this is as it should be. Why should the pomp and extravagance of
man accompany him to his last resting-place? Were it not well if in
this matter we abated something of our conventionality and
ostentation? I do not mean to say that interments need be stripped
of every thing like ornament; in all things the middle way is the
safest. A simple funeral has surely in it more that awakes true
religious feeling than the pomp and splendour which are too
frequently made the order of the day in these proceedings. In this
case are not men sometimes led away to canvass and to criticise the
splendour of the show, while they should be deducing a wholesome
moral lesson for themselves, or offering up a fervent prayer to the
Almighty for the peace of the departed spirit?

HOUSES--THEATRES--CARRIAGES.

The houses in the whole of Constantinople, in which we may include
Pera, Topana, etc., are very slightly and carelessly put together.
No door, no window, closes and fits well; the floorings frequently
exhibit gaps an inch in breadth; and yet rents are very high. The
reason of this is to be found in the continual danger of fire to
which all towns built of wood are exposed. Every proprietor of a
house calculates that he may be burnt out in the course of five or
six years, and therefore endeavours to gain back his capital with
interest within this period. Thus we do not find the houses so well
built or so comfortably furnished as in the generality of European
towns.

There is a theatre in Pera, which will hold from six to seven
hundred spectators. At the time of my sojourn there, a company of
Italian singers were giving four representations every week. Operas