When he sends his executioners to despatch a rebellious chieftain, it is not uncommon to see the mere production of the imperial mandate, unaided by any force, silence all opposition, and command obedience from the rebel and his followers. Frequently, indeed, the executioner is stopped in his attempts to gain admittance, and himself put to death. But if he once performs his office, and the insurgent leader falls, there is no instance of his troops revenging his death on the bearer of so sacred a commission, though he comes singly, and trusts himself among an armed multitude of men, the moment before in the act of rebellion. Rycaut affirms, though Mr Thornton calls it an exaggerated picture, that the emperor would be obeyed, were he to command whole armies to precipitate themselves from a rock, or build a bridge with piles of their bodies for him to pass rivers, or to kill one another to afford him pastime and pleasure.

The disciple of Mahomet is educated in a haughty belief of the superiority of his own faith, and a suitable aversion towards all infidels, I withdraw my foot and turn away my face,' says the prophet, from a society in which the faithful are mixed with the ungodly. The prayers of the infidel, are not prayers, but wanderings. Pray not for those whose death is eternal; and defile not thy feet by passing over the graves of men the enemies of God and his prophet.' The example of the prophet himself, who is recorded to have frequented the society of infidels, is of no avail in counteracting those intolerant precepts; and the more other nations have distinguished themselves from the Turk by their progress in wisdom and civility, the more obdurate has been his determination to keep within the pale of his own faith, and to despise their advances. The spirit of proselytism has been shown, not in any attempts to convert by argument: the extension of dominion was the only object of the prophet in proclaiming rewards to such as propagated the faith. Whoever refused the proffered creed, was either to be cut off, or reduced to the state of a vassal paying tribute; and those who die in this holy war, pass immediately into paradise. • Wash not their bodies, says the prophet; every wound which they bear, will smell sweeter than musk in the day of judgment,' While to Jews and Christians, the alternative of conversion, or tributary vassalage was held out, the idolator was doomed to death, Kill and exterminate all worshippers of plurality,' says the Koran; and this command has, not infrequently, been literally complied with. The Persians, are, however, held in peculiar abhorrence; and it is deemed more praiseworthy in the sight of God to kill a single worshipper of fire, than seventy infidels of any other religion. The doctrines which we have just now hastily enumerated, are

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not, indeed, the only articles of the faith held by Turks; nor are they unqualified, in the theoretical system of that religion, by other tenets of a better kind. But the history of Mahometanism, shows how much more prevalent they have been in practice, than the milder injunctions with which they are mingled; and we shall reserve for a subsequent part of this statement, the trifling modifications with which the manners of the people prove that the worst precepts have been followed.

There are a great variety of minor doctrines, and of popular superstitions, recorded in different parts of the work before us, but not sufficiently important in their effects upon the political state of the empire, to merit a minute analysis. They are rather objects of literary curiosity, than capable of leading to any general views of the subject. We shall merely notice a few of them. The Turks abhor the worship of images, yet think it decentto reverence departed saints, and to visit their tombs. They chiefly invoke the names of Mahomet and his four immediate successors. They conceive idiots to be favoured by heaven, from their apparent insensibility to the evils of life, and their indifference to its enjoyments. They prize relics, or substances which have been in contact with persons of extraordinary piety; and ascribe to them cures and other miracles similar to those which the Roman Catholic superstitions inculcate. They dread the effect of sorcery, and provide against it by much the same contrivances as are used in the northern countries of Europe and Asia. They carefully observe dreams, and other accidental notions, as ominous of future events; and have a superstitious aver sion to all pictures of the human body, believing that angels can not enter the house where these are. The pilgrimage to Mecca is well known; they believe that it cures all former transgres sions, and hold that a man should set about it as soon as his means are double the expense of the journey. Such, at least, is the injunction of the Koran; and only necessary impediments, as blindness, poverty, lameness, &c. are deemed to justify a Mussulman in neglecting this act of devotion. The black stone at Mecca is an object of peculiar reverence; it is expected to be endowed with speech at the day of judgment, for the purpose of declaring the names of those who performed the pilgrimage. The sanjac-sherif, or standard of Mahomet, being the curtain of the chamber-door of his favourite wife, is kept as the palladium of the empire, upon which no infidel can look with impunity. It is carried to battle with great formality before the sultan or vizier; and its return is hailed by all the Mussulmans of the capital going out to meet it.

The Turkish church is in every particular subordinate to the

civil power; if the sultan is considered as bound by the law of the Prophet, he is at the same time the chief interpreter of that law. The mufti, or sheik-islam, the prelate of orthodoxy, is not an ecclesiastical, but a civil functionary; or, at least, he is only ecclesiastical in so far as the whole law, of which he is the first doctor, derives its origin from the precepts of the Koran and the life of the Prophet. The sultan himself is sovereign pontiff, as well as supreme doctor of law, in virtue of the caliphat. In his name, and by his authority, the priests officiate. These are either Sheiks, who preach, and Riatibs, who read the Koran, in the large mosques; Imams (priests par excellence), who recite the prayers, or Muezzins, who chant, from the towers of the mosques, certain hymns, at stated periods, bearing witness to the Mussulman faith, and summoning the people to prayer. In country parishes, or small villages, the Imam generally performs the whole of these functions, and is sometimes Hagia, or schoolmaster, besides. All these functionaries of religion are dependent on the civil magistrate, who may displace them of his own authority, and has himself the full right to perform every public duty and ceremony to which a priest is competent. The priests,' says Mr Thornton,' in their habits of life, are not distinguished from other citizens; they live in the same society, and engage in the same pursuits; they sacrifice no comforts, and are compelled to no acts of self-denial; their influence on society is entirely dependent on their reputation for learning and talents, or gravity and moral conduct; they are seldom the professed instructors of youth, much less of men, and by no means are they considered as the directors of conscience; they merely chant aloud the church service, and perform offices, which the master of a family, or the oldest person in company, as frequently, and as consistently, performs as themselves. The Turks know nothing of those expiatory ceremonies which give so much influence to the priesthood; all the practices of their religion can be, and are performed, without the interference of the priests.'-In conformity to this acknowledged principle, individuals, as the proprietors of public hotels, or great houses, appoint any persons they please to act as domestic chanters and priests, or, as we should term them, domestic chaplains. They are merely employed to perform what the master of the family would otherwise do himself.

The Dervishes are enthusiasts who consecrate their lives to the service of Allah, and the rigorous observance of the duties inculcated in the Koran. Their institution is foreign to the doctrines of Mahometanism, but no vizier has ever ventured to suppress them. They enjoy great credit with the people from their supposed sanctity, and from the ceremonies which they perform, si

milar to incantations. There are thirty-two distinct orders of them. Some of them turn round for a great length of time in a sort of wild dance; others howl out the name of Allah till they throw themselves into a kind of fit, and fall down foaming at the mouth. This is enough for the common people, who, seeing something which they do not comprehend, done by people who cry out Allah!' easily believe that Allah is at the bottom of it, and revere it as a manifestation of his influence. The Emirs are the descendants of Fatima, Mahomet's favourite daughter, and, as such, highly honoured. They wear a green turban, and are scattered over different parts of the empire. These two orders of men, the dervishes and emirs, are the only classes in the community who possess, as it were, an independent existence,-the only bodies from whom the mandate of the government cannot in a moment take away all marks of distinction, and reduce them to a level with the meanest rabble.

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II. So great a portion of the government of Turkey consists of the sultan's personal authority, and so large a share of this is derived from the influence of religion, that we have already anticipated an important part of the civil institutions of the country in describing its ecclesiastical rites. We have seen, that abject obedience to the emperor is the favourite doctrine of Mahometanism, inculcated by penal sanctions, as well as the hopes of infinite rewards. We have likewise remarked, that, independent of his will, there exists no clerical order, nor any thing deserving the name of a national priesthood. The Multoka, or code of laws, by which the empire is governed, consists of the precepts contained in the Koran, the oral injunctions of Mahomet, and the decisions of the early caliphs and doctors. It relates to every subject of life, and comprehends various matters appertaining to government; but the fultan is the fole judge of its application to particular cafes; and both the Koran and other books relating to the law, are ftrictly forbidden to be printed. The Turkish civilians hold, that his power is quite unreftrained, except where religion is concerned; and the cafuifts afcribe to him a character of holiness, which no immorality can tarnish. According to them, he may kill fourteen perfons every day, without affigning any reafon; and they conceive that he acts, in fúch cafes, by a fort of divine impulfe, which muft not be closely fcrutinized. He is the proprietor of, and heir to, all real property, except what has been deftined to pious uses, though custom reftrains him in the exercife of this right, where there are natural heirs, and where the perfon laft seised was not a fervant of the crown. He is the immediate fountain of all honour; and, without his appointment, there is no dignity or rank acquired by fevice, or tranfmitted by inheritance.

It is the maxim of the Turkish law, that a female cannot hold the fceptre; and, upon the death or depofition of a fultan, though effected by the most violent infurrection, another member of the fame family is uniformly chofen to fucceed him. The younger brothers of the reigning monarch are kept in a state of confinement, with the jealoufy which characterizes all eaftern courts. The education of the feraglio is fuch as beft fits a man to neglect every important concern; to purfue a life of indolent voluptuoufnefs; and to be governed by his paffions and caprices, while he refigns to a minifter the care of ruling his empire.

Though every thing depends on the will of the Sultan, it is his constant principle to act by deputy. He never appears himself by any act of interference. His officers are created and removed, by a word, or a nod. They are entirely submissive to his authority;-they are accountable to him for every thing which they or the people may do ;-they stand between him and the people whenever he may give discontent. Of these, the Vizir Azem, or Grand Vizir, is the first. He is the depositary of the Sultan's whole power, so long as his master does not chuse to interfere, and is, in the first instance, responsible both to him and to the people; that is to say, when any thing goes wrong in public affairs, either the Sultan or the people are in the practice of taking revenge on the Grand Vizir. He presides in the divan, or great council of the ministers, where the Sultan either is, or is supposed to assist, concealed by a curtain, and taking no active share in the deliberations. Formerly this council used only to sanction the proceedings of the Vizir, without in any degree limiting his influence, and sharing in his responsibility. But we are informed by Mr Thornton, that soon after the close of the last Russian war, three ministers leagued together to check the power of the Grand Vizir, and succeeded in introducing a change of system, which gives the divan a substantive share in the government along with that minister himself. We confess that it is somewhat difficult to comprehend how such a controul can exist, when the Grand Vizir retains his place of the Sultan's deputy in the executive government, unless we suppose that the Sultan prefers the wisdom and responsibility of several ministers to that of one. The number of the Vizirs composing the divan varies. The two Cazy-askers, or chief judges of Romelia and Anatolia, the Capudan-pasha, or high-admiral; the treasurer; the chief of the war and foreign department; the officer who affixes the Sultan's cypher to acts; and the grand purveyor, are generally members of this council. The frequent changes that take place in these departments do not at all affect the details of public business. The inferior officers, who are numerous and