core of battle," they stood firm against the chivalry of Hunyadi, called from his daring deeds "the devil," and helped to gain the great victory which laid the foundations of the Ottoman State. On the plains of Angora, faint with thirst and with the blazing heat of a July sun, they formed all day an unflinching and impenetrable wall, under the blood-red banner of their master, the notorious Bajazet, which sustained the whole shock of the vast Asiatic hordes of Timour the Tartar, until they were obliged to give way at last before overwhelming numbers. In this fatal fight their sultan was carried captive to the Mongolian tent; and this fresh irresistible wind from the desert swept away the foul corruption of his rule.

And so this religious soldiery prospered, receiving the highest commendation from the state, and exempted from the extortionate taxation to which all the other members of the community were subjected. Their revenues were derived from fiefs which were often bestowed as the reward of bravery. Their pay was high and their rations abundant and good, while the soldiers of Christendom were irregularly paid, and had in general but a very poor commissariat. But it is obvious that an exclusive body of soldiers, having no interest save war, no home save the barracks, and instead of the ordinary ties of country and kindred knew only devotion to the Prophet and the sultan, must sooner or later have become a source of great danger to the state. So long as their royal masters were men of iron nerve and dauntless energy, they were firmly held in leash, and did eminent service, not only to them personally, but also to their country. But in later times, when a succession of pusillanimous and voluptuous sultans occupied the throne, and all kinds of abuses crept in, they became demoralized, and were employed in the intrigues of the Seraglio, and as the tools of ambitious conspirators. Their association with the Church

the state, and, when opposed by the secular forces, plotted to overthrow the established order of things.

Under the sacerdotal cloak and the banner of religion, the fanatical exponents of Mahometan orthodoxy fomented rebellion, and stirred up the Janissaries to dissatisfaction with their condition. As the sole actors, or as the partisans of the grand viziers, it was always the high clergy who, by their intrigues, created the revolts, or jorbaliks, as they were called, which from time to time raged in the camp of the Military Brotherhood. Lampoons and seditious papers were affixed to the doors of the mosques, and by means of conflagrations in different parts of the city the formidable corps made known their grievances. The old ties between them and the sultan were severed. Instead of regarding him as their captain and comrade, they regarded him as a tyrannical foe; while he in turn looked upon them as the possible instruments for dethroning or assassinating him. This mutual distrust led to the overturning of all order, and the complete disorganization of the state. Constantinople was given over to a reign of terror. Whatever wars were carried on during this period were not inspired as formerly by the spirit of proselytism, or by patriotic zeal, but simply as a means of employment for the turbulent Janissaries, and of distraction from the intrigues of the Seraglio, and the machinations of the clergy. The formidable corps at length left the Seraglio, withdrew from the personal service of the sultan, and planted their standard of insurrection in the ancient Hippodrome, where the mosque of Sultan Mahmoud is now situated; and from this centre the spirit of Janissarism spread throughout European Turkey, Asia Minor, and Syria; and thousands of the noblest and wealthiest youths espoused the cause of the revolted troops, and the sultan was left alone to calm or brave the storm as best he could. The success of this first revolt made the Janissaries arrogant and over

bearing towards all the authorities; and sultan after sultan was deposed, insulted, or murdered by the insurgents.

At last the shadowy line of weak and incapable sultans was interrupted by the appearance of Amurath IV., a young aspirant to the throne of stern resolution and fierce energy. When his predecessor was deposed, one of the Janissaries dared to raise his hand against the fallen monarch, and smite him with his sword in the streets of the city. The young Amurath saw this indignity, and swore to be revenged upon the body which sanctioned it. After his return from a successful campaign against the Persians, during which he obtained possession of Bagdad, and when he was securely seated upon the throne, he proceeded at once to cut off the officers and soldiers of the Janissaries who rebelled against him, and also to exterminate those who aided them in their sedition in Asia Minor. The pasha who executed the terrible order dug deep wells, and filled them with the bodies of the slaughtered victims, and was known ever after from this circumstance as the "welldigging pasha." A public ban was laid upon the survivors of the famous corps; and the memory of their crime and fearful punishment was kept up long afterwards by a quaint ceremony. When the lights were distributed to the different barracks, on the Wednesday nights, one of the companies was called to receive its share, but an officer replied: "Let their voice be silent; let them be wholly extinguished!"

So long as Amurath reigned, the Janissaries were kept in their proper place; the wrongs they had complained of were redressed; and from the rootstock SO dreadfully pruned down to the ground, the Military Brotherhood sprang up again in a few years with something of the old vigor. To make up their number, as well as in order to bind them more closely to the general community, they were allowed to marry, and their sons were enrolled along with them in the same corps. Native Turks also were admitted to the order who had

not undergone their special training. All this worked fairly well for awhile. But when Amurath died, and the pressure of the strong hand was withdrawn, the reforms that were attempted by his successors were resisted, and led to terrible revolutions which deluged the Ottoman throne with blood. The Janissaries became to Turkey what the Prætorian Guards had been to old Rome.

When Mahmoud I. came to the throue by the help of the Janissaries, he wished to propitiate them, and adopted a crafty policy for the subjugation of their turbulent spirit. He removed the severe restrictions which his predecessors had imposed upon them, and during times of peace they were permitted to abandon their strictly military duties, and engage in trade and commerce, with certain exclusive privileges. Many of them in consequence removed from the central barracks of the capital to the bazaars of provincial towns, and formed a great social guild of shoemakers, carpenters, pipe-makers, and pastry-cooks. The trade of Wallachia and Moldavia was carried on by two companies of Janissary merchants under the name of Capanlys; and the prosperity of Trebizond was largely owing to the commercial enterprises of members of the corps. In this way a change came over the spirit of their dream. They lost their old warlike spirit; they were shorn of the locks of their strength on the Delilah lap of commerce and trade; they became enamoured of the arts of peace and the profits of the merchant, and gave themselves up to luxury and effeminate amusement. They lost the use of arms, and cared no longer for their former heroic traditions. They became a rich and idle military aristocracy rather than an army.

So enervated and degraded had the once redoubtable corps become, that in the wars of the Empress Catherine they dared not face the bayonets of the Russians, who in consequence obtained an easy victory over immense armies of Moslem troops. They knew nothing of the science of artillery; and when

beaten and dispersed at Matzia, a band of Janissaries, seeing a large battering cannon lying on the right bank of the Danube, loaded it, and turning it against the opposite bank, fired it, exclaiming: "Let God direct thee; go straight to St. Petersburg!" But though cowardly in the presence of their country's enemies, they proved themselves still formidable against their rulers. They revolted against the tyrannical oligarchy of the ministry, destroyed the barracks of the ordinary soldiers, whom they massacred, and put to the sword the Grand Vizier Mustapha and his Bulgarian troops. So intolerable became their excesses that on June 17, 1826, Mahmoud II. planted in the interior of the Seraglio the sacred standard of Mahomet, rallied round it his regular army, and burned the barracks of the Janissaries; executed the ringleaders of the rebellion, slaughtered during three terrible days a large number of the soldiers, and abolished the corps forever. Many of the heads of the Janissaries were cast into the Bloody Well in one of the old towers of the great wall of Constantinople; and beside the Silivria Gate, in the large Turkish cemetery outside, are the tombs of Ali of Tebelin, governor of Janina, his three sons and one of his nephews, beheaded on this occasion. Their heads were bought from the executioner by a friend of Ali, and buried there.

Surveying the remarkable history of this renowned Military Brotherhood, we are forced to the conclusion that while it was one of the most efficient forces in the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, it was also one of the principal causes of its decay. Dean Church observes that "when they were rooted up to save the state, it is doubtful whether the crown and life of the state were not rooted up with them." Had the Ottoman Empire been placed on other foundations than those which this turbulent and fanatical fraternity had laid down, it might have been more prosperous all the time, and it might have contained within it elements of greater endurance. Its history contin

ually reminds us of Napoleon's wise apaorism, "The Turks are but encamped in Europe."

As a camp only have they succeeded; and when the discipline of their redoubtable standing army began to decay, their political prosperity began to decline with it. But although the Janissaries themselves have disappeared, and we see only their hideous effigies in the Museum at Constantinople, the memory of their history and the spirit of their order still survive in the Moslem youth, the political clergy, and the feudal lords throughout the empire; and if the Turkish dominion is not terminated by the pressure brought to bear upon it by the Christian powers from without, it will inevitably perish by the terrible rending asunder of its own internal forces. The Bektachi, which formed part of the order of the Janissaries, now form the Liberal, or Young Turkey party, and are regarded with suspicion by the sultan, who wishes to suppress them, but dares not. Their advanced religious views, and their high culture and character, have given them enormous influence with the people; while they are incessantly watched by the police and by the spies of the Yildiz Palace. The new wine of this and other similar political forces, put into the old leathern bottle of the Ottoman Empire, can only result in the ultimate disastrous explosion of the bottle.

From The United Service Magazine. A TRIP TO MALTA AND BACK. In these days of cheap and rapid travelling by sea, it seems almost impossible that anything new can be written about such a well-worn route as that traversed in a voyage from England to Malta and back; nevertheless to those who make the passage in one of her Majesty's new cruisers there is, I venture to say, a certain amount of novelty compared with the passages made in former days and now, another link with the past has been severed, the last of the Indian troopships, the Mala

sultan after sultan was deposed, insulted, or murdered by the insurgents.

At last the shadowy line of weak and incapable sultans was interrupted by the appearance of Amurath IV., a young aspirant to the throne of stern resolution and fierce energy. When his predecessor was deposed, one of the Janissaries dared to raise his hand against the fallen monarch, and smite him with his sword in the streets of the city. The young Amurath saw this indignity, and swore to be revenged upon the body which sanctioned it. After his return from a successful campaign against the Persians, during which he obtained possession of Bagdad, and when he was securely seated upon the throne, he proceeded at once to cut off the officers and soldiers of the Janissaries who rebelled against him, and also to exterminate those who aided them in their sedition in Asia Minor. The pasha who executed the terrible order dug deep wells, and filled them with the bodies of the slaughtered victims, and was known ever after from this circumstance as the "welldigging pasha." A public ban was laid upon the survivors of the famous corps; and the memory of their crime and fearful punishment was kept up long afterwards by a quaint ceremony. When the lights were distributed to the different barracks, on the Wednesday nights, one of the companies was called to receive its share, but an officer replied: "Let their voice be silent; let them be wholly extinguished!"

So long as Amurath reigned, the Janissaries were kept in their proper place; the wrongs they had complained of were redressed; and from the rootstock SO dreadfully pruned down to the ground, the Military Brotherhood sprang up again in a few years with something of the old vigor. To make up their number, as well as in order to bind them more closely to the general community, they were allowed to marry, and their sons were enrolled along with them in the same corps. Native Turks also were admitted to the order who had

All this worked fairly well for awhile. But when Amurath died, and the pressure of the strong hand was withdrawn, the reforms that were attempted by his successors were resisted, and led to terrible revolutions which deluged the Ottoman throne with blood. The Janissaries became to Turkey what the Prætorian Guards had been to old Rome.

When Mahmoud I. came to the throne by the help of the Janissaries, he wished to propitiate them, and adopted a crafty policy for the subjugation of their turbulent spirit. He removed the severe restrictions which his predecessors had imposed upon them, and during times of peace they were permitted to abandon their strictly military duties, and engage in trade and commerce, with certain exclusive privileges. Many of them in consequence removed from the central barracks of the capital to the bazaars of provincial towns, and formed a great social guild of shoemakers, carpenters, pipe-makers, and pastry-cooks. The trade of Wallachia and Moldavia was carried on by two companies of Janissary merchants under the name of Capanlys; and the prosperity of Trebizond was largely owing to the commercial enterprises of members of the corps. In this way a change came over the spirit of their dream. They lost their old warlike spirit; they were shorn of the locks of their strength on the Delilah lap of commerce and trade; they became enamoured of the arts of peace and the profits of the merchant, and gave themselves up to luxury and effeminate amusement. They lost the use of arms, and cared no longer for their former heroic traditions. They became a rich and idle military aristocracy rather than an army.

So enervated and degraded had the once redoubtable corps become, that in the wars of the Empress Catherine they dared not face the bayonets of the Russians, who in consequence obtained an easy victory over immense armies of Moslem troops. They knew nothing of the science of artillery; and when

of Janissaries, seeing a large battering cannon lying on the right bank of the Danube, loaded it, and turning it against the opposite bank, fired it, exclaiming: "Let God direct thee; go straight to St. Petersburg!" But though cowardly in the presence of their country's enemies, they proved themselves still formidable against their rulers. They revolted against the tyrannical oligarchy of the ministry, destroyed the barracks of the ordinary soldiers, whom they massacred, and put to the sword the Grand Vizier Mustapha and his Bulgarian troops. So intolerable became their excesses that on June 17, 1826, Mahmoud II. planted in the interior of the Seraglio the sacred standard of Mahomet, rallied round it his regular army, and burned the barracks of the Janissaries; executed the ringleaders of the rebellion, slaughtered during three terrible days a large number of the soldiers, and abolished the corps forever. Many of the heads of the Janissaries were cast into the Bloody Well in one of the old towers of the great wall of Constantinople; and beside the Silivria Gate, in the large Turkish cemetery outside, are the tombs of Ali of Tebelin, governor of Janina, his three sons and one of his nephews, beheaded on this occasion. Their heads were bought from the executioner by a friend of Ali, and buried there.

Surveying the remarkable history of this renowned Military Brotherhood, we are forced to the conclusion that while it was one of the most efficient forces in the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, it was also one of the principal causes of its decay. Dean Church observes that "when they were rooted up to save the state, it is doubtful whether the crown and life of the state were not rooted up with them." Had the Ottoman Empire been placed on other foundations than those which this turbulent and fanatical fraternity had laid down, it might have been more prosperous all the time. and it might have contained within it elements of greater endurance. Its history contin

As a camp only have they succeeded; and when the discipline of their redoubtable standing army began to decay, their political prosperity began to decline with it. But although the Janissaries themselves have disappeared, and we see only their hideous effigies in the Museum at Constantinople, the memory of their history and the spirit of their order still survive in the Moslem youth, the political clergy, and the feudal lords throughout the empire; and if the Turkish dominion is not terminated by the pressure brought to bear upon it by the Christian powers from without, it will inevitably perish by the terrible rending asunder of its own internal forces. The Bektachi, which formed part of the order of the Janissaries, now form the Liberal, or Young Turkey party, and are regarded with suspicion by the sultan, who wishes to suppress them, but dares not. Their advanced religious views, and their high culture and character, have given them enormous influence with the people; while they are incessantly watched by the police and by the spies of the Yildiz Palace. The new wine of this and other similar political forces, put into the old leathern bottle of the Ottoman Empire, can only result in the ultimate disastrous explosion of the bottle.

From The United Service Magazine. A TRIP TO MALTA AND BACK. In these days of cheap and rapid travelling by sea, it seems almost impossible that anything new can be written about such a well-worn route as that traversed in a voyage from England to Malta and back; nevertheless to those who make the passage in one of her Majesty's new cruisers there is, I venture to say, a certain amount of novelty compared with the passages made in former days and now, another link with the past has been severed, the last of the Indian troopships, the Mala