116 



The Greeks and juries relatively considered. [Marcli 1, 



For tlie MontJily Magazine. 

 TUB GREEKS a«d TURKS relatively CON- 



SrOERED; %«« ENGLISH GENTLEMAN, 



formerly resident at SMYRNA, 

 ■ft. SINGLE statement, made some 

 jlSL time ago by a late minister at the 

 head of foreign affairs, has induced 

 me to lay before you those plain facts 

 which have come within my own 

 knowledge and observation. It was 

 stated, with the most unaccountable 

 ignorance, by the late Marquis of 

 Londonderry, in the House of Com- 

 mons, that the Turkish population of 

 Europe exceeds ten millions. His 

 lordship's affirmation must be a wilful 

 mis-statement ; for every man, at all 

 conversant with the history of Turkey, 

 must be aware, that when the Turkish 

 empire was in the zenith of its great- 

 ness and power, in the reign of Soly- 

 man the Magnificent and his imme- 

 diate successors, never was the Maho- 

 metan population in Europe tantamount 

 to half of his lordsiiip's estimate. The 

 aggregate of souls may be nine mil- 

 lions, of which number the Greek 

 constitute more than three-fifths. 

 Commerce, industry, and more tem- 

 perate habits, have tended to aggran- 

 dize the numerical strength of the 

 Greeks, though groaning beneath the 

 rod of oppression ; while, in the same 

 ratio, civil wars, plague, and the bow- 

 string, have unceasingly carried on the 

 work of depopulation among tlie slaves 

 of this abhorred despotism. 



The formidable invaders of Europe, 

 who, under the conduct of Mahomet 

 the Second, in 1453, poured like a 

 torrent over the finest regions of 

 Europe, and took the fairest city in 

 the world, have been enervated by 

 luxury and idleness, and have dege- 

 nerated from tiic warlike spirit and 

 hardihood of their ancestors. The 

 Ottoman empire is the sliadow of its 

 former greatness, destitute of all real 

 strength ; its name alone inspires ter- 

 ror by the cruelties exercised on its 

 ill-fated victims ; and the mighty fabric 

 of its power would be shaken by the 

 first conflict with a foreign invader. 



These remarks are not speculative, 

 but are undeniably certain, and may 

 be confirmed by indisputable facts. 

 The victorious Ottomans, whose course 

 the arms of the German emperors were 

 unable to arrest, who twice laid siege 

 to Vienna, and even advanced into 

 Hun"ary, have vviihin the last two 

 years" proved themselves unable to 



hold the provinces on the Danube. 

 They have been compelled to eva- 

 cuate Moldavia and Wallachia ; 

 Servia and Busnia have proved that 

 they can repel all tlie armies which 

 Mahometan enthusiasm could send 

 against them ; and, a few years ago, a 

 Russian army, insignificant in num- 

 bers, after a successful campaign, 

 made an advantageous peace, and 

 acquired an extent of country on her 

 frontier. 



The Morea no longer bends her neck 

 to the barbarian Bassas ; no sooner 

 did the Greeks begin their glorious 

 struggles for freedom, tiian the strong 

 holds of this peninsula fell into their 

 hands ; while Ali Pacha alone set defi- 

 ance to all the puissance of the Sub- 

 lime Porte. Though the Greeks have 

 been galled by the yoke of slavery, 

 and cramped in their mental energies, 

 for four centuries, they have evinced 

 lately a high sense of patriotism, and 

 a desire of honour and independence; 

 and may not every man hope, when 

 we consider their superior skill by sea, 

 and the martial spirit and magnani- 

 mity by which they are animated, 

 that the islands may be redeemed from 

 the grasp of tyranny ; and Greece 

 may once more claim her just rank 

 among the nations of civilized Europe? 

 Nor is this notion chimerical ; it be- 

 comes a moral certainty, when we 

 consider that the Turkish fleets have 

 been almost wholly manned by Greek 

 sailors; in consequence of which, ever 

 since the battle of Lepauto, when the 

 Turkish navy was destroyed by the 

 combined forces of Christendom, the 

 naval power of the Mussulmans (had 

 it not been for Greek sailors,) would 

 have been absolutely annihilated ; for 

 the former, almost to a man, are 

 averse to the sea-service. Nor can 

 their available force by land be formi- 

 dable, if we exclude the Janissaries, 

 who will fight for any master who can 

 pay them ; and, like tiie Praetorian 

 guards of imperial Rome, they dispose 

 of the empire as their interest or incli- 

 nation may lead them. Added to this, 

 the continual revolts of the Pachas, 

 by whose extortion the wretched 

 people are crushed to the dust, ren- 

 ders this unhappy country the theatre 

 of rapine, tumult, and injustice. 



This despotism, which has shaken 



its dreadful scourge of tyranny over 



the most delightful regions of Europe, 



is not supported, like other govern- 



mentSj 



