ism may be
found in D'Ohsson's[272] French; of their manners, etc., perhaps in
Thornton's English. The Ottomans, with all their defects, are not a
people to be despised. Equal at least to the Spaniards, they are
superior to the Portuguese. If it be difficult to pronounce what they
are, we can at least say what they are _not_: they are _not_
treacherous, they are _not_ cowardly, they do _not_ burn heretics, they
are _not_ assassins, nor has an enemy advanced to _their_ capital. They
are faithful to their sultan till he becomes unfit to govern, and devout
to their God without an inquisition. Were they driven from St. Sophia
to-morrow, and the French or Russians enthroned in their stead, it would
become a question whether Europe would gain by the exchange. England
would certainly be the loser.

With regard to that ignorance of which they are so generally, and
sometimes justly accused, it may be doubted, always excepting France and
England, in what useful points of knowledge they are excelled by other
nations. Is it in the common arts of life? In their manufactures? Is a
Turkish sabre inferior to a Toledo? or is a Turk worse clothed or
lodged, or fed and taught, than a Spaniard? Are their Pachas worse
educated than a Grandee? or an Effendi[273] than a Knight of St. Jago? I
think not.

I remember Mahmout, the grandson of Ali Pacha, asking whether my
fellow-traveller and myself were in the upper or lower House of
Parliament. Now, this question from a boy of ten years old proved that
his education had not been neglected. It may be doubted if an English
boy at that age knows the difference of the Divan from a College of
Dervises; but I am very sure a Spaniard does not. How little Mahmout,
surrounded as he had been entirely by his Turkish tutors, had learned
that there was such a thing as a Parliament, it were useless to
conjecture, unless we suppose that his instructors did not confine his
studies to the Koran.

In all the mosques there are schools established, which are very
regularly attended; and the poor are taught without the church of Turkey
being put into peril. I believe the system is not yet printed (though
there is such a thing as a Turkish press, and books printed on the late
military institution of the Nizam Gedidd);[274] nor have I heard whether
the Mufti and the Mollas have subscribed, or the Caimacan and the
Tefterdar taken the alarm, for fear the ingenuous youth of the turban
should be taught not to "pray to