The Sun.
London, England, 1837-08-31 00:00:00

TURKEY.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
CONSTANTINOPLE, AUG. 9.—The following imperial
mandate for the better administration of justice appeared in
the Turkish Gazette of the sth inst. The profession of the
liberal and wise intentions animating him, which the Re-
former Mahmoud therein, for the first time, makes before
his subjects and the world, renders this document one of
foremost importance :
" Each day the vigilant solicitude of his Highness dis-
covers a new cankering sore in the body of the State, and
each day a fresh act of mercy serves to re-call to the minds
of the poor and the weak that the august Reformer of the
Empire above all places his glory in consolid.ating their
welfare, and thus meriting the blessings of every class of his
subjects. But in the career in which he is engaged, that
sweetest of rewards is won only after an arduous struggle
with ever-recurring difficulties, and through a perseverance
which no obstacle is able to damp. When a nation, owing
to the concourse of propitious circumstances, favoured by
the slow and salutary influence of time, has arrived at the
appreciation of its real interests, at the conviction of the
expediency of a new order of things, it becomes in a great
measure identified with its Chief; called upon to guide it
towards new destinies, and the task of the legislator becomes
simple, and of easy execution. His hand every where meets
with materials of a pliable nature, prepared already to as-
sumo the forms into which he thinks necessary to mould
them, and, ever engaged in the path which he has traced
out, ho opposes the wishes of the mass to the partial re-
sistances he may chance to meet with.
" Such are not, however, the conditions under which
may be accomplished the immense labour of this country's
regeneration. Above all, and this difficulty is assuredly
not the least, it is necessary to bring conviction home to
the minds and to the consciences of its population, and
while familiarizing them with innovations of which they
do not, nor cannot, comprehend the tendency, to wean them
imperceptibly from a past to which they as much by the in-
fluence of long-established custom as that of their igno-
norance of the views of the reformer are rendered blindly
partial. While operating this radical new-moulding of cus-
toms, institutions, and habits, consecrated by the sanction of
centuries, it imports especially, on the other hand, never to
lose sight of this truth—that the established domestic man-
ners are a sanctuary into which place it is never to gain ad-
mittance, and into which reform may penetrate only by de-
grees, and when preceded by the torch of reason ; for if,
neglecting to secure these guarantees of success, the legis-
lator calculated solely on the extent of his power and su-
preme will, he would expose himself to reap a scanty liar-
vest, the production of a soil whose powers of vegetation
have been overstrained.

" These grave thoughts have, up to the present day, in-
variably guided the march of the Sovereign whose compre-
hensive intellect has conceived the plan of, and strives to
open, a new era for these regions. Less anxious to obtain
the applause of contemporaries than to obey the necessity
of giving solid foundations to his undertaking, he proceeds
slowly, and, imitating the tardy but infallible operation of
nature, confides to time the care of unfolding and of strength-
ening the fruitful germs destined to shed one day over the
empire the blessings of a salutary reform.
" One of the branches of the public service, the import-
ance of which merited especially to draw the attention of
his Highness, is the administration of justice, and every
class is equally interested that the most scrupulous regularity
should preside over the acts of the judiciary body ; but
here, as in every other country, it is unfortunately but too
true, that, generally, the weak has the least chance of caus-
ing his voice to be heard, and it has often occurred that
unjust sentences have aggravated his position already but
too entitled to compassion. On various occasions the Sul-
tan had, through rigorous orders, awakened the vigilance
of the inferior authorities to prevarications of this nature,
that took place in districts under their jurisdiction, and
thanks to these reiterated admonitions, and more especially
to the examples of severity that accompanied them, when
proofs of the delinquency could be obtained, Government
had succeeded in repressing a disorder, the deeper to be
branded, as directly in contravention of the national religion.
" Nevertheless, in some districts, particularly in those
which their situation seemed to place beyond the reach of
inspection, this disorder continued yet to exist, and even
became aggravated, through the introduction of another
abuse, the origin of the most injurious consequences—
namely, the right assumed by the judges of revising and
annulling the decisions of their predecessors whenever the
party condemned had the means of purchasing a new
sentence.

" It is especially in lawsuits about properties of Vakooss
that the abuses were most frequent. An ancient regula-
tion, yet in existence throughout the empire, consecrated to
the heirs of preachers, imaums, and other servants in the
mosques, the right of succession to the offices they filled
previous to their decease. It was only in the event of their
dying without heirs that strangers could obtain admission to
these offices, provided they could bring forward authentic
testimonials of their good behaviour and capacity. Heedless
of this wise proviso, magistrates unworthy of the name, used
for a stipulated sum to come to an agreement with indivi-
duals whom every consideration should have kept aloof from
duties so sacred, and to deliver to them certificates which
enabled them to obtain the appointment, to the prejud,ce
of persons equally recommendable for their information and
virtuous conduct. In consequence of this guilty traffic it
often happened that the students from the provinces aspic*
ing to these offices, who attended the schools in the capital,
on finding themselves unable to satisfy the cupidity of the
Judges, either had to make fruitless applications, or to have
recourse to unfair means, such, for example, as to swear
that the titulary deceased left no legitimate heirs. When,
however, after obtaining their nomination, they repaired to
take possession of their situation, the latter would come
forward, and disputes arose, which ("aye a source of scan-
dal, of confusion, and of fresh sacrifices' for both parties.
" This system of arbitrary misrule and of shameful ve-
nality in a branch of the administration which most of all
requires disinterestedness, received its chief support from
the very authorities appointed to oppose it, and even from
their acting in collusion with the Judges themselves. This
system stood the more in opposition to the reforming views
of the Sultan, as it ranked invariably among its victims in-
dividuals belonging to the least favoured classes.

" It became urgent to remedy an evil so prejudicial to
public morals ; and no sooner did his Highness become ac-
quainted with its existence than an Imperial Edict ordered
the execution of the dispositions as follows :
" Ist. Judges are strictly enjoined to pay the most
scrupulous attention to the observance of laws, and in the
discharge of their judicial functions to pay no regard to the
rank of the disputants. Judges convicted of having,
through motives of interest or other considerations, been
led to betray the principles of equity, will be removed
from their offices, and their names razed out of the list of
Ulemas.

" 2d. They are formally forbidden from re% ising or an-
nulling the verdicts returned by their predecessors. Those
who may infringe this order will be deposed, and their
names blotted out of the list of Ulemas.

." 3d. Every sentence or certificate delivered by judges
in cases relative to Vakooss is in future to be signed by the
directors of the property of the mosques residing in the
sandjak where the judge exercises his functions, or, in the
event of their absence, by the governor of the district.
" Firmans countersigned by his Highness the Sheik-al-
Islam have been distributed to let this, the Imperial will, be
made known to known to all."