Southern Syria, Palestine, and Phoenicia); Aleppo (i.e. Cœlo-Syria, Northern Syria, and a slice of Mesopotamia); Bagdad (i.e. Mesopotamia and Assyria, and a portion of the Vilayet of Basra (Irak-Arabia).

The last division of Asiatic Turkey is Arabia, containing the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and forming one large government, that of Yemen.

Ottoman Africa comprehends the Vice-royalty of Egypt, subdued by Selim I. in 1517; and the ancient regencies of Tripoli and Tunis, which were united to the Ottoman dominions, the former in 1552 under Solyman the Great, the second in 1574 under Selim II.1

The Turks themselves divide the provinces of the Empire into what they call 'immediate possessions' and 'tributary States.' In Asia Turkey possesses no tributary States-all its provinces are immediate possessions.' In Africa, on the other hand, it owns no 'immediate possessions,' Egypt, Tripoli, and Tunis being, as we have seen, semi-independent States, acknowledging the suzerainty of the Porte by the payment of tribute and by furnishing a contingent of troops in case of war.

In Europe the possessions of Turkey are of both kinds, 'immediate' and 'tributary.' The former have been enumerated above. The latter consist of Servia and Roumania, which acknowledge the suzerainty of the Sultan by payment of tribute, but which are not obliged to furnish any troops in defence of Turkey.

Populations of Turkey; Races and Religions.

So much as to the territorial divisions of Turkey. The question of its population is a much harder one to ' In this enumeration I have closely followed Ubicini.

answer, owing to the impossibility of obtaining accurate statistics. I will here set down the figures supplied by some of the most recent writers on the question.

The Turkish Minister of Finance in 1866 reckoned the population of the Turkish Empire in round numbers at 42 millions: 18 millions for Europe, 18 millions for Asia, and 6 millions for Africa. Another table of statistics was published by the Turkish Government in 1867, which does not give more than 40 millions for the whole empire, distributed as follows :—

Europe with the Isles (except Cyprus) 18,487,000
Asia with Cyprus

Africa

16,463,000
5,050,000

In both these estimates, however, the tributary States are included, the population of which, according to the last Turkish statement, is 9,300,000, and is distributed as follows:

This reduces the population of Turkey Proper to 30,700,000:

Ubicini, however, points out that these figures cannot be depended upon. Roumania, for example, which the Turkish estimate of 1867 puts down at 4,000,000, had in 1861 a population of 4,424,961; and Servia, which is put down at 1,000,000 in 1867, had 1,215,961 in 1866. Ubicini's own estimate is as follows:

4,828,416 6,163,610 10,992,026

The population of the whole Turkish Empire, according to MM. Ubicini and Courteille, does not exceed 28 millions, not including the tributary States. Of these 28 millions, according to our authors, about 13 millions belong to the conquering or Ottoman race; the rest representing an agglomeration of peoples of divers origin and languages, which may be divided ethnographically into seven principal groups, as follows:

1. The Turkish group (comprehending under that designation Ottomans, Turkomans, and Tartars) gives a population of 14,020,000.

2. The Greco-Latin (comprising Greeks proper, Tzintzares, and Albanians) gives a population of 3,520,000.

3. The Slave (comprising Serbo-Croats, Bulgarians, Kossacks, and Lipovans) gives a population of 4,550,000.

4. The Georgian (comprising Circassians and Lazes) number 1,020,000.

5. The Hindu group, or Gypsies, numbering 212,000. 6. The Persian (comprising Armenians, Kurds, Druses, &c.) number 3,620,000.

7. The Semitic group (comprising Jews, Arabs, Chaldees, Syro-Maronites) number 1,611,000.

This gives a total of 28,533,000, of which 18,578,000 are Sunnite Mussulmans and 360,000 belong to various

non-Christian sects.

The remaining 9,615,000 are

distributed as follows:-The Greco-Russian Church absorbs 3,225,000; the Bulgarians 2,920,000; the Armenians 2,450,000; Chaldean Nestorians 130,000; Syrian Jacobites 65,000. Of Roman Catholics, including the Maronites, the Melkites, and all other Uniats, our authors reckon 670,000. There are about 5,000 Protestants in all Turkey, and about 150,000 Jews. This gives 9,465,000 Christians as against 18,938,000 Mussulmans and Pagans,1 and 150,000 Jews.

Thus far the calculation of Ubicini as to the population, races, and religion of the entire Turkish Empire. The present inquiry, however, is chiefly concerned with the European provinces of Turkey. Let us therefore compare Ubicini's statistics with those of other independent inquirers. Ubicini, as we have seen, reckons the population of European Turkey, exclusive of the vassal States, at 10,992,026, of which he gives 4,828,416 to the Mussulmans, and 6,163,610 to the non-Mussulmans.

M. Emile de Girardin, on the other hand, in a recently published work which gives evidence of careful research, reckons the Christians of European Turkey at 8,660,000, and the Mussulmans at 1,200,000, excluding of course the tributary provinces. I assume,

1 Ubicini includes 240,000 Gypsies and a considerable number of other non-Christian sectaries in his estimate of the Mussulman population of Turkey. His exhaustive division groups all the populations under the three heads of Mussulmans, Christians, and Israelites. But, as a basis for political speculation, this is an entirely misleading division. The Mussulman group is not a compact mass united by the bonds of national unity. There is no solidarité, but only a very attenuated cohesion, between large masses of its constituent elements.

"La Honte de l'Europe, p. 28.

though he does not say so, that he leaves out of this estimate both Jews and Gypsies, which together probably reach the figure of about 250,000. As regards the whole population, this estimate falls short of Ubicini's to the extent of 882,000. But the discrepancy as to religion is much more startling; Ubicini's estimate of the Mussulmans being 3,622,416 in excess of Girardin's, and of the Christians 2,496,390 less. This is tolerably puzzling, and the uncertainty increases as we extend our researches. Perthes, in his annual abstract of the population of the world, reckons the European population of Turkey at 8,000,000, and its Asiatic population at 13,500,000. Of the former three-fourths are assigned to Christianity and the remaining fourth to Islam, all the non-Christian element being, I suppose, included under that designation.

Bianconi1 estimates the population of Asiatic Turkey at 12,000,000, and of European Turkey, not including Roumania and Servia, at 19,000,000, in round numbers, viz. :

1 La Question d'Orient Dévoilée, ou La Vérité sur la Turquie. Par F. Bianconi, Ex-Ingénieur, Architecte en chef des Etudes de Chemins de Fer de la Roumélie, Bulgairie et Bosnie. Paris, 1876.

To prevent misapprehension, it may be as well to add that M. Bianconi is a Frenchman and a Roman Catholic.