allowed to the Turkish collectors and officers. It may be asserted, that the supplies from the provinces are such that nothing which the empire produces is ever bought with money for the service of the seraglio.

The establishment of the female branches of the imperial family is, in a great degree, imposed upon the vizirs or pashas who are honoured by an alliance with their master. The mother of the sultan supports her dignity by an appanage adequate to her rank. The administration of it is confided to an officer of importance in the state, under the name of validé kiahyasi (steward to the empress dowager). Her revenues are called pashmaklik (sandal money), and consist of streets in the metropolis or provincial cities, of towns, villages, and islands, throughout the whole empire. All the taxes and dues of the domains thus set apart for the maintenance of the sultanas are annually rented to the best bidder among private purchasers. In these districts the pasha of the province exercises no authority, except so far as regards the general police; since the revenues belong exclusively to the sultanas, and are collected by the farmers, who are generally the vaivodas or magistrates. The inhabitants

Nizami djedid.

are not however exempt from taxation in case of extraordinary impositions, or war-taxes levied by order of government.

Attempts have been made, since the establishment of the nizami djedid, by the imposition of an excise tax, to improve the vast financial resources of the empire. This tax was created in order to produce a fund for the support of the great addition to the standing military force; a plan which has been first carried into execution by the present sultan. But whether from the want of clear views on the subject, or from the general aversion of the Turks to innovation, much disgust has been excited, and even insurrection. The scheme, however, is not yet abandoned, although it has by no means acquired solidity but the standing army of the sultan, which is slowly improving in discipline, can alone give vigour to the system*.

* According to the regulations of the nizami djedid, every head of lesser cattle is taxed a para, an ox pays a piastre, wine two paras the oke (a quantity equal to two pounds and three quarters English), raki, or brandy, four paras the oke: and in like proportion the excise law extends to every object of stock and production.

CHAPTER VI.

PROGRESS AND DECLINE OF THE OTTOMAN
POWER.

Greatness and extent of the Turkish dominion. Alarm of Chris-
tendom. Consequences of the invention of gunpowder.-System
of Turkish government over the tributary subjects, and over
Mussulmans. Partition of lands to the conquerors,➡Sources
of revenue.-Inefficiency of the military system. Considerations
on the probable destinies of the Turks ;-on the justice or policy
of expelling them from Europe;on the emancipation of the
Greeks. The modern compared with the ancient Greeks;
the Athenians, and the Spartans.-Causes of the superiority
of the ancient Greeks,and of the decline of the national
spirit.-Character of the modern Greeks.Apprehensions of
the Turks from the power of Russia.-History of the first war
with the czar of Muscovy.-Consequences of the conquest of
Turkey to Russia, to the other states of Europe, and to
the Ottoman subjects.-Russian church. Russian government:
Examination of the arguments for dispossessing the Turks.
Remoteness of amelioration.

and extent

ABOUT two centuries ago the historian Greatness Knolles contemplated the mighty power of of the the Ottoman sovereigns, when they united dominion. under their sceptre the empires of the Saracens

Turkish

Alarm of

dom.

and Greeks, and had subjected part of Hungary and Persia. "If you consider," says he," its beginning, progress, and uninterrupted success, there is nothing in the world more admirable and strange; if the greatness and lustre thereof, nothing more magnificent and glorious; if the power and strength thereof, nothing more dreadful or dangerous; which, wondering at nothing but the beauty of itself, and drunk with the pleasant wine of perpetual felicity, holdeth all the rest of the Christen world in scorn*." Busbequius, ambassador from the emperor Ferdinand the First, had before been aware of the danger which threatened Germany and all Christendom, and, in the true spirit of patriotism, had endeavoured to rouse his countrymen to a sense of their situation. "We are not called upon to resist enemies of the same stamp with ourselves: the blind may contend with the blind, and their common errors may pass unobserved: but we have now to oppose the Turks, a vigilant, industrious, sober, and disciplined enemy, inured to military labour, skilful in tactics, and obedient to the rigours of service. Led on by these virtues, and forcing their way through desolated empires,

* Knolles's preface to the history of the Turks.

they have subdued every thing from the frontiers of Persia, and, trampling over the mangled bodies of hostile sovereigns and their subjects, have reached the frontiers of Austria, and threaten Vienna itself.*" Sandys, who travelled through Turkey and Egypt during the reign of Ahmed the First, expresses less apprehension; "for surely," says he, "it is to be hoped, that their greatness is not only at the height, but near an extreme precipitation: the body being grown too monstrous for the head; the sultans unwarlike; the soldiers corrupted with ease, wine, and women; their valour now meeting opposition; and empire so got, when it ceaseth to increase, doth begin to diminish." It would be rash, at this distance of time, to controvert the opinion of a traveller so respectable, and who was an eye-witness of the facts from which he has drawn his conclusions; but the Turkish power, at the commencement of the seventeenth century, had not reached its highest pitch of elevation. Ahmed, himself a warrior, was succeeded by other warlike sultans; and the Ottoman armies continued to bear down the

*Busbeq. de re militari contra Turcam instituenda consilium. + Sandys's Travels, p. 51. ed. 1627,