The situation at Constantinople has been very strained, but for
the moment there is order. The Sultan, frightened by the attempt of the War party to release Murad, and by the burning- down of "the Porte "—the Downing Street, so to speak, of Constantinople—has dismissed Sadyk Pasha, who was "a reformer," has re-established the Grand Vizierate, and has entrusted it to Mahomed Ruchdi, a quiet, old Tory Turk, who is specially charged in the order to guard the Imperial preroga- tive. He has, moreover, appointed his own sister's husband, Mahmoud "Damad," the most hated man in Turkey, but a deter- mined one, Minister of War. This means that "the Palace" has defeated "the Porte" once again, and that the Sultan is master ; but the duration of this regime depends upon the soldiers. Their mind is not yet known, nor is there any evidence that they would support any particular leader against the Sultan. In the recent insurrection, the guard turned out at once against the invaders of the Palace, and shot sixty-one of them.
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