is more than probable that Mahmoud could have effected a salutary
reform in the military system without resorting to extreme violence. He
was naturally of a cruel disposition, and was also deficient in prudence
and moderation. He gave the Janissaries cause to revolt; he made
frivolous innovations in their long-cherished customs, by commanding
them to shave their beards and forbidding them to wear the turban, a
beautiful headdress, an ornament at once national and religious. These
measures excited the disgust of all 'true believers,' while his enemies
called him an infidel, and his warmest supporters and the strongest
advocates of reform despaired of success. Innovations are expedient only
when they remove evil, and when men are prepared to receive them.
Command a Turk to shave his beard--by which he swears--the idol of his
life. As well bid him cut off his right arm or pluck out an eye--he
would obey one as soon as the other. The impolicy of changing the
customs and dress of a half-civilized, warlike nation, has been made
obvious in many instances--none more impressive than the mutiny of the
Anglo-Indian army at Velore in 1806.

Mahmoud in destroying the Janissaries took for his model Peter the
Great. Never were two sovereigns more unlike each other. Peter, generous
and humane, leaving his throne and travelling in disguise to educate
himself, stands in bold contrast with the parsimonious and cruel sultan.
Moreover, Mahmoud's was a more difficult undertaking. The Strelitzes
whom the czar annihilated were unsupported, were famous by no
illustrious victory, and had not an enthusiastic religious feeling. The
Janissaries, on the other hand, had strong family interests; they, too,
had decided the fate of the empire at the battle of Varna, where their
bravery established the Ottoman power, whose brightest triumphs were
clustered around their names; they had fought many a bloody battle, and
had never turned their backs to the foe; their leader was chosen from
their own ranks, and no nobility controlled their ambition or prevented
them from receiving the honor due to enterprise and valor; they held the
sultan in check; the ulemas gave sanction to their laws, and they in
turn sustained the authority of the ulemas with their swords. As long as
they experienced no change in their discipline and customs they were
invincible. But they too had participated in the universal degeneracy.
Like the Praetorian bands of Rome, they had become