Turk or Toorik is the generic name of a great family of nations which has been settled for time immemorial in Western Asia and the adjoining portions of Europe, and which a branch has been for several centuries in possession of the countries around the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, which, on that account, have received from Europeans the name of Turkey. The Turks have generally been considered to be members of the Caucasian variety of mankind; but learned orientalists have now succeeded, by the aid of the Chinese annals, in identifying them with the Hiong-nu, a people who lived to the northeast of China many centuries before the Christian era, and tried on frequent and sanguinary wars with the celestial empire. From that region their migrations can be traced eastward, till they finally settled in those parts of Asia and Europe in which they are now found. The Osmanli or Ottoman Turks, who live in Turkey, and their brethren the Tartars of Casan, Astrakhan, and Crimea, have indeed some of the physical characteristics of Caucasians; but the Nogais, Kirghiz, Turcomans, and others farther east, who speak pure Turkish dialects, have a different organization, approaching nearly to the Mongolian character. It has therefore been inferred, that the Turks originally belonged to the Mongolian tribes; and that the portion of them possessing Caucasian features must have acquired them by intermixture with the Caucasian races, whom they invaded and subdued.

The existing Turkish empire dates only from the end of the thirteenth century, when it was founded by Osman or Orman, a Turk of a noble family, who had been driven westward from Khorasan by the invasion of Zengis Khan. Osman first invaded the Greek territory of Nicomedea on the 27th of July 1299; but the true era of the empire may be dated from the conquest of the city of Prusa, the capital of Bithynia, which surrendered to his son Orchan in 1368. This Orchan was a restless, ambitious, cruel prince, who greatly extended the limits of the empire, took possession of Gallipoli, and penetrated into Thrace. Amurath I., his son, subdued without resistance the whole of Greece from the Hellespont to Mount Haemus, and made Istanbul the seat of a viceroyalty. He established in 1462 the famous military bands called yengi cebri, new ders (corrupted into janizaries), once the shield and bulk of the empire, but in later times the cause of numberless revolts and revolutions. These troops were composed originally of young Christian captives that had been taken war and educated in the Mahommedan religion. They were trained to warlike exercises, and inured to obedience and severe discipline; and as every sentiment which enthusiasm can inspire, and every mark of honour which the favour of the prince could confer, were employed to animate them with martial ardour, and excite in them a sense of their own importance, these janizaries soon became the chief strength and pride of the Ottoman armies.

On the assassination of Amurath in 1389, he was succeeded by his son Bajazet, surnamed Iderim, or the Thunderer, whose reign forms one of the most splendid epochs in the Turkish annals. He subdued and stripped of their hereditary possessions the Seljukian emirs of Asia Minor, whose revolts and disturbances had embarrassed the progress of his predecessors, and protracted the downfall of the Greek empire. His conquests in Europe were equally rapid and important, and whatever adhered to the Greek empire in Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly, acknowledged his sway. He turned his arms against Sigismund king of Hungary, and in 1396 defeated, in the battle of Nicopolis, a confederate army of a hundred thousand Christians, the greater part of whom were slain or driven into the Danube. The ferocious conqueror commanded his prisoners to be massacred in cold blood, with the exception of a few of the chief nobles, who were set at liberty on the payment of a ransom of 200,000 ducats. But Bajazet had now reached the height of his greatness. His conquests in Armenia and on the banks of the Euphrates had brought him into collision with the famous Mogul conqueror Tamerlane; and in 1402 the plains around the city of Angora were the scene of the memorable battle which ended in the captivity of Bajazet, and the temporary humiliation of the Turks. The death of Tamerlane, and the contentions which arose among his sons, relieved the Turkish provinces from the Mogul yoke. Soliman the son of Bajazet obtained the European dominions of his father, Mousa reigned over the remnant of his dominions in Asia, while Mohammed, the youngest of the sons, held Cappadocia. Eleven years elapsed in the mutual endeavours of the sons of Bajazet to supplant each other, before Mohammed effected his final triumph, and assumed the title of sultan. At his death in 1421 he bequeathed an undivided empire to his successor, Amurath II. The reign of this sultan contributed greatly to increase the splendour of the Turkish empire. He made himself master of Adrianople, by which Romania and Anatolia were again united under one sceptre; and reduced to subjection Servia, Macedonia, Thessaly, Albania, and the whole of Greece to the north of the isthmus. He also besieged Constantinople, but was diverted from his enterprise by the dexterity of the Greek emperor, who stirred up against him a competitor for the throne, assuming the name and character of Mustafa, the eldest son of Bajazet. But the impostor was at length defeated and put to death. The conquests of Amurath received a considerable check from the skill and valour of Hunniades, the celebrated waiwode of Transylvania, and of the Albanian chief George Castriot, whom the Turks call Scanderbeg; but the fatal battle of Varna, in which Ladislaus king of Hungary and 10,000 Christians were slain, destroyed the hopes that were entertained of checking the progress of the Turkish arms. Amurath twice abdicated the throne, and twice was compelled by the exigencies of the empire to resume the sovereignty. He was succeeded in 1451 by Mohammed II., the conqueror of Constantinople. (For a full account of this memorable siege we must refer to the article Constantinopolitan History.) On the 6th of April 1453, the standard of the prophet was planted before the gate of St Romanus; and after a siege of fifty-three days, "that Con- Constantinople which had defied the power of Chosroes, the Chagan, and the khalifa, was irretrievably subdued by the arms of Mohammed the Second. Her empire only had been subverted by the Latins; her religion was trampled in the dust by the Moslem conquerors. Constantinople was taken by the Turks on the 29th of May 1453, two thousand and five years after the foundation of Rome, and eleven hundred and twenty-three after Constantine had removed the seat of the empire from Rome to Byzantium.

Three years after the taking of Constantinople, Mohammed laid siege to Belgrade, from which, after an obstinate resistance, he was at length repulsed with the loss of his large ordnance and forty thousand of his best troops. Abandoning his attempt upon Hungary, the sultan undertook an expedition into Greece, and about the year 1460 succeeded in subduing the whole of the Morea. In 1466 the famous Scanderbeg, who for twenty-three years had resisted all the power of the Ottoman empire, was finally compelled to take refuge at Lyssa, in the Venetian states, where he died. Mohammed had now extended his sway over the whole of Asia on this side of Mount Taurus, and over all the provinces in Europe which had formerly belonged to the eastern division of the Roman empire. Not satisfied with these conquests, he had despatched his most able general, Achmet Pasha, to invade Italy; and the capture of the strong city of Otranto had laid open that country to him, and spread universal consternation, when the danger was averted by the death of the sultan in the fifty-first year of his age, A.D. 1481. Mohammed was succeeded by his son Bajazet II., whose claims to the vacant throne were however disputed by his brother Djem or Zizim. But the claims of Bajazet were supported by the janizaries; and his competitor, after various unsuccessful struggles, was compelled to seek shelter in Italy, where he was assassinated at the instigation of Bajazet. The infamy of the deed is ascribed to Pope Alexander VI., who is said to have received 300,000 ducats for his reward. Bajazet, after a reign of thirty years, intimated his intention to resign the crown to his son Achmet; but his youngest son Selim, having secured the assistance of the janizaries, compelled his father to abdicate, and then put him to death. Selim was a successful prince, and during his short reign of nine years conquered Egypt, Aleppo, Antioch, Tripoli, Damascus, and Gaza, and defeated the Persians. On the death of Selim, Solyman surnamed the Magnificent, one of the most accomplished, enterprising, and warlike of the Turkish princes, ascended the Ottoman throne. Having quelled some insurrections in Asia, he commenced hostilities against the European princes, and entering Hungary, made himself master of Belgrade, then reckoned the chief barrier of that kingdom against the Turkish power. He next turned his victorious arms against the island of Rhodes, then the seat of the knights of St John of Jerusalem. After incredible efforts of valour and military skill, the knights obtained an honourable capitulation, and retired to the small island of Malta. Solyman next advanced into Hungary and at the battle of Mohacz (A.D. 1526) defeated and slew the Hungarian monarch, with 20,000 of his men, and took possession of the capital and the chief fortresses. Three years later he formed the siege of Vienna, but was compelled to retreat with the loss of 80,000 of his soldiers. In 1541 he again invaded Hungary, and taking advantage of a civil contest between two rival claimants of the vacant throne, he annexed the disputed kingdom to the Ottoman empire. He entered into a destructive war against Persia, and eventually succeeded in obtaining a considerable increase of territory between the Araxes and the Tigris. During the reign of this prince, the political and military administration of the Ottoman empire reached its highest state of perfection; and the arts and sciences, literature, and commerce flourished under his enlightened and munificent policy. His dominions extended from Algiers to the river Euphrates, and from the farther end of the Black Sea to the extremity of Greece and Epirus. The latter years of his reign were imbittered by domestic dissensions and cruelties. During the siege of Sigeth, a city of Hungary, before which the Turks lost 30,000 men, Solyman expired, in the seventy-fourth year of his age and forty-first of his reign.

His son and successor, Selim II., besieged and took Cyprus; but in the famous sea-fight at Lepanto, in 1571, the Turkish fleet was utterly destroyed by Don John of Austria. Selim afterwards invested and took Tunis by storm, putting the garrison to the sword. On his death, Amurath III. ascended the Ottoman throne, and extended his dominions on both sides by the addition of Tigris in Persia, and of Raab, one of the strongest fortresses in Lower Hungary. His son, Mohammed III., has no claim to notice, except on account of his barbarity. He began his reign by strangling nineteen of his brothers, and ordering twelve of his father's wives whom he suspected to be pregnant to be drowned. The war with Hungary was carried on throughout the whole of his reign, which lasted about nine years. During the inglorious sway of his son Achmet I., the affairs of Turkey underwent a material change for the worse. Peace was concluded with Hungary; but the sultan was involved in a disastrous war with Persia, in which the Turkish troops were entirely defeated. On his death, his brother Mustapha ascended the throne; but his actions having clearly proved his incapacity and imbecility, the janizaries and the divan compelled him to resign the government after a reign of five months, and threw him into prison. His nephew, Osman, the son of Achmet, a boy of twelve years of age, was then proclaimed emperor. This prince having formed the design of curbing the power of the janizaries, these turbulent soldiers rose in insurrection, deposed and murdered the sultan, and recalled his uncle Mustapha from his prison to the imperial throne. These atrocious proceedings, however, excited general indignation throughout the Asiatic provinces; and Abasa, the powerful pasha of Erzerum, took up arms to avenge the murder of Osman. After the lapse of a few months, the janizaries themselves abandoned the cause of Mustapha, who was again deposed, and was soon afterwards strangled. Under Amurath or Morad IV., surnamed Gasi, the Intrepid, affairs assumed a new appearance, and the glory of the Ottoman empire was in some measure restored. He put to death great numbers of the janizaries, and by his energetic and ferocious measures reduced these mutinous and formidable troops to a state of subordination. He took Bagdad from the Persians, and massacred the greater part of the inhabitants, after an obstinate resistance, which cost him the flower of his army. A debauch of wine put an end to his life, in the thirty-first year of his age and the seventeenth of his reign. His brother Ibrahim, who succeeded him, was a weak and imbecile prince, deformed in body, and destitute of courage. The administration of the government was wholly in the hands of the vizir Mustapha and the sultana Valide, the widow of Achmet I.; while Ibrahim gave himself up entirely to the prosecution of his pleasures, till at length his vices rendered him so odious that he was deposed and strangled. During his reign, a bloody war broke out between the Turks and the Venetians, which, after being carried on with great fury for the space of twenty-four years, ended in the extinction of the Venetian power in the Egean Sea. The alleged ground of quarrel was the reception into a Venetian port of six Maltese gal- which had captured an Ottoman ship of war. The di- sputes used various pretences to allay the suspicions of the Venetians, and throw them off their guard, till, in May 1643, the Turkish fleet set sail for the important island of Zante, and disembarked an army of 70,000 men on the land. As the Venetians had provided no means for its defence, the whole island, with the exception of the capital, was, after a sanguinary resistance, reduced in less than two years. Mohammed IV., the son of Ibrahim, was scarcely seven years of age at the deposition of his father. His mi- nistry was one continued scene of intestine discord and revolt. During this reign, war again broke out between the Austrians and Turks, and after having been carried on for some time with varied success, was concluded by a treaty for twenty years. On the termination of this war, the power of the Ottoman empire was directed against the city of Candia. The siege was actively carried on during a space of twenty-nine months, when the garrison was length forced to capitulate; and thus ended one of the most memorable sieges of modern history, in which the Ve- netians lost above 30,000 men, and the Turks more than 20,000. About this period, the Zaporazian Cossacks threw off the Polish yoke, and placed themselves under the pro- tection of Turkey. A war in consequence broke out be- tween the Turks and the Poles; but the result was advan- tageous to the Porte, who obtained the sovereignty of the important districts of the Ukraine and Podolia. Shortly after, however, the Hetman of the Cossacks having been treated with contempt by the sultan, these proud and fickle barbarians abjured the Turkish service, and transferred their allegiance to the Russian czar.

In 1683 the distracted state of Hungary induced the Poles to break the treaty with Austria; and the Turkish army, under the grand vizir Cara Mustapha, penetrated Vienna, and formed the siege of that city on the 14th of July. The siege was protracted till the 12th of Septem- ber, when the allied army, under the famous John Sobieski, attacked the besiegers, routed them with prodigious slaugh- ter, and obtained possession of their camp, together with their artillery, baggage, and magazines. A succession of battles followed, in all of which the Turks were overthrown. The number of their enemies speedily augmented, and in the short space of four years all the vast conquests of the Turkish sultans, westward of the Danube, were wrested from them, with the solitary exception of the fortified city of Agram. These extraordinary reverses caused the army to revolt against their commanders, and excited a general insurrection, which cost the sultan his throne. His brother, Mohammed II., who succeeded him in 1687, was distinguished by his austerity, sobriety, and devotion. He was happy in his domestic government, but unsuccessful in his wars. He was succeeded in 1690 by Achmet II., the youngest son of sultan Ibrahim. He too was a weak and credulous prince; and though the affairs of the empire were conducted with great prudence and vigour by the grand vizir Kuiperli, the Ottoman empire declined, and the Turks during this reign were driven out of Hungary and Transylvania. The cession of his nephew Mustapha II. to the Ottoman throne gave a new turn to the affairs of the Porte. Poss- essed of greater vigour and ability than his predecessor, he resolved to command his troops in person. He accordingly took the field, passed the Danube at the head of 50,000 men, carried Lippa by assault, and, falling suddenly on a body of Imperialists under Veterani, one of the bravest and best officers of the emperor, he defeated them, and closed the campaign with success. But two years afterwards he was defeated by Prince Eugene, in the bloody battle of Zenta, a small village on the western bank of the Theiss, the kingdom of Hungary. About 20,000 Turks were killed on the field, and 10,000 were drowned in their attempt to escape; and the magnificent pavilion of the sultan, and all his stores, fell into the hands of Prince Eugene. These terrible disasters compelled Mustapha to solicit a peace, and a treaty was shortly after signed at Car- lowitz, which guaranteed Hungary, Transylvania, and Sla- vonia to the Austrians; Azoph to the Russians; Podolia, the Ukraine, and Kaminiecz to the Poles; and the Morea, with a strong frontier in Dalmatia, to the Venetians. Short- ly after these misfortunes, an insurrection was excited among the soldiers by a sense of the national disgrace, and Musta- pha was dethroned.

His brother and successor, Achmet III., gave an asylum to Charles XII., king of Sweden, at Bender, a Turkish town in Moldavia, after his defeat at the battle of Pultowa. (See RUSSIA and SWEDEN.) A war broke out between the Russians and the Turks, in which the czar Peter, having imprudently suffered himself to be cooped up in an angle formed by the river Pruth, was reduced to the greatest ex- tremities, and compelled to make peace on terms dictated by the Turkish general. Being unsuccessful in his war against Kouli Khan and the Persians, Achmet was depos- ed, and was succeeded by Mohammed V.

From the deposition of Achmet III., in 1730, to the ac- cession of Mustapha III., in 1754, nothing of importance occurs in the history of the Turkish empire. During the reign of this latter sultan, was begun and terminated that destructive war with Russia which broke out in 1769, and lasted till 1774, when the successes of the Russians com- pelled the sultan, Abdul Hamid, to terminate the unequal contest by the dishonourable treaty of Kainardjhi. By this treaty Russia obtained possession of the tract between the Bug and the Dnieper, known by the name of New Servia, the forts of Yenikaleh and Kerchesh in the Crimea, and the fortress of Kilburn, at the embouchure of the Dnei- per, opposite to the town of Ockzakow. The Krim Tar- tars were declared independent, and Russian merchant-ves- sels were admitted to the free navigation of the Bosphorus. About this time a formidable rebellion broke out in Egypt, which was suppressed chiefly by the wise conduct and in- trepid behaviour of Hassan Bey, the capitan pasha, who at the age of seventy fought with all the ardour of youth, and all the skill of the most consummate general. That veter- an, however, was recalled before he was able to carry all his patriotic designs into execution, that he might aid the divan with his counsel in the critical situation into which the empire was brought by the arrogant claims of the court of Russia. The result of the deliberations was a precipi- tate declaration of war against that power, contrary to the better judgment of the old pasha. The war commenced in the autumn of 1787, and the hordes of Tartars which were first brought into the field were everywhere defeated by the superior discipline of the Russian troops, command- ed by Prince Potemkin. Some enterprises which were un- dertaken by the Turks against the island of Taman and the Crimea, were attended with as little success as the attempts of the Tartars, while the emperor Joseph declared to the Porte that he would assist his ally the empress of Russia with an army of 80,000 men. Four Austrian armies were accordingly assembled, one at Carlstadt in Croatia, under the command of General de Vins; another at Peterwaradin in Hungary, commanded by General Langlois; a third on the borders of Lithuania, under General Febris; and the fourth in the Buckowine, under the orders of the Prince of Saxe-Coburg. Other two generals, ten lieutenant-gene- rals, and thirty major-generals, were all ordered to prepare for active service in the frontier armies.

The war between the Turks and the Austrians was car- ried on with varied success. At first the advantage was evidently on the side of the former, and the Austrians were repulsed with disgrace in their attempt to obtain possession of Belgrade. The prince of Saxe-Coburg displayed indeed prodigies of valour; but being opposed to a superior force, he was long obliged to act only on the defensive. He was at length joined by a body of Russians under General Soltikoff; and preparations were made for commencing in form the siege of Choczin, which was surrendered to the allied armies on Michaelmas day 1780; after a defence which would have done honour to the ablest general in Europe. Still, however, success seemed to lean to the side of the Turks. The grand vizir made a sudden incursion into the Banat, and spread consternation and dismay to the very gates of Vienna. The Austrian affairs seemed approaching to a very alarming crisis. Not only the splendid views of conquest, which were beheld in the imagined partition of a tottering empire, had totally disappeared, but had left in their place the sad and gloomy reverse of a discontented and impoverished people, an exhausted treasury, and an army thinned by pestilence and desertion. In this situation of affairs, Marshal Laudohn was with some difficulty drawn from his retirement to take the command of the army in Croatia; and under his auspices fortune began to smile on the Austrian arms. He quickly reduced Dubica and Nevi, though they were both defended with the most obstinate bravery. He then sat down before the Turkish Gradisca; but the autumn rains ensuing with such violence that the Saave overflowed its banks, he was compelled to raise the siege. During this period the war in the Banat raged with the utmost violence. Much desperate valour was displayed on the one side, and many brave actions were performed on the other; while a great part of that fine but unfortunate country suffered all the desolation and ruin that fire and sword, under the dominion of vengeance and animosity, could inflict.

In the midst of these military operations, Selim III., the only son of the sultan Mustapha, mounted the imperial throne. The new emperor did not want either courage or prudence, and he continued the war with Russia and Austria with great spirit and resolution. Marshal Laudohn renewed his attempts upon Gradisca as soon as the season would permit, and, after a brave defence, it fell into his hands. This with some other successes raised the emperor from his state of inactivity, and made him seriously determine on the attack which he had long meditated on Belgrade. The enterprise was intrusted to Laudohn, who, with his usual good fortune, made himself master of the place in less than a month. The rest of the campaign was little else than a series of the most important successes. While one detachment of Laudohn's forces took possession of Czernitz in Wallachia, another made itself master of Cladova in Servia. Bucharest, the capital of the former of these provinces, fell without opposition into the hands of Prince Coburg, while Akerman, on the Black Sea, was reduced by the Russians, and Bender surrendered to Prince Potemkin, not without suspicion of sinister practices.

Soon after this the emperor Joseph died, and his successor Leopold showed a desire for peace. After the reduction of Orsova, therefore, which happened on the 16th of April 1790, the war was carried on with languor on the part of Austria, and in the month of June a conference was agreed on at Reichenbach, at which the ministers of Prussia, Austria, Britain, and the united provinces, assisted, and at which also an envoy from Poland was occasionally present. After a negotiation which continued till the 17th of August, it was agreed that a peace should be concluded between the Austrians and the Ottomans; and that the basis of this treaty should be a general surrender of all the conquests made by the former, retaining only Choczin as a security till the Porte should accede to the terms of the agreement, when it also was to be restored.

In the mean time the empress of Russia persevered in hostilities, and carried on the war with great vigour and success. In the campaign of 1790, the Russian general Suvaroff carried the strong fortress of Ismail by an assault, which for violence and bloodshed has no parallel in modern times. The Ottoman empire seemed on the verge of destruction, when the empress at length, induced by the darkening aspect of European affairs, concluded with the Porte a definite treaty of peace at Yassy on the 9th of January 1792. The stipulations of the treaty of Kaimurzhi were renewed. The river Dniester was recognised as the boundary of the two empires. Ocjakow was ceded to Russia, with the territory between the Bog and the Dniester; and the cession of the Crimea, of the isle of Taman, and part of the Kuban, was again formally confirmed.

It was evidently the desire and endeavour of the Ottoman government to keep aloof from the terrible wars and changes which accompanied the French Revolution; but the invasion of Egypt by the French compelled the sultan to abandon the system of neutrality which he was anxious to maintain. (A full account of this event will be found under the article EGYPT.) On the recommencement of hostilities with France, attempts were made to induce the Porte to take part in the war against that country. Russia and England united their strength against France in the arena, and the sultan was the sad spectator of a contest which he was himself the unwilling umpire, the ostensible object, and the proposed prey. The victory of either party alike menaced him with ruin, he had to choose between the armies of France and the fleets of England. Never was sovereign so situated between two negotiators, one armed with the power of the land, the other with that of the sea; both to all appearance able to destroy, but neither capable of protecting him against his antagonist. The precipitate flight of the British ambassador had scarcely relieved him from the embarrassment of making a selection between the menacing parties, when his capital was alarmed for the first time by the presence of a hostile force, and the last of calamities seemed reserved for the reign of Selim. The good fortune which interposed to save the seat of empire was not extended to the sovereign, and the evils which were inevitable from the triumph of either party gathered fast around him from the day that saw the city of the faithful delivered from the insults of a Christian flag.

The year 1807 witnessed one of those sanguinary insurrections which have so often convulsed the Ottoman empire. The cause of this revolt, which cost Selim his throne, was an attempt to introduce the improved system of European tactics into the military and naval establishments. The sultan had evinced, at an early period of his reign, a determination to attempt some changes in the organization of the military force; and for this purpose new regulations were issued in 1798. The chief arrangement was the levy of 12,000 men, who were to be disciplined according to the principles of European tactics, and armed in every respect like British or French soldiers. The new troop were to wear a uniform, and were to be taught the manual exercise; and, in order to detach them as much as possible from the janizaries, it was resolved they should belong nominally to the corps of hostages. For these hostage fliers, as they were called, were erected handsome bar... The sultan," says Sir John Hobhouse, "was now awakened to a sense of his danger; he assembled his ministers at the seraglio, and the 28th of the month was passed in negotiation with the insurgents in the Etmeidan. During the day the fate of Selim was on the balance; he transmitted to the Etmeidan an offer to abolish the new institutions, to which the janizaries returned no other answer than a demand for the immediate execution of all the ministers who had advised and presided over the nizam-jedid. Then it was that the kaimacam insidiously assured him that the sacrifice was necessary, and would appease the rebels. All was not yet lost. If at that moment the gates of the seraglio had been shut, a cannon had been fired, and the head of Mousa Pasha himself had been struck off and thrown over the walls, Selim would have triumphed and retained the throne of his ancestors. But the instant peril and the presence of his enemies bewildered the faculties and so absorbed the resolution of the sultan, that he seems to have despaired of resistance, and to have placed all hopes of safety in submission alone. It was not suggested to his mind, that with the new troops of Scutari and Tchiftlik, and other soldiers in the vicinity of the capital, he might speedily assemble 30,000 men, not less devoted to himself than inimical to the janizaries; and that until their arrival he could maintain the seraglio against the rebels, by arraying the forces of his numerous bodyguard. Yet the testimony of all the reports prevalent at this day in Constantinople concurs in the persuasion that such an opposition, with the instant death of the kaimacam, would have dismayed the insurgents and crushed the rebellion. But the traitor prevailed, and with a cruel ingenuity contrived to include in the prescription the names of two old and innocent men, the kebaya-bey and the reis-effendi, who were called to a conference with Mousa, and, on leaving the room unsuspicious of their danger, were carried away to the second gate and strangled. The number of heads presented to the janizaries early on the morning of the 29th was seven; but the ruffians, rising in their insolence, were not satisfied with the bloody offering, and, on recognising the aged victims of the resentment of Mousa, declared that they had required another sacrifice. 'The heads were not those of the enemies whose punishment they had demanded.' The sultan hearing this last intelligence, sent for the mufti, and on learning that he withheld his advice, found that he had ceased to reign.

"The janizaries, headed by the traitor Mousa, had already found their way into the seraglio, when the sultan retired to the mosque of the palace, and wrapping himself in the robe of Mahomet, took his seat in the corner of the sanctuary. Here he was found by the mutti, who entreated him to submit to the wishes of the people, and to resign the crown. Another report says that, previously to this moment, he had told his attendants that he would reign no more, and ordered them to bring his successor before him. The circumstances of this actual deposition were not exactly known; but on the evening of the same day (the 29th) it was understood in all the quarters of the capital that the most injured, if not the best, of the Ottomans had stepped from a throne to a prison, and that the reigning monarch was his cousin, Mustapha, the Fourth, eldest son of Sultan Abdulhamid." This prince was thirty years old when he was placed on the throne. Of a feeble character and limited attainments, he became a mere instrument in the hands of others, and was the servant rather than the master of the armed multitude to whom he was indebted for his elevation. The supreme power was in the hands of the janizaries; the new institutions were abolished, the new troops dispersed, and their principal officers executed. Their triumph, however, was but of short duration, and the punishment which they so justly deserved was speedily inflicted. Mustapha Bairactar, the pasha of Rudshuk, owed his elevation to the personal regard of the dethroned sultan, and determined to avenge his fall. So early as October 1807, he formally intimated to the sultan, that he should advance to the capital to reform the abuses of the state, and to assist him in the administration of public affairs. Accordingly, having collected an army of forty thousand men, he marched to Constantinople, and encamped on the plains of Daout Pasha, four miles from the city. There his camp soon became the centre of the business and affairs of the Porte, whose chief officers directed their visits of ceremony to the tent of the triumphant general. But the pasha, conscious that his authority in such a state of affairs was unstable, resolved upon the restoration of the sultan Selim. The 28th of July 1808 was fixed upon for the enterprise; and as Mustapha had appointed that day for a hunting expedition, Bairactar determined to enter the palace during his absence, and, by preventing his return, exclude him from the throne. Unfortunately the secret transpired; and when, at the appointed time, Bairactar marched to the seraglio, he found the gates closed, and the body-guard under arms. Orders were given for an immediate assault; and after a brief contest, the insurgents forced their way into the seraglio. But the interval proved fatal to Selim. At the commencement of the contest, the emissaries of Mustapha were despatched to his apartments, and after a powerful resistance, that ill-fated prince was thrown down and strangled. After the murder of Selim, the strictest search was made for Mahmoud, the youngest son of Abdulhamid, and the only remaining prince of the blood-royal. But a faithful slave had concealed him in the furnace of a bath, and before the place of his concealment could be discovered, the insurgents had forced their way into the interior of the palace. Advancing to the third gate, they called aloud for the instant appearance of Selim, when the eunuchs of Mustapha, casting the body of the murdered monarch before them, exclaimed, "Behold the sultan whom you seek!" Bairactar, overpowered by his feelings, threw himself on the disfigured corpse, and wept aloud; till Selid Ali, the captain pasha, exhorting him to seize the moment for revenge, he instantly aroused himself, and commanded that the Sultan Mahmoud should be proclaimed, and Mustapha arrested. The command was immediately obeyed; Mustapha was consigned to the prison of the seraglio, and Mahmoud was released from his painful concealment, and placed on the Ottoman throne. On the ascension of Mahmoud, Bairactar was of course made grand vizir; and he avenged with unsparing severity the death of his benefactor. The traitor Mousa Pasha lost his head, and all the officers of the yamaks and the most seditious of the janizaries were strangled and cast into the Bosphorus; and the females of the harem who had rejoiced at the death of Selim were sewed up in sacks and precipitated into the sea near the shores of Prince's Island.

The vizir openly avowed his intention of reforming the system of the janizaries, and retrenching their privileges; and it was resolved to revive the order of the Seimens, who might supply their place, and be regulated according to the discipline of the nizam-jedid. The name of this corps was more odious to the janizaries than even that of Selim, as belonging to an institution more ancient than their own; and they were only the more resolved to ruin the author of the innovation. Bairactar, however, becoming elated by prosperity, began to despise their enmity; and, blinded to the danger by which he was surrounded, came to the fatal resolution of dismissing the greater part of the provincial troops, and thus remained almost unprotected in the midst of an infuriated soldiery thirsting for his destruction. On the night of the 14th of November, several thousands of janizaries, issuing from their quarters, surrounded the palace of Bairactar, and set fire to the building. The vizir and his friends escaped from the conflagration into a strong stone tower, used as a powder magazine, which the janizaries attacked in vain. But in the middle of the night the whole city was shaken by a tremendous explosion; and it was found that the magazine, with the grand vizir, had been blown into the air, whether by accident or design is to this day unknown. During the two following days the contest raged with unabated fury; till the forces of the arsenal and of Topkapi united themselves to the janizaries; and the death of Bairactar becoming known, the Seimens withdrew from the combat. In the mean time, the officers of Mahmoud had strangled the imprisoned Mustapha; and the sultan having no longer any thing to fear from the partiality of the janizaries for his predecessor, commanded the commanding to cease, and at the same time announced to the janizaries that the Seimens were abolished for ever. The friends of the late vizir saved themselves by embarking on board a vessel at the Seraglio Point; but the victorious janizaries completed their vengeance by the destruction of the magnificent barracks of Sultan Selim at Scutari and Tchiftit, at the latter of which, five hundred Seimens defended themselves with desperate valour against a multitude of assailants, until their quarters were fired, and they all perished in the flames. Thus terminated the most tremendous revolution that Constantinople had experienced since it fell under the power of the Turks, and which, after deposing two monarchs and spilling the best blood of the empire, ended in the destruction of the meditated reforms, and the entire re-establishment of the ancient institutions.

During these events, the war with Russia had languished; but on the accession of Mahmoud, the armies on both sides were augmented, and the contest was carried on with great ferocity. The campaign of 1811 was short, but disastrous to the Porte, the main body of the Ottoman army having surrendered as prisoners of war. The result might have been fatal to the Turkish empire; but in 1812 the prospect of the arduous struggle with France induced Russia to make peace with the Porte, on the latter ceding Bessarabia and part of Moldavia. At the peace of Tilsit, Napoleon left the Turkish empire single-handed to fight or fall, though it had been induced to take up arms solely by French promises and intrigue. The neglect was deeply felt by the Ottomans, and it received its just punishment when the unexpected pacification of 1812 released the Russian army just in time to interrupt the distressed French troops in their attempt to pass the Beresina. The sultan being now happily freed from foreign enemies, resolutely entered on the difficult task of reducing to obedience the great officers of his empire, who during the distracted state of the country had virtually exercised independent power; and in the course of a few years, the famous Ali Pasha and the other powerful and rebellious satraps were all deprived of their governments, and most of them executed. In 1821 began that celebrated insurrection which, after a bloody war of eight years, terminated in the complete emancipation of the Greeks from the Turkish yoke. (See GREECE.) Meanwhile the tranquillity of the empire was again threatened by the janizaries. They had chosen to take umbrage at certain members of the divan; and, in consequence of their representations, in November 1822 four of the obnoxious ministers were exiled, and Halet Effendi, the keeper of the signet, was put to death. This interference, however, is supposed to have been the remote cause of the destruction of these troops. The necessity of introducing new systems of discipline had long been apparent to every thinking man, and the government was anxious to do so; but every attempt had hitherto proved fatal to the innovator. The sultan resolved to make another effort, and if the janizaries resisted, to extirpate them altogether. In conformity with these designs, one hundred and fifty men were selected from each orta of the janizaries, who were instruct- Turkey in Europe.

In its present reduced dimensions, excluding Greece and the islands, but still including the dependent states of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Servia, this country has an extent of about 700 miles from east to west, between the western border of Croatia and the channel of Constantinople, or the mouths of the Danube, and of 650 from north to south, between the frontier of Greece and the northern extremity of Moldavia, including an area of nearly 180,000 square miles.

In its general aspect Turkey may be described as divided into two great portions; the one consisting of the low country between the base of the Balkan range on the south and the Carpathians on the north, extending north-eastward to the borders of Russia, and forming the basin of the Lower Danube; and the other all the rest of the country southward to the frontier of Greece. The nucleus of the latter portion is formed by various ranges of mountains which have been considered to be only a prolongation of the Alps, or at least as connected with that range by the very hilly country which is found at the north-eastern corner of the Gulf of Venice. All the best maps, however, are crowded with false indications; not only false or ill-spelled names, but also ill-placed localities. Hills and even large rivers are totally omitted, while many parts of the maps on which hills are marked are merely imaginary representations. All the maps exhibit a central chain of great magnitude; but in reality the Balkans, from Sophia to the Black Sea, are in general only a range of small heights. The central part of the chain may be crossed anywhere in a day, or in some parts even in a few hours. The principal chains of mountains may be enumerated in the following order. 1. The Tchar (ancient Scardus), a high and extensive range, which forms the western part of the central chain. 2. The Despoto-dagh (ancient Rhodope), which begins near Dubnitsa and Diumaka, and runs in an east-south-east direction, diminishing in height till it terminates rather abruptly about six leagues south-west of Adrianople. Its loftiest summits are towards the west, and reach an elevation of 8000 feet, or probably more. 3. The group of hills which occupies a large and very wild tract of country between 42° and 43° N. lat. and 19° and 21° E. long. and is but little known. 4. The chain of Pindus, which extends from Metzovo (39° 50' N. lat.) to the north-west, beyond the lake of Ochrida, where some parts of the chain reach an elevation of 6000 or 7000 feet. Its southern extremity is connected with Olympus by a somewhat lower chain, which separates Thessaly from Macedonia. 5. The true Balkan (ancient Haemus), which extends eastward from the neighbourhood of Sophia, to Emineh Burun on the Black Sea. It is a much lower chain than the Despoto-dagh; the southern slopes are generally very steep, but on the north side it is only the highest ridge which is much inclined, and on that side also the country falls by a series of parallel ridges diminishing in height towards the Danube, which flows past a series of small hills on the Bulgarian side, while on the Wallachian side the country is flat. The western part of the Balkan probably reaches an elevation of 4000 feet; but, near the sea, the summits are only from 1800 to 2000 feet above its level. 7. The preceding chains are connected by a large undulating high country or plateau, extending from east to west between Sophia and Pristina, and forming the upper part of the basin of the Morava. From this plateau ranges of mountains extend in every direction into Servia, Macedonia, Albania, and Thrace, some of which attain the elevation of 5000 or 5500 feet. 8. South of Adrianople, between the Maritza and the Dardanelles, are the low ridges and plateaus of the Tekir-dagh, which rise only to the height of about 900 feet; but to the south-east of Aimadtschik there is a somewhat higher range, which, near the Sea of Marmora, is probably 300 or 400 feet higher than the Tekir. 9. Along the south-western shore of the Black Sea, a very low chain extends from the Bosphorus to the north-west, forming the water-shed between that sea and the basin of Adrianople. It is not in immediate connection with the Balkan; while, on the other hand, towards the Bosphorus it becomes divided into a number of small hills situate on low-lying plateaus. 10. Between the lower Strymon and the lower Vardar, on the coast of Macedonia, there is a group of low hills, of which the almost insulated ridge of Athos may be considered as the south-eastern extremity. A prominent character of the orography of European Turkey is the presence of vast cavities or high plains at the foot of the mountains, and the number of extensive cross fractures in the latter. The plains may be regarded for the most part as longitudinal valleys, and some, if not all of them, appear to have been once the beds of lakes. Only a few lakes however now remain, as those of Ochrida, Kastoria, Joannina, and Sentari, and even these are rapidly filling up.

The only river of any importance is the Danube, which has been already described. (See Danube.) It now forms the northern boundary of the territory under the immediate government of the Padishah, and is navigable for steam-boats upwards from the Black Sea to the interior of Germany, excepting only at the Irongate, on the borders of Hungary, where the navigation is effectually interrupted by rapids. The navigation of the Danube being of essential importance to the commerce of the Austrian empire, and the lower part of it being not only circuitous and obstructed with shallows, but also exposed to interruption from the fiscal and sanatory regulations of the Russian government, which has got possession of the river-mouths, a convention was some years ago entered into between the Austrian and the Turkish governments, the latter of which undertook to form a canal from the Danube near Rasovia, to Kisniug on the Black Sea; but the work is not yet begun, and it has been proposed, more recently, to substitute a railway.

In a country consisting of so many high plains, and intersected by so many lofty mountains, the climate must necessarily be very various. Along the western coasts the climate partakes somewhat of that of Italy, though colder, owing to the vicinity of the mountains; but the maritime regions along the east coast are exposed to the north-east winds, which blow frequently, and bring intense cold and thick fogs and rain from the Black Sea. At Constantinople the climate is extremely changeable; the temperature will sometimes fall 31° in a single hour. Indeed it depends upon the north or the south wind, whether one is shivering in the cold of Russia, or luxuriating in the balmy air of Greece. The winters are extremely long and severe; the roads are often blocked up with snow, and the wind on the Bosphorus is often so violent, that all communication between the city and the villages far up the channel is cut off. Upper Macedonia and Thrace (the modern Illyria) were considered by the ancients to be cold countries; and it was in the former that they placed the residence of Boreas. The country nevertheless is rich in corn and wool, and well adapted for the vine. For the climate and natural productions of the other provinces, see the articles Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Servia.

Turkey in Asia.

This large and important part of the empire is situated between 31° and 42° N. lat., and 26° and 48° E. long. In greatest length, measured diagonally from the mouth of the Dardanelles to the mouth of the Euphrates, exceeds 1600 miles; and its greatest breadth, from the southern border of Palestine to the north-eastern extremity of the pasalic of Akhalzik, exceeds 500. Its area may be about 500,000 square miles. It is bounded on the north by the Black Sea and a part of the Russian territory; on the south by the deserts of Arabia; on the east by Persia and Russian Armenia; and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, the Archipelago, the Dardanelles, the sea of Marmora, and the channel of Constantinople. It consists naturally of four very distinct portions, namely, 1. the peninsula of Anatolia or Asia Minor, situate between the Black Sea and the Levant part of the Mediterranean; 2. the high table-land of Armenia and Kurdistan to the north-east; 3. the low countries of Assyria, Babylonia, and Mesopotamia, traversed by the Euphrates and the Tigris; and, 4. Syria and Palestine, which together form the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and extend between it and the Arabian desert.

Armenia and the northern part of Kurdistan form an elevated table-land, or series of plains and valleys, some of which are 5500 feet above the level of the sea, intersected and overtopped by ranges of mountains. This is however a fertile corn country, and abounds also in pastures, though the climate is cold, and in winter the whole region is covered with deep snow. From Armenia two ranges of mountains proceed westward. One of these, the ancient Taurus, runs parallel to the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and then dividing into a number of branches, which intersect the western part of the peninsula, forms as many fertile valleys watered by fine rivers, and terminates on the shores or in the islands of the Archipelago. The other chain, Anti-Taurus, extends in a south-westerly direction. so the interior of the peninsula, where it is probably connected, not only with the ranges of Taurus, but also with the lofty mountains which under various names occupy the country between the Kizil-Irmak and the Sea of Marmara. The central part of the peninsula, supported all sides by these mountains, forms a series of elevated table-lands, nearly destitute of trees, but abounding with pasture. Some of its valleys are so completely surrounded by mountains, as to have no outlet for their waters, which not only overflow large tracts of country in the rainy season, but also form a number of permanent lakes, some of which are intensely salt, as those of Van and Kochhisar. The climate of this upland region is so severe that plants are to be seen but such as are found in the Highlands of Scotland. The summer is of very short duration, and the low country along the coasts is so much affected by the vicinity of these cold mountains, that neither the olive nor the cactus, nor any succulent plant, is to be seen. Orange and lemon trees are with difficulty preserved in the sheltered valleys; the olive seldom flourishes, even in similar situations; and they are all inferior in growth to those of Sicily, Calabria, and Greece.

The countries watered by the Euphrates and Tigris may be distinguished, by their configuration, climate, and natural productions, into three zones. The first, or most northern, comprises the mountainous country traversed by the ranges of Taurus, where the winters are cold and the summers hot, and where the productions are forest and fruit trees, olives, figs, corn, and pasturage. The second zone consists of sandy or sandy plains, the fertile parts of which produce sugar trees, cotton, maize, sesame, tobacco, and hardy composite plants. The climate is characterised by great dryness, combined with great variations of temperature; and the zone comprises Northern Syria, Mesopotamia, and the low country to the east of the Upper Tigris. The third zone, which extends from Feluja to the Persian Gulf, consists of low, watery, alluvial plains, which produce date trees, rice, and pasturage, or saline plants, reeds, sedge, and rushes. The plain is intersected in every direction by the remains of ancient canals, and is still capable of extensive irrigation which made it in ancient times the richest country in the world. But at present it is nearly deserted, and cultivation is only found like a fringe along the banks of the rivers. For the description of the remaining parts of the empire, see the articles SYRIA, PALESTINE, EGYPT, TRIPOLI, and BARCA.

The dominant race of people are the Osmanlee or Ottomans, or Ottoman Turks. They however spurn the name of Turk, which they consider as a term of contempt equivalent to barbarian, while they glory in the name of Osmanlee, as expressive of valour and polish. Their language has received so large an admixture of Arabic and Persian, as to denominated on that account Malemma or the Piedmontese. They are the people themselves of a race less mixed than their language. For ages they have blended themselves with the races that they have conquered. They are in general tall, robust, well-formed race, of rather harsh, yet often noble physiognomy, a tawny complexion, dark-brown hair; and their moral gravity of men is aided by long moustaches, which are reckoned an indispensable ornament. With respect to their character, there is the greatest discrepancy among European travellers and writers, who, actuated by different feelings, views, and interests, and writing for opposite party purposes, have given such accounts of the Turks as can scarcely be reconciled, or be considered as applicable to the same people. But after a full consideration of these conflicting statements, we are inclined to be of opinion that Osmanlees are scarcely, if at all, inferior in moral character even to some of the proudest nations of Western Europe, while they are certainly far superior to their eastern neighbours the Russians and the Greeks; the former of whom are brutalized by the bondage of the mass of the Statistics people, and the latter are as proverbial for wiles as the Turks are for honesty. The character, however, of the Turks is not uniform; those of Asia differ considerably from those of Europe. Scattered over a wide extent of country, they exhibit in different provinces different manners and customs, and some of them are certainly more barbarous than others; but instead of condemning them in the mass, as some travellers do, we think it is rather to be wondered at that, subjected as they have been for centuries to the most pernicious system of misrule, they still possess any good qualities at all, than that they are not so thoroughly humanized as more favoured nations. Their religion, bad as it has been called, seems no more conducive to immorality than that of Spain or Italy; and the general condition of the empire at the present day, and the manners of its people, will bear a favourable comparison with those of Spain or Portugal, Naples or Sicily. The total number of the Osmanlees throughout the empire is exceedingly uncertain; but their actual number has always been small in comparison with the population of the territories which they have ruled. On the one side, they are mixed with a more numerous population of Christians, whose seeming submission is a veil to their hostile feelings; and on the other, they hold in subjection an Arab population, who, from fearing and respecting their masters, have now acquired a conviction of their own superiority. The Turkish population, says the duke of Ragusa, of both sexes, and including all ages, does not, at the very utmost, exceed three millions and a half of persons, and is spread over an immense surface; only 760,000 of them are reckoned to be in Europe. The most numerous portion, indeed, of the European population consists of various Slavonic tribes, as Bosnians, Servians, Bulgarians, who chiefly inhabit the northern, western, and central parts of Turkey. Next to them in number are the Arnauts, who inhabit Albania, and are scattered over other provinces; and to these must be added Greeks, Wallachians, Jews, Gipsies, Armenians, and Franks. No census having ever been taken of the population, the numbers of these various races can only be conjectured; and accordingly, European statisticians differ widely in their estimates. In the Weimar Almanac for 1840, we find the population of European Turkey classed thus:

| Race | Population | |-----------------------------|------------| | Osmanlee, of Turkish origin and speech | 700,000 | | Greeks | 1,180,000 | | Albanians | 1,600,000 | | Slavonians | 6,000,000 | | Wallachians of the Greek Church | 600,000 | | Armenians | 100,000 | | Jews | 250,000 | | Franks | 50,000 | | Gipsies | 200,000 |

Add the population of Moldavia and Wallachia...1,500,000

Total population of European Turkey...12,180,000

The population of Asiatic Turkey is still more various, but we have never seen any estimate of the numbers of the various races. The Osmanlee are very numerous in Asia Minor, which they seem to consider as their proper country; but even there they are mixed with a multitude of Greeks, Jews, Armenians, Yezidees, and other races, while large tracts of the interior are abandoned to the wandering tribes of Turcomans, Yurukhs, and Kurds, who pasture their flocks and herds in the wide upland plains. The Turcomans are also of the Toorkee family; but being pastoral, like the Arabs, they traverse immense tracts to procure subsistence for their camels, buffaloes, goats, and They also breed horses, and sell them, with milk, butter, and meat, to the towns and villages, taking in return arms, clothes, and money. Their women spin wool and make carpets. Each camp is under a chief, whose power is regulated by custom and dependent upon circumstances, and the abuse of it is restrained by public opinion. They pay for the liberty of pasture, at so much a tent, to the pashas.

The Turcomans are by far the most numerous and the most civilized of the nomadic tribes. They live in tents during summer, but have generally fixed villages for their winter quarters. The Yurukhs live in tents all the year round, but dwell almost exclusively in the mountains; and when in the neighbourhood of large towns, generally act as charcoal burners, and supply the towns-people with that article. They, as well as the Turcomans, cultivate a little ground. The Kurds differ much in manners and language from both of these tribes. They are a more wealthy and independent people, and live entirely in tents. They dwell on the eastern flanks of Mount Arjish, and in the great plain of the Haimanch, towards Angora. They are found also among the ridges of Taurus, in Northern Syria; but their proper country is the mountainous region to the north-east of the Tigris, which from them takes its name of Kurdistan, and which is nominally divided between Persia and Turkey, without being really subject to either.

(See SYRIA, PALESTINE, ARABIA, ARMENIA, KURDISTAN.)

The total number of the population of Asiatic Turkey is reckoned at 9,956,400; and the total population of both European and Asiatic Turkey is thus clasped, according to their religions: Moslem, 13,552,000; Greek Church, 4,000,000; Armenians, 1,400,000; Catholics, 618,000; Monophysites, 380,000; Nestorians, 300,000; Christians of St John, 5000; Protestants, 3000; Jews, 620,000; Yazidises, 100,000; Druses, 60,000; Nazaries, 40,000. Total, 21,078,000.

The government is an absolute monarchy, or despotism vested in a padishah, or emperor, of the race of Othman. He is also, in virtue of a compact made with the last descendant of the Fatemite caliphs of Egypt, khalif or vicar of the prophet, and, as such, head of the Mahommedan religion. He thus unites in himself the power of the kitab and the hiltch (the pen and the sword), and consequently claims the exercise of an absolute authority, both spiritual and temporal. There is no limit to his power but the dread of retaliation and revenge. He cannot indeed infringe the right of property, or inflict punishment in general, without a formal condemnation; but, on the other hand, the ortalif, or royal prerogative, allows him to put to death fourteen persons every day, as the effect of immediate inspiration, and in these cases confiscation is sure to follow; and it is from this prerogative that he has obtained his ordinary title of Unkiar, or Hunkiar, or Khunkiar (i.e. the man-slayer), the one by which he is spoken of among his subjects. He also bears the title of sultan, but is best known to Europeans by the Italian title of Grand Signior. The most characteristic trait, however, of Turkish despotism is exhibited in the relation which subsists between the hunkiar and his officers. All who accept any post or place (and what he offers none dare refuse), thereby place their lives and properties at his disposal; he is the heir to all their effects, and can at any time take their heads as a matter of right. In such circumstances, it is natural that the offices of government should either be in the hands of desperadoes, or of men who hope to escape notice by a servile adherence to established routine, and who sacrifice everything to their personal safety. The ulema alone are placed beyond the reach of these odious prerogatives. There is no hereditary nobility, and thus all the prejudices of the people in favour of antiquity, nobility, and power, are concentrated upon the family of Othman, the founder of the empire and of the imperial dynasty. They stand alone in the eyes of the nation, and the care to preserve this illustrious line has never been more conspicuous than in the midst of revolutions. It was however nearly extinguished in 1808. At the very time when Mustapha IV. was put to death, executioners despatched by him were in search of his cousin Mahmoud, the sultan, who was discovered by his deliverers lying concealed under some old tapestry. Mahmoud was then the only surviving male of the family, and the circumstance of his being so is believed to have saved his life on several occasions during his turbulent reign. The government has for a long period been singularly inefficient; and if we examine the system, from the highest authority downwards, we shall not be surprised at its total unfitness for its legitimate purpose. The presumptive heirs to the throne, who bear the title of Shadzad (king's sons, or princes), are shut up, each separately, in an isolated apartment within the palace, in the middle of a large garden. These apartments are prisons called kafesse (iron cages). Surrounded by high walls, they contain only these unhappy princes, attended by eunuchs, and by female slaves too old to become mothers. The reigning sultan, seeing in them so many rivals, constantly watches their conduct; lets no one approach them; prohibits, under pain of death, all correspondence with them; and leaves them to vegetate in utter ignorance of everything passing in the empire. He appoints for their preceptors persons in whom he has confidence, old men, who teach them the rudiments of the Arabic and Persian languages, and writing; and for their amusement, he appoints some of his eunuchs to be their pages, who instruct them in some of the most common mechanical arts. Whether they be his sons or his brothers, the treatment is the same; and such is the education of those who are destined to govern so large and turbulent an empire.

In the early periods of the Ottoman history, all the relations of the sultan shared with him the dangers and the glories of the battle-field; but among a people prone to admire bold crimes, who had no fixed law of succession to the throne, and whose domestic manners were calculated to weaken the ties of kindred, the prince often found dangerous competitors in his sons and brothers. Selim I. deposed and murdered his father. Suleiman the Great was obliged to strangle his eldest son, who had conspired against his life; and this circumstance induced him to ordain that all the princes allied to the throne should be kept in close confinement in the palace, secluded from the public eye and from state affairs; nor could they leave their prison, unless in the presence of the emperor, till called to ascend the throne. This fatal law, dictated in the gloomy spirit of eastern jealousy, soon marred the grandeur of the race of Othman. The succeeding sultans, reared in captivity amidst women and eunuchs, were unfit to be the heads of a warlike nation, and in almost every case relinquished the command of the army, to riot in cruelty and sensuality. From Othman, the founder of the dynasty, to Suleiman the Great, the sultans were all men of surpassing vigour and abilities; but from that period their history exhibits little but weakness and disgrace.

Thus passing his youth, or sometimes the greater part of his life, till mature age, in complete idleness, deprived of every kind of rational pleasure and amusement, the heir of the empire no sooner quits his imprisonment to mount the throne, than, surrounded by a swarm of flatterers, by handsome slaves and various objects of enjoyment, he blindly plunges into effeminacy and luxury; and abandons to the mercy of his eunuchs and his flatterers the affairs of empire, in which he has never been exercised, and of which therefore he is totally ignorant. Upon the elevation of a prince to the throne, the eunuch who attended him in the kafesse as first page, becomes his kizlar-agassi; or superintendent of the girls; but generally bears the title of Daru-s-saadé agassi, or master of the palace of felicity. As ignorant as his master of the art of government, this eunuch nevertheless enjoys great power, not only in the palace, but throughout the empire. His person is considered sacred; his rank is equal to that of the grand vizir; and his influence is usually so great, that he changes and appoints the grand vizirs, the grand admirals, the ministers, and the governors of provinces. In short, the most important and delicate affairs of government are often managed by the influence of ignorant menials and intriguing women. Every Mahommedan is allowed to have four wives by the nikah, or civil contract, besides as many slaves as he chooses or can afford; and the children of the slaves are as legitimate as those of the wives. A distinction is nevertheless made between the mothers; the husband can repudiate the nikah wives, even though they have borne him children; if a slave has borne a child, she is entitled to her freedom before her master can part with her; but if she be barren, he can sell her at the bazaar. Sometimes also her master grants her the nikah, which makes her free. The sultan, however, is prohibited by law from marrying even slaves by nikah, so that he has no wives, but chooses from among his slaves, who please him most, and gives them the title of miline, or lady. The title is conferred by the ceremony of robing, the sultan investing her with a pelisse, which an only be worn in the harem by a cadine. The number of cadines used to be four or five, but sometimes more; and the late Sultan Mahmoud was the son of a seventh. Each cadine has her separate apartment, eunuchs, and female slaves. They never meet except on the occasion of an accouchement, when the mother receives a congratulatory visit from the other cadines. The mistress of the harem, kelaya-cadine, conducts each night one of the cadines to the sultan's chamber. When he is displeased with any of them, he marries her to one of his subjects, and takes another in her place; but the cadine who has had child, whether it be dead or living, cannot be dismissed from the palace. The sultan cannot take any of the cadines left by his predecessor; but, on his accession, lodges them with their jewels and attendants in the eski-serai, or old palace, a large building in the centre of the city, surrounded by high walls, and destined for the perpetual abode of those cadines who survive their master. Their children, if any, are shut up in the kafesse; but if female, they are kept in the sultan's harem, under the inspection of the kelaya-cadine, till they marry, when they take their mothers from the old palace to live with them. The same thing happens in regard to the mother of a male child. As soon as her son mounts the throne, she is taken from the old palace, receives the title of valide-sultana, and is accommodated in apartments in the imperial serai.

The sultan must personally inspect the efforts of the civil and military authorities to extinguish the fires which break out in the city or suburbs, or on the shores of the Bosphorus. If the fire break out in the night, the silahdar is informed of it, and he instantly acquaints the kizlaragasi, who enters the harem, goes straight to the sultan's chamber, and announces the event to the five maids who keep watch during the night. One of these pats on a silk turban, enters the sultan's chamber, approaches the bed, and if he be asleep, gently chafes his feet till he awake. The sultan immediately proceeds with his retinue to the place where the fire has broken out, and where his ministers also meet him. Fires are extremely frequent and destructive, yet the inhabitants of Constantinople and the suburbs are prohibited to build their houses of stone; a prohibition which is said to have been originally a sort of precaution on the part of the sultans against the janizaries rising, in cases of revolt, any solid building to trench themselves in. Such was, or used to be, the padishah, and the principal members of his household. Let us now proceed to his public ministers.

All the pashas of three tails, who are governors of provinces, bear the title of vizir; but the governor of the capital bears the title of supreme vizir, or viziri-nazam, and various other exclusive titles, as veliki-mutlak, or absolute lieutenant; salih-devlet, or possessor of the government; and salih-muhave, or keeper of the imperial seal. It is to him that the grand admiral and the governors of provinces address their official reports; and, after having read them, he writes with red ink, on the margin of each, an abridgment of its contents, with his opinion, and sends them to the sultan by an officer called telithzyi. All the affairs of the empire, both foreign and domestic, must come under his notice. In time of war he commands the grand army, and all the other commanders are under his orders. He is also the supreme judge in both criminal and civil affairs, and his arz-odasi, or court of justice, is without appeal. Every Wednesday and Friday, assisted by the two kadi-askers of Rum-ili and Ana-doli, he hears appeals from the Istanbul-effendi, or master of the city police, and from the three mollahs or judges of Galata, Eyoub, and Scutari, three suburbs of Constantinople. On Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, he sits alone in judgment on criminal cases; and his sentence can be annulled only by his successor. He is also the supreme chief of the police of the metropolis, and frequently changes his dress and explores the streets, attended by some of the officers of his court, and a train of executioners. Woe then to the man who may be caught in the act of offending, or who may in any way displease him. The grand vizirs have indeed a maxim worthy of themselves. They say that "the word government, in its proper sense, means punishment." There have been times when the grand vizirs were worthy of their high dignity, but in general the case is very different. As their career is almost always terminated by the loss of their heads, or at least by banishment and confiscation of their property, the ministers of the Porte, and the silahdar, avoid the dangerous post, and, if they have any influence, select one of the pashas of three tails, and by their intrigues facilitate his promotion to the office of supreme vizir. Most of these pashas are originally household officers, who, after having served grand vizirs, grand admirals, and governors of provinces as their pages, and then as their lieutenants or their treasurers, obtain, under the auspices of their masters, the title of kapudzi-bashy, chamberlain, or selahucori-shet-wiyari, master of the horse to the sultan, are afterwards appointed governors of provinces of the second rank, and last governors of the first rank, or pashas of two tails, and pashas of three tails. This office was abolished by the late Sultan Mahmoud in 1838, but has been restored by his successor.

Next to the grand vizir is the kethkudai-sadri-ali, or lieutenant of the sublime post of the grand vizirat, whose functions correspond to those of minister of the interior. All the qualification that is required of him is a superficial knowledge of the Arabian and the Persian languages, that he may be able to read the reports of the governors of provinces, and the petitions, which he afterwards presents to the grand vizir. The applications from inhabitants of the capital he merely looks over, and then refers them to the official department to which they belong, according to their subject. The next officer is the reis-effendi, or reis-ul-koutoub, minister of foreign affairs, to which he is too often a stranger in every sense of the word, being ignorant alike of history, geography, statistics, forms of government, diplomacy, the interests and relations of foreign states, and even of any of the languages of Europe. The minister of finance bears the title of defterdari-chilki-evvel, or keeper of the register of the first division of the exchequer. This department is divided into various offices; such as that of confiscated property, and of the property of persons dying without heirs; that of debts to the state; and that of the pious, in which the beards or diplomas of the Greek patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops, are drawn out. The intendant of the great custom-house, and of those of Galata, of the snuff and tobacco custom-house, the receiver-general of the haratiz, or capitulation tax on infidel subjects, and many others, are also under the minister of finance. Persons are frequently appointed to this important office who are ignorant of even the first four rules of arithmetic. If he be an easy man, the clerks and the chiefs of office, in order to be sheltered by his credit and protection, give him part of what they steal from the state. If, on the contrary, he is not a man to be duped, he plays with his subalterns the part of the lion in the fable, and enriches himself at the expense of the state, exhibiting at the end of the year an enormous deficit, which is supplied by anticipating the revenues of the next year, and so on, till his wealth again returns to the sultan by his death or confiscation. These deficiencies of the treasury have at times occasioned so much embarrassment and distress, that, in order to provide for the urgent expenses of the state, more than ordinary recourse has been had to confiscations, and the government has seized all the property of condemned persons, without paying their creditors. The ministry of war is divided into several intendants. There is the tophane-naizir, or intendant of the cannon foundry; the barut-khané-naizir, or intendant of the powder-mills; the khumbara-naizir, or intendant of projectiles; and the dzhebe-khané-naizir, or intendant of the ammunition. All these ministers make reports to the grand vizier, who presents them to the sultan.

Affairs of such great importance as these, and which require precise and detailed knowledge, are, like everything else, intrusted to ignorant people, whose reports are revised by one more ignorant; and decided upon by the sultan, who is usually the most ignorant of all. The tersané-emamety, or ministry of the marine, superintends the revenues of the admiralty, the purchase and provision of all that is necessary for the building and equipment of ships of war, and the payment of the naval officers and seamen. It is nevertheless almost always intrusted to persons who have not the slightest idea of affairs so complicated as those of the marine. The revenues are received by the clerks, the tersané-capudani-emini or directing minister, and the derya or grand admiral. This last-mentioned officer, who is usually styled the capitán or capudan pasha, is of very high rank and importance in the state; but, unfortunately for the successful performance of his duties, he is usually a person utterly ignorant of seamanship and naval tactics. The most favoured dignitaries of the palace have aspired to and obtained this lucrative and brilliant post. The late sultan Selim's first page, Hussein Pasha, was raised to it. The admiral chosen to oppose Sir John Duckworth's passage to Constantinople in 1806, was the mirahovi-ewal, or master of the horse, and he was succeeded by Hassan, the kassab-bashy, or chief butcher. Several bostandji-bashy, or captains of the palace guard, have also been appointed, it being supposed, that as they steer the sultan's caïque on the Bosphorus, they are thereby qualified to direct the operations of fleets. Even men brought up in the interior of Asia Minor and Syria, and who have never seen the sea, have been promoted to this post, and have even been assisted up the ladder of the flag-ship, for fear they should fall into the water. These admirals used to sail every year from Constantinople with a part of the fleet, to visit the islands of the Archipelago, which were under their special government. In their progress they used to spread alarm and desolation, plundering and annoying the inhabitants; and, in order to show their master that they had put his maritime possessions in order, they have decorated the rigging of their ship, on returning to the capital, with the hanging bodies of some unfortunate islanders. The officers under him are, like himself, unfit for their duties, and follow his example in committing all sorts of atrocities, deriving their principal emoluments from extortion and rapine. The grand admiral is obliged, when he is at Constantinople, to appear every Friday in state at the palace, and pay homage to the grand vizier, whom he acknowledges as his superior; but the latter, in his turn, when the admiral approaches making a profound bow, and advancing to kiss the hem of his pelisse, draws back his robe with haste, and salutes him in the same manner, with a bow to the ground.

Various changes, however, have been made by the late Sultan Mahmoud and his successor, and our preceding account will better apply to things as they were than to things as they are; for Mahmoud thoroughly reformed his household, abolished all sorts of useless offices, and carried his retrenchments of expenditure to the most radical limits. At the beginning of the present year, the principal officers of government were, 1. the sheikh-ul-Islam, head of the clergy; 2. the grand vizier; 3. the two kadi-askers of Rounn-lili and Ana-doli; 4. the ministers of the first class, namely, the minister of war and commander-in-chief of all the regular troops; the seraskier, or commander-in-chief of the troops in Ana-doli; the capitán pasha, or high-admiral; the minister of commerce; the captain of the guard; the minister of finance; the minister of foreign affairs (formerly reis-effendi); the chaouch-bashi, executor of the judgments of the divan; the chief physician; and the president of the board of health; 5. ministers of the second class, namely, the secretary of state; the treasurer of the sultan's income; the beilikshi-effendi, assistant to the reis-effendi in the executive department of his office; the master of the ceremonies; the director of the waqfs; or charitable institutions; the interpreter of the Porte; and the director of the customs. The council of ministers is called the divan, from the circumstance of their meeting in a certain room of the palace, which has no other furniture than a divan, or wooden bench, along the wall, about three feet high, covered with cushions. It is here that laws are made, suits decided, firman issued, troops paid, and the representatives of sovereigns prepared to be introduced to the august presence of the sultan. The imperial court itself is usually called by Europeans, in French phraseology, the Sublime Porte; a name which it derives from the Bab-humayun, the principal port or gate of the outer wall of the palace, from which the imperial edicts are dated.

For administrative purposes the empire is divided into provinces called eyalets; the larger of which are governed by pashas of three tails, with the official title of vizir; and the smaller by pashas of two tails, with the title of mirimiran. The eyalets are subdivided into districts, called livas or sandjaks, each under the charge of a pasha of one tail, with the title of miri-liva, or sandjak-bey; the cities and towns are governed by mutselims. The provinces are usually called pashalikhs by Europeans; pasha, however, is not an official title, but is merely a personal honour, like knighthood in Europe, conferred by the sultan. There are three ranks of pashas, the first or highest of which has the privilege of bearing a standard with three horse-tails; the second, of two; and the third, or lowest rank, of one. Under the old system, the pasha was invested with the full powers of absolute government within his province. All power was united in his person; he was the chief of both the military and the financial departments, of the police, and of criminal justice; he had the power of life and death, of making peace and war; in short, of doing what he pleased. ed, so long as he could purchase and secure the favour of the sultan and his ministers. The provinces were indeed sold to the highest bidder, and the successful candidate was sent to his province with full powers to make the people disgorge as much of their money as force and cunning could squeeze out of them. The Porte received the stipulated sum from its nominee, without inquiring how it was procured; and to such a pitch was the tyranny of the pashas carried, that many districts offered the sultan to pay directly into his treasury more than three times the nominal sum demanded of them as taxes, provided the money might be collected by an officer totally distinct from the pasha. At length Sultan Mahmoud, in the course of his reforms, ordered that with each pasha should be associated an officer charged with the collection of the imposts, independently of the pasha; but whether from a difficulty of finding persons qualified for such an office, or from other causes, this order had never been carried into effect up to July 1834, when Marshal Marmont, duke of Ragusa, was at Constantinople; and the cupidity and injustice of the pashas and mutsims, the marshal states, were never greater than at that time. We learn also from the sultan's hatt-i-sherif, issued in November 1839, that the venal concession of offices then still subsisted; that the civil and local administration of each region was still, at that time, delivered up to the arbitrary will of one man; and that the people still had no security for person or property. Yet we are told by an anonymous writer in 1838, that this state of things had already been very generally altered; that the pasha was then a salaried military and civil officer, without the power of life and death, and personally uninterested in the revenues of his province; that a treasurer from the Porte then received directly from the communes the amount of their contributions. The result is stated to be highly gratifying, the people contributing a fixed and a higher sum to the state than the former nominal one, but in reality much less than what the pashas used to extort from them. The imperial treasury is stated to have greatly improved in its receipts, the subjects paying less, while the government receives more. So little are writers on Turkey to be trusted.

The Osmanlee are all Mahommedans, and Islam is the religion of the state; but all other religions are freely tolerated, and with their professors the Osmanlee live in the utmost harmony. Both the law and the religion being founded on the same common basis, the Koran, the clergy and the lawyers form but a single order, divided however into two classes, the ministers of religion and the ministers of justice; for the prayers and ablutions prescribed by the Koran are so numerous and so frequent, that the ministers of religion could never find leisure to execute the office of a judge; they form therefore a separate class, leaving the administration of justice to the cadi. Every Osmanlee is entitled to become a member of this body, but he must first receive a suitable education. After a few years' study, and an examination of his capabilities, the candidate may be admitted to the service of a mosque; but having once entered upon the sacerdotal office, his career is closed, and no further promotion awaits him. Those who aspire to higher honours continue their studies for a longer time, and, after several examinations, obtain the rank of mudirizm, which entitles them to hold the office of deputy to a cadi or judge. If their ambition urges them still farther, and they wish to obtain the degree of mudiriz or doctor, their noviciate must be continued seven years longer, and they undergo a final examination in presence of the mufti. The title of mudiriz being once conferred, the first dignities of the magistracy lie open to their hopes. The classification, however, does not end here; the mudirizes of Constantinople are divided into ten classes or degrees, from the first of Statists, which only are chosen the supreme magistrates of the state.

This exact organization gives to the clerical body a firm coherence, which makes it the most solid part of the Ottoman institutions. Its unity is secured by the controlling authority of its head, the grand mufti, or sheikh-ul-Islam, from whom depend all the appointments to its various ranks and offices, while the members have all a common interest in maintaining its privileges. Of all the offices in the state, that of grand mufti, or sheikh-ul-Islam (head of the faith), is alone held for life. He is the oracle of the law, and the representative of the khalif or sultan in his spiritual capacity; and as all new laws, and even the question of peace and war, must await his sanction, he thus participates in the legislative power of the sovereign, and interferes with all the movements of the government. The privileges common to all the members are exemptions from taxes and arbitrary imposts, arbitrary confiscation, and the punishment of death. They are sufficiently enlightened to understand their interests; the prerogatives on which they depend are of the most solid and important nature; their chiefs are bound to them by the strongest ties, or are proved by long novitiate or repeated trials; they unite the firmness of an aristocracy to the spirit of a profession; in fine, their influence has naturally such a good foundation, and is so artfully fortified, that it would be extremely difficult to overturn it. But all the advantages which result from their combination are exclusively their own; they cannot resist the arbitrary violence of the sultan, but they can impede the alterations of the law. Their power is founded on the false principles which would arrest the progress of civilization, and they are the natural supporters of the present state of things. In the Ottoman empire there is nothing of a solid construction, except this bulwark against innovation. It is difficult to reform law and religion, even when taken separately; but when united, they offer an inert, or even an active resistance, sufficient to baffie the strongest efforts of the best-intentioned despot. The whole body is termed the Ulama.

To give, however, a precise idea of this important body, we should begin with the students, who are called sulhites (vulgarily pronounced sokhtos, or the scorched), because it is supposed that they burn with a zeal for knowledge. There are schools or colleges, named medreses, established in all the imperial mosques in Constantinople, Adrianople, and Brusa. The pupils first study grammar, and then Arabic and Persian poetry, and rhetoric. When considerably advanced in the Arabic language, they apply themselves to the reading of the Koran, the commentaries upon it, and the books which treat of the civil law. Finally, they study logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, in old Arabic works. Totally neglecting mathematics, they also study judicial astrology, as the most sublime branch of human knowledge. Such is the sum of information possessed by the sulhites. They are chiefly from Syria and Asia Minor, very few being from European Turkey. They are the most savage, the most fanatical, the most turbulent, and the worst subjects, among the Turks. Their number also is so considerable, that Constantinople alone contains above 10,000 of them. They perform, in their clerical quality, the services of the mosques; their daily sustenance is regularly furnished out of the revenues of these temples; and they are lodged in the numerous cells annexed to them. But as most of them are poor and unprotected, it is very seldom, and only when at an advanced age, that any of them attain the chief clerical dignities. The student who has neither patronage nor distinguished talent to carry him through the ten degrees of mudiriz or doctorship, which lead to the higher dignities of the law, aspires only to inferior

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1 British and Foreign Review, vol. vii. 121. Statistics, offices; and the greater number of them reach only the rank of simple cadis or judges of Naib, or subdelegates of the judges in the towns and villages. Riches, birth, and patronage, the powerful instruments of worldly advancement, exercise their usual influence in this body. The first step of promotion is, when, after many previous trials, the student is inscribed in the list of those who aspire to legal offices, and as such, upon the mufti's verbal intimation, called iskriet aliyah (the high wink), obtains a written document from the supreme judge, denominated mudasimet gayadi (the writing of reversion). Next, if the mulsim acquit himself well in the prescribed trials, he obtains a medrese of the lowest income, and afterwards advances, by regular gradation, to the highest rank of the medresses, that of the suleimanlyeh, and then the eldest among them are promoted to the rank of mahrejmolla, or superior judges. These posts of mahrejmolla are eight in number, namely, those of Galata and Eyoub, suburbs of Constantinople, Scutari, Smyrna, Salonika, Larissa, Haleh, and Jerusalem. Their function however lasts only a lunar year, when they are succeeded by others. The next step of promotion by seniority is to the four superior mollahships of Adrianople, Brusa, Damascus, and Cairo; the next to the two titular mollahships of Mecca and Medina; and one is further promoted to the rank of Istanbul-efendi, or master of the police of Constantinople. The next step from this rank is to that of kadi-asker of Ana-doli, and then to that of kadi-asker of Roum-ili or European Turkey, and finally to the supreme rank of grand mufti. The grand mufti and the two kadi-askers always reside at Constantinople. Another of the members of the ulema is the nakib-ul-kabir, or chief of the emirs. There are also four whose function is within the sultan's palace.

Before a simple sukhte can arrive at the high dignities of kazi-asker and grand mufti, a period of twenty-five years must elapse; but the great ulema, vizir, and other officers, abusing their power and influence, procure for their children from their birth the honorary title of muderes, and afterwards of the other degrees of office, without their ever filling them.

The law being, as we have said, but an extension of the religion, the whole civil code of Turkey is founded on the Koran, and the edifice is completed by dialectic subtlety. Where sacred texts are wanting, traditionary tales, or constructions put upon the silence of the prophet, supply their place, and the involuntary fraudulence of ingenious reasoning pervades the whole. Neither are the inherent vices of the code corrected by the manner of its administration.

Besides the chain of the ulema, there is yet another perfectly distinct chain of clerical personages, that of the sheikhs. This title is borne by the grand mufti, who is the sheikh-ul-islam, and under him by the superiors of monasteries, and the sevis, or preachers at the imperial mosques. The sheikhs of monasteries, however, have no graduated course of advancement; but the sheikhs of the imperial mosques have, like the chain of the ulema, an actual course of advancement according to the ranks of their respective mosques. There are at present twenty mosques in Constantinople which bear the title of humayoun (imperial); and of these, four were built by the late Sultan Mahmoud.

The whole system of internal administration in Turkey was directed to the accumulation of money, and the avarice of the sovereign was diffused through all his officers. Before November 1839, every office was sold, with an understanding that the purchaser might use any means to reimburse himself. Corruption pervades every department of the state, civil, legal, and ecclesiastical; and under its baneful influence the provinces have been made deserts, and the empire brought to the verge of ruin. The late Sultan Mahmoud, indeed, made many vigorous efforts to reform abuses; but his successor Abd-ul-mesjid (servant of the mosque) has issued a hatti-sherif, published 3d November 1839, promising to seek, by new institutions, to procure for the provinces of the empire the benefits of a good administration. These institutions relate principally to three objects; first, guarantees for the security of honour and property; second, a regular mode of fixing and levying taxes; third, a regular mode of levying soldiers, and fixing the duration of their service. This edict has been pompously called the Magna Charta of Turkey; but such deep-seated corruption and abuses as we have described are not to be cured by edicts.

The revenues of the state are raised by a variety of imposts; but as the government publishes no accounts, we have no means of stating correctly the amount that reaches the imperial treasury. The Christians and Jews are subjected to a haradz or poll-tax, and other vexatious imposts, from which the Moslem population are exempt; but even of the latter the burdens are sufficiently heavy. The agriculturists, besides tithes, the merchant, besides enormous custom-house duties, the artisans and workmen, besides what they contribute to their respective corporations, are subjected to innumerable vexatious impositions. In the simple institutions transmitted by the Arabs to the Turks, which have formed the safeguard of the empire against internal abuse and foreign encroachment, direct taxation was an essential element. With the exception of the capitulation tax levied on the rayahs, or infidel subjects, in lieu of military service, the whole regular revenue of the empire used to be derived from the miri, a sort of property-tax (or rather the land-rents of the country, of which the sultan is the sole proprietor, the people having only the usufruct), assessed and levied, not by any acts of the central government, but by each community within itself. A certain sum was fixed as the contribution of every village or district, proportioned to its means; and each member of that district paid his share according to a rate assessed by the municipal council. When however Mohammed II. introduced the system of farming the revenue, he subverted the functions of these municipal councillors. They retained their office and title of eyan, but had no longer any control over the pashas, who had purchased their places, and thereby become owners or farmers of the revenue. Previously, says D'Ollsson, they were members of the provincial divan, to advise in the administration, and could interpose their influence against oppression. These municipalities still exist, and are acknowledged by the government, but their power is more silent and limited; yet it is principally to them that Turkey is indebted for the preservation of its social organization and order amidst so many misfortunes, and under such a long continuance of misrule. Indirect taxes have also been introduced, corresponding to our excise and customs; and certain duties are now levied upon the export and import, the transit, and the sale of merchandise. The revenue, compared with that of former periods, is reduced by the loss of Greece, Moldavia, Wallachia, Servia, Bosnia, Egypt, and Candia, all of which have become more or less independent; while Albania, Baghdad, Erzroum, Kars, and Akhalzikh, paid little or nothing for many years, owing to the complete disorganization of the government in these provinces. On the other hand, the regular expenditure for the army, the navy, and the other branches of government, has been gradually increasing till it has more than doubled; yet there is ground for asserting, not only that the revenues fully meet that expenditure, but that there is actually a surplus.

The celebrated corps of janizaries was formed at first of slaves and captives, but its ranks soon became filled with the bravest of the Osmanlee; and as a military brotherhood affords some chance of protection from arbitrary power, The Osmanlee have never been a maritime people, or Navy, paid any attention to the art of navigation. Their military navy, after its triumphs in the fifteenth century, was long neglected; but at last, into this department, as into every other, the Sultan Mahmoud infused his energy, and succeeded in creating a very respectable fleet, which he left to his successor. At the epoch of his death, however, the capudan pasha carried off the fleet, then at sea, and delivered it up to the pasha of Egypt. At the commencement of the present year, 1840, the number of ships, including, we presume, those at Alexandria, was reckoned to be ten sail of the line in serviceable order, and five unrigged; ten frigates on service, one in dock, and four unrigged; and three steam-ships, besides several corvettes and other smaller vessels. Before the Greek insurrection, the fleet was manned by the Greeks of the Archipelago; and their pay was furnished by the Greek nation. The patriarch of Constantinople was empowered by an express order of government to impose the requisite sum, called mellahige, or the sailors' pay, on the Greek inhabitants of the capital, and, through their archbishops and bishops, upon those of the provinces. But the fleet is now manned by landsmen trained in harbour, and commanded by officers ignorant alike of seamanship and of naval tactics. It is only an expensive toy.

There is no nation more passionately attached to literature than the Osmanlee; and from the earliest periods of their history they have devoted themselves to its cultivation. Their dialect is the most polished of all the Turkish idioms; rich, dignified, and melodious. In delicacy and nicety of expression it is not perhaps surpassed by any language; and in grandeur, beauty, and elegance, it is almost unequalled. In the department of polite literature they do not yield the palm of superiority to any nation. In poetry they display great genius and taste; all classes are its ardent admirers; and to so great a degree has the love of poetic composition been carried, that there is no class of society which has not contributed towards it. The ladies, the sultan, his ministers, doctors, soldiers, all have devoted themselves to the cultivation of poetry; and the divans, or poetical collections of above six hundred authors, are existing evidences of the taste of the Osmanlee for the productions of the muse. In the kindred department of the drama, they are however sadly deficient, for they have no theatres; nor have they opportunities of cultivating oratory. In philosophy they have all the speculative knowledge of which the Greeks and the Arabs were masters. In moral philosophy, and in the sciences of government and political economy, they are said to excel; which is the more surprising, as our ideas of the Turks and their polity would lead us to a very different conclusion. In history they possess several good works, particularly those of the early periods of the empire. There has been also a regular series of imperial historiographers; but, generally speaking, of all the branches of knowledge, history and geography are the most neglected by the Osmanlee. From the earliest periods, they possessed the best masters of astronomy; and they have a multitude of astronomical works, many of which display great science. In many of the mosques of Constantinople are to be found solar quadrants, fitted for taking observations; and astrolabes, telescopes, and other instruments of their own manufacture, some of them extremely well constructed, are in frequent use. Geometry, algebra, and arithmetic, are considered among the necessary acquirements of a man of education; and a course of these sciences forms a portion of the studies of their schools. In the science of numbers their proficiency is very great, and the facility with which their calculations are performed has been frequently observed. On these subjects they possess many Statistics excellent works. Their philosophical productions are very numerous, but their speculative and metaphysical writings are similar to those which issued from the schools of Europe during the reign of the Aristotelian philosophy; and it must be admitted, the philosophy of Bacon and Newton has not yet shed its light over the Ottoman empire; in every department of practical science, and of its application to the arts, they still remain extremely ignorant. Their moral philosophy is, however, a science on which they seem to have bestowed their best energies; it is the subject of many excellent and valuable treatises. Their mode of conveying the principles of morals, by means of imaginative discourses and apologies, adds great force and beauty to the sentiments; and strewing the path of knowledge with flowers, renders the acquisition of it at once agreeable and impressive. The only foreign languages, however, which they study are the Persian and the Arabic; and many Turks are authors of Persian and Arabic works. Only two centuries ago the literature of Turkey surpassed that of Europe; and it was from a Turk that D'Alembert took the idea of the Encyclopédie; but unfortunately the want of the press has kept them stationary, while, by its aid, Europe has been making rapid strides in both literature and science.

A Turkish printing press was for the first time established at Constantinople in 1726; in the course of fourteen years it published three-and-twenty volumes, and then ceased. After an interval of more than forty years, the experiment was repeated. During the reign of Selim III., printing became a part of the new order of things, and the establishment was fixed in the barracks of the new troops at Scutari; but when the revolution of 1807 broke out, the whole was reduced to ashes, and few of those connected with it escaped the fury of the janizaries. During this second period of its existence, not more than forty volumes issued from the press. It was, however, a third time restored by Sultan Mahmoud, and established at Constantinople itself; and has already issued a number of important works. It is, however, still a government undertaking, and no private individual or company seems ever to have thought of introducing this useful art as a branch of trade. The government now issues a state gazette, with the title of Takvimet-Tevarru (Register of Events), which is far richer in matter than the Moniteur Ottoman, a French weekly paper, also published at Constantinople. It appears weekly, and gives the most important information touching the reforms in the organization of the state and of the army; the changes in governments, official situations, and the army list; the ships clearing inwards and outwards; and the current prices of goods; together with extracts from European newspapers, concerning the incidents in the policy of Europe. But in the art of bulletin rhetoric, and the puff style, the Register of Events, though edited by the imperial historiographer, surpasses all European newspapers.

Owing to the multitude of offices connected with the law and religion, which can be filled only by those who have been qualified by a regular course of study, the number of those who possess the requisite elementary acquirements is very great, and the means of education are most abundant. The schools divide themselves naturally into those for children, or A, B, C, schools (maktab); the general instruction given at the mosques (dersi-aim); and in the colleges (medreses); all of which have subsisted in the empire from its beginning, founded first at Nicaea, then at Brusa and Adrianople, and afterwards by the conqueror at Constantinople, and having been regulated and increased to a considerable number under his successors, especially by Suleiman the Lawgiver. In the children's schools, which abound in every corner of the city, the master (khoja) teaches spelling, reading, and the principles of grammar and religion. In the mosques, again, the pupils receive general, easily intelligible, and popular instruction, upon philology and religion, as is indicated by their title of dersi-aim, which means general instruction. The lecturers are not khojas, but medris (doctors or professors) of a medrese or college. Lastly, in the colleges, the students receive instruction in the higher and more difficult branches of knowledge. These colleges, usually founded beside mosques, libraries, monuments, and sometimes unexpectedly, are presided over by a professor (medris), which however may be better translated rector, master, or head of the college, because he superintends not only the course of instruction, but likewise the conduct of the students who dwell in the medrese, as scholars upon the foundation. Out of about five hundred such medrees existing throughout the empire, Constantinople alone possesses three hundred. The most celebrated are those founded by the conqueror Mohammed II. and by Suleiman the Great, in connection with their respective mosques. As in Islam all instruction is founded upon religion, and jurists are at once theologians and lawyers, it is natural that mosques should always have been the central points round which scientific institutions are grouped. Thus in the Constantinopolitan mosques are found united the learned institutions, not only of general lectures and of the medrees, but also of libraries; and, finally, other three establishments for education, unconnected with the medrees, and specifically founded. These are the school of medicine attached to the Suleimanlyeh mosque, and the lecture-rooms of the Koran and of tradition. Sultan Mahmoud has reformed the medical school, and founded a nursery of physicians and a school of surgery, from which the military hospitals now established at Constantinople are to be supplied. He has also enlarged the school of engineers founded by Sultan Selim, and connected with it a school of architecture. He also instituted a naval college; several other educational institutions were also established in his reign, both by himself and by private persons; but under the reign of his son, they seem to be falling to decay, and the old system seems to be again restored. In the mathematical sciences, and especially in those branches most immediately applicable to the art of war, more was done under Mahmoud's reign than had been accomplished under all his predecessors; yet it cannot be affirmed that the present tendency of Ottoman literature is foreign or European. It can lose but little of its rigid stability, so long as the constitution of the ulama remains unaltered.

At Constantinople there is a great number of public libraries. D'Ollsson estimates them at thirty-five; others at fourteen or eighteen; but no works are arranged on the shelves, or included in the catalogues, but such as are written in the languages of Islam, namely, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian. If any others exist, they are thrown aside as lumber, and left to decay; and it is believed, that with due diligence much classical literature might still be rescued from the dusty chests of the serai. There is no good reason for supposing that the library of the Palaeologi was destroyed by the Ottoman conquerors. Mohammed II. was an accomplished prince, the patron of letters, and versed, it is said, in the Greek language. On the conquest of Constantinople, he immediately took possession of the imperial palace; why, then, should he destroy the library? There is not only no account of its destruction, but there is positive evidence of the existence of an immense quantity of manuscripts in the Greek, Latin, and other foreign languages, not indeed in the library, but in the store-rooms of the serai, where they perhaps remain shut up in chests.

Turkey is not a manufacturing country, and the people have no pretensions to compete with the science and capital of Britain; but their fertile territory and happy climate enable them to supply many of the materials for foreign manufacture; and these and their other agricultural products they are content to raise; and to receive whatever can be supplied cheapest and best in return. There are never Turkey.

America, one half of that to Germany, four fifths of that Statistics, to Holland, Italy, and Brazil respectively; it exceeds by one third the exports to Portugal and France; and the whole to Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Prussia, and Spain together; it equals the amount to Russia, and nearly that of our North American colonies; it falls short little more than one third of our exports to the East and West Indies, and is double the amount to China. The trade is now prin- cipally carried on by native merchants and their commission- houses or partners in England, and is shared with English houses; and, consisting only of real transactions, and afford- ing no scope for speculation, it has been more steady and secure than that with any other country. Goods for Persia, however, form of late years the most valuable part of the shipments for Constantinople, which is not only in the direct road, but likewise offers great advantages from being an intermediate market. From Constantinople the goods for Persia are sent to Trebizond, and thence overland through Armenia.

Previously to the convention of 16th August 1838, the only recognised duty on imports from Britain was three per cent.; but other duties were subsequently levied at and after the sale of the goods imported, in a manner as oppres- sive as the duties themselves. By the convention of 1838, the duty on imports is fixed at the same rate of three per cent.; and in lieu of all other and interior duties, one fixed duty of two per cent. is established, on payment of which all goods imported may be sold and resold, with- out further duty or restriction. With regard to exports, the only recognised duty was also three per cent.; but other duties, fluctuating in their nature, and enormous in amount, were levied, at the caprice of the authorities, on all articles of any value, and especially on valonia, silk, oils, and opium. By the convention of 1838, the duty on ex- ports to Britain is fixed at three per cent.; all monopolies and prohibitions are abolished; and instead of all inland duties on goods to be exported, one fixed duty of nine per cent. is established.

According to the last published returns, the number of vessels that entered the port of Constantinople in the years 1837 and 1838 was 3671 and 5625. The num- ber of British vessels in 1837 was 432, with a tonnage of 86,253; and in 1838, vessels 419, tonnage 120,860. Of Ionian vessels the numbers were, in 1836, vessels 263, ton- nage 41,852; in 1838, vessels 308, tonnage 45,793. Of the vessels of other nations the following numbers are giv- en, without the tonnage, of which the British consuls have no account. In 1837, American 3, Austrian 732, Belgian 4, Danish 2, Dutch 2, French 19, Greek 832, Neapolitan 15, Prussian 5, Russian 555, Sardinian 793, Swedish 9; total 3571. In 1838, American 3, Austrian 811, Belgian 15, Dutch 7, French 48, Greek 2228, Neapolitan 84, Rus- sian 570, Sardinian 866, Swedish 4, Tuscan 36; total 5572. Of Turkish vessels there was no account in either year; and of the Greek the average tonnage is stated to be very small compared with the number of vessels, among which are included craft of all kinds and of every size. The number of vessels that entered the port of Adrianople in 1837 was 7, of which 3 were British, 1 French, and 3 Greek; the port of Salonika in 1837, 329, of which 5 were British, 3 Maltese, 4 Ionian, 6 French, 15 Austrian, 2 Russian, 13 Sardinian, 243 Greek, and 38 Turkish; the port of Smyrna in 1837, 897, whereof British 110, Ionian 20, Maltese 4, American 13, Austrian 145, Dutch 6, French 61, Greek 498, Rus- sian 17, Sardinian 18, Swedish 5, Turkish not known. The number of vessels that entered the port of Trebizond in 1837 was 131, of which 31 were British, 73 Turkish, 19 Austrian, 4 Russian, and 4 Greek; tonnage, 22,349; value of cargoes, L1,145,471, whereof L623,372 were those of the British vessels.

See Foreign Review, vols. i. ii. iii. 1828, articles on Turkey