It is fortunate for the Porte, that at this crisis her Ministers are avowedly the best that ever governed Turkey. The Grand Vizir is young and vigorous, and a pupil of the celebrated Hassan, now Captain Bashaw, or Lord High Admiral, who is just returned from Egypt crowned with victory. He had been sent there with the fleet, and an army also under his command, to subdue the rebel Beys, in which, notwithstanding the intrigues of the Russians, he happily succeeded, and, by additional proofs of courage and address, has added fresh laurels to his former fame.
The Vice-Admiral, who commanded at Constantinople in his absence, was sent to destroy six Russian men of war, which being dismasted in the storm that had obliged Captain Teesdale to give himself up to the Turks, had anchored on the coast of the Black Sea, and seemed to promise an easy conquest. But, to the great disappointment of the Porte, they had time to refit and get off; and as their escaping was said to be owing to want of exertion in the Turkish Vice-Admiral, he was banished immediately after his return to Constantinople, and afterwards brought back and beheaded.
The Captain Bashaw is equipping the fleet with all possible dispatch, and will sail early in the spring, with a force that will compel the Russian squadron on the Black Sea to act on the defensive, unless their fleet from the Baltic is permitted to enter the Mediterranean, and make a diversion to the southward. But as this would be entirely depriving the Porte of every prospect of opposing, with any success, the machinations of her enemies, England certainly can never permit so decisive a step to be taken in favor of the ambitious, and to us, destructive views of the two Imperial Courts.
The Reis Effendi, or Principal Secretary of State, is said to possess sufficient abilities to fill that office in any country in Europe. The following anecdote of him, will give you an idea of his opinion of France and England. The spirited conduct of our Court during the late disturbances in Holland, reflects the greatest honor on the King and his Ministers; and it is said, that Sir Robert Ainslie, our Ambassador at the Porte, with his usual patriotic attention to the honor and interest of his country, drew up a short narrative of that important business, and delivered it to the Porte.
At an audience afterwards given to Sir Robert, the Turkish Ministry congratulated his Excellency on the distinguished success of his Court, and the Reis Effendi, I am told, made these observations, "You have acted with all your usual courage--but with more than your usual wisdom. You have carried your point without bloodshed, and have left the French to fight among themselves."
The last sentence occasioned some surprise; but by what I learn from the French officers who are just arrived, a violent convulsion in France is not far distant, and the Reis Effendi bids fair to prove by it, his profound knowledge of the interior state of that kingdom, a knowledge which Turkish Ministers are not generally expected to possess, at least of nations that are not their immediate neighbours.
An army of observation is forming on the Banks of the Danube, to watch the motions of the Germans, whose hostile declaration is hourly expected. The Baron de Herbert has given himself great airs in the Divan, and threatened vengeance on the Porte, for daring to attack the ally of the Emperor, his master. The Turks treated these threats with the contempt such impertinence deserved; but at the same time, with great gravity and wisdom, they informed the Baron, that they were aware of the power of the Emperor, and would be sorry to see it exerted against them; but still that, trusting to the equity of Europe, they were determined to risk this unequal conflict, rather than submit to those incessant encroachments, which, by daily weakening the Porte, and increasing the power of the two Imperial Courts, must end, if unopposed, in the total subversion of the Ottoman Empire.
The Emperor seems convinced that threats will not avail, and even at this late season, daily accounts arrive of the march of his troops towards the frontiers.
Constant skirmishes are happening between the Turks and the Russians on the borders of the Crimea; and since my last letter, the Porte have received information of the capture of twelve hundred Russians, and of the Island of Taman being taken by the Tartars of Kuban. The possession of this island is of great consequence to the Turks, since it forms the east side of the straits of Wosphor Zabach, which connect the Black Sea with the sea of Azof.
To balance this success, the French, and other enemies of the Porte, give out that a General Sekell, with a corps of Russians, has routed a detachment of these same Tartars, in the vicinity of Mount Caucasus. The season, however, is too far advanced for any thing decisive to be done.