rview; and after "taking a series of short and rapid
whiffs from my pipe," while considering the best way of breaking the
ice, opened his battery by telling the Defterdar, "that few Orientals
could draw a distinction between politics and geography; but that with a
man of his calibre and experience I was safe from misconstruction--that
I was collecting materials for a work on the Danubian provinces, and
that for any information which he might give me, consistently with his
official position, I should feel much indebted, as I thought I was least
likely to be misunderstood by stating clearly the object of ny journey,
while information derived from the fountain-head was most valuable. The
Defterdar, after commending my openness, said, 'I suspect that you will
find very little to remark in the pashalik of Silistria. It is an
agricultural country, and the majority of the inhabitants are Turks. The
Rayahs are very peaceable, and pay few taxes, considering the
agricultural wealth of the country. You may rest assured that there is
not a province of the empire better governed than the pashalik of
Silistria. We have no malcontents within the province; but there are a
few Hetarist scoundrels at Braila, who wish to disturb the tranquillity
of Bulgaria; but the Walachian government has taken measures to prevent
them from carrying their projects into execution.'"

Having thus put his readers in possession of this full, true, and
particular account, derived from exclusive official sources, of all that
is to be learned of the pashalik of Silistria, we next find Mr Paton,
after two days steaming on the Danube, at Widdin, where the exiled
Servian minister, M. Petronovich, was then resident, under the
protection of the Pasha, whose name is known to all the world as the
destroyer of the Janissaries and the defender of Shumla, the once
formidable Hussein. To this redoubted personage, now apparently verging
on eighty, Mr Paton was introduced by M. Petronevich at an evening
audience, it being contrary to etiquette to receive visits by day during
the Ramadan--and found him "sitting in the corner of the divan at his
ease, being afflicted with gout, in the old ample Turkish costume. The
white beard, the dress of the Pasha, the rich but faded carpet, the roof
of elaborate but dingy wooden arabesque, were all in perfect keeping;
and the dubious light of two thick wax candles rising two or three feet
from the floor, but seemed to bring out the pictur