The revolution in the town, I suspect, _is not yet completed_. The Sultan has been now a month here. He never remained so long before, and this is a season of the year when it has been the undeviating practice of Moorish Sultans to be at the capital. The Baïram approaches; on the day after which, the list of functionaries for the ensuing year is published. The changes are then made. Then comes the reckoning between the Sultan and his servants. The chiefs are assembled, with their retainers, from all parts of the empire, so that he has the opportunity and the means of taking vengeance. The forms of a _placitium_ prevail, and there may be points of real, as well as traces of apparent, resemblance between a divan of a Moorish Sultan, and the Wittenagemotte of a Saxon King. The Sultan publicly alleges his charges against the governors who are removed, and the people on their part have free access, and can accuse and petition. The holding of the Baïram here, and not at Fez or Morocco, seems to be a case of Mahomet coming to the mountain. It is not a rebellious governor, but a refractory town. Rabat has the reputation of stubbornness. This perhaps renders it more difficult and dangerous for the Sultan to overlook the recent events, while it imposes on him the necessity of taking his measures with precaution. Without exciting alarm, or at least justifying measures of resistance, or even of precaution, he collects 50,000 men round the town. One of my visitors this day was Mike Brittel. If I am to judge by his words or his air, never was city in the enjoyment of profounder repose, or man of more perfect felicity. In the time of the late Emperor, Muley Mahomet, they killed and quartered their Caïd, and made the Jew butchers hang up the flesh in the shambles. It was so exposed for three days, ticketed at two blanquillos a pound. Then they came in troops to cheapen it, and haggle with the Jews who were instructed to maintain the two blanquillos. The Sultan marched against the city, but the people withdrew into the Alcazaba, and presented so imposing a front that he was content with an accommodation. Civilized and philosophical Germany can riddle the body of a minister; but let us not compare such an act with the shambles of Rabat. The one is the frenzy of a people which cannot help itself; the other is vengeance--savage, if you like--but vengeance for crimes, applying a salutary lesson to those who are to follow. Such is the difference between the two conditions of existence. No reactions and no vengeance can profit where social evil springs from theory and legislation. Where the evil is the act of man, vengeance comes, like the storm, to clear the atmosphere, thus compensating for the ruin it has wrought.