lation of this island amounted to 99,600; the garrison and strangers to 3200. On the neighbouring smaller island of Gozzo there were 16,800. Comino, lying between Malta and Gozzo, contains 600 inhabitants. La Valetta, the capital and port of Malta, being situated on a narrow tongue of land, with a noble harbour on each side, forms an admirable naval station, deriving great importance from its position in the heart of the Mediterranean. It serves also, especially during war, as a commercial depôt, whence goods may be introduced into Italy and the Levant. Population, 32,000. Citta Vecchia, in the centre of the island, is also well fortified. Population, 5000. IONIAN ISLES. THE IONIAN ISLANDS is the name given to a range extending chiefly along the coast of Greece. The principal ones are Corfu, Santa Maura, Theaki, Cephalonia, Cerigo, situated at a considerable distance from the others, off the southern coast of the Morea. These, as detached islands, occupied frequently a conspicuous place in ancient history; but their political union took place in modern times, in consequence of being held by the Venetians, and defended by their navy against the Turks, who had overrun the whole of the adjacent continent. When France, in 1797, seized the territory of Venice, she added these as an appendage to it; and, even after the cession of Venice to Austria, endeavoured still to retain them attached to her, under the title of the Ionian Republic. She was unable, however, to maintain them against the superior naval force of England, which, at the congress of Vienna, was nominated protector of the Ionian Islands. That power has since continued to hold them in full military occupation, and spends about 100,000l. a year in fortifications and troops. The natives, however, are allowed a great share in the internal government, and even assemble in a regular parlia ment. The Lord High Commissioner, who is at the head of the government, is appointed by the king of Great Britain. The legislative assembly consists of 29 elective and 11 integral members, all of the class of synclitæ or nobles; the former are chosen for the term of five years by the nobles; the latter are virtually, if not directly, nominated by the High Commissioner. The senate consists of a president, nominated by the commissioner, and five members chosen by the legislative assembly from their own number. These islands, like the opposite coast of Greece, are rocky, rugged, and picturesque, though none of the peaks rise to any great elevation. This surface renders them ill fitted for the cultivation of corn; but wine and fruits, especially the latter, are raised in great perfection. The species of small grapes which, when dried, are called currants, are largely exported from these islands. Zante produces annually about 60,000 cwt.; Cephalonia about 50,000. The total annual produce is estimated at about 14,000,000 lbs. Olive oil is also largely exported, about 100,000 barrels being annually produced. Honey, wine, and flax, are the most important articles of agricultural industry. The annual value of the exports is about $1,200,000. The public revenue, independent of the military establishment, which is supported by the British government, is $700,000 per annum. The following table gives a general view of these islands: Corfu Names. Square Miles. Population. 59,839 Capital. ΠΕ [Population. Cephalonia.. 4,000 270 17,000 Zante 180 Sante Maura 150 Cerigo (with Cerigotto). 130 Theaki (with Calamos)... 60 20 35,422 Zante 18,000 5,000 2,000 St. Gago... 4,000 Paxo (with Antipaxo) Vathi Zante is the richest and most flourishing of these islands, but Corfu contains the seat of government, which is strongly fortified. Argostoli, Corfu, and Zante, are the principal ports. TURKEY. TURKEY IN EUROPE forms the western and metropolitan part of that extensive and once mighty empire which subverted and superseded the eastern branch of the empire of Rome. The most extensive portion, in which perhaps its main strength is seated, belongs to Asia. It forms the most eastern part of the territory of southern Europe, and the link which connects that continent with Asia. It also unites the Mediterranean with the Black Sea, being almost inclosed by their various bays and branches, and by that long range of straits, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmora, and the channel of Constantinople, by which these two great seas communicate. On the northern side, it has an inland boundary bordering on Austria and on Russia. The Danube forms here the limit of the central Turkish provinces, and, with the fortresses on its banks, has been the main barrier of the empire; but beyond it are the tributary provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, which carry the frontier to the Pruth and the Carpathian Mountains. The mountains of European Turkey consist chiefly of that extensive range called the Balkan Mountains, also, Despoto Dag, and Argentari; a continuous chain, stretching from the head of the Adriatic to the Black Sea. It separates Turkey into several very fine and fruitful plains. The greatest river of Europe, swelled to its utmost magnitude, rolls along the whole border of European Turkey. From the barbarism of the government, however, and the hostile relations with the neighbouring powers, the Danube serves very little for the conveyance of merchandise; it is more famed in the dreadful annals of war than in the peaceful records of commerce. The grand divisions of Turkey are Romelia, in the south; Albania and Bosnia, west; Servia and Bulgaria, in the centre; and Wallachia and Moldavia, in the north, beyond the Danube. The area of the whole is about 206,000 square miles, and the population, 8,800,000. Wallachia, Moldavia, and Servia, hardly form at present any part of the Turkish empire, being governed by their own princes and hospodas, and are in all respects independent, except that they pay a fixed tribute to the Porte. The Turkish political system has no analogy with that of any other European power, but is formed upon a purely Asiatic model. Its principle is, the subjection of the whole administration, civil, military, and religious, to the absolute disposal of one man. The grand signior, the "shadow of God," and "refuge of the world," is considered as reigning by divine commission, and uniting in himself all the powers, legislative, executive, judicial, and ecclesiastical. So deeply rooted is the veneration for the Othman family, that, amid so many bloody and violent revolutions, the idea has never been entertained of a subject seating himself on the imperial throne; and after cutting off the head of one sultan, nothing has ever been dreamt of but raising the next heir to the throne. The vizier, assisted by the divan, is the person upon whom devolves entire the exclusive power of the state. The grand signior does not even, like some other oriental despots, make a show of sitting in judgment, but delegates that function also to his minister. The muftis, and ulema, or body of mollahs, form the depository of the laws of the empire, and the only class who approach to the character of a national council. The mufti is the second person of the empire in dignity; he girds the sabre on the sultan, an act equivalent to coronation; and the sultan advances seven steps to meet him, while he advances only three towards the grand vizier. No great measure of state can be regularly taken, or command the respect of the empire, without a fetwa from the mufti. Justice is administered by members of the ulema: those in the large towns are termed mollahs, and in the smaller towns, cadis; the nominations being made by the sultan from a list presented by the mufti. The court and seraglio form not only the most brilliant appendage to the Ottoman Porte, but one of the great moving springs of its political action. In this palace, or prison, are immured 500 or 600 females, the most beautiful that can be found in the neighbouring realms of Europe, Asia, and Africa; wherever Turks can rule, or Tartars ravage. The pachas and tributary princes vie with each other in gifts of this nature, which form the most effective mode of gaining imperial favour. The confinement of these females is not so rigid as formerly. The finances of the empire are shrouded in mystery; their amount cannot be in any degree measured by that of the sums paid into the treasury. The lands held as the sole property of the sultan are let out on the tenure of military service. Of the direct contribution, the principal is the haratsh, or capitation tax, imposed on all subjects of the empire who are not Mahometan. In the subject provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, the haratsh is paid in one sum by the princes or vaivodes; but both from them, and from the pachas, his imperial majesty is pleased to accept of numerous presents on various occasions, to say nothing of those which it is at least highly prudent to make to the officers of state and the occupants of the harem. The customs are considerable, being levied by farm, without much rigour; but the attempts to establish an excise have been met by violent discontents, and even insurrection. The military system of the Turks, formerly the terror of the greatest powers in Europe, and now despised by almost the meanest, has undergone no formal change. It consists of the toprakli, a kind of feudal militia, who serve without pay, and for a limited period, and the capiculi, or paid troops, who alone approximate to the character of a regular force, of whom the janissaries were the most efficient. This powerful body might be said to have held at their disposal the Ottoman empire, and their aga was one of its greatest officers. Recently, however, the janissaries have been annihilated by the vigorous and bloody measures of Mahmoud, the reigning sultan, who is using the utmost exertion to organize a new force similar to that maintained by the other European powers. There is also a paid force of spahis, or cavalry, amounting to 15,000. Agriculture, in European Turkey, is depressed at once by arbitrary exactions, and by the devastation consequent on frequent wars in many of the finest provinces; yet its productions are valuable. The grain which grows in the plains of Roumelia, Bulgaria, and on the banks of the Danube, is considered the finest in the empire. From the same plains a great quantity of excellent butter and bad cheese is obtained, the latter being made of skimmed milk. The steep sides and deep valleys of Hamus and Rhodope are covered with vast flocks of sheep, affording the most delicate mutton, but a coarse kind of wool, which, however, from its plenty, forms a large article of export. Buffaloes are chiefly employed in agriculture; and, though their flesh is unpalatable, their skins, being thick and strong, are of considerable value. Hare skins, also, are so abundant as to form an article of importance in commerce. Bees innumerable are reared, and yield a profusion of honey and wax. A fine white silk is produced in Bulgaria and the plain of Adrianople, but not equal to that of Brusa. Cotton flourishes in the plains south of the Balkan, though nowhere so copiously as in Macedonia and Thessaly. Manufactures are in a still less flourishing state; yet the very fine one of Turkey leather has been carried to the highest perfection at Gallipoli, and some other places along the Dardanelles, as well as in several cities of Asia Minor. Turkey carpets belong to Asia Minor, where manufacturing industry is generally more advanced than in European Turkey. The commerce of this part of the empire, excluding Greece, is almost confined to Constantinople, whence would be exported a good deal of grain, were it not for the impolitic prohibition, which does not, however, prevent a considerable contraband trade. Other productions of European and Asiatic Turkey, wool, buffalo hides, skins, goats' hair, Turkey leather, wax, drugs, silk, cotton, and copper, find their chief vent through the capital. The pride of the orientals, and their peculiar habits, render them little dependent on imports from the West. Nevertheless, the European merchants contrive to introduce some cottone and sugar; also, coffee from the West Indies, under the disguise of Mocha, together with glass, porcelain, and other brilliant fabrics for the ornament of the harem From the Black Sea and the Caspian are brought slaves in great numbers, also a vast quantity of salt-fish and caviare. The national character and aspect of the Turk is thoroughly oriental, and in every point contrary to that of the western European nations. All the external forms of life are dissimilar, and even opposite. The men, instead of our dresses fitted tight to the body, wear long flowing robes, which conceal the limbs. Instead of standing, or sitting on chairs, they remain stretched on sofas, in luxurious indolence; considering it madness to stir or walk, unless for special purposes or business. They sit cross-legged, especially at meals. On entering a house, they take off, not their hat, but their shoes; in eating, they use the fingers only, without knife or fork; they sleep not on beds, but on couches on the ground. Though the Turk be naturally sedate and placid, his rage, when once roused, is furious and ungovernable, like that of a brute. Hospitality and giving of alms are oriental virtues. It is rare to hinder any one from plucking herbs or fruit in a garden or orchard. This humanity is even injudiciously extended to the lower creation, which enjoy at Constantinople a sort of paradise. The dogs, though excluded as unclean from the houses and mosques, are allowed to multiply in the streets till they become a perfect nuisance; the doves feed at liberty on the grain in the harbour, which echoes with the crowded clang of unmolested sea-birds. The religion of Mahomet is considered to be preserved throughout this empire in a state of peculiar and exclusive purity. The Turk is imbued from his earliest infancy with the loftiest conceptions of his own spiritual state, and with a mingled hatred and contempt of every other. This feeling is entertained, not only towards the "infidel," but still more deeply towards the Persian Shiite, whose tenets respecting the person of Ali are so detested, that, according to the soundest doctors, it is as meritorious to kill one Shiite as twenty Christians. The learning of the Turks is comprised within a very limited compass. The torrent of their barbarous invasion buried under it not only the splendid though corrupted remains of Greek science, but that of a secondary description which was attained by the Arabs under the caliphate. Yet some of the early sultans were patrons of learning; as, indeed, most conquerors have been. The Turks are ignorant of the most common instruments in natural philosophy, the telescope, the microscope, the electrical machine; which, if presented to them, are merely shown as objects of childish curiosity. Persons of the highest rank scarcely know anything of countries beyond the boundaries of the empire. Astrology, so long exploded from the list of European sciences, continues in Turkey to influence and direct the public councils. No expedition sails from Constantinople, no foundation of a building is laid, nor public officer installed, until the nunedjem bachi, or chief of the astrologers, has named the fortunate day. With all their pride, they are obliged to have recourse to Christian physicians, whose skill they ascribe to necromancy, and who they therefore expect will predict at once, in the most precise manner, the issue of their complaints. All the arts have degenerated into mechanical trades. Neither architecture, painting, nor music, is practised with any degree of taste or genius. The condition of the female sex in Turkey is particularly foreign to our manners and ideas. From the moment of marriage they are immured in the harem, excluded from the view of the public and of all of the opposite sex, their nearest relations being alone admitted on occasions of peculiar ceremony. This circumscribed existence, and the necessity of sharing with a multitude of rivals the favour of a husband, or rather master, appear intolerable to European ideas. Polygamy is permitted by law, and carried sometimes to a vast extent, but only by the rich. The poor, and even others who study domestic quiet, find one wife quite sufficient. Divorce is permitted, but is not common. Disagreement of temper does not bear so hard on the husband, from the separate state in which he lives; adultery is avenged by the poniard; so that sterility, reckoned so deadly a curse throughout the East, is the prevailing motive for divorce. The rayahs, or subject infidels, who form so large a part of the population of Turkey, are chiefly Greeks, Jews, and Armenians. The amusements of the Turk are chiefly domestic. His delight is to give himself up to continued and unvaried reverie; to glide down the stream of time without thought or anxiety; to retire under the shade of trees, there to muse without any fixed object, and to inhale through the pipe a gentle inebriating vapour. The ball, the theatre, the crowded party, all that in Europe can be accounted gaiety, are utterly foreign to Turkish manners. The dress of the Turks consists of long, loose robes, which do not encumber their stately walk, though they would be incompatible with running, or rapid motion. The turban is the most characteristic feature of eastern dress; and its varied form and ornaments not only discriminate the rich from the poor, but afford a badge to the various professions, to each of which a costume is appointed by government, and strictly enforced. The food of the Turks is not very luxurious. It consists chiefly of stews and hashes, particularly that favourite one called pilau, with salads, olives, and sweetmeats. In wine, though prohibited by their religion, some sultans and great men have deeply indulged; but in general its use is confined to the lowest ranks. Coffee and sherbet are handed about on all occasions. Opium, as a substitute for wine, is taken to excess, and often fatally; those addicted to it usually fall victims before the age of forty. Constantinople occupies perhaps the most commanding and important site of any city in the world. Its situation is as beautiful and superb as it is commodious. Seated on the Bosphorus, at the point where it communicates with the Propontis or Sea of Marmora, it is connected both with the Mediterranean and the Black Sea by a succession of straits, easily defensible, yet navigable for the largest vessels. The port is spacious and admirable. The city itself, rising on seven hills, along the shore of the Bosphorus, embosomed in groves, from amid which numerous gilded domes ascend to a lofty height, presents a most magnificent spectacle. But the moment the interior is entered, all the magic scene disappears. The streets are narrow, winding, il paved, and crowded; the houses low and gloomy; and the hills, which appeared majestic in the view, causing steep ascents and descents, prove excessively inconvenient. But the most fatal circumstance in the structure of Constantinople is, that the houses of rich and poor are alike entirely composed of wood, while chimneys are not generally used, but their place supplied by vessels of brass or earth put under the feet. These circumstances, joined to the usual improvidence of the Mahometans, cause most tremendous conflagrations. It is even believed, with or without reason, that the Turkish public employ the setting fire to the city as a mode of communicating their opinion on the conduct of their rulers. The scene is terrible, from the extent of the blaze, the deep rolling of the drum from the top of the minarets, and the crowds that assemble, among whom even the grand signior himself is expected to be present. It is reckoned that Constantinople rises entire from its ashes in the course of every fifteen years; but no advantage is ever taken of the circumstance to improve its aspect. The fallen streets are immediately reconstructed with all their imperfections, and the houses rebuilt of the same fragile materials. This city contains, however, some structures that are very magnificent. Among them stands foremost the mosque of St. Sophia, accounted the finest in the world, first built as a church by Justinian, and converted by the conquering Turks to its present use. The mosques of Sultan Achmet and of Suleyman are equally vast and splendid, but not marked by the same classic taste. The numerous minarets are in general airy and elegant, and add greatly to the beauty of the city. Pera and Scutari, two appendages to Constantinople, in any other vicinity would rank as cities. Pera is the Frank quarter, where reside the ambassadors and agents of all the European courts, and, under their protection, all Christians whose trade does not fix them at the port. It has thus become very populous, and even crowded; so that houses are obtained with difficulty. Scutari stands on the Asiatic side, in a beautiful and cultivated plain, and presents a picturesque aspect, from the mixture of trees and minarets. Adrianople is a large city, five miles in circumference, and containing about |