William Wilkinson

“ It is at that universal tribunal alone, formed for the vast purpose of creating a just and unchangeable equilibrium in the political affairs of Europe, that the Turks might have been made to understand and to feel the necessity of renouncing to possessions beyond the Danube, which, as they have no longer the means of maintaining and defending them, must, in their hands, continue to be a source of unceasing contentions, and a subject of wars, which will not only endanger the safety of the Ottoman empire, but also compromise the tranquillity of all Europe ”

“ As the deep cunning of the Russian race was not at first so well known, our precious heroes of soldiers made use of such expressions. “The 285Muscovite infidels are dogs of fishermen, whom we can suffocate only by spitting upon them; if we each of us throw a stone, we shall destroy them all.” These Janissaries who are merely vain boasters, good only for swaggering on the pavements, falling by thousands into the hands of the Russians through their total ignorance of military affairs, at length saw and learned the power and stratagems of the enemies of our faith. ”

“ But besides the difficulties in which our government found itself involved in peaceable times, owing to the deficiency of the ordinary revenue which did not suffice for the current expenses, there have been moments during war in which it stood like a man who has both his hands tied down to his sides, and knew not which way to turn itself; for as there was no ready money, nothing could be accomplished, and nobody showed any inclination to engage in a holy war; nothing was considered but pay, rations, and the privilege of being exempted from active service. ”

“ In the pacific sentiments which so eminently distinguish the Emperor Alexander, we have, indeed, a solid guarantee against any hostile attempts on Turkey; but the life of man being so precarious, is the hope of a long and uninterrupted peace to rest on the mere knowledge of that sovereign’s personal character? ”

“ Marcovich’s watches, they load twelve times in a minute, and make the bullets rain like musket balls; thus they keep up an unintermitted discharge of artillery and small arms. When the Islamites make an attack upon them with infantry or cavalry, the enemies of our faith observe a profound silence, till the soldiers of Islam are come close up to their front, and then at once giving fire to some hundred carriage-guns, and to seventy or eighty thousand muskets, overturn our men in heaps without so much as receiving a bloody nose. ”

“ And see, in the present war, we have, with very few troops, defeated your numerous forces; and after taking the fortresses of Hotim, Bender, Ibraïl, Ismail, and Otchakoff, and conquering Moldavia and Wallachia from one extremity to the other, we passed the Danube with eight thousand men, and routed the Ottoman army consisting of fifty thousand. As you have no troops able to face ours, know that this time also, after being well beaten, you will make a worse peace than the former one. ”

“ Greek princes, however devoted to the interests of the Porte, would certainly do little without armies, in the event of an unexpected revolution in Wallachia and Moldavia. Their presence alone is by no means sufficient to maintain in them the Turkish authority. The fortified places on the Danube, are the only guarantees of the fidelity of the principalities. In suffering the two nations to be governed entirely by their own natural authorities, would the Ottoman supremacy incur the least diminution of power? and would it not continue to maintain the same commanding advantages? ”

“ A pure sense of duty brings me before your Royal Person, to represent that so strong and general a fermentation has arisen amongst my Janissaries since the appearance of the infidel’s fleet before your royal palace: they express so great a discontent at the measures pursued by your ministers in negotiating with the English, from a shameful fear that the appearance of that fleet has thrown them into; that a general insurrection is on the point of breaking out, unless the negotiations be laid aside, and all offers of peace be rejected with scorn. ”

“ The attractions of pleasure and society become too strong to be resisted, and the example of others, with the numerous temptations that surround her, prove, sooner or later, fatal to her virtue. To the harmony which may have subsisted between her and her husband, succeeds disgust; quarrels soon follow, and blows sometimes are not spared on her. Her condition becomes at last intolerable, she quits her husband’s house, sues for a divorce, and generally obtains it, however frivolous the plea in the true sense of the law. ”

“ But the best of the story is, that they all laughed at us in relating it to each other, saying that in order to disperse a Turkish army, they had only to weigh a little gold in the presence of three of their men, and then send them to inform the rest of it. Thus, on account of so many ignorant fools, who understand nothing of the wiles and machinations of the enemy, it is necessary that we should give our troops such a form of discipline as may prevent similar disorders, and the danger of the spies who mix with our men and can never be discovered. ”

“ For this reason, whenever a forward movement of our army was resolved upon, they surprised the camp towards morning, the day before it was to be executed, and routed so large an army of the Ottoman race, without allowing them to open their eyes, all being buried in sleep. We have learned by experience, that as the infidel race are very cunning and deceitful, they have often effected, merely by wiles and stratagems, things which we never have been, nor ever will be, able to bring about with our hundred thousand men. ”

“ Truly the said troops, yielding implicit obedience to the orders of the emperor of the times, and of their other commanders, performed their duty well, and wronged no man in any respect. In their military expeditions they were wont to subdue forts and countries, and to ruin the reputation of the infidels, and thus to elevate the glory, fame, and power of the emperor of exalted splendour, and as they were thought worthy of the prayers of his Highness and of the people of the true faith, the whole world held them as objects of praise, and all men desired their honour. ”

“ If this business of the Nizam-y-Gedid seem obscure to them, let them acquire information from men who, like this humble individual [102] , have reached their eighty-seventh year, and have gained by experience a thorough knowledge of the world, and have brought to light what things have injured, and what have turned to the profit of, the Sublime Government. Let them not talk of things void of sense, for as the troubles of man proceed from his words, so reason is given him as a defence against his words. ”

“ Should it happen that the enemy is as skilful and well trained as themselves, and employs against them the same discipline, then of the two parties, that will be victorious whose chiefs are enabled, by the favour of Divine Providence, to put in practice with superior address, the new science and stratagems of war which they have learned, because the apostle of the Most High, our great prophet (on whom be the blessings and peace of God!) ”

“ None of all the Ottoman troops are now ready to take the field: those of Anatolia are employed in cultivating the land, and smoking their pipes; such as inhabit Constantinople are either busied in carrying on various trades, or at least are not subject to any good discipline. Were they to assemble troops with the greatest possible expedition, they would require at least a month for that purpose. Behold, the water used for drinking in so great a city, comes from certain reservoirs which are without it. ”

“ In the daily occupations and pastimes of the Boyars, little variety takes place. Those who hold no place under government, spend their leisure in absolute idleness, or in visiting each other to kill time. In Wallachia, the management of their estates and other private concerns, which do not relate to public appointment, does not occupy much of their attention, and sometimes the finest of their lands are left in total neglect, or in the hands of mercenary agents, who enrich themselves with their spoils. ”

“ It is a certain fact, that we have seen in the wars persons who, having never in the course of their lives taken a gun in their hands before, but spent all their time in the exercise of some trade, and knew not what they were about, but first put the ball into their muskets, and then the powder above it. It has been sometimes proved by experience, that as these people know not how to handle their ammunition, it would be better that they should leave the army rather than remain with it; because, being of no use, they do harm by the disorder which they create. ”

“ To sum up all in one word: if the clamour and execrations of a rabble, who makes no difference between good and evil, obliges us to abandon the said institution of new troops, (which Heaven forbid!) the enemies of our religion will find so much the more facility in invading us; and as one of their kingdoms maintains three hundred thousand regular troops, they will mount upon our necks on seeing that the Ottomans cannot discipline a hundred thousand. At that time we shall not derive the least service from those knaves who disapprove of the Nizam-y-Gedid ”

“ As the superiority which the practice of military exercise gives to the infidels in war is clearly evident, as well as the deficiency of the people of Islam in several points connected with military science, is not the obstinacy with which you oppose the introduction of this exercise, purely a treason against our religion and empire? ”

“ The mode of instructing the Wallachians and Moldavians in the precepts of religion, is not, however, calculated to animate them with excessive zeal and to propagate fanaticism. They are merely taught to plunge headlong into all the ridicules of superstition, the inseparable attendant of ignorance; and it is probably owing to the total absence of fanaticism that the priesthood exercise a less powerful influence here, than they do in other Greek countries. All the ecclesiastical dignitaries being of obscure origin, and mostly of the lowest extraction, they are personally despised by the Boyars. ”

“ With respect to the manner in which the provinces of the Sublime Government are to be defended, and the means by which the enemies of our faith are to be repressed, and the causes that have produced victory and defeat, the rabble are utterly ignorant of them, occupying themselves solely with this question, “shall we lose our pay of a few aspers?” With this, as with a fishing hook, they draw from their sack various absurdities, and prevent a number of simple and foolish men from undertaking the duties of holy warfare. ”

“ The quality of nobility protects them from the pursuits of the creditor; and the hope of obtaining lucrative employments, by the revenues of which they may be able to mend their affairs, sets their minds at ease, and induces them to continue in extravagance. Some bring forward their ruin as a pretext for soliciting frequent employment, and when the creditors have so often applied to the prince as to oblige him to interfere, they represent that the payment of their debts depends upon his placing them in office. ”

“ They are remarkable, as every where else, for their brown complexion; their bodily constitution is strong, and they are so hardened from constant exposure to all the rigours of the weather, that they appear fit for any labour and fatigue; but their natural aversion to a life of industry is in general so great, that they prefer all the miseries of indigence, to the enjoyment of comforts that are to be reaped by persevering exertion. The propensity to stealing seems inherent in them, but they do not become thieves with the view of enriching themselves; their thefts never extend beyond trifles. ”

“ We have already stated how difficult a thing it is to explain public affairs to people who are plunged in the darkest ignorance, and to make those who cannot read the common alphabet understand science ”

“ Meanwhile we live under continual apprehension that the Turkish Pashahs of the neighbourhood may take upon themselves to send troops in order to occupy the country, a circumstance which, instead of producing the good effects of precaution, will throw every thing into confusion and disorder, and frighten away a great number of families, who, in that expectation, are already making preparations to retire into Transylvania and Moldavia. ”

“ This business has been conducted in so masterly a manner that no just cause is left to any one to cry out against it; and the new revenue, like the new system of discipline, being established on the best footing, causes no loss or damage to any man, but, on the contrary, tends manifestly to perpetuate, until the last day, the duration of the empire and of the people of Islam, as must be evident to all persons endowed with penetration. ”

“ When we have by so distinct an exposition rendered all these points clear, those men who are acquainted with the difference between alum and sugar, good and bad, and in whose essence is a leaven of science, will, no doubt, listen to reason, and, by Divine grace, being brought under conviction, will submit themselves to the book of God, mighty and powerful! ”

“ Money is their only stimulus; and the means they generally employ to obtain it are not the efforts of industry, nor are they modified by any scruples of conscience. Habit has made them spoliators; and in a country where actions of an ignominious nature are even encouraged, and those of rapacity looked upon as mere proofs of dexterity and cunning, corruption of principles cannot fail to become universal. ”

“ Conformity of religion, and the old standing connections between Russia and the 189principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, point out that power as their natural protector; but, if the security of Europe forbids the recognition of further encroachments of the Russians on Turkey, though at the same time the political change in the principalities had been once regularly admitted, would not a partition made of them between Austria and Russia have been equally beneficial in its consequences, and at all events preferable in every respect to the statu quo? ”

“ All other kinds of fruit, common to Europe, come here in great abundance at their usual seasons.
The great waste of land left in both principalities in a state of nature, and the universal custom of not cultivating the immediate vicinity of the high roads, give to the country, in many parts, an appearance of desolation; and a traveller, who only judges by the scenery within his view, is apt sometimes to think himself in a wilderness ”