The condition of Athens is only a little less fallen.

"On entering the gate of Athens, the scene which presents itself is extraordinary and painful. The flimsy walls of the modern town include within their extensive circuit one vast heap of mean and undistinguished ruins. Scarcely a tenth of the houses remain standing. Athens was the scene of one of the most terrible and prolonged conflicts in the revolutionary war, when the Greeks were besieged in the Acropolis by the Turks, who had possession of the town. This was utterly destroyed between the fire of the besieged and their assailants; in the Acropolis the Erectheum was greatly injured; and the entrance to the Parthenon is even now choked up with the cannon-balls and broken shells which were thrown into it during the siege. So complete is the desolation which was then produced, that though, under the Turks, Athens contained about five thousand inhabitants, it cannot now muster above three hundred at the utmost."

Again alluding to the lawless conduct of the chiefs, which has tended so much to depopulate the land, the author relates the following:

"In the revolutionary war, the lofty and commanding fortress of Palamede, which overhangs Nauplia, remained in the possession of the Turks some time after the town below had been wrested from them. Grivas, with a chosen band of followers, surprised it one night by a bold and wellconducted assault, and threw the Turks headlong from the battlements. Instead, however, of delivering the fortress into the hands of the government, or holding it under them, he retained it for his own purposes, and defended it equally against Turk and Greek. Whenever it happened that he was in want of money, an exigency of almost daily occurrence, he pointed the cannon of the fort upon the town, and sent down word that, unless an adequate number of dollars were returned by the messenger, he should immediately commence firing. The character of the man was well known, and the dollars were regularly sent. Nearly the same trick is playing now in every part of Greece. The needy chiefs each seize the castle or fort which lies most within their reach, and refuse to surrender it to the officers appointed by government, alleging that they are keeping it for Prince Otho. In this way Giavella has lately taken possession of Patrass. While the chiefs are occupied in these irregular pastimes, it must not be imagined that the soldiery are idle. On the contrary, they profit by, and improve upon, the lesson which is read them. They receive no pay from government, for government has not a piastre in its coffers; and as an authority which does not pay its troops can never control them, they give themselves up to every species of military license. They pillage, they ravish, they murder; and there is scarcely a single one of all the abhorred crimes and cruelties of war, of which Greece is not at this moment the theatre and the victim."

An essay on the present state of Turkey concludes the volume, and with a short extract from it we conclude our review.

"Much has been said of the character and the innovations of Mahmoud; but I think neither the one nor the other has been correctly appreciated. Mahmoud is persevering, vigorous, and decided, as his suppression of the Janissaries amply testifies. But he is rapacious, severe, and sanguinary, and the terror of all his wealthy and powerful subjects. He contrives, like all the Ottoman emperors, to squeeze out every far

thing of superfluous wealth from all public officers, though for this purpose he adopts a rather different plan from his predecessors. When a pacha returns from his government, or a general from a successful war, instead of decapitating them, and then confiscating their property, he orders them to build some public edifice, such as a mosque, an arsenal, or a cannon-foundery, by which the capital is embellished and enriched, and the luckless officer impoverished. When this is done, he sends him forth on some other predatory expedition, and again compels him to disgorge his spoil on his return. Mahmoud is both feared and hated throughout his whole empire: feared for his ferocity, and hated for his innovations. He bow-strings the pachas with wonderful intrepidity; debases the coin to one-sixteenth of its former value; offends the dearest prejudices of the people by abolishing the national costume, which was regarded with a sort of superstitious veneration, and by selling, by public auction, the wives of his two predecessors; and lastly, notwithstanding the Mahometan prohibition of wine, he drinks champagne with almost Christian avidity. In all matters of policy he is fatally obstinate, and will never seek his safety or consult his dignity by timely concession, but requires every thing to be forced upon him, or, like the Tartar mentioned by De Tott, 'insists upon being beaten.' If the final struggle for existence should come upon Turkey during the reign of the present Sultan, we must not expect an unbought victory. Mahmoud will die game.

"On the whole, it appears evident that the Öttoman empire is fast approaching the term of its existence; and the tardy and feeble efforts which have of late been made, are utterly inadequate to renovate a state of such advanced decrepitude. The signs of the times are fearfully portentous, and the Sultan seems to read their meaning. His splendid new palace is built on the Asiatic shore; and, by a curious coincidence, the spot on which it is erected is called 'the Valley of the Cross.' The empire is fast falling to pieces in every direction. Greece, one of its fairest portions, is already swept away, Bosnia gets up an almost annual rebellion, which every year becomes more difficult to quell, — Albania has long been watching an opportunity to assure its independence, and now the Pacha of Egypt has openly thrown off his allegiance, and Syria is already in his hands. I cannot for a moment doubt that his final success will be the signal for the total dismemberment of the Ottoman dominions; an event which it will be impossible to regret. A wiser and more auspicious government will, it may be hoped, succeed. That vast extent of favored and fertile territory, which has so long been withered up under the blight of despotism, when relieved from the nightmare of oppression, will rapidly develope its rich and manifold resources; population will spring forward in the race of increase with an elasticity unknown for ages; the wealth and happiness of Europe and the Levant will be augmented by a vast and varied commerce, of which no human eye can see the extent or termination; and smiling provinces, and a happy people, will succeed to that barbarous anarchic despotism,' (to quote the language of a masterspirit) beneath which the finest countries in the most genial climates in the world, are wasted by peace more than any others have been wasted by war, where arts are unknown, where manufactures languish,- where science is extinguished, where agriculture decays, where the human race itself seems to melt away, and perish under the eye of the observer.'"

[From "The Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 22."]

ART. IV. Briefe aus Paris, zur Erläuterung der Geschichte des sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrhunderts. Von FRIEDRICH VON RAUMER.

(Letters from Paris, illustrative of the History of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. By FREDERIC VON RAUMER.) 2 vols. 12mo. Leipzig. 1831.

We have already introduced Raumer to our readers, and can have no need to recall to their recollection his instructive and interesting "History of the Hohenstauffen Emperors," and the period, so important to Europe, during which they reigned. Upon this second occasion of bringing him before the British public, afforded by the present publication, it may be desirable to preface our account of it, with some few details respecting the author.

Friedrich von Raumer is of noble birth; his father was employed in the civil service of Prussia; and the son, after acquiring distinction at the university of Berlin, held several successive appointments in the public service, in which he acquitted himself so satisfactorily, that the Prime Minister Hardenberg received him, not only into his office, but into his own house, there, by daily intercourse, the better to fit him for the discharge of the more important functions of the financial administration: Raumer soon perceived that the high official duties, the path to which seemed opening to him, must engross the energies, mental and physical, of the whole man; and unwilling to abandon his favorite historical pursuits, he requested of his patron and of his sovereign a professor's chair at a Prussian university, instead of one of those exalted posts, for the attainment of which the one half of mankind is ready to tear the other half to pieces. The request was reluctantly granted. In 1811, at the age of thirty, he began his professorial career in the chair of History, at Breslau; in 1819 he was called to Berlin to occupy that of Political Science, which we believe he still holds; enjoying amongst his learned brethren, as well as in the larger circles of the capital, the high celebrity he has acquired as an historian.

This reputation, far from lulling our author to sleep under the shade of his laurels, has, it should seem, stimulated him to further activity. He has long been meditating a History of Europe during the last three centuries, and preparing for his task with the extraordinary industry and judgment for which he is so distinguished. The materials, we understand, are now collected and sifted; the first three volumes are written, and in their progress through the press, whilst the remainder are proceeding as fast as the writer's, we fear, rather delicate health will allow; and we trust it may not be very long ere we have the satisfaction of offering some account of this work to the British public.

The "Letters illustrative of the History of the Sixteenth and Seventeeth Centuries consist wholly of that portion of the materials for the history of those centuries which the author collected from MSS. at Paris, - perhaps we might say, of so much of the very large appendix to his forthcoming work. Of a publication so novel in kind, it seems necessary to relate the origin as given us by - we know not whether to say the author or the editor. Raumer visited Paris in 1830 for the express purpose of exploring the MSS. in the Bibliothèque du Roi, in search, as well of additional matter for the history of the Hohenstauffens, as of original matter for the new history he was then meditating. And although during his visit the revolution of July occurred, concerning which this indefatigable writer has published another series of letters, descriptive of the events which then took place, he did not the less devote the allotted time to the MSS., fairly dividing his hours, as he tells us," between the past and the present." In the library he revelled amidst MSS. nearly unknown to preceding historians; and such of his extracts from these as he deemed most interesting, he determined forthwith to publish. The difficulty lay in the "how"; and we must explain his views in his own words. The letters are addressed to the celebrated Ludwig Tieck, in the first of which he says:

"The detached and insulated extracts were neither capable of being wrought into a connected historical work, nor could I (save at great length, and a disproportionate expense of time,) annex the requisite fillings up and elucidations. In consequence, I adopted the idea of parcelling out my stock into a series of letters, which, indeed, scarcely half deserve that name, but offer other advantages and conveniences. As, for instance, that I may begin and end according to the quantity of matter, and, by writing to you, can address myself to a reader whose accurate knowledge of history will enable him, without further explanation, to understand and arrange everything in its proper connexion with what is already known. At all events, you will see, in my thus dedicating these letters to you, a proof of old and faithful friendship — although none such be needed!"

*

"As I have, for the most part, closely followed the MSS., even to the sacrifice of a flowing style, I have, to spare room, only added the words of the original language in cases of importance and difficulty.

The materials thus appropriated, and consisting chiefly of extracts from the correspondence of French and a few Italian diplomatists at different courts, are divided and arranged according to both Geography and Chronology. The first letter, already cited, serves both as a preface and a dedication. The following ten relate to German affairs, including Denmark. The next ten are allotted to Spain; then two to the United Provinces, twenty-four to France, three to Italy, twenty-six to England, and seven to miscellaneous subjects. Of such a heterogeneous mass of matter, to give any thing like an analysis or abstract is manifestly out of the question. The most superficial reader of history must be suffi

ciently aware of what subjects the extracts refer to, from the knowledge of the period they embrace, to wit, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including the great religious wars in Germany and the Netherlands, the grandeur and decline of Spain, the rise of the United Provinces, France from Francis I. to Cardinal Richelieu, and England from Henry VIII. to Charles II. Of the collective character of the extracts, it will be enough to say that they are, for the most part, exceedingly curious. Many are of general interest, as throwing new light upon points long involved in obscurity, or made darker by controversy, or as affording instructive and entertaining illustrations of the known characters of historical personages; whilst others will, it must be owned, appear indifferent to all but the especial historical student. The only way in which we can give our readers a correct and fair notion of these volumes, is to select some one of the most interesting points that Raumer has investigated, and, alternately translating and abstracting, lay before them what he has thereupon brought to light. The first that presents itself, is the fate of Don Carlos, son of Philip II. of Spain.

As we are not writing to Ludwig Tieck, we doubt it may be expected of us to add some little of the explanation he did not require, and we shall, therefore, begin by briefly stating what is known, and what has been conjectured, concerning the unfortunate Spanish prince. The certain facts respecting him are merely these that when he had barely attained the age of thirteen, a marriage was arranged between him, and Elizabeth de Valois, daughter of Henry II. of France; that a few months afterwards, Mary of England dying, Philip II., who had then scarcely seen two and thirty summers, took the French princess to himself as his third wife; that during the Netherlands insurrection Carlos fell under his father's displeasure or suspicion, was imprisoned, deprived of arms, and watched with great apparent apprehension of his committing suicide; and that in this captivity he died.

Philip II. was, perhaps, the very beau idéal of intolerant bigotry. In the eyes of contemporary Protestants, he was a sort of avatar of the embodied spirit of cruelty and persecution; whilst even to moderate Catholics his intolerance was repugnant, and to all Europe, setting religious considerations aside, his vast possessions, his seemingly boundless power, and his grasping ambition, rendered him an object of dread. Any action of such a monarch that could be regarded under two aspects, was not likely to be contemplated under the most favorable by foreign historians; and Don Carlos's fate has been conceived and related accordingly. Protestant writers have generally represented the prince as an enthusiast for liberal opinions in religion and politics, who opposed the baneful influence of the Duke of Alva, wished to be appointed Viceroy of the Low Countries, in order to befriend the oppressed Netherlanders, and was, therefore, either put to death by his father's express command, or by him delivered over to the Inquisition, to