1827.] [ 505 ] 



NOTES FOR THE MONTH. 



THE political events of the last month present nothing worthy of very ex- 

 . tended comment. Spain remains in a state of entire anarchy ; Portugal is 

 still in the occupation of the British troops. In Ireland, the " popular orators," 

 finding their copyhold tremble under a long continuance of peace, are en- 

 deavouring to get up a grievance out of the " Report on Emigration." The 

 independence of Greece is in a fair way to be established, and as every 

 one conversant with the affairs of the Porte, we believe, expected it would 

 be established by the acquiescence of the Turks. Even Ottoman pride 

 and absurdity is not so well disposed to run its head against stone walls, 

 now, as it was forty years ago ; and the mob of Constantinople are, pro- 

 bably, the real " contracting parties," who oppose a barrier to the immediate 

 execution of the treaty : the debate of the Sultan is how he may avoid 

 the destruction that refusal would bring upon his kingdom, and at the 

 same time get out of the danger in which consent would place his life. 

 In the mean time, for Greece herself, the internal affairs of the Islands 

 wear but an unpromising aspect; and it seems more than probable that 

 to head or hang a very considerable number of the newly liberated, will 

 be our only chance of checking the intolerable spirit of rapine and dis- 

 order that devastates the country. A permanent guillotine, of sixty-axe 

 power, worked night and day for six months, will be absolutely neces- 

 sary ! and, in fact, that this is unlucky truth is generally understood, 

 stands almost beyond doubt, from the state of the share market : the 

 prospect of " independence" does not raise Greek bonds at all ; nor, as 

 regards any payment of them to be expected, ought it to do so. The 

 only real gain, probably, to be looked for from a change of circumstances, 

 is that the Turks are wedded to a system which, while it exists, must 

 render barbarism perpetual. The Greeks are the greater knaves of the 

 two, in point of present practice ; but there is nothing in their theory 

 which precludes the possibility of amendment. 



From the Turks, by an easy transition Heaven guard us from Ottoman 

 vengeance, for the declaration we come to the condition of the Jews 

 whose affairs have been going on, in the strangest way imaginable, all over 

 the world, for the last six weeks. An ukase of the Emperor Nicholas of 

 Russia, dated the 7th September last, orders, in the first place 



" That all Jews settled in the Russian Empire shall henceforth be liable 

 to military service." 



The terms of the order are an follow : 



" Imprimis. As we consider it just, that, for the relief of our beloved 

 subjects, the duty of serving- in the army shall be enforced equally on all 

 who are liable to it we order First, That the Jews are to be made to 

 serve in person. Second, The pecuniary tax imposed upon them, in lieu 

 of their personal services, is abolished. Third, We are convinced that the 

 improvement and the knowledge which the Jews will acquire by their 

 military service, will, on their return home [^speaking of course of the 

 survivors], after their legal time is expired, be communicated to their 

 families, and greatly tend to accelerate the progress of their civil establish- 

 ment and domestic life!" 



The horror which the transmission of this edict has excited in Petticoat- 

 lane, is said to be indescribable. A Jew, in a red jacket, standing in the 

 minds and associations of our English members of that tribe as a thing 

 out of the bounds of moral possibility. And even to good Christians such, 



M. M. New Series. VOL. IV. No. 23. 3 T 



