The Sultan has struck a blow which may prove to
have a recoil. He suspects all around him of hostility to his person, and last week ordered Marshal Fuad Pasha, the moist trusted soldier in Turkey, to be carried on board a steamer, which conveyed him to Aleppo, whence he was transported to Damascus, where in future he is to reside. The order would probably, as usual, have been followed by a secret execution, but the Russian Ambassador intervened, and some high military officials, and his Majesty condescended to explain that he had not sentenced the Marshal, but had ordered him to Damascus for reasons of his own, and that he would reside there in comfort. The military chiefs are naturally uneasy, as the Sovereign who could suspect his most faithful general may suspect any one; and Abd-ul-Hamid may yet find that he has seriously weakened the defences of his throne. It is believed in Constantinople that all his sus- picions are imaginary, and that he condemns without reason on the evidence of spies who maintain their influence by keeping up his terrors, but it is at least as likely that plots are really numerous, and that Abd-ul-Hamid is well in- formed. What a life his must be' Many Roman Emperors must have lived in eqital danger, but they were for the most part men with nerves of iron.
