THE PURSE OF FORTUNATUS. 6i as I am informed the word is spelt inPersiaA, signifies a great_]30iige,_aanof high popr gr] PiithQrjy, and was the title held by the ruler of India during the era of Persian dominion. The title had the advantage', of being familiar to Egypt. In the early days of / Mahomet Ali, he appointed' a Grand Council of State, -over which he himself presided, and which was supposed in theory, though not in fact, to have a substantive authority, independent of the will of the reigning Pasha. This council was called the Divan Khedjye, and has endured in a state of suspended animation up to the present time. I take it that practically this title signified something lower than Shah or Sultan, and something higher than Viceroyj( but what thai something was, I, for one, have never very clearly ascertained.

It is easier to account for another modification of the Treaty of 1841, to which Ismail attached extreme ) i importance, and for which he was prepared to pay / ' even more lavishly. Under this treaty, the succes- uj <c sion, in the event of the demise of a Viceroy, went, [ according to the law of Islam, to his next eldest l kinsman, not to the next heir male in direct descent The received explanation of this system of succession is that the whole political and social organization of the Ottoman Empire being based upon a war footing, it was essential for the welfare of Islam that the head of the community, the tribe, or the family, should always be a full-grown man, able to defend the interests committed to his charge. A system, however, which