fists in my face.

In the midst of which in walked the vekil, to whom I pretended entire innocence, and asked who these two unfortunates were, and what they wanted; he smiled a smile of peculiar significance and ordered them out of the room. I now felt very much puzzled as to whether I ought to offer the vekil a lira or not, but he was such a well-dressed and highly polished individual, having evidently learned his French and his manners in Paris, that I felt rather shy, and thought I would wait for him to give the first hint. To my surprise he made no illusion to the subject, was most polite in his assurance that I should not have to wait long before receiving an answer about the papers; and I parted from him in a satisfied frame of mind.

In the hall I was again set upon by the deaf mutes, but rescued from them by my friend the door-keeper, to whom in my gratitude I gave a lira, and looking back had the satisfaction of seeing him engaged in a violent gesticulatory quarrel with the deaf mutes.

I now waited patiently for a fortnight, and heard nothing, so I went, braving the deaf and dumb janitors-to whom, however, for peace of mind, I ultimately gave a few mejidies-and was assured that if I called in a few days I should hear of my papers. This I did several times, always having to pay my way and always being put off with specious excuses, until it occurred to me one day that this was perhaps the vekil's mode of extorting a bribe. The self-respect which had prevented him from directly demanding it, and the trouble he had given me, caused me to form rather a high estimate of his expectations, so I wrapped five liras in a piece of paper, like a doctor's fee, and repaired to the well-known room, which I found so full that I was somewhat embarrassed as to the best means of conveying my little douceur to his pocket. There was a sort of double entrance to the room, leaving a dark space about three feet wide between the two doors; so I whispered that I had something of importance to communicate if he would step out with me for a moment; from the alacrity with which he responded I saw that he understood at once what I had been so long in comprehending, and in another moment we were in the dark hole between the two doors, when, with

out more ceremony, I expressed my regret that I had put him to so much trouble already, and was likely to put him to so much more, and requested him to accept a little present, placing the rouleau in his hand at the same time. He protested that he had been at no trouble, and that he could not hear of such a thing as accepting a present, and went through the form of trying to force it back upon me; but as I resolutely declined, he reluctantly and in an absent sort of manner allowed his scruples to be overcome, and promised me that if I called on the following day on the minister to whose department schemes of the nature I had proposed were referred, I should find that they had been dispatched there already by the Grand Vizier, and were under consideration. It had taken me exactly one month, ten visits to the Porte, and had cost me altogether a little over ten pounds to achieve this preliminary result.

I now felt that I should save time, and possibly money, by employing an intermediary to make the journeys and give the bribes. I did not so much mind the first, but the offering bribes was one of those delicate and disagreeable operations which it requires a special training to do properly; moreover, there was something humiliating in this constant hanging about waiting-rooms which I wished, if possible, to avoid; while I found my ignorance of the language a serious inconvenience. A few words of Turkish will often save money on these occasions; so I asked the friend to whom I have already alluded if he could recommend me a man skilled in matters of this sort who would act as interpreter, spy, and doer of dirty work generally. He promised to send me a master of the art on the following day. Early next morning there appeared a wizened little Greek, who was prematurely old-looking. I don't think he was more than thirty, but the pinched expression of his face was produced by the deep lines with which cunning and avarice had already seamed it. He was extremely obsequious and servile, talked French fluently, but in a hurried, disjointed, and somewhat indistinct manner. He had rapid, stealthy, cat-like movements, and a quick, furtive eye. Altogether, although not prepossessing, his appearance was

most encouraging; he was evidently just the sort of scoundrel I wanted. It was quite plain that there was no lack of intelligence, and as for principle--well, I should have to supply the whole of that myself. That I should possibly have to supplement him with another spy to watch him was highly probable, but it would all add to my knowledge of human nature, and life in Pera is so dull that one must create an interest of some special kind. I thought it would be very exciting, should it become necessary, to drive a sort of spy tandem. I used at last to call him the commander-in-chief, when I found out that he was recognized by the whole class of political and financial sneaks who make a livelihood out of the prevaling official corruption, as the head of the profession.

He was a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, and extremely particular about the observances of his religion. His distress because a near relative became a pervert to Mohammedanism upon one occasion was so great that he was unable to attend to business for two whole days, and when he came to inform me of the painful fact the tears started to his eyes. It seemed that his relative was rewarded for becoming a renegade by being given a position under the Government, which offered exceptional chances for plunder, and I think he wept because he had missed the opportunity himself. However this may be, he was a very pious young man, with a holy horror and contempt for Moslems, whom he considered so barbarous and uncivilized that any device which should transfer money from their pockets to his was a sort of righteous act, for which he expected not only to derive immediate advantage in this world, but a future reward in the next. When I explained to this worthy exactly how my business affair stood, he informed me that the minister who was the head of the department, and who was also a Christian, was a difficult man to deal with, as it was probable that he would soon be turned out of his berth by a rival in the cabinet who occupied a lower position in it, and who was intriguing against him in the palace. As his tenure of office was so uncertain and might be short, he was raising his demands in the matter of backsheesh so as to take as much money as possible away

with him. He therefore put it to me to consider whether it would not be best either to do nothing and wait, or to make friends with the rival, advance him money to carry out his intrigue, and help him in the palace in other ways which he suggested, thus securing him as a close ally for subsequent operations. It was a delicate point to weigh, because, on the one hand, success was not certain ; the minister would be pretty sure to discover that I was helping his enemy, and if he did not succeed in overthrowing him, he would become a most formidable and bitter antagonist. On the other hand, if I paid him the large backsheesh he was certain to ask, he might be turned out the day after, and I should have to pay it over again to his successor. other alternative of delay and inaction seemed to me intolerable. This is a specimen of one of the difficult problems a concessioner at Constantinople is occasionally called upon to solve. After mature deliberation I decided that the safest course, although it might turn out the most expensive, was to deal at once with the minister now at the head of the department, and I directed the commander-in-chief to discover the amount of money he would expect.

The

The process which my demand of concession had to go through in this department was examination by the minister, and a small committee appointed to assist him, which should make a report upon the scheme prior to its going to the Conseil a' État. It was of course of the greatest importance that this report-or mas-· bata, as it is called-should be favorable. The commander-in-chief returned after a few days with the pleasing intelligence that two of the committee whom it was important to secure would require £200 apiece, and the minister himself £2000; that if I paid down these sums like a gentleman in the first instance, I should be summoned before the committee, examined in regard to my scheme, might make any proposals I liked, and they would be acceded to, and a report made in glowing terms in its favor. The question I now had to consider was whether the commander-in-chief had not invented. a much larger sum than was really asked, in the expectation that he would be the intermédiaire, and would have an opportunity of putting a large share of it in his

own pocket. The risk was so great, the impossibility of checking him so absolute, that I decided to pay the minister the £2000 myself, leaving him to pay the understrappers. But then came the practical question of how to do it. It would not do to give him a check for the amount; the transaction must be one which should leave no trace. The only way I could think of was to carry it to him and give it him plump. Now £2000 in gold is no joke to carry in your coatpockets; nevertheless I had that sum put into two bags, and, with my pockets bulging most suspiciously out, I took a carriage and drove to the ministry. I had a sort of guilty suspicion that all the loiterers who hang about departments knew what was in them, as I went up the dirty stairs to the antechamber, where two or three people were waiting for audiences; and I instantly sat down on the nearest chair, and spread myself out as much as possible, so as to look naturally a stout person. When I sent in my card I was at once admitted, and walked in before them all like a hen with its wings spread out. Now, at the last moment, I had determined to try the veracity of the commander-in-chief by only offering the minister £1000 in the first instance. The question was how to do it delicately, for he was a man of high rank and much consideration in Constantinople, and was to be met in the fashionable European and diplomatic society of Pera. After a little general conversation I asked him' if he had looked at my scheme. He said he had. I then asked him how he liked it. He replied, that in its present form he was afraid there were serious objections to it. I said I hoped that these might be overcome. He replied, that he hoped they might; that he had not had time to consider how they could be removed, but that at the same hour to-morrow he would have made up his mind, if I would have the kindness to call upon him then. I now saw my opening; in fact I perceived that he had purposely given it to me. I therefore proceeded to pull out a bag; of course the horrid thing stuck, but after struggling with it for some time I got it out, together with some of the lining of my coat. I casually left it on the divan on which I had been sitting, when I got up to take leave. I have since had reason to regret my exNEW SERIES.-VOL. XXXI., No. 6

treme stupidity in not remembering that I should show an inequality in my shape as I left the room. I kept my hand in the pocket in which the other bag was, and seemed to be fumbling for something, so as to try and hide the excrescence, but I fear unsuccessfully.

The next day I returned with the £1000 divided into two smaller bags, so that I was comparatively slim-looking, and was again shown into the minister, who received me with great politeness, but told me that he regretted to find, after consideration, that the objections were more serious than he thought, and he feared that it was very doubtful whether it would be possible to report upon the project favorably.

I saw it was no good trying to economize, and that he probably would not be satisfied with an extra £500, for he had seen the second bag sticking out the day before; so I pulled both bags out, left them on the divan, told him I would call the following day to hear his final decision, as I was convinced that more mature reflection would induce him to modify his opinion, and took my leave.

On the following day I had the satisfaction of hearing from him, that several ideas had suggested themselves to him during the night, by which the obstacles, which at one time seemed almost insurmountable, might be removed, and that he would fix a day for the committee to meet, when I should be asked to be present.

A week elapsed, and I received no summons, so I sent the commander-inchief to find out the cause of the delay. He returned with the ominous intelligence that a remodelling of the cabinet was in progress, that business was at a standstill in several departments, where changes were in contemplation, and that he much feared that the meeting of the committee would be delayed until it was decided whether the present minister was to remain at the head of it or not.

It seems that the rival had been very active, and was likely to prove successful, in which case my £2000 had been absolutely thrown away. Things remained in this state for another week, when this unfortunate contingency actu ally occurred. My friend walked out of his department with my £2coo in his pocket-perhaps in both of them, as I

46

had first walked into it. The new man, who knew not Joseph, succeeded him, and so ended my second month.

All this arose from my being in too much of a hurry. If, when I first heard of the rival, I had patiently waited till the ministerial changes had taken place, I should have saved the money; it is true months instead of weeks might have elapsed, and in that case the time lost would have been of value; still it is never wise in Constantinople to be in a hurry. It is not the custom; and one finds one's self out of tune with things in general, and is sure to get into a scrape. The commander-in-chief read me this little lecture while I was bewailing my fate, and it is due to him to say that from the first he counselled absolute inaction, but I thought he only did this to prolong operations, and his own consequent employment.

Now we had to begin all over again. The commander-in-chief informed me that the new incumbent, though he would readily have availed himself of my assistance, pecuniary or otherwise, to turn out his late colleague, was quite inaccessible to a bribe, which was clearly to be regretted, as he was a most obstinate crotchety old Moslem of the fanatic school, opposed to all innovations or improvements, or influx of foreign capital, or foreigners themselves, of whom he entertained the greatest distrust and suspicion.

However, the commander-in-chief suggested other agencies than those of money by which he might be worked upon-these were diplomatic; and here I am getting upon ground too full of quicksands to tread safely, so I will pass over it; indeed, if I were to tell all my experiences I could fill a volume, and weary the reader; my object is rather to give snatches of them as illustrative sketches. Suffice it to say, that it took me three months, and a great deal of intrigue and bribery of subordinates, before I got a report of a very lukewarm kind, but not absolutely unfavorable, during which time I was perpetually trotting across to Stamboul, attending the commission, and getting put off, and worried, and delayed in all manner of

ferred, is a huge official spider deriving a precarious subsistence from the financial flies which it catches in its net. It is composed of thirty members who are supposed to be paid salaries of from seven to ten thousand piastres a month by the Government, but this is a fiction. They are expected to live upon plunder, and it must be admitted, to their credit, that they have elaborated a very effective system for the purpose. They work chiefly on two great principles: one is artfully contrived delay, and the other no less artfully contrived blackmail. For instance, no sooner was I brought into contact with this body than I discovered for the first time that a rival scheme, of which I had heard nothing before, had just been submitted to the Grand Vizier, and was about to be referred to the department from which I had emerged; that it would, to judge by my own experiences, be three months before it was reported upon by this department, and that the Council of State had decided that it would be desirable to have both schemes before them before entering upon the question at all. The commander-in-chief was now in his glory; in three days he found the particular Greeks and Armenians who had subscribed a sum for the purpose of proposing the blackmailing project. It is needless to say that they had not a farthing to carry it out, even supposing they could obtain the concession-in that case they would of course sell it to any promotors or speculators who could form a company upon it. Associated with them were several of the most influential members of the Council of State, but their partnership in the concern was sub rosa, and they did not appear as having any interest in the matter. The commander-inchief proposed to enter at once into negotiations with this group, who, being natives of the country, and most of them professional blackmailers, it was hoped might easily be dealt with; and I accordingly consented to entertain any propositions they might make, as they had secured the co-operation of one or two influential Moslems and under-secretaires. Their scheme unfortunately gained the sympathy of the fanatic old minister who presided over the department through which I had already passed, and it was evident that they

would obtain a far more favorable report than had been accorded to me. The matter therefore became serious, and as I was afraid of other competitors. even if I bought my existing rivals off, I proposed a fusion by which they should be to some degree associated in my enterprise. The extraordinary acuteness of these Armenian gentlemen in matters of finance is so well known that I will not weary the reader by describing the subtle character of the bargaining which went on, and of the conclusion to which we finally arrived; suffice it to say that I referred it to England, with my strong recommendation that it should be adopted, but that the syndicate at home indignantly rejected it, as a barefaced attempt at robbery, and instructed me to make war to the knife upon all rivals of this description.

The commander-in-chief pulled a long face when he heard of this-I suspect he was to get a percentage on the transaction from the other side if he could bring it about-and prophesied defeat, or a victory which would be more expensive in the end than if we had come to terms. It now became necessary at once to set about buying those members of the Council who were not pledged to the other scheme, and especially that section of it to which both schemes were to be first referred. This consisted of eight members, and of these I secured. four, including the President. I allowed. the commander-in-chief to make all the bargains, and carry all the money, the total amounting to £850, namely, £250 for the President, and £200 apiece for the others. This I did not think expensive, but it was supplemented by a promise of a much larger sum, if, in consequence of their efforts, I finally secured the firman.

I now found that I had to subsidize three or four clerks and office writers, who furnished me with copies of all that passed at the meetings of the section which were supposed to be secret, but I had reason to be satisfied with the procés verbal which I obtained by these means, and which proved very accurate. I was also put in possession of any secret and confidential official communications relating to the other scheme, of which I stood in need, and of plans and documents, etc., which were supposed not to

be known outside the department. The poverty among the minor employés was so great that an occasional donation of £50, to be distributed among them by the commander-in-chief, was quite enough for this purpose.

Altogether I succeeded tolerably well at this stage of the proceedings, and before I had been eight months in Constantinople both schemes had been examined by the section, and sent up to the full Council, my project being far more favorably reported upon than that of my opponents. But it was in the full Council that their strength lay. Here they had the President-whom they had associated in their scheme, and who was a cabinet minister-and several influential members on their side. The Conseil d'Etat being composed of several sections, it was necessary to buy one member of each section, and it cost me upward of £2000 to get the opposition scheme rejected, and mine reported upon favorably and sent up to the Council of Ministers; and this only after a delay of four months, and owing to the fortunate accidents of another change of ministers having taken place, and my old friend, the minister to whom I had originally given £2000 having succeeded in intriguing himself back into power. I must say he behaved in the most honorable manner; no sooner did he enter upon his new functions than he sent a message to me to say that I might rely upon him as a friend, and that he would exercise his influence in order to have the report cancelled which the Council had agreed to sign in favor of my opponents, without requiring any more money down from me, provided that I would promise him £5000 in case 1 got the firman. This I did unhesitatingly; the scheme of my opponents, after having been on the point of being adopted, was thrown out at the last moment, and mine went up to the cabinet with flying colors. This minister now became my intimate friend and adviser; in fact he considered himself an associate in the enterprise, and I derived much useful information from him. He recommended me to secure no less a person than the Grand Vizier himself, as he feared when the question came to be discussed there would be considerable opposition. This I did; but I will pass over the details of how I managed it. The matter