OF THE TURKISH MONARCHY. 



21 



tinguished. The religious establishments of the Christian subjects 

 have had a very favourable influence on the agriculture of parts of 

 the country. The cultivated state of the monastic lands of Athos, 

 and other mountainous districts in Greece shews that the Greek 

 priests when unmolested by the presence or interference of the Turks 

 do not suffer themselves to be exceeded in industry by any class of 

 their countrymen.* 



8. Lastly, when a Pasha has been able to establish himself in a 

 province for many years, to consolidate his power, and appropriate 

 part of the neighbouring country to his family, the condition of the 

 people is improved. He finds his own interests connected with those 

 of his subjects ; and the latter are freed from the vexatious and 

 capricious exercise of tyranny, to which those are exposed who live 

 under the dominion of governors desirous of amassing great wealth 

 before they are removed to other parts of the empire, and therefore 

 little scrupulous of sacrificing the welfare of their provinces to their 

 immediate wants. The mountains of Albania f, and some districts 

 of Greece afford a retreat to many bands of robbers, who still keep 

 the country in a state of disquiet and alarm : but the effects of the 

 regulations made by Ali Pasha, during his long sovereignty, for the 

 protection and tranquillity of it, are visible in the improved industry 

 and wealth of many of the Greeks. On the coast of Lesser Asia, 

 in the antient Mysia, the long established government of Kara 

 Osman Oglu is distinguished for its mildness and moderation, and 

 for the security of property enjoyed by those who live under it. 



* Travellers have remarked the fruitful and well-peopled condition of the lands in the 

 neighbourhood of the convents of the Nestorians and Jacobites in Mesopotamia, 260. 

 Kinneir. " The 200 convents," says Volney, " among the Maronites, so far from hurt- 

 " ing population have contributed to promote it by increasing the produce of the soil." 



f See Mr. Hobhouse's account of Albania, and Dr. Holland's Travels, and Colonel 

 Leake's Researches. The Albanians speak a language derived from the antient Thracian, 

 which appears to have been the same as the Illyrian. " Utinam nobis Albanicae linguae 

 " ex vetere Thracica descendentis grammaticam quispiam impertiret; videtur et Illyrica 

 " vetus eadem ac Thracica fuisse." De Origine Linguae, Caroli Michaeler, 478. 



