Thus Each Province Has Three
Plunderers Instead Of One, And Its Affairs Are Referred To A Body That
Can Take
No interest in it.
[FN#28] Ziyad bin Abihi was sent by Al-Mu'awiyah, the Caliph, to reform
Al-Basrah,
A den of thieves; he made a speech, noticed that he meant to
rule with the sword, and advised all offenders to leave the city. The
inhabitants were forbidden under pain of death to appear in the streets
after evening prayers, and dispositions were made to secure the
execution of the penalty. Two hundred persons were put to death by the
patrol during the first night, only five during the second, and not a
drop of blood was shed afterwards. By similar severity, the French put
an end to assassination at Naples, and the Austrians at Leghorn. We may
deplore the necessity of having recourse to such means, but it is a
silly practice to salve the wound which requires the knife.
[FN#29] These remarks were written in 1853: I see no reason to change
them in 1878.
[FN#30] A weak monarch, a degenerate government, a state whose
corruption is evidenced by moral decay, a revenue bolstered up by a
system of treasury paper, which even the public offices discount at
from three to six per cent., an army accustomed to be beaten, and
disorganised provinces; these, together with the proceedings of a
ruthless and advancing enemy, form the points of comparison between the
Constantinople of the present day and the Byzantine metropolis eight
hundred years ago.
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