Thus we find this empire only advancing in progress, the more wonderful since there has been comparatively so little reform in the actual government. Even the Sultan has abrogated his absolute and despotic sway; the once powerful viceroy still sits at his right hand, but no longer unfettered; and the various religious and civil functionaries, although the same as the creatures of yesterday, are themselves amenable to the tribunal of justice and reform, where the spirit of Mahmoud seems to linger as a reproving and condemning monitor. The opposing influences to all innovations were strong; the very soil rank with bigotry, conceit, and prejudice, and the powers in actual possession of the commonwealth self-willed and cunning. Hitherto a comparative isolation had created natural walls, within which despotism had its unmitigated sway. But as distance became annihilated throughout the world's dominions, as oceans dwindled into lakes, rivers into little rills, and broad acres into mere pleasure gardens, before the mighty achievements of modern invention, all natural barriers disappeared. As in ancient times the walls of the great city of Jericho fell at the blast of the trumpets of Joshua, no sooner did the echoes of the shrill whistle of the mighty steamship reverberate along the shores and among the seven hills of Stamboul, than were annihilated the frontiers of a barbarous and spiritual despotism, in the stronghold of the Mussulmans. Civilization from Europe was no longer stayed, but boldly stepped into this natural garden of the world. To stem the current would be to perish in an overwhelming vortex; and the very government was obliged to conform, to compromise, and to make treaties of peace with this new element, social and political progress. Not only in Turkey, but universally, the spirit of domination has been pre-eminent, until the march of human improvement awakened the community to a sense of their own power and individual rights. Thus the elements of democracy have been arrayed in opposition to the oppressions of despotism, threatening its utter annihilation, and forcing the ruling powers to terms of capitulation. The Reformation checked the authority of the Pope, a charter was granted to the English, and their colonies in America soon grew to a great and independent state. Though the European states cannot boast of that degree of independence they have ofttimes struggled for, yet their rulers and potentates have ever been, and are still, forced to don the mantle of Liberty, and maintain the guise of Justice in their various administrations; thus proving the supremacy of the spirit of democracy. But despotism, fostered in the bosom of the little dukedom of Moscow, has maintained its unbroken sway, and spread over the vast territories now known as the Russian dominions.