Turkish empire. It is well known with what facility the well-disciplined troops of that ambitious chieftain marched from conquest to conquest, through an empire without either vigour or resources to oppose him, when the strong arm of Russia again turned aside the blow. Thus the unlucky Mahmoud had the mortification to see that he owed his throne a second time to the direst of his house and race. enemy In many respects, Sultan Mahmoud deserves the admiration of posterity, since he was the first Ottoman monarch who had the energy to curb that host of petty tyrants, the military Beys and Spahis, who having arrogated to themselves a power almost regal, for centuries ruled the unhappy Christians of these provinces, in many instances with oppressive tyranny. If he really had the design of erecting these provinces into a separate Christian monarchy, which it is said he entertained, no act could have forwarded more effectually his views than the destruction of the Janissaries, and of the military despotism of the Beys and Spahis. If, on the other hand, he was instigated in his reforms by a certain power interested in the fall of the Ottoman power, then indeed Sultan Mahmoud must have been the veriest dupe of one of the cleverest Machiavelian artifices on record. Without altogether giving credence to either of these reports, it must be admitted that the reforming Sultan did not possess those great and vigorous qualities of a master mind necessary in a man who undertakes the difficult task of regenerating a people. At the commencement of his reforms we see him, with a bold hand and great energy, destroy the only element of his power-the confidence of his Mussulman subjects -without having replaced it by the more numerous class of his subjects, the Christians; and notwithstanding he saw insurrection at home, and his country at the mercy of an invader, he still remained bewildered and undecided, and with the clouded intellect of an every-day mind, had recourse to half measures and a vacillating policy, which completely failed in attaching to his rule any class or creed among his people. Unfortunately for the prosperity of the country, and the advancement of civilization and order, the government of his successor has not profited by the errors of the late Monarch; we see the same indecision in its acts, the same absence of a sound enlightened policy-now truckling to the Rayah by granting some half measure of reform, and then stopping short to calm the effervescence of the privileged class a system of governing which can never permanently succeed in attaching any. The hatti-sheriff of Gulhané, which invested Christian and Mussulman with equal civil rights, has only had the effect of making an enemy of the Mahometan, and a discontented subject of the Rayah; the former, irritated at seeing himself deprived of a privilege accorded to him as a True Believer, cannot submit to the degradation of being placed on a footing of civil rights with a despised Christian, and revenges the affront by having recourse to rebellion; while the latter, finding himself all at once emancipated from observances the most degrading and servile, believes the boon conferred upon him to have been accorded solely through fear, and perhaps for the first time in his existence moralizes: he pictures to himself the numerous indulgences still conferred upon the privileged class, of which he is deprived, above all, their political and religious rights, their exemption from the degrading poll-tax, the badge of their slavery; and now that there is war in the Turkish camp, he numbers the millions of his Christian brethren, compares their vast strength with that of the reigning class, the Mahometans, and comes to the conclusion that, in the event of another outbreak, the ruler must give way to the ruled. When the stability of a state is in peril, or requires re-organization, such vigorous measures must be resorted to as may be found necessary to impart to it renewed strength, so as to be able to surmount its difficulties. It is evident that the Turkish Government, by the system it now pursues, has not succeeded in The attracting the sympathies of any class of its subjects; and having in some measure destroyed the line of demarcation between Mahometan and Christian, it must be prepared to fall back upon the old system of governing by Beys and Spahis, or completely equalize all distinctions of caste and creed, Christians of these provinces, the most numerous, industrious and energetic in the empire, form a party whose influence, if they are permanently attached to the rule of the Sultan, we confidently believe can alone preserve the Turkish monarchy. We live in troublesome times, and if the Sultan, influenced either by party prejudice, ignorance, or apathy, should continue to withhold from his Christian subjects, the fundamental rights of man, he deserves to fall. He should be warned by the example of Servia, Tchernegora and Modern Greece; he must be aware of the agitation which is now secretly carried on in these provinces by a host of clever propagandists, under the name of Panslavists, Panhellenists and Probatiists; facts which a traveller becomes acquainted with in his intercourse with the inhabitants, cannot be altogether unknown to the authorities, unless they are blinded by apathy and indolence. We have seen, only a few months since, a mighty sovereign hurled from his throne for stubbornly refusing to listen to the demands of his people on a simple question of reform, Eul 1 |