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de Montlosier, who dares to denounce the order of St. Ignatius. His joy naturally augments on finding that M. de Montlosier compels the Royal Court of Paris to come to an explanation respecting the Jesuits. All the Royal Courts of the kingdom imitate that of Paris; and the Courts of the First Instance in their turn, imitate the Royal Court of the district to which they belong. Our wealthy land-owner then begins to cherish the hope of obtaining something like justice if he should bring an action against a Court of the First Instance; or if he should complain of some vexation on the part of the mayor, or the young priest of his parish.

To denounce the Jesuits in 1826, in France, is neither more nor less than to demand a complete change in the internal administration of the country. It is, therefore, a great mistake in the Times, in which public opinion in England participates, to ridicule the denunciations against the different congregations of Jesuits. In every town there are three congregations, each as well organized as any regiment in the army.

1st. The congregation of the gentry.-In Paris, M. Ferdinand de Berthier commands the one hundred and eight Jesuits of the short robe, who are members of the Chamber of Deputies. The late Duke Mathieu de Montmorency was Colonel General of the whole of the short-robed Jesuits in France.

2d. The congregation entitled of Bonnes Etudes. This society is employed in seducing and crimping the young students of law and medicine, between seventeen and twenty-two years of age.

3d. The Congregation of the common people. The business of this congregation is to seduce servants, and to employ them as spies upon their mas

ters.

The Times has treated with misapplied derision the denunciation which a man of courage published this month against "le Congrégation des Bonnes Etudes." I shall therefore bring to your recollection some proofs of my assertions. As to the fanaticism of the young priests educated by M. de Maistre and the Abbe de la Menais, do you recollect the young priest in the neighbourhood of Lyons, who was acquitted by the Court of the First Instance, in the jurisdiction of which his parish is situated? It was proved that this priest climbed up a tree in pursuit of a musician, who was playing to some peasants dancing on a Sunday after church service, and who knocked the unfortunate musician down from his seat in the tree. Every day the newspapers contain some fact of this kind. I have quoted the preceding instance, because it rests on judicial proof; and those who are incredulous may find the trial in the Journal de Tribunaux, an excellent paper, which I recommend to all the English who wish to make themselves acquainted with the state of things in France.

A counsellor of the Cour Royale of Grenoble died about two years ago. He was one of the heads of the Congregation of "Bonnes Etudes," and some papers found in his desk, bearing the signatures of persons of the highest rank, were published. Incredulous persons will do well to read these papers, which are truly curious. Grenoble is one of the towns most attached to the charter, and consequently most feared by the Government, and the Jesuits have been endeavouring to work upon the minds of the young men who are there studying the law. What remains to be legally proved is the seduction of servants. Cases of this kind are notoriously public, though no one has yet instituted actions against the offenders. On this subject I have seen letters written by English protestant families residing in France. There is not, perhaps, a man of respectability in the country, who has not detected attempts to seduce his servants, and to prevail on them to report to some priest in the neighbourhood every thing that passes in their master's house.

There still remains an objection, which may naturally occur to the mind of disinterested foreigners, not thoroughly acquainted with the present state of French society. Such persons may probably suppose that the liberals wish to exercise tyrannical authority over those Frenchmen who turn Jesuits. By no means. All we want is to enjoy the same degree of liberty which the

Government grants to the Jesuits. Some years ago the Duke de Broglio, and several other distinguished men, formed a society called the "Society of the Liberty of the Press." The police suppressed this society, because it met on certain days, and in a number exceeding twenty individuals.

Such meetings were prohibited by a tyrannical law of Buonaparte. This law, though abolished by the Charter, still continues to be enforced. The King's ministers apply it to the liberals, and not to the Jesuits. All we want is to be treated as well as the Jesuits. Let us be permitted to have our congregations also, and there will soon be no dangerous meetings in France. No meetings are dangerous in England, because all are legal.

Government permits the Jesuits to go armed in the street, whilst we are strictly prohibited from wearing arms. This is what the Times seems to have no notion of. I am aware that an English newspaper is written for England, but when speaking of a country, not more than twenty miles distant from the English shores, it might still be well not to be quite so much in the wrong; not to call black white, and white black.

As to the attacks which have been made here on the Jesuits during the present year, you may be certain that what their antagonists want is a total change in the internal administration of France. The Jesuits are our masters every where except in Paris, and one must pay them homage or be exposed to their vexations. Do not blame me for making an incursion into the territory of politics. In speaking of the Jesuits, I have given you a sketch of the conversation of good society in the months of August and September. It appears that the Government has in some degree deserted them, and we have talked of nothing else.

If you take the trouble to look into that excellent work, the "Journal de Librairie," edited by M. Beuchot, which gives the titles of all the works published in Paris, you will find that the great majority consists of publications by the disciples of Loyola or their enemies. During the last six months the number of works purely literary has been falling off. Take, for instance, No. 63 of the "Journal de Librairie (August 9, 1826), there you will find announced, "Nouvelles Etrennes Spirituelles," in 24. "La Journée du Chretien," in 24. "Reflexions sur la Religion." "Lettres d'un Anglican à un Gallican." "Les Jesuites Athées, ou la France en danger." "Le Catholicisme Primitif." "La Refutation de l'opinion de M. l'Abbé de la Menais sur la Puissance Spirituelle des Papes." All these works are advertised in a single page of M. Beuchot's Journal (p. 693 of No. 63.) From this you may judge of the number of pamphlets more or less absurd, to which the dispute on the legal existence of the Jesuits in France has given birth.

If the Jesuits formed merely a religious association, like the several branches of your Methodists, your Quakers, or your Swedenburghers, we should have nothing to say to them, except from our wish that the Government should allow them complete liberty. But they have got in their hands the power of appointing gardes-champêtres, mayors, parish priests, sub-preects, prefects, and judges, and through these different kinds of functionaries We are constantly harassed, unless we submit to obey the Jesuits in every thing. M. de Villele's private secretary is a Jesuit, and that Minister has been for these two years past endeavouring to get rid of so troublesome an assistant. When a prime minister, who is a man of talent, finds himself thus hampered, what can a private person, who finds it necessary to take refuge in Paris, be able to do? He spends his time there in venting maledictions on the disciples of Loyola, and reads all the pamphlets more or less absurd, published for and against the Congregation. I hope your readers will now be able to form some idea of the nature of that complicated and crafty machinery which at present makes the influence of the Jesuits felt in every corner of France.

RECOLLECTIONS OF TURKEY.-NO. I.

Constantinople, 1811.

On one of those delightful evenings of the month of June, when the rays of the setting sun no longer defy the cooling effects of the northern breezes, and the inhabitants of the shores of the Bosphorus throng on the long extent of quays, which form an almost endless margin to its ever beautiful banks, to enjoy the reviving temperature, which, in that favoured clime, seldom fails to succeed a sultry day, I hastened from my retreat at Therapia, impatient to repair to my favourite spot, Keretch Bournou. Here, on a platform, a few yards from the edge of the sea, and above its level, and among a group of tall and clustered trees, an Egyptian mat and cushion were spread for me upon the grass by the attendant of a neighbouring coffee-house, and a Turkish pipe was handed me, to assist the mind's enjoyment of Nature's most bountiful gifts around.

The opposite Asiatic shore, not more than half a league across, is bordered by a range of richly cultivated hills, and trees of all sizes and descriptions: more to the north-west, the narrow issue to the Black Sea presents itself to view, the sides of which appear studded with fortifications, the whitewashed walls of which are seen ascending and running in various lines among the verdant hills above; and on the left, the single row of pretty and differently coloured houses, forming the village called Bouyouk-déré, on the water's edge, and almost two miles in extent, are overlooked by an equally extensive range of terraces, most beautifully laid out as flower-gardens and shaded walks, crowned with heights, the sloping sides of which appear to the distant eye like one endless carpet of that bright green, peculiar to the vine, with which they are thickly covered.

The ensemble of this scenery forms a picture, which, if surpassed in grandeur and magnificence by other parts of the Bosphorus, is equalled by none in placidity of aspect and charms of a romantic kind. It was impossible to contemplate it long, without experiencing a serenity of mind, a feeling of contentedness, almost too perfect to be long the portion of mere mortals. Such indeed is the soothing influence of this "happy valley," that one might be said, on leaving it, to be "at peace with all the world."*

On my way thither, according to daily custom, along the quays of Therapia, I perceived my friend Vlahoutzi sitting at one of the sidewindows of his Sahnishee, a narrow projection issuing from the centre of his house, almost overhanging the sea, and which is an invariable requisite in the Turkish style of architecture, deriving its origin from the peculiar taste of the natives, who find no amusement more congenial to their slothful habits, than watching at their ease the common street-occurrences of the day, among which the most interesting subjects of social conversation are usually selected.

Vlahoutzi was smoking his pipe in due oriental state, and wore a kind of turban, generally used by Turks of the higher order, to indicate late or approaching travel. He belonged to that privileged class of Greeks, among whom, till the breaking out of the present revolution, were chosen the state interpreters for the foreign affairs and the admiralty, the hospodars of Wallachia and Moldavia, their principal officers, Oct-VOL. XVII. NO. LXX.

X

and all such others as were to fill posts given to the Christian subjects of the Porte, excepting only the department of the mint, in which it has been usual to employ Armenians.

In the course of his public career he had been attached to the mission of his friend, Prince Demetrius Mourousi, who was at this time assisting the Ottoman plenipotentiary Galib-Effendi, at Shoumla, in forwarding the negotiations of peace with Russia.

Vlahoutzi had just arrived at Constantinople, intrusted with official letters and messages to the Turkish ministry, touching the progress of the negotiations; after delivering which, he repaired to his countryhouse at Therapia, where his family were then residing, to await among them the orders of the government relative to his return.

The usual greetings of friends who have been for any time separated, stopped me under his window; and he entered into an account of various interesting matters, in which he had been concerned at the Grand Vizier's camp, with an earnestness that prevented his attending to the unusual splashing of oars, indicating the approach of a boat, far above the usual size of those which were passing along close to the shore, in almost uninterrupted succession. It was the state-barge of the Captain-Pasha Haffiz-Alli, of ferocious memory, bearing the High Admiral himself, girded with the Sultan's diamond-mounted sword, as an emblem of absolute sovereignty on the Turkish seas, and proceeding to his temporary residence at Bouyouk-déré, the convenient scene of his head-quarters, in the immediate neighbourhood of which the Turkish fleet, which was destined for the annual and ever fruitless cruise in the Black Sea, had been ordered to assemble.

A Frank in the streets of a Turkish town is an object of notice that does not escape even the haughty glance of a stern Mahometan highness; and the Pasha, observing that I was in conversation with some person above, directed his eyes that way, at the very instant when Vlahoutzi, having perceived and recognised him, was precipitately retreating from his conspicuous position. A boat that followed, containing the Pasha's attendants, was immediately called up to the barge, from which a moment after it returned in haste, close to the spot where I was standing. An officer landed, and went into the house of Vlahoutzi, who soon after came out with him, embarked, and was rowed off in the direction of the Pasha's barge, not yet out of sight. In passing by me, Vlahoutzi bore on his face the marks of inward agitation; and without appearing to address me, hastily said, Je crains quelque trahison.

Attributing this apprehension to the usual bursts of terror, so common to the Greeks, when suddenly summoned to appear before any Turk in power, whose warrant for sending to immediate death the Christian subjects of the Porte is his own will, and whose motive for so doing is, alas! but too often the gratification of a mere whim or interested purpose, I saw no particular reason for participating in my friend's uneasiness, but rather felt disposed to attribute his being called to the Pasha to matters which concerned his mission from the Turkish army.*

The habitual fear of the Greeks, when suddenly ordered before a Turk invested with absolute power over life and death, for purposes which are not well

These favourable surmises did not, however, satisfy me so completely as to leave my mind free from every doubt; therefore, instead of stopping at my destined place, Keretch Bournou, I continued onwards along the coast towards Bouyouk-déré, to see whether any thing satisfactory relative to this occurrence would transpire.

When I came in sight of the Pasha's gate, I perceived with an involuntary shudder that several persons standing opposite to it were gazing, apparently with an intense curiosity, on some uncommon object within ; I hastened to learn the cause, and no sooner did I reach the gate, than I was horror-struck with the sight of Vlahoutzi's lifeless body! It had been stretched out upon its back near the entrance of the yard. There were three deep cuts across the forehead, which had not quite ceased to bleed, and a great number on the head, which had converted the turban into rags. I stood riveted to the spot, almost overwhelmed with rage at this fresh instance of the abuses and atrocities to which absolute power invested in single individuals, especially among a barbarous people, is so apt to lead, until I was roused by the salutation of some one going by, and whom I found to be my old acquaintance, Alli Moustapha, captain of a ship of the line. He advised me not to over-distress myself by the sight of that for which there was no remedy, and invited me at the same time to go with him and smoke a pipe at a neighbouring coffee-house. Impelled by a melancholy desire to learn the cause and particulars of my friend's tragic end, I made an effort to suppress those feelings of abhorrence with which it had inspired me at the moment against every thing that was Mahome

known to them, gave occasion, in 1812, to a disappointment by which the remaining days of another Greek friend of mine were embittered. The venerable and good-natured Prince Demetrius Ghika, living in obscurity and poverty, with a numerous family, in one of the most retired villages near the Bosphorus, had in former days of prosperity been the patron and benefactor of a Turk, for whom he had laid the foundation of the power he was now exercising in the capacity of favourite companion and confidential adviser of the Sultan. Halett Effendi's secret ministry, and the innumerable persecutions and atrocities which, under his influence, have disgraced, in a more than common way of late years, the corrupt and oppressive policy of the Turkish Porte, have acquired too great a celebrity, and have left behind them too many marks of devastation and mourning, to be soon forgotten by those unfortunate Christians, whom fate has made the subjects (slaves would be a more proper name) of so barbarous a government. Halett, however, does not seem to have been at all times proof against the impulses of gratitude; and at the conclusion of the peace of Bukarest, when desired by the Sultan to point out to him some Greek of the Fannar qualified to fill the important office of Hospodar of Wallachia, he recommended his old patron Ghika, and received orders to send for him and make known to him the Sultan's intended choice.

The messenger who was immediately despatched to Ghika to require his attendance, was one of those personages whose outward insignia of office announced him to be a Capigee Bashi, or chamberlain, and to whose various attributes was well known to appertain the bow-string, employed on occasions when it ceases to be the Sultan's good-will and pleasure that certain individuals should endure the miseries of life. Ghika did not happen to be at home; and, as the Capigee appeared disposed to wait until he saw him, the whole family were seized with consternation, and secret messengers were sent in all directions to prevent his return. Halett Effendi, after three or four days fruitless endeavour to find him out, proposed another Greek of his acquaintance, George Carragia, who immediately made his appearance, and received the glad tidings of his approaching elevation to honours which, until his time, were the object of his countrymen's most ardent wishes and ambition.

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