A country where the insidious poison is ever at hand, and where the innocent and new-born infant who may endanger the heirs to the throne is forced to yield the life it has but just received; in such a land the same scenes will be enacted in its darkest corners, and the peasant will mimic the lord as far as he dares. The selfish and corrupt principles of the government have naturally had their pernicious effects upon all its agents, and through them, upon the people. The sultan is the great sun of the system--around whom the many lesser orbs revolve. While the pashas and dignitaries are themselves planets of no small lustre, attended by innumerable satellites of their own. The grandee holds the cable of power upon which tremblingly cling a numerous train, from its summit to its lowest extremity--all sustained, as long as the rope is firm; all crushed, when it slips from the hand of its supporter. Indiscriminate patronage being a principle, favoritism and corruption become of necessity a natural consequence. Indifferent men are therefore raised to places of trust, to perform duties which can never occupy their minds or engross their intellect, but the want of money is their first and their keenest necessity; for "N'est on que grand? On veut être riche. Est on et grand et riche? On veut être plus grand et plus riche." Thus all patriotism is subverted--and individual interest and position are made the sine quâ non of existence. Before they were enervated by conquest and the possession of vast tributary states, which intoxicated them with sudden wealth, the Turks were brave in battle, faithful to their friends, and generous to their enemies. But being inured to war and excitement, peace and tranquillity only reduced them to a state of sloth and idleness, and inspired them with conceit and arrogance to all around them. Content with being the lords of the realm, ignorant and unfitted for the arts of peace, all their affairs were consigned to their rayas. The titles of Vali, Pasha, Mussellim, etc., were enjoyed by them while their provinces and Pashaliks were either farmed out to subordinates or managed by their Armenian sarafs or bankers--who received and disbursed their incomes; so that the Osmanli grandee had nothing to do but lounge listlessly in his Keosk and puff his long chibouk--varying his life by occasional official visits to the Porte, or in the softer seclusion of his harem. The enviable condition of indolence, and the desire to be surrounded with the trappings of wealth, created a rivalry among them, not to attain high and honorable posts as the champions of their country's welfare, but to ensure the means of luxury and display--and to excel each other in supremacy.