"The heads of each community and a delegate, designated by my Sublime Porte, shall be summoned to take part in the deliberations of the Supreme Council of Justice on all occasions which might interest the generality of the subjects of my empire. They shall be summoned specially for this purpose by my Grand Vizier. The delegates shall hold office for one year; they shall be sworn on entering upon their duties. All the members of the council, at the ordinary and extraordinary meetings, shall freely give their opinions and their votes, and no one shall ever annoy them on this account. "The laws against corruption, extortion, or malversation, shall apply, according to the legal forms, to all the subjects of my empire, whatever may be their class and the nature of their duties. "Steps shall be taken for the formation of banks and other similar institutions, so as to effect a reform in the monetary and financial system, as well as to create funds to be employed in augmenting the sources of the material wealth of my empire. "Steps shall also be taken for the formation of roads and canals to increase the facilities of communication and increase the sources of the wealth of the country. Everything that can impede commerce or agriculture shall be abolished. To accomplish these objects, means shall be sought to profit by the science, the art, and the funds of Europe, and thus gradually to execute them. "Such being my wishes and my commands, you, who are my Grand Vizier, will, according to custom, cause this Imperial Firman to be published in my capital, and in all parts of my empire; and you will watch attentively and take all the necessary measures that all the orders which it contains be henceforth carried out with the most rigorous punctuality." Lord Stratford, in replying to a congratulatory address from the missionaries, declared his agreement with them in the opinion, that something great had been gained; though he believed the principles involved would require persevering efforts to carry them into practice. He said that he was himself but an humble instrument in the hands of divine Providence, and that he had never felt the hand of God so sensibly in any other measure he had carried through, as in this, which, after he had given it up for lost, had succeeded all at once, in a way that filled him with astonishment.[1] [1] That the Hatti Humaioun was really intended to include the death penalty, is made exceedingly probable by the official correspondence which preceded it, and which was in fact its procuring cause. Only a few brief extracts can be given in this note.