advocating "peace at all price," I scarcely advocate peace at any price: I devote a chapter to prove the war both just and necessary, and deprecate an alliance with Austria, lest the war should be hampered. With regard to the emperor himself I conceal nothing that makes against him-I admit his tyranny, his faithlessness, his injustice, and his ambition; and I should not like to have partisans myself such as I am of "the Muscovite." As to Poushkinn, I never express any surprise at all on the subject. Such a book can be little more than a compilation, and as such I described it; but I think if the critic of the Athenæum had condescended to read beyond the anecdotes he extracts, he would not have taxed me with partisanship of a prince whom I have unsparingly condemned. To represent Nicholas as a fiend in human shape; to deny the merits, which as a sovereign of Russia he does undoubtedly possess; to ignore the progress which the country has made under his rule, because we are engaged in a righteous war with him, would be serving neither the interests of England nor those of truth. CONTENTS. CHAP. I.-THE SULTAN-HIS ACCESSION AND ANTE- LIFE OF ABDUL MEDJID KHAN. CHAPTER I. THE SULTAN-HIS ACCESSION AND ANTECEDENTS. THE South-eastern extremity of Europe is occupied by a people who have little in common with the habits and civilization of the West. Sprung from an eastern stock, they have long preserved the tastes and manners, as well as the religion of their forefathers. Art, science, improvement have, till very lately, slowly advanced among them; and now that, under a combination of circumstances, in the results of which the whole world is interested, they have taken a great start in the race, they will probably show they are deficient in none of those qualities which make a nation great. The Ottoman empire is of vast extent, and though recently somewhat curtailed of its fair proportions by the independence of Greece and Egypt, yet the admirable position which it occupies on the globe, the fertility of the soil, the beauty of the climate, and the great natural resources which it possesses, entitle it to a higher rank among nations than is generally accorded to it. It is, however, by no means homogeneous in B |