DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5542#0298
Chap, xlvi.] RECRUITING SYSTEM. 285
Piastres a year, for which the Mutzellim collects 70,000,
besides the profits of the collectors, the difference going
into his own pocket.
The distress of the country too at this time was much
increased by the conscription for the army, and by the
manner in which the recruiting was conducted. All the
young men are claimed for this purpose by the arbitrary
orders of the government, unless they are able to buy them-
selves off by bribing the local governors. Many conceal
themselves or escape in order to avoid serving; and as
none of the recruits from this or any other part of the
country ever return from Constantinople, their friends look
upon them as dead. It was painful to witness the despair
and anguish of some of the women at having their children
thus torn away. The long continuance of the practice has
been one amongst the many causes of the diminution of
the Turkish population in Asia Minor. Plague, undoubt-
edly, has done much, and vicious institutions and habits
have done much, but nothing has operated so strongly as
the carrying off the whole male population as soon as they
reach the age of sixteen or eighteen ; and this has been the
case in many thinly-peopled districts. In several places I
have seen only old grey-headed men, whose time and day
were passed, and youths, or rather children of ten or twelve,
too young to carry a musket.
Piastres a year, for which the Mutzellim collects 70,000,
besides the profits of the collectors, the difference going
into his own pocket.
The distress of the country too at this time was much
increased by the conscription for the army, and by the
manner in which the recruiting was conducted. All the
young men are claimed for this purpose by the arbitrary
orders of the government, unless they are able to buy them-
selves off by bribing the local governors. Many conceal
themselves or escape in order to avoid serving; and as
none of the recruits from this or any other part of the
country ever return from Constantinople, their friends look
upon them as dead. It was painful to witness the despair
and anguish of some of the women at having their children
thus torn away. The long continuance of the practice has
been one amongst the many causes of the diminution of
the Turkish population in Asia Minor. Plague, undoubt-
edly, has done much, and vicious institutions and habits
have done much, but nothing has operated so strongly as
the carrying off the whole male population as soon as they
reach the age of sixteen or eighteen ; and this has been the
case in many thinly-peopled districts. In several places I
have seen only old grey-headed men, whose time and day
were passed, and youths, or rather children of ten or twelve,
too young to carry a musket.