the least degree, for prohibitions. They sell their books in spite of them; and in the different countries they feign not to perceive the abuse. When, a short time ago, it was proposed at the Diet to prohibit the Dorfzeitung, the little principality of Saxe Meiningen, in whose territory this paper appears, boldly took up its defence, declared it would never consent to such an indignity, and triumphed in an affair in which, four years ago, neither Bavaria nor Wurtemberg could have succeeded. The central commission of inquiry no longer finds any where the same blind submission, and they begin now to spare their demands upon certain Governments, because nothing can be done with them.

By a singular turn of circumstances, the King of Holland may perhaps soon feel the power of the Diet, which seeks new objects wherewith to occupy itself. It has just taken into serious consideration the affair of Luxemburg. We know that, at the conferences in London, Austria and Prussia consented that in lieu of that portion of Luxemburg which is to be ceded to Belgium, a part of the province of Limburg should, in exchange, be incorporated with the confederacy. But at the moment of the attack they retired behind the following entrenchment, namely, that the Diet also must consent thereto, the Diet which at that time was, nevertheless, synonymous with Austria and Prussia. Now affairs have assumed a different aspect. The Diet wishes to see the affair terminated; it is satisfied with the exchange of Limburg, and rudely urges the King of Holland, who does not chuse that Limburg should become a federal province, as the Diet did not protect him against the loss of a federal territory. It is beyond doubt that this point will give rise to a serious struggle, and King William, whether wisely or not, begins to relent from his obstinacy. It is said that, in an extreme case, coercive measures are talked of, at least, as a provisional warning.

A project of a marriage is talked of between Duke William of Brunswick, and the Princess Maria of Wurtemburg, daughter of the King, born the 30th of October, 1816. It is natural that the Duke should desire before his marriage to make his definitive arrangements with the pretender to the throne of Brunswick, his banished brother, the Ex-Duke Charles, and it is said that negociations are on foot under the mediation of Austria to induce the Ex-Duke to renounce an object which he cannot hope to regain. Here again we see a tendency to a cessation of the status-quo, for, so long as the two brothers continue unmarried, the question remains a species of status-quo, a contest of succession which will always be renewed, and we may even say that the present state of things is the recognition, support, or consolidation of a state of things created by a revolution.

It has been imagined that the King of Greece came to Germany to review all the young marriageable princesses. Now, according to appearances, he must return to Athens without being affianced, or without any prospect of marriage. The fate of Greece is still too uncertain, the throne still too unstable, to induce the daughter of a prince to exile herself to partake with him the chances of such a futurity.

An obscure Saxon paper relates with much circumspection, that in Hungary the corn harvest has been so good that in consequence of the cheapness of the market a certain number of cavalry regiments have been sent into the country; but that, notwithstanding this, " turbulent heads" seem in those countries to have pursued their course with success. Here is an example of the diplomatic tactics of papers restrained by a censorship whose severity they must deceive.

I have only to add expressly that you may rely on the authenticity of the information relative to Luxemburg.

THE TURKISH PRESS, IN REPLY TO THE

LONDON "COURIER."

FROM THE

66

MONITEUR OTTOMAN."

13th June, 1835. 16 of Safer, 1251.

The English" Courier," on the appearance of a pamphlet entitled " England, Ireland, and America," has made a sortie, no less violent than unexpected, against the Ottoman Government and people.

The "Courier," like all passionate advocates, ignorant of the cause which they plead, has accumulated a mass of exaggerations, in order to spare itself the necessity of reasoning and proofs; it has substituted opprobrium for discussion. Its two articles are the complete summary of all that during ten years has been brought to market in the shape of odium and untruth respecting the Ottoman empire, by the Macfarlanes and other speculators in chronicles, who land in a country, scamper over it like dogs on the scent, and hasten back to sell to a bookseller, for their two months' subsistence, the anecdotes which they have scraped together as their travelling provisions. Was it decorous in a respectable journal, which occupies an elevated rank in the English press, to re-open on a sudden these long forgotten sources, in order to foist on Europe the impure productions which she had already once rejected with disgust?

The picture which it draws of Turkey is not even new; it is the re-production of an old description, which has no other importance than as occupying a place in a journal to which credit is attached, and at a moment of importance to the destinies of a vast empire. Assuming as correct the colouring given by the " Courier," how

ever sombre it be, we say, If there be in Turkey misery, depopulation, and anarchy, with whom rests the blame?

You attribute it to its religion-where are your proofs? The accusing party has none to bring forward, but the defendant has proofs which are incontrovertible.

In June, 1826, when the Janissaries revolted for the last time against the innovation of the regular troops, which had been organized by Sultan Mahmoud, the standard of the Prophet is unfurled. Religion intervenes, therefore, at this terrible crisis; it is invoked in order to decide against a body which had rebelled against all reform, and against the Prince who wishes to change a social state degraded by long abuses, and who attacks the first opposing obstacle. The trial is decisive of the question of the religion of Mahomet. At the summons of the criers, who invoked the aid of the true believers, a hundred thousand men, united under the Mussulman oriflamme, crush to pieces in a few hours the rebels.

Who can misunderstand the meaning of this victory? It is Religion that has triumphed; it is Religion which, personified in the Sultan, the supreme Pontiff, and in the people, the interpreters by their actions of the religious dogmas, has proclaimed the necessity of reform, and struck its opponents to the ground. The destruction of the Janissaries was a stroke of policy and of religion united for the same end, viz. that of improvement. And yet how many reminiscences illustrated this still powerful body of the Janissaries! It commenced with the origin of the Ottoman monarchy; its glory was identified with the most splendid conquests of which it had been the most useful instrument—its name alone recalled epochs of renown dear to the nation. The Janissaries had reigned as masters during three hundred years; they had in their favour that consecration of time which continues still to support a power long after it has lost all other aid. Why, then, were they overthrown with a facility which is one of the most remarkable facts of this age? Why, on the immense surface of this empire, in its most remote provinces, was no single defender to be found whose resistance has called forth their re-establishment? It is because

religion was arrayed against them. It condemned their licentiousness and the general disorganization of which they were the cause, and it could not associate itself with their principle of immobility.

Since the disappearance of this corps, have we seen a single fraction of the population take up arms, at the call of religious inspiration, against the reforms successively introduced by the Sultan? They have been numerous, no one will dispute it; without stopping to discuss their merit, it is sufficient to certify that, as reforms, they would have provoked general opposition, if the argument of the "Courier" had been well founded; if religion were an insurmountable barrier to all amelioration.

Away, then, with imputations founded on worn-out declamation, and destitute of every vestige of proof, against a religion which has not yet been sufficiently studied in the institutions and habits it has created, and on which Europe has never enjoyed the means of forming an equitable opinion. We do not believe that we are equal to the task of supplying this deficiency, and we have not the pretension to undertake it; but the facts before our eyes require to be described as they strike us. Here, in Turkey, we shall always see effected at pleasure, in the smallest space of time, and by the simple force of reason, that which has elsewhere required ages of struggle and torrents of blood. The Turks owe to their religion an undoubted superiority of intelligence, of good sense, and of equity, which they never fail to display when necessity calls it into action. They fear God, and derive from this ruling sentiment the calm reason, the philosophy, which do not waste themselves in words, but which are shown in their actions. In Christendom, people fear God to a certain extent, but they dread those who intervene between God and society-the churchmen, the powerful, the doctors of all colours, who lead their flocks by ignorance, corruption, or sophisms, who drag society in a thousand opposite ways, without unity, without community of thought, and who, when the day of personal trial arrives, belie their doctrines, and by their example throw doubt on the convictions which they have formed by their lessons.