NEWS _ OF THE WEEK.
THE interregnum in Turkey, during which a knot of Pashas, self-appointed and self-appointing, have managed the affairs of the Empire in the name of a hopeless lunatic, has ended. On the 31st ult. the great Divan assembled, and after hear- ing the fetwa read declaring the transaction lawful, proclaimed that Murad V. was deposed, and that Abdul Hamid reigned in his stead. Nothing said of a Sultan before his elevation is ever true, and in Constantinople it is the custom to publish on each accession a series of stereotyped lies, the new monarch being always friendly to the West, eager for reforms, the husband of one Ns ifp—which is impossible, the family law of the House for- bidding marriago absolutely—and well acquainted with the French tongue. The usual falsehoods will, of course, appear, but apart from them, the revolution will probably be beneficial. An average Sultan cannot be worse than an average Pasha, he has no need to make a fortune by peculation, and be has something to lose beyond his head, which a Pasha, usually a man risen from the slums, has not. There is an idea at Constantinople, repeated to ourselves by well-informed men before his accession, that Hamid will prove a strong, self-willed, fighting barbarian of the old type, whose first act will be the execution of some of the " reformers ;" but the lies are so numerous and so sickening, that it is better to believe nothing. The single fact in favour of Hamid is that he is not extravagant, and the great fact against him is that for three months Ire has allowed a Cabal to reign whom, if he had the energy, he could on any night have arrested and imprisoned. At all events, the Powers have now a human being to deal with, instead of a Co- optative Committee.
