mind and an excellent judgment.
She exercised much influence over her son when he ascended the throne, and
her counsels were greatly to his benefit. He entertains for her feelings
of the deepest respect, and has always evinced the warmest concern for her
health and happiness. She is a large, portly lady, yet in the prime of
life; and although she possesses a fine palace of her own, near to that of
her son, she mostly resides with him. Her revenues are derived from the
islands of Chio and Samos.

In person the Sultan is of middle stature, slender, and of a delicate
frame. In his youth he suffered from illness, and it was thought that his
constitution had been severely affected by it. His features are slightly
marked with the small pox. His countenance denotes great benevolence and
goodness of heart, and the frankness and earnestness of character which
are its chief traits. He does not possess the dignified and commanding
figure which eminently characterized his father, and in conduct is simple
and diffident. His address, when unrestrained by official forms and
ceremony, is gentle and kind in the extreme--more affable and engaging than
that of his Pachas; and no one can approach him without being won by the
goodness of heart which his demeanor indicates. He has never been known to
commit an act of severity or injustice; his purse and his hand have always
been open for the indigent and the unfortunate, and he takes a peculiar
pride in bestowing his honors upon men of science and talent. Among his
own subjects he is very popular and much beloved; they perceive and
acknowledge the benefit of the reforms which he has instituted, and he no
longer need apprehend any opposition on their part. In some of the more
distant portions of his empire, such as Albania, where perhaps foreign
influence is exerted to thwart his plans, his new system of military rule
has not yet been carried out; but it evidently soon will be, especially
when its advantage over the old is felt by the inhabitants.

The palaces of the Sultan, on both banks of the Bosphorus, though
externally showy, are very plain and simple in their interior arrangement.
They are surrounded by high walls, and guarded by soldiery. The first
block of buildings which the traveler approaches on visiting them, up the
Bosphorus, are the apartments of the eunuchs; the second his _harem_, or
female apartments; and the third those of the Sultan. Beyond this are the
offices of his secre