The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-27 00:00:00

LIT EP. A T URE.
TRAVELS IN EUROPEAN TURKEY /IV
1850. .By Edmund Spencer. 2 Vols. Colburn.
Mr. Spencer, in again appearing before the public,
has chosen an important and interesting subject, and
a very opportune season. The great revolutions
which have disturbed Europe during the last few
a ears, and the memorable and disastrous war in
"Langan-, have induced many who scarcely knew the
names or existence of Christian provinces in the East,
or that the Ottoman Sultan ruled over vast multitudes
of Christians, to turn their attention to the politics
and condition of eastern Europe. Mr. Spencer com-
mences his narrative on his arrival at Belgrade, and,
after initiating the reader into the mysteries and in-
conveniences of Turkish customs, he describes his
journey through the provinces of Bosnia, Servia, Bul-
garia, Macedonia, Thrace, Albania and Greece, and
the lonian Isles. What the author tells us of his
own adventures and mishaps is amusing and interest-
jng, but his chief object is the description of the habits,
condition, and political feelings of European Turkey,
hence the former are but little referred to, and then more
by wa3, of practical illustration of the conduct of the
inhabitani:s or the nature of the country. The ac-
count of the Servian war of independence, and the
abuse of power exercised by the Paellas and others,
which drove the peaceful Rayah to desperation, and
the gallant and ultimately successful stand made by
the latter for their liberty, under the hero Tzerni-
George, is powerfully told. The extraordinary success
and military genius of Tzerni-George have rendered
his name immortal in Servia, and the stories told of
his prowess stand on a par with those of Scottish
Wallace and Swiss William Tell.
During the invasion of Russia by Napoleon, the
Tzar sought to ingratiate himself with the Ottoman
Porte, at this time intriguing with France, by putting
down the rebels of Servia who were in arms under
Tzerni-George against the Sultan; to which aid he
dispatched into Servia, a clever agent, 11. Nedoba, whose
intrigues in favour of the Ottoman Government com-
pletely lulled to sleep the natural prudence of the Ser-
vians, who were deluded into the belief that by allowing
the fortresses and strong places to be occupied by
Turkish garrisons, their independence would be secured
with the exception of paying an annual tribute to the
Porte. Tzerni-George, who was at this time all-power-
ful, rejected the proposal with scorn; he had hitherto
beaten the Mussulmans in every encounter, even without
the assistance of artillery; but now ho was better able
to meet invasion, having one hundred and fifty pieces at
his command. He had a splendid army of well-trained
patriots, every fortress and stronghold in the country
was in his possession, added to which he was deservedly
popular and regarded with that superstitious veneration
which insures success, since his followers firmly believed
him to be invincible—an instrument in the hand of
Heaven to deliver the true Church out of the hand of
the infidels • •
At the critical moment when the devatitating hordes of
Mahometan Arnouts and Bosnians, supported by an
army of thirty thousand men, were ready to cross the
frontier, the Russian envoy protested in the name of
the Tzar against ;the military preparations of Tzerni-
George. In vain the hero pleaded his cause; in
vain he represented to the Senate and the Russian
envoy the certainty of success and the crime
of allowing an army of fanatic soldiers and
freebooters to take military possession ofl the coun-
try. It was of no avail, the Senate who yielded implicit
assent to the statements of the Envoy, and reposed the
fullest confidence in the friendship of the greatest
monarch in the world, issued orders to the various Boa-
podars to disband their fullowers. Tzerni-George and
a few devoted adherents, notwithstanding their being
outlawed by the Senate, and menaced by the Envoy
Nedoba with the advance of a Russian army to support
the Turkish cause, still held out, until finding his army
so reduced by the falling off of his followers as to be
incapable of action, he was forced to seek safety in
flight, arid he entered Austria. Now commenced a series
et the most atrocious„ uses Jearbarous cruelties ever re-
corded in the histowlithqttntry„ The insatiable
vengeance of the Senate* feria the Crescent was let
loose on the devoted inhabitints; Whole towns and vil-
lages were burned to the ground, and the wretched
people slaughtered without mercy. ' Children were bap-
tized in boiling water, as a mockery of the sacred rite
by the infidels, and every refinement of cruelty prac-
tised that the imagination of a Nero could conceive.
os 0 21.
Tho Turks intoxicated with success, and supported by
the countenance of their new allies, Russia and Austria,
continued their mad career, ruling this haughty people
with a tyranny most oppressive; but, although obliged
to submit to force, the Servians were not conquered, the
impenetrable forests and mountain plateau still re-
mained; and there the brave, the patriotic, the enter-
prising assembled to conspire against their oppressors,
and prepare for another campaign, as sanguinary and
effectual in its results as any undrtaken by their former
chief,Tzerni-George.‘The insurrection, which at first was
confined to the mountain passes, soon spread among all
classes of the Servian population, and as it frequently
happens in similar revolutions, found a chief worthy to
rival Tzerni-George. This was Alilosh, who, though born
a swineherd, possessed sufficient bravery and military
genius to become the hero of his nation, and sufficient
tact and ability to elevate himself to the rank of a sove-
reign prince; and if he had possessed one particle of
humanity in his brutal nature, or exhibited one redeem-
ing quality in his tyrannical disposition, might have
lived and died the monarch of a grateful people. Even
his love of absolute power, which led him to trample
upon all the social and civil rights of a people so tenacious
of their independence, might have been endured in a
man who had achieved so much for the freedom of his
country, were it not sullied by an act which entailed
eternal disgrace upon his memory—ho became the mid-
night assassin of his relative, friend, and companion in
arms, Tzerni-George.
The reader gathers far more knowledge of the man-
ners of the people, and the difficulties and dangers
which the want of roads and bridges occasion in
Turkey, from an account of a traveller who, without
describing every incident of his journey, shows, by
the expedients to which he is driven, the true nature
of the obstacles he encounters. Mr. Spencer forcibly
condemns the insane infatuation of the Turks in sur-
rounding their towns with a cemetery, or as they
call it, the city of their ancestors, where they resort
of an evening to breathe the tainted air, which is
rendered still more injurious owing to the baneful
superstition that exists of burying the dead only three
feet beneath the surface, generally without coffins,
with a hole bored over the heads of the corpses for
them to breathe through. This system, hurtful
though it be, has one redeeming point, for the Turks
bury their dead almost immediately after death, so
that many are interred when in a state of torpor, and
on coming to are often enabled to extricate them-
selves from a premature grave. Everywhere (re-
marks the author) the hospitality he met with from
all classes, whethei,Christian or Turk, official or pea-
sant, was remarkable, not on account of the splendour
with which he travelled, for nothing could be more
unostentatious than a single horseman plainly equipped,
and attended only by an uncouth guide—but from
the simple fact that he was an Englishman. The re-
spect with which the Turks in general look upon the
British power is extreme : France many consider to be
tributary to us, and often troublesome to us by its
revolts. Throughout the whole of the narrative the
interest is kept up, which, when we consider that it
contains minute particulars of the various revolutions
and political changes in European Turkey during a vast
period, does great credit to the author. The personal
history of some of the chief agitators and others, are
highly interesting, of which the romantic story of
the unfortunate Halil Effendi, Instructor-in-Chief to.
the Nizam at Bittoglia, is a sample :
" His family name was a profound secret, never to be
divulged; he, however, acknowledged, that when young,
he had been a member of the brilliant corps de garde of
Louis XVIII., and having talents, rank and wealth, he
might reasonably have expected to become one of the
leading characters of his country. Marriage, that
lottery of lite either for good or ill, was the means of
blighting the whole of his future existence: having, in
a moment of ungovernable fury, shot the seducer of his
young and lovely wife—who, to render the tragedy still
more revolting, was her confessor—without commu-
nicating his intention to a single friend, he fled France
for ever, and took his passage in a vessel bound from
Marseilles to Egypt.
" Like too many of his countrymen, impetuous and
imprudent, his mind embittered against Christianity, on
account of the injury he had received at the hands of
one of its unworthy ministers, on arriving at Alexandria,
he embraced Islamism, and took the name of Halil
Effendi, patronised by Soliman Pasha, the young
renegade speedily rose from ono military rank to another,
till at length his talents and bravery won for him the
friendship of Mehemet Ali, and his son Ibrahim Pacha,
who advanced him to the colonelcy of one of the finest
regiments in the service. Destiny, to use his own words,
which seemed to play with its victim, by allowing him to
enjoy for a time the sweets of life, only to hurl him still
deeper into the abyss of misery, again wrought his

downfall.
caonudnttreyamrinang,
be
effect his ruin, and
fortune,"His
de-
termined by secret machinations to
aSroilvi mairl Peele
hie
sveionuems oyf, hoinsdgood
exonerated for that purpose secretly contrived to circulate
erthtehimagoss,t
injurious reports of his character;
ho was accused of peculation, and only
him-
self from the charges by submitting
most rigorous investigation. Ever
hisconucottothe
impetuous,
his indignation against his calumniators
no bounds : qui cone, be
several officers, who bad been particularly
but
tsivaes
in propagating the reports to his prejudice;
duelling is prohibited iu Egypt under penalty of death,
his cartels remained unanswered. This contempt for the.
laws of honour irritated the high-souled Frenchman
more, and while in this excited state, he met eccidents
lly
in the streets of Cairo ono of his accusers, an officer of
high rank in the household of Ibrahim niche. Bahl
upbraided his adversary in the most indignant terms,
who retorted with equal asperity, words were succeeded
by blows: they fought, end the unlucky Frenchman had
again the misfortune to imbrue his hands in the blood of
his enemy—his opponent fell dead at his feet. To save
his lire he had no alternative but flight, and it required
a swift dromedary to enable him to escape the pursuit of
the officers of justice.
" Bahl, however, succeeded in reaching Constanti-
nople, where, having been introduced to the newly-
appointed Vizier of Roumelia, he became his secretary
and aid-deecamp. On the death of his friend, the
Vizier, he was again compelled to scek some employ-
ment, when, after filling several unimportant stations in