Memoirs of Baron de Tott. Containing the State of the Turkish
Empire and the Crimea, during the late War with Ruffia.
With numerous Anecdotes, Facts, and Obfervations on the
Manners and Customs of the Turks and Tartars. Tranflated
from the French. 2 Vols. 8vo. 10s. in Boards. Robinson.

WHEN a man of abilities is fent in a public capacity to a

country imperfectly known, and during the time of important tranfactions, his memoirs, when faithfully written, must afford both information and entertainment. Such is the character of the baron de Tott, and fuch the circumftances in which he appears in the work before us. He long maintained a public station at the Ottoman Porte; and was likewife employed to execute a commiffion amongst the Tartars, under the aufpices of the French minifters, Choifeul and Vergennes. In each of thefe departments he had many opportunities of making obfervations on the government and cuftoms of the countries, as well as of becoming acquainted with the views and interefts of the men who conducted public affairs. Though, almost perpetually involved in bufinefs either of a military or political nature, the baron has not been inattentive to the natural history of the countries which he vifited; for, in different parts of the Memoirs, we meet with various remarks on this fubject.

The baron de Tott appears not only as a man of the world, but as a man of extensive observation, and of a philosophical understanding. Of the latter of these qualities we find an inftance in the beginning of the Preliminary Difcourfe.

Hiftory, fays he, on a first view, feems a theatre of horror, on which victims are prefented only to render the names of thofe executioners illuftrious who facrifice them to gratify their own paffions. But it likewife exhibits a moft valuable picture of manners; and this part of history, no doubt, must always appear the most interefting, when we confider, that a nation is governed by its customs, as individuals are by their proper characters. Where can we find a more fruitful fource for the knowledge and government of men?

For this reafon, governors ought to fearch hiftory. They would perceive that cuftoms, by infenfibly modifying and giva ing birth to manners, are every where the spring of action among mankind; they prepare, they effect the revolution of empires; they furnish materials for the edifice, and render it durable, or undermine and shake it to deftruction. It is the filence of evil that conceals its progrefs; and this fatal progress is not perceived, till the very moment when he who might apply the remedy, receives, himself, an infection which he wants the power to repel.

VOL. LIX. May, 1785.

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If we leave, in the obfcurity of time, thofe banditti, who, like torrents, ravaged the earth and fwept away fmall focieties, affuming the pompous title of empires; and if we, likewise, except a few small ftates, which, after having increafed the extent and power of rifing Rome, carried its reputation fo far as to make diftant nations fubmit to the fummons of her heralds, we fhall find, that no mighty kingdom has actually funk under any fingle attack, from a foreign power: no empire, permanently established, was ever overturned by the lofs of a fingle battle. Greece, enflaved by the Romans, Rome, itself, fubjugated by barbarians, have not ceded fo much to the power of their conquerors as to their own interior feebleness.

This truth needs no examination. It is, perhaps, the only one perfectly eftablished by hiftory, in its relations of the rife and fall of ancient empires. But, might not an enquiry into the particular manners and cuftoms of any people, ferve to throw a light on their hiftory, though no tradition of paft tranfactions had been preferved by themfelves? Thefe manners and cuftoms would be as valuable a monument of former events, among fuch nations, as the Parian marbles have been of the Grecian antiquities. It is only neceflary to know how to decypher the characters; and then, in every country, they will fupply the place of infcriptions and records. In them we shall find clear indications of the changes which have taken place in preceding ages. That people whofe manners are found the least fimple, muft have experienced the most frequent revolutions; while the nations among whom they feem merely the effect of the phyfical influence of climate, may be pronounced to have never been conquered.

When we confider that the tyranny of defpotifm is to be met with in the neighbourhood of the polar circle, as well as under the torrid zone, how can we believe that the manners of a nation can depend alone on climate? If we admit that republicanifm has preceded monarchy, whence has it happened that the latter fhould have entirely effaced all traces of ancient liberty yet of fuch revolutions the world is full; they appear to be the true caufe of that variety of manners which, at prefent, render nations fo different, as visibly to alter the natural and primitive refemblance of all human focieties.'

In this Preliminary Difcourfe, the baron is at fome pains to convince his readers that the information hitherto published concerning the Turks is far from being authentic; and he feems particularly inclined to invalidate the authority of lady Wortley Montague. But we wish to know for what reafon the baron beflows on her ladyship's work, the epithet of les prétendues lettres.' The following obfervations relative to this fubject, however, we believe to be well founded.

But nothing is more common, when the language of the country vifited is not understood, than to imbibe, and spread,

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falfe opinions concerning it, without any intention to deceive, but with the greatest defire to be exact. I have confidered what lady Montague relates concerning her janiffary, the cadi, and the pigeons; and can discover, in the genius of the Turkish language and nation, what may have deceived her ;` notwithftanding the literal tranflation of the janiffary's answer, which the might receive from her interpreter. In fact, weary of attempting to procure the pigeons, which, lefs taken care of in Turkey, are more wild, and, perhaps, roughly treated by the cadi, who might be offended at the trouble given by the ambaffadrefs, that foldier may be allowed to have asked her, if the would have him bring her the cadi's head; and if we fuppofe this question accompanied by an air and accent of impatience, we shall find it convey a greater contempt for the lady than the judge. But this circumitance was not reprefented to her, by her interpreter, with fufficient fidelity.

It is in this manner that travellers, deftitute of what is abfolutely neceffary for them, if they wish to derive inftruction from their travels, have propagated a number of abfurdities, without having any other fault but the want of a fufficient mistrust of themselves. This judgment ought certainly to ap pear impartial and moderate.'

It has often been obferved that the Turks are extremely precipitate in the burial of their dead; and we find from the baron de Tott, who was amongst this people at the death of Ofman, predeceffor of Mustapha III. that the funeral of the grand feignior was performed with as much expedition as that of any common inhabitant.

Mourning, fays he, though in ufe among the Tartars, is not worn by the Turks; but if this manner of paying respect to our deceased relations be of little confequence, that which certainly is not fo, is the hafte with which they bury their dead. It feems as if this nation, naturally fo grave and phlegmatic, poffeffed activity in that business alone. They fcarcely wait five or fix hours, before they perform this last duty to their kindred, and are not prevented by any fear left thofe they bury fhould not be yet actually dead.

To this abominable hurry, the Turks who carry the bier add an extreme quickness of pace. The Mahometans believe the deceased to remain in a fuffering ftate till the end of this ceremony.

The interment of the grand feignior does not differ from that of others, except in the importance of the great officers who accompany the body to the mofque. Of thefe it is cuf tomary for each emperor to build one; and in the court of the mofque is conftructed a cupola, under which the corpfe is to be depofited: and it is to be remembered; that the Turkish emperors are buried with the fame celerity as their fubjects.'

The baron de Tott gives a more unfavourable, but not incredible account of the effects of opium upon the Turks, than we recollect to have met with in any other traveller.

Thofe among the Turks, who have once given themselves up to the immoderate ufe of opium, are easily known by a kind of rickets, which this poifon never fails to produce at last. Not able to exist agreeably except in this fpecies of intoxication, thefe perfons are particularly objects of curiofity when they are affembled in a part of Conftantinople, called Teriaky Tcharchiffy, or the Market for the takers of opium.

There, towards evening, the lovers of this drug are feen coming down all the streets which lead to the Solimany; their pale and melancholy figures would be fufficient to raise our pity, did not their lengthened necks, their heads turned on one fide, their back bone distorted, their shoulder raised up to their ear, and a number of other extravagant attitudes which refult from their disease, exhibit a picture of the molt ridiculous

nature.

A long row of little fhops are built against one of the walls that furround the fquare, within which is the mofque. These fhops are fhaded by an arbour which reaches from one to the other, and under which the mafter takes care to place a little fofa to accommodate his guests, without ftopping up the paffage. The customers arrive, and place themselves in order, to take the dofe which the habits each have contracted render neceffary.

The pills are diftributed. Thofe moft ufed to the practice, perhaps fwallow four, larger than olives, and each immediately drinking a glass of cold water, waits in his particular attitude. An agreeable reverie, at the end of three quarters of an hour, or an hour at most, never fails to animate thefe automatons; caufing them to throw themselves into a thousand different poftures, but always extravagant, and always merry. This is the moment when the fcene becomes moft interefting; all the actors are happy, and each returns home in a state of total irrationality, but likewife in the entire and full enjoyment of happiness not to be procured by reafon. Difregarding the ridicule of thofe they meet, who divert themfelves by making them talk abfurdly, each imagines, and looks and feels himfelf poffeffed of whatever he withes. The reality of enjoyment often gives lefs fatisfaction.

The fame scene is to be found in private houses, where the mafter fets the example of this ftrange intemperance. It principally infects the profeffors of the law; and all the dervifes ufed to intoxicate themfelves with opium, till they thought proper to indulge in an excess of wine. There are two kinds of thefe monks in Turkey, very distinct from each other, and equally remarkable. The difference arifes from the difference of the rules impofed on them by their refpective founders. That of

the

the Mewliach dervises is to turn round like whirligigs, to the found of foft mufic, and feek a holy intoxication in the giddinefs which must naturally refult from this abfurd exercise, if the habit of thus turning round did not preferve them from dizziness and drunkennefs, which they have recourse to the tavern to complete.'

According to our author's account, the distribution of justice in the Turkish dominions is extremely defective; occafioned not only by the conftitution of the government, but the cor ruption of the officers entrusted with the care of the police. We shall exemplify this remark by the practice with respect to the bakers, being a part of the Turkish polity usually repres fented as extremely fevere.

The bread, brought to the magiftrate, is put in the scale against the weight which it ought to weigh, while the baker, already feized, and in the prefence of his judge, expects the fentence, by which he is to be acquitted or condemned to the baftinado, if not fome punishment more fevere; fuch as having his ear nailed to his fhop, or even to be hanged, according to the caprice of his judge. But what is most remarkable is, that the real baker, the proprietor of the oven, he whofe knavery fhould be punished, is not concerned in this affair; he quietly preferves the daily profits of the falfe weight which incurs pu nishment, and leaves to one of his journeymen, or the foreman of his fhop, all the danger and trouble of this fhameful prac tice; who, for double pay, agrees to reprefent his mafter; and this advantageous poft is immediately folicited by the next journeyman, when the first gets hanged, for fuch a trifle difcourages no one. But it must be confeffed, that punishments of this fort are not fo frequently inflicted as they are deferved.

The compenfation which the mafter bakers pay the ftambo! effendili, is confiderable; and though this magiftrate ought to prevent great abufes, and punifh frauds that are clearly proved, it is likewise much his intereft to grant them many indulgences, to render certain the tribute which he receives. But he owes no fuch refpect to the higlers about the freets; their weights and fcales are taken away, and broken with the hammer, for the leaft imperfection; and the ceremony is commonly concluded by the baftinado, unless thefe unfortunate fellows are able to extricate themfelves from their embarraffment, as is customary in Turkey.'

In a country where the heat of the climate expofes the inhabitants fo much to peftilential diforders, it is furprising to find that Conftantinople fhould be permitted to abound with dogs, that have no owners; and therefore either ftarve, or support their exiftence in a manner which must render them particularly liable to madness."