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princes of Conftantinople affumed the fole and facred fceptre of the monarchy; and afpired to deliver their fubjects from the ufurpation of barbarians and heretics. The internal state of Africa afforded an honourable motive, and pronifed a powerful fupport to the Roman arms; while the hopes of the Romans were excited by the appointment of Belifarius to the command of their armies.

This hero who revived the tainting glory of Rome, was born among the Thracian peafants, and ferved among the private guards of Juftinian. When his patron became Emperor, the domeftic was prompted to military command, and, entrusted with the important ftation of Dara. The Perfian general had advanced with forty thousand of his best troops to raise the fortifications of that bulwark. In the level plain of Dara, he was encountered by Belifarius, at the head of twenty-five thoufand Romans. The fkill of the imperial general decided the fate of the day, and eight thoufand of the vanquished Perfians were left on the field of battle.

Belifarius was, accordingly, fent into Africa with an army, and in lefs than two years completed the conqueft of that country. The victorious general then recovered the ifland of Sicily from the Goths, and foon after reduced a great part of Italy. Having united all these provinces

to the Eaftern empire, he returned in a triumph- A. D. 541. ant manner to Conftantinople.

The Huns, having made an irruption into

Thrace, came within one hundred and fifty A. D. 558. furlongs of Conftantinople; but Belifarius,

greatly weakened by old age, marched out against them, and put them to flight. This was the laft exploit performed by Belifarius, who, upon his return to Conftantinople, was difgraced, ftripped of all his employments, and confined to his houfe. His difgrace is afcribed by a cotemporary writer, to the malice of his enemies at court,who perfuaded the Emperor, whofe jealoufy increafed with his years, that Belifarius afpired to the fovereignty. Modern writers alledge, that Juinian caufed his eyes to be put out, and reduced him to fuch poverty, that he was obliged to beg from, door to door. But ancient authors affare us, that the Emperor was convinced of his innocence the year following, and restored him to all his employments, which he enjoyed

to his death.

About the time of the difgrace of Belifarius, the Emperor difcovered a confpiracy against his perfon, and caufed the chief confpirators to be put to death. The Emperor was

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foon after carried off by a natural death, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign. Juftinian fignalized his reign by reuniting Africa and Italy to the empire; by publishing the famous code of laws called from him the Juftinian Code; and by his public works. There was fcarce a city in his dominions, in which he did not erect fome ftately edifice. On all these accounts, the furname of Great has been defervedly conferred upon him.

The duration of the Eaftern empire reached from the year 395 to the year 1453. In the courfe of this period, it never equalled the ancient Roman empire in power or fplendour; and it prefented always a fpectacle of weakness, folly, fuperftition, and crimes. It was gradually difmembered, and rent in pieces. The Bulgarians claimed one part of it, and the Saracens, a race of people who inhabited the deferts of Arabia, conquered Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and other neighbouring countries. On the ruins of the Eastern Roman monarchy, Mahomet II. established the Turkish empire, and his defcendants ftill poffefs the fineft country in our part of the globe.

The character of the conqueror of Conftantinople attracts, and even commands our attention. Mahomet the Second was early educated in, and zealously profeffed the observance of the Koran; age and empire might infenfibly relax his rigid obedience to the laws of the prophet; but fo fcrupulously were they fulfilled at first by the fon of Amurath, that as often as he converfed with an infidel, he purified his hands and face by the legal rites of ablution. Under the tuition of the most fkilful mafters, he was diftinguifhed by his rapid progrefs in the paths of knowledge; and to his native tongue were added the acquifition of the Arabic, the Perfian, the Chaldean, the Latin, and the Greek languages, Hiftory and geography, aftrology and mathematics, confeffed the variety of his literary purfuits; and his tafte for the arts was difplayed by his liberal invitation, and reward, of the painters of Italy. But his thirst of dominion and of conqueft was unbounded; and his cruelty, after victory, was often infatiate.

A fiege of forty days proclaimed the approaching ruin of Conftantinople. The breaches were increafed, the garrifon was diminished, and the ftrength of the inhabitants was impaired by difcord. In an attempt to deftroy the unfinished works of the befiegers, forty gallant youths were inhumanly maffacred by the command of the Sultan, and Conftantine could only avenge their fate by expofing from the walls the heads of two hundred and fixty Muffulmen.

Uni verfal History.

The twenty-ninth of May was fixed by the Sultan, and was fanctioned by his favourite fcience of aftrology, for the fatal and final aflault. The dervifes proclaimed to thofe who fhould fall in the holy enterprife immortal youth amidst the rivers and gardens of paradife, and all the pleasures their hearts could defirc. The Sultan promised the temporal incentive of double pay. "The city and the buildings," faid Mahomet, "are mine: but I refign to your valour the captives "and the fpoil, the treafures of gold and beauty: be rich and "be happy. Many are the provinces of my empire; the in"trepid foldier who firft afcends the walls of Conftantinople, "fhall be rewarded with the government of the fairest and "the moft wealthy; and my gratitude fhall accumulate his "honours and his fortunes above the measure of his own. "hopes." Such powerful motives diffufed among the Turks a general ardour, and the camp refounded with the fhouts of "God is God! there is but one God, and Mahomet is the "apostle of God!"

The minds of the Chriftians were agitated with far different paffions; defpair and fear by turns occupied their bofoms; the nobleft of the youths were fummoned by Conftantine Palæologus to the imperial palace, and he vainly attempted to infufe into their minds the hope to which he himself was a ftranger. Yet this band of warriors was animated by the example of their prince. The Chriftians, for fome time, maintained their fuperiority; and the voice of the Emperor was heard exhorting his companions and fubjects by a laft effort to atchieve the deliverance of their country; but in the moment of laffitude, the janizaries rofe fresh and vigorous, and poured the fury of their arms on their faint and feeble opponents. The tide of battle was impelled by the Sultan himself, who on horfeback, with an iron mace in his hand, reproved the tardy, and applauded the ardent.

The affault now became every moment more vigorous. Haffan, the janizary, was the firft who mounted the walls,, and deferved the reward of the Sultan. A crowd of Turks impetuously fucceeded; and the Greeks driven from the rampart were overwhelmed by increafing multitudes. The remnant of the nobles ftill fought round the perfon of the Emperor; his mournful exclamation was heard, « Cannot there "be found a Chriftian to cut off my head!" His last fear was that of falling alive into the hands of the infidels. He had before prudently caft away the purple; in the confufion of the attack, he fell by an unknown hand; his body was buried under a monument of flain, and was difcovered by the golden eagles embroidered on his fhoes. With his life refiftance expired; the Turks poured in on every fide; the walls

2.

which

which had defied the Goths, which had refifted the united forces of the Avars and the Perfians, now yielded to the fu perior enthusiasm of the Moflems; and the race of Othman, the difciples of Mahomet, established their government and their religion in the palace and the churches which had been founded by Conftantine.

Let us here paufe a moment, and reflect on the fate of nations, and the transient profperity of empires. Greece, the land of freedom, the parent of heroes, the nurfe of philofophers, who when the bowed before the victorious arms, refined the tafte of Rome, is funk the flave of barbarous fuperftition, and ignorant defpotifm; whilft the fuccefors of Alexander, whofe rapid victories overturned the Perfian monarchy, and deluged Afia with blood, are doomed to footh the pride, and feed the avarice of fome upftart Turkish Bafhaw! The acquifitions of Lucullus and Pompey, in Afia, and even the fleeting conquests of Trajan, have all yielded to the fierce followers of Mahomet, and form part of the dominions of the Ottoman Porte. Syria, once the feat of royalty, and long the eastern frontier of the Roman empire, attracts only the curiofity of the traveller, or exercifes the fpeculations of the 'philofopher; whilft Phenicia and Palestine, deferted and deftitute, feem but to exift in their former reputation. It is needlefs to remind the reader, that we owe the useful and elegant invention of letters to the firft, and the pure doctrine of the Chriftian religion to the laft. Egypt, renowned for mystic fcience and fplendid literary pre-eminence, now groans be neath the iron rod of delegated authority, and is an appendage to the Turkish government; her redundant Nile overflows to fill the coffers of cap ricious tyranny and fanguinary oppreffion. On the coaft of Africa, Carthage, formerly the rival of Rome, is poffeffed by the States of Tripoli and Tunis; Numidia, once the kingdom of the celebrated Mafiniffa and the crafty Jugurtha, obeys the arbitrary nod of the Dey of Algiers. Fez is the Mauritania of the ancients; and the ruins of a city founded by the Romans, are ftill to be difcerned amidit dominions doomed to experience the favage ferocity of the Emperor of Morocco. Of the islands which acknowledged the authority of Rome, Majorca and Minorca both belong to Spain; Sardinia and Sicily are governed by Italian Princes; Corfica has been fubdued, and almoft depopulated, by the ambition of France; the reft have fubmitted to the victorious arms of the Turks, except Malta, which ftill continues to baffle the force and brave the indignation of the Ottoman power.

CHAP

CHA P. LV.

A general View of Modern Hiftory.-Feudal System. Chivalry.The Feudal Syftem gives Way to Liberty and Commerce.-Crufades.-Derivation of Lombard-street.-Han-' featic League. First Traveller.-Spirit of Adventure and Difcovery fhews itself.-Europe emerges out of Darkness.Balance of Power. Thoughts on Conqueft. - Peace and

War.

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I particular hiftory of each country, it may not be improper

N order to prepare the young reader for entering upon the

to place before his eye a general view of the modern world.

Towards the close of the fixth century, the Saxons, a German nation, were mafters of the fouthern and more fertile. provinces of Britain; the Franks, another tribe of Germans, of Gaul; the Goths, of Spain; the Goths and Lombards, of Italy, and the adjacent provinces. Scarcely any veftige of the Roman policy, jurifprudence, arts or literature remained. New forms of government, new laws, new manners, new dreffes, new languages, and new names of men and countries, were every where introduced.

From this period, till the fixteenth century, Europe exhibited a picture of moft melancholy Gothic barbarity. Literature, fcience, tafte, were words fcarce in ufe during thefe ages. Perfons of the highest rank, and in the most eminent ftations, could not read nor write. Many of the clergy did not understand the breviary; which they were obliged daily to recite. Some of them could fcarcely read it. The human mind neglected, uncultivated, and depreffed, funk into the moft profound ignorance. The fuperior genius of Charlemagne, who in the beginning of the ninth century, governed France and Germany with part of Italy; and Alfred the Great in England, during the latter part of the fame century, endeavoured to difpel this darkness, and give their subjects a fhort glimpfe of light. But the ignorance of the age was too powerful for their efforts and iaftitutions. The darknefs returned and even encreased; fo that a ftill greater degree of ignorance and barbarifm prevailed throughout Europe.

A new divifion of property gradually introduced a new fpecies of government formerly unknown; which fingular inftitution is now diftinguifhed by the name of the Feudal Syftem. The king or general, who led the barbarians to conqueft, parcelled out the lands of the vanquished among his chief officers, binding thofe on whom they were beftowed to follow his ftandard with a number of men, and to bear arms

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