Current expenses were sufficiently heavy, but more considerable still was the extraordinary expenditure incurred in the construction of palaces and kiosks, the purchase of articles _de luxe_ and of curiosities, and for all kinds of prodigalities. The present Sultan, driven thereto by the precarious position of his empire, has limited his expenditure. But will this last? {146} Ministers, valis, and other high officials of the empire faithfully follow in the footsteps of their sovereign, and their expenditure always exceeds their salary, though the latter is fixed on a most liberal scale. As to the lower officials, their salaries are small and irregularly paid; but it is understood that they may recoup themselves at the expense of the ratepayers. Everything can be purchased in Turkey, and, above all, justice. The state of the finances is most lamentable; loans are raised at usurious interest; and so badly is the country governed that it has been seriously proposed to intrust the management of its finances to a syndicate of the European powers ! [41] Agriculture and industry progress but slowly under such misgovernment. Vast tracts of the most fertile land are allowed to lie fallow; they appear to be no one’s property, and any one may settle upon and cultivate them. But woe to him if he conducts his operations with profit to himself; for no sooner is he observed to become wealthy than his land is laid claim to on behalf of the clergy or of some pasha, and he may consider himself lucky if he escapes a bastinado. The peasants, in many districts, are careful not to produce more than they absolutely require to live upon, for an abundant harvest would impoverish them—would merely lead to a permanent increase of taxation. The tradesmen in the smaller towns are equally careful to conceal their wealth, if they possess any. Many Mussulman families have ceded to the mosques their proprietary rights. They thus enjoy merely the usufruct of their lands, but are freed, on the other hand, from the payment of taxes, and the land remains in the possession of their families until they become extinct. These lands are known as _vakufs_, and they form about one-third of the area of the whole empire. They contribute actually nothing towards the revenues of the State. In the end they aggrandise the vast estates of the Mohammedan clergy. Taxation weighs almost exclusively upon the lands cultivated by the unfortunate Christians; and in proportion as the vakufs increase, so does the produce of taxation diminish. This must in the end necessarily lead to a secularisation of the estates of the clergy; and even now, to the great horror of the old Turks, the Ottoman Government is timidly extending its hands towards the estates belonging to the mosques of Constantinople. [Illustration: MUSSULMAN OF ADRIANOPLE, AND MUSSULMAN LADY OF PRISREND.]