The holders of Turkish Consolides are at last to pay
the penalty of their confidence in Lord Palmerston and his professed belief in the regeneration of Turkey. The State is insolvent, the coupons of the consolidated debt not having been paid, and it is said that bonds which the Government had pledged itself not to issue till July, 1867, have already been secretly sold. The Government appears to have lost its credit completely, no one will lend it any- thing, and it mast, if its expenditure goes on, speedily come to a dead lock. It is perhaps as well that the inevitable break-up of this empire should be preceded by a bankruptcy. Englishmen never sincerely like a defaulting. State, and it is as well that the final arrangements should not be impeded by an ignorant English sympathy with a tribe which is now simply a nuisance in Europe. At the same time the break-up will probably not be too rapid for safety, for once free of the debt, the Sultans will go on as they did before they began raising loans —spend when they have money, and when it is done steal wore.
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