274 CONSTANTINOPLE elation, and assisted at the coronation of Nicholas, who was 17 years his junior. He continued in command at Warsaw, where his violent measures constantly fomented the anti- Russian feelings of the Poles. Four months after the breaking out of the French revolu- tion of 1830 he was driven from Warsaw by an insurrection, and took a command in the Russian army under Diebitsch which was sent to reduce the country to subjection, but dis- gusted the Russians by the lack of zeal he evinced. Being recalled by the emperor, he retired to Bialystok, but was soon driven away by the Poles under Chlapowski, his brother-in- law, and not long after died of cholera. His wife, who had been made princess of Lowicz, survived him but a few months. CONSTANTINOPLE (Gr. Kwwrramwforofc?, the city of Constantine ; Turkish, Istambul or Stam- bul), the capital of Turkey, situated at the S. W. entrance of the Bosporus, upon a triangu- lar peninsula belonging to the European (Thra- cian) shore, and formed by the Golden Horn (the harbor of Constantinople), an inlet of the sea, and the sea of Marmora, in lat. 41 N., and Ion. 29 E. Its population, including all its suburbs, was in 1848, according to the official tables of the board of health of that year, estimated at 778,000 ; the present popu- lation is by some estimated at 1,000,000, and by others, who are probably nearer the truth, at not more than 400,000 or 500,000. Of the inhabitants more than one half are Mussul- mans, and the remainder are Greeks, Arme- nians, Jews, Persians, and other orientals, and many Levantines or native Christians of Euro- pean descent. The location of Constantinople is equally favorable in a commercial and in a political point of view. Its harbor, which is capable of containing 1,200 ships, is thronged General View of Constantinople. by vessels of all nations, and its commanding position at the junction of the Mediterranean and Black seas would, in the opinion of many, render it, if in the possession of a strong and energetic power, the key of the political supre- macy in Europe and Asia. The picturesque aspect of the city is celebrated ; but the favor- able impression made by the beautiful Lilly shores, beset with villas and gardens, vanishes at the first glimpse of the interior of the city. The streets, before the great fires of 1865, '66, and '70, were nearly all narrow, crooked, and exceedingly dirty, the houses dilapidated, arid the atmosphere filled with offensive odors. The old city proper is about 12 m. in circumference, and is enclosed on the land side by a triple wall and moat, which, although unimportant as defensive works according to the require- ments of modern military science, might in an emergency offer considerable resistance to an enemy. The wall has 27 gates. The old streets, the irregularity of which defies all at- tempts of the stranger to find his way, have generally no names, nor are the houses num- bered ; they are badly paved, not lighted at night, and in addition to their general cheer- lessness they are the resort of thousands of ownerless dogs. The houses here are for the most part built of wood, and hence destructive conflagrations are of frequent occurrence. Du- ring one night in 1852, seven fires destroyed an aggregate of 3,500 houses. A still more de- structive conflagration took place in September, 1865, which is said to have swept away 8,000 houses, 20 mosques, and a large number of baths, khans, and public buildings. Another
