Page:Travels & discoveries in the Levant (1865) Vol. 1.djvu/272

222 he could not execute the Pasha's orders; or, if they have a large command of money, they will buy the protection of some great man at Constantinople, and thus thwart the Pasha in his endeavours to bring them to justice.

I have given this little anecdote more space in my letter than perhaps it deserves, in order to show that maladministration in Turkey is not exclusively confined to Turkish officials. In those islands of the Turkish Archipelago where the Greeks are allowed to administer their own affairs, they too often abuse their municipal rights by protecting brigands, pirates, and every description of rogue. In such islands it is not so much the Pasha but the Greek Primate who is looked on by the people as their oppressor. Iniquity, incorporated in the form of a Mejlis or Demarchia, is a many-headed monster; formerly, the whole guilt of the administration rested on the Turkish governor, and the evil was removable whenever the Sultan thought proper to remove his head from his shoulders. Now, the Greek primates in those islands where the Greek population predominates set the mandates of the Pasha at defiance, unless he backs these mandates by measures not quite reconcilable with the Tanzimat. The only certain result of an attempt to punish crime, is that the delinquent is thus compelled to spend a large sum in purchasing protection from justice. Thus, probably, when the Demarchia of Patmos, the Director of the Quarantine there, and the Archbishop of Rhodes, have sent in their "little accounts," the captain will have to disgorge nearly the whole of his booty acquu-ed through the barratry.