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Ottoman empire, endeavouring to make the Sublime Porte the dupe of their infidious projects, and to forward their object of exciting her against other friendly powers; the commanders and generals of their army in Italy, on the other hand, were engaged in the heinous attempt of perverting the fubjects of his majesty the grand feignior, by fending agents (perfons notorious for their intriguing practices) into Anatolia, Morea, and the islands of the Archipelago; and by fpreading manifeftoes, of the molt infidious tenour, among which, the one addreffed by Buonaparte, to the people of Macrio, with feveral others, diftributed by the fame, are fufficiently known to the public.

"Upon the Sublime Porte's com plaining, to the directory, of this conduct of their commanders and generals, their antwer was, that all proceedings, on the part of their officers, contrary to friendship, were not with the confent of the directory, and the fame fhould be prevented, and their officers warned against it, the wish of the French government being to ftrengthen, more and more, the ancient friendship fubfifting with the Sublime Porte.

"In confequence of this anfwer, delivered officially on their part, it was expected that the faid generals would have left off their feditious purfuits, But, neverthelefs, no change appearing in their conduct, and their perfeverance, in fuch in fidious practices, being greater than ever, it became obvious, that the anfwers of the directory were only fictitious and deceitful; that the intriguing attempts of their agents could not but be dictated by the

inftructions which were given them, and, confequently, that any farther complaint would be of no avail whatever.

"Notwithstanding thefe tranfac tions, however, the Sublime Porte, in the hopes of the directory altering its fiftem of conduct, and laying afide the fenfelefs purfuit of withing to overturn the univerfe; in expectation of feeing things in France, from the haraffed fituation of that country, at length take a different turn, by the people refufing to bear any longer thofe intolerable evils and difafters which, have been brought upon them from the perfonal views of a few upftart individuals, fince the commencement of the revolution; and with a view of preventing fecret enmity from producing an open rupture; he did not alter her courfe, but preferred keeping filence.

"In the beginning of the war with the other powers, the French government had declared, that their intention was not to acquire new territory, but, on the contrary, reftore every fuch conqueft as might have been made by their arms du ring the conteft; contrary to which, they not only have kept poffeffion of various extenfive provinces, fnatched by them from the belligerent powers; but, not content with this, profiting of the changes which had prevailed among the allied courts, through their intrigues, have put off the matk intirely, and, developing their fecret views, with out reafon or juftice, have fallen upon feveral free and independent republics and states, who had held themfelves neutral, like the Sublime" Porte, invading their territories when leaft provided with the means

of

of defence, and fubjecting them to their will by open force and hoftility. "Thus, no one being left to controul them, they tore the veil of all decorum at once, and, unmindful of the obligations of treaties, and, to convince the world that friendfhip and enmity are the fame thing, in their eyes, contrary to the right of nations, and in violation of the ties fubfifting between the two courts, they came, in a manner altogether unprecedented, like a fet of pirates, and made a fudden in vafion in Egypt, the moft precious among the provinces of the Ottoman Porte, of which they took forcible poffeffion, at a time when they had experienced nothing from this court but demonftrations of friend fhip."

The manifefto, having recounted various inftances of French duplicity and diffimulation, and, particularly, the pofitive declaration of Talleyrand, in anfwer to the categorical question put to him by AlyEffendi, that Buonaparte's commiffion had no other object than the conqueft of Malta, and the deftruction of the order of its knights, in ferred:

"That the directors of the French government, to fecond their own ambition and arrogance, had actually lost all recollection of thofe laws obferved and maintained in every regular government; and that no faith, whatever, was to be placed in their words and profeffions. From the tenour of their arbitrary proceedings, and defpotic conduct, as too well witnessed from first to laft, it is clear and evident, that their project is no other but to banish every orderly inftitution from the face of the world; to overfet human fociety; and, by an alter

nate play of fecret intrigue or open hoftility, as beft fuits their end, to derange the constitution of every established independent flate, by creating (as they have done in Italy) a number of fmall republics, of which the French is to be the parent mother; and thus to fway, and to conduct every thing after their own will, every where.

"Now, Egypt being the portal of the two venerable cities (Mecca and Medina), and the present operations, in that quarter, being of a nature affecting all the Mahomedan fect at large, the Sublime Porte, confiftently with her exprefs declarations to the above French chargé d'affaires, and, through her ambaffador, to the directory at Paris, is compelled, by every law, to refift the fudden and unprovoked aggreffion and hoftilities, committed by the French, as above, and, with a full confidence in the affiftance of the Omnipotent God, to fet about repelling and deftroying the enemy, by fea and land. Thus, to wage war againft France, is become a precept of religion incumbent on all Muffulmen.

"In confequence whereof, the aforefaid chargé d'affaires, together with the officers of that miffion, have been fent to the Seven Towers, to be detained there, as hoftages, until fuch time as AlyEffendi, before named, and thofe of his retinue, be arrived from Paris: and the confuls, merchants, and French properties, in Constantinople, and in other parts of the Otto man empire, fhall also be kept in depofit, and as fecurity, until the merchants, dependents of the Sublime Porte, with their fhipping, and properties, as alfo the public fhips, with their equipage, detained in

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the province of Egypt, (prifoners of war excepted) be fet at liberty. To repel the perfidy of thofe ufurpers who have raised the standard of rebellion and trouble in France, is a measure, in which not the fafety and tranquillity of the Sublime Porte alone, but also that of all the powers in Europe, is concerned: wherefore, the beft hopes are entertained of the cordial co-operation of all friendly courts, as well as of their difpofition to fulfil, by every means in their power, their duties of friendship and of affistance in the prefent caufe."

Though the native energy of the mind, in Turkey in Europe, be repreffed by defpotifm, it is obferved to recover, on trying occafions, not a little of that quickness of perception which formerly diftinguifhed the natives of that happy region and climate. The Turks, though funk in floth, are not, by nature, a flow or ftupid race. A review of the conduct of France by this nation, forced to fpeak out by the irrefiftible impulfe of truth and facts, and rendered hoftile to their ancient ally only by infufferable aggreffion, deferves to be recorded among the most memorable events and features of the paffing years. But, neither the rebellion of Paffowan Oglou, who maintained his independence and power in Bofnia, Servia, and Balgaria, and threatened to carry his arms into Macedonia and Romania, and even to Conftantinople; the revolutionary fpirit, excited and foftered by the French, in the Morea; nor, finally, perhaps, the invasion of Egypt, would have fufficed to rouze

the Porte to the exertions which the times and the occafion demanded, if the naval victory of Aboukir had not exhibited a ftriking and encouraging proof, that the power and fortune of the French republic were not irrefiftible. It had been conftantly reprefented by the English minifter at the Porte, whofe public conduct, as well as his polite and friendly attentions to his conntrymen abroad, merit much. praife, that the revolutionary fpirit of France threatened all monarchical thrones with fubverfion. The Porte, at laft, at once alarmed at the invafion of Egypt, and emboldened by the victory of the Nile, liftened ferioufly to his arguments. He became the principal counsellor and confient of the reis-effendi, or fecretary of ftate; and it was very much owing to his influence and addrefs that an alliance, offenfive and defenfive, was formed between Ruffia and the Porte, under the reciprocal guarantee of the emperor of Germany and of Great Bri tain.

It was found now, that the fupreme vizier, Izzad Mahomed Bathaw, had attended to nothing but his own intereft: fo that, "In the dark himfelf, with refpect to the evil defigns of those swinifh infidels, the French, from not procuring proper intelligence, he did not apprize the inhabitants of Egypt thereof in good time," he was therefore depofed from the office of grand vizier, and Jofeph, bahawgovernor of Euzerum, appointed in his ftead: until whofe arrival at the fublime gate, Mustapha Bashaw,

This is the fame Jofeph who had been ambassador, for fome year, from the Porte, at the court of London.

to

an

to whom the imperial decree,*
nouncing thofe changes, was ad-
dreffed, was to act as deputy-vizier,
or Raimakam. Military prepara-
tions were made, plans of action
were formed, and troops were in
motion, in both Turkey in Afia and
Turkey in Europe. Of the opera-
tions in the former, fome account
Before
has already been given.
we proceed to take a view of thofe
in the latter, it will be proper to
advert to the counfels and move-
ments of the Ruffians, with which
thofe of the Turks, in the prefent
frange convulfion of the world,
were, to all appearance, amicably
blended.

At the commencement of the war, the late emprefs of Ruffia, jealous of an union between Auftria and Pruffia, and not difpleafed to fee thefe preponderating powers of Germany exhauft their ftrength in a conflict with France, acceded, at firft, to the confederacy of kings, only in name. But the afterwards,

on the feceffion of Pruffia, became, in
carneft, and had determined to fend
a great force to the aid of the allies,
as before related. Her fucceffor,
on the Ruffian throne, inherited.
from his illuftrious ancestors, a paf-
fion for the farther aggrandizenient
of the empire, and from them too.
as well as his own fituation, a dif-
pofition to quath popular innova-
tion, and to maintain the common
caufe of fovereigns. The latter of
thefe principles appears to have
been that which originally moved
Paul I. in 1798, to take an active
part with the coalition; though the
latter was more and more develo-
ped by the progrefs of events, and
He
feems even to have abforbed the
original motive of action.
was unhackneyed in the intrigues
and duplicity of courts: he avow-
ed and moved ftraight forward to
his object; which was the restora-
tion of the Bourbons to the throne
It was in the fame
of France.t
fpirit of hoftility to French innova-

From this decree, promulgated at the Porte, on the firft of September, the following, as ferving to give an idea of the Turks and Turkish government, is extracted:"Now, it being incumbent upon all true believers to combat thofe faithlefs brutes, the French, and it being become a pofitive duty for our imperial perfon to deliver the bleffod territories from their accurfed hands, and to revenge the infult which they have offered to Muffulmen, no delay whatever is to take place for the arrival of the new vizier; but the moft vigorous measures must be pursued to attack them by fea and land.

"Wherefore, by a deliberation with the illuftrious lawyers, minifters, and chieftains, our fubjects, you must (with a full confidence in God and his prophet) fix upon the effectual means of freeing the province of Egypt from the prefence of fuch wretches. You will acquaint all the true believers, in the refpective quarters, that we are at war with the French; and, turning night into day, will apply your utmost efforts to take revenge of them.

"You will adopt the most vigilant conduct towards defending the other Mahometan provinces and our imperial frontiers, from the plots and malice of the enemy, by the due reinforcement of every port and place with troops and military ftores.

"You will likewife direct your zealous attention towards the due fupply of daily provifions to the inhabitants of this our imperial reâdence; and will watch over the affairs of all perfons in general, until the fupremne vizier do arrive.

"We fhall obferve your exertions, and may the omnipotent God ordain his divine favour to attend our undertakings, and render us fuccesful in the vindication of our caufe. !"

† See the declaration made by his majefty the emperor of all the Ruffias to the members of the German empire, in the fecond part of this volume.

tions

tions that he laboured, by certain domeftic regulations relating to drefs, equipage, and the ceremonial, of fociety, to preferve a due gradation of ranks, and the fupremacy of the court over the whole. Certain reverences were exacted from paffengers on the fireets, not only to the imperial family but the principal officers of state. No one below a certain rank was allowed to put more than a certain number of horses to his carriage. Ukafes, or royal edicts, were publifhed, for wearing cocked hats and directing all perfons to appear in buckles, both in their fhoes and at their knees, in waistcoats with flaps, coats without capes, and ftocks inflead of neckcloths or handkerchiefs, without any kind of bolfter or ftuff ing. No perfon was to wear boots with tops, or half-boots. For difobedience to thefe orders fome perfons were punished with a fhort imprisonment. These regulations were generally confidered as trifling and unworthy of a great fovereign. They wore, indeed, an air of levity and ludicroufnefs: yet, the attention paid by Peter the Great to the regulation of drefs has not been condemned as either frivolous or unimportant. Peter was at pains to introduce new fashions; Paul to preferve the old. It may be even doubted, whether the policy of Paul was not, in this refpect, the wifeft, as being moft confonant with the spirit of an abfolute government. If Peter the Great had lived to our day, he would have perceived what, perhaps, he did not, in his ardour to civilize and refine his people, forefee or think of, that a spirit of improvement in the arts and fciences, and the concomitant fentiments of the dignity

of human nature, and of innnovation in modes and manners of life, is not very confiftent with the ftability of abfolute power; unless, indeed, he fhould have conceived or ventured to execute a defign of anticipating political fermentation and revolution, by gradual changes and progreffive improvement in the form of government.

With the foul and life of the confederation against the French republic, the king of Great Britain, he entered into a close alliance, by a provifional treaty, done at St. Petersbugh, on the eighteenth of December, 1798. In the name of the moft holy and indivifible trinity, his majefty the king of Great Britain, and his majefty the emperor of all the Ruffias, in confequence of the alliance and friendship already fubfifting between them, being defirous to enter into a concert of measures, fuch as might contribute, in the most efficacious manner, to oppofe the fucceffes of the French arms, and the extension of the principles of anarchy, and to bring about a folid peace, together with the re-establishment of the balance of Europe, judged it to be worthy of their moft ferious confideration and earneft folicitude to endeavour, if poffible, to reduce France within its proper limits, as they fubfifted before the revolution. With the intention of inducing the king of Pruffia to take an active part in the war against the common enemy, they propofed to employ all their endea vours to obtain that end. perial majefty was ready to afford him a fuccour of land-forces, and he deftined, for that purpose, fortyfive thousand men, infantry and cavalry, with the neceffary artillery,

His im:

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