THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, JULY 1807. No. XX. ART. I. The Present State of Turkey; or a Description of the Po litical, Civil, and Religious Constitution, Government and Laws, of the Ottoman Empire; the Finances; Military and Naval Establishments; the State of Learning; and of the Liberal and Mechanical Arts; the Manners, and Domestic Economy of the Turks, and other Subjects of the Grand Signor, &c. &c. &c. ; together with the Geographical, Political, and Civil State of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia; from Observations made during a Residence of Fifteen Years in Constantinople and the Turkish Provinces. By Thomas Thornton. Efq. 4to. pp. 468. London. Mawman. 1807. THE HE fubject of this work is in an uncommon degree interesting at the prefent moment; but we are inclined to bestow particular attention upon it, rather from a confideration of the permanent importance of the contents, than because of the temporary attractions which the difcuffion poffeffes. No general work, of authority, has appeared upon the affairs of Turkey, for a great length of time. Since the publications of Rycaut and Cantemir, important changes have taken place in the ftate of that extenfive empire. The Tableau General of D'Ohffon, is fcarcely known in this country; and though exceedingly valuable, fo far as it goes, from the author's peculiar opportunities of information, is still very incomplete, that part only having been published which treats. of the religion of the Turks. Mr Eton's book abounds in miftakes; VOL. X. No. 20. * R We have not had the advantage of confulting this work, but we fuppofe that it comprehends, under religion, a confiderable portion of the other branches of the fubject. The author is an Armenian, born in Turkey, and a tributary fubject of the Porte. Mr Thornton, very properly, appeals to his authority, as in moft cafes preferable to that of other writers, on difputed points. takes; is evidently written under the impreffion of a political theory, and receives more than its fhare of mercy, if its misreprefentations are imputed to the influence of fuch a prepoffeffion. The work now under review, we therefore consider as a valuable acceffion to statistical knowledge; and as, on the whole, the best general account of the Turkish empire hitherto published. We must not, however, difguife from our readers, the labour which they will have to encounter, if they follow our advice, and perufe Mr Thornton's book. It is very ill put together, and badly written. The materials are not used to the best advantage; and we fufpect they have been furnished by the collector to fome one ignorant of the fubject; and by him, according to the fashion of the times, made into a book, with the affiftance of former publications on the fame fubject. If this be the cafe, Mr Thornton has committed the further mistake of employing an unskilful writer. There is no distinct or convenient arrangement, things are not to be found in their proper places,-repetitions are frequent,-contradictions not uncommon,-the common benefits of an index are denied to the weary reader, much of what should be given as part of Mr Thornton's narrative or difcuffion, is thrown into the form of criticifm upon the writings of his predeceffors, who are, indeed, reviewed in a defultory way, in almost every page. The notes contain a large portion of what belongs, properly, to the text, which is thus, every where, quite imperfect without them, and very often is materially altered by them. On difputed questions, we can scarcely ever get hold of a clear opinion. This author is wrong, that author is not right; and Mr Thornton gives his own account of the matter, fubject to fo many modifications and restrictions, and scattered over fo many parts of his fubject, that we do not, after all, fee his meaning, or perhaps find it coincides with the doctrines he has been criticizing. The general differtations are very meagre and fuperficial. The ftyle is verbofe and full of pretenfions to eloquence. Declamation, which is fo foreign to the object of any fcientific work, and fo peculiarly mifplaced in a ftatistical treatife, abounds in every page. To it, great facrifices of correctnefs, as well as concifenefs, are evidently made; and we frequently have the impreffion, that things are faid, because the writer had a turn of expreflion fuited to them, and not because they were effential to the elucidation of the fubject. To fatisfy our readers, once for all, of the manner of writ ing used by Mr Thornton, we fhall extract a part of his long eulogium on the ancient Greeks, introduced profeffedly for the pur pofe of contrafting them with their defcendants; but, in fome degree alfo, (as we fhould fuppofe), for the fake of its eloquence. Who are the modern Greeks? and whence did Conftantine collect the mixed population of his capital; the herd of dogmatifts and hypocrites, crites, whom ambition had converted to the new religion of the court? certainly not from the families which have immortalized Attica and Laconia. They never fprang from thofe Athenians, whose patriotic ardour could not wait the tardy approach of the Perfian army, but impelled them over the plains of Marathon, to an unpremeditated charge, whereby they forced the fuperior numbers of an invading enemy to feek refuge in the fea. The lofty fpirit of Athenian independence could not brook the mild yoke of Perfian defpotifm: they refused to dishonour the foil of Attica by offering the smallest particle of it as a tri bute to a foreign fovereign; though their enlightened patriotifm could, upon a great emergency, rife fuperior even to the natural attachment, which fo powerfully binds men to their native foil: they abandoned their city, with the temples of their deities, and the tombs of their ancestors, to the fury of the barbarians, and embarked on board their navy, what really conftituted the Athenian commonwealth, the whole of the Athenian citizens. • From Athens and the borders of the lliffus, the feat of literature and science, even when arms were wrested from the hands of its citizens, the invitation of Conftantine attracted no philofopher. The ca pital, with all its allurements of splendour and luxury, could not come in competition with the more enchanting impreffions of groves and gar dens confecrated to philofophy and fcience: and they continued to ftudy the doctrines of the Porch, the Lyceum, and the Academy, on the fame ground where they were firft promulgated, until Theodofius finally expeiled them. Still lefs can the modern Greeks be fuppofed the defcendants of the citizens of Sparta, of those ferocious warriors to whom a state of actual warfare was repofe, when compared with the intervals of hoftility, spent in gymnaftic exercises, and the moft fatiguing duties of the military life. Formed by the rigid obfervance of the laws of Lycurgus, and animated with the warmest enthufiafm of real patriotifm, Leonidas and his small illuftrious band, with deliberate resolution, devoted their lives at Thermopyla for the freedom of Greece. But the Spartans were the terror of all the neighbouring ftates, except those who were their dependent allies. At length the devouring fire of their valour confumed itfelf: and long before the feat of government was removed from Rome to Conftantinople, the Spartan families, if not wholly extinct, could no longer be diftinguished among the mafs of fubmiffive fubjects of the Roman empire. 69. 70. 71. Such are the principal defects of which we have to complain in the composition of this work. They are no doubt very serious evils, and exceedingly diminish its value. It contains, nevertheless, a great deal that deserves praise. The author is, in general, free from strong prejudices. If he seems to lean a little too much towards the Turks, he fairly states his reasons, and shows that others have exaggerated their defects. He is, in a proper degree, prone to incredulity, where travellers and writers of descriptions have asserted what is unlikely or strange, and is R 2 frequently frequently successful in detecting such tales by their inconsistencies, without having recourse to his own authority as an eyewitness. His opportunities of procuring information, however, have been considerable. He resided at Constantinople fourteen years in the British factory, and fifteen months at Odessa, and made, during that time, occasional excursions to Asia Minor, and the islands of the Archipelago, He enjoyed the acquaintance of the most respectable foreign ministers and their interpreters, and was tolerably well versed in the language. His leisure, which he says was considerable, seems to have been employed in reading the accounts of those who had treated of Turkish affairs, and in detecting their mistakes or misrepresentations. A great part of his book is accordingly made up of such remarks; and though we are sure that he is frequently led into errors, from the desire of finding other people in the wrong, and sometimes see him differing from them for the sake of objecting, when there is clearly no opposition of sentiments; yet we cannot deny that his pages contain a mass of corrections, which must render the works already in our possession much more valuable. Had he only given his information in a more distinct and orderly manner, and conveyed it in a less ambitious style, so as to have made his meaning more intelligible, we should have been contented with recommending the book to our readers, and only stated the few points on which we differ from him. But the defects of his arrangement, and the contradictions and repetitions through which we have to work our way to the substance of his statements, as well as the declamation in which they are wrapt up, render it desireable that we should digest the most important parts of the information which this book contains in as concise an abstract as the nature of the subject will permit. In pursuing this plan, we shall make no apology for deviating entirely from Mr Thornton's arrangement. He divides his work into nine chapters. The first contains general remarks on the manners and institutions of the Turks; and the second, professing to ace the rise and progress of the Ottoman power, gives a few short notices of the chief epochs in its history, and then runs into a number of unconnected, and, for the most part, superficial dissertations on the present state and future prospects of the empire. Almost the whole of those two chapters should have come after every other part of the subject had been discussed. The third chapter treats of the constitution, and the fourth of the judicial establishments; although we conceive it is impossible, with any advantage, to separate those two subjects, or to discuss them clearly, without a previous attention to the religion of this theocracy, which is reserved for a part of the seventh chapter. chapter. The military and naval department, and the finances, occupy, with sufficient precision and distinctness, the fifth and sixth; though they contain a good deal of matter belonging to the questions discussed in the third. The seventh chapter treats of religion, manners, and customs; the eighth of women, and domestic economy,-another separation singularly injudicious, as the subjects of those two chapters are nearly the same; and the book concludes with a desultory account of Moldavia and Wallachia. Instead of following this arrangement, we shall class whatever we have found scattered through the volume, relating to religion and religious establishments, under one head, and shall enter upon this fundamental subject, immediately after giving a short sketch of the Turkish history. We shall then consider the power of the Sultan, and the manner in which it is exercised. This will lead us to the checks, if such they can be called, which have been provided to it. We shall next describe the military and financial resources of the state, and then the manners and customs of the people. We shall conclude with noticing the situation in which the empire at present stands with regard to its neighbours. This arrangement will easily comprehend almost every material particular contained in Mr Thornton's work. . The Turks or Turkomans inhabited an extensive and fertile country bordering on the Caspian. From thence they made several eruptions, at an early period, into the Asiatic provinces of the Roman empire. About the beginning of the thirteenth century, their first great invasion took place under Soliman Shah, whose progress extended to the Euphrates. His son continued those conquests; and his grandson, Osman, laid the foundation of the dynasty which still bears his name. After this period, they wrested the eastern provinces from the empire, one by one, in the course of a century and a half; and in 1453, Mahomet II. took the capital of the Greek emperors, and decided the contest which had indeed long been wholly in favour of the Ottomans. Their power now received constant and rapid increase. They reduced the Greeks to the abject state of vassals, tolerated only in a very private exercise of their religion, and permitted to retain certain civil rights, on payment of annual tribute. Their conquests extended, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, over the Saracen and Greek empires. They had subdued part of Persia, and begun to threaten the dominion of Austria, fron which they had already gained a part of Hungary. The alarm of Christendom was great and general. The statesmen of those times describe their solicitude in terms similar to those which are now applied to the common apprehensions of the French power. To what causes the decline of this powerful empire may be a R 3 scribed, |