There is little news from Turkey direct, and that little
may be summed up in the sentence, that the Provinces are simmering and Constantinople boiling. The Sultan is trying to call out Reserves, but there is no money to move them, and some of them, aware that they will get no pay, refuse to obey the summons. The Arabs, too, aware of disorder at Constanti- nople, are stirring. A descendant of Mahommed, who once before headed an insurrection in Yemen, is on foot again, and is besieging Sans, the fortified capital, with forty-seven thousand men, all irritated by Turkish exactions and cruelty. The garrison holds out, but relief will be difficult; and if Sana falls, the Shereef of Mecca will probably assert his independence and claim the Kalifate, thus, until he is sub-
dued, detaching Arabia, India, Egypt, the Soudan, and Syria from the spiritual sway of Abd-ul-Hamid. This is a most formidable revolt, and, should it prove successful even for a time, may do more to destroy the prestige of the Sultan than any threats from infidel Powers. He sinks from the Head of Islam into the Sultan of the Ottoman clan, who, say the haughty Arabs, are " only Tartars" after all. The clouds are thickening over Constantinople till one may almost hope for the flash of lightning which will at once reveal and shatter.
