The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-06-17 00:00:00

THE ELEVATION OF MURAD V.

The following h an extrac; from the later of the Special
Correspondent of The Times, writing from Therapia, on
Juue 3:—

Eighteen months ago I chanced to witness the acces-
sion of King Alfonso XII to the Throne of Spain.
Yesterday I was present at the elevation of Murad V.
as 33rd Sultan of the dynasty of Osman, What I
said on the former occasioa I may repeat on the pre-
sent. The new Sovereign appeared, in either cage, all
that his people could desire, and the Ministers who
were instrumental in his rise might equally be said to
have a great card in their hands if they knew how to
play it. Yesterday, being Friday, the new Padishah
for the first time showed himself to the whole Assembled
pepulation of Constantinople, and I can freely testify
that the enthusiasm his presence excited was is
genuine and unanimous as that which hailed Isa-
bella's son all along his progress from Barcelona
and Valencia to Madrid. Indeed, the rejoicieg of
the masses who crowded the streets of Galata and
Staeiboul was even more iree from alley than the
exultation which met the Spateieh Monarch on his
laiitiing, inasmuch as in Spain some misgiving mieht
arise in consideration of the immature age of the
Prince, while in Turkey tile Sovereign who is the
object of popular acclamatiou comes before his people
in the very prime of his liCe, and in full possession of
such faculties as Providence has bestowed upon him.
In every other respect the successors of .Charles V.
'and of Mahomet 11. may equally be sail to have in-
augurated their reigns by the exhibition of all those
gracious and benevolent outward instincts which at
once revealed them as the men of their age. Both of
them were preceded by the announcement of a great
retrenchment in their personal expenditure; both
were anxious to lay aside that Godlike sublimity
that raised their predeeessors into beings, as it were,
of another sphere, and estranged them from the in-
terests and sympathies of naaeleind. The King of
Spain desired that the old form of tutoiement, which
Court etiquette had maintained in Castile from the
First to the Second Isabelle, should be discontinued,
himself giving the example of that mode of address
which common courtesy had introduced among his
subjects; and the Ottoman Emperor made his first
appearance dressed ma plain military uniform, in a plain
fez withouthis aigrette of diamonds' without decorations,
with none of the ornaments distinctive of his rank, and
he moved through the throng not in the erect and statue.
like stiffness of a Padishah, too high and mighty to.
seem aware of the plaudits which greeted him, but
bowed to right and left in acknowledgment of his
people's salutations, bowed to the very a ane of his
white steed, then raised his face radiant with a hap-
piness which he was at no pains to conceal, and
which he saw reflected in the countenances of
the myriads of the delighted multitude. It was, to
all outward seeming, the accession of a European
Monarch that these Orientals welcomed, and this con-
ceit was confirmed by the Order which was published
yesterday, that persons admitted to the Imperial
presence should no longer, as was the custom, accost
the Sovereign with their arms folded on their bosoms
and their faces bowed to the ground, as if awed and
dazzled by the superhuman light of a god's face,
but that they should henceforth stand up to their
natural height and speak as man to man, face to
face, the Sultan valuing his subjects's true love
and reverence, and dispensing with their abject, sera
vile prostration. At Constantinople, as well as at
Madrid, the wra of the citizen Kings was ushered in.
The stormy rain and wind, in the midst of which
the overthrow of Sultan A.bdul Azlz was accemplishA
during the night of Monday to Tuesday, and which, I
am told, was considered auspicious by the Turks, was
succeeded by calm and genial summer weather as the
sun announced the Mationeedan Sabbith day. Friday
was in this instance a holyday for men of all creeds,
and the business of the whole population of the Bos-
phorous was to crowd upon the line of thoroughfares
along which Sultan Murad was to attend Divine
Service at the Moe que. The Sultan left the Palace
of Tielinabatsche at half-past eleven in a Sate
carriage drawn by four English horses. He
was driven along the main street of Galata to
the Karakeui Bridge, across the Gold( n Horn,
and through the quarter of the old Seraglio to
the Palace of ToreCapou, and alighted at the'
sanctuary where the Hirkai Sheriff, or mantle of
the Prophet, is preserved. There he was reoeived by
the Grand Viz er, the Sheilul-Islem, and a host of
Church and State dignitaries; and hence, mounted on
a magnificent white palfrey, be proceeded to the great
'Mosque of St. Sophia. There the Imam praised God for
." long life to Sultan Murad, son of Abd-ul-Medjid,
Khan Gazi, and grandson of Sultan Mahmoud Gazi."
After the prayer the Sultan rode back to the bridge,
recrossed it in his carriage on his way back to Dal-
mabatsche, and reached the Palace about four in the
afternoon.

In the midst of all that military pomp of the troops
of all arms drawn up in bright array all along the line
of the Sultan's progress, and in presence of all that
spendour of an Imperial retinue, unrivalled in the
world for barbario gorgeousness, men seemed to have
no eyes but for that one mild, benevolent face, and for
the vastness of ths motley crowd that pressed every-
where on to his horse's hoofs. The Sultan's photo
graph by the Brothers Ahiclullah is by this time
before the world; it is a perfect likeness) as all that
come from the hands of these Armenian artists, and it
is no unfair index of a; miod and character of which
people entertain a favourabie but not very exalted
opinion. The Sultan is in his 3,3 th year, be has a
handsome brow and fine eyes, good straight features,
somewhat marred by a projecting mouth and recdiug
chin. He shaves all his beard with the exception of a
thin moustache, and looks younger than he really is.
He is not uneducated, speaks French, and is supposed
to have inherited some of the feebleness, with much of
the uprightness and gentleness, of his father's
character. In a quiescent state the tountenance has a
slatv:ie of melancholy, natural to a soft and yielding
nature which has too long been brow-beaten and sat
upon. Thu crowd, however, saw nothing but perfection
in its idol of the moment; and what a crowd it
was !—the equalid rabble from Greek, Jew, and Mos-
lem quarters, the throng of carriages with Pasha's
wives and Ambassadore'ladies ; the colours of gaudily-
dressed veiled women, clustering like bees at every
window or balcony; the Mollahs, the Dervishes, the
Latin priests and monks elbowing their way through
the hamals, the water carriers, the vendors of cake and
lemonade, and all the hurly-burly ef the Galata
Bourse, the Bazaar entrance, the landing stairs—all
the noise and bustle of three great towns and a hundred
villages blended in one swarming mass. My head still
whirls with the hubbub, my bones still ache with the
crush."
A telegram to the Standard of Monday BY : -

"Sultan Murad is slightly ill, in consequence of
recent excitement. He weeps bitterly over his
uncle's suicide, which he ftscribed to his own sudden