TURKEY.

GOVERNMENT, &c.

"TURKEY," says an author who resided many years, as a consul, in the country, "is the refuge of fanatical ignorance, the chosen seat "where she unfurled her bloody banner, and where, though torpid with' age, she still grasps her iron sceptre."-The Mahometan religion, which prevents the light which is so generally diffused in the present age from piercing through the clouds that envelope this favourite seat of ignorance, is, at the same time, one of the causes of that ferocity which marks the national character: "the haughtier Turk," says the same author speaking of the conquest of Greece," is not merely exalted "above the Greek as a conqueror; he considers himself still more highly "elevated as the favourite of heaven; and the greater part of his ferocity as a tyrant is owing to the arrogant and barbarous dictates of his "religion."

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The singularity of the whole political and social system of this country renders it particularly deserving our regard.-" Much," says Mr. Eton, has been said in assertion and denial of the despotism of the Turkish government; and arguments, the most abstruse and far-fetched, have "been employed rather to confound the terms than to establish the authenticity of facts. But if by despotism be meant a power originating in force, and upheld by the same means to which it owes its establishment, a power scorning the jurisdiction of reason, and forbidding the temerity of investigation, a power calculated to crush the growing energies

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energies of the mind and annihilating the faculties of man, in order to ensure his dependence, the government of Turkey may be most faith"fully characterized by that name."According to him this despotism has superstition for its basis: in it the power of the sword, or that of an absolute military chief, is blended with the theocratic power derived from the Mahometan religion. "In the Mahometan system we may trace three eras. The first, which was of that kind usually denominated a theocracy, "continued during the life of the prophet himself, who appeared in the double character of a military chief and an inspired legislator. The "second was the government of the Saracen caliphs, his immediate suc"cessors: they bore, indeed, the double sceptre of temporal and spiritual power; but, as they pretended to no personal communications with the Almighty, all the sanctity of their character consisted in being the "descendants of the prophet, and the guardians and expositors of the "law. The present Turkish constitution forms the third gradation: like "the preceding, it has an inviolable code in the sacred volume of its religion; like them also, its reliance is on the power of the sword, and the modes of its administration are military. This division of power originated in the political error of the Ottoman princes, who, eager only for military glory, and, perhaps, wishing to cast a specious veil over "their usurpation, when they finally suppressed the caliphat, did not assume to themselves all its functions, but resigned into the hands of "the theological lawyers the spiritual supremacy.-Such," says the author, was the origin of the authority of the ulema, or body of lawyers, and "their chief, the mufti, or high priest, to whom is intrusted the exposition "of the Mahometan law in all its branches. These men possessing, like "the priests under the Jewish theocracy, the oracles both of law and religion, not only unite in themselves the power of two great corpo"rations, those of the law and the church, but also share with the sovereign the direct exercise of the legislative, executive, and judicial powers."

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The fetva of the mufti, under the present system, is requisite to give validity to acts of state; a circumstance that would give him an ascendency in the government, were it not for the power reserved to the sultan

of nominating and deposing the person who holds that dignity. This," says Mr. Eton, " gives him a counterpoise against the mufti, by creating "for him as many partisans among the ulema as there are candidates aspiring to the pontificate."

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"Another restraint on the authority of the sultan is formed by the great "council, or divan, consisting of the great military officers, the heads of "the ulema, and the principal ministers of the empire. No important act "of government can be undertaken without a previous discussion in this assembly, at which the grand seignior, or his chief vizier, presides; but every question is decided by a plurality of votes." The same has happened in the Turkish as must occur in every other government founded on the sword. The despot has in effect lost his power whenever he has shewn himself destitute of those martial virtues which alone could qualify him to fill his station. The janissaries, who are the instruments of power in the hands of a resolute and warlike monarch, have acquired an ascendant under the reigns of weak and effeminate princes, and have exercised it either by deposing him or rendering him subservient to their wishes.

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According to Mr. Eton, the judicial branch of the Turkish system, like the others, is founded on religion. "Offences against the state, or such as "affect the public peace, are wholly under the jurisdiction of the sovereign, and seem to be excluded from judicial forms; whilst the dispensa"tion of justice by formal process seems to be intended only for offences " and disputes of a more private nature."-The fundamental law, civil and political, is the koran, whose respect is owing to its divine origin. From "this is extracted a civil code, called the multka, to which are added "certain commentaries called the durer and halebi. Beside these, there are various collections of fetvas, or sentences of the most celebrated "muftis, all of which together form a collection of legal knowledge, more "than sufficient for the instruction of the judges. But as these judges (or kadis) are not bound by any preceding decrees, and have the applica"tion of the law in their own breasts, the more intricate it is rendered by the different compilations and commentaries, the more arbitrary "is the power intrusted to them."-The government of the distant

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provinces, committed to bashaws, is so much worse than that of the empire at large, as the power of a delegate is generally more oppressively exercised than that of the sovereign; especially where the appointment is purchased, and where the precarious enjoyment of it induces the bashaw to avail himself of every expedient to enrich himself during its continuance.

The reader is referred to Mr. Eton's valuable work on the Turkish government, &c. for a more particular account of these and many other matters relating to it. Enough has been here laid before the reader to prove that the government is a wretched system of despotism, propped by superstition; that it was adapted to circumstances that no longer exist, to a warlike people, governed and led to the field by a prince whose martial virtues commanded respect; and that it is liable to abuse in every department.

PRODUCT AND COMMERCE.

Under such a government it is impossible that commerce or manufactures should flourish, or that any improvements should be made in agriculture or the arts of life.-They are chiefly indebted, both for subsistence. and the articles of their export trade to a genial climate and a luxuriant soil. Several of the Turkish provinces produce, not only abundant crops of grass and corn, but excellent wine and oil. Others are celebrated for currants and other kinds of fruit: others for honey, of which they produce. immense quantities: several of them produce cotton; others silk; others tobacco. Moldavia is said to export annually 40,000 oxen and buffalos and as many horses: and it also produces a vast number of sheep.-From the skins of different animals produced in these provinces they prepare the leather, for which they are so celebrated.

Such are the bounties of nature, that the balance of trade, notwithstanding their want of industry, is said to be in their favour.-Their principal exports are cotton, wool, leather, silk, fruits, rice, coffee, camelyarn, wine, tobacco, honey, wax, cattle, and marble. Their principal imports are woollen cloth, corn, indigo, sugar, cochineal, spices, glass, hardware, and East India goods.-According to Zimmermann, the Turks do

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not lose materially by their trade with France or Holland, and they are, gainers, in general, by that with England: as an example, the exports to that country in 1785 amounted to £.146,906, and the imports from it only, to £.82,449. And the balance of their trade with Hungary and Germany in 1778 was 241,773 florins to 1,328,337.h

EXTENT AND POPULATION.

The population of the Turkish empire, including the tributary countries of Bessarabia, Wallachia, and Moldavia, is estimated at forty-nine millions, over 800,000 square miles, or sixty-one to a mile. Of this population that of Constantinople is estimated at one million.

REVENUE.

It is difficult to estimate the revenue of this empire on account of the variation of its levies, and the variation of the sums arising from confiscations, sale of public offices, and the seizures of private fortunes under various pretexts. In 1776, according to the statistical tables of a person resident at Vienna, the revenue amounted to fifty-three millions of florins, and the expenditure to 44,495,000 florins.

ARMY.

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The Turkish army may be considered as either nominal or real.-A despot in such an empire may summon what number he thinks proper to his standard, and they may be numbered as soldiers; but a great part of the multitudes which sometimes take the field in Turkey are an encumbrance, devouring the provisions of the effective troops.

k Zimmermann. 347.

Zimmermann

Idem. 353.