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THE ALBUM.

No. VI.

AN HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF THE INSUR-
RECTION OF THE GREEKS.

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT, when he transferred the seat of empire to Byzantium, studied more to adorn his capital with splendid edifices, and his palace with satellites and ministers of pleasure, than to inspire his subjects with moral virtues, or to secure the prosperity of his realms by the ordinances of wise policy and legislation. This system was carried to such excess by his successors, that perhaps no country in the annals of history ever exhibited a more complete state of moral degradation; the despot himself being stained with vice, a slave to women and eunuchs, and a foe to every thing great among his subjects; the nobles, factious and ambitious, the vainest of mankind in prosperity, as they were the meanest in adversity; the ecclesiastics, proud, bigoted, and superstitious, engaged continually in theological controversies rather than the duties of Christianity; the people abject and debased, the bad only daring and active, whilst those who might have set better examples, were content with the privilege of breathing, and rested their security upon their personal insignificance. Thus sensuality, insensibility, and fear, concurred in confounding all sense of right and wrong, in destroying patriotism, and in rendering the empire an easy prey to its barbarian invaders. The ferocious Turks appeared as if sent by Providence

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to chastise those whom he regarded in his wrath. At that time, by a singular kind of fatality, all the great powers of Christendom were prevented, by intestine commotions and conflicting interests, from attempting to check the irruption of these Tartarian hordes, who, having soon overthrown the tottering fabric of the Eastern empire, found no limit to their conquest, till they had insulted the southern territories of ancient Rome, and encamped under the walls of the Austrian capital.

Whilst this tide of success accorded with the designs of Providence, the Mahometan empire spread with a rapidity proportionate to the valour of its founders. Scarcely any annals can exhibit such a series of subtile and warlike monarchs, as those of Turkey, from Othman, who first attacked the Byzantine empire, to Solyman II., who completed its subjugation.

Yet there was no real or durable strength in the Imperial Colossus which they raised. Formidable as it was in appearance, it contained within itself the most active principles of dissolution, and its decay became as remarkable as its rise. The agency of these principles were plainly perceptible, as soon as ever the European powers became alarmed for their own safety, and drove back the Infidels within certain limits, beyond which they were never afterwards able to pass.

Then it was, that the warlike Sultan, no longer animated by the hope of conquest, sank down into the effeminate tyrant, a slave to the degrading pleasures of a harem, and not unfrequently a victim to the disorganized janissaries; whilst his subjects, ruled by the caprice of despotism, paralyzed by the desolating doctrines of fatality and predestination, and held stationary upon the current of civilization by an utter neglect of all arts and sciences which are not discovered in the Koran, soon became contemptible to all but their unfor

tunate Helots, upon whom the whole weight of their tyrannical hatred to the Christian faith then fell. Apostacy accordingly began to thin the ranks of the sufferers; and probably the very name of Christ would soon have been forgotten in many of those beautiful regions where his gospel was first promulgated, had not the rapid rise of the Russian empire, where the rites of the Greek church were adopted, afforded an asylum to the fugitives, and, in some degree, a protection to those that remained. The Greeks who fled into Russia, repaid their benefactors in the superior means of civilization which they introduced, by which, and by their native talents, they soon advanced themselves to the most distinguished offices in church and state. Nor was it in Russia only that the Greeks established themselves; they extended their commercial speculations to Italy and the Germanic states; whilst those individuals, upon whom fortune smiled, zealously applied their wealth in alleviating the misfortunes, and enlightening the minds, of their less fortunate countrymen.

In the mean time, as the states of Christendom advanced towards the acme of civilization, the weakness of Turkey became more apparent, and invited, as it were, the attacks of neighbouring potentates. Our limits will not allow us to detail the intrigues of cabinets, and the movements of armies sent for the purpose of dismembering this unwieldy colossus, which, though mutilated, was still kept upon its pedestal by the mutual jealousies and dissensions of its opponents. In many of these enterprises, however, especially those conducted by Russia, the Greeks took an active part, although they were invariably deserted by their allies, and left to the insatiable vengeance of their merciless tyrants. The blood, however, thus spilt, cried aloud for vengeance : instead of extinguishing, it rather fed the flame of liberty; and the Greeks, both at home and abroad, steadily applied

themselves to gain those two sinews of power, knowledge and wealth, which might fit them for the important contest, whenever it should arrive.

In the commencement of the French revolution, the Greeks hoped to have profited by those political storms which shook the European confederation to its centre. It was at this time that the unfortunate Riga infused the spirit of Tyrtæus into those patriotic songs which struck like electricity upon his countrymen; and though the enthusiasm, thus excited, ended in disappointment, yet it spread itself insensibly among all classes, and operated, together with various other causes, in conducting the nation to the point at which it has now arrived.

Under the reign of Buonaparte, the prospect of emancipation appeared much nearer to the Greeks: long before the battle of Wagram, there had existed, in Paris, a secret society formed for their affranchisement, well known to, and even encouraged by, the government. In the years 1810 and 1811, vast preparations were made in furtherance of this design. An immense quantity of arms and ammunition was sent into Albania and Epirus; many powerful Beys and Pachas in Western Turkey were engaged in the French interests; communications were opened with Macedonia and the Morea; the Servians prepared for open revolt; and a large army was on the point of marching from Dalmatia, to be joined by another from Corfu,—when Marshal Marmont was suddenly called off by the disastrous events of Spain and Muscovy, and the Greeks were again left to their own

resources.

These, however, had lately increased to an unexampled degree: a much freer use of arms, with many other important privileges, had lately been permitted them; their industry in commercial speculations, especially the carrying trade of the Mediterranean during the late war, had been crowned

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