Chap. I. to the \ 
“ are not fo many Men executed for Thievery in fome 
“ Years, as in one, I may fay, in one Seffion, in London. 
“ If a Thief is caughc, they make more Account of 
“ him by difcovering others, than by the Example of 
“ his Punifhment ; and they handle him at fuch a Rate, 
that he cannot but difcover ail he knows. He fhall 
“ fometimes be fecretly chained to an Officer, and fo 
“ go about the City, and whom he points to is taken 
“ up. The firft Thing done, is to lee that he makes 
“ full Amends to the Perfon robbed, and when that 
« Perfon declares he is fatisfied, he is fent away with a 
Menace, that he concern not himfelf for Favour to 
“ that Man. And, after all, what hath this poor 
« Thief to reward him for ail his Ingenuity and Ser- 
“ vice to the Publick, by difcovering i* Nothing but 
“ to die without Torment, for if the Judge be dilfa- 
“ tisfied with his Behaviour, he makes Inch a publick 
“ Torture of him, as muft terrify all Rogues from the 
“ like Pradfices ; other wife he is committed to an Of- 
ficer to be fimply hanged, and then that Officer takes 
“ him into the Street, and chufes what Manks Sign or 
“ Poll he pleafes, and conftrains whom he thinks fit to 
“ perform the Ceremony ; and a Franks if he comes 
“ by unluckily at that Time, is not fafe from beingpre- 
“ ferred to the Employment. 
iWe have dwelt fo long upon this Subjed, that it is 
necelTary for us to be the ffiorter in regard to the reft. 
The general Accounts we have of the Furkijh Manners 
are, at one and the fame Time, both true and falfe. 
True in regard to the Relaters Knowledge, who de- 
livers what he faw and knew *, but falfe, as it is ap- 
plied, by afcribing what he collected from the narrow 
Circle of his Acquaintance to a whole Nation. The 
Ldurks are like other People, fome are Men of Senfe, 
others Blockheads •, there are Men of Learning amongft 
them, as well as Multitudes that are ignorant. Drun- 
kennefs is common among the meaner Sort, and much 
worfe Crimes amongft thofe in an exalted Station. 
Their Paffion for Women, and the effeminate Life they 
lead in their Apartments, has a very bad Effed even 
amongft Perfons of the greateft Diftindion j and, to 
fay the Truth, there is fo little Felicity to be enjoy’d 
under their Conftitution, that we need not wonder at 
the Pidures modern Travellers draw of the prefent 
State of the Ottoman Empire, in which all that have 
Power are Oppreffors, and all that have it not, are 
oppreffed. 
■ The Greek Chriftians, that live under the Yoke of 
the Grand Signior, are the moil miferable People in 
the Univerfe ; and though all of them do not appear 
fo, yet in Fad they are moft miferable Slaves. If 
they can get nothing, they muft of Courfe pafs their 
Days in Meannefs and Poverty ; and, if they come to 
have any Thing, they muft ftill wear the Appearance 
of Meannefs and Poverty to keep it. It is, indeed, 
true, that fome of them lift up their Heads a little, and 
live in a State much fuperior to what we have defcri- 
bed ; but they muft have powerful Protedors to do 
this, and they muft be continually acknowledging the 
Favour of this Protedion by Prefents equal to, if not 
above their Abilities *, and, after all this, if any Change 
happens, and fuch Changes are continually happening 
to their Protedors, they are torn to Pieces, and ruined 
in an Inftant. But before this happens, they are equally 
defpifed and hated by the Lurks., and the very meaneft 
of them will infult the Greeks with Impunity. But in 
the Midft of fo much Calamity, and under the heavy 
Load of fuch barbarous Oppreffion, thefe People keep 
up their Spirits, if to be eafy and merry may be fo 
called, and will be as frolick and gay over their Cups, 
as if they had milder Mafters, or lived in abfolute 
Freedom, according to the common Proverb amongft 
us, fo much ufed and fo little underftood, viz, as merry 
as a Greek. The Lurks have fo much Policy as to in- 
dulge them in the free Exercife of their Religion, and 
to keep up their Hierarchy, which, generally fpeaking, 
keeps them in the Interefts of their Mafters, fo as to 
prefer the lurkijh Government (bad as it is) to that of 
any Chriftian Power not of their own Religion. But if 
ever the Ruffian Empire comes to be fettled on a firm 
VoL. II. 125. 
-I E V A N T. 821 
Foundation, and there ffiould happen a Succeffion of 
two or three great Princes, the T urks would run a con- 
fiderable Hazard of finding that Prophecy truej which 
- they have amongft them, that the Mufcovites will one 
Day fubvert their Empire, . 
The Jews in the Grand Signior’s Dominions are 
pretty much the fame that they are every where elfe, 
that is, a Kind of necefiary Evils. At Confiantinople, ^Smyr- 
na, Aleppo, and other Ports, every Chriftian Houfe, 
and, indeed, every Merchant of any Rank, has his 
Jew, who, if he has Goods to fell, finds him Cuftomers 1 
and, if he wants to buy, finds out the Commodity is 
wanted. By their Ufefulnefs in this Refpedl, they have 
a Share, and not a trifling Share, in all Sorts of DeaL 
ings ; and fome of them arrive at Wealth, but never at 
Refpedl ; for as they hate Lurks and Chriflians equally, 
fo both Lurks and Chriftians hate them in Return % and 
for the far greateft Part of the Nation, they are in as 
low and defpicable a Condition as it is poffible to con- 
ceive a People, and which feems to be the very Ex- 
tent of human Mifery : They are deftitute even of 
Hope, for no Revolution that can poffibly happen in a 
Country, the moft fubjedl of all others to Revolutions, 
can ever prove favourable to them but they muft be 
content to drudge on under the fame heavy Yoke, let 
who will be their Mafters. 
33, We will clofe this Sedlion with fom.e Remarks 
upon the Decadence of the Lurkifh Empire, which tho’ 
its Dominions are very near as extenfive as ever, yet is 
very tar from having the fame Force that it had here- 
tofore. This proceeds from a Multitude of Caufes, 
but the principal is the Extinction of their ancient Spi- 
rit. It is very truly obferved by an eminent -Author 
that has been already quoted, that theirs is a Military 
Government, and that the Conftitution is formed upon 
this Plan. It is for this Reafon, that a State of War is 
natural to, as well as perfeflly confiftent with the Wel- 
fare of their Empire, which can never enjoy interior 
Peace, if the Arms of the Grand Signior be not em- 
ployed on one Sideior other. Almoft every State befides 
is oppreffed by War, and recovers its Strength in Time 
of Peace j but the Reverfe of this is the Cafe mLurkey, 
where War is almoft always beneficial, and Peace brings 
along with it the greateft Danger. But for many 
Years paft the Lurkifh Difcipline growing relax, their 
Troops are no longer fo formidable, and their being 
continually beaten by the Chriftians and the Rerfians, has 
made Peace neceffary at leaft, if not agreeable. 
This has been attended with an innumerable Train 
of Mifchiefs and Inconveniencies, for their Soldiery be- 
ing never disbanded, as making a Part of their Confti- 
tution, grow more and more formidable at Home, in 
the fame Proportion that they became more and more 
defpicable Abroad, which muft be the Cafe of all Coun- 
tries that put their Truft in a Standing Army. Their 
Officers alfo being no longer preferred for their Military 
Virtues, but in Confequence of Cabals and Intrigues, 
are Soldiers only in Shew ; and the fame Difpofition 
fpreads itfelf downwards, fo that a Janizary is at pre- 
fent terrible only from his Staff and his Cap, and to 
thofe he ffiould protedl, who fee Nothing in him now 
that is military except his Infolence. The Government 
alfo is fallen of late Years into the Hands of the Men 
of the Law, who for that, Reafon do all they can to 
maintain Peace, notwithftanding that they cannot but 
be fenfible how much the Empire fuffers from the Ex- 
tindlion of that Spirit, by which it rofe and extended it-' 
felf to that prodigious Dominion it ftill preferves. 
But we may fately affirm, that how large foever it 
may be, it is now no more than an infirm gigantick 
Body, which reels and totters under its own Weight, 
and would be infallibly overthrown, if its Neighbours 
ffiould unite to bring about its Deftruclion. The Ruf- 
fians, the Poles and the Hungarians, would at this Day^ 
be a great Overmatch lor the Ottomans, and it would 
be no difficult Thing for each of thofe Nations, to 
bring fixty or feventy thoufand Men into the Field, be- 
fides Irregulars. The Venetians are now' no longer what 
they were, and their Maritime Power is funk to fuch a 
Degree, as to make no Figure at all in Europe, but 
9 Z even 
