4 
a 

226 | Political Faurnals in the Ottoman Empire. 
_ difficult to conceive, how the millions of 
inquifitive Greeks, the Renegadoes, who 
are net f{wayed by habits the effeéts of a 
Muffulman education; how ftrangers from 
every country of Europe, who, under the 
protection of the bachas, have fettled in 
‘Turkey; how the envoys and ambaffa- 
dors in Pera, and the foreign cenfuls in 
the Lee suai commercial cities, find an 
©pporiunity of fatisfying their defire- of 
political intelligence.—For thefe, on the. 
one hand, political journals are tran{mitted 
from Germany, Hungary, and Holland, 
by the way of Vienna, or on board of 
trading veflels: and, onthe other, the 
French cevalutionuis! and the indufiry of 
the republican ambafladors at Conitanti- 
les made an attempt likewifle to employ 
this vehicle for the diffemination of their 
principles 4 in Turkey. 
‘The diplomatic body and the Europe- 
ans refiding in Pera receive their news- 
papers, under cover, as letters. The Now- 
welles de Leide, as long as they were con- 
ducted by the mafterly | hand of Luzac, 
the Vienna Diarium, the Gazetta Univer- 
fale of Florence, and the Fourual of Ofex, 
dare thofe moftin requeft. By this expen- 
five mode of conveyance, a fer for one 
year, cofis from 80 to roo florins, or 
about 5 guineas of our’‘money. The Vi- 
enna Diary goes 315 miles by the Auftrian 
poft to Belorade ; ; from that city 420 
miles onthe backs-of camels through denfe 
forefts to Adrianople, and in two days 
the remaining 49 miles of the road to Pe- 
Ya, and arrives there twice a month. 
Inthe provinces bordering on Hungary 
a- few copies of the Mag ‘yar Hirmouda of 
Peft are circulated. The Hamburg Cor- 
refpondent penetrates through the Darda- 
nelles to all cities on the Black Sea, ‘and 
even as far as the Cafpian. He is read in 
Tauris, as well as in the Turkifh pro- 
winees. 
To Greece and the Archipelago large 
packets of Buglio’s Epe-tgie are exp edited 
from Vienna, 
riefity. ‘Though the Modern Greeks 
({aysan intelligent traveller*) be of no 
weight in the political balance of Europe ; 
yet there exifts not any other nation that 
concerns itfelf more about the affairs of 
the world, orhas fo infatiable an appetite 
and longing for news. Credulous in the 
extreme, and ingenious in the invention, 
or concatenation of events, the Greck 

* Famues Dallawzy in tke w ork: Confian- 
tineple Ancienne et Moderne, ov Dejcription des 
Cotes et Iftes de ['Archipel et de la Troade. “i Paw 
ris, an VIL. Bue. t. L. p. 371. 
to fatisfy the peneral cue. 
[May 1, 
news-paper from Vienna is their oracle: 
they devour the contents of it with ayidi- 
ty, and draw thence the materials for 
their political difcuffions. 
Through the friction occafioned by this 
quidauac-ifnt of the Greeks, the germ of a 
patiion for news is fometimes developed 
even in the Mahometan, It is indeed 
hardly credible, what the Journal of 
Neuwied of the 7th of July, 1797, puts 
in the mouth of a Turkith envoy at Ber- 
lin, Moubafze Ali Aliz, that even a Tur- 
kifh news-paper had ftarted into exiftence, 
which was ient to Perfia and China, and 
in the latter empire tranflated by the Man- 
darines. But yet from what feveral tra- 
yellers have told us of the rapid diffufion 
jn Conftantinople of an article of intelli- 
gence from the Journal of Ofen, it would 
appear, that the curiofity ot the Turks 
is at length fufficiently awakened for 
fuch an eltabli fhment. On the 21f of 
November 1795, the Journal of Ofen 
brought the intelligence, that the Royalift 
chiet Charette had penetrated as far as 
Paris, and made himlelf matter of that 
city: the news flew like wild-fire from 
houfe to houfe, and the Turks already 
faw in imagination a Lowis again on the 
throne of the Bourbons; till, on the fol- 
lowing day, the French ambaflador caufed 
a bulletia to be printed, for the purpofe of 
contradicting this falfe report.— This 
bulletin was interpreted as well as poffible 
to the Turks, and was received with fo 
>Mueh approbation, that the ambaflador, 
Verninac, conceived the idea of publithing 
weekly anews-paper, Thus originated in 
the Imprimerie de la République Fran- 
Faife, a Gazette Frangaife de Conftantinopie, 
in quarto, containing-an account of the 
events of the war, in which the new French 
method of \computing time was’ ufed. 
This Gazette cloied with the numbes for 
the 4th of December 1796. 
An example of this kind paved the way 
for the efforts of private. induftry, which 
eltablifhed the Mercure Orieatal on the 
ruins of Verzinacs gazette. But the un- 
retrained freedom of remark that prevailed - 
in it, and the groundlefSnels of the great- 
eft part of the articles of intelligence gave 
occafion to many ambafladorial complaints; 
and a remonftrance from the Pruffian le- 
gation broke in twain tke ftaff of this 
Mercury, on the 1ft of September 1797+ 
The next news-paper that appeared in 
the Turkifh dominions made its debut on 
the banks of the Nile, and owed its fhort- 
lived exiltence to an enterprife of the moft 
xtraordinary nature—the-crufade of Bo- 
napartee Immediately after the founda- 
how 
