MAHMOUD II. 



627 



extermination which he had conceived against the 

 Greeks, he submitted to the powers of Europe in 

 only a few particulars relating to the restoration of 

 the churches and of the advantages of trade, and, 

 after the intercession of the British ambassadors 

 for three years, he consented to the evacuation ef 

 Moldavia and Walachia, June 23, 1824. When the 

 diplomatic corps in Pera protested against the exe- 

 cution of the prelates, he answered ' The sultan is 

 an absolute, independent sovereign, accountable for 

 his actions to no man." His divan, likewise, refused 

 to send a plenipotentiary to the congress of Verona. 

 But Mahmoud trembled whenever the rage of the 

 janizaries, whose severe generals tried in vain to 

 bridle them, wasted the capital with fire and sword ; 

 lie sacrificed every thing to calm their fury the 

 most able men in the state and in the army, his 

 nearest relatives, his most tried friends, and eve'n 

 Khalet Effendi, whose services were indispensable 

 to him. In this favourite the janizaries saw the 

 author of the fatal Greek revolution, and of those 

 oppressive exactions which were intended to supply 

 the extravagance of the seraglio. They commenced 

 their attacks upon him by posting up pasquinades on 

 his character ; scurrilous songs were sung in the 

 watchhouses respecting Khalet Effendi and Khas- 

 nadar Usta, the favourite slave of the sultan, who, it 

 was said, cost him more than it would to support a 

 whole army.* In vain did Khalet endeavour to 

 escape the storm himself, by executing the generals, 

 whom he charged with the misfortunes in Greece, 

 or rich Greeks, whom he accused of being traitors ; 

 in vain did he lavish gold, with an unsparing hand, 

 on the rebels: the highest men of the empire them- 

 selves prepared his destruction, because he enjoyed 

 alone the confidence of the grand seignior. He and 

 his creatures, the grand vizier, Salik Pacha, and the 

 mufti, were accused of wishing to dissolve the janizar- 

 ies, and substitute disciplined troops in their stead. 

 A rebellion finally broke out in November, 1822, and 

 the sultan banished the grand vizier, the mufti, Berber 

 Baschi, and Khalet Effendi; a vast number of officers 

 were executed or dismissed. Khasnadar Usta, the 

 favourite slave, was committed to the chief of the 

 eunuchs for correction, and shut up in the prison of 

 the harem, with several Odalisks. Khalet retained 

 his property, and retired to Iconium, the place of his 

 exile, with a princely retinue. But his enemies soon 

 succeeded in persuading the sultan to gratify his own 

 avarice, and confiscate the wealth of his favourite. 

 This measure was immediately followed by a firman 

 dooming Khalet to death. He was executed Dec. 

 C, by the aga of the janizaries, though he considered 

 his safety secured by a firman under the Hand of the 

 sultan, and his friends and creatures suffered the 

 same fate. Mahmoud complied with every wish of 

 the janizaries, which was made to him by their repre- 

 sentatives in the divan. When peace seemed to be 

 again restored, when Scio was destroyed, and the war 

 with Persia brought to a close, he resolved to punish 

 the insolence of this soldiery. The grand vizier 

 Abdullah, a friend of the janizaries, and the aga of 

 the janizaries, both enemies of Khalet, were deposed 

 and put to death. Great preparations for the fourth 

 campaign against the Greeks, in 1824; the prospect 

 of a speedy reconciliation with Russia, which an- 

 nounced to the divan the mission of the marquis de 

 Ribeaupierre, as its minister, to Constantinople; the 

 aid afforded by the viceroy of Egypt against Candia 

 and the Morea ; the arrival of the French ambassador, 

 general Guilleminot; the friendly connexion of the 

 Porte with Austria and Britain ; the fall of Ipsara, 



* Upon her representation, Mahmond ordered that tne 

 mastir villages of Scin, which supplied the Imrcm with luxu- 

 ries, should be spared. 



July 3, 1824 ; in fine, every thing conspired to fill 

 the sultan with the proudest expectations. But when 

 the severities of his son-in-law and favourite, Hussein, 

 aga pacha of the janizaries, and the measures of the 

 grand vizier Ghalib, renewed the old spirit of sedi- 

 tion; and when news arrived from Thessaly, where 

 the seraskier, Dervish Pacha, was defeated by the 

 Greeks in June, 1824, and from Epirus, where Omer 

 Vrione had effected nothing for the Porte ; when the 

 Greek fleet appeared before Ipsara and the Dar- 

 danelles, and the expedition of the cap-.clan pacha 

 against Samos failed, then the rage of the janizaries 

 in Constantinople burst forth with redoubled violence. 

 Their hatred against Mahmoud was vented in the 

 boldest threats, and he was accused of having repre- 

 sented his eldest son, Abd-ul-Hhamid,f who was 

 bom March 6, 1813, as subject to epilepsy, and of 

 having, under this pretence, withdrawn him from 

 view, that he might poison him with impunity, if 

 the insurgents should seek to place him upon the 

 Ottoman throne. To avoid massacres and conflagra- 

 tions, and to save himself, Mahmoud deposed Hussein 

 Pacha and the aga of the arsenal, in August, 1824, 

 banished them from the country, and led the prince 

 with him into the mosque. September 1 4, he was 

 obliged to appoint the pacha of Silistria, a friend to 

 the janizaries, to succeed Ghalib as grand vizier. 

 As the dangers thickened around him, Mahmoud 

 grew more firm. He was gradually maturing the 

 plan of a total reformation. He commenced with 

 severe measures: August 12, 1825, he went so far 

 as (,< forbid the Bible of the Christians to be dis- 

 tributed in his empire. Greater activity and impor- 

 tant improvements in the arsenal and in the marine, 

 at last, gave the Ottoman fleet a kind of superiority 

 over the Grecian. The new seraskier (Redschid 

 Pacha), and the new capudan pacha (Khosrew) were 

 more fortunate than their predecessors. From the 

 viceroy of Egypt the divan received the most impor- 

 tant aid in the Morea ; but they delayed from month 

 to month the redress of the complaints of Russia. At 

 length, when the emperor Nicholas resolved to bring 

 the affair to a speedy termination, Mahmoud was 

 forced to accept, May 14, the ultimatum of April 5, 

 1826, which was delivered to him by Minziaky. The 

 Turkish troops now evacuated Moldavia and Wala- 

 chia. The question between Russia and Turkey was 

 also settled by the treaty of Ackerman, Oct. 6, 1826, 

 and Mahmoud granted to Russia all her demands. 

 The treaty here agreed upon, however, was not 

 carried into effect until May, 1829, after which the 

 Russian minister, M. de Ribeaupierre, had an 

 audience with the grand vizier and the grand sultan, 

 June 7 and 14. Mahmoud was made compliant 

 principally by the dangerous reform which he had 

 commenced in his troops. He had long resolved to 

 dissolve the janizaries, and the burning of the village 

 of Galata by them (Jan. 3 5, 1826), decided him to 

 put his plans into immediate execution. With this 

 object, he issued (May, 29, 1826) a liatti-sheriff on 

 the discipline of the janizaries and the reorganization 

 of the army. In consequence of this, a general 

 rebellion of the janizaries in Constantinople took 

 place (June 14); but the sultan unrolled the banner 

 of the prophet, and after a bloody contest, repulsed 

 the insurgents on the 15th. A fetva of the mufti, 

 seconded by a firman of the sultan, now declared the 

 janizaries dissolved. On this occasion, the grand 

 seignior distinguished himself, as well for his courage 

 as for his firmness. For many days and nights, he 

 encamped with his ministers and generals on the 



f This prince died in 1823. The second son, Mahmond, died 

 in 1822, and thi'iv is now living only Ahd-ul-Medsrhi<1, who 

 wn- Imrn A;Til 'JJ, 1*23, and Abd-ul-A/.i-, born February 8, 

 130. 



2 S 



