ment of the provinces to the dere beys, and strengthened the authority of the ayans, he would have truly reformed his empire, by restoring it to its brightest state, have gained the love of his subjects, and the applauses of humanity. By the contrary proceeding, subverting two bulwarks (though dilapidated) of national prosperity-a provincial nobility and magistracy-he has shown himself a selfish tyrant." 3 In addition to an hereditary nobility in the dere beys, and the privileges of corporations in the right of electing their ayans, the Mussulmans possessed a powerful hierarchy in the ulema; a most important body in the Ottoman dominions, and whose privileges have gone far to limit the extent of its despotic government. This important institution has been little understood hitherto in Europe; but they have contributed in a most important manner to mitigate the severity of the sultan in those classes who enjoyed no special protection. "In each of the Turkish cities," says Mr. Slade, "reside a muphti and a mollah. A knowledge of Arabic, so as to be able to read the Koran in the original, is considered sufficient for the former, but the latter must have run a legal career in one of the medressehs, (universities of Constantinople.) After thirty years' probation in a medresseh, the student becomes of the class of muderis, (doctors at law,) from which are chosen the mollahs, comprehended under the name of ulema. Students who accept the inferior judicial appointments can never become of the ulema. "The ulema is divided into three classes, according to a scale of the cities of the empire. The first class consists of the cazi-askers, (chief judges of Europe and Asia;) the Stamboul effendisi, (mayor of Constantinople ;) the mollahs qualified to act at Mecca, at Medina, at Jerusalem, at Bagdat, at Salonica, at Aleppo, at Damascus, at Brussa, at Cairo, at Smyrna, at Cogni, at Galata, at Scutari. The second class consists of the mollahs qualified to act at the twelve cities of next importance. The third class at ten inferior cities. The administration of minor towns is intrusted to cadis, who are nominated by the cazi-askers in their respective jurisdictions, a patronage which produces great wealth to these two officers. "In consequence of these powers the mollah of a city may prove as great a pest as a needy pasha; but as the mollahs are hereditarily wealthy, they are generally moderate in their perquisitions, and often protect the people against the extortions of the pasha. The cadis, however, of the minor towns, who have not the advantage of being privately rich, seldom fail to join with the aga to skin the 'serpent that crawls in the dust.' “The mollahs, dating from the reign of Solyman-zenith of Ottoman prosperity-were not slow in discovering the value of their situations, or in taking advantage of them; ud as their sanctity protected them from spoiation, they were enabled to leave their riches to their children, who were brought up to the same career, and were, by privilege, allowed to finish their studies at the medresseh in eigh years less time than the prescribed number of years, the private tuition which they were sup posed to receive from their fathers making up for the deficiency. Thus, besides the influence of birth and wealth, they had a direct facility in attaining the degree of muderi, which their fellow-citizens and rivals had not, and who were obliged in consequence to accept inferior judicial appointments. In process of time the whole monopoly of the ulema centred in a certain number of families, and their constant residence at the capital, to which they return at the expiration of their term of office, has maintained their power to the present day. Nevertheless, it is true that if a student of a medresseh, not of the privileged order, possess extraordinary merit, the ulema has generally the tact to admit him of the body: wo to the cities to which he goes as mollah, since he has to create a private fortune for his family. Thus arose that body-the peerage of Turkeyknown by the name of ulema, a body uniting the high attributes of law and religion; distinct from the clergy, yet enjoying all the advantages connected with a church paramount; free from its shackles, yet retaining the perfect odour of sanctity. Its combination has given it a greater hold in the state than the dere beys, though possessed individually of more power, founded too on original charters, sunk from a want of union." The great effect of the ulema has arisen from this, that its lands are safe from confiscation or arbitrary taxation. To power of every sort, excepting that of a triumphant democracy, there must be some limits; and great as the authority of the sultan is, he is too dependent on the religious feelings of his subjects to be able to overturn the church. The consequence is that the vacouf or church lands have been always free both from arbitrary taxation and confiscation; and hence they have formed a species of mortmain or entailed lands in the Ottoman dominions, enjoying privileges to which the other parts of the empire, excepting the estates of the dere beys, are entire strangers. Great part of the lands of Turkey, in many places amounting to one-third of the whole, were held by this religious tenure; and the device was frequently adopted of leaving prcperty to the ulema in trust for particular families, whereby the benefits of secure hereditary descent were obtained. The practical advantages of this ecclesiastical property are thus enumerated by Mr. Slade. The "The vacouf (mosque lands) have been among the best cultivated in Turkey, by being free from arbitrary taxation. The mektebs (public schools) in all the great cities, where the ru diments of the Turkish language and the Koran are taught, and where poor scholars receive food gratis, are supported by the ulema. medressehs, imarets, (hospitals,) fountains, &c., are all maintained by the ulema; add to these the magnificence of the mosques, theit number, the royal sepultures, and it will be seen that Turkey owes much to the existence of this body, which has been enabled, by its power and its union, to resist royal cupidity. Without it, where would be the establishments above mentioned? Religious property has been an object of attack in every country. At one period, by the sovereign, to increase his power; at another, by the people, to build fortunes on its downfall. Mahomet IV., after the disastrous retreat of his grand vizir, Cara Mustapha, from before Vienna, 1683, seized on the riches of the principal mosques, which arbitrary act led to his deposition. The ulema would have shown a noble patriotism in giving its wealth for the service of the state, but it was right in resenting the extortion, which would have served as a precedent for succeeding sultans. In fine, rapid as has been the decline of the Ottoman empire since victory ceased to attend its arms, I venture to assert, that it would have been tenfold more rapid but for the privileged orders-the dere beys and the ulema. Without their powerful weight and influence-effect of hereditary wealth and sanctity-the Janissaries would long since have cut Turkey in slices, and have ruled it as the Mamelukes ruled Egypt. 66 'Suppose, now, the influence of the ulema to be overturned, what would be the consequence? The mollaships, like the pashalics, would then be sold to the highest bidders, or given to the needy followers of the seraglio. These must borrow money of the bankers for their outfit, which must be repaid, and their own purses lined, by their talents at extortion." It is one of the most singular proofs of the tendency of innovation to blind its votaries to the effects of the measures it advocates, that the ulema has long been singled out for destruction by the reforming sultan, and the change is warmly supported by many of the inconsiderate Franks who dwell in the east. Such is the aversion of men of every faith to the vesting of property or influence in the church, that they would willingly see this one of the last barriers which exist against arbitrary power done away. The power of the sultan, great as it is, has not yet ventured on this great innovation; but it is well known that he meditates it, and it is the knowledge of this circumstance which is one great cause of the extreme unpopularity which has rendered his government unable to obtain any considerable resources from his immense dominions. 4. In every part of the empire, the superior felicity and well-being of the peasantry in the mountains is conspicuous, and has long attracted the attention of travellers. Clarke observed it in the mountains of Greece, Mariti, and others in Syria and Asia Minor, and Mr. Slade and Mr. Walch in the Balkan, and the hilly country of Bulgaria. "No peasantry in the world," says the former, "are so well off as that of Bulgaria. The lowest of them has abundance of every thing-meat, poultry, eggs, milk, rice, cheese, wine, bread, good clothing, a warm dwelling, and a horse to ride. It is true he has no newspaper to kindle his passions, nor a knife and fork to eat with, nor a bedstead to lie on; but these are the customs of the country, and a pasha is equally unhappy. Where, then, is the tyranny under which the Christian subjects of the Porte are generally supposed to groan? Not among the Bulga rians certainly. I wish that in every country a traveller could pass from one end to the other, and find a good supper and a warm fire in every cottage, as he can in this part of European Turkey." This description applies generally to almost all the mountainous provinces of the Ottoman empire, and in an espe cial manner to the peasants of Parnassus and Olympia, as described by Clarke. As a contrast to this delightful state of society, we may quote the same traveller's account of the plains of Romelia. "Romelia, if cultivated, would become the granary of the East, whereas Constantinople depends on Odessa for daily bread. The burial-grounds, choked with weeds and underwood, constantly occurring in every traveller's route, far remote from habitations, are eloquent testimonials of continued depopulation. The living too are far apart; a town every fifty miles, and a village every ten miles, is close, and horsemen meeting on the highway regard each other as objects of curiosity. The cause of this depopulation is to be found in the pernicious government of the Ottomans." The cause of this remarkable difference lies in the fact, that the Ottoman oppression has never yet fully extended into the mountainous parts of its dominions; and, consequently, they remained like permanent veins of prosperity, intersecting the country in every direction, amidst the desolation which generally prevailed in the pashalics of the plain. 5. The Janissaries were another institution which upheld the Turkish empire. They formed a regular standing army, who, although at times extremely formidable to the sultan, and exercising their influence with all the haughtiness of Prætorian guards, were yet of essential service in repelling the invasion of the Christian powers. The strength of the Ottoman armies consisted in the Janissaries, and the Delhis and Spahis; the former being the regular force, the latter the contingents of the dere beys. Every battle-field, from Constantinople to Vienna, can tell of the valour of the Janissaries, long and justly regarded as the bulwark of the empire; and the Russian battalions, with all their firmness, were frequently broken, even in the last war, by the desperate charge of the Delhis. Now, however, both are destroyed; the vigorous severity of the sultan has annihilate the dreaded battalions of the former-the ruin of the dere beys has closed the supply of the latter. In these violent and impolitic reforms is to be found the immediate cause of the destruction of the Turkish empire. Of the revolt which led to the destruction of this great body, and the policy which led to it, the following striking account is given by Mr. Slade: "Every campaign during the Greek war a body was embarked on board the fleet, and landed in small parties, purposely unsupported, on the theatre of war: none returned, so that only a few thousand remained at Constantinople, when, May 30, 1826, the Sultan issued a and they strove with madness to force a pas sage from the burning pile; part were con sumed, part cut down; a few only got out, among them five colonels, who threw them selves at the aga's feet, and implored grace. They spoke their last." Five thousand fell under this grand blow in the capital alone; twenty-five thousand perish. ed throughout the whole empire. The next day a hatti scheriff was read in the mosques, declaring the Janissaries infamous, the order abolished, and the name an anathema. This great stroke made a prodigious sensation in Europe, and even the best informed were deceived as to its effects on the future prospects of the Ottoman empire. By many it was compared to the destruction of the Strelitzes by Peter the Great, and the resurrection of Turkey anticipated from the great reform of Mahmoud, as Moscovy arose from the vigorous measures of the czar. But the cases and the men were totally different. Peter, though a despot, was practically acquainted with his country. He had voluntarily descended to the humblest rank, to make himself master of the arts of life. When he had destroyed the Prætorian guards of Moscow, he built up the new military force of the empire, in strict accordance with its national and religious feelings, and the victory of Pultowa was the consequence. But what did Sultan Mahmoud? Having destroyed the old military force of Turkey, he subjected the new levies which were to replace it to such absurd regulations, and so thoroughly violated the political and religious feelings of the country, that none of the Osmanleys who could possibly avoid it would enter his ranks, and he was obliged to fill them up with mere boys, who had not yet acquired any determinate feelings-a wretched substitute for the old military force of the em pire, and which proved totally unequal to the task of facing the veteran troops of Russia. The impolicy of his conduct in destroying and re-building, is more clearly evinced by nothing than the contrast it affords to the conduct of Sultan Amurath, in originally forming these guards. hatti scheriff concerning the formation of 'a | courage that might have saved them at first, new victorious army.' This was a flash of 'ightning in the eyes of the Janissaries. They saw why their companions did not return from Greece; they saw that the old, hitherto abortive, policy, dormant since eighteen years, was revived; they saw that their existence was threatened; and they resolved to resist, confiding in the prestige of their name. June 15, following, they reversed their soup-kettles, (signal of revolt,) demanded the heads of the ministers, and the revocation of the said firman. But Mahmoud was prepared for them. Husseyin, the aga of the Janissaries, was in his interests, and with him the yamaks, (garrisons of the castles of the Bosphorus,) the Galiondgis, and the Topchis. Collecting, therefore, on the following morning, his forces in the Atmeidan, the sand-jack scheriff was displayed, and the ulema seconded him by calling on the people to support their sovereign against the rebels. Still, noways daunted, the Janissaries advanced, and summoned their aga, of whom they had no suspicion, to repeat their demands to the sultan, threatening, in case of non-compliance, to force the seraglio gates. Husseyin, who had acted his part admirably, and with consummate duplicity, brought them to the desired point-open rebellion-flattering them with success, now threw aside the mask. He stigmatized them as infidels, and called on them, in the name of the prophet, to submit to the sultan's clemency. At this defection of their trusted favourite chief, their smothered rage burst out; they rushed to his house, razed it in a moment, did the same by the houses of the other ministers, applied torches, and in half an hour Constantinople streamed with blood beneath the glare of flames. Mahmoud hesitated, and was about to conciliate; but Husseyin repulsed the idea with firmness, knowing that to effect conciliation, his head must be the first offering. Now or never,' he replied to the sultan, 'is the time! Think not that a few heads will appease this sedition, which has been too carefully fomented by me, -the wrongs of the Janissaries too closely dwelt on, thy character too blackly stained, thy treachery too minutely dissected,-to be easily laid. Remember that this is the second time "Strikingly," says Mr. Slade, " does the conthat thy arm has been raised against them, and duct of Mahmoud, in forming the new levies, they will not trust thee again. Remember, too, contrast with that of Amurath in the formation that thou hast now a son, that son not in thy of the Janissaries; the measures being parallel, power, whom they will elevate on thy down- inasmuch as each was a mighty innovation, fall. Now is the time! This evening's sun no less than the establishment of an entire new must set for the last time on them or us. Re- military force, on the institutions of the countire from the city, that thy sacred person may be safe, and leave the rest to me.' Mahmoud consented, and went to Dolma Bachtche, (a palace one mile up the Bosphorus,) to await the result. Husseyin, then free to act without fear of interruption, headed his yamaks, and vigorously attacked the rebels, who, cowardly as they were insolent, offered a feeble resistance, when they found themselves unsupported by the mob, retreated from street to street, and finally took refuge in the Atmeidan. Here their career ended. A masked battery on the nill beyond opened on them, troops enclosed them in, and fire was applied to the wooden buildings. Desperation then gave them the try. But Amurath had a master mind. Instead of keeping his new army distinct from the nation, he incorporated it with it, made it conform in all respects to national usages; and the suc cess was soon apparent by its spreading into a vast national guard, of which, in later times, some thousands usurped the permanence of enrolment, in which the remainder, through indolence, acquiesced. Having destroyed these self-constituted battalions, Mahmoud should have made the others available, instead of out lawing them, as it were; and, by respecting their traditionary whims and social rights, he would easily have given his subjects a taste for European discipline. They never objected to it in principle, but their untutored minds | in full the policy of Mehemet Ali, which sup could not understand why, in order to use the posed the essence of civilization and of politimusket and bayonet, and manoeuvre together, cal science to be contained in the word taxait was necessary to leave off wearing beards tion; and having driven his chariot over the and turbans. necks of the dere beys, and of the Janissaries, he resolved to tie his subjects to its wheels, and to keep them in dire slavery. Hence a mute struggle began throughout the empire between the sultan and the Turks, the former trying to reduce the latter to the condition of the Egyptian fellahs, the latter unwilling to imitate the fellahs in patient submission. The sultan flatters himself (1830) that he is suc ceeding, because the taxes he imposed, and the monopolies he has granted, produce him more revenue than he had formerly. The people, although hitherto they have been able to answer the additional demands by opening their hoards, evince a sullen determination not to continue doing so, by seceding gradually from their occupations, and barely existing. The result must be, if the sultan cannot compel them to work, as the Egyptians, under the lashes of task-masters, either a complete stagnation of agriculture and trade, ever at a low ebb in Turkey, or a general rebellion, produced by misery." "But Mahmoud, in his hatred, wished to condemn them to oblivion, to eradicate every token of their pre-existence, not knowing that trampling on a grovelling party is the surest way of giving it fresh spirit; and trampling on the principles of the party in question, was trampling on the principles of the whole nation. In his ideas, the Oriental usages in eating, dressing, &c., were connected with the Janissaries, had been invented by them, and therefore he proscribed them, prescribing new modes. He changed the costume of his court from Asiatic to European; he ordered his soldiers to shave their beards, recommending his courtiers to follow the same example, and he forbade the turban,-that valued, darling, beautiful head-dress, at once national and religious. His folly therein cannot be sufficiently reprobated: had he reflected that Janissarism was only a branch grafted on a wide-spreading tree, that it sprung from the Turkish nation, not the Turkish nation from it, he would have seen how impossible was the more than Her- The result of these precipitate and monstrous culean task he assumed, of suddenly transform-innovations strikingly appeared in the next war ing national manners consecrated by centuries, with Russia. The Janissaries and dere beys -a task from which his prophet would have shrunk. The disgust excited by these sumptuary laws may be conceived. Good Mussulmans declared them unholy and scandalous, and the Asiatics, to a man, refused obedience; but as Mahmoud's horizon was confined to his court, he did not know but what his edicts were received with veneration. were destroyed-the Mussulmans everywhere disgusted; the turban, the national dress-the scimitar, the national weapon, were laid aside in the army; and instead of the fierce and va liant Janissaries wielding that dreaded wea pon, there was to be found only in the army boys of sixteen, wearing caps in the European style, and looked upon as little better than heretics by all true believers. "If Mahmoud had stopped at these follies in the exercise of his newly-acquired despotic "Instead of the Janissaries," says Mr. Slade. power, it would have been well. His next "the sultan reviewed for our amusement, on step was to increase the duty on all provisions the plains of Ramis Tchiftlik, his regular in Constantinople, and in the great provincial troops, which were quartered in and about cities, to the great discontent of the lower Constantinople, amounting to about four thou classes, which was expressed by firing the sand five hundred foot, and six hundred horse; city to such an extent that in the first three though beyond being dressed and armed unimonths six thousand houses were consumed. formly, scarcely meriting the name of soldiers. The end of October, 1826, was also marked by What a sight for Count Orloff, then ambassa a general opposition to the new imposts; but dor-extraordinary, filling the streets of Pera repeated executions at length brought the with his Cossacks and Circassians! The people to their senses, and made them regret Count, whom the sultan often amused with a the loss of the Janissaries, who had been their similar exhibition of his weakness, used to protectors as well as tormentors, inasmuch as say, in reference to the movements of these they had never allowed the price of provisions successors of the Janissaries, that the cavalry to be raised. These disturbances exasperated were employed in holding on, the infantry knew a the sultan. He did not attribute them to the little, and the artillery galloped about as though beright cause, distress, but to a perverse spirit longing to no party. Yet over such troops do of Janissarism, a suspicion of harbouring the Russians boast of having gained victories! which was death to any one. He farther ex- In no one thing did Sultan Mahmoud make a tended his financial operations by raising the greater mistake, than in changing the mode of miri (land tax) all over the empire, and, in mounting the Turkish cavalry, which before ensuing years, by granting monopolies on all had perfect seats, with perfect command over articles of commerce to the highest bidder. their horses, and only required a little order to In consequence, lands, which had produced transform the best irregular horse in the world abundance, in 1830 lay waste. Articles of into the best regular horse. But Mahmoud, in export, as opium, silk, &c., gave the growers a all his changes, took the mask for the man, the handsome revenue when they could sell them rind for the fruit. European cavalry rode flat to the Frank merchants, but at the low prices saddles with long stirrups; therefore he thought fixed by the monopolists they lose, and the it necessary that his cavalry should do the same cultivation languishes. Sultan Mahmoud kills European infantry wore tight jackets and close the goose for the eggs. In a word, he adopted | caps; therefore the same. Were this blind adoption of forms only useless, or productive this battle, our author gives the following che only of physical inconvenience, patience; but racteristic and graphic account: it proved a moral evil, creating unbounded disgust. The privation of the turban particularly affected the soldiers; first, on account of the feeling of insecurity about the head with a fez on; secondly, as being opposed to the love of dress, which a military life, more than any other, engenders." 66 'Mahmoud," says the same author, "will learn that in having attacked the customs of his nation-customs descended to it from Abraham, and respected by Mohammed-he has directly undermined the divine right of his family, that right being only so considered by custom-by its harmonizing with all other cherished usages. He will learn, that in having wantonly trampled on the unwritten laws of the land, those traditionary rights which were as universal household gods, he has put arms in the hands of the disaffected, which no rebel has hitherto had. Neither Ali Pasha nor Passwan Oglou could have appealed to the fanaticism of the Turks to oppose the sultan. Mehemet Ali can and will. Ten years ago, the idea even of another than the house of Othman reigning over Turkey would have been heresy: the question is now openly broached, simply because the house of Othman is separating itself from the nation which raised and supported it. Reason may change the established habits of an old people; despotism rarely can." How completely has the event, both in the Russian and Egyptian wars, demonstrated the truth of these principles! In the contest in Asia Minor, Paskewitch hardly encountered any opposition. Rage at the destruction of the Janissaries among their numerous adherents -indignation among the old population, in consequence of the ruin of the dere beys, and the suppression of the rights of the citieslukewarmness in the church, from the anticipated innovations in its constitution-general dissatisfaction among all classes of Mohammedans, in consequence of the change in the national dress and customs, had so completely weakened the feeling of patriotism, and the sultan's authority, that the elements of resistance did not exist. The battles were mere parades the sieges little more than the summoning of fortresses to surrender. In Europe, the ruinous effects of the innovations were also painfully apparent. Though the Russians had to cross, in a dry and parched season, the pathless and waterless plains of Bulgaria; and though, in consequence of the unhealthiness of the climate, and the wretched arrangements of their commissariat, they lost two hundred thousand men by sickness and famine in the first campaign, yet the Ottomans, though fighting in their own country, and for their hearths, were unable to gain any decisive advantage. And in the next campaign, when they were conducted with more skill, and the possession of Varna gave them the advantage of a seaport for their supplies, the weakness of the Turks was at once apparent. In the battle of the 11th June, the loss of the Turks did not exceed 4000 men, the forces on neither side amounted to forty thousand combatants, and yet this defeat proved fatal to the empire. Of "In this position, on the west side of the Koulevscha hills, Diebitsch found himself at daylight, June 11th, with thirty-six thousand men, and one hundred pieces of cannon. H disposed them so as to deceive the enemy He posted a division in the valley, its righ leaning on the cliff, its left supported by re-. doubts; the remainder of his troops he drew up behind the hills, so as to be unseen from the ravine; and then with a well-grounded hope that not a Turk would escape him, waited the grand vizir, who was advancing up the defile, totally unconscious that Diebitsch was in any other place than before Silistria. He had broke up from Pravodi the day before, on the receipt of his despatch from Schumla, and was followed by the Russian garrison, which had been reinforced by a regiment of hussars; but the general commanding it, instead of obeying Diebitsch's orders, and quietly tracking him until the battle should have commenced, harassed his rear. To halt and drive him back to Pravodi, caused the vizir a delay of four hours, without which he would have emerged from the defile the same evening, and have gained Schumla before Diebitsch got into position. "In the course of the night the vizir was informed that the enemy had taken post between him and Schumla, and threatened his retreat. He might still have avoided the issue of a battle, by making his way transversely across the defiles to the Kamptchik, sacrificing his bag gage and cannon; but deeming that he had only Roth to deal with, he, as in that case was his duty, prepared to force a passage; and the few troops that he saw drawn up in the valley, on gaining the little wood fringing it, in the morning, confirmed his opinion. He counted on success, yet, to make more sure, halted to let his artillery take up a flanking position on the north side of the valley. The circuitous and bad route, however, delaying this manœuvre, he could not restrain the impatience of the delhis. Towards noon, Allah, Allah her,' they made a splendid charge; they repeated it, broke two squares, and amused themselves nearly two hours in carving the Russian infantry, their own infantry, the while, admiring them from the skirts of the wood. Diebitsch, expecting every moment that the vizir would advance to complete the success of his cavalry thereby sealing his own destruction-ordered Count Pahlen, whose division was in the valley, and who demanded reinforcements, to maintain his ground to the last man. The Count obeyed, though suffering cruelly; but the vizir, fortunately, instead of seconding his adversary's intentions, quietly remained on the eminence, enjoying the gallantry of his delhis, and waiting till his artillery should be able to open, when he might descend and claim the victory with ease. Another ten minutes would have sufficed to envelope him; but Diebitsch, ignorant of the cause of his backwardness, and supposing that he intended amusing him till night, whereby to effect a retreat, and unwilling to lose more men, suddenly displayed his whole force, and opened a tremendous fire on |