A certain officer of the Free Corps

Exclusively occupied with discussions respecting the balance of power, statesmen bestowed no thought upon the interests of the Christian population ; who had shown themselves so deserving of general sympathy. It was deemed sufficient to secure an amnesty for aU who had, in any of the Turkish provinces, deserted the Sultan and gone over to the Emperor, and to allow them to return in. safety to their estates. ‘ Thus Servia, with all its fortresses, was given back to the Sultan.

No one, however, will suppose that, by these means, affairs were placed upon their former footing.

The Turkish commissioners who took possession of the Country expressed their astonishment, mingled with apprehension of what might be the results, when they beheld a Servian troop, fully armed, march out from a fortress which was to be delivered up to them, and perform with precision all the military evolutions of the Imperial Army. “ Neighbours ! ” cried one of them, “ what have you made of our liaja ? ”

It has been affirmed that, to the last, the Servians indulged in the expectation of rising up in arms under a certain officer of the Free Corps, whom they wished to elevate to the dignity of a Prince over them ; and that a young Servian lady, courted by the officer referred to, had in a jest been saluted as their Princess ! The truth of this statement has not been ascertained; but, at all events, it is evident that the spirit of national independence when once roused could not easily be suppressed. They who had borne victorious arms against the Turks, cherished a feeling of their own dignity by such recollections.

Since Russia, on her side, had, in the peace of Jassy, imparted fresh force to the stipulations which had previously been agreed upon in favour of the Christian inhabitants of Moldavia and Wal- lachia, and in the islands of the Archipelago, it will be seen how greatly the elements of resistance and independence amongst the Christian nations in European Turkey, had increased in consequence of this war.

But it had also another effect, of a very different, and one might almost say, of an opposite character.

For some time the Turkish government had been fully sensible of the superiority of its neighbours, and of its own inability in its actual state to resist them. It almost despaired of being able to remedy the evil. “ The Empire is overthrown !” exclaimed the Sultan, Mustapha III.: “do not imagine that it can be restored by us.” Prepared for the worst, a Vizier of Abdulhamid observed, “ In Asia, too, there are shady valleys, where kiosks may be built.”