The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-08 00:00:00

REFORMS IN TURKEY.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Sept. 26.—1 t cannot be too
often repeated that the chief cause of the mistakes
made by Europeans with regard to Turkey arises
from- the circumstance that they attempt to intro-
duce their own ideas unmodified, instead of adapt-
ing them to the peculiar character of the country.
The result of this mistake is that most, not to say
:all, attempts at reforming• Turkey, in a Euro-
ipean sense of the word, have become caricatures,
which possess most of the bad f3aturcs of those
same institutions in Europe in a
prominent degree
'without having ono single good one in them. Thus
the attempt of introducing a regular adminis-
trative system has led to an expensive, com-
plicated, and corrupt bureaucracy.; the attempt
to form a European army has produced
414 amphibious force, • =him regular nor

irregular ; and even the attempt at dressing the
Turks as Europeans has ended in peopling the
streets with ludicrous-looking creatures, who seem
equally uneasy when they sit down or when they
get up. And yet most of our European ideas, if
modified and properly applied, could be of the
greatest use to Turkey. The only difficulty is
how to do this.

Take, for instance, publicity. There is, perhaps,
no idea of ours which seems so utterly opposed to
all current notioris in an Eastern mind as that any-
thing connecte,d with the Government should be
made public. The mass of the people are still in
that benighted state where blind faith is the main-
spring of all obedience. Secresy becomes a State
maxim, for the denser the veil is in which all acts of
the Government are hidden the greater is the feel-
inn. of awe. It would be, therefore, folly to press
publiciV on a country like Turkey, especially as
the Mass of the people would take no interest what-
ever in the most interesting disclosures.
At last, however, there seems a beginning made.
In the last number of the semi-official Journal de
Constantinople there is an official table of the popu-
lation of European Turkey, made at the last census
in 1845. According to the law there ought to
have been a census in 1853, that is, every seventh
year ; but owing to the war, this has been deferred
to the present moment. The same number of this
journal has likewise a translation of the decree or-
dering a new conscription at Constantinople.
The Imperial decree is as follows :
" It would be useless to enlarge on the advantages of
a census, which is recognised as of great importance,
both for good government and a good administration. To
follow this rule a census has been already made several
times ; but since the last census considerable time has
elapsed, and it is necessary to correct the old registers,
to know the exact number of the present population,
and to compare it with the old one. To arrive at this
result orders have been issued for a new census. Em-
ployes and registrars will bo designated for this purpose,
and will be sent to the different points of the capital, of
Scutari, and of the Bosphorus, to note down the male
population, without any difference as to religion, and
without leaving out any one.
" In order to make a distinction between the Ottoman
and other subjects, every one will receive a sened, or cer-
tificate, which he will be obliged to exhibit whenever he
wants to get possession of property or of a legacy, or to
"This system is. doubly advantageous, because it will
prevent the abuses which result from false pretensions of
certain persons, and which exercise an evil influence in
lawsuits and other public affairs. His Imperial Majesty,
in the interest of his subjects, will give to every one of
them henceforth a Take e, with his Imperial cypher.

" Moreover, beginning from the month of Moiharem,
of the year 1273 of the Hegira, every family will have to
make a declaration in all cases of birth or death to the
Imatim or Muchtar or Papas or Haham of the quarter,
or to any other person who will be designated, and who
will correct the register of his quarter and transmit it to
the town authorities.

" Such is the Iradi of his Sublime Majesty the Sultan,
which must be executed. The census will begin in a few
days, and instructions have been given to the employes
who have been designated for the purpose to announce
the day when the census will take place, that every one
should be in his quartel that day. The advantages of
this measure cannot be mistaken ; nobody should try to
escape it ; on the contrary, every one should come for-
ward freely to be inscribed. Every person who after the
closing of the registers shall not be inscribed must hold
himself responsible for the consequences, and the present
information is given that everybody might take his
measures accordingly."