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and Character.-His Views in regard to the Rev-
olution. Chlopicki's military Preparations.
Strange Conduct of Constantine.-Unsuccessful
Negotiations with Nicholas.-Preparations and
Conference of Austria, Prussia, and Russia.
Secret Views of Austria and France at this junc-
ture.-Great Britain declines to join France in
interfering in favor of Poland. - Chlopicki_Re-
signs the Dictatorship on the Meeting of the Diet,
20th December, and is reappointed. His first
Acts after his Appointment.-Menacing Procla
mation, and vast Preparations of the Czar.-Man-
ifesto of the Polish Diet.-Chlopicki's vain Efforts
to bring about an Accommodation.-The Czar is
dethroned by the Diet.-Statistics of the Strength
of Russia at this period.-Statistics of the King-
dom of Poland.-Statistics of Austrian and Prus-
sian Poland.-Statistics of Lithuania and Rus-
sian Poland. - Military Forces on the opposite
Sides. Strategetical Advantages of the Poles.-
Advance of Diebitch toward Warsaw.-Position
and Forces on the opposite Sides. - Battle of
Grochow. - Battle of Praga. - Desperate and
bloody Nature of the Conflict.-Results of these
Battles.-Splendid Success of Dwernicki on the
Polish right.-Parallel of Grochow and Sieroc-
zyn with Inkermann and Balaklava.-Operations
of Dwernicki on the left Bank of the Vistula.-
Skrzynecki appointed Generalissimo by the Diet.
-His Biography and Character.-Ineffectual At-
tempts at a Negotiation, and vigorous Prepara-
tions of Skrzynecki.-Skrzynecki's Plan of Op-
erations.-Forces at his Disposal.-Skrzynecki's
brilliant Success in the Centre. - Total Defeat
of the Russians. Great Success of the Poles
in the Pursuit. - Chances which now awaited
Skrzynecki.-Opinion of Prondzynski and oth- I

-

ers, which is not adopted.-Victory of the Poles
at Iganie.-Cholera breaks out in the Polish Ar-
my, which is arrested in its Advance.-Bad Suc-
cess of Sierawiki on the right.-Defeat of Dwer-
nicki in Volhynia, who is obliged to take Ref-
uge in Gallicia.-Insurrection in Podolia and the
Ukraine, and its final Discomfiture.-Operations
in the Centre.-Expedition of Chrzanowski into
Volhynia, and its Defeat.-March of Skrzynecki
against the Russian Right.-Diebitch marches
against the Polish Rear.-Battle of Ostrolenka.
-Repulse of the Poles.-Its Results.-Death of
Diebitch and the Grand-duke Constantine.-Sus-
pension of Hostilities of the two Armies, and Ap-
pointment of Paskiewitch to the Command.-In-
surrection in Lithuania, and final Defeat of Giel-
gud. Battle of Wilna, and Defeat of the Poles.
-Desperate State of the Poles, and Plan of Pas-
kiewitch.-Paskiewitch's Plans and Forces, and
Preparations of the Poles.-Paskiewitch cross-
es the Vistula.-Fall of Skrzynecki, who is suc-
ceeded by Dembinski.-Massacres in Warsaw.-
Preparations and Forces on both sides for the
final Struggle.-Victory of Ramorino over Rosen
and Golowin. - Assault of Warsaw.-Vain At-
tempt at Negotiation.-Fall of Warsaw. The
Remainder of the Polish Troops take Refuge
in Austria and Prussia.-Results of the War to
both Parties. -Conduct of Nicholas in Poland
after the War, and in the Cholera.-Reflections
on the Fall of Poland. - Excess of Democracy
in Poland ruined every thing.-Democracy has
doubled the Strength of Russia, and prevented
the Restoration of Poland. - Unity of the East
is its Strength, Divisions of the West its Weak-
ness.-Restoration of Poland essential to Inde-
pendence of Europe.

HISTORY OF EUROPE.

1.

CHAPTER XIII.

ASIA MINOR AND GREECE: THEIR SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND STATISTICAL STATE—TURKEY.

volution in the West, in the East.

In the stationary nations of Western Europe, where the inhabitants have in a Wars of Re- manner taken root in the soil, and the broad Atlantic alike forbids the entrance, and for long precludes the and of act further migration of man, the contests of the species are chiefly social or religious. It is difference of faith or of political privileges which arms one part of the people against the other; and foreign wars, not less than internal discord, arise chiefly from the efforts which one part of the nation makes to alter the creed or shake off the institutions which have been imposed upon it by the other. But in the Eastern states, and where nations have been exposed in successive ages to the inroads of different tribes, issuing from that great nursery of migratory man, the table-land of Central Asia, the case is widely different. External wars, not less than internal convulsions, there arise, for the most part, from the violent superinduction of one race of men upon another of a new horde upon the original settlers. The attempt to effect this induces, in the first instance, the most terrible wars of invasion; for what will men not do to prevent the inroad of a barbarous invader into their lands, their hearths, their temples?-in the last, the not less frightful civil dissensions in the efforts which a long course of oppression at length rouses the subjected people to make, to throw off the yoke of their oppressors.

"Proud of the yoke, and pliant to the rod,

Why yet does Asia dread a monarch's nod,
While European freedom still withstands.
The encroaching tide that drowns her lessening

2.

Effect of

lands?

ent passions in ef

And sees far off, with an indignant groan, Her native plains and empires once her own."* The two great moving powers of mankind are the unseen but constantly acting springs of all these changes. Provithese differ- dence, to carry out the work of human progress and the dispersion of fecting the mankind, has impressed, in an equaldispersion ly indelible manner, upon the tribes of man- of Central Asia, the passion for migration, and upon the inhabitants of Western Europe the love of freedom. From the first has arisen the peopling of Europe and the dispersion of the Asiatic race through the Old World; from the last, the civilization of America and Australia, and the settlement of * GRAY,

kind.

VOL IL-A

the European race in the New. If we would find a parallel to the vast swarms of Celts, Scythians, Goths, Huns, Saxons, Arabs, and Turks, who have successively invaded Europe and Africa from the eastward, and continued their devastating advance till they were stopped by the waves of the Atlantic, we must come down to the present day, when still greater hosts of civilized emigrants issue annually from the harbors of Great Britain and Germany, to seek in Transatlantic wilds or Australian steppes the means of livelihood and the pleasures of independence, till they are stopped by the waters of the Pacific. But the inroad of civilized is more fatal to the original inhabitants than that of savage man; the fire-water of the Christian destroys the species more effectually than the cimeter of the Osmanli. The last spares some, and permits in the end a mingled race of victors and vanquished to spring up together on the conquered lands; the first utterly extirpates the original race, and leaves only its remains, like those of the mammoth, to excite the wonder of future generations of men.

wars re

From these passions acting with equal force, and with the same consequences, 3. upon distant lands in different stages They have of human existence, have arisen the produced the greatest greatest and most renowned wars, the most melancholy devastations, the corded in greatest impulse to exertion, which history. have formed the subject of poetry and history from the earliest ages to the present time. From the time when the genius of Homer first sung the effort of Greece to repel the predatory inroads of Asia, and Iphigenia offered herself a willing sacrifice, that the Grecian maidens might sleep in peace, secure from the Eastern ravishers, to these times, when, after a frightful but glorious struggle, the classic land of Hellas has been again liberated from its oppressors, and the Athenian damsels are secure from the slavery of the Turkish harems, the greatest struggles of mankind have been be

* "Das ganze grosse Griechenland hat jetzt
Die Augen auf mich Einzige gerichtet.
Ich mache seine Flotte frei-durch mich
Wird Phrygien erobert. Wenn fortan
Kein griechisch Weib mehr zittern darf, gewaltsam
Aus Hellas sel'gem Boden weggeschleppt
Zu werden von Barbaren, die nunmehr
Für Paris Frevelthat so fürchterlich
Bezahlen müssen."

SCHILLER, Iphigenie in Aulis, Act. v. scene 5.

4.

tween the invading and conquering East and the defensive but indomitable West. Defeated at Salamis and Platea, long kept at bay by the discipline of the Legions, Lasting con- pierced to the heart by the strength quests of the of the Empire, the East in the end East over asserted its superiority over the the West. West, and resumed its place as the great aggressive and conquering power. Its swarms, long pent up, at length burst forth; the Goths broke through the barriers of the Danube and the Rhine, and fixed their lasting abode in the decaying provinces of the Roman empire; the Arabs issued from their fiery deserts with the Koran in one hand and the cimeter in the other, penetrated through Africa and Spain into the heart of France, and were only arrested by the enthusiasm of the Crusades on the shores of Palestine; the Huns and Sclavonians spread over Eastern Europe, and settled themselves in the plains of Poland and Hungary; the Turks stormed Constantinople itself, and subdued the finest provinces of the Eastern Empire. Europe may boast its courage, its freedom, its energy, and every quarter of the globe attests its industry or its prowess; but history tells a different tale, and points to Asia as the cradle of the lasting conquerors of mankind. It required the genius of Alexander to advance his phalanx into the centre of Asia, the energy of England to urge her standards into the mountains of Cabul; but neither were able to effect a permanent settlement in the regions they had overrun; while, without military genius, discipline, or warlike resources, the Eastern tribes have in every age settled themselves as permanent conquerors in the European fields. Where will the traveler find, in the Asiatic realms, a trace of the European race-where, in the European, are the descendants of the Asiatic not to be found? From this ceaseless pressure of the East on the West has arisen not merely wars of invasion, but social conflicts, in races in the the east of Europe, entirely different east of Eu- from those which have divided the Western nations. The barbarians who, issuing from Asia, succeeded in establishing themselves in Europe, formed permanent settlements, appropriated the land in whole or part to themselves, and transmitted it, as they hoped, in peace to their descendants. But they were not permitted to remain in quiet possession of their new acquisitions; another swarm followed in their footsteps, and they were themselves overwhelmed by the waves of conquest. Thence succeeded the fiercest and most enduring conflicts which have ever divided mankind those where different conquering races settled in the same territories, and contended with each other for its government, its lands, its revenues, its women. The strife of RACES is more lasting, their enmity more inveterate, their hostility more persevering, than that of parties. The animosity of the Magyar against the German, of the Pole against the Russian, of the Italian against the German, of the Celt against the Anglo-Saxon, of the Greek against the Turk, is more fierce and indelible than that of the democrat against the aristocrat, or the republican against the royalist. Like the color of the hair or the tint of the

5.

Wars of

rope.

visage, it is transmitted unchanged from generation to generation; unlike the fleeting fervor of cities, which is readily diverted by new objects of pursuit, it slumbers undecayed in the solitude of rural life, and, after the lapse of centuries, bursts forth with undiminished fury, when circumstances occur which fan the embers into a flame. The most animating and heartstirring events which are recounted in the succeeding pages have arisen from the conflict of races, which, as more wide-spread and lasting, have in a great degree superseded that of social change.

Turkish em

pire.

Placed on the confines of Europe and Asia, the regions which formerly formed 6. part of the Byzantine, and now Strife of races compose the TURKISH EMPIRE, have peculiarly vein every age been the chief seat of hement in the these frightful contests. The coasts of the Euxine, the isles of the Archipelago, the shores of the Danube, the mountains of Greece, have from the earliest times been the battle-field between Europe and Asia. When the vast stream of the Crusaders poured across the Hellespont, they wound unconsciously around the tombs of Achilles and Ajax; they trod the fields of the Scamander, they drank at the fountain at the Seæan gate. The environs of Jerusalem have been the theatre of the greatest and most heart-stirring conflict which has occurred since Titus drew his trenches round the devoted city. The plains of Bessarabia, broken only by the Scythian tumuli, are whitened by the bones of those swarms of warriors whose names, as a Russian poet expresses it, 'are known only to God;" the walls of Byzantium, which for a thousand years singly sustained the fortunes of the Empire, yielded at length to the fierce assault of the Osmanlis; the island of Rhodes has witnessed the most glorious conflict that ever occurred between the enthusiasm of the East and the heroism of the West; the straits of The, mopyla have in our day been signalized by second acts of devotion; the Ægean Sea has reddened with other conflagrations than that of Salamis; the Russians and the Turks are now combating on the banks of the Danube, at the same spots where, fourteen hundred years ago, the hordes of the Goths broke into the decaying fields of Roman civilization.

66

7.

minions.

From this peculiarity in their geographical history has arisen the great variety of different races who now inhabit Variety of the vast provinces of the Turkish races in the empire, and the inextinguishable ha- Turkish dotred with which they are animated against each other. The Persians, the Romans, the Goths, the Russians, the Arabs, the Vandals, the Franks, the Venetians, the Christians, the Mohammedans, have at different times contended, and alternately obtained the mastery in its vast dominion. They have all left their children in the land. Besides the descendants of the original Greeks, whom the King of Men ruled at the siege of Troy, or Alexander led to the conquest of Asia, there are now to be found in it the bold Wallachian, who has fearlessly settled in the land which has been desolated by the wars of three thousand years; the free and independent Servian, who has never ceased to contend, even amidst Turkish bonds, for the freedom of his native steppe; the patient and

industrious Bulgarian, who has often found pro- | and conquering mankind to pacify and bless tection and happiness in the recesses of the Bal- them, like the legions which followed the eakan; the fierce and indomitable Albanian, who, gles of Rome to the extremities of the earth. since the days of Scanderbeg, has maintained a It is more akin to the establishment and sysdesultory warfare with his oppressors in his tem of government of the Normans in England, native mountains; the effeminate Syrian, who where the people were not only conquered, but bows his neck, as in ancient days, to every in- retained in subjection by force, and sixty thouvader; the unchanging Israelite, who has pre- sand horsemen annually assembled at Winchesserved his faith and usages inviolate since the ter to overawe and intimidate the subject realm. days of Abraham; the wandering Arab, whose Their number is small compared to the entire hand is still against every man, and every man's population of the country. Three millions of against him; the passive and laborious Egyp- Osmanlis in Europe are thinly scattered over a tian, who toils a slave on the banks of the Nile, territory containing twelve or thirteen millions from whence his ancestors, under Sesostris, is- of Christian subjects; but they are all armed, sued to conquer the world. And over all are and ready to become soldiers; they are in posplaced as rulers the brave and haughty Osman- session of the whole fortresses, harbors, and lis, who govern, but do not cultivate the land, strongholds of the kingdom; they have the and who, in Europe, not more than three mill- command of the government, the treasury, the ions in number, maintain their sway over four capital, and the great cities: the Christians are times that number of impatient and suffering scattered over the country, and depressed by subjects. centuries of servitude; the Turks are concentrated in towns, and rendered confident by the long exercise of power.

To govern dominions so vast, and inhabited by so great a variety of different and hostile nations, must, under

8. Division of

mans.

Turkey ren.

What renders the government of the Christhe Christians any circumstances, have been a tians, though so superior in number, 10. and Mussul- matter of difficulty; but in addi-by the Mohammedans more easy in Division tion to this there was superadded, Turkey, is the variety of tribes and of races in in the case of Turkey, a still more fatal and in- races of which the subjected popu- ders governdelible source of discord, which was the differ-lation is composed, their separation ment more ence of RELIGION. Turkey, even in Asia, is not, from each other by mountains, seas, easy. properly speaking, a Mohammedan country. and entire want of roads, and the complete uniThe Seven Churches were established in Asia ty of action and identity of purpose in the domMinor in the days of the Apostles; the Empire inant race. The Greeks are not only a different of the East had embraced the faith of the Gos- race, but speak a different language from the pel four centuries before Christianity had spread Bulgarians: the Servians are a separate tribe in Western Europe. We are accustomed, from from the Wallachians, the Albanians from both. its ruling power, and its position in the map, to The Greek of the Fanar* has nothing in common consider Turkey as a Mohammedan state, for- with the peasant of Roumelia; the Armenian getting that Christianity had been established with the Syrian; the Egyptian with the Capover its whole extent a thousand years before padocian; the Jew with the Albanian. These Constantinople yielded to the assault of Moham- different nations and tribes have separate feelmed, and that the transference to the creed of ings, descent, and interests; they are severed Mohammed was as violent a change as if it were from each other by recollections, habits, instinow to be imposed by foreign conquest on France tutions; vast ranges of mountains, in Greece, or England. Even at this time, after four centu- Macedonia, and Asia Minor, part them; roads, ries of Mohammedan rule, Christianity is still or even bridges, there are none, to enable the the faith of three-fourths of the whole Turkish different inhabitants of this varied realm to empire in Europe, and one-fourth in Asia. Cast communicate with each other, ascertain their down, reviled, persecuted, the followers of Je- common wrongs, or enter into any common desus, from generation to generation, have ad- signs for their liberation. On the other hand, hered to the faith of their fathers: it still forms the Turks, in possession of the incomparable the distinguishing mark between them and their harbor and central capital of Constantinople, oppressors: more even than difference of race it with the Euxine and the Black Sea for their inhas severed the two great families of mankind; terior line of communication, are a homogeneand when the Greek revolution broke out, the ous race, speaking one language, professing one ery was not "Independence to Greece," but religion, animated by one spirit, swayed by one "Victory to the Cross." interest, and enabled, by means of the government couriers, whose speed compensates the difficulty of transit, to communicate one common impulse to all parts of their vast dominions. The example of the English in India is sufficient to show how long the possession of these advantages is capable of enabling an inconsiderable body of strangers to subdue and keep in subjection a divided multitude of nations, a thousand times more numerous.

ment.

9.

The system of government by which the Turks for four centuries have maintained Turkish sys- themselves in their immense dotem of govern- minions, and kept the command of so many and such various races of men, is very simple, and more suited to Oriental than European ideas. It is neither the system which distance and the extreme paucity of the ruling nation has rendered a matter of necessity to the English in India-that of conciliating the great body of the rural cultivators, and drawing from them disciplined battalions which might establish their dominion over their former oppressors-nor that of penetrating the wilds of nature with the light of civilization,

The military strength of the Turks, which was long so formidable to Europe, and more than once put Christendom within a hair'sbreadth of destruction, is derived entirely from

* The quarter of Constantinople where the richest and most intelligent of the Greeks reside.

11.

as Gibbon observes, to overrun an empire than to cross a strait.

13.

the Turks.

the Osmanlis. It is a fundamental maxim of their government, that the MussulThe military mans alone are to be armed, or call- As the Turks are thus the indolent, luxurious, strength of ed on to combat either foreign or do- dominant race, and the Greeks, Arthe empire entirely de- mestic enemies; the Christians are to menians, and other Christians the Great and raprived from be made to contribute to the expense laborious, hard-working, servant id increase of the Turks. of armaments, and uphold by their race, they have respectively un- the Christians industry the strength of the empire, but by no dergone the usual fate of mankind compared to means to be intrusted with the duty of defend-in such positions in society. The ing it in the field. The former is the generous masters have diminished, the slaves have mulwar-horse, which, sedulously trained to mili- tiplied. The lazy rulers, with their sabres, their tary exercises, is released from all toil till the horses, their harems, their coffee-houses, their glorious dangers of war commence; the latter life of repose and enjoyment, are unable to is the humble beast of burden, which is worn maintain their own numbers; the despised and out in the meaner occupations of peace, and insulted subjects, with their plows, their shutfollows at a distance his proud compeer to the tles, their oars, their single wives and cottages, field, to bear his burdens and provide for his have overspread the land with their descendsubsistence. As the military strength of the ants. They have increased in some places as empire thus depends solely on the Osmanlis, it fast, and from the same cause, as the reviled is drawn from a comparatively limited body, Catholic Celt under Protestant and Orange domand depends entirely on their spirit and cour- ination did in Ireland. In the level country, age. Yet is this difference between the Turks indeed, where the horsemen of the Osmanlis and other homogeneous nations greater in ap- have found it easy to extend their ravages, and pearance than reality. Except in periods of the pachas their oppression, the human race extraordinary excitement, when the whole na- has in many places wholly disappeared, and the tion, under the influence of an ungovernable mournful traveler, after traversing for days toimpulse, runs to arms, the military strength of gether the richest plains, studded with the ruins every people is derived from a portion only of of ancient cities, now left without a single inits inhabitants. The military caste is seldom habitant, has repeatedly expressed a dread of more than a third or a fourth of the whole the entire extirpation of the human species in number; and if, as in Turkey, that proportion the very garden of nature, the places in the is all trained to arms as a profession, and en- world best adapted for its reception. But this gages in no other, it is fully as much as the la- is sometimes the result rather of a migration bor of the remainder of the people can main- than an absolute diminution of inhabitants. In tain in idleness, ever ready for the toils of war. the mountains where the janizaries have not As the Turks are the military caste upon whom been able to penetrate, or the regions where the the whole strength in war of the Otto- tyranny of the pachas has been exchanged for The whole man empire depends, so the Christians a fixed tribute-in Servia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, are the industrious class upon whom the fastnesses of Albania, the Taurus, and Lebness of the its whole riches and material pros- anon-the human race is increasing with great country is conducted perity rest. The natural and inevitby the able ascendency of mind over matter, Greeks. of intelligence over strength, never appeared more strongly than in the destinies of the Greek people. Still, as in ancient times, they have asserted the dominion over their conquerors; if the sword of the Osmanlis, as of the Romans, has subdued their bodies, their minds have again reasserted the ascendency over their oppressors. The Greeks at Constantinople seem rather the allies than the subjects of the Turks. The same is the case in most of the other great towns of the empire; and their presence is indispensable, their superiority still more manifest, in the divans of all the pachas. The Turks, who long, above all things, after repose, and know no excitement but love and war, leave the whole management of affairs to the Greeks: civil administration, negotiations, pacific situations, letters, the arts, commerce, manufactures, industry, navigation, all are in their hands. The Turks command, and are alone intrusted with military power; but the Greeks direct the commander, often in military, always in civil affairs.ment avec la richesse de la végetation qui les entoure. The seamen of the Archipelago, skillful now as when they rolled back the tide of Persian invasion in the Gulf of Salamis, have the entire commerce of the empire in their hands; for although the Turks are admirable horsemen and most formidable soldiers by land, they have a superstitious aversion to the sea, and often find it easier,

12.

civil busi

325 326

En général, pour les productions, le paysan en Turquie ne demande à la terre que ce dont il a rigoureusement besoin pour sa subsistance, et le reste est livré à l'abandon. La partie qui avoisine les côtes, jusqu'à une distance de quinze à vingt lieues, est plus genéralement la mieux cultivée; mais au-dela l'on marche souvent, pendant plusieurs heures, à travers de vastes espaces en friche, remplis de broussailles et de mauvaises herbes, dont la vigueur de végétation atteste la fécondité et la richesse productive du sol. A voir ce délaissement de l'agriculture dans la Roumélie, on serait tenté de croire à la realité de ce dicton, beaucoup plus commun parmi nous qu'en Turquie, que les Tures ne se considerent que comme campés en Europe, et qu'ils détachent, peu à peu, leurs pensées des provinces qu'ils sentent leur échapper pour les rapporter de préférence sur cette terre d'Asie, qui fut le berceau de leur nation. Cependant, si nous portons nos regards de l'autre côté des détroits, l'aspect ne change pas même fertilité partout, et même désolation. Si l'on excepte quelques riches plaines de l'Asie Mineure, vous n'apercevez presque nulle part quelque trace de culture. De vastes solitudes, coupees à de lointains intervalles par quelques tentes de tribus Kurds ou Turcomans, des forêts de pins et de chênes, que le gouvernement livre à la discrétion de quiconque veut les exploiter, sur la réserve de trois pour cent, sur la vente du bois; le désert presque à la sortie des villes, de loin en loin échelonnés parfois à des distances de neuf ou dix heures de marche; des villages, dont le misérable aspect contraste pénibleVoilà ce qui s'offre à la vue du voyageur sur cette terre, qui portait jadis tant de villes fameuses-Pergame, Sardis, Troie, Nicomédie, et toutes les autres dont le nom seul a M. de Tchitchatchef mentionne une plaine qui survécu. s'étend sur un surface de 600 milles geographiques carrés, et qui offre à peine 50 milles cultivés. La production annuelle de céréales en Asie Mineure évaluée à 705,100,000 kilogrammes, ou 9,263,000 hectolitres (5,500,000 quarters), et réprésentant une valeur de 75,000,000 francs (£2,000,000), atteindrait aisément le quintuple, et même le décuple."-UBICINI, 366, 307.

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