ly--these are the invariable topics of his simple childlike
conversation. He never raises his voice in anger, never lets drop a
pleasantry which might wound or even fatigue his companions, never
indulges in those profanities and indecencies unhappily too common in
the speech of the lower orders in European countries. This admirable
reticence, this nobility and simplicity of manner, do they owe it to
education? Not at all; it is the gift of nature. In some respects nature
has been very liberal to the Turkish people; but all the gifts she has
bestowed upon them, their institutions tend to debase and invalidate.
And in proportion as we carry our observations above the classes which
so happily preserve their primitive characteristics, to the
_bourgeoisie_, or into regions higher still, so shall we find the growth
and development of vice; it extends, predominates, and finally reigns
alone.

* * * * *

The peculiar interest and permanent value of the writings of the
Princess de Belgiojoso are due to the fact that they owe nothing to
received ideas. Moreover, she indulges in no conjectures regarding the
subjects she takes up, she has investigated them carefully, and
understands them thoroughly. In each page of her work upon Turkey we
meet with calm statements of established facts which overthrow the
speculations and fancies too often found in works of great popularity
from the pen of distinguished writers. It is the truth she speaks; and
her influence is all the greater because she makes no effort to convince
or impose upon her readers; she writes gravely and deliberately, without
passion and without imagination.

A few facts from the princess's pages will not be without interest for
the reader, at a time when "the unspeakable Turk" is the object of so
much public discussion.

* * * * *

"Passing through one of the streets of Pera (the European suburb), I was
arrested by a score of persons grouped round a _gavas_ (a kind of civic
guard) who was endeavouring to persuade a negress to be conducted to the
palace where she was expected, and where, he told her, she would meet
with all the pleasures imaginable. The negress answered only with sobs,
and the cry, 'Kill me rather!' The _gavas_ resumed his enthusiastic and
fanciful descriptions of the good bed, the good cheer, the fine clothes,
the pipe always alight, the floods of coffee, all the delights which
would con