The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-10

From TIE Pail Mall 0dSette.
If we are 20 believe the latest intelligence
from the Bosphorus, one more Of the great
subsisting relics of the grandeur Of times
and nations gone by is doomedt to destruction.
The walls of Constantinople are to be demol-
ished OF are already in process OF demolition.
IL seemed to present O pictorial summary Of
long tract Of history-hve or six volumes Of
Gibbon at least--that grand line of double
and triple rampant with its numerous towers
and gates extending four miles, from the
Golden Horn to the Propontis-the long
long walls that stretch from sea to sea, as
Charles Kingsley describes them In one of his
most spirited ballads For thousand years,
from their completion under Theodosius until
the capture by the Turks, they had
served as a barrier between effemi-
nate wealth within and rapacious barbarism
without. For no invad er had succeeded in
penetratinp them. The Latin conquerors
arrived by sea. But they were even more
dear to the lover Of the picturesque than to
the antiquarian. The ancient walls of Rome,
venerable as they are, but irregular in out
line, often sunk in deep hollows, masked with
houses and with gardens so as to be generally
invisible until close approach, and nowhere
presenting any long and imposing front, we're
not to compare in point of grandeur of ap-
pearance with those of her daughter capital.
Shattered with earthquakes, preached by ene-
mics, robbed of material by encroachers, that
magnificent range still remained in substance
unbroken, with even its towers standing in
regular succession. The Turk resembles the
Englishman especially in three things-fond-
ness for horses, for young children, and for
trees and he has indulged the latter passion
all along the leeward face of this ancient
fertilization. The broad open space, or
glacis, which follows its outline-what ride in
Europe can equal it ?--is fringed on one side
by splendid vegetation protruding from the
old bitches and ruinous slopes, on the other
by the cypress groves of one cemetery after
another. All this monument of forgotten
story will soon cease to exist The stenes, it
is said, are to serve for new erections, and
part of the material has been dutifully pre-
sented by the Sultan to his mother, to dispose
of as she may think proper. Some Oriental
Haussmann, or, more probably, some COM
pany of ingenious Western adventurers, re-
joicing in concessions, will replace it with
bran new boulevards and barracks and su-
| burban walks, with their due proportion of
| cafes cbatants and casinos. No question that
| Constantinople presented fine field for the
| modern improver. But, considering the ex-
| tent of waste or neglected ground within its
walls, the lanes Of ruinous huts to be demo-
| lished, the grand sites to be utilized, one
cannot help fancying that its imperial @dile
might have begun by making clean the inside
| of the cup and platter, and that there was
enough to occupy him and successor or two
within the walls before they were called on to
assail that venerable fabric itself.
But it must be confessed that there is
| good deal of allowance to be made for the
| embarrassing circumstances in which the
Commander of the Faithful is placed. Were
| he really master of his own land he would no
doubt follow the customary instincts of his
| unprogressive race. The monuments of anti
guilty scattered over his dominions would
only excite in him philosophic disdain. His
Turkish subjects would not take the trouble
to do them any damage, unless when load
of stones was particularly wanted, or when
some irregular soldiers fancied using them as
casualties, they would be left to
moulder away for some peaceful centuries
more. But the unhappy potentate has in
truth no will of his own; he is at the mercy of
foreign diplomates, upstart Rayahs, who beard
him under diplomatic protection, meddling
consuls, protected usurers, speculators, traders,
and Western intriguers Of all kinds In this
matter of antiquities, he is like the old man
with his donkey, in the good old fable. If
antiquaries are down upon him as an obsolete
barbarian, who ought to be driven into the
remotest parts Of Asia, in the name OF
taste as we'll as religion. If he leaves
them alone, host of sanitary reformer,
and administrative reformers and architec
turel improvers are at hand, ready oinsist eacl
on his separate scheme of demolition. Many
love these remnants with passion far ex.
ceeding their desire for progress of any kind
Others = not apathetic unbelievers, bu
bustling Christians-hate them with kline
of abstract sentiment, as if they stood in the
way of better things. ''The devil take tn
Turks, said the Cavaliere Mustoxidi, who re
joiced in the title of Royal Arch@ologist Of
Greece, 'tfor not destroying the antiquities o
Athens when they had the power" The i'm
provers, we suppose, have really the best o
J it. But our own sympathies are rather ol
the side of the traveller who would enjoy on
more solitary ride ''from sea to sea" along tn
face of those weird ramparts, were it possible
rather than drive in some new-fashione,
equipage round the Constantinople of tn
future, brilliant with its endless rows of uni
form flat-faced houses in uniform strsigh
streets.