ficers of the United States steamer _San Jacinto_,
and the French frigate _Charlemagne_, came to the rescue with their men
and fire-engines, and the flames were finally quelled. The proceedings of
the Americans, who cut holes in the roofs and played through them upon the
fires within, were watched by the Turks with stupid amazement.
"Mashallah!" said a fat Bimbashi, as he stood sweltering in the heat; "The
Franks are a wonderful people."

To those initiated into the mysteries of Turkish politics, these fires are
more than accidental; they have a most weighty significance. They indicate
either a general discontent with the existing state of affairs, or else a
powerful plot against the Sultan and his Ministry. Setting fire to houses
is, in fact, the Turkish method of holding an "indignation meeting," and
from the rate with which they are increasing, the political crisis must be
near at hand. The Sultan, with his usual kindness of heart, has sent large
quantities of tents and other supplies to the guiltless sufferers; but no
amount of kindness can soften the rancor of these Turkish intrigues.
Reschid Pasha, the present Grand Vizier, and the leader of the party of
Progress, is the person against whom this storm of opposition is now
gathering.

In spite of all efforts, the Ottoman Power is rapidly wasting away. The
life of the Orient is nerveless and effete; the native strength of the
race has died out, and all attempts to resuscitate it by the adoption of
European institutions produce mere galvanic spasms, which leave it more
exhausted than before. The rosy-colored accounts we have had of Turkish
Progress are for the most part mere delusions. The Sultan is a
well-meaning but weak man, and tyrannical through his very weakness. Had
he strength enough to break through the meshes of falsehood and venality
which are woven so close about him, he might accomplish some solid good.
But Turkish rule, from his ministers down to the lowest _cadi_, is a
monstrous system of deceit and corruption. These people have not the most
remote conception of the true aims of government; they only seek to enrich
themselves and their parasites, at the expense of the people and the
national treasury. When we add to this the conscript system, which is
draining the provinces of their best Moslem subjects, to the advantage of
the Christians and Jews, and the blindness of the Revenue Laws, which
impose on domestic manufactures double the duty levied on fo