TURKEY. INTRODUCTION. In the preceding volume we have seen, from Sir James Porter's observations, that the Turks, during the last century, were still sunk in that state of apathy which, at the commencement of the present, threatened them with an utter dissolution of their empire. The old prejudices were still in full vigour; Christians were regarded with aversion, or, even worse, with contempt; and the Osmanli, in their selfconceit, refused any innovations which were offered them from such a suspicious quarter. The prestige of their former victories--of the age when the crescent was borne triumphantly through the fairest provinces of Europe, and the name of the Ottomans caused terror and despair-was clinging too closely to them; they believed that they would still be able to punish the infidel who dared to assail the honour or territory of their Great Padischah, and, consequently, they behaved with all the arrogance of which Sir James so naively complains. The repeated victories of the Russians, however, and their almost inevitable result, at length aroused the more enlightened of the Turkish nation to the necessity of taking some steps by which to arrest the downward progress of the empire. The spirit of independence, cherished by rulers of distant portions of the empire; the elevation, by Imperial favour, of the sons of noble families to the highest dignities of the State; the sale of public offices; the confiscation of property in dismissal from office, had gradually placed the power in the hands of the Janissaries, who became the arbiters of the fate of the dynasty and of the empire, like the Prætorian guards of Rome, and dethroned or crowned the sovereign whom they opposed or favoured. Having lost all recollection of their ancient discipline, they usurped the highest appointments of the government, civil as well as military, conferring them on those whom they protected; and their cruelty and lawlessness towards the population made them the objects of universal terror. General disorder and confusion of authority, therefore, pervaded every branch of the administration; for even in the reign of Achmet III, this corps had usurped the whole power of the State, and the baneful effects of habitual corruption and venality had undermined the foundations of its national prosperity.* The reforms of Selim, therefore, although for the time unsuccessful, at any rate, paved the way for their introduction, whenever the people had become sufficiently civilized to feel that they were not the only arbiters of the destiny of Europe. The time had arrived when they were glad to seek advice and assistance from the Giaour, whom they hitherto spurned, and such a concession was the first breach made in the almost impassable barrier of Turkish prejudice. They were fortunate in obtaining disinterested advice, and the result was, an entire alteration in the existing state of things, by the introduction of the new political and administrative organization, of which Sultan Mahmud laid the foundation, and which his successor, the present Sultan, has applied to the whole empire, under the name of the Tanzimat. The subject of this division of our work will, therefore, be an analysis of the present administrative system of the Turkish empire, which will be found to be based, in a great measure, on European models. In those cases, however, where the reformers † found The Three Eras of Ottoman History. Although we have used the word reform throughout this volume, we must beg to be understood that the Hatti-Sheriff of Gülhane was merely a return to the ancient legal order of administration, by the extirpation of all the irregularities and abuses of power, which two centuries of anarchy and disorder had substituted in place of the legitimate order of Government, founded by Mussulman law, and by the original institutions of the empire. that the proposed alterations were too advanced to suit the old-world notions of the Osmanli, they have very cleverly modified them, trusting, doubtless, to time to admit their successful application. We think that a review of the whole system will shew that this difficult task could not have been intrusted to more skilful or competent hands. A glance at the results of their exertions will prove the justice of our remarks. On the death of Sultan Mahmud, the time when Reschid Pacha and his party undertook the task of reforming the condition of the Turkish empire, every branch of the administration was in the most terrible confusion. The army, demoralized by the defeats it had experienced from the Egyptians, ascribed them to the innovations which this branch of the service had already undergone. Popular tumults had broken out in several of the provinces; the fleet had been betrayed by the Capudan Pacha, and an entire division of the army had deserted to the standard of Ibraham Pacha, in Asia Minor. Emissaries of Mehemet Ali were traversing the country in every direction, and inflaming the people by stirring up their prejudices and urging them to take up arms in defence of their old faith against the encroachment of the Infidel party at Constantinople. The Porte was iu a fearful state of embarrassment. It was, above all, necessary that a peace should be concluded on any terms with the Viceroy of Egypt, and, on the other hand, the English and French demands must be listened to, backed up as they were by the presence of the fleets before Constantinople. In this dilemma, Russia, who ever seeks to derive her advantage from the embarrassment of her friends, disinterestedly offered her mediation, and, if necessary, armed assistance. The difficulties appeared almost overwhelming, for the interests of France and England were diametrically opposed as regarded the future condition of Egypt: and the chimæra of the Mediterranean being naturally a French lake was never more firmly believed by the French ministry than at a moment when it was fancied that the independence of Egypt, once guaranteed by France, would necessarily compel the Viceroy to close the overland route. to India against England. In the midst of this confusion RESCHID PACHA, who had been absent from Constantinople on a diplomatic visit to Paris, re-appeared upon the scene. As a thorough statesman, he clearly perceived that the first condition for the future existence of Turkey was the restoration of that unity which had rendered the empire so strong during the earlier period of its career. In his opinion the only possibility of regeneration lay in the amelioration of the principles of government, and in their assimilation to an European and constitutional model. To carry this into effect the first step was to reconcile the Christian subjects of the Porte, by making such concessions as would insure them against the arbitrary proceedings of the |