14 OCTOBER 1876, Page 2

The Chichele Professor of Modern History at Oxford has been

surprising the readers of the Guardian by proving to them, on the authority of English travellers, that the Mahommedan subjects of the Porte in Bulgaria pay in taxes "eight times the taxation of the Rayahs." This statement is quoted from "A Residence in Bulgaria, by Captain St. Clair and Mr. Brophy." In Wednesday's Guardian the Rev. Malcolm MacColl, who had read the work in question, supplies the data which it gives its readers for this extraordinary statement. It is this. The Rayah and the Mussulman each pay 30 piastres in taxes. Besides this, the Rayab, who may not serve in the army, pays 25 piastres more,—in all 55. The Mussulman, however, is liable to give the labour of 182 days in the year to the Government as a soldier. But the value of this labour is calcu- lated by the travellers at 400 piastres. Hence they hold that the Mussulman really pays 430 piastres against the Rayah's 55, or eight times as much ! This is something as if the delightful position of the Jews, while they were still held incapable of civil and political rights, had been compared favour- ably with that of the wretches whose time was taken up. in exercising those civil and political rights ; and as if it had been proposed,—Professor Montagu Burrows's authorities really made- an analogous proposal as regards the Rayahs,—to tax the Jews extra in order to compensate the Government for the loss of their- civil and political services. The Oxford Chichele Professor of Modern History is evidently a man of high discrimination in the- choice of historical authorities.