The Sun.
London, England, 1828-08-14 00:00:00

STATISTICS OF TURKEY.

Under the above title, the Globe, r~ well written
Parisian miscellany, contains an article of consider-
able length, from which we have endeavoured to
glean the following facts, and Which we communi-
cate to our readers, entirely upon the authority of
our above•named contemporary..

It is not easy to collect satisfactory data from
whence to deduct accurate statements of the extent
of the Turkish provinces, of the amount of their po_
pulation, and of the real strength of their military
resources. Many of these provinces, four thousand
Fears ago the cradle of civilization, are now less
known to us than the semi-barbarous forests of the
new world, whose existence, three centuries ago,
was mere matter of speculation. By interrogating
Russian, English, and French travellers, who during
the last twenty years have visited various parts of
Turkey, it is not, however, altogether impossible to
acquire juster ideas, or to come to less uncertain re-
sults, than by adopting the general opinions enter-
tained in Europe, and to which prejudice has in
many instances lent false or exaggerated colours.
We had undertaken and completed this task long
before the subject acquired the interest which it de-
rives from the present political situation of Europe ;
and in laying it before our readers we shall make no
other alteration than a reduction of matter, so as to
bring it within more convenient limits.
If we include all the countries in which the au-
thority of the Grand Seignior is nominally recognised,
we obtain a result from which the Ottoman Empire
would appear to be one of enormous extent; but of
these it is to be observed, that the African provinces
have become virtually independent, while many of
the Asiatic provinces, in their present state of cor-
ruption and decay, can afford very little assistance to
their government, considering their extent and ferti-
lity, as well as their ancient wealth and population.

Hectare,.

European Turkey, including Greece, presents
a surface of 46,801,600

The Asiatic provinces together with the islands 116,050,000
The Aftican provinces 71,700,000

Tutal 21.1,551,600
Among the States of Europe Russia alone posses-
ses a greater surface of territory. The Ottoman
Empire is three times the size of Austria, four times
that of France, and eight times that of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
But the States of Barbary have long been eman-
cipated ; Egypt attends in the present moment only
to its own interests ; Greece is for the greater part
free, and the remainder threatens to shake off the
yoke ; while Moldavia and Wallachia, already placed
under the protection of Russia, are at the present
moment occupied by the troops of the latter power.
Allowing for these deductions, which will scarcely
amount to less than a hundred millions of hectares,
the Ottoman Empire would still extend over a terri-
tory double that of the German confederation ; but
in addition to the above reductions we must bear it
in mind that the Asiatic provinces can be considered
only in the light of distant and thinly inhabited
colonies, feebly connected with the capital, and sur-
rounded by powerful enemies.

.
The amount of the population, though it cannot
possibly be stated with the same approximate accu-
racy as in the more civilized countries in Europe, has
been calculated by various modern travellers from
various plausible data, such as the quantity of corn
consumed in various towns, the number of houses
therein, and the military force which at times has
been raised in the different provinces; according to
these calculations,

inhabitant,.
European Turkey, including Greece, contains 11,240,000
Asiatic Turkey, with the Islands 10,548,000
Egypt 3,000,000

Total 24,785,000
This population would give—in the European
provinces, 470 to the square league ; in those of
Asia, 180 to the square league ; and in Egypt,
1800 to the square league; or taking the population
of the whole Empire, 294 to the square league. It
must, however, be borne in mind that these twenty-
five millions are scattered over a large extent of
country, in detached groups, without any common
bond of union to connect them, and, consequently,
the power of resistance which they are capable of
presenting to an invader, is by no means to be cal-
culated by that which the same population could
offer if collected upon a less extensive surface.—
Without the fertile province of Egypt, which perio-
dically slips out of the hands of the Turks every 20
years, the population of Turkey would only be at
the rate of 262 to the square league ; whereas in
France, there are 1200; in England, 1600; and in
the Netherlands and Lombardy, 2000.
In the Asiatic Provinces it would require all the
inhabitants of 7000 square leagues, or of a territory
equal to that of all England and Italy, to compose a
mass of population equal to that of London., No
doubt these provinces could raise an army of 200,000
men, but in that case every soldier would on an
average be removed three leagues and a half
from his next door neighbour; and some idea
may thence be formed of the difficulty there would
be in concentrating such an army. The Persian
army, which during the last campaign was unable to
make any stand whatever against the Russians, ad-
vanced into the heart of Asiatic Turkey, in 1822,
with very little difficulty, and but for the Cholera
morbus, would have made an easy conquest of Er-
zerum and Bagdad. From Asia, therefore, Turkey
has little assistance to expect, unless it be from the
Pachalik of Natolia, which is situated the nearest to
the capital. On the contrary, it is probable that to
resist the progress of the army of the Caucasus, the
Asiatic Provinces will require assistance from the
seat of Government.

From Egypt much more effective military as-
sistance might be looked for than from Asia; but
to avail herself of this, it would be necessary for the
Porte to have the command of the sea.

European Turkey must therefore be looked upon
as abandoned to its own resources. The population
of the various parts of the same have been estimated
as follows :

Or to the
Inhabitants. Square League,
Romania 2,280,000 860
Bulgaria 1,410,000 650
Sonia and Bosnia . . 1,680,000 115
Wallachia and Moldavia 1,840,000 318
Macedonia , 1,160,000 500
Albania and Turkish Dalmatia 1,490,000 460
Livadia, or Greece proper 850,000 443
Morea 420,000 360
Cyclades BO,OOO 615

Total 11,240,000 480
Previous to the insurrection of Greece and the
invasion of Russia, Turkey, without including her
possessions in Asia or Africa, was the sixth state
in Europe considering the extent of her territory,
and the ninth, considering the amount of her popula-
tion. Her population was equal to the third of that
of France, to the half of that of Great Britain and
Ireland, and to the whole of that of Spain. But
this population is scattered over an extensive sur-
face, and divided among itself by religious and
political distinctions, in consequence of which the
various tribes are frequently so many enemies to each
other.

• Greece, destined doubtless to be free, includes
Livadia, the Morea, and the Cyclades, and com-
poses a territory nearly equal in extent to that of
Portugal. Previous to the war it contained a po-
pulation of 1,350,000 inhabitants; the heaths of
Hanover and Lower Saxony are therefore better
peopled at present, than the country which once con-
tained Sparta, Corinth, Argos, Thebes, afllnedtpAuottrhteensa.
In the Highlands of Scotland it is calculated that
there are 420 persons to the square league, some-
where about the same ratio therefore as that of
Greece at the present day, and about the fifteenth
be imagined Ow the Same
part of what Attica maintained upon a similar extent
even
her popu-
It must not, howtvtr
popu-
lation.
siotnoel
vleltiaenenrat presentdirho'fo'bh etri ttdtheeteic:
i
'
territory,
otturilyrimo:
and
eighth
of

of insurrection will not extend further north, as soon
as the Turkish troops are withdrawn from Greece to
oppose the progress of the Russian army. This
event, which seems impending, will strike a deadly
blow at the power of the Porte. The two large
provinces, once known by the names of Macedonia
and Epirus, and now distinguished as the Pachaiiks
of Janina, Albania, and Turkish Dalmatia, contain s
surface of 8,820,000 hectares, or 4463 square
leagues. The number of the inhabitants amounts to
2,6..50,000, or about 600 to•the square league, which
is about the same ratio as that of the Peninsula of
Spain and Portugal. The emancipation of Epirus
and Macedonia, in addition to that of Greece, would
reduce the European dominions of Turkey by about
a third. It would he to Turkey what the loss of
Scotland would be to England, or that of 28 depart-
ments to France.
The invasion of the Russians, by threing the Otto-
man armies to concentrate in Romania, in order to
andld Turkey
cover the capital, has secured the emancipation of the'
northern provinces of Greece, effected that of Walla-
chia and Moldaym, and deprived
its European possessions, a fourthhabitants.ooff a third
h no
Of the remaining provinces of Turkey, threear
either of doubtful loyalty, or, by their distance, inca-
pacitated from rendering any very effective assistance
to the Government. Bosnia and Illyria are at so
great a distance, that their contingents ought to have
been assembled and upon their march three months
ago, if they were to witness the downfall of the
Empire on the plains of Adrianople. Seryia is held
only in a forced allegiance by the presence of strong
garrisons, and experience has shown 116 how such im-
pedimtehreitsyistila to the n
werei by onedim'es,
and from
reverses
from the Mans tei
the Elbe.
The remaining provinces of Bulgaria and Roma-
nia contain a territory of about 5,000 square leagues,
with a population of about 3,720,000 souls, eonse-
quently 744 to the square league. Deducting the
population of Constantinople, which amounts to
600,000, it would leave to the open country G':
individuals to the square league. In travelling through
the half deserted solitudes of Spain, a just idea may
be formed of the thin population of these the centre
provinces of Turkey ; but in the Peninsula the in-
habitants are united by similarity of religion, by the
love of the same country, and a common hatred of
foreigners, whereas the inhabitants of the Ottoman
empire are divided, not unfrequently into hostile
parties, by religion, interest, and prejudice. Even
in Constantinople, the seat of government, the resi-
dence of the Sultan, and the metropolis of Islamism,
one-fourth of the population consists of Greeks,
Jews, Armenians, &c. all included under the general
name of Rayas, and all equally inveterate in hatred
of their masters.
The number of Rayas in Romania and Bulgaria
cannot be exactly fixed, but it is generally supposed
not to be under 800,000, which would leave the
Mahometan population of these provinces under.
three millions, and yet it is upon these provinces that
the Porte must chiefly rely for its resources in the
present contest.

To judge of the resistance which such a popula-
tion has it in its power to offer against an invadim.+.
army, it may be well to consider what has been dom.,
in modern times by a nation determined, as the 'Ma-
hometans of the present day may be supposed to
rather to venture everything than to surrender them-
selves into the hands of their enemies. In the vear
1793, France, containing at the time a population of
2.5,000,000, armed 3,000,000 of National 6liards,
and set on foot an army of 1,400,000 soldiers. The
levy en masse consisted of nearly the eighth of the
whole population, and its active army consisted of
one fighting man for every eighteen individuals.
There is no similar instance in modern history ;
Spain, Poland, or Pruc,sia, in their severest struggler,,,
did nothing to equal it, and wa may therefore enter-,
tain a reasonable doubt whether Turkey will he abh,
to renew the example. Should religious fanaticism
enable the iNTahometans to do so, the Porte would
have at its disposal a militia of 375,000 men, and
two armies of $O,OOO each ; but would Tufhey
have the means of organising, maintaining, and arm-
ing them ? or has she experienced leaders to place
at their head ?

Our readers will scarcely need any observation of riur.,
to point out to them that the logic of the Globe is n.oi al
ways the soundest. The above question iniOtt r,asily he
answered by another. Had France?