1850. Pride and Nobleness of Woman 171 you mean, you thought I loved you as we love those we wish to marry?' "It was my meaning, and I said so.' """You conceived an idea, then, obnoxious to a woman's feelings,' was her answer; 'you have announced it in a fashion revolting to a woman's soul! You insinuate, that all the frank kindness I have shown you has been a complicated, a bold, and an immodest manœuvre to ensnare a husband! You imply, that at last you come here out of pity, to offer me your hand, because I have courted you! Let me say this;- Your sight is jaundiced, you have seen wrong. Your mind is warped, you have judged wrong. Your tongue betrays you, you now speak wrong. I never loved you. Be at rest there. My heart is as pure of passion for you, as yours is barren of affection for me.' I hope I was answered, Yorke? "I seem to be a blind, besotted sort of person,' was my remark. """Loved you!' she cried. Why, I have been as frank with you as a sister, never shunned you-never feared you. You cannot,' she affirmed, triumphantly, 'you cannot make me tremble with your coming, nor accelerate my pulse by your influence.' 666 "I alleged, that often when she spoke to me she blushed, and that the sound of my name moved her. Not for your sake,' she declared, briefly. I urged explanation, but could get none. "When I sat beside you at the school-feast, did you think I loved you then? When I stopped you in Maythorn Lane, did you think I loved you then? When I called on you in the countinghouse-when I walked with you on the pavement-did you think I loved you then?" So she questioned me; and I said, I did. By the Lord! Yorke, she rose-she grew tall-she expanded and refined almost to flame,-there was a trembling cold through her, as in live coal, when its vivid vermilion is hottest. "That is to say, that you have the worst opinion of me,- that you deny me the possession of all I value most. That is to say, that I am a traitor to all my sisters,-that I have acted as no woman can act, without degrading herself and her sex, that I have sought where the incorrupt of my kind naturally scorn and abhor to seek.' She and I were silent for many a minute. Lucifer Star of the Morning!' she went on, 'thou art fallen! You-once high in my esteem-are hurled down: you-once intimate in my friendshipare cast out. Go!' ""I went not. I had heard her voice tremble-seen her lip quiver. I knew another storm of tears would fall; and then I believed some calm and some sunshine must come, and I would wait for it. "As fast, but more quietly than before, the warm rain streamed down. There was another sound in her weeping-a softer, more regretful sound. While I watched, her eyes lifted to me a gaze more reproachful than haughty-more mournful than incensed. 6666 Oh, Moore!' said she, it was worse than Et tu, Brute!' I relieved myself by what should have been a sigh,. but it became a groan. A sense of Cain-like desolation made my breast ache. "There 666 has been error in what I have done,' I said; and it has won me bitter wages-which I will go and spend far from her who gave them.' ""I took my hat. All the time I could not have borne to depart so; and I believed she would not let me. Nor would she, but for the mortal pang I had given her pride. That choked her compassion, and kept her silent. I was obliged to turn back of my own accord, when I reached the door-to approach her, and to say, 'Forgive me.' """I could, if there was not myself to forgive, too,' was her reply; 'for to mislead a sagacious man so far, I must have done wrong.' I broke out suddenly with some declamation I do not remember; I know that it was sincere, and that my wish and aim were to absolve her to herself; in fact, in her case, self-accusation was a chimera. ""At last she extended her hand. For the first time I wished to take her in my arms and kiss her. I did kiss her hand many times. Some day we shall be friends again,' she said, 'when you have had time to read my actions and motives in a true light, and not so horribly to misinterpret them. Time may give you the right key to all; then, perhaps, you will comprehend me, and then we shall be reconciled.' ""Farewell! drops rolled slow down her cheeks, - -she wiped them away. I am sorry for what has happened-deeply sorry,' she sobbed. So was I, God knows! And thus were we severed." Did space permit, we would gladly quote the avayvwpiois of Mother and Daughter,- in its simple, humble, thrilling naturalness one of the most touching and feminine scenes in our literature; or that wild, imaginative, and original picture of the Mermaid, which shows the writer to have the true poetic power the power, namely, of creating new life out of old materials. Surely at the present day one would think there was nothing more to be said about mermaids; yet we venture to say that mermaids never were so beautiful, so ghastly, so living, as in this description - which, after all, we must squeeze in: "I suppose you expect to see mermaids, Shirley?" said Caroline. "One, certainly, at all events. I am to be walking by myself on deck, rather late of an August evening, watching and being watched by a full harvest moon. Something is to rise white on the surface of the sea, over which that moon mounts silent, and hangs glorious. The object glitters for an instant, and sinks. It rises again. I think I hear it cry, with an articulate voice. I call you up from the cabin, -I show you an image, fair and smooth as alabaster, emerging from the dim wave. We both see the long hair-the lifted and foamwhite arm-the oval mirror, brilliant as a star. It glides nearer; a human face is plainly visible-a face in the style of yours-whose straight, pure (excuse the word, it is appropriate,) lineaments paleness does not disfigure. It looks at us, but not with your eyes: I see a preternatural lure in the wily glance. It beckons. Were we men we should spring at the sign, and the cold billows would be dared for the sake of the colder enchantress; but being women we stand safe 1850. Turkey and Christendom. 173 though not dreadless. She comprehends our unmoved gaze: she feels herself powerless: anger crosses her front. She cannot charm, but she will appal us! She rises high, and glides all revealed on the dark wave ridge. Temptress-terror! monstrous likeness of ourselves! Are you not glad, Caroline, when at last, with a wild shriek, she dives?"" Our closing word shall be one of exhortation. Schiller, writing to Goethe about Madame de Stael's Corinne,' says, This person wants every thing that is graceful in a woman; and, nevertheless, the faults of her book are altogether womanly 'faults. She steps out of her sex without elevating herself above it." This brief and pregnant criticism is quite as applicable to Currer Bell: For she, too, has genius enough to create a great name for herself; and if we seem to have insisted too gravely on her faults, it is only because we are ourselves sufficiently her admirers to be most desirous to see her remove these blemishes from her writings, and take the rank within her reach. She has extraordinary power- but let her remember that on tombe du côté où l'on penche !' ART. VI.-Négociations de la France dans le Levant; ou Correspondance, Mémoires, et Actes Diplomatiques des Ambassadeurs de France à Constantinople, et des Ambassadeurs, Envoyés, ou Résidents à divers titres à Venise, Raguse, Rome, Malte, et Jerusalem; en Turquie, Perse, Géorgie, Crimée, Syrie, Egypte, etc. et dans les états de Tunis, d'Alger, et de Maroc. Publiés pour la première fois. Par S. CHARRIÈRE. Tome I. (1515 -1547). Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1848. THE HREE centuries ago, the first vow of Christian statesmen was the expulsion of the Turks from the city of Constantine, and the deliverance of Europe from the scourge and terror of the infidel. In the present age, the absorbing desire of the same cabinets is to maintain the misbelievers in their settlements; and to postpone, by all known expedients of diplomacy and menace, the hour at which the Crescent must again give place to the Cross. The causes and progress of this curious revolution of sentiment we now purpose to trace; and to ascertain, if possible, by what sequence of events, and changes of opinion Es fehlt dieser Person an jeder schönen Weiblichkeit, dagegen sind die Fehler des Buchs volkommen weibliche Fehler. Sie tritt aus ihrem Geschlecht ohne sich darüber zu erheben.'-Briefwechsel, iv. P. 243. such conditions of public policy have at length been accredited among us. It will naturally be presumed that the clouds now actually gathering on the Eastern heavens have suggested both our disquisition and its moral; nor, indeed, should we, without reasonable warrant for such an introduction of the subject. But we feel it would be here perilous to prophesy the dissolution of a State which has now been, for five generations, in its nominal agony. We believe we might venture to assert that no Christian writer has treated of Ottoman history, who did not seek in the sinking fortunes or impending fall of the Empire the point and commendation of his tale. Knolles thankfully recounted the signs of its decline two hundred and fifty years ago. Cantemir discoursed of the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire,' while even Poland was still a powerful kingdom. As the eighteenth century wore on, such reflections became both more justifiable and more frequent; and, as the artificial existence of Turkey was hardly yet anticipated, the close of its natural term seemed within the limits of easy calculation. Even the end of the great war, which left so many crumbling monarchies repaired and strengthened, brought no similar relief to the House of Othman. Excluded, on the contrary, from the arrangements of the great European settlement, Turkey remained exposed to worse perils than any which had yet beset her. In the great peace of Europe there was no peace for Constantinople. Thirty years since, the historian of the Middle Ages expected, with an 'assurance that none can deem extravagant, the approaching sub' version of the Ottoman power;' and the progressive current of events has certainly in no degree changed, since this conviction was avowed. Yet, though the only symptom of imminent dissolution that then seemed wanting has now appeared, and though territorial dismemberment has partially supervened upon internal disorganisation, the imperial fabric still stands-the Turkish Crescent still glitters on the Bosphorus-and still 'the 'tottering arch of conquest spans the ample regions from Bagdad 'to Belgrade.' Without repeating, therefore, the ominous note of prophecy, we shall direct our remarks to the historical elucidation of the questions involved in it. Our wish is to illustrate the origin and establishment of the Ottoman Empire, as one of the substantive Powers of Europe; to exhibit the causes which conduced to its political recognition; to trace the subsequent action of so anomalous a State upon the affairs of Christendom; to mark the fluctuations of fortune by which its external relations were determined; and to distinguish the stages of estimation and 1850. Dawnings of Turkish Power. 175 influence through which it successively passed, until the dreaded Empire of the Ottomans dwindled virtually, though with dominions not materially diminished, into the position of a Protected State,-subsisting, apparently, by the interested patronage of those very Powers which had been so scared and scandalised at its growth. If our inquiry should include fewer exemplifications than might be expected of the civil institutions of this extraordinary nation, the omission must be attributed to the extent of the more immediate subject, and the imperative restrictions of space. A sagacious moralist once said of an historian of the Turks, that he was unhappy only in the choice of his matter. If the course of our proposed exposition were but a little less narrow, we should not distrust our ability to cancel this invidious qualification; for there are, in reality, no known annals more striking in their details, and often more purely romantic than those of the House of Othman. Even as it is, we hope for some success; for, though of all kinds of history political history possesses the fewest superficial attractions, yet such topics as the naturalisation of a Mahometan Sovereignty among the States of Christendom-the varying phases of religious zeal-the conflict of traditional duties and practical policy-and the rise and growth of such an element as the power of the Czars-should command their share of interest and attention. It may reasonably be thought remarkable that the establishment of an infidel Power at the gates of Europe should not, in those ages of faith, have provoked a prompt and effective combination of the whole Christian world for the expulsion of the intruder. In explanation, however, of this apathy or impotence, there are several considerations to be mentioned. In the first place, the phenomenon coincided singularly, in point of time, with the definite abandonment of the system of Eastern crusades. The seventh and last of these enterprises had resulted in scandal and defeat; and had disclosed the growing reluctance of States and people to contribute towards expeditions which neither promoted the objects nor conduced to the credit of those engaged in them. The final and total loss of the Holy Land in 1291, preceded but by eight years the enthronement of the first Othman; so that the origin of the Turkish State was almost exactly contemporaneous with the withdrawal of Christian arms from the scene of its growth. That the extinction, too, of the crusading principle was then complete, may be inferred from the violent suppression, only ten years later, of that military order which had been mainly instrumental in checking the march of the misbelievers. The commencement of the Ottoman dynasty is placed in the year |