18 OCTOBER 1873, Page 2

A telegram was received in London on Friday which may

be intended to help to float a loan. If, however, it is honest, it means that the end of Constantinopolitan finance is very near at hand. The Government has recently been paying 20 per cent. for short loans, and the Sultan has now decreed that the Vacouf property throughout the Empire shall be secularised. This means that the temple lands and the lands held in trust by temples to avoid taxation are now to be subjected to all the burdens on secular property. It is all fair, we believe, as the exemption was most unjust ; but it is a most daring, if not desperate step, and may produce insurrection throughout the country. It will certainly deepen the dislike of the old Mussulmans for their Sultan, and increase the distrust of Europe in Turkish bonds. A Committee, however, is "to bring about an equilibrium in the budget," which it will succeed in doing when the Papacy is put in commission. Nothing on earth can prevent the Sultan taking all he wants, and as he thinks himself the richest monarch in the world, he wants a good deal.