this political paradox will become apparent to those who peruse our introductory chapter on Turkey and Russia. A glance, swift and sweeping, of the history of the past is necessary to a justification of the belligerent powers of Europe in the present. Many people, indeed, are surprised, if not shocked, at our alliance with a Mohammedan power against a Christian one. Some have even condemned it as an unnatural association, and an unnecessary war. Politicians, who do not belong either to the Cobden school or the Peace Society, have concurred in the latter censure. In a debate upon the Eastern question in the imperial parliament, Earl Grey blamed the ministers for having allowed themselves to be drawn into the quarrel between Russia and the Porte. "I agree in all that has been said," exclaimed the earl, "in condemnation of the conduct of Russia towards Turkey in this case; but it does not follow, because Russia had done wrong, that it was expedient or proper for us to undertake the defence of Turkey. It is no part of our duty, as a nation, to undertake (like knight-errants of old) the general redress of grievances, and to protect every weak state which may be oppressed by a more powerful neighbour. We have no business to interfere in the disputes of other nations, unless we are called upon to do so, either by some engagement which we have contracted, or by some great interests of our own which are involved."

It is certainly not our imperative duty to act like the generous knight-errants of old, who rode about the world to destroy its giants and oppressors; but the interests of England are involved in the present question, and must ever be concerned in every question which threatens to overturn the equilibrium and peace of Europe. The affair is less one of Turkey than of Russia; and the former must be supported, unless it is determined that it shall fall a prey to the latter. Such an event as that, or a near approach to it, must be regarded as a step which casts an ominous shadow over the tranquillity and civilisation of Europe. Russia is now strong enough to threaten the subjugation of Turkey, and to offer "her protection" to such powerful states as her neighbours, Austria and Prussia. What, therefore, may she not be, when her gigantic resources shall be more fully developed, and when her present scanty but rapidly-increasing population shall be doubled? The war certainly might be deferred; but if we avert it, the struggle will fall with increased severity upon our children. Evils that are evaded instead of being wrestled with, ever return with a more alarming aspect. Russia now, as a civilised nation, is but a youth: let us, by a seasonable check, prevent its manhood from becoming dangerous. To quote the language of the Earl of Clarendon :-"Certainly, we The noble earl added, that it was uni- might have avoided the state of things which versally admitted that we were not bound by now exist and aggravates men's minds, by any treaty to assist Turkey, and that an en- allowing Russia to assume a protecting lightened regard for our interests counselled power over eight to ten millions of the us to abstain from interference. As to main-sultan's subjects; but such a course would taining the independence and integrity of have placed the throne and empire of the the Ottoman empire, he denied that we could sultan completely at the power of Russia. sustain that which had no real existence. Then, at any moment, do what you like to The state of avowed and lamentable weak-prevent it, she might have become the misness to which Turkey had been reduced, her tress of Constantinople. Afterwards, difinancial embarrassments, and the gradual diminution of her population, had destroyed her independence, and made her lean for support on such states in Europe as felt disposed to assist her. He also considered the prevalent apprehension of Russia to be a delusion. "A nation of slaves," he truly exclaimed, "never can have the energy, intelligence, or wealth of a nation of freemen and, in modern war, it is not the mere brute strength of so many millions of men which is really effective: intelligence and wealth enter into the conflict more effectually than mere numbers; and that is becoming more apparent every day."

recting all her energies to the increase of her naval force, nothing could have prevented her (after becoming a great Mediterranean, as well as Baltic, naval power) from giving the law to Europe, but such an amount of naval superiority on the part of this country as it would have been a constant drain on our resources to maintain."

We hasten to bring these few introductory remarks to a close. The question, we have said, is a complicated one; and, in order that it may be clearly understood, we shall lay before the reader a brief and rapid glance at the past history and connexions of Turkey and Russia.

CHAPTER I.

TURKEY-ITS EXTENT, NATURE, AND POPULATION.

THE dominions of Turkey comprise a por- of imperial Rome familiar to us as the tion of three-quarters of the earth-Europe, Empire of the East) is the Turkish capital. Asia, and Africa. Altogether, it is estimated It is situated on the banks of the Bosphorus, to contain 35,000,000 inhabitants, and to between the Black Sea and the Sea of embrace a surface of upwards of 600,000 Marmora, on the verge of the narrow chansquare miles. The subjects of the Turkish nel separating Europe from Asia, and is empire consist of many nations and races. considered one of the finest harbours in the According to the census of 1844, there were world. It is the residence of the sultan, -Ottomans or Turks, 12,950,000; Greeks, the mufti, the ministers, and of all the digni2,000,000; Armenians, 2,400,000; Jews, taries of the empire. The city is built upon 150,000; Sclavonians, 6,200,000; Roumani, an undulating declivity, and three-fourths 4,000,000; Albanians, 1,450,000; Tartars, of it face the sea. Seen from a little dis66,000; Arabs, 4,700,000; Syrians and tance, it presents a noble and beautiful apChaldæans, 250,000; Druses, 30,000; pearance. Its mosques, cupolas, and minaKurds, 1,000,000; Thurcomans, 90,000; rets, interspersed with dark waving cypresses Gypsies, 214,000: making a total of 35,500,000.

TURKEY IN EUROPE is 910 miles in length, 760 in breadth, and contains 182,560 square miles. It is situated between 16° and 32° east longitude, and between 36° and 49° north latitude; is bounded on the north by Russia, Buckovina, Transylvania, and Selavonia; on the east by Little Tartary, the Black Sea, Marmora, the Hellespont, and the Archipelago; on the south by the Mediterranean; and on the west by the same sea and the Austrian dominions. The Turkish empire is divided into ejalets or eyalets—that is, large provinces; in the same manner as England is divided into counties. European Turkey contains fifteen of these ejalets.

and gaily-painted houses, surrounded by luxuriant gardens containing mulberry, acacia, palm, and fig-trees, together with the placid sunlit sea, on which ride thousands of vessels and gondolas, produce an effect not to be seen in any other city in the world. On entering Constantinople, however, you see the reverse of the picture, Internally, it consists chiefly of a labyrinth of crooked, ill-paved, and dirty lanes, and a crowd of low-built and small houses, formed of wood or roughly-hewn stone. The streets are cleared of filth and offal by an immense number of dogs, which constantly parade them, and act as scavengers. Constantinople contains fourteen imperial mosques, and 332 others; 183 hospitals, thirty-six Christian churches, several synagogues, 130 public baths, 500 fountains, and eighty bazaars. The extreme point of the city is occupied by the seraglio, or private domain of the sultan, which comprises an area of about three miles in circuit. Within it are the divan, the hall of justice, the arsenal, and all the state-offices. The court is entered from the city by a large and heavy gate, called the Porte, a name which has thence been applied to the divan of the Turkish sultan. It was an ancient custom of eastern monarchs, when administering justice, to sit, as the scriptural expression runs, "at the gate." The term "gate" thus became synonymous with court or office; and for the sake of distinction, the Constantinople (formerly called Byzan- sultan's court was called the Exalted or tium, and then the chief city of that moiety Lofty Gate. This phrase, in the transla

TURKEY IN ASIA is 1,120 miles in length, 1,010 in breadth, and contains 470,400 square miles: it is situated between 26° and 45° east longitude, and between 28° and 44° north latitude; is bounded on the north by the Black Sea and Circassia; on the east by Persia; on the south by Arabia and the Levant; and on the west by the Archipelago, the Hellespont, and the Sea of Marmora. It is divided into eighteen ejalets.

TURKEY IN AFRICA contains only three ejalets; namely-Egypt, Tripoli, and Tunis. Algiers was also a Turkish province; but it now belongs to the French, though the Sovereignty has never been ceded to that nation by the sultan.

tions of the Dragomans, who were mostly Kilid-Bahr, the most important fortress Italians, became La Porta Sublime, whence on the European side of the Dardanelles, the title of the Sublime Porte. Scutari, has 155 cannons; the opposite fortress, situated on the Asiatic shore, and just Sultani-Kalessi, in Asia, has 196 cannons. opposite to Constantinople, is regarded as a The batteries. the European shores suburb of that city; so also is Pera, on the number 332 cannons and four mortars; European side. The harbour of Constan- those on the Asiatic coast have 814 cannon tinople, called "The Golden Horn," is so and four mortars: making, together, 1,497 constructed, that ships may anchor close to cannons and eight mortars. the houses.

It is necessary also to mention the other principal cities and towns in European Turkey. Adrianople is the second metropolis of the empire, and possesses 160,000 inhabitants, of whom about one-half are Turks; the other, Greeks, Jews, and Armenians. Still Adrianople is considered the most essentially Turkish town in the empire. It is beautifully situated on the Maritza river, in the centre of a country possessing great natural wealth. Around it is Tschirmen, with 8,000 inhabitants; Dschisr Mustapha, on the banks of the river Maritza, with 200 inhabitants; Demotika, with 15,000 inhabitants, and the seat of a Greek archbishopric; Kirkhilissi, with 16,000 inhabitants; Burgas, a little town on the Black Sea, containing only 7,000 inhabitants, but possessed of a harbour, which renders it important in time of war.

In the interior of Roumelia (that division of the empire containing Constantinople) is the large town of Philippoli, containing 80,000 inhabitants, and important manufactures of silk, cloth, and cotton: also the towns of Tatar-Basardschick, with 10,000 inhabitants; Eski-Sagra, near the Balkan Mountains, with 20,000 inhabitants; Kasanlik, at the foot of the Balkan, with 10,000 inhabitants; Selimnia, situated near that important pass of the Balkan called DemirKapu, or the Iron Gate, containing 20,000 inhabitants, a considerable manufactory of arms, and one of the most important fairs of the empire; Urudschowa, possessing an important fair and a considerable trade; and Enoss, a port with 7,000 inhabitants.

Rodesto is a flourishing commercial town, and the residence of a Greek archbishop. It contains 35,000 inhabitants.

The

The principal town in Macedonia is Salonica, its capital, which possesses a very imposing appearance, with its domes and monuments, and is second only to Constantinople in commercial importance. others are Sedes, a village possessing mineral baths; Jenidsche-Vardar, a town with 6,000 inhabitants; Karaferia, a manufacturing town with 20,000 inhabitants; Vodina (the ancient Odessa), containing 12,000 inhabitants; and Seres, with 30,000 inhabitants. Near to the latter is Mount Athos, which has sixteen monasteries, and more than 300 chapels, cells, and grottos, containing as many as 4,000 monks.

Thessaly is a mountainous region with deep valleys, such as Tempe, and plains that appear like dried-up lakes. Its capital is Larissa, containing a population of 20,000. It is the residence of a Greek archbishop.

Albania is a picturesque region, and has been the theatre of incessant revolutions, in consequence of its having been divided into several independent pachalics. Much of it is only nominally dependent upon the Porte. The Albanians mostly profess to be Christians of the Greek or Roman churches; but many of them are Mohammedans. In the north and on the table-lands, maize and potatoes are grown. Smoked mutton, sheepskins, wool, cheese, tallow, bacon, wax, and live-stock are sent to Cattaro in return for wine, spirits, salt, oil, iron, and manufactured goods. The climate is exceedingly beautiful, though very hot in the summer; Gallipoli, now rendered famous by the but destructive storms are frequent in the present contest, is also situated in this im- south. The olive, orange, and citron thrive portant province. It stands on the penin- in the maritime plains of Albania. Its chief sular of Gallipoli, at the entrance of the town is Janina, a meanly-built place, with Dardanelles, across which the ancient poets a population of 36,000 inhabitants. Its tell us that the love-inspired Leander swam, night after night, to meet the beautiful priestess of Venus. It has a harbour, an extensive trade, a victualling magazine for the supply of the Ottoman fleet, and 70,000 inhabitants.

principal edifice is the fortress, containing the palace of the pacha. Mezzova, Delvino, Suli and Paramithia, Argyrocastro, Ochrida, Dukagin, Perserendi, Alessio, Croja, Dulcigno, Antivari, and Scutari are the other important towns. The latter is a wealthy

and flourishing town, containing about 40,000 | the Turks in 1392. Varna, its capital, is a inhabitants. Immediately adjacent is a lofty fortified port on the shore of the Black Sea, height, crowned by a citadel, and containing and one of the best on that coast. Bulgaria the residence of the governor, with an arsenal is generally well wooded, and abounds in and barracks. Scutari has a large bazaar, rich pasturage; its inhabitants are mostly many mosques, Greek and Roman Catholic attached to the Greek church, and are a very churches, several bridges, yards for building industrious people. coasting-vessels, and manufactories of cotton goods and fire-arms.

Wallachia is bounded on the south-east, south, and south-west by the Danube, which separates it from Bulgaria and Servia, and Bulgaria is a province of some interest, as on the north by Moldavia and the Austrian it is only separated from the Danubian prin- empire: it contains a surface of 27,500 cipalities by the broad waters of the Danube. square miles, and a population amounting to It is subdivided into the pachalics of Widdin, 2,600,000 inhabitants. It is well watered, Varna, Silistria, and Sophia, besides which and generally very fertile; but the greatest it comprises the towns of Nicopolis, Rust-part remains uncultivated. The chief crops chuk, Sistoya, Shumla, Babatag, Kustendje, are wheat, maize, barley, rye, hemp, tobacco, &c. From the seventh century till 1018, and again, from 1196 till the middle of the fourteenth century, Bulgaria formed an independent kingdom; it then became subject to Hungary, and was finally conquered by

wrought by hand in the style of the Gobelins tapestry, and are largely manufactured in Bulgaria and Servia. The women of the south are also very expert at embroidery. Cotton-printing works exist in some localities. Tanneries are numerous; and esta. blishments for the distillation of brandy from prunes are common throughout the country.

Wallachians; but a mixture of Gypsies, Jews, | Turkey have become famous; they are Greeks, and Armenians reside amongst them. They are adherents of the Greek church, and speak a corrupt dialect of the Latin language. Bucharest, the capital, bears some resemblance to a large village; for the houses are surrounded by gardens; but it is badly paved, badly built, and very dirty: it possesses ninety-five churches, a foundling, and six other hospitals, a college, a museum, and a public library. It is the entrepot for the commerce between Austria and Turkey,

We have spoken thus fully of European Turkey, because some brief knowledge of it The climate of European Turkey is mostly is necessary to the comprehension of the war temperate, and well adapted to the activity of which it is at present the theatre. Turkey and perfect development of the human race. in Asia we shall dismiss in a few words; the Extreme cold, however, prevails during more so, as the sovereignty of the sultan is winter; and in the recesses of the highest so much weakened in that quarter, as to be mountains, the snow lies the greatest part little more than nominal. It includes Asiaof the year. With a more active population, Minor (Anatolia, Karamania, and Rum-ili, the most prolific parts of Turkey might be- Trebisonde, Marash, Adona, &c.), Syria and come the paradise of Europe. It is diversi- Palestine, Armenia, Kaizik, Kars, Al-Jezeefied by mountains, valleys, forests, plains, rah or Mesopotamia, Koordistan, and Irakrivers, and arms of the sea. Its chief river Arabi. The population of Asiatic Turkey is the Danube, which (including its many has been estimated at 20,922,900; of these, windings) is 1,725 miles in length: with the not more than 6,000,000 are actually subexception of the Volga, it is the largest in ject to the Ottoman government. On the Europe. Its principal mountains are the shores of the Black Sea, Turkey has some Balkan, the Hellenic, the Acroceramian, and valuable ports, amongst which is Sinope, the the Dinaric Alps. Some of these mountain-scene of a recent tragedy, which we shall ranges are covered with noble forests, and shortly relate. abound in deep ravines and wild romantic scenery. The Balkan is an important chain, extending from the plain of Sophia to Cape Emineh, on the Black Sea. The summits of many of its peaks are covered with grass and fruit-trees. The deep and narrow gorges permit of paths difficult even for beasts of burden.

Amongst the chief towns or cities of Asiatic Turkey are Bagdad, Aleppo, Tripoli, Akre or St. Jean d'Acre, Damascus, and Jerusalem. The interest attaching to this celebrated and sacred city, and its connexion with the original cause of the war now waging against Russian aggression in the East, demand a few words of brief description. Agriculture, in Turkey, is conducted in a The modern city is about two miles and-avery rude and imperfect manner, and the half in circumference, and surrounded by greatest part of the country is forest and stately walls of hewn stone. Its populawaste land. The principal wild animals are tion does not exceed 40,000 inhabitants, the brown bear, the wolf, the wild boar, the most of whom are extremely poor. All its chamois, the stag, and the hare. The public buildings are of a religious character. buffalo is common in some parts of Turkey; Amongst them is the gorgeous church of and cattle are reared very extensively. The the Holy Sepulchre, erected by Helena, the horses are small, but active. Goats are mother of Constantine the Great, over the more abundant in Turkey than in any reputed site of the sepulchre of the Saviour. other country in Europe. Fish are plentiful The church of St. Anna, and the supposed in the rivers, and leaches (which abound in birth-place of the Virgin Mary, on Mount the marshes) form an important article of Bezetha; the elegant mosque of Omar, or export. Turkey has valuable mines, but "dome of the rock;" and the mosque of none of them are worked to advantage. Its El Aksa, also attract attention. manufactures comprise saddles, copper and the walls of Jerusalem, to the north lie the tin utensils, fire-arms, swords, coarse woollen Mohammedan cemeteries and the edifices cloths, linen and cotton spinning. Shawls known as "the tombs of the kings and the are made only in the Asiatic provinces, judges:" to the east, in the valley of Jehoespecially at Damascus. The carpets of sophat, are numerous other tombs, together