The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-18 00:00:00

TURKISH POLICY.

• (From the Quotidienne.)
AN. SEPT. 14.-4 promised you some ob-
Tvations upon the real causes of the slowness with
ivlsich' the Ottoman Porte Carried on the war
'n•gignst the-Greeks during the six years it has lasted.
ilt s necessary in the first place, to state a fact, of
which little account is made in Europe, namely, that
the Ottoman Power, although very much degene-
rated, since the days of the Solimans and Amuraths,
is by no means reduced to the state of weakness com-
monly supposed.' Writers appear to have forgotten,
that from 1906 to 1812, the Turks withstood a
Russian army, of from 150,000 to 200,000 men :
and, although m the struggle Bessarabia was lost, it
is perhaps less just to attribute that conquest to the
superiority of the Russian arms.; than to the skill of
the Diplomatists; who managed 'the negotiations of
Bucharest. However that may be, Mahmoud signed
the pence in 1812, at the moment that Buonaparte
was matching upon Moscow. He was impelled to
do so by a Power which' I need not name, and
whose highest interest at that time was the preser-
vation of that Muscovite Power, which it now seems
to dread. It was an act of generosity then, in the
Ottoman Porte, to sign the treaty of 1812, for it is
certain, that they could at that time have greatly in-
jured Russia; nevertheless, from 1816 up to 1821,
we have seen the Ambassador of that Power at
Constantinople, instead of smoothing down the dif-
ficulties that had arisen between his own Court and
the Porte, unceasingly occupied in augmenting them
and in heaping embarrassments upon Turkey. In
the midst of this diplomatic chicanery, all at once
Prince Alexander Ypsilanti appeared in MoldaVia :
_ _

' nothing more was necessary Co alarm the Sultan,
and to show him, either that his existence was
aimed at, or that; at least, a design was entertained
of partithming his territories.
The Ottoman Porte complained, and immediately iv
received from the other quarter a positive assurance
thit no invasion of its territories would be allowed;
their integrity were even guaranteed to it; and it
was. made to understand how necessary it was for
its greater safety that an attempt should be made to
introduce order into its internal affairs, and to create
a force that might procure the respect of its neigh-
bours. The latter advice was so much the more ac-
ceptable to the Sultan Mahmoud, that that Prince,
instructed by the misfortunes of his uncle Selim,
was eagerly 'desirous of putting an end to the abuses
which the incapacity of his predecessors had intro-
duced, and which, sooner or later; threatened the
throne with ruin.
Possessed of an enterprising and firm character,
with all the knowledge, unaccompanied by the weak-
ness, of Selim—inured, besides, against attacks from
without—the Sultan Mahmoud thought only of
emancipating his authority from the tutelage of the
Janissaries, a species of Praetorian guards", which, for
a long time, had disposed of the throne as their bps-
barons caprices inclined them.
This dangerous soldiery was protected by institu-
tions, and even by abuses, which it was no easy task
to get rid of. Mahmoud conceived the able project
of proving, by facts, to the nation, that the Janiasa-
ries,, dangerous during peace, were of no utility
in Near, for the defence of the empire.
The insurrection in Greece most wonderfully fa-
voured this design. Mahmoud looked to it, not as
•an event which menaced his throne, but as a mean
of developing his grand plan of reform in the mili-
tary system of the Ottoman Empire. More than
six years were employed in preparing for this great
reform, in rallying round this vast plan the Ulemas,
the Pachas, and all the Grandees of the empire.
During that time several corps of Janissaries were
marched against the famous Ali Pacha, of Yanina,
and vale-successively most shamefully beaten. At
length' 4,600 Albanians, under the command :of
Omer Brionis, marched against the rebellious Pacha,
and in two months the head of Ali was stuck up on
the gate of the Seraglio.
This success was the first proof of the superiority
of disciplined troops over the Janissaries. At a later
period the Servians were also vanquished by the
Albanians. After the fall of Yanina, a numerous
army was sent against the Greeks. Mohammed
Dranudy penetrated into the Mores, at the head of
30.000 men, Asiatics and Janissaries. He took
possession of Acro Corinthus' and marched upon
Napoli di Romania, but the Greeks followed him
close, seized upon the passes in his rear, and crush-
ed him in the defiles of Argos. Dramaly, thus
obliged to retrograde, speedily renounced the con-
quest of the Mores. Whilst the undisciplined troops
of the Ottoman Porte were beaten wherever
they appeared, the regular arm 4, of the Pacha
of Egypt completed the conquest of Darfour,
and subjected the Whahabees, who had van-
quished the soldiers of the Grand Seignior. The
Viceroy of Egypt sent his son Ibrahim, at the head
of a corps of Arabs, disciplined in the European
manner, and in a short time the island of Candia,
which was looked upon as the head-quarters of the
Janissaries, was snatched out of their hands, and the
insurrection in the island was extinguished. Ibra-
him then landed in the Morea, the grave of the
Turkish soldiers, and he began the conquest of it
by the conquest of Navarino, which neither the bra-
very of the Greek garrison, nor the skill of the
European officers shut up in it, was able to defend.
Never would an army of Janissaries have succeeded
in subduing that place.
For the third time Redschid Pacha advanced to
lay siege to Missolonghi, and this new attempt was
on the point of failing, like all the rest, when Ibra-
him received orders to subdue this advanced post
of the Morea. Ibrahim, with his disciplined troops,
did what the best General of the Turks could not
do--he entered Missolonghi, after that defence of
which Europe and Asia may be said to have been
the witnesses.
So many examples having at length demonstrated
the insufficiency, the cowardliness even, of the Ja-
nissaries, and the superiority of troops formed ac-
cording to European tactics, the Sultan determined
to strike that state-blow which he had so long medi-
tated. He commanded the Janissaries to be formed
into regiments, and, on their refusal, he treated them
as Peter the Great had treated the Strelit.zes.
Now, when we examine the means put in practice °
by the Unman Porte, in order to arrive at this re-
sult, we must perceive that the war against the
Greeks has been highly advantageous to the Sultan,
in demonstrating the inutility of the Janissaries, and
the necessity of giving the Otte4tan Empire a re-
gular army.
It would be an error to believe that the Porte
does not look on the Greeks as formidable enemies,
bet the Sultan, has preferred a war with them to
seeing his throne and his authority at the mercy of
Hordes of which he has now rid himself.
Such, unquestionably, has been the cause of that
slowness which the Porte has displayed in the Greek
war, and this also has been the reason why, far from
profiting by the consternation infused into the
Greeks by the capture of Missolonghi, the Porte has
left them to recover from their fears, desiring rather
- to employ its resources and direct its efforts against
the Janissaries, its domestic enemies.
At present the Sultan exhibits the greatest confi-
decce in all he does; he feels persuaded that the
European Powers, who have guaranteed theinte-
grity of his dominions beyond the Danube, will not
suffer them to ,be partitioned in another quarter. It
would require a knowledge of the secrets of Cabi-
nets, how far this confidence of the Sultan is well or
ill founded.
Besides, such 'a question is not connected with
"I subject. I wish to demonstrate to you the causes
of the prolongation of the war in the East., which at
present oceuptes the whole of Western Europe, and
I think 1 uave succeeded.

Woßntixo.--T,his place is now become hor-
ribly doll, and the season may be considered at an end....
Brighton Paper.
We have been assured, that at the Wesleyan
Chapel at Horsham (which two years ago by the bye w.es,
a theatre), the sacrament was lately administered with
bread ;ad ebesse and a pot of porter...—Briphton Gazette.