III. East, are far from being considerable, he supplied SECT. that defect by an attentive and severe œconomy. which they over the the six century. NOR was it only under such Sultans as Soly- Advantages man, whose talents were no less adapted to pre- possessed serve internal order than to conduct the opera- Christian tions of war, that the Turkish empire engaged power in with advantage in its contests with the Christian teenth states. The long succession of able princes, which I have mentioned, had given such vigour and firmness to the Ottoman government, that it seems to have attained, during the sixteenth century, the highest degree of perfection of which its constitution was capable. Whereas the great monarchies in Christendom were still far from that state, which could enable them to act with a full exertion of their force, Besides this, the Turkish troops in that age possessed every advantage which arises from superiority in military discipline. At the time when Solyman began his reign, the Janizaries had been embodied near a century and a half; and, during that long period, the severity of their military discipline had in no degree relaxed. The other soldiers, drawn from the provinces of the empire, had been kept almost continually under arms, in the various wars which the Sultans had carried on, with hardly any interval of peace. Against troops thus trained and accustomed to service, the forces of the Christian powers took the field with great disadvantage. The most intelligent as well as impartial authors of the sixteenth century, acknowledge and lament the superior attainments of the Turks in the mi III. SECT litary art [YY]. The success which almost uni formly attended their arms, in all their wars, demonstrates the justness of this observation. The Christian armies did not acquire that superiority over the Turks, which they now possess, until the long establishment of standing forces had improved military discipline among the former; and until various causes and events, which it is not my province to explain, had corrupted or abolished their ancient warlike institutions among the latter. [YY] NOTE XLV. PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. NOTE I. SECT. I. p. 3. [A]. THE consternation of the Britons, when invad ed by the Picts and Caledonians after the Roman legions were called out of the island, may give some idea of the degree of debasement to which the human mind was reduced by long servitude under the Romans. In their supplicatory letter to Actius, which they call the Groans of Britain," We know not (say they) which way to turn us. The barbarians drive us to the sea, and the sea forces us back on the barbarians; between which we have only the choice of two deaths, either to be swallowed up by the waves, or to be slain by the sword." Histor. Gildæ. ap. Gale, Hist. Britan. Script. p. 6.-One can hardly believe this dastardly race to be the descendants of that gallant peo-< ple, who repulsed Caesar, and defended their liberty so long against the Roman arms. |