TURKEY. 
168 
The recent events of the Turkish empire resolve themselves 
into the disputes between the Sultan and foreign powers, and 
the domestic disturbances which he has found himself called 
upon to quell. He appears, as far as our very meagre ac¬ 
counts enable us to judge, to be a man of great decision and 
energy, and on two memorable occasions to have turned 
these qualities to account. 
His treacherous and cruel, but politic destruction of the 
Mamelukes, has been already noticed in this work under the 
word Egypt. Recently the sultan has rid himself of more 
dangerous domestic foes, viz., the janissaries. These for¬ 
midable guards, who have been so accurately compared to 
the praetorian bands of the Roman empire, after having ef¬ 
fectually resisted every attempt that the sultan had made 
either to subject them to a strict discipline or to improve their 
mode of fighting and their arms, have been utterly disbanded. 
The European tactics had been long urged upon Mahmud 
by some French and Austrian officers whom he retained in 
his pay, and he formed some corps disciplined in a regular 
manner. This excited the resentment and ridicule of the 
janissaries. No notice, however, was taken of their mur¬ 
murs or threats. The organization of the new troops pro¬ 
ceeded as quietly as possible, and when completed, on a 
sudden these imperious bands were ordered to be dissolved: 
they partially rebelled, but some submitted and joined the 
ranks of the new army. This was too formidable for the 
remaining janissaries, who were destitute of leaders. Many 
were sacrificed; the rest submitted to be incorporated with 
the new troops, and the sultan was secured upon his throne. 
Excepting the preceding events, namely, the extermina¬ 
tion of the mamelukes and the destruction of the janissaries, 
no change of importance in the administration of Turkish 
affairs remains to be recorded. But in the provinces two 
famous events have occurred. The one, the rebellion of a 
cruel and despotic pacha, ended in his discomfiture and 
death: the other, the insurrection of the Greeks, promises to 
rescue from oppression and misrule one of the fairest portions 
of the globe, and the narration of it forms one of the most 
interesting pages that history furnishes us with. 
The Greek Revolution. —The Greeks, though with 
the fall of Constantinople their empire had been dissolved, 
were not thoroughly subjected in the provinces until centu¬ 
ries had passed, occupied in the fiercest combats and the 
most barbarous massacres. The Morea especially fell only 
when Venice was no longer able to defend it, in 1715. Nor 
were the Greeks ever entirely subdued even here; numerous 
armed bands of hardy mountaineers took refuge in the inac¬ 
cessible fortresses with which the Morea abounds, and un¬ 
der the name of Klepthai, or robbers, not only refused tri¬ 
bute to the Turks, but even plundered them. Their chiefs 
or capitani have transmitted through succeeding generations 
this proud freedom, and there still live Greeks who boast 
that their ancestors never submitted to the yoke of the in¬ 
fidel. 
It was not more than 34 years after the capture of Corinth 
by the Turks, that the expectation of Catherine of Russia’s 
restoring the Eastern empire, led to a very general rising on 
the part of the Greeks. The scheme proved abortive. Peace 
was made, and a treaty entered into, by which the Porte 
bound itself in the most sacred manner to respect the lives, 
property and religion of the Greeks: nevertheless 100,000 
Greeks were butchered by the Turks and Albanians. This 
for a time quieted the Morea. Insurrection appeared next in 
the north. 
The Servians were roused to a state of insurrection by 
Czerni George, before mentioned, in the year 1800, when 
he took Belgrade and some other places, and butchered every 
Turk he could lay hands on. He contrived to oppose suc¬ 
cessfully the Turkish arms until 1813, when peace having 
been made with Russia, 100,000 Turks entered Servia. 
Czerni retired into Russia, many thousand Servians took 
refuge in Austria, many were enslaved and vast numbers 
exterminated. Still there remained enough for insurrection, 
and in a short time the Servians were again formidable. 
This time the Porte relented, and a treaty was entered into, 
which restricted the number of garrisons that the Turks 
should keep on the fortresses of the Danube; established a 
regular and fixed impost of 100,000/. per annum; and 
allowed a native prince (Milosh, the brother of Czerni 
George) to reign in Servia. 
During the period that elapsed from 1815 to 1820, the 
affairs of the Ottoman government seemed to wear a compa¬ 
ratively prosperous aspect. The reigning sultan, Mahmud, 
gave proofs of a vigorous character: at peace with all his 
neighbours, he allayed the mutinous spirit of the janissaries, 
and broke the power of the great Asiatic vassals: some re¬ 
volts in the Eastern divisions of the empire were also prompt¬ 
ly suppressed. Mecca was rescued from the Wechabites, 
while the imperial firmans had greater weight, and excited 
more respect than heretofore It was, however, under this 
seeming tranquillity, that all the elements of insurrection 
were actively fermenting, and projects formed, which have 
produced the late conflagration. 
During the whole of this period, the difficult negociations 
that were kept open between Russia and the Porte, and the 
ill-concerted jealousy that each power entertained against the 
other, fostered among the Greeks the hope of war, and kept 
their minds constantly prepared to attack their oppressive 
masters. 
The Emperor of Russia and the legitimates of the congress 
of Vienna did not deem it consonant with the general tenor 
of their principles to encourage openly rebellion of any 
kind, and hence they denounced the enterprises of the 
Greeks in cold terms, and though they expressed regret at 
the miseries they endured, abandoned them. Nevertheless, 
the light of civilization had fully dawned upon Greece—she 
had in some few places tasted the sweets even of partial li¬ 
berty. Her sons, enriched by commerce, had cultivated 
science to an extent that served at least to rouse them from 
the degrading apathy of contented slaves, to shew their 
measureless superiority in mental attributes over the Turks, 
and to fill them with the utmost contempt for the bigotry 
and ignorance of Mahomet’s disciples. 
It was about this period that the celebrated association of 
the Hetseria commenced, and of which the founder is un¬ 
known to the members themselves, as they are individually 
bound by an oath, not to disclose the name of the person 
by whom they were initiated. The real object of this so¬ 
ciety, the emancipation of Greece, was slightly veiled, under 
the semblance of distributing books, and diffusing the means 
of education amongst the people. Its head quarters were 
established at St. Petersburgh. Nearly all the Greeks re¬ 
siding in Europe hastened to join the association, and ex¬ 
tensive ramifications were formed throughout the Turkish 
provinces, with which an active correspondence was carried 
on by numerous agents employed for that purpose. 
But the Hetserists were fully aware that the time was not 
yet arrived for revolt. They knew that the Greeks could 
not, unless quite united, which was hopeless, or were as¬ 
sisted by some of the European powers, maintain a success¬ 
ful opposition to the power of the Turks, and they fixed on 
the year 1825 as the period for the proposed revolution. 
Their hope in Russian interference was destroyed by what 
happened in Servia. 
Czerni George, the exiled chief of Servia, who still resided 
at Kiev, and Count Galati, a native of Corfu, related to the 
Russian secretary of state, determined, in 1817, to commence 
the revolution, trusting to their own resources for its success. 
Czerni George was to appear suddenly in Servia, put himself 
at the head of his former subjects, and drawing the attention 
of the Turks to that side of the empire, thereby afford Galati, 
Colocotroni, and others, an opportunity of organizing the 
insurrection in the southern parts of Greece. In furtherance 
of this scheme, the Servian chief set out in disguise, and 
arrived in the vicinity of Semindria; but having discovered 
himself and liis designs to his former friend and relative Mi¬ 
losh, on whose co-operation he had calculated, the latter 
caused him to be treacherously murdered, and sent his head 
to. 
