The Silahdar holding his majesty's sword upright, stood on the right hand, while the Haznadar, or Lord Steward, was upon the other side of the sultan. The Ak-agha, or chief of the white eunuchs, was behind the chair, an old, woman-like man, beardless and wrinkled. In the group were the imperial cup bearer, Kahvegee Bashi, coffee server, Kaftan-aghassi, gentlemen of the wardrobe, etc. Below the platform, and in front of the sultan, stood in respective rank, the different ministers of the realm, all robed to the feet in rich and varied hues, and no two turbans alike. They seemed, indeed, to be the movers and arbitrary controllers of the destinies of a vast nation, the secret springs which kept the machine in motion. A most interesting collection of illustrative models from life, is carefully preserved at Constantinople, called the Elbisseyi Atiké, and exhibited at the great square of At Meydan, or the ancient Hippodrome, near St. Sophia. It is wonderfully true to nature, and typical of Eastern life, recalling those very characters with their various avocations, who but a few years ago were all upon the scene, enacting the very reality of Orientalism. The different grades of life, the officers under government, civil, religious, and military, the various trades and callings, and individuals of both sexes were formerly, each and all, designated by a peculiar style and appearance. The janissaries were also habited in various costumes, according to their ranks and employments. Such was the past magnificence of Turkey, now rapidly losing its former type of varied external beauty, as it merges from day to day in the great stream of civilization. CHAPTER XIX. THE SULTAN AND HIS PERSONNEL. Rousseau has wisely observed, "Il faut étudier la société par les hommes, et les hommes par la société," and as the tone of society in all countries is derived from the courts and the wealthy, so also in Turkey, the sultan and his court are the model of domestic life and its institutions. Sultan Abd-ul Medjid Khan, the Padishah of the Osmanlis, or the reigning monarch of Turkey, was born May 6th, 1822, and succeeded his father Sultan Mahmoud, July 1st, 1839, at the age of seventeen. He has a brother and a sister, both younger than himself. His brother, Aziz Efendi, lives in the same palace with him, having apartments therein for his own use and accommodation. His sister Adilé Sultan, who is married to Mehmed Aali Pasha, the ex-Grand Vezir, resides in a separate palace on the Bosphorus. The sultan has until now had nine children, two girls and seven boys, but none of his children will succeed him while his brother is living; for the law of the country requires that the eldest living male member of the Imperial family shall ascend the throne.