to a foreign loan as the readiest way to replenish an exhausted treasury. Such a loan guaranteed by the great powers or by one of them could not fail of success, ample for domestic wants, and a small percentage for distribution among the creditors. Failing this, small sums have been borrowed from time to time of the Galata bankers, whose names appear in the recent transaction, and secured by a pledge of the different revenues. Such loans are simply ruinous; to the Turks if they are repaid, to the bankers if they are not. The new agreement, if I comprehend its scope, embodies a series of dealings and gives more satisfactory security to the bankers; and at the same time relieves the custom-house of certain incumbrances and turns its proceeds into the public treasury. This source, though constant, is small. The duties are nominally eight per cent. A gentleman having the best possible means of knowing, recently assured me they do not exceed three per cent., and that brokers would undertake for three per cent. to secure the delivery of goods. Efforts have been made to place the collection of the customs revenues, as well as of the others, in the hands of a commission of foreigners. This proposal the Turks resist if they do not resent, and I am persuaded they will never submit to it except as the last resort of despair.

In my dispatch No. 290, of November 25, 1878, I represented the condition of the currency. The table giving the rate of exchange between the different kinds of money is reproduced, adding the rate for this day, viz:

For the past eight months or more the paper money has been refused by the traders. It depreciated until by general consent the circulation was abandoned.

Various devices for retiring it have been adopted. Among them is one to receive one-fifth of certain taxes in paper at 25 per cent. of the nominal value. The Imperial Ottoman Bank superintended the issue, numbering, and registering of the notes, and the bank is now charged with the withdrawal. The latest report is up to the close of the last month and is a brief summary of this short-lived currency.

At first copper money took the place of the paper in the markets and the smaller retail trade. But for some unexplained reason it soon began to depreciate until it sunk to the level of the paper, and like it was discarded. This was not the result of increased coinage, for no copper had been coined during the last ten years. The only use made of it at present is in payment of tolls across the bridges between Galata and Stamboul. And as the bridges are constantly thronged, this use is considerable. Now the principal business is transacted with silver and an obsolete coinage called beshlik or metallik. The latter, of which none has been struck since about the fifth year of Sultan Medjid (1844), is silver with so much alloy as to disfigure it and to render the coins disproportionately large. A few specimens are inclosed. In considerable sums it is exchangeable for silver at fully ten per cent. discount. The smallest silver coin is a piece of twenty paras, a half piaster, equal in value to one English penny. There are also coins of one, of two, of five, of ten,

and of twenty piasters, called the medjidieh, in honor of the Sultan Medjid, in the early part of whose reign it and the rest of the series were first coined. The five-piaster coin is called by the Turks sometimes the tcherek or quarter piece, sometimes the beshlik or piece of five; the others have no particular name, I believe.

The history of Turkish money would be instructive as illustrating the tendency generally prevalent to lower the value of the money unit. For years in Turkey the piaster has been the money unit; that is, the money of account has been reckoned in piasters. The piaster is divided into forty paras, and the latter was formerly subdivided into three aspers. In the fifteenth century the asper was a silver coin of considerable value. (See Gibbon, chapter lxv, where mention is made of an annual pension of 300,000 aspers, and the notes on the passage, Milman's edition.)

Persons not very old remember to have heard their fathers describe the asper as a piece of money which in their early days was current in small traffic. The para was coined in silver at a comparatively recent period, and I have in my possession specimens of it. But this, like the asper, was debased until its value was too small to be reckoned in trade. The smallest piece now current is one of five paras, equal to a half a cent of our money, and, like the half-cent piece of our early coinage, of little use. In 1801, the reign of Sultan Selim III, the piaster contained 95.7 grains of pure silver, value $0.258, but during the reign of Sultan Mahmoud II, from 1808 to 1839, the coin was rapidly debased. In 181s the piaster contained but 67.7 grains of pure silver, value $0.184. At length silver was supplanted by the adulterated beshlik, or metallik, just mentioned. Finally, when the coinage of silver was restored by his son and successor, Sultan Medjid, the piaster had fallen to $0.043 in value. The restoration of the currency to a metallic basis has not counteracted the disorder in the public finances. On the other hand, the burden of the government seems to rest heavily on the general community. Although trade is stagnant, prices have increased enormously. Rents. food, fuel, and service of all kinds have risen in many instances forty per cent. higher than they were three years ago; and the cost of living is greatly enhanced. In a word, those who do not pay contrive to be supported at the expense of those who do. Many persons believe the end draws nigh. I think not yet.

I am, &c.,

HORACE MAYNARD.

[Inclosure 1 in No. 361.-Translation. ]

Sawas Pasha to Mr. Maynard.

SUBLIME PORTE, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

December 1, 1879

SIR: With the double object of meeting the pressing demands upon the imperia treasury and of resuming as far as possible the payment of the interest on the public debt, domestic and foreign, and in conformity to the positive wish of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, the Sublime Porte has just taken the following measures:

1. An arrangement has been made between the state, the Ottoman Bank, and other bankers, in relation to the collection, the administration and appropriations of the

revenues from certain branches of the excise.

2. The Sublime Porte has made a decree which does not ask the holders of the se curity of the public debt, domestic and foreign, to give up any of their rights, but guarantees to them a fixed annual amount, which will be sensibly increased at no dis

tant date.

These two acts which give force to each other being naturally interesting to a great

number of foreigners, I have the honor to communicate a copy of them to you herewith, and request you to bring them to the knowledge of your countrymen, both in the empire and abroad.

Accept, &c.,

SAWAS.

[Translation of the foregoing report.]

IMPERIAL OTTOMAN BANK, STAMBOUL OFFICE (DJIZAIRLI KHAN).

REDEMPTION OF THE CAÏMÉ.

Amount of the caïmé withdrawn and canceled up to November 30, 1879 (evening).

Sent from the malié, from the treasuries of the ministries and provinces.

N. B.-The total amount of the caïmé issued represented a nominal sum of........

Redemption effected up to the present time amounts (as above) to.. Still in circulation or on hand on the evening of November 30, 1879, according to the registers of the bank...

181, 174, 120

340, 002, 282

662,573, 352

1,600,000,000 662, 573, 352

937, 426, 648

For the Imperial Ottoman Bank:

C. C. LA FONTAINE.

Certified as agreeing with the accounts:

ART. SCHAMITOT.

No. 374.]

No. 699.

Mr. Maynard to Mr. Evarts.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Constantinople, January 10, 1880. (Received February 9.) SIR: Several times in these dispatches I have made reference to the Armenians. These ancient people have a hard history. Their present existence, though in greatly reduced numbers, illustrates the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of exterminating a whole race. Their geographical situation, on the eastern confines of Asia Minor, exposed them to the earliest incursions of the Turcomans, first under the Seljuks, then under the Osmanli Turks. They appear at once to have accepted their fate, and to have subsided into abject servitude, without much amelioration prior to the middle of the present century, particularly those who remained in their native land.

About thirty years ago, or a little more, the missionaries from the

United States directed their efforts to the uplifting of this downtrodden people. Here, as in every other part of Turkey, they have been sedulously protected in their labors by this legation. The results are summed up by a late English writer of rare power and opportunities for observation:

The Armenians have advanced but a very little way on the road of education.

A wish for instruction is everywhere beginning to be shown, and it has received a strong and most salutary impulse from the numerous American missionaries now established throughout Armenia. The untiring efforts of these praiseworthy and accomplished workers in the cause of civilization and humanity are beginning to bear fruit, espe cially since education has become one of their principal objects. They are working wonders among the uncivilized inhabitants of this hitherto unhappy country, where mission-schools, founded in all directions are doing the double service of instructing the people by their enlightened moral and religious teaching, and of stimulating among the wealthy a spirit of rivalry, which leads them to see their own ignorance and superstitious debasement, and raises a desire to do for themselves, by the estab lishment of Armenian schools, what American philanthropy has so nobly begun to de

for them.

The moral influence that America is now exercising in the East through the quie but dignified and determined policy of its legation at Constantinople, curiously free from political intrigues and rivalry, is daily increasing, and has the most salutary effect on the country. It watches with a jealous care over the rights and safety of the missionaries, who are loved and respected wherever they settle, and make their influence felt in the remotest corners of Turkey. (Next to Greece, whose educational efforts are naturally greater throughout the country, it is America that will be euttled to the gratitude of the Christian for her ready aid in elevating the ignorant masses to the dignity of civilized beings. (Twenty Years' Residence among the People of Turkey. Chapter V. Harper & Brothers, 1879.)

Recent events have stirred to life this the most torpid of the subject races in the Ottoman Empire. On the one hand the operations of the war intensified their misery and added a new badge of inferiority to their inherited lot; on the other, the Anglo-Turkish convention of June 4, 1878, awakened their hopes, and the example of their fellow-subjects in Bulgaria and other European provinces stimulated them to effort.

I have received to-day from the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople copies in pamphlet of a memoir on the Armenian question, addressed to the great powers of Europe, and just published; it is inclosed.* The relief sought is very moderate-incommensurate, certainly, with the evils complained of.

I have, &c.,

No. 610.

HORACE MAYNARD.

No. 381.]

Mr. Maynard to Mr. Erarts.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
(Received March 16.)

Constantinople, February 19, 1880.

SIR: I have already had the honor to convey such information as I have found obtainable, touching the life-saving measures for the benefit of navigation in the Black Sea. (Dispatch No. 358, of November 15, 1879.)

This subject has come again under consideration. Ten days ago there was a meeting called at the British embassy to discuss it, at which were present the diplomatic representatives of the several maritime powers. It was shown that the service had become greatly demoralized. Although the money for its support had been regularly collected and Omitted from the present publication, owing to its length.

*

covered into the Ottoman treasury, it had been difficult, practically impossible, to obtain even the smaller and less expensive apparatus, such as lines and rockets; while the men had been paid nothing for the last six months except the contributions mentioned in dispatch No. 375, of the 12th January last. Consequently the life-saving service threatened to resign in a body, and mid-winter though it was, the service would, for the time at least, come to naught.

A second meeting yesterday resulted in a collective note to the Sublime Porte, of which a copy is inclosed, another chapter in the history of this beneficent establishment, but not, I hope, the final one.

I am, &c.,

[Inclosure in No. 381.1

HORACE MAYNARD.

Trans'ation of the collective note of the foreign representatives to the Porte.

FEBRUARY 19, 1880.

SIR: The undersigned deem it their duty to call the attention of the Sublime Porte to the present condition of the life-saving service and of the light ship in the Black Sea, at the entrance to the Bosphorus. The Sublime Porte is aware that in 1871 the international commission of the Bosphorus, called together under the presidency of the prefect of the Porte, decided to increase from 15 to 20 paras the small tax paid by every merchant ship passing through the Bosphorus, to maintain these services. At the same time certain reductions were made and certain arrangements were effected by which the sum so raised should be sufficient to meet the necessary expenses and the reimbursement of the capital.

For some years the life-saving service has been conducted, the undersigned are pleased to learn, with great regularity and perfect success, under the direction of Captain Palmer, who, as the Sublime Porte has not forgotten, lost his life two years since in a courageous attempt to rescue the crew of a wrecked Turkish ship. The crewsof the life-saving stations on the Black Sea have succeeded in rescuing from death a great number of lives and in giving most valuable aid to a multitude of vessels in peril. For the past two years the wages of the employés in this service have been irregu larly paid, or paid in caïmé (debased coinage), although its value was greatly depreciated, and notwithstanding that the tax was collected in midjidiés (silver).

Frequent remonstrances have been addressed on this subject to the admiralty, and regard was given to them for a time. But the undersigned regret that they are obliged to inform the Sublime Porte that for some time the wages of these devoted men, whose conduct in performing their difficult and perilous duty is above all praise, have been irregularly paid and subjected to reductions so considerable that they are no longer sufficient for their maintenance, and that the most necessary food and clothing are wanting to them. No longer able to endure the hardships to which they are exposed, the crews of the life-saving stations have declared in writing that they will resign in a body unless their wages are paid at their original rate, and measures are taken to assure them, for the future, regularity in their pay-days. If these conditions are not complied with the important mission which they fill will be abandoned, to the great detriment of navigation in the Black Sea, and at the risk of seeing perish a large number of shipwrecked men.

The undersigned have also learned that the apparatus, such as rockets, ropes, &c.,. for saving imperiled crews, for some time past has not been furnished at the Black Sea stations, in spite of the pressing and repeated demands made to the imperial authorities. But the tax of 20 paras, which the governments of the undersigned authorize to be levied on their merchant marine, is expressly set apart for the special purpose of maintaining in a proper state of efficiency the life-saving service and the light ship in the Black Sea.

Therefore, it is incumbent upon the undersigned, as the Porte will readily admit, to see to it that the funds so collected are devoted solely to this purpose, for which they would amply suffice, the undersigned are convinced, if they were honestly and regularly administered under a well-organized management.

The undersigned have, then, the honor to request that the tax in question of 20 paras be collected in the future by the international council of health, which shall have the power to punctually pay the wages of all the employés in the life-saving service and on the light ship, and to procure the necessary apparatus.