THREE centuries ago, the first vow of Christian statesmen was the expulsion of the Turks from the city of Constantine, and the deliverance of Europe from the scourge and terror of the infidel. In the present age, the absorbing desire of the same cabinets is to maintain the misbelievers in their settlements; and to postpone, by all known expedients of diplomacy and menace, the hour at which the Crescent must again give place to the Cross. The causes and progress of this curious revolution of sentiment we now purpose to trace; and to ascertain, if possible, by what sequence of events and changes of opinion such conditions of public policy have at length been accredited among us.

It will naturally be presumed that the clouds now actually gathering on the Eastern heavens have suggested both our disquisition and its moral; nor, indeed, should we, without reasonable warrant for such an introduction of the subject. But we feel it would be here perilous to prophesy the dissolution

VOL. XIX. NO. IV.

of a State which has now been, for five generations, in its nominal agony. We believe we might venture to assert that no Christian writer has treated of Ottoman history, who did not seek in the sinking fortunes or impending fall of the Empire the point and commendation of his tale. Knolles thankfully recounted the signs of its decline two hundred and fifty years ago. Cantemir discoursed of "the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire," while even Poland was still a powerful kingdom. As the eighteenth century wore on, such reflections became both more justifiable and more frequent ; and, as the artificial existence of Turkey was hardly yet anticipated, the close of its natural term seemed within the limits of easy calculation. Even the end of the great war, which left so many crumbling monarchies repaired and strengthened, brought no simila relief to the House of Othman. Excluded, on the contrary, from the arrangements of the great European settlement, Turkey re

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