Washington sentinel., 1853-11-10

4
initiating peace. Egypt had thrown off its al
legiance. Mehemet Ali was threatening Con-
1 stantinople, and, crowning all these misfor-
Egyptian enemy. AT this time dissolution
seemed unavoidable. Yet few years after
how stood the case? These revolted provinces
had submitted--these few unwilling recruits
had been succeeded by standing army OF
| 100000 regulars, besides 0,000 more who had
served and been disciplined in its ranks, and
lastly, Egypt was not only no longer threaten
i ing, but had returned to its allegiance.
Now, ought not this resurrection to have
suggested that there must be- within the Turk,
1 ish empire, some latent elements Of vigor, vi
tality and strength, which had escaped super
| ficial obseryationY Nor, on examination, are
they difficult to perceive. The fact is, that the
| Sultan is pontif, not sustained, like the Ro-
man pontiff, by the brute forces Of foreign bay
onets, but whom all Mahometans in the empire
unite under certain circumstances to uphold
the fact is, that it is not true that the religious
faith and zeal of the great mass Of these Mosle-
minis has undergone dimnution, or that these
Mahometans suffer under any numerical infe-
riority compared to other creeds.
According to the recent census, the Mo.
hammedan population Of Turkey in Europe,
| including Ottomans, Bosniacks and Albanians,
numbers over 100000. There are in Asia,
without counting Kurds and Arabs, ii ,000,.
600 of Ottomans more; in all, $4,000, 000--ail-
imated, whenever Islamism is menaced, by the
same spirit which has recently sent $4,000 vol
unteers to the armies of the Sultan--a number
all the princes ofthe continent of Europe could
not command.
Now, the Christians of the Turkish empire
belong excepting Jews and Gipsies) to one Of
the four races speaking radically different Ian
guages, irreconcilably hating each other, and
not only separately, but collectively, inferior in
numbers to the Mussumans.
"The Greeks are two million-one in Asia
and one in Europe-the Albanian Christians
under half a million; the Moldo- w Wallachians,
whose territory the Russians now occupy, ex-
ceed four millions, and the Christian Sclavoni-
ans do not number six millions and half. Of
these Sclayonians, four million (the Bulgarians)
are an nnwarlike race, and so are the Moldo-
Wallachians, who long for Turkish supremacy,
and hate the Russian protectorate which forced
them back to serfdom, So also are the Tur-
kish Greeks so that there remain about two
million of Serbian, Bosniak, and Albanian
Christians ever accustomed or inclined to the
use Of arms, and who, divided by hereditary an.
tipathies, must make head against eleven mil
hon of compact Ottomans, or against fifteen
million of the Moslem creed. Turkey which
has no debt, and whose subjects might afford
as large revenue, probably, as the whole Rus
sian people, raises five times less revenue and
hence, under war pressure, is better able than
any continental nation to afford protracted
struggle.
OF this Mahomedan population, nearly the
whole is upright, resolute, and brave. Less af-
fected by the religious character of their obedi-
ence to the Sultan than other nations, by sub
mission to arbitrary power, they consider that
they obey the Prophets vicegerent; who has
no right to make law not contained in their
holy book, and whom it is their right to resist
and to depose if he ventures to act contrary to
its spirit. They must not be ejudged ofby the Of
fetal Turks, who are what, in representatively
governed countries, would be called politicians,
and whom, even under the most liberal and en-
lightened government the world has ever seem
that Of the United States-no one would take
as a fair sample Of the integrity and courage Of
the people.
"When the last war with Russia, and after
wards with Mehemet Ali, took place, they were
still irritated and divided by the suppression Of
the Janissaries, and by the prosecution of re-
forms which shocked their preiudices, and
this is past, and they were never more loyal or
united than at present.
Usually, when an oriental question agitates
the stock exchanges Of London and Paris, they
are ignorant of its existence, and this is what
diplomatists mistake for apathy. The official
Turks, remembering the recent weakness Of
their transition state, cannot realize their ac-
tual strength; but this timidity the masses do
not share, and if once conceiying Isamism, the
empire, or It's honor endangered, are reckless
of all consequences, and willing to face any
sacrifice.
Animated by this spirit, they could not
possibly be put down, considering the nature
Of the country in European Turkey, under two
campaigns, by any combination Of hostile
forces. On referring to the last Russian inva
sion in 1923 and 1929, we shall find that the
Russian army could never take Shumla, an
irregularly fortified town, defending the main
pass across the Balkan; that Slistria was for
many months fruitlessly beseged during the
first campaign; that Varna only snccumbed
through treachery, and that when the Russian
army had pushed ON to Adrianople, it was so
reduced by fatigue and sickness, that Colonel
Chesney reported to the Duke of Wellington
that it could not muster sixteen thousand bay
onets, and that if the Porte had not precipi-
lately made peace, it must have retired with
disaster and in disgrace. This statement
has been since abundantly confirmed. The
Turks had then only, as regulars, some ill-con-
ditioned levies. They have now a standing
army Of 100000 men, and q relief, or reserve,
exceeding that number. OF the quality Of
these troops will only say that Generals BEN
and Guyon considered the infantry as decided
ly superior to the Austrian or Russian; that
the artillery is good, and the auxiliary regular
light troops are excellent.
The Turkish soldier is better and more ex-
tensively provided than any in Europe, except
the British-is full of pugnacity and stamina,
and the recent desertions may probably be ac-
counted for through the fact, that when, in
1910, conformity occupying Wallachia, the half
starved Russian soldiers, plundered by the
speculation of their officers, we're accustomed
to beg of the Turkish troops the broken vic
tuals which they distributed between the Rus
sian Giaours and the dogs.
Hence it will be obvious that the strife be-
tween the two armies now confronting each
other on the Danube will not be so unequal,
and that not only Turkey may hold her own,