the identical grand leading event, which has produced nearly all the mutations of Christian Europe, should at the same time have been the instrument through which Mohammedan Turkey has been preserved from mutation. Most wonderfully are second causes made unconsciously subservient to the purposes of the Most High. The destruction of the Ottoman Empire could not, according to prophecy, be accomplished; until after the third woe of anarchial Infidelity should have commenced; until after the scorching Sun of the seventh Roman political form should have arisen, and until after the throne of that same short-lived seventh form should have been subverted for the destruction of the Ottoman Empire occurs under the sixth vial; the seventh Roman form of government successively rises and falls under the fourth and fifth vials; and all the seven vials jointly constitute the third woe, and therefore begin to be poured out after the commencing blast of that seventh trumpet by which the infidel woe itself is introduced. Hence the very circumstances, which were destined to precede the ruin of Turkey, worked also instrumentally to prevent its otherwise impending ruin.

5. We have been told, apparently from good authority, that the expulsion of the Turks from Europe and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire by the Austrian and Russian monarchs was actually meditated, and might have been effected had they come to a settled arrangement: but, through the breaking out of the French revolution in the year

1789, the project was rendered infeasible. The central volcano being once in action, event succeeded event with portentous rapidity: and, from that time to this, no fit opportunity has occurred of realizing the well-conceived scheme of aggrandisement.

Yet are we likewise told, on the word of a military man and on scientific military grounds which I pretend not to understand, that Austria and Russia might in a single campaign conquer the whole of European Turkey, and that nothing could prevent the accomplishment of this design save a strong political diversion on another quarter. England indeed holds at present what are said to be one of the keys of Greece: but, though the possession of that key by Austria or Russia might facilitate the subju. gation of the neighbouring continent; yet it can scarcely be supposed, that the mere occupancy of the Ionian islands by England could prevent two great military land powers, which immediately border upon Turkey, from overrunning it at pleasure by a series of irruptions on the north-west and the north-east. If England cannot arrest the fate of the Ottomans by an exertion of her political influence in some other quarter, we may reasonably doubt, whether the bare circumstance of her holding the Ionian islands will enable her to save their empire from de

struction.

The existence, in short, of Turkey seems at present to depend upon the joint will of Austria and Russia. If they should agree to annihilate her, it is hard to say, in the present headless condition of the defunct

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defunct Roman Empire, by what commanding interposition she can be saved. The arm of assistance, if at all stretched forth, must be stretched forth from without. From within we are taught to expect no effectual resistance to the sword of well-arranged and scientific invasion. The half-disciplined Turkish soldiery are ignorant of European tactics: and their fanatical Mohammedan prejudices render it impossible for any friendly Christian power to render them the same service that England has so lately rendered to Portugal. A Nazarene officer, like a shepherd among the old Egyptians, is an utter abomination in the eyes of an orthodox Mussulman.

All these particulars we learn, not from a closet military speculatist, but from an experienced general officer; who has himself surveyed the country with the eye of a soldier, who has himself been entrusted with a political mission in its western districts, and who himself directed the siege of St. Maura and the defence of Prevesa. Add to this, the officer in question is a Frenchman: whence he cannot be deened very favourable either to Austria or to Russia *.

VII. The

The remarks of General de Vaudoncourt furnish so striking and undesigned a comment on the predicted destinies of the Euphratèan horsemen, that I cannot refrain from here introducing them.

"Amidst the momentous revolutions, which have more or "less rent the various states of Europe and broken down the political balance, one only has been able to preserve itself "untouched and to remain a quiet specfator of the phases, "which have humbled or raised the others, tending to exhaust

"them

VII. The Roman wild beast, at the time of his resurrection, is said to ascend out of the abyss, ill rendered

"them all. Such has been the fortune of the Ottoman Em "pire. This exposition alone would suffice for the praises of "its government, if so happy an exception had or could have "been the result of a wise and enlightened conduct in times "of danger and difficulty. It is however no other than the

consequence of the inertness of a colossal power, which "has no other weight in the political balance than that of "its physical mass, rendered foreign to the interests of its "neighbours and to all combined and regular relations there"with, by national ignorance and a diversity of religion. "Turkey has thus been able to keep aloof from the vortex and "point of contact with the other contending nations. The "only reasonable consequence to be drawn from this singular "phenomenon is, that the existence and result of the revolutions of Europe have served to prolong the duration of an enervated "empire.

"The ambition of Russia and Austria has been awakened by other aliments, which draw the attention of these govern"ments towards the west and south. Poland, Germany, and "Italy, present too vast a field open to systematic conceptions "and hostile encroachments, not to absorb for a long period "of time the thoughts of the chiefs forming the continental "league. The power, which in the west of Europe consti"tuted a counterpoise useful to the preservation of Turkey "and still more so to stop the ambitious projects of Russia, "has now become the object of a constraint extending from "the east to the west of our continent: and this movement, "contrary to that which might have been observed for more "than twenty years past, removes still further from Turkey "the idea of all continental danger.

"A few years previous to the French revolution, the situa ❝tion of the Ottoman Empire was quite different and nothing

rendered by our translators the bottomless pit as if the Greek word Abyssus here denoted hell.

By

"more has frequently been wanting to its total destruction, "than the union and concert of the two neighbouring powers. "The decline of the French monarchy, the first symptoms of "which had appeared in the disastrous war of 1756, had taken "from the court of Versailles the greatest part of its influence "in the affairs of the east of Europe. The partition of Poland "was effected without any opposition being attempted on her "side: nor did she require or obtain a compensation due to "her for the maintenance of the general equilibrium. This "barrier, which separated Austria from Russia and (as it "were) divided the latter from the rest of the continent, being "once overturned, these two empires found themselves in im"mediate contact. Obliged therefore to respect each other "mutually, as if by one accord they directed their attention "towards Turkey. Their first measures were not concerted: "but they met in their political attempts, or sometimes guessed "each other's views; in which case, policy obliged them to

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assume an apparent union, less to aid than to have a plausi"ble pretext of thwarting each other's ends. It was thus, "that the united attack of two powerful and well-governed

empires against a tottering and debilitated empire was seen "to produce nothing but the capture of Oczakow and Bel"grade, soon afterwards followed by an extraordinary peace.

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"Notwithstanding this rivality marked by an apparent harmony, which at that time saved Turkey from the inevitable "misfortune of falling a prey to the united efforts of her neigh"bours, she nevertheless had dangers to run, so much the greater, because the means by which they were excited were more hidden. Each of the two neighbouring sovereigns secretly laboured to dismount the springs of the interior government of the Ottoman Empire, to prepare its Christian subjects for a general insurrection, and to combine all the means of being able to execute alone by a sudden irruption

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"what