial medjliss at Adana, in Cilicia, ventured to vote in opposition to the views of the Pasha, who sent the member to prison in hot haste, there to meditate upon the beauties of a representative form of government. The friends of the prisoner asked the writer to intercede with his Excellency. One day, after a game of chess, I rallied the governor on his arbitrary act, and asked for the man's release. The pasha, as a favor to me, laughingly ordered his sealbearer to go with me to the prison and release the man. The poor man was grateful for his liberty, but remained near me till I went out of the province, when he followed with my escort, remaining absent until the pasha was recalled.

It is a fallacy to assume that the right of asylum in our legations and consulates may be relinquished in Turkey with the same results as in Christian countries, for, until state and church are separated in Mohammedan countries, foreigners will not be safe from religious fanaticism or from persecution by local authorities; and for the same reason it will be unsafe to trust local tribunals, composed of Moslems and a few abject native Christians, with any control over the lives and property of foreign residents. Heretofore, foreigners residing in Turkey have had the right of trial by the consular courts of their respective countries, and the European governments maintain that right, as also the right of asylum, as guaranteed by treaty, but the Government of the United States has shown a disposition of late to abandon these rights upon the ground that it should not ask of other nations more than it is willing to grant to their subjects residing within its jurisdiction. This is to be regretted, inasmuch as Turkish tribunals are to some extent ecclesiastical courts, and are committed, in advance of trial, against any Christian who may be dragged before them.

By intimidation, the Turks, who are masters of the art of "bulldozing," can obtain the nominal support of Christian members to any measure, or by forging their signatures, can deceive the central government, so that there seems to be no hope for freedom of speech or conscience to the Asiatic Christian under Moslem rule. It is by no means clear, however, that the Russian government, if in possession, would be more tolerant.

And as these jealous and rival races, whose creeds are diverse and antagonistic,

UPON the sadness of the sea
The sunset broods regretfully;
From the far, lonely spaces, slow
Withdraws the wistful afterglow.

So out of life the splendor dies;
So darken all the happy skies;
So gathers twilight, cold and stern:
But overhead the planets burn.

And up the east another day
Shall chase the bitter dark away;
What though our eyes with tears be wet?
The sunrise never failed us yet.

The blush of dawn may yet restore
Our light and hope and joy once more.
Sad soul, take comfort, nor forget
That sunrise never failed us yet!

A STATE BALL IN

OUR first experience of Constantinople was | most bewitching. We had arrived on a gala day, the anniversary of the sultan's accession to the throne; and as we rounded Seraglio Point and came upon the Golden Horn, we beheld vessels of every nationality with pennants streaming to the breeze from stem to stern; dark groves of cypress trees, amid which arose graceful minarets and stately domes surrounded by glittering crescents, which formed a dense background to ships; while in the foreground were frail caïques shooting about in every direction, the whole composing a dazzling and never to be forgotten scene. When at last we were safe on terra firma, from amid a perfect Babel of tongues (for there is nothing that strikes one as more remarkable than the fact that almost every person you meet in Pera speaks four or five languages fluently) we found awaiting us an invitation from the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aali Pacha, to attend a ball to be given that evening at his "yali" or summer residence at Bebek, on the Bosphorus.

As the distance was considerable, we were to leave Pera at eight o'clock, so that we had scarcely time to unpack our trunks and rest, before we were obliged to prepare for our expedition. Fortunately, it was on a long summer day, the twenty-fifth of June, and the weather was charming,-a heavy rain the night before having completely laid the dust. We drove in an open car

|

CONSTANTINOPLE.

riage preceded by a mussulman on horseback, arrayed in the most gorgeous style, with richly inlaid pistols in his holster, and a yataghan by his side. He was a " cavass,❞— one of a sort of native guard, a certain number of whom are appointed by the Porte to attend on each embassador. Ours was a tall, splendid-looking Turk, named Mustapha, who ushered us into the barouche, and started off ahead, knocking down ruthlessly the tables and chairs standing in front of the cafés, and causing dire confusion among the women and children who thronged the streets, to say nothing of the lean wolf-like dogs which literally swarm beneath one's feet in every quarter of the city. This was the first manifestation that we were in a land of despotic power; but as our stately English coachman seemed to take it as a matter of course, and the indolent mussulmans reclining in front of their dwellings, smoking their "tchibouks" or "narghiles," looked undisturbed, we remembered Kinglake's description of the awe inspired by the great "Elchee Bey," and we too began to take everything as a matter of course.

As we drove along the shores of the Bosphorus the effect was magical. All the shipping was illuminated, every sail set, and behind each row after row of colored lamps were placed. The public buildings of Stamboul, and the slender, graceful minarets blazed with light, while the glowing reflection

cast on the deep waters of the Bosphorus, with the starlit sky above, formed a tableau of rare picturesqueness and beauty.

On arriving at our destination we felt as if we were living in the days of Haroun Alraschid. The villa was built directly on the water's edge, with marble steps leading to it for the accommodation of those coming in caïques, as did the greater part of the guests; for many of the wealthy families, both Turkish and European, had already taken up their abode at their country-seats on the shores of the Bosphorus, which it will be remembered extends for fifteen miles from the sea of Marmora to the Black Sea. The whole building, with every window open to the spectator, excepting the latticed casements of the harem, was one blaze of light; no less than thirty-five thousand lamps of every hue were distributed about the grounds, and the rooms were illuminated with superb crystal chandeliers, it being a particular fancy of the Turks to import the most elegant and costly lusters France can manufacture.

Mustapha, dismounting, entered first, and announced us as the British embassador's guests, his Excellency being at that moment within, assisting at a state dinner given by Aali Pacha to celebrate the day. We were received at the entrance of the garden by an officer brilliant in gold embroidery, who, accompanying us to the door of the house, consigned us to two others similarly attired, who led us upstairs, ushered us into a superb ball-room, and introduced us to the Princess of Samos, who, being the first Greek lady in the place, did the honors in lieu of the Minister's wife, who could not of course step out of the precincts of the harem.

The room in which we found ourselves opened on one side to the water by numerous windows, on the other faced the garden, to which you descended by steps from a platform erected outside the center windows. We had scarcely time to look about us when the platform was filled by an ascending crowd of dignitaries, who had been dining beneath an al fresco pavilion in the garden.

Here were the Grand Vizier Fuad Pacha, a man of erudition and a perfect French scholar; Omar Pacha, the Turkish commander-in-chief during the Crimean war; all the foreign embassadors,-among them he who was our friend and host, with his red ribbon and star of the Bath, looking almost unornamented by the side of the blazing diamond crosses and orders of those surrounding him, and yet wielding so much

more power; and many others who, by their official position, were entitled to be present. We were introduced to the members of the diplomatic corps, and as the other guests had not arrived, the princess deputed her niece, who was assisting her to receive the guests, to conduct us to the harem in order that we might pay our respects to Madame Aali, the Minister's wife. We were but too delighted to go.

Had

How our hearts throbbed as we approached the door where stood on guard two gigantic Nubians nearly seven feet high, holding enormous canes in their hands! They bowed to our conductors, and lifting a curtain, we entered that abode of romance, which we had never expected to see. we paid our first visit to a harem in broad daylight, with no adjuncts of music, flowers and all the accompaniments of this brilliant fête, we would have been less impressed, and even as it was, the scene was different from what we had pictured to ourselves. The suite of rooms into which we entered was spacious and lofty, and carpeted with the finest India matting,—far superior to any we have ever seen in other countries; cushioned divans surrounded every room, elegant jardinières filled with flowers were plentifully interspersed, and in the principal salon stood a rosewood piano. Mirrors were inserted in the walls, and glittering chandeliers filled with candles were suspended from each ceiling; the windows went from floor to floor and were entirely filled in with lattice work. Through their apertures came the fitful light of rockets, which were constantly sent up from the decks of two illuminated boats anchored in front of the villa. The air was heavy with the perfume of flowers, and the well known strain of the serenade from "Don Pasquale" was wafted to our ear, played by the musicians belonging to the sultan and stationed in the garden beneath.

We were introduced to Madame Aali, a very intelligent-looking, amiable little lady, who salamed us in Turkish style by putting her hand to her forehead and her heart, said a variety of pretty welcomes by means of the interpretress, and taking us by the hand introduced us successively to all the high and mighty female magnates of the land. We were exceedingly disappointed in the toilets of these ladies; with the exception of their undervests of Broussa gauze, they were nearly all dressed in European fabrics of various kinds, full trowsers, slippers, an over-dress more like the soutane of a