conqueror. The campaign which opened so auspiciously for the Ottomans, by the rashness and folly of their general ended in their disgrace and ruin. The vizier was degraded and banished.

The czarina, who almost from the commencement of her reign had endeavoured to establish an efficient naval force, which, under the superintendence of Sir Charles Knowles, had been successfully effected, now caused a large fleet of Russian men-of-war, commanded by Count Orlow, to proceed from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, to annoy the Turks on their extensive coasts in the Levant. The unskilfulness of the Russians in maritime affairs greatly retarded the progress of their fleet; and it was not unt the spring of 1770, that it arrived at the scene of action, al though many experienced British officers were volunteers in the expedition. The Turks, to whom the sea has ever proved a fatal element, for some time had no force capable of opposing the enemy, so that the Morea was exposed to their ravages, and several places of strength were taken; the Greek inhabitants everywhere joyfully received the invaders; but at length an army of Albanians being collected, they drove the Russians to their ships, and having recovered the whole country, chastised the revolt of its inhabitants by the lawless vengeance of a licentious soldiery. The Russians, now driven from the Morea, had advanced in full force into the Egean sea, and, passing the straits which divide the island of Scio from the coast of Natolia, were met by a Turkish fleet of superior force. A furious engagement ensued on the 5th of July, in which the Russian admiral Spiritof encountered the capitan pacha, in the Sultana of ninety guns, yard-arm and yard-arm. The two ships running close together, grappled each other. The Russians, by throwing hand grenades, set the enemy's ship on fire, which rapidly spread, and soon reached the Russian ship. This dreadful spectacle suspended the action between the two fleets, until both ships blew up. Only twenty-four Russians were saved, among whom were the admiral, his son, and Count Theodore Orlow; the ship carried ninety brass guns, and had on board a chest containing 500,000 rubles (£112,500 sterling.)

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Although each fleet was equally affected by this event, yet it infused a anic among the Turks, which the Russians did not partake of. During he remainder of the day the Turks maintained the action; but on the approach of night, the capitan pacha, contrary to the advice of his officers, gave orders for each ship to cut its cables, and run into a bay on the coast of Natolia, near a small town anciently called Cyssus, but now known by the name of Chisme. Hossein Bey, who had raised himself by his talents for war to be second in command, saved his ship by bravely forcing his way through the enemy's fleet. Here the Russian fleet soon after blocked them up, and began a furious cannonade; which being found ineffectual, a fire-ship was sent in at midnight, on the 7th of July, which, by the intrepid behaviour of Lieutenant Dugdale, grappled a Turkish man-of-war, and the wind at that moment being very high, the whole Ottoman fleet was consumed, except one man-of-war and a few galleys which were towed off by the Russians. The Russians next morning entered the harbour and bombarded the town and a castle that protected it; and a shot happening to blow up the magazine, both were reduced to a heap of rubbish. Thus, through the fatal misconduct of a commander, there was scarce a vestige left, in a few hours, of a town, a castle, and a fine fleet, which had all been in existence the day before. It was somewhat remarkable, that this place was rendered famous by a great victory which the Romans gained there over the fleet of Antiochus, in the year before Christ

191.

The Turkish fleet consisted of fifteen ships of the line, from sixty to ninety guns, besides a number of xebecs and galleys, amounting in the whole to near thirty sail. The Russians had only ten ships of the line,

and five frigates. The Turkish fleet being annihilated, it might have been expected that the Russian admiral would have shaken the Ottoman empire to its very foundations: that it would have put it to the proof how far the Dardanelles were effectual for the defence of the Hellespont. Had he proved successful against those celebrated barriers, Constantinople itself, the seat of the empire, must have fallen into his hands. It seems evident the views of Russia did not extend to the effecting such a purpose; her fleet, during the remainder of the war, was only employed in making descents on the Turkish islands, and with little or no success. In that space of time the great Russian army having passed the Danube, found its progress in Bulgaria stopped by the range of mountains which intersects that country, whilst it was continually harassed by detachments from the Turkish camp. The expenses of the war were severely felt by each empire, and although that of Russia had gained the ascendancy, no beneficial consequences had been realized. In this state of affairs, the grand seignor Mustapha III., emperor of the Turks, died January 21, 1774, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and seventeenth of his reign; he appointed his brother Abdulhamet to succeed him in the throne. The war was continued with spirit; but a large Turkish army, commanded by the reis effendi, being most disgracefully defeated by General Kamenski, the porte, no longer able to maintain the war, was compelled to receive terms from the conqueror. A peace was signed on the 21st of July, 1774, at Kainardgiac, to ratify which the mufti issued his fetfa, or ordinance, in which, to the great degradation of the Ottoman pride, it was said, that, "seeing our troops will no longer fight the Russians, it is necessary to conclude a peace. ""

The treaty of peace consisted of twenty-eight articles, by which, among other advantages, the Russians obtained a free navigation in all the Turkish seas, together with the passage through the Dardanelles. Russian consuls were likewise to reside in the Turkish sea-ports. Although peace was upon these conditions restored, yet it soon became apparent that the latent ambition of Catharine caused her to meditate the utter subversion of the Turkish empire, and to indulge in the hope that she herself should effect it. To bring forward, this grand design she made a progress from Moscow to the Crimea, with all the pageantry of imperial state. Whilst on this journey she received a visit from the eperor of Germany, Joseph II., and, as the visits of potentates are generally fatal to the peace of the world, there was good ground to suppose that this was portentous to the Ottoman empire, and had for its chief objects to settle the mode of attacking it, and how it should be divided when conquered. The porte took the alarm, and, determined not to wait the maturation of its enemy's councils and force, published a manifesto, dated the 7th of August, 1787, and commenced hostilities against the empress of Russia. The emperor of Germany, soon after, led a formidable army against the Turkish fastnesses on the frontiers of Hungary, not doubting but that everything would fall before him with the rapidity which Cæsar exulted in; but his progress was opposed, and his measures frustrated by the surprising valour and conduct of the Turks. The war with Russia was chiefly maritime, and the seat of it the Black sea; but here neither success nor glory accrued to the Turkish arms. The Rus sians became masters of Ocsakow, and in every conflict at sea were decisively superior.

This unequal war was not looked upon with indifference by some other of the great powers of Europe. The subjugation of the Turkish empire, and the vast increase of power which Russia would acquire by possessing the most valuable, because the most commercial parts of it, were considered as revolutions in which the other powers of Europe were deeply interested. In consequence of which a close alliance was formed between Great Bri

tain and Prussia, having for its chief object, the rescuing the Turks from that destruction which hung over them, by restoring peace to that part of Europe. The losses and disgraces which the emperor sustained, and the death of Laudohn, the only general who had effected anything, rendered that prince anxious to terminate the war; and the empress of Russia, through the mediation of the British court, at length acceded to terms of peace, by the conditions of which very important towns and districts were added to her dominions; which, however, her arms had previously obtained.

Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt finally raised the indignation of the porte, which, on the 1st of September, 1798, declared war for the first time against France. By its alliance with Russia, in December, 1798, and with England and Naples, in January, 1799, it now fell under the direction of the cabinets of St. Petersburg and St. James. A Russian fleet sailed through the Dardanelles, and a Turkish squadron, in co-operation with it, conquered the Ionian islands. Paul I. and Selim III., by a treaty at Constantinope, formed the republic of the Seven Islands, which, as well as Ragusa, was to be under the protection of the porte. In the following year, Britain restored Egypt to the porte; but the Mameluke beys and the Arnaouts filled the land with tumult and bloodshed, until, on the 1st of March, 1811, the new governor, Mehemed Ali Pacha, entirely exterminated the Mamelukes by treachery. Since then he has ruled over Egypt almost independently.

The union with the European powers had, however, made Selim and some of the chiefs of the empire sensible that, if the porte would maintain its power, it must introduce into its armies the modern tactics, and give to the divan a form more suited to the times. The Nizan Dshedid laboured, therefore, to form a Turkish army on the European model, which should supersede the janizaries. But after the peace with France, in 1801, there was in the divan two parties, a Russian and British, and a French. The superiority of Russia pressed upon the porte in the Ionian islands and in Servia; it was accordingly inclined to favour France. When, therefore, Russia, in 1806, occupied Moldavia and Wallachia, the old hostility broke out anew, and (December 30th, 1806) the porte, at the instigation of France, declared war against Russia, which was already engaged with Persia and France. The weakness of the Ottoman empire was now evident. An English fleet forced the passage of the Dardanelles, and, on the 20th of February, 1807, appeared before Constantinople; but the French general Sebastiani directed, with success, the resistance of the divan and of the enraged people. On the other hand, the Russians made rapid advances. The people murmured; and Selim III., on the 29th of May, 1807, was deposed by the mufti, and Mustapha IV. was obliged to put a stop to the hated innovations. But, after the Turkish fleet had been entirely beaten by the Russians at Lemnos, Selim's friend, Mustapha Bairaktar, the brave pacha of Ruschuk, took advantage of the terror of the capital, to seize it. But the unhappy Selim lost his life; and Bairaktar, in the place of the deposed Mustapha IV., raised to the throne the sultan Mahmoud II. As grand vizier of Mahmoud, he restored the new military system, and concluded a truce with Russia; but the fury of the janizaries again broke out, and destroyed him in the latter end of 1808.

Mahmoud now alone supported the throne; for he was, since the death of Mustapha IV., the only prince of the family of Osman, and he soc1 displayed an extraordinary degree of courage and prudence. One of his first acts was to conclude peace with Great Britain, in 1809; he then con tinued, with redoubled vigour, the war against the Russians, who already threatened the passage of the Balkan. Twice the Russians were obliged to retreat beyond the Danube; nevertheless, their policy conquered the

French party in the divan. In vain did the French emperor, in his treaty with Austria, March 14, 1812, declare he would maintain the integrity o. the Turkish territory. Notwithstanding this, before the French army had passed the Niemen, the sultan bought peace with Russia, at Bucharest, by ceding that part of Moldavia and Bessarabia which lies beyond the Pruth, with the northern fortresses on the Dniester and at the mouths of the Danube, and the southern gates of the Caucasus on the Kur.

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The Servians, left to themselves, again became subjected to Turkey They retained, however, by their treaty with the porte, in November, 1815, the administration of the government. In 1817, Mahmoud was obliged to give up the principal mouth of the Danube to Russia. But the Greek insurrection again disturbed the relations of the two powers, and has produced important changes in the situation of the porte. The porte believed that Russia secretly favoured the insurrection, and therefore seized Moldavia and Wallachia, and restricted its marine commerce. Both were open violations of the peace of Bucharest. After an interchange of notes, the Russian ambassador left Constantinople. The mediation of the English and Austrian courts, together with the emperor Alexander's desire for peace, prevented the outbreak of a war; but the divan, under various pretexts, refused all satisfaction to the Russian cabinet, until, at last, the emperor Nicholas declared the Russian ultimatum; upon which the porte, in 1826, granted all the demands of the Russian court, and promised that in Moldavia and Wallachia (where, in three years, it had raised 37,000,000 of piastres, which were employed in the war against the Greeks) everything should be replaced on its former footing, and sent commissioners to Ackerman. Here a final term was again fixed for the decision of the divan, and on the 6th of October, 1826, eightytwo articles of the Russian ultimatum were accepted. The porte sur rendered to the Russians all the fortresses in Asia which it had hitherto held back, and acknowledged the privileges granted by Russia to Servia, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The treaty was executed in 1827.

In the meanwhile the porte had begun its internal reform, and it was resolved utterly to exterminate the janizaries, who burnt the suburb of Galata, between the 3rd and 5th of January, 1826. An army was formed in June, 1826, and the janizaries destroyed, after a bloody struggle. The violence employed in the execution of this and other measures, caused an insurrection, in which six thousand houses were burnt in Constantinople. Instead of military insubordination, the most rigid military despotism began, which did not spare even the ulema. At the same time, the porte, in June, 1827, firmly refused the mediation of Russia, England, and France, in its war with the Greeks; and the grand seignor called all his subjects (Christians included) to arms, to fight, if necessary against all Europe. Our limits compel us to bring this sketch somewhat abruptly to a close. But for the more recent events connected with the Ottoman empire, in respect to its foreign relations, we refer the reader to the latter nortions of our histories of Greece, Russia, and England

THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF MAHOMETANISM.

A subject so curious and important as the religion established by Ma homet, which has been professed for more than eleven centures by many millions of the human race, and which at present prevails from the Gan ges to Morocco, inclusive of a vast number of very populous islands. and every country where the tribes of Malays settle, in one direction, and from the southern extremity of Arabia to the borders of Hungary, in another, deserves to be particularly noticed in this place.

Mahomet, or more properly Mohammed, the founder of this singular and spreading faith, was born in the vear 569 of the Christian era: he

sprung from the tribe of Koraish, and the family of Hashem; his grand father, uncles, and lineal ancestors were princes; his family possessed, by hereditary right, the custody of the Caaba at Mecca, which was a place of worship resorted to by the Arabians long before the time of Mahomet. Notwithstanding the respectability of his descent, being left an orphan when very young, and being in low circumstances, he was recommended to Khadijah, a noble rich widow, for her factor, he having been bred to merchandize; in which capacity he acquitted himself so well that he gained the affections of his mistress, and, by marrying her, became as rich a merchant as any in Mecca; his kindness, attachment, and strict fidelity to his wife, who was much older than himself, are frequently alluded to by writers as proofs of a susceptible heart, and a generous and noble nature. His natural strength of mind, and intrepidity of spirit, prompted him to form great designs when his fortunes improved, although it is said that he was so illiterate as not to be capable of reading or writing. The want of learning was so far from proving an impediment to him in effecting his designs, that it very strongly promoted them; for the crafty Arab, who must unquestionably have merely affected this gross ignorance, insisted that the writings which he produced as revelations from God, were cleared of all imputation of being forgeries, for such elegance of style and excellence of doctrine could not originate from a man incapable alike of reading or writing: for this reason his followers, instead of being ashamed of their master's ignorance, glory in it, as an evident proof of his divine mission, and scruple not to call him, as he is called in the Koran itself, "the illiterate prophet." Sir William Jones relates a traditional story concerning the celebrated poet Lebid, who was cotemporary with Mahomet, and an avowed enemy to his new doctrine at its first promulgation; who, to express his opposition to it, hung a poem on the gate of the temple, as was then customury to be done, which poem contained a strong implied contempt of the new religion. This piece appeared so sublime that none of the poets chose to attempt an answer to it, till Mahomet, who was likewise a poet, having composed a chapter of the Koran, placed the exordium of it by the side of Lebid's poem; who no sooner read it, than he declared it to be something divine, confessed his own inferiority, tore his verses from the gate, embraced the religion he had stigmatized, and became afterwards essentially serviceable in replying to the satires of Amralkeis, who was unwearied, in his attacks upon the doctrine of Mohammed.

The state of the world at that time was highly favourable to the introduction of a new religion: it had been the will of Heaven to permit the purity and simplicity of the doctrines of Christ to be contaminated and perverted by the artful wiles of priestcraft, which caused the grossest impositions to be practised upon an ignorant laity; pomp, splendour, and unintelligible worship, were substituted for the devotion of the heart, while the prayers, offered up to imaginary and fictitious saints had effaced all just notions of the attributes of the Deity. Mohammed had made two journeys into Syria, where he had informed himself of the principles of Judaism, and the jargon which bore the name of Christianity it is probable, indeed, that his mind was naturally prone to religious enthusiasm, and that he was a devotee before he became an impostor. His first design seems to have extended no farther than to bring the wild, intractable, and ardent Arabs to acknowledge one God and one king; and it is probable that for a considerable time his ambition extended no farther than to become the spiritual and temporal sovereign of Arabia. He began his ventful project by accusing both Jews and Christians of corrupting the revelations which had been made to them from heaven, and maintained that both Moses and Jesus Christ had prophetically foretold the coming of a prophet from God, which was accomplished in himself, the last and