vernments of those Europeans.

These regulations, adopted by the Porte on its own initiative, and
considered entirely as privileges, and having been strengthened and
made more general through certain acts, have continued to be in force
up to this time under the name "Old Treaties," (in Turkish "Ouhout-i
Atikah.") These privileges, however, are wholly incompatible with the
legal status of recent years, and especially with the principle of
national sovereignty. In the first place, they became a hindrance to
the progress and development of the Imperial Government, while in the
second, by creating misunderstandings in its relations with the
foreign Governments, they formed a barrier preventing these relations
from becoming more harmonious and more sincere.

The Ottoman Empire continues to advance in the path of regeneration
and of reforms, overleaping many obstacles, and in order to acquire
the position due to it in the civilized family of Europe, it adopted
modern principles of government, and has not deviated from its
programme of having the State conducted on these principles.

The founding of the constitutional form of government is in itself a
proof that the efforts of the Ottoman Empire for its regeneration have
been fully crowned with success. Certain exceptions, however, based on
the capitulations, such as the participation of foreigners in the
administration of justice, which is an all-important prerogative of
national sovereignty, the limitations imposed on the legislative
rights of the State, based on the argument that certain laws cannot be
applied to foreigners, the injustice inflicted on common right from
the impossibility of convicting a delinquent who disturbs the safety
of the country merely because he happens to be a foreigner, or because
the prosecution against him must be subjected to certain limitations
and particular conditions; and likewise the difference in the
competency of the various courts dealing with cases where the
capitulations are involved; all these constitute impregnable barriers
against every effort of the country toward progress in the
administration of justice.

From another point of view, the fact that foreigners living in the
Ottoman Empire are exempt from taxation, in accordance with the
capitulations, makes it impossible for the Sublime Porte to procure
the indispensable means for the carrying out, not only of the reforms
but of its everyday needs.

The impossibility of increa