The Sun.
London, England, 1829-10-31 00:00:00

TURKISH SOLDIERS.

The following extract from the Appendix to
Mr. Mac Farlane's work on Constantinople,
which has just appeared, will be found interest-
ing at the present moment. To dwell upon the
causes. of failure, after the disastrous result has
become known, may seem like locking the stable
door after the steed has been stolen, but in the
statement here -Made it will be seen how much
the Turks were taken at a disadvantage in the
late invasion, and how unjust would be any
conclubion unfavourable to their prowess in the
field, from the almost inevitable reverses of the
inexperienced, half-disciplined levies, which only
since the extinction of the Janissaries the Sultan
was enabled hastily to gather together to oppose
the advances of the enemy :---
_

" Nor 'were the effects of the campaign of last
year innocuous to the Turks ; some portions of i
their army suffered on their own territory from
defects in the commissariat department, similar
to those so fatal to the invaders; whatever may
have been the deficiencexof their Generals, and
the defects of their plan of campaign, the Rus-
sians are • not troops to be met with impunity ;
the losses of the Osmanlis were- considerable,
and were of so much the more'consequence, as
they fell heavily on the Tacticoes or regulars—
the cherished corps raised with;.so much diffi-
culty, which was to be the nucleus of a disci-
plined arm, and. an example and an incentive to
the IVEussulmen people. I have described the
Tacticoes as I saw them, and it will not excite
surprise that a number of these boys sunk under
mere fatigue ; and that on one or two occasions,
when they were charged by the Russian infantry,
they were at once born down by superior phy-
sical strength.
" Their general good conduct, their discip-
line, their superior alertness, and even their bra-
very in the presence of the enemy; conferred
honour on the Sultan's essay, and proved, very
satisfactorily, that these Youthful, half-instru,ted
Tacticoes, might be made in time most efficient
soldiers. Had there been no other argument to
adduce than this, it ought to have sufficed to
change the tenour 'of Mahmoud's conduct, to
have led him to listen to the advice of those Who
are anxious for any thing rather than for the
subversion of his empire—to see the necessity of
conforming to the proposals of the allied nations
of Europe, thereby to obviate a Russian attack
until a few years had given strength and expe-
pience to has infant army. But even now
(September, 1829), after the most serious re-
verses, the Sultan is as perverse in a ruinous
system of politics, and as blind to his true bite-
rests, as at the end of 1827, when Mr. Stratford
Canning, for the last time, exposed them in a
lutninous and (to all but him) convincing man-
ner.* The obstinacy of the •Turks is, indeed,
proverbial—to judge from my own experience of
them, I should say the proverb is most justly
applied—the quality exists in its utmost vi-
gour in the mind of Mahmoud—from his self-
willedness and obstinacy have proceeded all time
good and ell the evil that have marked his reign,
and from them may yet proceed an extent of
evil to the Ottoman empire, beyond our powers
cif calculation. That his obstinacy, however, in
the present case, has been fostered by the sug-
gestions of the 'Austrian cabinet, and by a con-
viction in his own bosom, that England and
France would, under any circumstances, inter-
fere in his favour, whenever the Rusams drove
him 'to extremities, I can readily believe from
what I have• heard and seen myself at Constan-
tinople, nor can I suppress a regret that the po-
pular tone (particularly in England) for some
months past, should have been of a nature to
confirm him in his opinion, even while we are
still uncertain of his adhesion to the treaties of
London, drawn up in the best spirit, for the
welfare of Greece, and the integrity of the,rest
of the Turkish dominions."
• " The arguments of the distinguished British Ambas-
sador were convincing to alt but Mahmood; and I I've
this assertion on the information of those who were in the
habits of daily Intel course with- the members of the Divan,
and with the principal Turks of Constantinople. An Ef-
fendi, of the highest rank, in assenting to all the argu-
ments used by one of my friends, said to him, If you and
I had to settle this business, it would be done forthwith;
but who shall convince or turn the obstinate Sultan ?'
Yct,-probahly, this very min would, in the Council and
in the presence of his violent master, confirm and echo the
decisions of which he saw the peri! and absurdity, and this
from a regard to own interest or saftly.—Such are the
blessings of a barbarous and despotic system !"