The Sultan has been entertaining the Heir Apparent of Austria,
Prince Rudolph, and his wife, and life in Constanti- nople for a week has been a chapter from the "Arabian Nights." Some £200,000 have been spent on the festivities. A special palace was built for the Archduke in the park of the Yildiz Kiosk, and filled with the finest new furniture ; great dinners were given, at which all the dishes were of pure gold ; jewels were showered on the Imperial pair, and festivals were arranged after the old Turkish style, with the whole of the immense Court, thousands of troops, and the entire Fleet taking part in them. All this is intended to conciliate the future ruler of
Austria, and so induce him not to desire to extend his dominion to the lEgean. One wonders what the effect is. Usually Sovereigns do not love hosts who outshine themselves ; and • Prince Rudolph, a meditative man, with a taste for ornithology, may be apt to think that provinces which support all that with- out audible murmuring must be provinces worth having. The sight of the Sea of Marnaora is not one to cure Sovereigns whose dominions may stretch down to it, of covetousness.
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