The Press. — London, England, 1854-09-16 00:00:00

882 to dominion as soon as the first fury of the Mogul irruption had swept by. Fifty thousand Turks under Solyinan Shah, who fled from Khorassan on the approach of Zengis Khan, sought refuge in Asia Minor ; but a son of Solyman, with a few hundred fol lowers, remained, and then again was wit nessed that wonderful augmentation of num bers in a short period which is characteristic of the Turkish race. Under Othman, " the bone-breaker," the grandson of Solyman, this body of Turks became sufficiently powerful to ravage great part of Asia Minor, plunder cities, and invade isles of the Mediterranean. Almost uniformly successful in his enterprises, Oth man stands distinctly forth as the founder of that Turkish empire which subsists to this day. Ho died in 1326. His conquests were extended by his son Orchan, who gave a settled polity to his kingdom, received the hand of a Greek princess—so low had the Christian empire fallen—to secure his friend ship, and commenced the career of Turkish conquest in Europe : it was at this juncture that the Turks gained the first permanent footing in Europe, on occasion of the capture of a fortress on the coast of Thrace, by Solyman, son of Orchau ; and it is remarkable that the record of this event is the first mention which the Ottoman historians make of the passage of the Turks into Europe, disdaining, perhaps, to notice those earlier expeditions which left no permanent trace of victory behind them. Afterwards, at the entreaty of Cantacuzene, Orchan sent a body of forces, under Soly man, to assist him against Palasologus, whose troops were defeated, and the Emperor's Turkish auxiliaries returned to Asia laden with booty. At length, in 1:1:)7, the key of the Hellespont, and a great emporium of the trade of the East, fell into the hands of the Ottomans ; a conquest facilitated by a violent earthquake, which had shattered the walls of this city, as well as of others on the coast, and left them exposed to the attack of the invader, from whom they were compelled to receive a large colony of Turks and Arabians. The foundation of the Ottoman empire in Europe was in this manner permanently laid; and from this time the Turks made annual inroads into the Greek territories, until they had extended their do minions from the shores of the Propontis to the banks of the Danube. A few years later Adrianople was captured by Amurath, the army of Janissaries established, and the Ottoman empire enlarged in Europe by the submission of Servia, and confirmed in Asia by the victory of Iconium. Yet, but for its inherent vigour, it must have been overthrown in its infancy. In 1402 Bajazet, after great successes in Europe, was called to meet the victorious Timour, or acknowledge his supremacy. Totally defeated and taken captive, the battle only checked for a short period the growth of the Ottoman power. It rose with renewed vigour, notwith standing the contests of the sons of Bajazet, and, fifty years after the apparently fatal de feat of Angora, Mohammed 11. made his triumphal entry through the shattered wall of Constantinople, spurring his horse over the body of the last of the Greek emperors. Constantinople had often been threatened. The decline of the Lower Empire, it has been justly said, was coeval with its foundation. Many times had the Saracens sat down before Constantinople and been repulsed. Twice captured by the Latins, and after the second conquest held by them for sixty years, they were yet unable to effect a permanent settle ment in the city, and the dynasty of the Greeks was restored. Threatened from the commencement of the Ottoman power, and in great danger when Amurath made Adrianople his capital, it was formally besieged by Baja zet in 1396, by Mousa in 1412, by Amurath 11. in 1422, and was finally captured by Mo hammed in 1463, and the head of the brave but unfortunate Constantine sent round to the cities of Asia Minor as a pledge of the victor's triumph. Secure in their power, the Turks took no care to repair the shattered walls : they trusted in the terror of their name to keep invaders at a distance. Under the rule of Suleiman the Great the Ottoman power reached its meridian, and his repulse before Vienna marked the line which Turkish conquest could not pass. The fero cious spirit of the race, however, required con stant exercise in warfare, and humanity shudders over such horrors as attended the capture of Cyprus. For several reigns suc ceeding that of Suleiman the Ottoman annals are chiefly marked by murder and revolt: the glorious success of John Sobieski before Vienna in 1883 Ant proved the extent to THE PRESS. which the Ottoman army had been weakened by its disorders, and relieved Europe from all fear of its further conquests. From that date Turkey, though often fighting desperately, and gaining partial successes, has continually lost ground 'when pressed on the side of Germany or of Russia. The beginning of the last century marks a change in the policy of the Turkish Govern ment. Previously to the peace of Carlowitz, • Turks had isolated themselves from European diplo ma. , tad regarded the changing politics of Christendom as mutters of perfect indifference. They had also refused to recognise the civil existence of their Christian subjects, and treated them as slaves destitute of civil rights ; but their recent reverses had abated their pride, and they now sought diplomatic relations with the European powers as eagerly as they had before avoided them, and they granted many important privileges to the various Christian com munities subject to their dominion. Ambassadors from Austria, Poland, and Russia arrived in Constantinople to ratify the treaty of Carlowitz, and to arrange such addi tional articles as were necessary to complete the negotia tions ; they were received with unusual honours, and their additional demands were conceded without debate. At the same time internal reforms and amelio rations were earnestly prosecuted by the Vizier Koeprilii His first care was to alleviate the burdens imposed upon the Christian subjects of the Porte ; he remitted the capi tation tax imposed upon them in Servia, and the arrears of the contribution to the war which had been required from those of Greece and Syria ; he inquired into the abuses in the enrolment of the janissaries, and struck off the lists several who received pay without performing any military service; finally, he introduced a more effi cient system of naval discipline, and made promotion de pendent on merit. But in the midst of his career an unforeseen misfortune led him to resign his office. His nephew Alibeg fell in love with one of the ladies of the harem, and made her acquainted with his passion; the secret was discovered by some enemies of the Vizier, who revealed it to the Sultan ; the lovers were immediately put to death, and Koeprilii, equally grieved and indignant, solicited permission to retire. His resignation was ac cepted, but he did not long survive ; he died in a few weeks, leaving behind him a reputation for wisdom and integrity which has not since been rivalled by any Turkish statesman. Turkey has since often paused in the work of improvement, but the spirit has never been totally lost, and the decisive measures of Mahinud 11., cruelly as they were carried out, have removed the great obstacles which for merly existed to all good government. It is as a warlike race only that the Turks have existed. Their vitality consists in their courage, and their power is the power of the sword. The late campaign on the Danube shows that their hereditary valour is in no degree impaired by change of arms and disci pline. Their industrial vitality is more ques tionable. As a dominant race they might subsist long, could they hold in subjugation the different populations of their empire ; but, if ascendancy is to be determined, not by arms, but by industry and commerce—by supple ness of wit, dexterity of hand, and liveliness of invention—it would seem that they must gradually yield to the races they have been accustomed to despise, and grow continually weaker and poorer (a sad destiny) in the land they proudly call their own. Fashion and Famine ; or, Contrasts in Society. By Mrs. Ann S. Stephens. London : Bent ley. IT is evident that Mrs. Stephens has studied Eugene Sue diligently, as she has here done her best to transplant his style of romance across the Atlantic. With the general fate of imitation, she has caught his extravagance but missed his poetry. " The Mysteries of New York" would have been the most appropriate title for her fiction, as its aim is to show that the crimes and splendours which have place in the capitals of the Old World may prevail equally in the metropolis of the New. The wonders to be wrought by wealth and the atrocities to be perpetrated by guilt are repre sented in the broadest style of that kind of melodrama which alternates between a dark ened stage for its horrors and a brilliant illumination by red and blue fire for its triumphs Throughout the story there are the most violent contrasts and unnatural motives. The seductive villain whose thrilling tones no woman's heart can resist goes about with a revolver concealed under his cambric shirt; and the heroine—after the fashion, of SATURDAY,' Monte Christo—calls up a palace in the su burbs of New York that she may confound the scamp who has cast her off by a display of her magnificence. We give a few specimens of the writer's descriptive style, as she has evi dently laboured it with great care. First for the house : This dwelling, so graceful in its architecture, so fairylike in its grounds, had risen, as if by magic, among those old trees. Lavish was the cost bestowed upon it; rich and faultless was the furniture that arrived from day to day after the masons and artists had completed their work, Statues of Parkin marble, rich bronzes, antique carvings in wood, and the most sumptuous upholstery, were arranged by the architect who had superintended the building, and who acted under directions from some person abroad. When all was arranged--drawing-rooms, library, ladies' boudoir and sleeping chambers that might have sheltered the repose of an Eastern princess—the house was closed. • • * • • Then, in the first golden flush of autumn, the house was flung open. Carriages came to and fro almost every hour. Saddle-horses, light phaetons, and au equipage yet more stately, drove ipt and out of the stables. The windows, with all their wealth of gorgeously-tinted glass, were open to the hazy atmosphere. Grooms hung around the stables ; footmen glided over the tesselated marble of the entrance-hall. The interior is described to match. In the dressing-room is a toilet richly draped with lace and littered with jewels; a standiug•glass, set in frosted silver, was lighted ou each side by a small alabaster lamp, which hung against the exquisite chasing like two great pearls, each with perfumed flame breaking up from its heart. A " bed of coal burns in a silver grate," with the hearth covered by "an ermine rug." A little further on we read : Splendid beyond anything hitherto known in American life was the bull, of which our readers have obtained but partial glimpses. At least a dozen rooms, some of them palatial in dimensions, others bijoux of elegance., were thrown open to the brilliant throng. The conservatory was " one of Dunlap's masterpieces," but the lady herself who called all this splendour into existence is tho most striking figure in the scene. She had married an old Southern planter while her first hus band was living, and returns from Europe to reign supreme at Saratoga Springs, and astonish the world of fashion at New York. Her jewels, we are told, had " just been re set at Ball and Black's," and, covering her person, "flash rainbow light" as she moves : Her over-skirt of fine Brussels point was gathered up in soft clouds from the amber satin dress by clusters of fruit, grass, and leaves, all of precious stones. Cherries, the size of life, cut from glowing carbuncles; grapes in ame thyst clusters, or amber-hued, from the Oriental topaz ; stems of ruby currants ; crab-appples, cut from the red coral of Naples; with wheat-ears, barbed with gold, and set thick with diamond grain; all mingled with leaves and bending grass, lighted with emeralds, were grouped among the gossamer lace, whence the light came darting forth with a thousand sunset glories. Her fair round arms were exposed al most to the shoulder, where a quantity of soft lace, that fell like a mist across her bosom, was gathered up with clusters of fruit-like jewels. Her hair, arranged after the fashion of a Greek statue, flowed back from the head in waves and nnglets, and was crowned by a garland of jewels that shot rays of tinted light through all her golden tresses. The choicest jewels she possessed had been reserved for this garland, wreathed in both fruit and flowers. Here diamond fuchsias, veined with rubies, and forget-me-nots of turquoise, each with a yellow pearl at the heart, were grouped with dia mond wheat-ears and stems of currants, some heavy with ruby fruit, others beset with yellow diamonds. The grape leaves that fell around her temples were green with emeralds, and a single cluster of cherries, formed from carbuncles, that seemed to have a drop of wine floating at the heart, drooped over her white forehead. Great dia mond drops were scattered like dew over these dazzling clusters, and fell away down the ringlets of her hair. Ada stood beneath the blaze of a chandelier that poured its light over the singular wreath, and struck the jewels of her girdle till they sent it back in broken flashes. A footman approaches this superb lady at the commencement of the fete and exclaims : " Madam, the company are arriving; two carriages hare set down their loads already"— a style of announcement better suited to the shooting of coals, or the unlading of any other vile commodity, than to the arrival of the elite of New York society. In fact there is a vein of vulgarity pervading the book which contrasts oddly with its finery. It belongs to a class of fiction which we hope soon to see superseded even at railway stalls by works of a better, or at least more modest, class, and which we doubt not will become ob solete as the taste of that multitude of readers recently called into existence by the extensive production of cheap literature improves. ....... liti