The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-08-25 00:00:00

TURKISH COURT OF LAW.-A PEEP BEHIND

THE SCENES

As we were walking one day in the bazaars a singular in-
cident occurred. We were just issuing from a shop under
the arched way leading to one of the khans, when a young
Greek, who had been observing us for a few minutes, stepped
forward and stood in our path. His appearance and action
showed that he wished to attract our notice, and John im-
mediately asked what he wanted. He replied by demanding
the payment of a sum due to him from John, my attendant,
saying that the latter had long escaped his notice by having
assumed the new costume of the Sultan in place of the Ar-
menian dress which he formerly wore. John was, at first,
somewhat disturbed by the charge, but promptly denied the
debt, and demanded how much the Greek supposed it to be.
" Ten piastres," was the reply. Upon this there followed a
loud war of words. John asseverated his innocence; and
the Greek persisted in the charge. He followed us as we
pursued our way, now and then plucking the Armenian by
the coat, and vociferating his accusation in the hearing of
the multitude who thronged the bazaar. The latter at last
lost all patience, and began to show an intention of proving
his innocence with his fists. Unwilling to see him involved
in a fray that might lead to consequences prejudicial to my
own interests as well as to himself, I took him aside, and re-
monstrated against his denying the debt, if he had really in-
curred it, offering myself, in that case, to discharge it. He
persisted, however, in his denial, and declared that he had
never so much as seen his accuser before. As I had already
had strong proofs of his integrity, I began to suspect that the
whole charge might be a fabrication, and advised him, if he
could do no better, to carry the matter before the proper au-
thorities. Immediately he turned to the Greek, and called
upon bins to follow.
We proceeded together to the Eski Scrai, (Old Palace,) the
quarters of the Serasker Pasha, pamti between the sentinels
stationed at the gate, crossed the spacious court, and entered
a small room. The parties advanced and stood in the mid-
dle of the apartment, while I remained at the door to watch
the progress of the trial. A middle-aged Effendi was seated
opposite. The Greek, with a low selam, opened his corn-
-I,lt.int, but great was my astonishment when I heard him
charge John with a debt of seven times the amount that he
had alleged in the bazar. The Effendi turned to the Arme-
nian and asked him if he acknowledged the debt. Upon his
replying in the negative the judge told them that they must
go to the mehkemeh. or Kadi's Court, and immediately or-
dered a servant to attend them. So good an opportunity of
seeing the interior of a Turkish court of justice could not
be suffered to pass unimproved. I determined, therefore,
to follow. _ _

We reached at length a low, red, wooden building, in style
and appearance like a Turkish house. The servant conduct-
ed us up a flight of stairs into the presence of an inferior offi-
cer, who has the first cognizance of such cases. The same
process was repeated here as at the palace, excepting that
the officer ordered a scribe to make a record of the case. We
were then conductid to the door of another apartment, be-
fore which hung a heavy curtain of coarse cloth. The ser-
vant raised the curtain and told us to enter. Thinking that
my evidence might be of service to prove the contradiction
in the words of the Greek, I entered and remained in the
middle of the floor with the parties. The room was a small
one, and without any other furniture than an ordinary Turk-
ish sofa opposite the door. In one corner of this sofa sat a
short and stout personage somewhat inclining to corpulency.
At the moment of our entrance he was munching a head of
lettuce. We were in the presence of the Kadi, the ordinary
distributor of justice in Turkish cities, but one educated in
the medresseh, and learned in the law. The same questions
as before were asked and answered. Both parties seemed in
great awe of the superior presence in which they now stood,
and spoke with greater moderation than before.
When the Kadi observed the contradiction is their words,
he ordered a servant who stood near the door with his hands
folded before him, to bring a book that lay upon a small
shelf in the corner of the apartment. Upon this, an old and
well-worn volume was put in the hands of the accuser, who,
holding it before him, pronounced, in Turkish, these words ;
"By God, this man owes me money." John immediately
took the hook and said, " By God, I do not owe him money."
The judge then demanded of the accuser, " Where are your
witnesses ? " The Greek replied that he had friends who
would bear testimony to the debt, but wished for some time
that he might find them. " Then," said the Kadi, "go
away and return to-morrow," and calling the attendant,
he required him to see that the defendant found security for
his appearance. The plaintiff and defendant made a low
obeisance, of which the Kadi took no notice. I knew, from
the position which I occupied, standing in the middle of
the floor, that my own respects would be received with no
higher deference, and I thereforespared them. Before I had
turned my back the Kadi was engaged withhis lettuce again.
John was able to secure the assent of his brother, a re-
spectable jeweller of the city, to stand responsible for his
re-appearance on the morrow, and we were permitted to
proceed upon our business. The kavass, or servant who
acted as constable in the case, had offered to settle the affair
for a competent present ; but I advised John, if he were
truly innocent, to maintain it before the Kadi, and he was a
man of too much spirit to do otherwise.
Those who have an insight into life at Constantinople know
iomething of the incessant intrigues and lesser rogueries
which the love of money and of power, and sometimes baser
passions, are pursuing among the myriads of its population.
A foreigner may spend his life in the city without becoming
conversant with them. It is one, however, among the best
known of the secrets of the capital, that there are among the
Mussulmans themselves professional false-witnesses, whose
places of resort are known, and who are always to be found
ready to be used as evidences to any thing that their em-
ployer may direct them to say. The fact is familiar to every
Mussulman in the city, and is no where better known than
in the mehkemehs, where these professional characters are
recognised by their frequent appearance. The profession,
however, is an easy one in a country where, in civil cases,
justice is administered in the most summary manner—where
there are no lawyers to cross-examine, and but slight penal
safeguards against perjury.

John imagined that Iheservices of some of these characters
might be put into requisition in the present instance, and as
the Greek had left the mehkemeh to go in search of his wit-
nesses, we thought it best to look into some of the haunts of
men of this sort. The result was, that in passing a range of
cafes notorious as the harbouring places of such characters,
we found the Greek i►► earnest conversation with a Mussul-
man. 'We did not disturb the conference farther than to
make the former aware of our presence. The confusion
which the sight
.of;us created strengthened my conviction that
the whole was a piece of imposition. The issue of the busi-
ness served only to confirm it. The next day the father of
the Greek sent for John, made ample apology for his son's
mistake, and proposed to settle the matter by each one's
making a small present to the kavass. The Kadi, probably,
amidst the multiplicity of such cases daily presented before
him, never again thought of the trifling question between the
Armenian and the Greek.—Southgate's Travels in Turkey
and Persia.

The cruel attack which Mr. Grantley Berkeley, M.P.'
made on Mr. Fraser, the London publisher, (which was fol-
lowed by a duel with Dr. Maginn,) in consequence of a re-
view of the tale " Berkeley Castle," which Mr. Berkeley
considered to be an unwarrantable attack on his family's fair
fame, must be in the remembrance of every one. This pro-
ceeding of the hon. member has been resented by the classes
to which Dr. Maginn and Mr. Fraser belong ; and scarcely
a notice of his last novel, " Sandron Hall," has appeared
in any publication in town or cfnintry, whether review, maga-
zine, newspaper, or literary journal ! This may be called
barking Mr. Berkeley s aspirations to authorship.

A. Manchester correspondent thus facetiously alludes to a
fair weather report circulated in that town on Monday last
It was rumoured about the town that the sun was seen
yesterday about ten o'clock, but up to the present moment all
attempts to discover the person who was blessed with the
sight have proved ineffectual. It was traced to a draper, but
he had gained the information from a factory lad, a pale faced
son of the soil, who on being questioned, vowed it was a mis-
take, he only having heard, of, not seen, the glorious orb of
day. Several little boys played truant on the strength of the
report, but as a matter of course, were chastised, there being
no excuse for their rashness."—Hereford Times.
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.—We have just been given
to understand that the opening of the line to Bath is de-
finitively fixed for Monday, the 31st of August. Several ex-
perimental trips have been made during the last few days, in
all cases attended with a successful result. On Thursday
one of the engines went at a speed of CO miles an hour, or a
mile per minute. On Tuesday the Meridian and tender did
the distance from Saltford, through Keynsham, to the en-
trance of No. 3 tunnel, nearly four miles, in the incredibly
short period of three minutes. On Friday a powerful loco-
motive drew the enormous weight of 24 waggons, loaded with
gravel, for the ballasting of the line. The skew bridge at
Bath will be completed in a very few days, and the elegant
station at that place will also be ready by the end of next
week. All doubts are now removed as to the time for open-
ing, as this part of the works was that which caused the prin-
cipal delay. The progress of the works at the Bristol ter-
minus is very satisfactory, and progresses as rapidly as pos-
sible.—Bristol Standard.

IMPROVED HANDICAPPING.—A correspondent of the
Post suggests that the Goodwood Stakes should be divided
into two classes—the division being left entirely under the
control of the handicappers, who might then literally class
the horses. Is it not, he ccntinues, absurd to see a four-
year-old give horses of his year three stone, and after the
race discover that six stone might have been given ? Look
at the Hetman and Forlorn Hope, the Hetman and Pluto ;
look at Fitzambo, Wings, Auburn, and such like. No.weight
at all could make a race between them, and race-horses ; at
the same time put these forty or fifty wretches in a class by
themselves, and it would be as fine a sight as Lanercost, Het-
man, Charles the Twelfth, and Beggarman for the Goodwood
Cup. There would be upwards of thirty acceptances to each
class, perhaps forty, and quite as large a field as on the late
occasion, and the stakes would he still worth £7OO or £BOO
each—enough in all conscience. I would adopt the same
regulation at Warwick, and everywhere else, when there
might be 100 subscribers. -

ONE STORY GOOD TILL ANOTHER IS TOLD.—A gentle-
man of considerable magnifying powers was relating in com-
pany how a military friend of his, having his left cheek
sliced off by a sabre-cut at the battle of Waterloo, had
coolly picked up, replaced, and bandaged with his handker-
chief the stray segment, which after a few days was recon-
ciled to its parent face ; that is to say the cheek was cured
by inosculation, as it is termed. After this " good thing"
had passed current, with the addition, of course, of a few
obvious comments from the wags of the company, as to the
right cheek having been for the moment the left one, &c.,
an old gentleman quickly took the lead, and observed that a
far more remarkable occurrence had happened to a friend
of his, a cavalry officer, at the same battle, and who, failing
to parry a cut aimed at his face, had his nose clean shaven
off. " Thereupon," continued the elderly narrator, "my
friend stooped and repossessed himself of the deficient fea.
ture, which he clapped on his face, bound it with his hand-
kerchief, and then went pugnaciously on, as if nothing had
happened. In the sequel, he found the nose firmly united
to his face—with this irregularity, however, that it was re-
versed or turned upside down, owing to the haste with which
he had put it on again. This circumstance did not much
disturb him, for being a great snuff-taker, he was thus en-
abled to apply the powder to his nostrils without the usual
waste—but one consequence of the change he would some-
times complain of, as rather inconvenient, namely, that
whenever he wanted to blow his nose, he was obliged to
stand on his head."

INFAMOUS IMPUTATION UPON THE JEWS.—A Vienna
correspondent of the Debats gives the subjoined account of
an infamous imputation upon the Jews, similar to the affair
at Damascus, which has been lately made at Lemberg, in
Austrian Galicia :—" A young woman, who had lived as
nurserymaid in the family of a wealthy Jew named Lumber-
ger,-at Tarnon, went to Lemberg, and made a declaration
before the magistrates that she had been kept by her master
in close confinement for three weeks, during which time she
WAS bled every other day by a Jewish surgeon, and her blood
used in making unleavened bread. A police-officer was sent
to arrest M. Lumberger, but, knowing the excellent charac-
ter of the accused, he took the precaution of securing also
the denouncer. When the accusation came to be investi.
gated, it was proved that the girl having one day, while out
on her master's service, received a wound in the head with a
stone, which fell upon her from a house which was building,
her master and mistress, instead of sending her to an hospital,
had her taken care of in their house, treating her as if she
had been their own child, calling in a catholic physician,
who bled her twice, but no more, as absolutely necessary to
save her life. The servants of the family swore that when
she left her place she went down on her knees to M. and
Madame Lumberger to thank them. The ungrateful girl on
being closely interrogated confessed the falsehood of her de-
nunciation, and declared that she had been overcome by the
persuasions of her lover, who had an implacable hatred
against all Jews." •