That which for want of a better name has been called in this treatise the Ottoman Ruling Institution has now been discussed in all its general aspects. Space has been lacking for the presentation of many details, though the attempt has been made to introduce all such as would give necessary evidence or useful illustration. A few statements intended to summarize and bind together what has been said will complete the discussion of the institution. The Ottoman Ruling Institution was in its most essential aspect a government for the Ottoman Empire. In this respect its form was a despotism, centered in one man, the sultan. Yet the despotism was greatly circumscribed by a rigid constitutional law, which was firmly grounded in strong religious belief and intense national conservatism. This law held the sultan within limited functions, but at the same time it gave him his right to rule. As a government under this law, the Ottoman Ruling Institution maintained public order, defended the empire against its enemies, and endeavored by conquest to enlarge its possessions and with them the domain of the Sacred Law. A large proportion of its energies was devoted to obtaining and distributing the means of its own support, to keeping its own machinery in order, and to maintaining its authority within the empire. The idea of labor for the public welfare or of effort toward progress was not present. Change came, not by conscious striving toward betterment, but by growth, development, and decay, the effects of which were adjusted when it became necessary. But within such limits, there was in the sixteenth century a distinct desire, founded on consciousness of greatness, pride of power, and loyalty to Islam, to have the government well-ordered and intelligently directed, and to cause it to bear upon its subjects as evenly and lightly as possible. Suleiman laid hold of many problems which had arisen, and through the agency of his ablest servants strove to set his house in order. That he did not succeed in accomplishing more permanent results was due to the fact that the task was too great for any man. The institution was too artificial to endure indefinitely.