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

LITERATURE.

TRAVELS IN EUROPEAN TURKEY IIV
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 revelations
which have disturbed Europe during the last few
years, and the memorable and disastrous war in
Hungary, 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-
ing, 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 way of practical illustration of the conduct of the
inhabitants 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, M. Nedoba, whose
intrigues in favour of the Ottoman Government com-
pletely lulled to sleep the natural prudence of the Ser-
visna, who were deludcd 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; hut now he 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 possesion, 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 devastating hordes of
Mahometzn 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 array of fanatic soldiers and
freebooters to take military possession of 2 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 Hos-
podars to disband their followers. 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, and he entered Austria. Now commenced a series
of the most atrocious and barbarous cruelties ever re-
corded in the history of any country. The insatiable
vengeance of the fanatic soldiers of the Crescent was let
loose on the devoted inhabitauts; 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.
* • * s •
The 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 Si-rvians 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 undertaken by their former
claief,TzFrui-GeorgeaThe iesurrection, 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 ono 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—he 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 be 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, whether,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 horieman 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 HalilEffendi, 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 life 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 wile—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,
ho embraced Islamism, and took the name of Halil
Effendi, Patronized by Soliman Pacha, the young
renegade speedily rose from one 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 fur a time the sweets of life, only to hurl him still
deeper into the abyss of misery, again wrought his
downfall.
" His countryman, Soliman Pacha, envious of his good
fortune, and fearing a rival, became his enemy, and de-
termined by secret machinations to effect his ruin, and
for that purpose secretly contrived to circulate the most
injurious reports of his character; among other things,
he was accused of peculation, and only exonerated him-
' sclf from the charges by submittino. his conduct to the
most rigorous investigation. Ever impetuous,
his indignation against his calumniators knew
no bounds : ccuite qui coiite, be challenged
several officers, who had been particularly active
in propagating the reports to his prejudice; but as
duelling is prohibited in Egypt under penalty of death,
his cartels remained unanswered. This contenap . for the
laws of honour irritated the high-souled Frenchman still
more, and while in this excited state, he met acci.dentally
in the streets of Cairo one of his accusers, an officer of
high rank in the household of Ibrahim Pacha. Halil
upbraided his adversary in the most indignant terms,
who retorted with equal asperity, words were succeeded
by blows: they fought, and 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 life he had no alternative but flight, and it required
a swift dromedary to enable him to escape the pursuit of
the officers of justice.
" Halil, however, succeeded in reaching Constanti-
nople, where, having been introduced to the newly-
appointed Vizie; of Roumelia, bcr.rrac his ^ecvetnr,
and aid-tie camp. On the death of his friend, the
Vizier, lie was again compelled to seek some employ-
ment, when, alter filling several unimportaut, botions in

the civil and military department, the Government, in
acknowledgment of his services, have recently given him
the post of Instructor-in-Chief to the Nizsm, at Bitto-
glia, with the pay of a major in the Turkish service,
The unlucky Halil, having now lost the fire and energy
of youth, divides his time between his official duties and
in writing a history of the Turkish Empire, from its
commencement down to the present day; and should ho
live to publish it, I feel assured, from the industry and
talent of the man, it will be found to he a work of great
interest; and being a good artist, he intends to embellish
it with plates, illustrative of the costume and manners
of the Osmanli, and of the numerous tribes and, races
subject to their rule in Europe and Asia."
HAYMARKET THEATRE.

The presence of a good operatic company has en-
abled Mr. Webster to bring out a stong and pleasant
embodiment of the Beggars' Opera. The cast of last
night embraced the musical talents of Mr. W. Har-
rison, Mr. Weiss, Miss Louisa Pyne, and Mrs. Fitz-
william, while Mr. Buckstone, aided by several of the
most useful members of the company, filled the re-
maining parts with capital dramatic effect. Notwith-
standing the antique character of the songs in this
once popular opera it is seldom resuscitated without
enjoying a brief lease of success. Now and then it is
met with under circumstances of peculiar interest, as
when a year or two ago it was :revived by Madame
Vestris at the Lyceum, end as it is now played at the
Haymarket. The familiarity which the public has
with the melodies which constitute the chief feature
of the extravaganza, and the pleasure which their
simple and unobtrusive beauty must necessarily oc-
casion to the unsophisticated ear, are facts of patent
significance, and will not, we apprehend, easily be
effaced. Mr Harrison was always a famous representa-
tive of the reckless debauche whose name has become
a synonyme for profligacy and inconstancy. 'He
wits last night in his best mood, and his loose, rol-
licking swagger, while tampering with the tendresses
of the two girls, was in happy keeping with the
genius of Gay's hero. Miss Louisa Pyne, whose
ballad singing always reaches perfection, and who
has here a field of unusual extent for the dernonstra-

tion of the most pleasing side of her accomplishments,
was an exquisite Polly, and achieved, in " Cease your
funning," an encore, as loud and enthusiastic as the
earnestness of delight could make it. Mrs. Fitz wil-
ham, as Lucy, was a coadjutor of nearly equal excel-
lence as a vocalist—of superior excellence as an
actress ; and hence those two populer parts were
filled to admiration. Mr. Buckstone is an uncom-
monly diverting Filch—which he plays -with a dry-
ness and humour that have never been approached.
The audience applauded the opera throughout, and the
encores, besides that already named, were several.
The high-heeled shoes and furbelows of the period
when the satire was written were preserved ; and the
general ensemble was characteristically old-fashioned.
The Two Bonnyeastles followed. In our impression
of yesterday a e erroneously attributed, upon the
authority of rumour, the paternity of this successful
farce to Mr. Buckstone. We have since learnt that

it is by Mr. J. M. Morton, the ingenious author of
Box and Cox.

ASTLEI"S ROYAL AIIIPHITHEATRE.

As we anticipated, Mr. Batty'.3 new spectacle of
Azael is achieving the full meed of popularity it so
justly merits, whether regarded as a great moral
drama, or vehicle for the display of unsurpassable re-
sources, vast research, and profuse outlay. Having
again witnessed the performance of Azael, our first
impressions concerning it are fully confirmed. The
continued and increasing success of this magnificent '
drama does not surprise us. The piece now plays
beautifully and smoothly, the humcn actors having
had time and opportunity thoroughly to study their
parts, written in a style far superior to the routine of
ordinary spectacles, embody them with vigorous
truthfulness, whilst the quadrupeds—horses, zebras,
camels, and various other animals—acquit themselves
with a skill and intelligence almost beyond belief.
This, added to the gorgeous and appropriate cha-
racter of the mise en scene, dresses, decorations, pro-
cessions, and tableaux, conduce to render Azael per-
haps the most effective spectacle ever produced, as it
undoubtedly is the most instructive and most unob-
jectionable, whether we regard the pointed moral con-
veyed, or the absence of the noise, confusion, and
continued banging of guns, which have hitherto
been considered as inseparable from pieces of this
class. Azael is indeed a great hit, and it need be to
reward Mr. Batty for his liberal outlay and the time
which hehas devoted to it.

THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW.
Mr. Wright, a gentleman new to A Glasgow audi-
ence, but well-known to the London theatrical public,
has succeeded Mrs. Fitzwilliam and Ikir. Buckstone
at this house. The audiences have been tolerably
good, yet not equal to the deserts of the actor, who,
fur genuine humour, is not surpassed by any one at
present on the British stage. On Monday night he
appeared as Paul Pry, in which character he is the
best successor of Liston we now have ; since which
he has excited the risible faculties by his personation
of Popjoy in Harvest Home, Marmaduke Magog in
the Wreck Ashore, and Billy Lackaday, in the
comedy of Sweethearts and Wives. These favourite
characters, with the farces of My Precious Betsey,
the Spitalsfield Weaver, and Domestic Economy, have
made up a bill of fare entitled to a higher patronage
from the public than has been bestowed. We trust,
now that Mr. Wright is known, better patronage will
be bestowed upon him when next he pays us a visit.
Last night Mr. Wright took his benefit to a well-
filled house, and was enthusiastically applauded. We
are glad to notice a great improvement in the corps
dramatique of this house.,—Glasgew Sentinel.