of the question, and muft raife the aftonishment of every impartial perfon at that oblique and perverted policy, which thus rafhly throws away folid and immediate advantages, and hazards an expensive complicated war, for remote, contingent, and imaginary benefits;-adminiftering to the interefted ambition of a foreign State, and regardless of the happinefs and tranquillity of our own. But waving the peculiar fituation of England, and confidering the queftion on a larger fcale, as it interests the other nations of Europe; this epidemic dread of the Ruffian power appears euqally futile and abfurd. Even fhould the fucceffes of their arms finally terminate in the expulfion of the Turks from Europe, and the establishment of a Chriftian and civilized power in Conftantinople, it is hard to divine in what manner the reft of Europe could be injured. Indeed, the caufes of the general alarm, which the very apprehenfion of this event feems to excite, are difficult to ascertain. Were one Sovereign to reign over the united empires of Ruffia and European Turkey, his power would undoubtedly be too great, although perhaps not greater than that of the Sultan is at prefent; but it could not long fubfiftentire.-Natural and moral caufes would combine to decompofe fuch an unwieldy mafs formed of difcordant parts. The most that could be apprehended would be, that the prefent Empress's two grandfons would fhare the dominion between them, with however great deductions, which the claims of all the neighbouring States, and perhaps fome remote ones would occafion, from the territories of the Turks as at prefent established. But even were a grandfon of the Empress to found a Monarchy at Conftantinople over the whole of European Turkey, what is to be feared at the utmoft, but a family compact, which, as the ties of confanguinity abated of their force, and partial interefts created feparate views, would gradually be

come lefs firm, and could never operate with that unity of defign, and energy of action, as to injure, much lefs endanger, other European powers. A ftriking inftance of the force of this obfervation occurs in the history of this century; the alarm which was general on account of the House of Bourbon poffeffing both France and Spain, has proved vifionary, and Europe now defpifes the formerly terrific phantom of univerfal Monarchy. But confidering the question even in this point of view, furely the Chrif tian Sovereign of Conftantinople would be much lefs formidable than the Sultan, aided as he is, by the wealth and population of his Afiatic territories, and fupported by the whole force of the Barbary States, and numerous hords of Tartars. This vaft mass of power, roused into exertion at fome critical and favourable period, by fanaticifm and religious zeal, by the memory of priftine conquefts, and by the profpect of Paradife opened to all who die Martyrs to their faith, might perhaps be more than Europe could withstand.

Inftead, therefore, of confidering Ruffia as likely to become the oppreffor, we should rather regard her as the defender of Europe, as its great bulwark against this truly formidable and tremendous force of the Turks, a barbarous, fierce, and bloody enemy, who have always furveyed it as their deftined prey, and affected to permit it to exift only by fufferance. We fhould not lightly esteem the Ottoman Power, because it is at prefent from mifmanagement inert and ineffective, nor praise the Turkish moderation, because their haughty manners and barbarous infolence have been humbled by defeat. The fame bigotted, rancorous hatred of Chriftians, the fame fierce and favage manners, the fame frantic zeal for extending their fuperftition (as it is faid, their Sultan's motto expreffes it) donec totum impleat orbem, remain in as full force as ever, or rather are from reftraint be

come more violent, as the fury of a wild beaft is fiercer from confinement. In order to understand the genius and fpirit of that barbarous empire, let us furvey it, not at the time of humiliation, but of fuccefs: would our modern poli. ricians, who feel fo tremblingly alive for the balance of power but turn to the hiftory of the rife and progrefs of this formidable, people, they might find indeed an object of terror. When their vaft armies overfpread the finest provinces of Europe, defolation marked their courfe; their conquefts have ever been attended by all the ravages of fire and fword:" Before them the land was as the garden of Eden, and behind them a defolate wilderness.”—While their regular forces encountered armies, and deftroyed cities, their favage Tartar allies, like a devouring fire, laid waste the country, levelled with the ground every monument of human art or induftry; and, after the massacre of the husband and the father, carried the wretched mother and child into hopelefs captivity; lo! thofe are the allies of our refined our polished nation! -On the contrary, civilization and improvement attend the fucceffes of the Ruffian arms; and the advance ment of their power may be traced in the downfall of barbarifm. It is an opinion of the celebrated Gibbons, and it well deferves the most ferious confideration, that the progreffive increase of the Ruffian dominion over the uncivilized Tartars, is to be eftimated as one of the greateft bleffings, of the most fortunate circumstances of the prefent age. By the gradual in croachments of civilization on the wilds of Tartary, both on the fide of China and of Ruffia, the favage and independent tribes are confined within comparatively narrow limits, and from that principally, among other favourable events, does he venture to felicitate Europe, on the improbability of her ever again undergoing the calamities which attended the downfall of the

Roman Empire from the irruption of Barbarians. How narrow then, how wretched this policy, that would, for fome paltry illufive advantage, check the progreffive improvement of mankind, and restrain the only power that can fubdue the fierce and bloody Tartar, change the brute into a man, and cheer the defolate regions of Afia, with agriculture, with arts, in future perhaps with fcience-thus, as far as in us lies, confirming the reign of ignorance, of barbatism, and of mifery.-But turning our eyes from the dreary waftes of Tartary, let us contemplate the condition of those wretched European provinces which have for fome centuries groaned under the Ottoman yoke, whofe fituation is the best comment on, and amply unfolds the nature and principles of the government of the Turks. Their original conquefts were not more deftructive than is their permanent, established sway: their firft invafion defolates, their confirmed power depreffes and degrades, by fevere and cruel bondage; their barbarous and exclufive maxims of policy preventing that affimilation, that incorporation of the conquering and the conquered, which in almoft all other inftances has at length blended them into one people; but thefe tyrants, after being poffeffed for centuries of that unhappy country, ftill opprefs it with all the outrages and evils of recent conqueft, and the prefent inhabitants fecl the yoke of flavery as heavy as did their forefathers, Are thofe a people to be supported and protected by the civilized part of Europe? The fame contracted policy which now

prevents their overthrow originally contributed to their fuccefs; and if in the various and unforefeen revolution is of human affairs their difcipline fhould arrive at equal perfection with ours, the immenfe momentum of their mighty empire, actuated as formerly by enthufiefm, and directed by prudence, might de

Jage the rest of Europe with blood, and fubdue it to the law of Mahomet. Let no one imagine the tide of fuccefs is fo turned against them, that it

can

never return, nor fuppofe that their appearing content with their prefent dominions arifes from moderation. Let fuch as are under fo great a delufion turn to that most entertaining volume, the life of the great Sobefki King of Poland, they will there find that, though repeatedly defeated, they always rofe again with fresh vigour; they will alfo meet a detail of fuch accumulated inftances of favage, barbarity, oppreffion and cruelty, as are horrid in the extreme; and thew how unjustly those perfons arrogated the title of liberal minded, who fupport a power which inevitably and neceffarily renders every country miferable which has the, fevere miffortune of failing under its yoke. They will find also that it is little more than one hundred years fince the Turks befieged, and were on the very point of taking Vienna; the relief of which place forms the moft fplendid æra of that hero's history.-Had Providence permitted that capital of Germany to fall under their dominion, his Pruflian Majefty, infead of being their protecor, might ere now have been their affal;that barrier once burft, how far the raging torrent might have flowed, no human wisdom can afcer

tain.

As the hiftory of Sobicfki fhews the r tremendous power and political tyranny, fo the late Memoirs of the celebrated Tott unfold to us their civil and domestic oppreffion; and that as they render every country miferable which falls under their iron rod, fo they themselves are equally wretched from their corrupt and baneful go vernment, whofe horrid policy blafts every opening bud of genius or merit, and fends the fatal bowftring to the soft prudent flatesman or gallant commmander, if inevitable misfortune fhall defeat his beft laid plans, or boldest

enterprizes, or even without that pretence, if the intrigues of the Seraglio fhall demand a victim, or the avarice of the Sultan require a wealthy criminal.

But in taking a review of the calamities which attend the establishment of the Turkish Government, (more efpecially over a country which has once been bleffed with fcience and with freedom) one of the most affecting parts of the fcene is the degraded fituation of the female fex.-Woman, lovely woman, endowed with all the foft and tender fympathies, moft admirably framed both in body and mind, to embellish the creation, to exalt fociety into rapture, and foften friendfhip into love;-woman, the folace of our care, the foother of adversity, the enlivening companion, the ftedfast unhaken friend, is there regarded solely as the object of brutal appetite.-The grofs fenfualift, ftranger to all the delicate refinements of fentiment,—infenfible to the exquifite delights of fincere and mutual affection,-perverts this first beft gift of heaven by mfuse;

and finks the wife, the friend, the companion, into the flave.-To gratify his erring and depraved sense, he repairs, in order to procure a partner of his bed, a folace of his cares, a mother for his children, to-the PUBLIC MARKET.-Blush-blush-manhood; at the foul difgrace, at the outrage thus offered to the charming, the helplefs, the weeping maid; dragged from all the endearments of parental tendernefs, by a band of favage Tartars, who thus provide the proud and luftful Turk with a fucceffion of fresh victims,

and all the focial ties which entwine around the heart, and become a part of our existence, by rude and unhallowed hands, he is offered up a facrifice to brutal paffion;-with a foul harrowed by all the phrenzy of defpair, he is borne to the accurfed Haram of a lewd, a cruel, and unfeeling man ; perhaps no lefs an object of loathing and difguft as to his perfon, than of contempt and hatred with refpect to his manners, his fentiments, and his character. There Hymen bears his torch inverted, his faffron robe and crown of flowers exchanged for emblems of defpair, and his fong of joy for figs and tears, and bitter lamenta tions. Is there then no faving hand to refcue innocence oppreffed?to fnatch the fhrieking victim from this temple of pollution? Alas none! Our enlightened times have it feems difcovered, that, to preferve liberty in the Weft of Europe, it is requifite that the Eaft fhould fuffer all the rigours of flavery, that, to promote know. ledge amongst us, intellectual darknefs fhould overshadow the original feat of arts and sciences, from whence we, having borrowed them, thus repay our mafters ;-to confirm and diffufe the pure and holy religion of Chrift, it is found proper that the grofs fuperftitions and lenfuality of Mahomet fhould reign triumphant over half the world, -probably from a pious care, that ours may thine the brighter from the contraft. To enter here into an examination of their respective merits were foreign to the purpose, and would open too wide a field for difcuffion,-those who wish to understand what Mahometanifm truly is, may confult the elegant Sermons of Mr Whire of Oxford, compofed exprefsly on that fubject, and which difplay fuch a fund of erudition, are fo replete with found reafoning, and inftructive entertaining information, and are clothed in the garb of fuch a truly harmonious and claffical file, as raise them above commendaon,all that is, or can be intended

from thefe remarks, is to convey to those who have not much turned their thoughts to this fubject, a flight idea of the manifold imperfections of the Turkish eftablishments, religious, civil, and domeftic; the former are more ftriking to the world, the latter more affecting to the heart.-Amongst them, "relations dear, and all the charities of father, fon, and brother," if not unknown, are at least felt with diminished force. The affection of the husband and the father, divided and distracted amongit a multiplicity of objects, muft of courfe fink to a mere vague obtufe fenfation, which vibrates feebly at the heart, and is incapable of calling forth the finer and more vivid fentiments which arife from the focial affections when concentrated to the focus of a family united in inte→ refts, held together in the filken cords of delicate and mutual affection.

Whichever way we turn our eyes in the Turkish empire, cruelties and outrages wound our feelings, and call forth our indignation. One violation of the rights of nature creates another. In order to retain fecurely the wretched females whom their luft has doomed to captivity, human nature itself is difhonoured by the mutilated wretches who are ftationed as their guards. This enormous infult to manhood is neceffarily connected with the tyranny exercifed over the other fex; having tranfgreffed the bounds of nature in collecting the victims of their bafe paffions, they found that nature furnished them not with the means of detaining them ;~~ from women they could hope for no thing but deceit ;-where no confi dence is placed, no fidelity can be expected.To men,-their luscious treafures were objects folely of envy and rivaiship. They were therefore of courfe compelled to pafs the bounds of nature, for beings in whom they could confide; and who, forced is youth from the bofom of their coun try, deprived of all poffibility of fo

cial joys, and looking up to their tyrant for fubfiftence, are ready inftruments to diffufe that mifery which they fo keenly feel. Can fancy pic ture a more gloomy terrific image than the establishment of fuch a family? Well may we fay Præfectura illius domus ficulâ non mitior aulâ,"-Family -did I fay! A family is a fcene of the pureft, the most refined pleasures; "there Love his golden fhafts employs, there lights his conftant lamp, and waves his purple wings."-But, aJas! ill does that endearing title befit fuch an household.-Can the joys, the delights, the blandifhments of a family, cheer the abode of the tyrant and his flaves? Such endearments as pafs between the commander of a gailey, and the wretches at the oar,-between the goaler and his prifoners, the executioner and the criminal,-fuch, and fuch only can be experienced within the dreary walls of a Turkish Haram, -which we may justly term "regions of forrow, doleful fhades, where peace can never dwell, hope never comes." Upon the whole, it appears manifeft, that every impartial person who takes a general view of the state of Society among the Turks, who examines into the radical imperfections of their religion, laws, and policy, and traces the innumerable vices, and grofs corruption of their government through out all their dominions, will be conftrained to acknowledge that fuch a depraved, perverted fyftem of affairs demands renovation. Indeed fuch is the general wickedness of the inhabitants, that there cannot remain a doubt that a conquest of their country by a civilized and enlightened nation would not only prove a glorious emancipation to their Chriftian fubjects, but would be even, for the Mahometans themfelves, an happy change.The enlightened and liberal manners of the prefent times would fufficiently fecure them from the horrors of religious perfecution, which was the characteristic and ever!ailing reproach of

the darker ages; and particularly of the famous Crufaders, who went, as Thompson ftrongly expreffes it, "to deftroy bigotry with the fpirit of bigots."--But fanaticifm is now no more; and though the Turkish Empire fhould be overthrown, the Tur kifh religion would not suffer perfecution. Such an event may therefore he defired by the moft liberal and unprejudiced mind; and fuch we may ftill hope this age will fee, notwithftanding all the efforts of narrow and fhort-fighted policy.

Let us judge of the prefent from the paft,and by the light of experience decide this queftion. Spain was for feveral centuries under the government of Moorish Kings. Although in their expulfion fcenes of horrid perfecution arofe, yet thofe enormities took place from the fpirit of the times, and are not again to be apprehended. But except in thofe circumstances (which every person of true Christianity muft undoubtedly abhor and reprobate), let those who are moft folicitous to preferve the Turkish Empire unbroken, declare whether it be not for the advantage of Europe, and the general interests of humanity, that Spain fhould be, as it is at prefent, in the hands of a Christian power, rather than of its former Mafters. Although its government be arbitrary, no one furely will compare it with Turkish defpotifm: befides, being within the fphere and attraction of other Chrif tian States, it may, most probably will, imbibe the spirit of reformation civil and religious matters. The fparks of freedom which already appear may ere long kindle a flame, before fuch fuperftition and tyranny will melt away. All this is within poffibility,-nay, is highly probable; but had it remained under Mahometan government, fuch a change could not have been. In Chriftian countries liberty" may flourish or may fade,”—but in Maho. metan ones it is an exotic,—it cannot exift,-on that it muft perish. If at

tempted