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

THE PRESS.

,that was in the galley; which I assure you may be well
seen ; for, before you came, neither she nor any other came
above the mast. But because the gentlemen took plea-
sure to see you entertain her, therefore they made her dine
and sup with you ; and they liked well your look, your car-
ving to Madonna, your drinking to her, and your playing
under the table. Ask Mason, ask Blage ( Bowes is dead),
ask Wolf, that was my steward; they can tell how the gen-
tlemen marked it, and talked of it. It was a play to them,
the keeping of your bottles that no man might drink of
bat yourself ; and " That the little fat priest were a jolly
morsel for the signora." This was their talk ; it is not my
device. Ask other, whether Ido lie.

Descriptive touches like this remind one of
the playful portraiture of Le Sage. Wyatt
must have been tolerably sure of his cause
when he ventured on such ridicule of his
antagonist. Acquitted tvith all honour, he was
received into higher favour by the King, but
did not long live to enjoy it, dying at thirty-
nine. The facts of his life have been carefully
collected, and the critical remarks of Mr. Bell
aro marked by great acuteness and knowledge.
We have only to complain that his statements
are often too general, and that he does not
discriminate with sufficient accuracy between
principles and particulars. The painter may
convey an impression of truth by broad masses
of colour ; but the delineator of character must
distinguish its finest shades, and even repre-
sent its accidents, to convey a just conception
of it.
From an edition of our poets Wyatt could
not be omitted, though his merit consists
more in tuning our language and in directing
attention to poetic studies than in the verse
he composed. He smoothed the way for the
great poets who followed him in quick suc-
cession, and prepared men of noble mind and
fortune to appreciate and reward their efforts.
He set that fashion Which in the next age
produced an audience ready to hail the genius
of Spenser, and Shakspeare, and Jonson ; and
we cannot help according him that kind of
welcome which is given to those who precede
a glorious pageant. though their part be only
to clear its path.

History of the Ottoman Pmpire. I3y S. Jacob,
A. 8.; Colonel Procter; Rev. J. E. Riddle,
M.A.; and James M'Conechy. London and
Glasgow : Griffin and Co.
THIS work is published as a volume of "The
" Encyclopiedia Metropolitana," and as it con-
tains a survey of the Ottoman power, from its
appearance in Persia in the eleventh century
to the present day, it affords us a convenient
opportunity of noticing the chief points in the
history of one of the most remarkable empires
which ever existed in the world. The scope
of the volume is even larger, as it commences
with the foundation of Byzantium by Con-
stantine, and gives an animated narrative of
the Crusades ; but it is only with the portion
relating to Turkish annals that we propose to
deal. It is douLted by many whether the
Turkish power is not near its fall ; but a
glance at the past shows that the rate is en-
dowed with singular vitality. In the various
revolutions of the East the Turk has played a
part not less conspicuous than the Norman
has borne in the history of the West,* and,
singularly enough, the two greatest warriors of
the Crusades who met in personal conflict on
the plains of Syria belonged by descent to
these two warlike races.
The first Turkish kingdom whereof history
speaks had its seat in the Mountains of
Siberia. The famous iron mines of that
country were worked by a Turkish people,
who forged arms of the metal. They were tit
servitude, but soon learned to wield with effect
the arms they made. Under their chief, Ber-
tezena, they sallied from their native moun-
tains, gained great victories, and made splen-
did alliances, extended their arms to China,
and sent ambassadors to the Court of Justi-
nian. " The annual ceremony," writes Gibbon,
" in which a piece of iron was heated in the
" fire, and the smith's hammer wat succes•
" sively handled by the King and his nobles,

• This resemblance in certainly not purely fanelfill. It Is
snggested by the narrative of Gibbon, though not expressed by
him—" While Apulia and Sicily were subdued by the Norman
lance, a swarm of these Northern shepherds (the Turks) over-
spread the kingdoms of Persia t their princes of the race of
Seljuk erected a splendid and solid empire from Samareand to
the confines of Greece maid Egypt, and the Turks have main-
tained their dominion in Asia 711 innr. till the rictorieett
Crescent has been planted on the dome of St. Sophia."

881

" recorded for ages the humble profession and
" national pride of the Turkish nation " In
the seventh century their cavalry were com-
puted at millions. The Emperor Heraclius
promised his daughter Eudocia to the head of
their nation as the price of his aid against the
l'ersians, and received an immediate succour
of 40,000 Turkish horse. Their empire lasted
only about two hundred years : the race, how-
ever, subsisted, though its power was lost, and
two or three centuries later the Turks founded
a second and more powerful empire, which,
rising iu Bokhara, extended its rule from tho
vicinity of the Indus to the Black Sea. It is
justly observed in this volume that of " the throe
" great Tartar nations, the Huns, the Moguls,
" and tho Turks, who have spread their devae-
" tations and dominion over the largest and
" most populoua portion of the civilised world,
" the last alone have retained existence as an
" independent people."
In their early history they are remarkable
for their populousness and for the rapidity with
which their numbers recover from the ravages
of war. \Alen Mahmud, tho Turkish con-
queror of Hindostan, reined in Ghizni, he
asked a chief of the Se 'ukian Turks Who
dwelt in Bokhara what al his people could
afford him in ease of need?—
" Send this," said the Turk, holding forth an arrow,
" and fifty thousand horsemen will repair to your standard;
add another from my quiver and the number will he
doubled; if you need further aid, &spate,' my bow through
our tribes, and two hundred thousand mounted warriors
will obey the summons." Mahmud listened to the answer
with deep alarm, but the storm of invasion was averted
until his death.

On the death of Mahmtid his son was
routed by the Turks in the deciiite battle of
Zendecan, and the victors chose the grandson
of Seljuk (the head of their race) as their
King (1088). Togrul Beg, the first So'dim of
this people, founded a great empire *ith
marvellous facility, and his conquests were
confirmed and extended by the yet more
famous Alp Arslan, the "valiant lion," his
successor.
The warlike ardour of the Saracens had long
since exhausted itself. Their career of eon
quest, which lasted for just a hundred years,
was checked by the battle of Tours, and never
recovered the blow. The caliphate, which had
attained its highest glory under Itaroun al
Raschid, weakened by a succession of feeble
princes, by divisions and wars, and by the
ferocity of its Turkish mercenaries, sorely
needed a protector in the eleventh century,
when the new Turkish power arose. The
Seljuk princes came to its aid ; and from this
time the empire of Mohammed may be con-
sidered as transferred from the Saraoenio to
the Turkish race. Alp Arslan, at the head of
his innumerable cavalry, overran Armenia,
defeated the Emperor Rorrumus Diogenes in
a pitched battle, and made him captive, and
tore from the Roman empire, never more to be
reunited to it, the whole of Asia Minor.
Under Malek Shah, the son of Alp, the Selju-
kian kingdom attained its highest splendour.
One of his lieutenants invaded Palestine and
took possession of Jerusalem ; and the cruel
treatment by the fanatical Turks of the Chtis
tian inhabitants and Latin
.pilgrims gave it
mighty impulse to the crusading spirit of the
West.
On the death of Malek Shah, in 1092, his
kingdom was divided, and the Seijukian
dynasty gradually vanished from vie* ; but
the Turks were not the less the real upholders
of the Mohammedan power. To their fortu-
nate division the first successes of the Cru-
saders may in great part be ascribed ; but
when Saladin, a young Curdish chieftain, was
selected by his uncle—an experienced Turkish
commander—as the head of the Turcoman
forces, and the last Fatimite caliph was set
aside in his favour, the Holy War took a
different turn, and, in the contest of the two
most warlike races of the world, the Crusaders
yielded to the superior numbers of their foes.
The invasion of Zengis Khan, the most ex-
tensive and resistless of which history has
preserved record, seemed completely to sub-
merge the Turkish power. The feeble sue
cessor of Saladin and the small Seljukian
kingdoms disappeared it's the storta; but it is
a striking instance of the elasticity of the
'ruttish race that it again asserted its claim


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