Every one knows that the Grand Seignior is exalted high in _titles_, as our prerogative lawyers exalt an abstract sovereign,--and he cannot be exalted higher in our books.

I say he is destitute of the first character of sovereign power: he cannot lay a tax upon his people.

The next part in which he misses of a sovereign power is, that he cannot dispose of the life, of the property, or of the liberty of any of his subjects, but by what is called the _fetwah_, or sentence of the law.

He cannot declare peace or war without the same sentence of the law: so much is _he_, more than European sovereigns, a subject of strict law, that he cannot declare war or peace without it.

Then, if he can neither touch life nor property, if he cannot lay a tax on his subjects, or declare peace or war, I leave it to your Lordships' judgment, whether he can be called, according to the principles of that constitution, an arbitrary power.