John Palseologus

The reigning emperor, John Palseologus, succumbed to his demands, aud purchased his alliance by the annual payment of a considerable tribute. Murad was, beyond many of his line, observant of his oaths, and during the whole of his long reign of thirty years the Byzantine city enjoyed the unusual privilege of an assured immunity from all Turkish aggression. All this, however, quickly changed on the accession of his more resolute son. Muhammad II., who succeeded him, and whose great ambition was to make the Byzantine capital the chief seat of his dominion, on some slight pretext abrogated the treaty of his father, and announced his intention to build a fort on the European side of the Bosporus. This threat he carried into execution, and the Castle of Burnell Hissar ( Citadel of Europe ’), opposite the ‘ Citadel of Asia,’ remains intact to the present day, as an ornament of the Bosporus, and a proof of the substantial character of the Turkish construction. In the spring of 1453 Muhammad II. environed the city with his troops.

His army consisted of 60,000 horse and 20,000 foot, while Constantine, the reigning emperor, could only muster 5000 native soldiers and a band of 2000 Genoese mercenaries, under a noble Genoese leader, John Justiniani. Of the triangle which composes the site of the city, the two sides along the sea were considered inaccessible, and the attack was, therefore, directed against the third or land side, which was protected by a double wall and deep ditch extending across the promontory from sea to sea. A desperate and persevering courage was shown both by the besiegers and besieged, but the city at last fell into the hands of Muhammad II., after a forty days’ struggle.

Muhammad with the possession of Constantinople

The thirst for conquest was not satisfied in Muhammad with the possession of Constantinople. His daily cry was, ‘ First Belgrade and then Rhodes,’ both of which places he hoped to gain as steps to a firmer footing in Christendom. But he was repelled from both, and his aspirations for further conquest were thus frustrated and restrained. Within half a century his successor, Suleiman the Magnificent, effected at a mighty cost the subjugation of Rhodes, but thereby made no progress towards dominion in Europe. He was repulsed with ignominy by La Yalette and his heroes from the attempted conquest of Malta, while the victorious squadrons of Venice, Genoa and Spain, under Don John of Austria, in the great naval battle of Lepanto, on the 5th of October 1571, finally extinguished all fear of the establishment of Muhammadan rule in the West. From that time the Turks have had enough to do in maintaining the integrity of their own empire guided istanbul tours. Thus the great victory of Muhammad II. has been comparatively barren of results. It extinguished indeed the Byzantine Empire, already long ripe through its own corruption for destruction; but the capture of Constantinople may be rightly described as at once the culminating glory of the Ottoman Sultans, and their last successful attempt at permanent conquests within the precincts of Eastern or Western Christendom.

Government.—The Government of Turkey has oden, from the time of the foundation of the Turkish Empire in 1326, an absolute monarchy, the Sultan being absolute ruler of his people and head of the Muhammadan religion. But since the 23rd of July 1908, owing to an army insurrection, and the dethronement of Sultan Abd-ul- Hamid Khan II., it has been changed into a Constitutional Monarchy. It consists of the Sultan, the Grand Vizier (Prime Minister), ten Cabinet Ministers, the Senate, and the Parliament. The Sultan’s accession to the throne is hereditary and goes to the eldest male of the family. The Grand Vizier and the Senators are appointed by the Sultan ; the Cabinet Ministers by the Grand Vizier, and the Deputies are elected by the people, one Deputy elected for every 50,000 male inhabitants.

By the time of the Liberation

By the time of the Liberation, some fifty years later, there were twelve new churches in Plovdiv. Eight of them have survived on the Three Hills today in a comparatively good state of preservation. They are the St. Marina Metropolitan Church, the Holy Virgin Cathedral, the churches of the SS. Constantine and Helena, of Sveta Nedelya with its St. Presentation of the Virgin Chapel, of St. Nikola, St. Petka and St. Dimiter. The Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Kevork (St. George) built in 1828 should also be mentioned, as it is located within the Old Town.

The Revival Orthodox churches in the Old Town were created by some of the most outstanding figures of the Bulgarian schools of architecture, woodcarving and painting of that period. The construction work was commissioned to renowned masters of the Bratsigovo School. The iconostases were carved by masters of the illustrious Debar School of woodcarving and to masters from Metsovo in Epirus.

The iconography was executed by icon-painters of the Samokov and Adrianople Schools of painting and abounds in creations by such famous artists as Zahari Zograf, his elder brother Dimiter Zofraf and the latter’s son Stanislav Dospevski, by Nicola Odrinchanin and others. The major part of the Revival churches in Plovdiv belongs to the common at the time architectural type of the three-aisle pseudo-basilica. After the Crimean War (1853 -1856) when the restrictions imposed by the Ottoman authorities were suspended, the first bell-towers and domed basilicas appeared in Plovdiv travel bulgaria.

ST. MARINA METROPOLITAN CHURCH

Plovdiv Diocese and its ecclesiastical administration represented by the Plovdiv Orthodox Bishopric have a long history. They were established at the beginning of the New Era, as early as the middle of the 1st c. as a result of the evangelizing activity of Apostle Erm, who was sent to Thrace by Apostle Paul himself.The first Christian community in the Thracian lands appeared in Plovdiv. This explains why the ecclesiastical authority of the eparchy founded subsequently was set up here. For centuries on end the seat of the eparchy – the Plovdiv Orthodox Bishopric was housed below the rocky southern slopes of Taxim Tepe. In mediaeval times, even before the Ottoman invasion, the metropolitan church was devoted to the martyr St. Marina.

The temple was demolished and rebuilt on numerous occasions. In 1851 it had to be raised from its very foundations. At that time some of the restrictions on the construction of Christian churches were suspended, and it was possible to erect a much more imposing and befitting temple. The church was built by masters headed by Nicola Tomchev-Ustabashiiski of the Bratsigovo School of construction, a man known far beyond the boundaries of Thrace. The temple is designed in the style of the spacious and imposing pseudo-basilicas of the Revival Period. Inside, seven pairs of slender columns crowned by a polyhedral dome divide it into three aisles. To add to the solemn effect, a colonnade encircles the narthex on the western side.

The Imaret Mosque

The Imaret Mosque built 1444-1445 is one of many monuments from the Ottoman period. An inn near the mosque has been restored and is now a branch of the archaeological museum.

The Djoumaya Mosque, 19 Noemvri Square built mid- 15th century, TheeFriday mosque Jiad a big service held every Friday, Its domes are covered with lead sheets. Four solid columns carry nine impressive vaults inside.

The clock tower is one of Europe’s oldest and is built on Sahat Tepe hill. It was restored in 1812.

On Liberators9 Hill is a monument to Russian soldiers who died during the liberation from Ottoman domination in 1878, and a Monument to the Soviet Army.

On Suedinenie (Union) Square a monument has been unveiled to commemorate the Union of the two Bulgarias in 1885. The sculptor is a famous Bulgarian — Velichko Milenkov private tours istanbul.

The Archaeological Museum, Suedinenie Square, has four departments: pre-class and early class system, slave system, feudal system and a numismatic department. On display in the slave system department are finds from Philippopolis and the Panagyuristhe gold treasure — 6.149 kg of solid gold. It is comprised of 9 vessels: an amphora-rhyton, four rhytons, 3 jugs and one phial and dates back to the 3rd century B.C.

The State Art Gallery, 15 Vassil Kolarov St.

Zlatyu Boyadjiev

Hotels: Novotel Plovdiv, 2 Zlatyu Boyadjiev St,, 5 stars, 7 floors, 8 suites and 314 double rooms, restaurant, day bar and night club, national restaurant, coffee shop, free shop, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, sauna, bowling alley, hairdresser’s, post office, covered parking lot, air-conditioning. Tel. 5-51-71. Inmontium, 2 Kapitan Raicho, 3 stars, 4 floors with 4 suites and 260 beds, restaurant, night club, national restaurant, coffee shop, hairdresser’s, post office, information and rent- a-car bureau. Tel. 2-55-61. Leningrad Park-hotel, 97 Moskva Blvd, 3 stars, 21 floors with 26 suites and 675 beds, restaurant, night club, day bar, indor swimming pool,free shop, hairdresser’s, post office, coffee shop, information bureau. Tel. 2-58-03. Maritsa, 5 G. Dimitrov St., 3 stars, 11 floors with 4 suites, 47 single and 120 double rooms, restaurant, day bar, coffee shop, hairdresser’s, rent-a-car office. Tel. 5-27-35. Leipzig, 70 Rousski Blvd, 2 stars, 10 floors, 2 suites and 250 beds, restaurant, night club, information bureau. Tel. 3-22-50. Buh garia, 13 Patriarch Evtimii St., 2 stars, 4 floors, seven suites, 25 single and 46 double rooms, restaurant, information and rent-a-car bureau. Tel. 2-60-64.

Camp sites:

Maritsa — 9 km west of Plo\div, 3 stars; Trakiya — 4 km east, 2 stars; Chaya, 2 stars, 13 km east of Plovdiv.

Motels:

Maritsa, 3 stars, 9 km west.

Tourist information bureau, 39 Vassil Kolarov St., Tel. 2-48-71.

Balkantourist Bureau, 35 Vassil Kolarov St. Tel. 2-25-60.

Union of Motorists, 129aG«Dimitrov Blvd., tel. 2-47-81.

Entertainments:

Trakiiski stan, 35 Puldin St., tel. 2-45-10

Alafrangite, 17 Kiril Nektariev St, tel. 2-98-09 in a 19th-century house. Puldon, 3 Knyaz Tseretelev St.

There are restaurants in all large hotels.

Plovdiv. Leningrad Hotel

SOFIA SAMOKOV GOVED

After a 20 minutes5 drive we reach the Zlatni Mostove area, topping near a cosy restaurant. Only 100 metres from the restaurant is the famous “stone river5 of boulders, dragged down by the once rushing waters of mountain rivers. There is a two-star hotel in the Kopito (hoof) area with 50 beds — tel. 57 -50-51. (From Sofia, take the Number 62 bus.) 1 he Kopito area, commanding a beautiful view of Sofia, is linked with the Knyazhevo City District by cable car.

SOFIA-SAMOKOV-GOVED ARTSI-MALYOVITSA-BOROVETS (72 KM)

After touring Sofia you may go to further afield and familiarise yourself with its surroundings. This route will take you to Bulgaria’s best known winter resort. It leads south of Sofia along the Iskur dam and passes through Pancharevo. Here is a man-made lake offering excellent opportunities for aquatic sports and angling. There are mineral baths with constant water temperature of 47°C, Lebed restaurant on the lake side, many rest homes and camping site. Further on the route passes by the remains of Ourvich fortress dating from the Middle Ages. We then come to the largest dam in Bulgaria, the Iskur dam. Along the road on the left is the Sturkelovo Gnez- do (Stork’s Nest) camping site (two star), with bungalows, restaurant, foods and souvenir kiosks.

The next place to see is Samokov (population 26,000), situated in Samokov valley at the foot of the Rila mountains. The town emerged in the 14th century as a major mining settlement. During the years of the Ottoman rule Samokov was well known throughout the empire as an important handicraft and commercial centre. It was particularly famous for ore. Crafts such as copperware, leather ware home-spun and woollen braiding were well developed here.

The Samokov school of icon painting was founded in Samokov during the Ottoman rule. A school was opened in 1832, and a library club in 1869. The art of icon painting flourished’ in the second half of the 18th and early in the 19th century tours sofia. The icon painter Hristo Dimitrov came from the nearby village of Dospei. He studied on Mount Athos and also worked in Vienna. The most talented pupil was Zahari Zograph, a re-markable icon painter for his time. He painted a large number of religious and secular frescoes in the first half of the 19th century. Among them are the frecsoes at Rila Monastery, Bachkovo Monastery, Troyan Monastery and Preobrazhene Monastery. Samokov master wood-carvers decorated the Metropolitan Church in Samokov and the iconostasis of the church in Rila Monastery.

The local museum, housed in a typically Bulgarian building, traces Samokov’s development over die years. Other points of interest are the Belyova Church which has many murals, by Samokov painters, the Metropolitan Church with its magnificent iconostasis, the Covent where the first school was opened, the Old House of the Obrazopissov, Ivan and Nikola Csenofontow House, Kokoshkov House and Marikin House with their well preserved wooden carved ceilings, as well as Sarafov House, the Synagoguee, the Bairakli Mosque which is very beautiful and the big 18th century fountain in front of the community centre.

Under Khan Kroum

We do not know precisely when the first capital, Pliska, was founded. Under Khan Kroum (803-814) and Khan Omourtag (816- 831) it already had the aspect and plan of which we can form an opinion, more or less, from the ruins discovered. Actually, only an insignificant part of Pliska has been studied.The extensive terrain it occupied — about 23 square kilometres — still hides many secrets and surprises. But there can be no doubt whatever that the history of the first Bulgarian capital of Pliska began as a settlement far earlier than the time when the proto-Bulgarian settled in these parts.

Plain of Pliska

Pliska lies in a wide plain, which reaches as far as the first foot hills of the Preslav section of the Balkan Range to the south, and as far as the slight hills of the Loudogorie to the north and north-east. The ruins of old forts and lesser fortifications are still apparent at many places on the surrounding heights, and traces of settlements, dating back to pre-Roman and Roman times are to be found in the foothills. An important road crosses the Plain of Pliska, leading from the interior to the shores of the Black Sea; the passes of the Eastern Balkan Range are also quite near, linking the Danube with the lands to the south of the Balkan Range.

Pliska was built on a very curious plan, quite unusual for the town- planning of the older settlements known in these regions. A deep and broad moat with an earthen embankment on the inner side, reaching a height of ten metres, and which may have been topped by a wooden palisade private tour istanbul, surrounded the city in the form of a lengthened trapeze, lying in a north-south direction, its long sides 7 km. long and its short ones 3.9 km. on the northern side and 2.7 km. on the southern side. There fortified earthworks defended a series of settlements, scattered over the extensive area. They formed the separate districts of Pliska, situated at a certain distance from each other. These were the districts of the common population of farmers, stockbreeders and craftsmen.

Thatched huts and dwellings of the dugout type predominated here, at least in the earlier period. But in the course of time larger dwellings, as well as buildings of various workshops, such as potteries, smithies and so on, made their appearance. After the adoption of Christianty in 865, churches began to be built as well. Each district acquired its church, which stood out among the other buildings with its more solid structure and its size. Large monasteries were also built. So far the ruins of over 20 churches have been excavated. A large part of them are of the basilica type.

The district, inhabited by the ruler and the bolyars (nobles), lay in the centre of Pliska. It covered an area of about half a square kilometre, in the form of a trapeze, the sides of which had a total length of 2870 metres. A heavily-built stone fortress, made of big, well-hewn stone blocks, separated the palace of the Khan, the bolyars’ houses and public buildings from the rest of the city. Although only the lower part of the fortress walls have been preserved, they still seize the eye of the visitor and amaze him with their rugged strength.

They were 2.60 Riri. thick, and up to 10 m. in height, crowned with huge stone crenellations. There was a gate on each side, defended by square double towers. Besides these, round towers at the corners and pentagonal towers along the walls further increased the fortress’s powers of resistance. This fortified district was in fact the citadel of the settlement. Inscientific literature it is usually known as the «Inner City» in contrast to the remaining districts, which formed the «Outer City». The inner city appears to have been very densely built up. The «Big Palace», which was built upon the ruins of an older and larger palace, burnt down by the Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I. in 811, stands out with its spacious halls.

POST TELEGRAPH TELEPHONES

In all Bulgarian towns there are postal, telegraph and telephone services maintaining connections with all parts of the world. There are post offices also in the big hotels in Sofia: Sofia, PIiska, Balkan, Rila and Bulgaria.

The different kinds of postal services cost as follows: an open letter or postcard – 1 stotinka, a closed letter within the precinct of the town – 1 stotinka, for another town — 2 stotinki. Air mail: to a basic fee of 0.13 leva you add: for Japan 0.23 leva, USA – 0.16 leva, Egypt, Iraq, Sudan, Jordan – 0.09 leva, Italy, France, Britain, GFR, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland – 0.12 leva per 20 g; for USSR (European part) – 0.12 leva, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, GDR and Albania – 0.06 leva per 20 g, Cuba – 0.15 leva, USSR (Asian part)- 0.12leva per 5 g.

Telegrammes within the country are taxed 15 stotinki per word for up to 10 words and 0.14 leva for every succeeding word.

Telephone calls between towns lasting up to 3 minutes are taxed from 9 to 54 stotinki, depending on the distance. Between

8.0 p.m. and 7.00 a.m. chargesiare reduced by 50 per cent private tours bulgaria.

IMPORTANT TELEPHONE NUMBERS

Sofia Plovdiv Varna Bourgas Rousse

First aid 150 150 15 170 150

Militia 166 2-22-11 2-52-11 4-26-84 21-51

International

calls 123 121 a 121 121

BALKAN

International 87-75-73 2-55-64 3-10 31 4-29-00 20-31

Airlines 88-44-33 2-20-03 2-29-48 4-56-05 2-41-61

Airport 45-11-21 2-59-82 4-18-11 4-26-64 2-50-54

Bulstrad 8-51-91 — 2-23-55 4-42-66 2-58 86

Road Aid servis 146 2-50-65 8-00-02 146 142

HOTELS

At your disposal is a wide network of hotels all over the country – in its interior, as well as on the Black Sea coast. The conveniences, services, and all other amenities which they offer meet the standards adopted in international tourism.

To reserve places during the tourist season in the resort com-plexes or towns, your telegramme must be accompanied without fail by a prepaid answer. Written reservations should also have a prepaid reply.

Depending on the class of the hotel, the number of beds per room, etc., prices per bed range from 4 to 30 leva. Children between the ages of 2 and 12 pay 50 per cent of these prices if they occupy an additional bed in the room of their parents. For food they also pay 50 per cent of the price for adults. For children up to 7 who do not occupy a separate bed, no charge is made.

0, 18 lev — Iere et Heme categories.

– 0,10 lev par nuitee dansun hotel de Illeme categorie, motel, logement prive et bun-galow.

– 0,05 lev par nuitee dans un camping.

Montant des assurances: accident Ier groupe – 4 000 leva; He groupe – 3 000 leva; Hie groupe — 2 000 leva; IVe groupe – 1 000 leva. Vol de bagages: Ier groupe – 500

leva; He groupe – 400 leva; Hie groupe – 300 leva; IVe groupe – 200 leva. Paiement en devises respectives, suivant le cours officiel de la Banque nationale de Bulgarie pour les paiements non commerciaux.

Pour tous les hotels de Sofia, de l’interieur du pays, des stations de montagne ou maritimes, les reservations sent faites directement a l’hotel ou bien par l’intermediaire du service des reservations aupres de L’Entreprise econo- mique d’Etat, Balkantouriste, tel.: 88-56-54 ou 88-56-55.

Pour les hotels au Com- plexe touristique Slantchev Briag, tel.: 22-07 ou 24-88, et depuis Sofia – 056-97.

Pour les hotels dans les limites du Complexe touristique Bourgas, tel.: 4-72-75, et de Sofia – 056-4-72-75.

Pour tous les services supplementaires. tels que le repassage, blanchissage, net- toyage a sec, repas servis dans la chambre, etc., on paie sui- vant le tar if etabli. Les prix des chambres au rez-dechaussee et avec bain a l’etage sont moins eleves.

Pour la periode du 15 novembre au 30 avril, les prix des hotels VARNA, a Varna, PRIMORETS, a Bourgas, IANTRA, a Veliko Tirnovo, VEREIA, a Stara Zagora, etc. sont reduits.

ZLATNI PYASSATSI

One of the first resort complexes built on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, it is situated 17 km north of Varna to which it is connected by a modern motorway (part of the E-95 International Highway leading from Romania to Turkey). The name of the resort was given it by its beach – an almost 4 km long strip of sand over 100 metres wide. It lies on the same latitude as the well-known French and Italian Mediterranean resorts. Its climate is mild and warm. The mean temperature in July is 22°C, and the temperature of the water from June to September never falls below 20°C.

At the complex there are more than 80 modern hotels with 20,0 beds, 500 bungalows and two well-shaded camp sites with accommodation for. about 1,800. The builders of the complex have successfully combined the mainly two-storeyed hotels of the first construction stage with the multi-storeyed modern buildings of the last few years, which have interesting architectural features: exquisite winding staircases, ceramic decorations, wood carvings and hammered metal. And all this with due account taken of the requirements for much space, air, sun and comfort.

In the centre of the resort is the administrative building of Balkantourist. There is a barber’s and hairdresser’s shop here, and some one hundred metres west of Diana Hotel and the Vodenitsata (The Mill) Restaurant is the health clinic of the resort – an excellently equipped polyclinic with a dentist’s department and specialized medical laboratories. Whenever necessary a doctor from the polyclinic gives medical assistance in the hotel rooms – for which you only need telephone guided tour ephesus6-53-52, 6-56-86 and 6-56-87. Medical care is free of charge. Only the medicines are paid for, which can be bought at the dispensing chemist’s of the polyclinic (tel. 6-56-89) or at the chemist’s shop north of the Stariya Dub (Old Oak) Restaurant.

There are volleyball and tennis courts, mini-golf links and croquet pitches in front of the hotels Morsko Oko, Lilia, Rodina and Tintyava. Open every day. Tel. 6-52-54. In front of Lilia Hotel there is a swimming pool for children, and at International Hotel there is an indoor swimming pool with warm mineral water all year round. Lovers of riding will find horses, riding outfits for hire and the services of an instructor (every day from 9.0 to 12.00 a.m. and from 3.00 to 7.00 p.m.)

International Hotel

The post office is next to the car park of International Hotel.

It is open from 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. without a break. Trunk calls to all parts of the world.

Opposite the post office building, near International Hotel, you will find clothes pressing shops, laundries, bootblacks, watchmakers’ shops, etc. In International Hotel and Ambassador Hotel there are hairdresser’s shops.

Every hotel has its own car park. In the Balkantourist Service Shop, where the road forks off to Balchik, Varna and Aladja Monastery, you can turn to the car mechanics for help,or obtain spare parts or use the automatic car-wash. Open from 7.0 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. Tel. 6-53-16.

The filling station of the resort is next to the Kosharata Restaurant and is open day and night.

Next to the Casino Restaurant is a Rent-a-Car service. Open from 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. Tel. 6-53-63.

The places of entertainment at the resort offer an original at-mosphere and varied programme:

Tsiganski Tabor (Gypsy Camp) Night Club serves delicious dishes and excellent wines in Gypsy tents to the music of a Gypsy orchestra. Exotic dances and original souvenirs. Open from 9.0 p.m. to 2.00 a.m.

Koukeri (Masked Dancers) Night Club – in original style. From the club there is a wonderful view of the whole resort complex; ‘koukeri’ dances with quaint masks. Open from 9.00 p.m. to 4.00 a.m.

Kolibite Night Club – and Indian settlement. Romantic lighting, interesting floor show and first-class orchestra. Situated in the heart of the forest above the resort. Open from 9.00 p.m. to 2.00 a.m.

Gorski Kut Night Club, next to Kolibite. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Kosharata – an original restaurant in Bulgarian folk-style offering sheep and lamb specialities: ewe’s milk yoghourt, kour- ban chorba (mutton soup), grilled lamb, ewe’s milk cheese roll, etc. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Karakachanski Stan. The atmosphere is typical of the nomad Karakachan (Wallachian) shepherd settlements in the Rhodopes. The wide range of dishes are prepared and served in the Karakachan way. Situated in the forest next to the Kolibite, Open from 4.00 p.m. to 2.00 a.m.

Vodenitsata – an original folk-style restaurant, serving grilled chicken, kebabs, home-made sausages and freshly baked bread. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Astoria Bar – a modern establishment open from May to October. An interesting artistic floor show with music. Situated next to the hotel of the same name. Open from 10.00 p.m. to 4.0 a.m. Caney Night Club – exotic atmosphere, Cuban cocktails, first-class orchestra. Situated right next to Havana Hotel. Open from 4.00 p.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Trifon Zarezan Restaurant. Original restaurant with a special hall for wine-tasting. Bulgarian cuisine and a well-stocked bar. Situated on the road to Varna opposite Strandja Hotel. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Lovna Sreshta. Situated in a woody locality close to the rock-cut Aladja Monastery. Game dishes, prepared to local recipes. Orchestra. Open from 9.00 a.m. to 12.00 p.m.

Picnic – a tavern in the heart of the forest near Lovna Sreshta. Grill and excellent drinks served. Every evening folklore programme of songs and dances. Open from 5.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m.

Wealthier neighbours

The ultimate destiny of this huge agglomeration of houses is now vested in the hands of the vast masses of the working population. They have far more keen interests in the city than their wealthier neighbours, who look on London as a centre of labour, amusement, or struggle for a season or a period, whilst they often ‘get away ’ from it, and hope at last to retire to a calmer place. In the meantime, the richer classes seldom know London as a whole, or care for it as their home, or regard it as having any claim on them as their city. Far different is this to the working men: to whom London is their home, their ‘ county,’ their permanent abode. It is a city which they quit only for a few hours or days, which many of them are forced to traverse from end to end under the exigencies of their trade, where they expect to pass their old age and to lay their bones. The healthiness, convenience, pleasantness of London, are all in all to them and to their household.

Mismanagement is to them, and to those dear to them, disease, discomfort, death. There is every reason to look forward to the complete transformation of London into an organic city, with a people proud of its grandeur and beauty, so soon as the new institutions have been fully matured. We have seen a local municipal patriotism break forth with extraordinary rapidity and energy in several of the new boroughs, such as Battersea, Chelsea, and St. George’s-in-the-East. And this interest in city life will grow and deepen, as it has done in Midland and Northern towns, until ultimately we may look to see London as a whole develop the spirit of pride and attachment which the great cities of the Middle Ages bred in their citizens of old.

Central Communications

The big collective problems which deal with Water, with Fire, with the Sick, with the Dead, with central Communications, and with the Housing of the poor population — can only be undertaken by a supreme central municipality, but not by vestries private tour istanbul, or boroughs. And unhappily in London no supreme municipality has as yet a free hand, or can count on the aid of the Legislature.

But in spite of division of authority and legislative obstacles, not a little has been done and much more has been attempted and prepared in every one of these departments. It is fair to say that both the ancient Corporation and the County Council have striven to attain these ends; and in not a few cases with combined energies and resources. And although in the case of the Water Supply no final solution has been reached, an immense amount of scientific study has been directed to the problem; and a great improvement both in quantity and quality has been obtained. At the same time determined efforts and a large expenditure have visibly improved the condition of our great river; and fill us with hope that living men may yet come to see a pure and healthy Thames.

The great problem of how to bring London up to the level of its position in the world and to make it a really noble and commodious city has been continually attacked: as yet with incomplete results and a better understanding of the difficulties which beset it. It is mainly a financial and political question. The greatest and richest city in the world is also the city which now seems to practise the most rigid economy in its own improvement. With the greatest river of any capital in Europe, with boundless energy, wealth, and opportunities, London is put to shame by Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, and New York.

Paris is the only capital

In the modern world, Paris is the only capital which can be placed beside London as an historic city of the first rank. The modern transformation of Paris has been even more destructive of the past than the modern transformation of London, and, at the same time, it is much more brilliant: so that what remains it is in London. Nor has Paris any ancient monuments which appeal to the popular imagination, with such direct voice as do our Abbey, and our great hall at Westminster, our Tower, our Temple Church, Lambeth Palace, and the Guildhall. Yet withal it may be said that, in a larger sense of the term, Paris is a city of even richer historic memories than London itself: richer, that is, to the thoughtful student of its history, though certainly not to the incurious tourist. If we take into account sites as well as extant monuments, if we call to our aid topography as well as archaeology; if we follow up the early history of buildings which have been replaced, or are now transformed or removed; if we study the local biography of Paris from the days of Julius Caesar to the days of Julius Gr£vy and Sadi Carnot—especially, if we include in the history of Paris that of its suburbs — St. Denis, Vincennes, St. Cloud, St. Germain, Versailles, — then the history of Paris is even richer, more dramatic, more continuous than that of London itself.

Paris is by at least a century older than London in the historical record; for it now has almost two thousand years of continuous annals. Paris was a more important Roman city than London. It has far more extensive Roman remains. The history of its first thousand years, from the first century to the eleventh, of its early foundations, churches, palaces, and walls, is far more complete and trustworthy than anything we know of London. It did not suffer any such gap or blank in its history, such as that which befell London, from the time of the Romans until the settlement of the Saxons. The fathers of men still living have seen at Paris private guide turkey, in its Bastille, at St. Denis, in Notre Dame, and the other churches, in the Tuileries, in Versailles, and old Hdtel de Ville, relics of the past, records, works of art, tombs, and statues, before which the great record of our Abbey and our Tower can hardly hold their own.

Restoration little more than half a century

The great era of destruction began little more than a century ago: the great era of restoration little more than half a century ago. Paris, too, has been the scene of events more tremendous and more extraordinary than any other city of the world, if we except Constantinople and Rome. London never endured any very serious or regular siege. Paris has endured a dozen famous sieges, culminating in what is, perhaps, the biggest siege recorded in history. London has never known an autocrat with a passion for building, has had but one great conflagration, and but one serious insurrection. Paris has had in Louis xiv., and the first and second empires of the Napoleons, three of the most ambitious despots ever known; and in a hundred years has had four most sanguinary and destructive revolutions. Battles, sieges, massacres, conflagrations, civil wars, rebellions, revolutions, make up the history of Paris from the days of the Caesars and the Franks to the days of the Terror and the Commune.

All this makes the topographical history of Paris far more copious and more stirring than the history of London, and indeed of any other modern city whatever. And the history of Paris has been far better told than the history of any other city. There is a perfect library about the history of Paris, with a special Museum, and a collection of 80,000 volumes and 70,000 engravings, devoted to that one subject. The histories reach over six centuries, from the work of Jean de Jandun, the contemporary of Dante, who begins his work about Paris by saying ‘that it is more like Paradise than any other spot on earth ’ — (an opinion, by the way, said to be shared by many Americans and some English) — and they go on to the splendid volumes by Hoffbauer, Fournier, and others, called Paris a travers les Ages: a book, I may say, only to be found in the British Museum and a few public libraries.

Raised on the Acropolis

The Greek people have raised on the Acropolis itself a national museum, where every fragment of the ancient work that once adorned it, is religiously preserved. The collection is unique, incomparable, of inestimable value, and is constantly being increased. It derives its peculiar impressiveness from the fact that these priceless relics still remain on the sacred citadel of Athene, under the shadow of the mighty temple of which they formed part. The Parthenon gains a new charm by their presence; whilst the statues gain a fresh power by being within its precinct. Pheidias, Ictinus, Pericles, acquire each a new dignity in our eyes, as we contemplate the ruin and its adornments on the ever-consecrated spot where such amazing genius laboured and thought.

We go to our own Museum, and we are wont to plume ourselves on the diplomacy and taste of the eminent per-sonage who secured these treasures. We say they are now safe, carefully preserved, and accessible to every one. Perhaps it was wrong to steal them, but now that it is done, it cannot be mended. In the meantime the British public can study High Art at its leisure. But there is something above High Art daily ephesus tours, and that is national honour, and international morality.

Sophocles and Pheidias

And when, in the enthusiasm of a first visit to the city of Plato, Sophocles, and Pheidias, we behold the empty pediments which we have wrecked, and the blank spaces out of which our national representative tore metopes and frieze, when we see the terra-cotta Caryatid, which is forced to do duty for her whom we have ravished from the temple of Erechtheus — it is not so easy to repeat the robber sophism: having plundered, it is best to keep the plunder. One day the conscience of England will revive, and she will rejoice to restore the outraged emblems of Hellenic art to the glorious sky, where only they are at home, on that immortal rock, and beneath the shadow of the sublime temple, which a supreme genius made them to ennoble. And our eloquent discourses about Art will gain by being sweetened with honesty and good manners.

Visited Rome four times

In the space of some thirty years I have visited Rome four times, at long intervals, and each time I groan anew. I was Italianissimo in my hot youth, and I am assuredly, not Papalino in my maturer age. I rejoice with the new life of the Italian people; I know that for the regenerated nation Rome is essential as its capital; I know that a growing modern city must wear the aspect of modern civilisation. I repudiate the whining of sentimentalists over the conditions of modern progress; and the advice which Napoleon’s creatures gave to the Romans, ‘to be content with the contemplation of their ruins,’ has the true ring of an oppressor. We acknowledge all that, and are no obscurantists to shudder at a railroad with Ruskinian affectation. But yet, to those who loved the poetry of old Papal Rome, the prose of the modernised new Rome is a sad and instructive memory.

When I first saw Rome, it was not connected by any railway with Northern Italy. We had to travel by the road, and I cannot forget the weird effect of that Roman Maremma, purple and crimson with an autumn sunset; the buffaloes, and the wild cattlemen and pecorari in sheepskins; the old-world coaches and postilions; the desolate plain broken by ruins and castles; the mediaeval absurdities of Papal officialism; the suffumigations and the visas; the cumbrous pomposity of some Roman returning from villeggiatura — it was as though one had passed by enchantment into the seventeenth century, with its picturesque barbarism, and one quite expected a guerilla band of horsemen to issue from the castle of Montalto coastal bulgaria holidays.

Rome itself

And then Rome itself, so perfectly familiar that it seemed like a mere returning to the old haunt of childhood, with its fern-clad ruins standing in open spaces, gardens, or vineyards; the huge solitudes within the walls; the cattle and the stalls beneath the trees on the Campo Vaccino, forty feet above the spot where now professors lecture to crowds in the recent excavations; the grotesque parade of cardinals and monsignori; the narrow, ill-lighted streets; the swarm of monks, friars, and prelates of every order and race; the air of mouldering abandonment in the ancient city, as of some corner of mediaeval Europe left forgotten and untouched by modern progress, with all the historic glamour, the pictorial squalor, the Turkish routine, all the magnificence of obsolete forms of civilisation which clung round the Vatican and were seen there only in Western Europe.

It had to go, and it is gone; and Rome, in twenty or thirty years, has become like any other European city big, noisy, vulgar, overgrown, Frenchified, and syndicate-ridden, hardly to be distinguished from Lyons or Turin, except that it has in the middle of its streets some enormous masses of ruin, many huge, empty convents, and some vast churches, apparently abandoned by the Church.

But the ruins, which used to stand in a rural solitude like Stonehenge or Rievaulx, are now mere piles of stone in crowded streets, like the Palais des Therme’s at Paris. The sacred sites of Forum and Roma Quadrata are now objects in a museum. The Cloaca are embedded in the new stone quay, and are become a mere ‘exhibit,’ like York House Water-Gate in our own embankment. The wild foliage and the memorial altars have been torn out of the Colosseum, and the Allian Bridge is overshadowed by a new iron enormity. Rome, which, thirty years ago, was a vision of the past, is to-day a busy Italian town, with a dozen museums, striving to become a third-rate Paris.

The mediaeval halo is gone, but the hard facts remain. For to the historian Rome must always be the central city of this earth — the spot towards which all earlier history of mankind must in the end converge — from which all modern history must issue. Rome is the true microcosm, wherein the vast panorama of human civilisation is reflected as on a mirror. It is this diversity, continuity, and world-wide range of interest which place it apart above all other cities of men. This one is more lovely, that one is more complete; another city is vaster, or another has some unique and special glory. But no other city of the world approaches Rome in the enormous span of its history, and in this character of being the centre, as the Greeks said the if not of this planet at least europe.

Old intellectual system was discredited

This suggests a fourfold division: the school of thought whereby the old intellectual system was discredited; that by which the old political system was destroyed; those who laboured to construct a new intellectual and moral basis of society; and those who sought to construct a new social and political system. These schools and teachers, writers and politicians, cannot be rigidly separated from each other. Each overlaps the other, and most of them combine the characteristics of all in more or less degree. The most pugnacious of the critics did something in the way of reconstructing the intellectual basis.

The most constructive spirits of the new world did much both directly and indirectly to destroy the old. Critics of the orthodox faith were really destroying the throne and the ancient rule, even when they least designed it. Orthodox supporters of radical reforms rung the knell of the mediaeval faith as much as that of the mediaeval society. The spiritual and temporal organisation of human life had grown up together; and in death it was not divided guided tours istanbul.

Revolution at hand

All through the eighteenth century the intellectual movement was gathering vitality and volume. From the opening years of the epoch the genius of Leibnitz saw the inevitable effect the movement must have upon the old society; and, in his memorable prophecy of the Revolution at hand (1704), he warned the chiefs of that society to prepare for the storm. For three generations France seemed to live only in thought. Action descended to the vilest and most petty level which her history had ever reached. From the death of Colbert, in 1683, until the ministry of Turgot, in 1774, France seemed to have lost the race of great statesmen, and to be delivered over to the intriguer and the sycophant. Well may the historian say that in passing from the politicians of the reign of Louis xv. to the thinkers of the same epoch, we seem to be passing from the world of the pigmies to that of the Titans. Into the world of ideas France flung herself with passion and with hope.

The wonderful accumulation of scientific discoveries which followed the achievements of Newton reacted powerfully on religious thought, and even on practical policy. Mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, began to assume the outlined proportion of coherent sciences; and some vague sense of their connection and real unity filled the mind of all.

Out of the physical sciences there emerged a dim conception of a crowning human science, which it was the grand achievement of the eighteenth century to found. History ceased to be a branch of literature; it began to have practical uses for mankind of to-day; and slowly it was recognised as the momentous life-story of man, the autobiography of the human race. Europe no longer absorbed the interest of cultivated thought. The unity of the planet, the community of all who dwell on it, gave a new colour to the whole range of thought; and as the old dogmas of the supernatural Church began to lose their hold on the mind, the new-born enthusiasm of humanity began to fill all hearts.

Phil could stand this no longer

Phil could stand this no longer. With a whoop and a bound (he had just won the long jump in his college sports) he cleared the broad ditch, and alighted clean in the meadow round which they were tramping.

‘ Why,’ he cried, as a second bound brought him back again to the side of his Venerable friend, ‘ at that rate we should want at least a hundred works, I suppose in ten volumes each, or a thousand volumes in all, cram full of gritty facts of no good to any one. All this week I have been entering in my note-book such bits as this: — “ Ecgfrith marched to a place called the Hoar Apple-Tree. It is not known where this is, or why he went there. He left it the next day, and neither he nor it are ever mentioned again in the chronicles.” What is the good to me of knowing that? ’ he asked, as if a cheeky freshman was likely to put the Reverend iethelbald into a tight place.

‘ Bad, bad! ’ said the tutor, who began to fear that he was wasting his time on Phil, ‘ you will never be a credit to your college if you can make game of “truth” like that ! One would think a young man who hoped to do something would care to know a few true facts about his English forbears a thousand years ago. But the question is not what you care to know, but what you ought to know; and every Englishman ought to know every word in the Saxon Chronicle, to say nothing of the rest daily sofia tour.

Nor is it a question at all about your thousand volumes of history, the bulk of which deal with “periods” that do not concern you at all. Your thousand volumes, too, is a very poor estimate after all. You would find that not ten thousand volumes, perhaps not a hundred thousand volumes, would contain all the truths which have ever been recorded in contemporary documents, together with the elucidations, comments, and various amplifications which each separate truth would properly demand.’

‘ But at this rate,’ said the freshman gloomily, ‘ I shall never get beyond Ecgfrith and the other break-jaw Old- English sloggers. When we come up to Oxford we never seem to get out of an infinite welter of “origins” and primitive forms of everything.

I used to think the Crusades, the Renascence, Puritanism, and the French Revolution were interesting epochs or movements. But here lectures seem to go round and round the Mark-system, or the aboriginal customs of the Jutes. We are told that it is mere literary trifling to take any interest in Richelieu and William of Orange, Frederick of Prussia, or Mirabeau and Danton. The history of these men has been adequately treated in very brilliant books which a serious student must avoid. He must stick to Saxon charters and the Doomsday Survey.’

‘Of course, he must,’ said the tutor, ‘if that is his “period” — and a very good period it is. If you know how many houses were inhabited at Dorchester and Brid- port at the time of the Survey, and how many there had been in the Old-English time, you know something definite. But you may write pages of stuff about what smatterers call the “philosophy of history,” without a single sentence of solid knowledge. When every inscription and every manuscript remaining has been copied and accurately unravelled, then we may talk about the philosophy of history.’

‘ But surely,’ said Crichtonius mirabilis, ‘you don’t wish me to believe that there is no intelligible evolution in the ages, and that every statement to be found in a chronicle is as much worth remembering as any other statement? ’

Reverend Aithelbald dogmatically

‘You have got to remember them all,’ replied the Reverend Aithelbald dogmatically, ‘ at any rate, all in your “period.” You may chatter about “evolution” as fast as you like, if you take up Physical Science and go to that beastly museum; but if you mention “evolution” in the History School, you will be gulfed — take my word for it! I daresay that all statements of fact—true statements I mean — may not be of equal importance; but it is far too early yet to attempt to class them in order of value. Many generations of scholars will have to succeed each other, and many libraries will have to be filled, before even our bare materials will be complete and ready for any sort of comparative estimate. All that you have to do, dear boy, is to choose your period (I hope it will be Old-English somewhere), mark out your “claim,” as Californian miners do, and then wash your lumps, sift, crush quartz, till you find ore, and don’t cry “ Gold! ” till you have had it tested.’

This was a hard saying to his Admirable young friend, who felt like the rich young man in the Gospel when he was told to sell all that he had and to follow the Master. ‘ I have no taste for quartz-crushing,’ said he gloomily; ‘what I care for are Jules Michelet on the Middle Ages, Macaulay’s pictures of Charles 11. and his court — (wonderfull scene that, the night of Charles’s seizure at Whitehall!) — Carlyle on Mirabeau and Danton, and Froude’s Reformation and Armada. These are the books which stir my blood. Am I to put all these on the shelf? ’

The visible State on earth

We turn to the Church, the moral element which pervades the Middle Ages. Amidst the crash of the falling empire, as darker grew the storm which swept over the visible State on earth, more and more the better spirits turned their eyes towards a Kingdom above the earth. They turned, as the great Latin father relates, amidst utter corruption to an entire reconstruction of morality; in the wreck of all earthly greatness, they set their hearts upon a future life, and strove amidst anarchy and bloodshed to found a moral union of society.

Hence rose the Catholic Church, offering to the thoughtful a mysterious and inspiring faith; to the despairing E and the remorseful a new and higher life; to the wretched, comfort, fellowship, and aid; to the perplexed a majestic system of belief and practice — in its creed Greek, in its worship Asiatic, in its constitution Roman. In it we see the Roman genius for organisation and law, transformed and revived. In the fall of her material greatness Rome’s social greatness survived. Rome still remained the centre of the civilised world. Latin was still the language which bound men of distant lands together. From Rome went forth the edicts which were common to all Europe. The majesty of Rome was still the centre of civilisation. The bishop’s court took the place of that of the imperial governor. The peace of the church took the place of the peace of Rome; and from the first, the barbarian invaders who overthrew the hollow greatness of the empire humbled themselves reverently before the ministers of religion.

The church stood between the conqueror and the conquered, and joined them both in one. She told to all — Roman and barbarian, slave or freeman, great or weak — how there was one God, one Saviour of all, one equal soul in all, one common judgment, one common life hereafter. She told them how all, as children of one Father, were in His eyes equally dear; how charity, mercy, humility, devotion alone would make them worthy of His love; and at these words there rose up in the fine spirits of the new races a sense of brotherhood amongst mankind, a desire for a higher life, a zeal for all the gentler qualities and the higher duties, such as the world had not seen before guided turkey tours.

System of morality

Thus was her first task accomplished, and she founded a system of morality common to all and possible to all. She spoke to the slave of his immortal soul, to the master of the guilt of slavery. Master and slave should meet alike within her walls, and lie side by side’ within her catacombs; and thus her second task was accomplished, and she overthrew for ever the system of slavery, and raised up the labourer into the dignity of a citizen. Then she told how their common Master, of power unbounded, had loved the humble and the weak. She told of the simple lives of saints and martyrs, their tender care of the poorer brethren, their spirit of benevolence, self-sacrifice, and self-abasement; and thus the third great task was accomplished, when she placed the essence of practical religion in care for the weak, in affection for the family, in reverence for woman, in benevolence to all, and in – personal self-denial.

Next, she undertook to educate all alike. She provided a body of common teachers; she organised schools; she raised splendid cathedrals, where all might be brought into the presence of the beautiful, and see all forms of art in their highest perfection — architecture, and sculpture, and painting, and work in glass, in iron, and in wood, heightened by inspiring ritual and touching music. She accepted all without thought of birth or place. She gathered to herself all the knowledge of the time, though all was subordinate to religious life. The priests, so far as such were then possible, were poets, historians, dramatists, musicians, architects, sculptors, painters, judges, lawyers, magistrates, ministers, students of science, engineers, philosophers, astronomers, and moralists. Lastly, she had another task, and she accomplished even that. It was to stand between the tyrant and his victim; to succour the oppressed, to humble the evil ruler, to moderate the horrors of war; above all, to join nation to nation, to mediate between hostile races, to give to civilised Europe some element of union and cohesion.

The most turbulent revolutionary

Nor is it true that we show no honour to the men of the past, are not guided by their ideas, and do not dwell upon their lives, their work, and their characters. The most turbulent revolutionary that ever lived, the most bitter hater of the past, finds many to admire. It may be Cromwell, it may be Rousseau, or Voltaire, it may be Robert Owen, but some such leader each will have; his memory he will revere, his influence he will admit, his principles he will contend for. Thus it will be in every sphere of active life. No serious politician can fail to recognise that, however strongly he repudiates antiquity, and rebels against the tyranny of custom, still he himself only acts freely and consistently when he is following the path trodden by earlier leaders, and is working with the current of the principles in which he throws himself, and in which he has confidence. For him, then, it is not true that he rejects all common purpose with what has gone before. It is a question only of selection and of degree. To some he clings, the rest he rejects. Some history he does study, and finds in it both profit and enjoyment.

Suppose such a man to be interested-in any study what-ever, either in promoting general education, or eager to acquire knowledge for himself. He will find, at every step he takes, that he is appealing to the authority of the past, is using the ideas of former ages, and carrying out principles established by ancient, but not forgotten thinkers. If he studies geometry he will find that the first text-book put into his hand was written by a Greek two thousand years ago. If he takes up a grammar, he will be only repeating rules taught by Roman schoolmasters and professors. Or is he interested in art ? He will find the same thing in a far greater degree. He goes to the British Museum, and he walks into a building which is a good imitation of a Greek temple. He goes to the Houses of Parliament to hear a debate, and he enters a building which is a bad imitation of a mediaeval town-hall walking tours ephesus.

Shakespeare and Milton

Or, again, we know that he reads his Shakespeare and Milton ; feels respect for the opinions of Bacon or of Hume, or Adam Smith. Such a man, the moment he takes a warm interest in anything — in politics, in education, in science, in art, or in social improvement — the moment that his intelligence is kindled, and his mind begins to work — that moment he is striving to throw himself into the stream of some previous human efforts, to identify himself with others, and to try to understand and to follow the path of future progress which has been traced out for him by the leaders of his own party or school. Therefore, such a man is not consistent when he says that history is of no use to him. He does direct his action by what he believes to be the course laid out before him ; he does follow the guidance of certain teachers whom he respects.

We have then only to ask him on what grounds he rests his selection ; why he chooses some and rejects all others; how he knows for certain that no other corner of the great field of history will reward the care of the ploughman, or bring forth good seed. In spite of himself, he will find himself surrounded in every act and thought of life by a power which is too strong for him. If he chooses simply to stagnate, he may, perhaps, dispense with any actual reference to the past; but the moment he begins to act, to live, or to think, he must use the materials presented to him, and, so far as he is a member of a civilised community, so far as he is an Englishman, so far as he is a rational man, he can as little free himself from the influence of former generations as he can free himself from his personal identity ; unlearn all that he has learnt; cease to be what his previous life has made him, and blot out of his memory all recollection whatever.

Public school system established by the Government

It has been mentioned already that these schools are quite separate from the public school system established by the Government. The primary school alone is common to both systems of education. Travellers and artists have made known before this the quality of the old primary school of Turkey. The teacher sat on a cushion at one end of the room and the children sat in front of him with their books, and shouted to him at the top of their lungs the words there written, which being in Arabic were entirely unintelligible to the poor little scholars. The main duty of the teacher was to see that each child shouted, and that the accent and enunciation were passable.

After six or seven years of this kind of exercise, varied by efforts at writing the Arabic letters and perhaps by some ineffectual wrestling with simple arithmetical processes, the child was deemed educated, except for those boys of peculiar promise who were taken into the mosque schools to go on toward the goal of becoming “ Wise men.” Under the improved modern system which has been a good result of intercourse with the West, the primary school has been somewhat changed. Children are really taught some things about reading, writing, and arithmetic. They still shout in chorus the passage from the Koran. But the chorus now has been swollen by the addition of the multiplication table. They still have much to do in the way of learning by heart things that they do not (and are not expected to) understand. Elocution is still regarded an essential part of primary instruction. But the primary school is no longer a thing to be laughed to scorn—at least in the city of Constantinople private bulgaria tours yachting.

With the primary school instruction, or at most with the additional knowledge derived from a course in the next higher grade of the public school system the student enters a mosque school. The course of study in these latter schools is rather loosely organized, but it includes The Koran, Elocution, Arabic Grammar, Syntax, Rhetoric, Logic, Metaphysics, and Mohammedan doctrine, embracing Theology, Casuistry, and Moral Philosophy, and the whole vast range of Jurisprudence. Some attention is given to the Persian language, and History, Geography and some Mathematics are given in the later part of the course, but at the first the whole attention of the student is concentrated on the Koran and its interpretation.

The theory of the method of study seems to be that reiteration will finally bring understanding, for students at Constantinople do not understand Arabic, in which the Koran is written. Many of the Softas commit the whole book to memory and can recite it forwards or backwards or beginning in the middle, and all without understanding the meaning of a verse. Many copy out the whole book in fine manuscript. While thus wrestling with the text, they attend lectures where learned professors give them the exegesis of the various passages. These gentlemen mingle critical and grammatical notes with the interpretation of the text, and thus by long repetition of sounds the students arrive at some knowledge of the structure and meaning of the language.

Accordingly the faculty of memory

The system of instruction depends upon memory for its effectiveness. Accordingly the faculty of memory is wonderfully developed. But the use of the reflective faculty is restrained. The young men are taught, as the lady did her footman. “ that they have no business to think.” It is only after ten or fifteen years of training that it is considered safe for a man to use his own powers. By that time the bias of his mind, and its habit of ignoring inconvenient matter is pretty well fixed and the man himself is safe as a teacher of the people. The exclusiveness of Islam and the narrowness of its leading men is fully explained by such an imprisonment in the dark as is implied by attendance at the schools of the Ulema.

During the educational course a constant process of weeding out takes place. Many a man fails to absorb wisdom and is provided with a berth as teacher of a primary school. Others, who have good elocution, but fail to master the higher problems of Arabic grammar and logic, drop out to fill vacancies as Imam or pastor of some parish. Others again, who while good writers cannot be good reasoners, are made clerks of the courts, and leave the unprofitable study. The man who goes on far enough to have a place among the heads of the people receives the degree of “ Rouous ” * and the title of Muderris or teacher. He is then entitled to hold his head above the mass and may receive appointment to teach the people in some mosque. The degree would be called in the West a license to preach. He will be sure after this point of having money to buy bis bread.

The Woman Question in Turkey

The Woman Question in Turkey then, is the question of changing the character and the direction of the influence of the women of the country—a class in all essentials of different aim and interest from the men, in mental power far less cultured than the men, in religion still dominated by heathen notions which have lost their hold on the men, in knowledge centuries behind standards attained by the best of the men—a class, even to some extent among the Christians of the country, still walled in against influences from outside, and yet having in their hands control of the nation during its early years, as well as the ultimate direction of the acts and the consciences of the men through the same means by which women everywhere influence the conduct and aspirations of their husbands. Ignorance, superstition and crude selfishness have their citadel of refuge in Turkey among the women, and this citadel is well nigh cut of if from approach. Yet if the plane of life of this people is to be elevated, access to this well defended citadel must be found. The key to success in such an enterprise is held by the women of the country, for the men see them, that they are fair to look upon, and at once they do their bidding..

Some Mohammedans have painfully wrestled with this problem and long to secure change that will modify the character and influence of their women-folk. The missionary bystander necessarily asks himself how such men may be helped to gain their wish. Tveal comprehension of the condition of women among the millions of Asia will lead any one who has a trace of good will toward submerged humanity to feel sympathetic yearning that those women may be led to a better use of life. Perhaps some able to lend them a hand may find it hard to escape responsibility if the help is not given city tour istanbul.

Acting the good Samaritan

Some will answer that we have the best authority for leaving the dead to bury their dead. But that phrase was not uttered for the consolation of those who wish to escape the burden of acting the good Samaritan. The use of it in a case like this is short-sighted as well as cruel. Recent experience in China shows that penalty can reach even to us for neglect of effort to humanize the backward races. Furthermore the history of the siege of the Peking Compound has revealed a reward which we actually gained for taking a juster view. For I opine that if all the money were reckoned up which missions to China have cost during the last twenty years of effort, and if those few hundred of Chinese diggers and ditchers at the Legation who thus learned to be men were set down as the whole result of the expenditure, the humble part taken by those Christian Chinese in preventing the horrible catastrophe which we feared was not dearly bought. There is self- interest as well as duty in studying what we can do toward solving this Woman Question which looms so large at Constantinople.

The whole force of Oriental logic and philosophy is directed against culture of womankind as a class. To prevent her use of her mind woman is forced into marriage in childhood, becoming a mother often at fifteen. For this end the dwarf- in” effect of premature encounter with the heaviest perplexities of life is derided as proof of mental deficiency. For this end the moral consequences of lack of training are rated as evidence that woman is so essentially vicious as to make her education a crime. The man of the East knows that if the woman is allowed to read and to think, facilities for gratifying his own tastes will be greatly diminished. So he obstructs efforts to open her mind, pointing out that any large view of education for women will teach her to sew instead. All this shows that custom and prejudice in Asia fear attacks made at this point. Hence the line of effort which promises effective results on the Woman Question in Turkey is the line of education for women. Before we saw how the reactionary Turk dreads education for woman, wc all knew that she must be brought out of the depths to the level of the century in which she lives before she can take her due share in the work of stimulating its progress.

Turkish Government wished to expel

In this delicate situation one day we were officially notified that the Turkish Government wished to expel from the country the “ director of the Bible House Mission ” whom an English newspaper had declared on authority of the mayor of an English city, to have stated that the Sultan ordered the massacres. Who was meant was not clear. There is no mission in Constantinople known as the Bible House Mission, and the mission of the American Board is under no director in Constantinople. But it fell to me to try to arrange the affair. I did not know, and did not wish to know whether any missionary had been careless enough to say to the English mayor what he could not possibly prove. But the newspaper paragraph might be understood to point toward one of our most efficient missionaries, to lose whom from the work would be a disaster.

I proposed to draw up a card for publication in the London newspaper where the paragraph appeared, remarking on the uncertain identity of the person whose statements were given this weight, but adding that the American Board’s Mission, whose offices are in the Bible House deemed it proper to say that it had never felt called upon to formulate its views upon the matter in question, nor had it authorized any one to speak for it upon the subject. The American Legation agreed that such a card would be a sufficient satisfaction to the Turkish Government. But well informed friends objected that if I signed the card I would certainly he shot by the revolutionists as too friendly to the Turks. On the other hand the card would be worthless unless signed, and the missionary supposed to be implicated must be saved at all hazards. So the card was signed on the spot, the Turks accepted it as a satisfactory statement, the missionary was neither questioned nor molested,—and I was not shot.

Holding familiar intercourse

Perhaps the contact with gross defects of moral character which results from holding familiar intercourse with people in no way interested in Christian truth may be regarded as a reason for advising the missionary to keep aloof from such friendships. Yet that missionary must know the people about him to the utmost or he cannot find a remedy for their ills private sofia tours. Moreover some of these chance friendships, merely because the missionary deals with natives as other foreigners at Constantinople do not in thus patiently seeking to know them, have resulted in lasting benefit to both parties.

An incident which deeply moved my sympathy while illustrating this point was in the course of a somewhat intimate acquaintance with a distinguished Mohammedan religious teacher, who was believed to have the power of working miracles, and who was the guest of the Sultan at Constantinople for some time, on the principle common in Turkey of controlling a people by controlling their leader. For this man was the acknowledged leader of more than a million people in the Eastern part of Turkey. After a time this gentleman asked a Mohammedan, also a mutual friend, to help him solve a doubt. The Arabs say that fools are of two kinds, “ simple ” and “ complex.” A man who does not know everything and knows that he does not know, is a simple fool, while the man who does not know, and does not know that he does not know, is a complex fool. “ Of course I know,” said he, “ that this American regards me as a good deal of an ignoramus. But I wish you could find out whether he thinks me a simple or a complex fool. Try at all events to let him know that I am not a complex fool, for I know that I do not know much.” This man was a warm and sturdy friend to the day of his death.

Such friends of American missionaries in Turkey are not a few among Turkish officials. Sometimes they are made friendly by opportunity of studying the character and work of the missionary, sometimes by the very efforts of hostility. One official, who has rendered important services to missionaries, commenced his acquaintance by trying to blackmail them. By such means officials often reach the point of helping the missionaries in getting permits for their schools or in building churches or in suggesting means of guarding against unjust suspicions excited by sonic innocent act.

Congeries of little thoroughfares

We took a stroll through the body of the village, which consisted of a congeries of little thoroughfares — they could not be called streets — rudely paved, and not broader than the Haymarket footpath. At the doors of the houses, the girls were sitting, according to custom, all without bonnets, and mostly very pretty. There were, also, more coffee-houses; but these inland ones had no fireworks. We were obliged to buy lanterns here, to go about with, as at Constantinople; for the night was dark, and several of the lanes had open gutters running along the middle of them. When we had walked enough, we came back to the hotel and went to bed.

The house was so slightly built, that the least noise was heard all over it; and the boards bent and creaked when you trod on them, in a manner that was perfectly awful. .My bedroom was over the storehouse ; and the planks of the floor had so shrunk, that when any one came below with a candle, the reflection of their divisions ran all along the ceiling in bars of light. The only ornament of my chamber was a picture of a ship by a native artist. His ideas had been more extensive than his canvas ; for, wishing to portray an immense vessel, he had commenced her on so large a scale, that he found he had left no room for her topmasts; but not wishing to omit them he had bent them down at right angles, and so finished them horizontally. I suppose this picture may rank as the worst in the world.

Shaved in a coffee-house

We were up at seven next morning, and in the sea ten minutes afterwards. My two friends were shaved in a coffee-house. The master was also the barber. He lathered in the old-fashioned style, with his hand and a basin; and he kept his strop tied round his waist. His razor had an English blade, which was put in an awkward wooden handle. The floor of this cafe was of mud, and very uneven. Lots of customers were there already, sitting on the benches, like tailors, and smoking narghiles. Principe was evidently an early place. All the Greek girls were about in crowds, fresh as dewy flowers; the band of music was also beginning to play, and the coffee-houses generally were filling. All the dwellings were built in the same fragile manner as the hotels. You imagined a grand palace, with porches and columns; and then you came close to it, and found only boards painted in distemper, like scenery guided tours turkey.

After breakfast, we started, on donkeys, to make an excursion about the island. The animals were not so clever as their Cairo brethren, but went much better than the asses in England. No whip was respired: the proprietor, on starting, gave each of us a skewer, and with this we were expected, literally, to peg into the poor devil’s shoulders. The least touch, however, sufficed to start the animal into an amble. We skirted an iron mine — the entire island is composed of red ferruginous earth and stone — and then passed a long vineyard of curiously small grapes, after which wo came upon an open track of ground, very like Hampstead Heath. Two or three desolate-looking monasteries were perched about upon the hills, and we went up to one of these. The inmates were all Greek. The principal monk showed us the church — a small, damp building, very old, with some tawdry and tarnished saints about it, painted and gilt as usual. On the lectern was a testament, and the priest asked me to show him how the English read and pronounced Greek; and was surprised to hear that the study

of that language was part of our ordinary school education. I afterwards penciled down the commencement of the nativity chapter in the Diatessaron, and asked him if he could read it. This he did pretty well, but with a pronunciation entirely different to ours; indeed, had I not known the sentence by heart — it having formed part of an old “Doctor’s Day” examination — I could not have understood him.

The brilliant azure color of the Bosphorus

Our little caique went with wonderful speed. These boats are singularly light, and admirably built to cut through the water.

The ordinary ones hold two persons comfortably, but the passengers must sit at the bottom, and be as careful in getting into them as if they were wager-boats, or they will upset. The oars are, I think, an improvement on our own. Above the spot where the “button” would be, they swell into a large bulb, and this serves to counterbalance the blade, which is straight. They work with a thong, slipped over a peg, instead of rowlocks; and are managed with great dexterity by the caiquejees, as the watermen are called.

The brilliant azure color of the Bosphorus does not depend upon reflection. It is still blue, even on a cloudy day, that would make our own seas and rivers leaden. The tint is, to an extent, in the fater, as it may be seen nearer home in the Rhone, -where it issues from the lake of Geneva, under the bridge, before it is polluted by the Arve.

Nobody could read

We landed on the other side of the Golden Horn, near a picturosque and thoroughly oriental Mosque, to which I was told the Sultan retired on the day of the murder of the Janissaries; and then had a long, tiring walk, skirting the Mosque of St. Sophia, into the first court of the Seraglio, which is public, and conducts to certain government offices. We went under some of the buildings private ephesus tours, supported on pillars, where there was great hustle — horses waiting for men in power, with elaborate trappings, rickety carriages, slaves, soldiers, porters, and eunuchs — with attendants to make everybody take off their shoes, as they went up to the different apartments. Here the luckless letter gave rise to the same difficulties.

Nobody could read, but they took the note and handed it round from one to the other, stared at us, and then returned it. At last, a learned man, whom we attacked, told one of the servants whom it was for, and he said if I would give him baksheesh be would take it in, but not without. A few paras were accordingly put in his hand, and he kicked off his slippers, and disappeared. In a few minutes ho returned, and said that the effendi had gone ‘ away, nobody knew where, but that he would be back again to-morrow. At all events, we had received the first confirmation of his actual existence, which, for the last hour or two, I had altogether doubted; but as the day was now advanced, and as I felt that if I continued the research any longer, I might get cross from fatigue and disappointment, I gave up the pursuit for this day, at least.

As I went home, up the steep Galata Hill, I saw a mad horse — an awkward customer to meet in such a narrow thoroughfare, lie had been suddenly taken so ; and was tearing along, kicking out wildly, and scattering, on cither side, the bricks with which his panniers were laden. It is impossible to describe the confusion be created, for the Galata Hill is always thronged. The women were screaming and flying in all directions, leaving their outer slippers behind them all about the street. One of them chanced to get her yashmak caught by a shutter as she retreated. The veil was pulled off, and, for the first and only time in my life, I saw the naked face of a Turkish female. She was, however, ugly enough to make any concealment of her features perfectly unnecessary. The unveiling frightened her far more than the mad horse, and she directly threw her coarse outer wrapper over her head, and bolted into a shop. The horse finished by falling down near the Galata gate, shattering his knees to pieces, and having his throat cut by one of the police. That night, I expect, the dogs of Pera and Galata held high and gory festival.

THE JOURNEY

The direct line to Constantinople by the English boats, starting from Southampton, is that usually patronized by travelers with much luggage, and in such cases is decidedly the preferable one. As full information connected with the departure of these fine vessels may be obtained at the London offices, it is unnecessary to repeat it here, beyond stating

that the fares are, for the First class, £41, and for the Second, £27 10s. Passengers’ servants are charged £22.

2. The excellent service of the French Paquebots- Postes de la Med it err a nee, which start from Marseilles, is less generally known. This is by far the best method for the mere tourist, unencumbered with luggage; and it is also the most agreeable, and cheapest bulgaria private tours kazanlak.

There are two lines from Marseilles to Malta. One of these is a direct one; the other touches at Genoa, Leghorn, Civita-Veechia, Naples, and Messina; and both are so arranged as to correspond, at Malta, with the boat proceeding, without loss of time, to Constantinople. The departures take place three times a month, and are very regular. The direct boat to Malta starts on the 1st, 11th, and 21st; that touching at Italy, on the 9th, 19th, and 29th; and all these arrive respectively in time for one or the other of the boats which leave Malta in turn, on the 5th, 15th, and 25th, and arrive at Constantinople on the day week of their departure from that port.

The fares are—presuming the direct line be chosen —from Marseilles to Constantinople: first class, 4G5 francs; second, 279 francs; third, 18G francs; fourth 11G francs; or, in rough sums, respectively about 18/. 12,9.; 11/.; 71. 10.v.; 4/. 12s. The living is not included in this, hut the tariff is fixed at six francs a-day for first-class passengers, and four francs for the second. This must be paid whether the passengers partake of the meals or do not. If there are servants on board, they have their meals in the second cabin, after the passengers, but are not allowed

to join them at any time. The third and fourth class passengers can lay in their own stock, but may get anything from the restaurateur on board by paying for it. I add the bill of fare of one day’s dinner, in the fore-cabin, taken at random:

THE HOWLING DERVISHES ROBBERY OF TRAVELLERS

Besides the dancing dervishes, there is another set at Scutari, who howl; and their exhibition is also public every Thursday afternoon, about two o’clock. It is a mile and a half across the Bosphorus, from Galata to Scutari. The Maiden Tower, (or Leander’s Tower, as it is sometimes called,) is a little building rising from the water, about which the old story is told of the favourite child, shut up until he or she was of age, because a prediction had announced an early accidental death, and being at last killed by a viper from some fire-wood. The same legend belongs to the Folly, at Clifton, and a dozen other places.

Landing at Scutari, which I imagine must be the most oriental portion of Constantinople, wc went up to the Convent of the Howling Dervishes, and were introduced into a square room, with a balustrade round it, and at the top a latticed gallery for the women. All around were hung rude musical instruments— chiefly little drums and tambourines: and against the wall at the end were battle-axes, and apparently instruments of torture, in great numbers —hooks, spikes, and the like. The dervishes, who were crouching on the floor, on sheepskins, did not appear to have any particular costume, as those at Pera; but each afterwards put on a felt skull-cap. Round the enclosure were other persons sitting, who appeared to be visitors ; one was a soldier. Some large-eyed unwholesome children were also of the party of performers; and a dancing dervish joined them before they finished. They went through a great many ceremonies of bowing, embracing, and repeating prayers, and at last got in a line at the end of the room by the railing, one or two of the elders still squatting in front of them. Here they commenced to chant, swinging themselves backwards and forwards, and then sideways ; getting quicker and quicker in their motions, like a railway engine going off, and shouting “La ilah illah-lah’’ (There is but one God!) faster and faster, until they worked themselves up into an extraordinary state of frenzy, children and all. They kept shouting this monotonous line and throwing themselves about for at least half an hour: when the noise was so wearing, and the place so close and disagreeable, that I made my escape.

I could not exactly understand what induced these men to malm such fools of themselves. Certainly it was not for money, for none was given by the spectators, nor indeed was any solicited. Neither can I suspect it to have been for religious motives, for, to all appearances, a greater set of scamps had seldom been collected together. I must leave the explanation to those familiar with the mysteries of Eastern worship.

Sultan Mahmoud

Above that convent, there is another enormous burying-ground, through which the road runs—a perfect forest, with millions of tombstones. Here again the road is divided ; and its paved portion is at least ten feet higher than the dusty half. The proper complement of dogs and poultry were wandering about; and a large tomb, formed by a cupola upon six pillars, was shown as the grave of a favourite horse once belonging to the Sultan Mahmoud. Another was surrounded by an iron railing, upon which shreds of clothes were hung, in large numbers, as I had seen at the Giant’s Mountain private tours istanbul.

A very hot walk of an hour took us to the top of the hill of Bulgarlu, from which the finest panorama of Constantinople, the Sea of Marmora, Prince’s Islands, and the contiguous Asiatic country, can be seen.

I was much pleased, on my return to the Hotel, to find on my key-hook a card left by Lord Mandeville, who was staying at Misseri’s. He had been attacked by robbers, a day’s journey from Smyrna; and they had taken everything that he had about him. Whilst talking of the affair, a report arrived that Mr. Urquhart had suffered also from thieves, but on the sea—his boat having been attacked by pirates. These two misadventures made sufficient noise to prove that such robberies upon Eastern travellers were of rare occurrence.

The way in which the first robbery came about was this. The steamers of the Austrian Lloyd’s Company arriving at Smyrna in the morning, do not start again until noon the next day, and so Lord Mandeville, and a gentleman who accompanied him,—Mr. Percy Herbert,—determined to spend their time in riding to Nimfi; where, a short time ago, one of the most ancient monuments of the world was discovered, in the shape of an enormous human figure, sculptured in the solid rock. It agrees closely with the description of a monument given by Herodotus, and is said to be a trophy of Sesostris.

The division of the Emperor of Persia

So they dug their spurs into their horses and fell upon the division of the Emperor of Persia, which was the last. Very many were the people killed on the one side and on the other; and there was Count Walter taken, for all our people fled so shamefully that many in their despair drowned themselves n the sea. And they were thus panic-stricken because one of the battalions of the Emperor of Persia attacked the Soldan if la Chamelle, and though the Soldan defended himself right veil, yet of two thousand Turks that he led into battle, only ,Fourteen score remained when he left the field.

 Soldan in the castle of la Chamelle

The emperor decided that he would besiege the Soldan in the castle of la Chamelle, because he thought the Soldan sould not long hold out after he had lost so many of his people. When the Soldan saw this, he came to his people urid told them that he would go out and fight against the emperor, for if he suffered himself to be besieged, he would be lost. He so arranged matters that he sent out all his people who were ill armed by a hidden valley; and as soon is they heard the Soldan’s drums beating, they fell upon tl emperor’s camp from behind, and began to slay the women and children.

Now the emperor had gone into the field to fight the Soldan, whom he saw there before his eyes; but when he heard the cry raised in the rear by his own people, he re turned into his camp to succor the women and children. Then the Soldan fell upon him and upon his people, and that so well and to such good purpose, that out of the twenty- five thousand there present of the emperor’s people neither man nor woman remained; all were either killed in fight OJ given to the sword.

Before the Emperor of Persia came to la Chameue, he had taken Count Walter prisoner before Jaffa: and they hurt him by the arms to a forked pole, and told him they would not take him down till the Castle of Jaffa was theirs. While he was thus hanging by the arms he cried to those in the castle not to surrender for any hurt that might be done tc him, and that if they did surrender, he would slay then with his own hands.

OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THE COUNCIL JOINVILLI

DIVERS OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THE COUNCIL JOINVILLI OPPOSES THE RETURN TO FRANCE

On the Sunday after, we came again before the king; an the king asked his brothers, and the other barons, and the Count of Flanders, what advice they gave, whether to go c to remain. They all replied, that they had charged my Lord Guy of Mauvoisin to state the advice they wished to give t the king. The king commanded the Lord Guy to stat this advice accordingly; and he space as follows: “ Sir your brothers, and the men of note here present, have looker to your estate, and seen that you cannot remain in this Ian to your own honour, and that of your realm; for of all the knights that came in your company of whom you led two thousand eight hundred into Cyprus there are not now, this city, one hundred remaining. So they advise you, that you go to France, and there procure men and money whereby you may hastily return to this land, and take verance upon the enemies of God, who have had you in privity.”

The king would not rest satisfied with what my Lord Guy ‘ avoiding had said; but he inquired of the Count of Anjou, e Count of Poitiers, and the Count of Flanders, and several her men of note who sat near them. And all agreed with y Lord Guy Mauvoisin. The legate asked Count John of iffy, who sat behind them, what he thought. The Count Jaffa begged that they would suffer him not to reply to is question, “ for,” said he, “ my castle is on the marches, id if I advised the king to remain, men would think I did so my own profit,” Then the king asked him, as urgently he could, to say what he thought. And the count said at if the king could but hold the field for a year, he would himself great honor by remaining. Then the legate in rued of those who were sitting by the Count of Jaffa, and 1 agreed with my Lord Guy Mauvoisin.

Master of the Halca

Guard had horns, and drums, and cymbals. And with these they made such a noise at the point of day and at nightfall, that those who were near could not hear one another speak; and dearly were they heard throughout the camp.

Nor would the minstrels have been rash enough to sound their instruments during the day, save by order of the master of the Halca ; whence it happened that if the Soldan wished to give an order, he sent for the master of the Halca, and gave the order through him; and then the master caused the Soldan’s instruments to be sounded, and all the host assembled to hear the order of the Soldan: the master of the Halca spoke it, and all the host carried it out.

When the Soldan went to war, the knights of the Halca, if so be that they approved themselves well in battle, were made emirs by the Soldan, and he placed them in command of two hundred knights, or three hundred; and the better they approved themselves the more knights did he set them over.

The reward reserved for their deeds of chivalry is this: when they become famous anti rich beyond question, and the soldan is afraid lest they should kill or disinherit him, then he causes them to be taken and put to death in his prison, and their wives deprived of all they possess. This is how the Soldan dealt with those who captured the Count of Montfort, and the Count of Bar; and so did Bondocdar deal with those who had discomfited the King of Armenia. For these latter, thinking to have some reward, dismounted and went to salute Bondocdar while he was hunting wild beasts; and he replied: “ I salute you not,” because they had disturbed his hunting; and he caused them to be beheaded.

CONSPIRACY OF THE EMIRS AGAINST THE NEW SOLDAN

Let us now return to the matter in hand, and tell how the Soldan, who was dead, had a son of the age of five and twenty years, wise, adroit, and crafty; aim because the dead Soldan feared that his son would dispossess him, he bestowed on him a kingdom which he had in the East. And now when the Soldan was dead, the emirs sent to fetch the son, and so soon as the son was come into Egypt he took the golden rods from his father’s seneschal, and constable, and marshal, and bestowed them upon those who had come with him from the East.

When the seneschal, constable, and marshal saw this they were very wroth, as were also those who had been of the father’s council, and they felt that great shame had been put upon them. And because they doubted not that the son would do to them as the father had done to those who cap trued the Count of Bar, and the Count of Montfort (as you have been already told), they so practised with the men of the Halca, whose duty it was to guard the person of the Soldan, that the men of the Halca agreed, at their request, to kill the Soldan.

THE UPRIGHTNESS OF ST LEWIS

The peace that he made with the King of England was nade against the advice of his council, for the council said to lim: “ Sire, it seems to us that you are giving away the land .hat you make over to the King of England;1 for he has no ight thereto, seeing that his father lost it justly.” To this he king replied that he knew well that the King of England lad no right to the land, but that there was a reason why he hould give it him, “ for,” said he, “ we have two sisters to wife, and our children are cousins-german; wherefore it is itting that there should be peace between us. Moreover a retry great honour accrues to me through the peace that I lave made with the King of England, seeing that he is now my liegeman, which he was not aforetime.”

The uprightness of the king may be seen in the case of my ord Renaud of Trie, who brought to the saintly man a hurter stating that the king had given to the heirs of the Countess of Boulogne, lately deceased, the county of Damnartin in Gouelle. The seal on the charter was broken, so .hat naught remained save half the legs of the image on the ring’s seal, and the stool on which the king set his feet. And he king showed the seal to all those who were of his council, and asked us to help him to come to a decision. We all said, without a dissentient, that he was not bound to give effect to the charter. Then he told John Sarrasin, his chamber- lain, to give him a charter which he had asked him to obtain. When he held this charter in his hands, he said: “ Lords, this is the seal I used before I went overseas, and you can see clearly from this seal thir the impression on the broken seal is like unto that of the seal that is whole; wherefore I should not dare, in good conscience, to keep the said county.” So he called to him my lord Renaud of Trie, and said, “ I give you back the county. istanbul tours”

BIRTH AND CORONATION OF ST. LEWIS

In the name of God Almighty, we have, hereinbefore, written out a part of the good words and of the good teachings of our saintly King Lewis, so that those who read may find them set in order, the one after the other, and thus derive more profit therefrom than if they were set forth among his deeds. And from this point we begin, in the .lame of God and in his own name, to speak of his deeds.

As I have heard tell he was born on the day of St. Mark the Evangelist, after Easter (25th April 1214). On that day crosses are, in many places, carried in procession, and, in France, these are called black crosses; and this was as it were a prophecy of the great number of people who were to die in the two Crusades, viz., that of Egypt, and the other, in which he himself died, at Carthage, whereby there were great mourning’s in this world, and many great rejoicings in paradise for such as in these two pilgrimages died true Crusaders.

He was crowned on the first Sunday in Advent (29th November 1226). The beginning of the mass for that Sunday runs: And what follows after; and this means, “ Fair Lord God, I shall lift up my soul to thee, I put my confidence in thee.” In God had he great confidence from his childhood to his death; for when he died, in his last words, he called upon God and His saints, md specially upon my lord St. James and my lady St. Genevieve.