If, then, such is the variety of items, more than sufficient to command the attention of any mercantile community, it is somewhat astonishing that the Americans should not have been attracted to the advantages to be derived from an interchange of commerce, so jealous as they are of commercial supremacy.
The territory is immense, teeming with undeveloped resources; the population over 35 millions of souls to be supplied with the necessities, and many of the superfluities of life. England and France have fought for the freedom of this commerce, America may spread her sails unstained by the blood of her citizens, and be wafted into ports, where treasures and profit are in greater profusion than either in China or Japan.
War having ceased, and so many new and salutary reforms soon to be introduced, commerce and all the arts of peace and prosperity will flourish with renewed vigor upon the Turkish soil. Internal improvements are already projected and in progress, demanding the genius and ingenuity of foreign climes. While then, England and France are eagerly watching every opening, shall America remain blindfolded and indifferent?—a country so productive of men of the rarest energy and perseverance, so full of the brightest Yankee notions, and the most curious and useful specimens of mechanical art and manufactures!
CHAPTER XV.
JURISPRUDENCE.
In Europe and America disputes often involve a process of tedious litigation. It is not so in Turkey; although the Koran and its voluminous commentaries decide every case “from a point of faith to a right of gutter,” yet the form of trial is so simple that it becomes quite expeditious. For all Turkish jurisprudence may be condensed into these two principles, viz.,
1st. In every case of litigation the testimony of two witnesses is required of the plaintiff, and
2d. In default of witnesses an oath is administered to the defendant as the only alternative.
No written document, except judicial, is considered valid, or recognized by the courts, unless it be substantiated by two witnesses.