ravery, and bent on
conquest and dominion.

The Turkish power received no great checks until the reign of
Mohammed IV., during which Sobieski defeated an immense army, which
had laid siege to Vienna. By the peace of Carlovitz, in 1699,
Transylvania was ceded to the Emperor of Germany, and a barrier was
raised against Mohammedan invasion.

The Russians, from the time of Peter the Great, looked with great
jealousy on the power of the sultan, and several wars were the result.
No Russian sovereign desired the humiliation of the Porte more than
Catharine II. A bloody contest ensued, signalized by the victories of
Galitzin, Suwarrow, Romanzoff, and Orloff, by which Turkey became a
second class power, no longer feared by the European states.

[Sidenote: Decline of Turkish Power.]

From the peace of Carlovitz, the decline of the Ottoman empire has
been gradual, but marked, owing to the indifference of the Turks to
all modern improvements, and a sluggish, conservative policy, hostile
to progress, and sceptical of civilization. The Turks have ever been
bigoted Mohammedans, and hostile to European influences. The Oriental
dress has been preserved in Constantinople, and all the manners and
customs of the people are similar to what they were in Asia several
centuries ago.

[Sidenote: Turkish Institutions.]

One of the peculiarities of the Turkish government, in the most
flourishing period of its history, was the institution of the
Janizaries--a guard of soldiers, to whom was intrusted the
guardianship of the sultan, and the protection of his capital. When
warlike and able princes were seated on the throne, this institution
proved a great support to the government; but when the reins were held
by effeminate princes, the Janizaries, like the Praetorian Guards of
Rome, acquired an undue ascendency, and even deposed the monarchs whom
they were bound to obey. They were insolent, extortionate, and
extravagant, and became a great burden to the state. At first they
were brave and resolute; but they gradually lost their skill and their
courage, were uniformly beaten in the later wars with the Russians,
and retained nothing of the soldier but the name. Mahmoud II., in our
own time, succeeded in dissolving this dangerous body, and in
introducing European tactics into his army.

[Sidenote: Turkish Character.]

The Turkish institutions have reference chiefly to the military
character of the nation. All Mussulmans, in the eye of the la