George Young

“ Happily those to whom the incompleteness and the many imperfections of his work will be most apparent are also those who can best realize what difficulties were involved in the conditions under which it was produced. If the result should tend in any way to lighten the labours of workers in that foreign community of which he was for three years a member, and still more, if it should prove of any real service to the Government and to the subjects of His Majesty the Sultan, he will feel that his pains have been more than simply repaid. ”

“ The object of the 'Corps de Droit Ottoman' is, within the restrictions indicated above, to bring within reach of the most inexperienced, and to render of easy reference to the expert, the domestic legislation of the Ottoman Government, which plays so large a part in the everyday life of the Levant and which has hitherto only been ascertainable, if at all, in inconvenient and incomprehensible forms at an extravagant expenditure of time, money, and influence. ”

“ While it is evident that a large part of these volumes can only interest those directly connected with the Ottoman Empire, they will nevertheless be found to contain much that bears on international affairs in the near East, and it is hoped that the chapters treating, for instance, on such matters as the rights of the autonomous provinces, the privileges of the religious communities, domestic slavery, the passage of the Straits, &c., will contribute new material to the study of some questions of general importance. ”