1 JANUARY 1921, Page 34

Under the Turk , in Constantinople. By G. F. Abbott. (Mac-

millan. 18s. net.)—Mr. Abbott has written an entertaining book about Sir John Finch's embassy to Constantinople in the years 1674-1681, when the Ottoman power was still great to all appearance, though it was soon to be humbled by the Austriansi Mr. Abbott has used the despatches of Finch and the memoirs of his treasurer, Dudley North, and his chaplain, John Covel, and of Ryeaut, our consul at Smyrna, aa well as contemporary French memoirs, to make a lively picture of the corrupt and arrogant Turkish court. We are far from the days when the Turks could hold Western ambassadors to ransom and subject their nationals to degrading punishments, but the. Turk is unchanged.