PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. 



THE CAUSES OF THE WEAKNESS AND DECLINE OF THE TURKISH MONARCHY, 

 AND SOME REMARKS ON THE SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT PURSUED IN THE 

 EUROPEAN AND ASIATIC PROVINCES OF THE EMPIRE. 



ThE history of no country has been distinguished by conquests so 

 rapid and extensive, as those which attended the progress of the 

 Turkish arms from the time of Othman to the establishment of their 

 power over the fairest parts of Asia and Europe. The Christian 

 world viewed their successes with alarm * ; and the different states 

 were exhorted to lay aside all mutual animosities, by the danger with 

 which they were threatened, -j- The nations of Europe have derived 

 strength and security from the general improvement of human 

 reason, and the cultivation of the arts of peace and war. In the 

 meantime, the spirit of military enterprise has declined among the 

 Turks ; the vigorous age of their monarchy is past ; and the weak- 

 ness of their empire has been exposed to their enemies, and parts of 

 it have been invaded, or wrested from them. 



* " The Turk," says Lord Bacon, " is the most potent and most dangerous enemy of 

 the faith." 



f Many treatises were written to rouse the Christian nations against the infidels. " J. 

 " Reusnerus, (says Bayle,) a recueilli plusieurs volumes de ces harangues, qui ont ete 

 " publiees pour exhorter les princes Chretiens a unir leurs forces contre les infidelles." 

 Art. Mahomet. 2. Note E. 



B 



