TURKISH CITY.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2991, 16 September 1878, Page 2

TURKISH CITY.

Vice-Consul- Jago, reporting to the Foreign Office oo thetrUootlHuDatcas daring the year 1877, givest* very gloomy account of it. . Local Christian and Jewish capitalists hare been reduced to penury by the failure of'thtf kit* tp]|*y interest on its bonds for the''dew (witn arrears) of £600,000, and extra war taxes, forced lUans.iand "voluntary"? subscipptioiis in aid of the war hare well-nigh exhsjisted the -resources; of/both; rpraT ; andSwban populations. The Vice-Consul says that taxes are levied in most cases in-propor* tion to the supposed means of the contri> butbr." The'corisuroingi powers of the people are restricted.to,.articles of absolute necessity.' Imports of foreign manufactureso are oonflaett chiefly to i English. prints , of. the cheapest desoripi lions. 1 Ttftof the ihree Europ^tfHoQses established, it JJamascus retired from the I field iri iffflMdiQ, ftattt ofSufepeaii 'residents, all told, can be counted^* the fingers: The Bagdad orerlatl^trrte is [virtually extinct. The Sues Canal haa turned tside the formerly largtf'iffifisignmerits of, Ifarppean. inanqfactiues ■pur■chased in Damascus land sent to.Bagdad. ' The war has led Persian pu« years ag<o» t aa many as 3,000 of these brought with them to' Damascus large quantities of jmerchandise for sale and purchased thereflbr traffic in the holy pitie L s^uch ( goo4s and w«re,and tjielike commercial operations' ane&ded 1 their return,. l; Thtts r a succession of blows has struck doirn the prosperity 1 of Damascus, and neutralising the gifts of nature which abound so profusely on erery side. ;P£iq*fouf i« the seat of Jlm QoTernment of Syria, the nead-quarteri\4wrthe sth A.rmy Corps of the Empire,* and the population is estimated at from 100,000 to 140,000; and now the tradVirt biostry are limited to providing for the scanty wants of an imporerished people in the sole, matter, of food and articles of strict necessity, and for the rude Veduirenenti of the Bedouina.and. of the r deni*ens of the unsettled and half•saVkge' 5 districts around.!, .TheVicfl-CopsulsayatliaUit is difficult to discorer in what ttanner the greater portion, of the,iDhabita^fai manage to subsist. Household effects and!' articles of value. KaTe/been disposed 6f, and a lpan of a few pounds is an impossibility, even amoj£ the so-called richse The streets are fiP.ed with beggars, both Moslem and Christian, and that.; too, in a city where two. years /afeo a beggar .. was, a, rarity. . pe^ts^V£i no, longer paid,, the < present circumstances being, neld an : all-Bufficien,t .excuse for deferring paynient. Tne'introduction of cape, or p)aper; money/ -intfO monetary transactions, ' with 1 AitV' reTW-increasing depreciation, (50"per c«n,t. at the close of last year,) has bad a, md^t tfYHtfrb'iif influence ; the GoVernmeht payments were thus reduced >n Value, to, half, their nominal amount. Still, the (Vice; Consul"apprehends that, perhaps, 'his report is not mpre gloomy thah/thWe from madybther parts of the Ottoman dominion!* under existing circumstances. r , ,■' "•>]