Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

cii. XVI.] Turkey the Land of Freedom.
prison ? "
" No, no," said the man "you arc laughing
at me. There is no such country as that, or
people would have gone to live elsewhere long ago/'
Kadderly Pasha was much tickled by this little
story, and agreed with us that the Sultan's subjects
were not altogether so unhappy, only happiness was
one thing and progress was another. Of the politics
of Europe he really sliowed great knowledge,
and even understood something of the state of
parties in England, appreciating
accurately enough
the causes of the agitation, got up last year by the
liberals, on the Eastern question. He was polite
enough not to dwell on the vacillating policy of
our
Government, thinking only that England was
making a mistake in allowing Turkey to be devoured.
On the whole we felt that we had been
talking to an agreeable and superior man and one
who would be inexcusable, on any plea of ignorance,
if he failed to do his duty at Bagdad.
An important consequence to us of this conversation
was that it
reinstated us in public estimation,
and, especially, in that of Huseyn. He, as a mere
niuteslierif and an Aleppine, was treated witli
scant courtesy by the Valy, and, in
very
his own house,
only sat down by request, and on the edge of his
chair, in the great man's presence. We, on the contrary,
were given the best places on the divan, and
conversed familiarly, and as long as we liked, in a
foreign tongue which nobody understood, and which
therefore made the more impression. For what