The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-04-15 00:00:00

THE SULTAN AND HIS PALACES.

The following h an extract from the letter of the Special
Correspondent of The limes, who writes from Pera

Official information has been published that His
Majesty the Sultan has shifted his quarters from his
winter residence at Dolmah batcheh, to the adjoining
palace at Cheragan. The old palace of the Seraglio,
which has been the residence of the rulers of this land
for fifteen centuries, and the position of which, at the
point of the triangle formed by the city of Constantine,
between the Sea of Marmora and the harbour of the
Golden Hors, points it out as the very key of the
Bosphorus, has been abandoned by the degenerate de-
scendants of Mshomet 11., since its main building was
destroyed by fire in 1863. Sultan Abd-ul-M.edjid
lavished immense treasures to build this new palace of
Dolmah-batsheh, on the shore at the foot of the Pera-
hill, round the turning of the left or northern bend of
the Golden I torn, past the Artillery Arsenal of Top-
haneh, and the suburb of Vondookli ; and, not satis-
fied with this, Abd-ul-Aziz, the present Sultan, has
out-done his brother by the construction of his new
palace of Cheragan, a gorgeous edifice, where millions
have been sunk in precious marbles, mere splendour
and magnificence so dazzling the eye as to blind it to
the deficiency of architectural taste. Cheragan lies also
on the shore, beyond Dolmah-batcheh, separated from
it by a few few yards' interval, and the two mansions,
with their grounds and premises, stretch on a long lin!,
fronting the Bssphorus from Top-haneh to Ortakeni,
their blank walls obstructing the sea view from the
high road which runs behind them for the best part
of two milts. The Sultan's removal from one to the
other of these sumptuous abodes implies, therefore,
only a few steps journey, and involves neither a
change of air nor of prospect, for the two Palaces
stand side by side, like the two wings of Carlton-house-
terrace, with a gap hardly larger than Waterloo-place
between them.
The present flitting, however, is only the first of the
idle
restlessness, migrations to which the Sultan will, in his
restlessness, be impelled as the summer advances. The
care of his scores of palaces, pavilions, kiosks, and
pleasaunces on either side of the Strait constitutes one
of the main occupations of his vacant existence. To
hoard money, to pile up brick or stone and mortar, and
to gaze from his window at his ironclads riding at
anchor, are the only breaks on the indolence and
Indulgence of his harem seclusion. A Prince born in
the purple, not perhaps destitute of such instincts and
faculties as might have raised him to high destinies,
Sultan Abdul Aziz has sunk into a mere pampered and
cloyed voluptuary. Unfitted for any work by his
effeminate bringing up, obese and flabby, incapable of
sustained exertion, mental or physical, corrupted by
his own overweening consciousness of unbounded autho-
rity, and by the base adulation and adoration of those
who exaggerate his conceit of a power which they
exercise in his name, but for their own benefit, this
Padishah, this "Refuge of the World," this "Shadow
of God," keeps aloof from cares and duties, and with-
draws within himself, limiting his intercourse to a
bevy of female slaves and a herd of eunuchs, or Court-
ChaTberlains with eunuchs' hearts, with such effects
on his ternp,r as may be expected from a contrast
between the obsequiousness that surrounds him in his
fool's paradise and the snubs and buffets which await
bim whenever he ventures into collision with the
stubbornness of the outer world. It is only in his
harem, as he must feel in spite of himself, that his
reign is absolute. Outside its walls there are rebellious
Glaours and meddling Christian potentates, and weak-
minded Ministers grudging the supplies. But within
those walls his stronghold is impregnable, and there he
abides, invisible, inaccessible to reason or remonstrance,
unameltable to advice from Vizier or Ambassador. No
truth, it is felt, can make its way to the Sultan; no
good would come of it if it could. For any measure of
reform or improvement by which his tottering Empire
might be stayed in its fall the Sultan has to be sur-
prised, hoodwinked, or bribed into giving his consent,
nor is there ever any certainty that what has been
obtained by the Minister's stratagem may not at any
moment be revoked by the Sovereign's caprice.

THE BOAT RACE AND OVER-
, J TRAINING.
The Pall Mall Gazette remarks :—" One of the
reasons assigned for the defeat of the Oxford crew in
the boat•race on Saturday is that they were 'over-
trained' Whether this were the case or not, there can
hardly be a doubt that the. science of 'training,' like
many other sciences, is yet in its infancy, and that the
oourse of training followed as a rule by those who are
preparing for the performance of athletic feats, even
if effectual for the purpose for which it is adopte3, is
not conducive in the long run to good health or longe-
vity. Indeed it will be found that many, it not the
majority, of those who attain unusual length of years
almost invariably indulge in one or more habits
prenounced by medical experts to be decidedly un-
wholes, me. It is a notorious fact that octogena-
rians, and even 'reputed centenarians,' are often
inveterate smokers, and must eccording to ac-
cepted medical theory, be thoroughly satu rated with
nicotine by the time they are laid in their graves.
Some even habitual topers live to a very old age, and
others who take no exercise worthy of the name enjoy
perfect health and last many years longer than their
more active contempJraries. One of the most remark-
able instances on record of admirable health and
longevity, notwithstanding a departure from those
rules of temperance and exercise which are supposed
to exercise such an important influence on health, is
that of the Rev. William Davies, rector of Staunton-
upon-Wye and vicar of All Saints', Hereford, who
died in 1790, aged 105, This reverend old gentleman
during the last thirty-five years of his life never
took any other exercise than that of shuffling his fret
from one room to another, where he would kit till bed-
time. He always eat hot buttered rolls for breakfast,
an enormous dinner, consisting of a valiety of dishes,
and a supper of hot roast meat, besides drinking a
liberal allowance of wine. He never suffered from
gout, rheumatism, or indeed from any other disease or
infirmity. His temper was Jovial to the last, and he
Passed away with a chuckle, without apparent suffer-
ing, universally beloved and respected."

EXECUTION AT HERTFORD.

George Hill, aged twenty-two, a groom, was exe-
cuted on Monday morning within the county prison at
Hertford for the murder of his illegitimate child. The
murder was committed under circumstances of great
atrocity. The prisoner, who was in the service of a
gentleman at St. Alban's, had formed an acquaintance
with a young woman employed at a ribbon
manufactory at St. Albans, and the child
whose death he was convicted of causing was hers.
The mother had taken out an affiliation summons
against the prisoner, and he appeared to have
formed in consequence the intention of killing
the child and the mother alp. He represented
to the latter that he had prepared a house for
them to go and live in, and a day was
appointed for their marriage. Two days before
the marriage was to have taken place, on a
Sunday evening in July last year, the young woman
met him by appointment in the neighbourhood of St.
Albans, at his earnest request bringing the child, which
was five years old, with her, and as they were
walking through a corn field the prisoner made a
desperate attack upon them both with a heavy hammer,
leaving the mother for dead in the field, and the infant
a corpse. The prisoner was at once apprehended, and
the only excuse he made for his conduct was that he
was seized with a sudden impulse to destroy the mother
and the child, and added that he intended after wards
to have destroyed his own life.
The defence of insanity was set up for the prisoner
at the trial, but the evidence failed to establish the
plea, and the jury, without any hesitation, convicted
the prisoner. A day or two ago the prisoner, in a con-
versation he had with the governor of the prison, fully
admitted the justice of his sentence, and said that when
he went into the corn-field with the mother and the
child he intended to have killed them both, and he
said he believed that the mother was dead before he
left, or he should have stayed and killed her.
Mr. M. S. Longmore, the under sheriff of the
county, accompanied by his officers, Messrs. Orridge
and Oram, went to the prison on Monday morning
shortly before eight, and a procession was formed to
the scaffold. The prisoner walked with a firm step to
the scaffold, and when the drop fell he appeared to
struggle very little before life was extinct.
Nearly forty years have elapsed since there has
been an execution at Hertford.