An Austrian correspondent of the Times, writing from Vienna, confirms
the view we expressed last week as to the fall of 11.Iidhat Pasha. He has been superseded because Mahmoud has again aroused the Sultan's defeated hopes of altering the succession in favour of his son. The " Austrian " says this idea has become a monomania with the Sultan, and affects every turn of political life in Constantinople. He appears to be quite aware of the extreme danger involved in a proposal which would justify every Turk in rebelling in favour of the eldest male, but seems to believe that human nature being what it is, the change is sure to be made at last. We doubt it. Even the moody, dreamy despot who is sacrificing Minister after Minister to his fixed idea is scarcely prepared to let the Kaliphate, the real source of his power, pass out of the House of Othman, and the succession to that position is out of his otherwise absolute authority. A Pope of five is just as possible as a Kaliph of ten.
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