As in ancient times the walls of the great city of Jericho fell at the blast of the trumpets of Joshua, no sooner did the echoes of the shrill whistle of the mighty steamship reverberate along the shores and among the seven hills of Stamboul, than were annihilated the frontiers of a barbarous and spiritual despotism, in the stronghold of the Mussulmans. Civilization from Europe was no longer stayed, but boldly stepped into this natural garden of the world. To stem the current would be to perish in an overwhelming vortex; and the very government was obliged to conform, to compromise, and to make treaties of peace with this new element, social and political progress.
Not only in Turkey, but universally, the spirit of domination has been pre-eminent, until the march of human improvement awakened the community to a sense of their own power and individual rights. Thus the elements of democracy have been arrayed in opposition to the oppressions of despotism, threatening its utter annihilation, and forcing the ruling powers to terms of capitulation. The Reformation checked the authority of the Pope, a charter was granted to the English, and their colonies in America soon grew to a great and independent state.
Though the European states cannot boast of that degree of independence they have ofttimes struggled for, yet their rulers and potentates have ever been, and are still, forced to don the mantle of Liberty, and maintain the guise of Justice in their various administrations; thus proving the supremacy of the spirit of democracy.
But despotism, fostered in the bosom of the little dukedom of Moscow, has maintained its unbroken sway, and spread over the vast territories now known as the Russian dominions.
It has engulphed Finland, Crimea, Poland, Bessarabia, Circassia, Georgia and many other provinces, and by its continued and systematic encroachments upon Turkey, even threatened to overwhelm Europe itself. Local circumstances have combined to favor her designs, and render her aggressions successful.
The remarkable spirit of Mohammedan fanaticism led the Turks on to conquest. The neighboring countries were all subjugated, until the thirst for war enticed them into Europe, where victory still followed their banner. But the very nations that they conquered, many of whom were induced, by force or otherwise, to make their abode in the Turkish dominions, tended by degrees to undermine their power. With them came various religions and creeds, conflicting with each other, and creating the bitterest animosities. Apart from this, the vast extent of their territories, without any of the modern facilities of intercourse, rendered the empire unmanageable by an unenlightened and barbarous government. The army was numerous and powerful, but turbulent and refractory, usurping the power of governing to themselves, as attests the well known history of the Janissaries, who could only be subdued by the bold daring of the illustrious Mahmoud. A new army was organized, on European principles, and various civil reforms attempted, but without any beneficial result; for the neighboring nations, especially the formidable power of Russia, the inveterate enemy of Turkey, were anxiously regarding the waning decline of Ottoman supremacy.