The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-30 00:00:00

COBBRIV PACHA, HALIL PACHA, AND OMAR PACHA.

Cosrew Pacha, one of the most trusted advisers of the
late and present Sultan, to whom we were indebted for
many kind offices, on our first visit to Constantinople,
was a Circassian slave. After filling in succession the
highest offices in the state up to Seraskier and Grand
Vizier, he died at a very advanced age—it is said, nearly
a hundred. Hall Pacha, his adopted son, who also filled
the highest offices in the state, commenced life as a slave ;
his elevation to the position of son-in-law of Sultan
Mahmoud was almost unprecedented even in such a demo-
cratic country as Turkey. We may say the same of Riza
Pacha, who from being a waiter in a coffee-house gradually
advanced step by step till he also became the son-in-law of
the Sultan. It appears that Halil Pacha, who was the
son of Christian parents, was first a slave to a wealthy
Armenian, then to a Turkish effendi, and afterwards to
Cosrew, who, seeing he possessed very superior natural
talents, had him educated with great care ; and, finding
his conduct uniformly good, and his disposition kind and
tractable, not only adopted him as his son, but through
his powerful influence with the Sultan prevailed with him
to bestow upon his prote'gg the hand of his favourite
daughter. Cosrew was an accurate judge of character.
Of this we have another instance in Omar Pacha, who has
also been indebted to him for much of his success in life.
This gallant general who up to the present time has made
the Russians eat more dirt than ever they did before, in
their wars with Turkey, was not originally a slave, it is
true, but he arrived in Turkey a friendless refugee. After
embracing Islamism, he was invested by Cosrew, who was
at that time Seraskier, with the rank of officer in the
Nizam. The penetrating eye of his patron soon discovered
that the young foreigner had more genius, talent, and
enterprise than the majority of the Moslem officers in the
army ; consequently, he never omitted an opportunity of
advancing the interests of a man who he felt certain
would prove a valuable servant of the Sultan in the hour
of need. During our Bg:our in Constantinople in 1836,
we had frequent interviews with Cosrew respecting the
proposed admission of English officers into the Turkish
army. Omar was at this time attached to the personal
staff of the Seraskier ; and his handsome person, gentle-
manly manners, and the fluency with which he spoke
German, French, and Italian, impressed us with the
opinion that he was a singularly favourable specimen of an
Osmanli. Indeed, we had our misgivings as to the
genuineness of his title to be considered a son of Othman,
grounded on his very superior intelligence, and his Euro-
pean style of walking. When we last saw this very ex-
traordinary man, it was at Scopia, in Macedonia, where
we with some difficulty recognised in the lion of the day
the unknown aide-de-camp and secretary of Cosrew, the
Seraskier. He was then preparing, at the head of a large
army, to take the field against the insurgent Mahometans
of Albania and Bosnia. It was in quelling the insurrec-
tions in Syria and Albania that he first eminently distin-
guished himself. In Kurdistan he was equally fortunate ;
but the most important service he rendered the Turkish
Government was in subduing the revolt of the beys and
spahis in Bosnia, where, with a very inferior force, he
triumphed in every engagement. In short, throughout
his whole career, he has not only displayed military talents
of no common order, but the tact and ability of an en-
lightened legislator. Ever the friend of the poor rayah,
he became the idol of that long-despised race, and at the
same time retained the attachment of the Moslems. In-
deed, since his advent to power, he has done more to allay
the differences between the members of the many rival
creeds in Turkey than any other man of his day.
Although a diligent observer of the external
aspect of scenes, circumstances, and situations,
Captain Spencer does not confine himself exclu-
sively to these matters, but speculates with bold-
ness and sagacity on the moral aspect of events,
and deduces conclusions from them with facility
and skill. True, indeed, his partialities seem to
run more in favour of democracy, and his sympa-
thies to be more in unison with democratic action,
than is consistent with sound philosophy ; still he
indicates much shrewdness in political remark.
Re looks on the present war with Russia as a
matter which the Czar himself could not control
entirely, or even completely avert ; he looks on it,
in fact, as one of the social necessities of the Auto-
crat's position, as will be seen from the subjoined
estimate of