dy this evil. This new registration caused not a little astonishment
and fear among the peasants, who could not approve of persons taking an
inventory of their property and their flocks. We must not be surprised
at this, for a parallel case is close at hand. When the Emperor Joseph
endeavored to introduce the mode of distinguishing houses in the
principal streets of _Vienna_, by numbers instead of the antiquated mode
by printed signs, the people were impressed with the idea that the
numbers were affixed for the purpose of more conveniently collecting a
new house tax!

The new system of farming the revenue proved especially beneficial to
the Christians. Under the old regime the Turks had been greatly favored.
The poll tax formerly levied on all who were not professed followers of
the prophet, has been abolished.

The empire is wealthy--immensely wealthy; but the money is in the hands
of the few. If we except the province of Servia, feudal lords, and tax
collectors, the whole Turkish population consists of peasants, who till
the soil on an equality of wretchedness. Yet it is to these same
suffering peasants, the bone and sinew of the land, that reformers must
look for support. It was the peasantry of Servia, headed by George the
Black, that in 1800-1812, rose in rebellion, and whose success infused
life and vigor into the more passive provinces. They, too, were
peasants--those brave and resolute men who expelled from the provinces
the robber princes, and almost gained a national existence. Many of
these same peasants, men in whose breasts still lingered the valor that
made their ancestors famous, joined the Grecian army in the successful
struggle for independence; even Moslem peasants left their ploughs in
the furrow and their herds unattended, to join the insurgents, to whose
success they greatly contributed. The heroes of all Turkish rebellions
have been peasants--the men of strong arms and unswerving energy. They
are naturally of a passive disposition, but when once roused to action
by religion or patriotism, they are as firm and unyielding in their
purpose as their own

'Pontic sea,
Whose icy currents and compulsive course
Ne'er feels returning ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontic and the Hellespont.'

In the hands of the peasantry lies the destiny of the empire, its
regeneration or its fall. By ameliorating their condition and gaining
their good will, the sultans cannot fail to