THE SULTAN'S DAY'S WORK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 300, 19 December 1877, Page 4

THE SULTAN'S DAY'S WORK.

[Manchester Evening News.'] A salary of £2000 a day will appear to those who have but few wants a nice competency. This is the daily wage of Abdul Hami(3, the present Sultan of Turkey, and no Sovereign alive earns his money harder. Out of that sum

he has moreover, to pay for his own board, fire and candles; bis lodgings alone are free, so that considering the footing on which his establishment is placed, he must be a man of order and economy to make both ends meet with co small an income at bis command. There is, indeed, no more active or diligent man in hia empire than the Sultan, and it is liberally true of him to say that he eats hia bread in the sweat of his brow. He gives personal audience to everyone that applies for it, whenever it is possible; when not, his first adjutant gives audience for him. The cix hundred wives of Abdul Azziz have vanished, and Abdul Hamid finds it as much as he can do to meet the milliners' bills of a poor three dozen spousea. This scanty harem leaves him a good deal more t'me for devotion and State business. He leaves his apartment betimes, and bathes the prison of his soul in tepid water, after which he stretches himself full length upon a carpet and breathes a silent morning prayer. He then drinks a cup of chocolate, and proceeds immediately off to the affairs of {State. Despatches are received and sent, reports examined and approved of, expenses consented to, decorations granted, ministers and ambassadors received, and that goes on for several hours. Towards noon a second carpet is spread at the feet of th 9 Ruler Of the Faithful, whereon he praya again, and then takes his second breakfast. After that he goes out for a ride or afdrive and when he returns he is at the disposal of his family and the inhabitants of the palace. He gives audience to his brothers and siater, listens to the report of household officers, confers with the chief of the euuuchs who ranks next after the Grand Vizier, and whenever a despatch containing good news from the (seat of war comes in, it is he that is charged to read it to the ladies confided to hia watchful oare. The Imaum, or Cbapluio of the Palace, also comes in the evening, and the Sultan prays, or reads some pious book with him. Three tiroes in the week the Bultan sakes lessons on the piano from a French teacher, M. Paul Duatap— that is, he listens to his teacher playing a few morceaux,b\it never plays a single scale himself. Later in the evening he deepatches more state business, and then, an hour before midnight, accompanied only by the chief of the eunuchs, he retires to the secret recesses of the harem, which it is forbidden us to follow him.

Royal Engineers at Fiji. — The Fiji correspondent of the Melbourne Argus writes :— The company of Royal Engineers stationed here havß at last got their orders to return home, for which the <Solooy at large should eing Te Deum. How or why they wfira ever sent onf to increase the expenditure of the colony, no out will ever know. So far aa utility or service is concerned they ara simply useless — a mere standing joke and a fraud upon the revenue. What can be more absurd than to send out carpenters, joiners, masons, &c, when the colonies are full of such men who will do a fair day's work for a fair day's wage instead of doing the "Government stroke?" The style in which our Engineer artificers work is something as follows s — A dozen burly fellows bursting with beef and beer, march oat of the barracks to repair a drain situated say a mile distant. They leave their quarters about 8 a.m., and after a pleasant walk arrive on the ground say at a quarter to 9. Then they divest, themselves of their coats, turn up their shirt sleeves, and take a collective look at the drain. The non - commissioned officer, — God save the mark \— aa clerk of works, then leaves them, and by a polite fiction, work for which they are remunerated at the rate of 5* per day is supposed to commence. Six out of the dozen sit down and light their pipes, while three others start off to the nearegt home to ask what o'clock it is. The remaining three potter about, and " make believe" to do something. At half-past 11 they troop back to the barracks, knocked up with the amount of work done, and march out to repeat the same farce in the afternoon. Now, would it not be better to give a civilian who would work for 10s a day and let him find himself, than to give these men 5s to do nothing, and find them in food and quurters in the bargain ? However, they are going, and (ho day of their going should be appointed as a day of public prayer and thanksgiving for deliverance from such an incubus.