'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎64] (175/258)

64
COMMANDER E. JONES’S
and to raise his fellow Turk in the scale of humanity; a herculean task
certainly, but the attempt is still worthy of commendation. Trained by edu
cation in Europe, the present Governor General of Irak has the tact and
perhaps the energy to work a change in this neglected Province. Unfortunately
he has no seconds. All his subordinates are as ignorant as Turks usually
are, and his efforts are moreover often paralysed by the dogged obstinacy of
their characters. The terrible pressure upon the resources of Turkey by the
present war, is another drawback to him, for he is called upon to furnish funds,
to aid in maintaining the struggle, and with an exhausted exchequer, he
must resort to an extra tax upon his people. Complaints are therefore as
rife, as public improvement is at a stand still. Too poor to maintain an effi
cient staff in the various departments, the Fiscal arrangements of the Pro
vince, as well as the Police of the towns, are on the most slender and inade
quate scale. Frequent and daring robberies, as well as loss of reve
nue, result from the want of force to levy the one and the absence of efficient
means to check the commission of the other. There is in fact no system,
and so long as governorship, public lands, custom dues, and the wholesale
vending of many staple articles of commerce and food are held as monopolies
by the highest bidders in the state auction, improvement cannot be expected.
Every one of course works these with the greatest gain and least loss to him
self, x'egardless of the effect upon individuals and the hideous consequences to
the state. The regular army too in the Province is far too small for its extent
in the most peaceable times, indeed, could a serious emeute arise in Baghdad
itself, the whole force would barely suffice to put it down, and when the law
less character of the tribes around is considered, it is a wonder, indeed, that
such a patchwork and threadbare form of Government can hold together at
all. The secret lies, however, in the opposite elements of the governed body
and the character of the general mind being too slow to work extended mis
chief. A love of repose and a singular apathy in the people to past, present,
or future events, adds to the security, while it acts in an inverse ratio when we
think of the energy necessary to effect improvement. On the whole, it may
be said that the population is a quiet one. There is little appearance of fana
ticism in it. The Jew and the Christian are tolerated and enjoy immunities
which they do not elsewhere possess. The only tax upon them is Kharaj, or
capitation tax, levied annually on males only, above the age of fifteen, in the
proportion of about ten, five and two and half shillings per head. This ex
empts them from all other demands ; and while the poor Mahomedan is often
dragged from his wife and children, and made to serve as a soldier, these
classes pursue their occupations in quiet in the midst of their families, and yet
are not contented. But was the Oriental ever so I No ; and moreover the
Christians and Jews of Turkey while they are insidiously robbing all classes