Pasha.-"When the health of our friends is good, ours is so likewise, and our heart rejoices."

Consul." I beg you will say to Monsieur le Pasha that I have something of importance to communicate.” Dragoman." The Consul, your slave, in kissing the dust of your Excellency's feet, has a petition to make.” Pasha.-"Bouyoroon! pray mention it; no ceremony, Consolos Bey."

The Consul then recounts his adventures to the Pasha, and tells him that he owes all his success to the Mudir of Baiburt, who has given him the most valuable information and assistance. He likewise tells him all he knows concerning the villany of Ali Pasha and Ali Bey, and concludes by a diplomatic speech, in which he tells his Excellency, that knowing how anxious he is to reward the virtuous and to punish the guilty, he ventures to hope that the Mudir of Baiburt may be favourably mentioned at Constantinople, and that Ali Pasha and Ali Bey will also meet with the punishment their crimes merit. "These latter," continues the Consul, "hold a high position in their country-it is all the more necessary that they should be made an example of. They have leagued themselves with robbers and murderers, and have set at nought your government; it is then of the utmost consequence that vigorous measures should be taken, that your Excellency may be known as one whom the wicked fear and the righteous praise."

The Consul had warmed with his topic, and his eloquence had run away with him rather faster than the dragoman could follow; however, the latter functionary does his best to render all this into Turkish, translating the latter part

of it as follows:-"The Consul is your sacrifice, Inshallah! in your shadow he will be safe; everything will be well; Inshallah!"

Pasha.—“ Hai, hai. Inshallah, Inshallah! I will make the rascals eat dirt; by God, I will! Fear not, Consolos Bey; I will leave nothing undone."

And so after sundry polite speeches the Consolos Bey rises to depart, the Pasha recommending him to the care of God as he accompanies him to the door, and begs he will not forget him, but come again without ceremony as friends, not as Pasha and Consul; and so, with mutual reverences and temenehs, they part.

The Pasha walks with a dignified step to his sofa, on which he doubles himself up, exclaiming with a deep sigh "Vai, vai, Islam bitdi! It is all over with Islam, our religion is gone; curses on these kiafirs, we can find repose nowhere!" And so he sinks into an angry state of meditation, the words Ghiaour and kiafir escaping from time to time from his lips; gradually the pipe soothes him and he is once more himself, the old Pasha of Erzeroom.

A figure gently lifts the curtain which hangs over the door, and noiselessly enters the room. It is the cavassbashy who with his twenty zapties accompanied the Consul. He stands motionless before his master, who, when he raises his head, exclaims, "Hey pezivenk, what do you want?"

The officer, making a reverent temeneh (salutation), says, "The dust of your feet waits for orders. Some men are returning to Baiburt, and will take your Excellency's commands."

"Ha, call the Secretary," says the Pasha; and so the

man of the pen is summoned, and writes a letter at his Excellency's dictation, in which somewhat difficult task we will leave them engaged.

ment.

The Consul goes home to write a report to his GovernA few days afterwards he hears from Baiburt that some changes have taken place since he left. His friend the Mudir has received a lesson how to assist Franks in catching murderers for the future; he has been deposed by the Governor of Erzeroom, and Ali Pasha, the friend and accomplice of Kara Mahmood, is now in his place. This is a simple fact recorded in October, 1854, and will serve as an illustration of the relative position, and mutual good offices, of Consuls and Pashas.

CHAPTER V.

Importance of the Consular office The British and French systems compared Effect of isolation - False Economy

Suggestions.

FROM the preceding sketch of a Consul's doings in the Levant, it may well be imagined what a great man he is in the interior of Turkey. He resembles the GovernorGeneral of India, who can wage war when he pleases, only that the latter is controlled in some measure by his council, whereas the Consul is not. A distant Ambassador, or Minister of Foreign Affairs, has certainly the power of snubbing him; the latter can remove him from his post ; but he generally has little to fear from either, he can easily throw dust into their eyes, for his only accusers are the Turks, whose word cannot be weighed for a moment against that of an English gentleman, though it is seldom indeed that the Consul comes up to our ideas of what is generally understood as constituting that character ; usually he is of quite a different breed, with different habits and ideas. The chief qualifications are knowledge of the country and language; these embrace a tact in money-making by sundry disreputable kinds of commerce, and in a rough and ready knowledge of some provincial patois; though there are many Levantine Consuls who cannot understand, or make themselves understood, in Turkish.

While we are anxious to reform the Turks-and assuredly no people ever needed it more-our first efforts should be directed to setting them a good example in their own country; and to do this we must reform our Consular system. We have from time to time heard from the lips of our Foreign Ministers the most unbounded praise of our Levantine Consuls-praise which is certainly deserved in some instances; but no man has a right to choose certain individuals as specimens of a body either for good or evil; nor can those who have lived some years in the Levant, and are consequently behind the scenes, say that such praise is, generally speaking, deserved by the Consular body.

A Consul, planted in a wild, semi-barbarous country, far from the eye of public opinion, living under his own laws, or rather under no laws, ought to be a man of high principle and great strength of mind, or he will probably go wrong. A British Consul in Turkey is in a different position from any other man in the world. He generally acts in the several capacities of a merchant, magistrate, ambassador, clergyman, and lawyer. He is often a sharp trader, and makes money, as he has immense advantages over all other merchants, inasmuch as he is free from very many of the legal obstacles to which natives are subject. He certainly ought to understand well the principles of commerce, and ought besides to be a man generally well informed; but I humbly venture to differ from those who would allow him to trade. The French know better how to support their own influence and dignity abroad than to allow of any such irregularities. In an official code of Consular regulations I read as follows :

: