Excerpt from The International Review, 1876, Vol. 3 Political institutions are on a par with the moral and intellectual status. Every month or SO the Sultan changes his cabinet, to please the caprice of one of his Wives, to suit the taste of his eunuchs, or in obedience to the behests of the foreign ambassadors, and the padishah's advisers fly in and out of office, like pigeons in a dove-cote. The new ministers forthwith appoint a new set of provincial governors, who hasten to procure a fresh staff of tax-gatherers-the only species of working officials thought worth their bread in that' practical country and the machinery set up is immediately put in motion to utilize the precious time. In a month it is all over with Pasha this, and Pasha that, steps in to renew the old tragedy under a new name. What with government taxes, official exactions, and ground-rent to be paid to Turkish land-owners, no Christian peasant has more than enough to. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.