If we withdraw our eyes from the revolutions which convulsed Asia, in consequence of the Tartar conquests, and turn our attention to the Greek, or Constantinopolitan empire, we must there contemplate the melancholy spectacle of a state, without energy, and verging towards its downfal. Constantinople, which, during so many ages, had proved impregnable against every attack, and bidden defiance to all the hostile efforts of the Goths, the Huns, the Avars, and the Saracens, had, by its intestine factions, and the crimes of its rulers, exposed itself to the pillage of the crusaders, and the empire had fallen a prey to a band of French and Italian adventurers. After that fatal stroke, although the empire was re-established, and the capital recovered by the Greeks, yet the former was too much weakened to regain its former power and energy, and the latter was too much impoverished to resume its former opulence and splendor. Indeed the Byzantine empire had, ever since the fall of the Comnenian dynasty, been extinct by the inhuman, although perhaps justly deserved murder of the Emperor Andronicus, the last of that race, had exhibited the picture of fallen power and exhausted resources of a government without vigour, and a people without virtue, the unequivocal marks of a declining state. Amidst the general decline, political and moral vices, instead of diminishing, continually encreased. Soon after the accession of Bajazet to the Ottoman throne, about the commencement of the fifteenth century, the Greek empire

4

was so much reduced as to be confined to a narrow corner, between the Propontis, and the Euxine, containing not more than fifteen hundred square acres, a territory little larger than one half of the county of Lincoln; yet this contracted spot, the melancholy remains of the most powerful and extensive empire the world had ever seen, was the theatre of crimes and political factions, and so it continued during the space of about 50 years, until A. D. 1453, when Constantinople, after a siege of 53 days, was taken by the Turks under Mahomet II. The military force which the Turks brought against that celebrated metropolis is differently estimated by historians, as it is commonly the case in describing such transactions. Philelphus does not think that the whole force of the Turks could exceed 60,000 foot and 20,000 horse. It is magnified by Ducas Chalcondyles, and Leonard, of Chios, to above 300,000; but Phranza, who was a near spectator, states the Turkish army at 258,000. Whatever the forces of the enemy might be, it is, however, certain, that the force which the minister was able to enrol by the Emperor's command, for the defence of the city, was exceedingly insignificant, and strikingly shews the extreme degeneracy of that people, who still arrogated to themselves the title of Romans, and dignified the narrow corner they possessed with the title of the empire. Phranza says he was not able to enrol more than 4,970 volunteers, and that, including the Italian auxiliaries, the whole defensive

force of the city did not exceed eight thousand men. The Emperor Constantine Paleologus made an exceedingly vigorous defence; and when the city was at last carried by assault, after having bravely, but rashly, refused very advantageous terms of capitulation, nobly fell in the breach by which the enemy entered the city. Phranza pathetically describes the shocking scene which followed. The persons and property of the citizens were, by Mahomet, given up to the disposal of the army; and the terrified people having fled to the cathedral of St. Sophia, and other asylums, were dragged forth, and, without any distinction of sex, or rank, chained together driven through the streets like beasts, and more than sixty thousand of them sold into slavery, a circumstance shocking to humanity, and which displays, in the most striking point of view, the contrast between the indescribable calamities of ancient warfare, and the mitigated evils of war between the civilized nations of modern times. Such was the dreadful catastrophe of Constantinople, once the capital, and long the sole existing remnant of the Roman empire. And thus, as it had formerly been the seat of the Romans, it now became that of the Ottoman empire, A. D. 1454, and has ever since held that station.

The Greek empire of Constantinople had so long been tottering on its basis, and the symptoms it had shewn of its approaching extinction, were so unequivocal, that no person of the least

discernment could mistake in forming a conjecture of its impending fate. Many of the literati, and others, therefore considered it highly necessary to think of seeking some establishment or asylum in other countries, in order to avoid being involved in the ruin of their own, which had long appeared not only inevitable, but exceedingly near; for the existence of the Greek empire was, by the concurrence of various unforeseen circumstances, prolonged to a later period than from general appearances could reasonably have been expected; and its extinction would most certainly have taken place almost fifty years sooner, if the designs of Bajazet had not been frustrated by the successes of Tamerlane.

Among the literati of Constantinople, who began to disperse themselves among the Latins, was Leo Pilatus, who was the first Greek professor at Florence, and the first who brought the study of that language into fashion in the west, about A. D. 1360. Manuel Chrysolorius established the study of the Greek language upon a solid foundation in Italy, and it soon became an object of general pursuit among the Italian literati. Some illustrious patrons of learning now began to appear among the princes and great men, of Europe, especially in Italy. Cosmo and Lorenzo di Medicis were, in the fifth century, the patrons equally of learning and the arts; and the efforts of the sovereign pontif, Nicholas Fifth, for the revival of learning, were not less vigorous, or less effectual, at Rome, than those of the Medici at Florence.

We are now, after travelling a long time in the obscure shades and rugged paths of gothic ignorance and barbarism, just emerging into the broad sunshine of a period of learning, civilization, and commerce, which infinitely excels the most brilliant ages of antiquity. I shall, therefore, for the present, conclude these observations until a favorable opportunity shall occur for renewing our correspondence.

Most respectfully,

I am, Sir, &c.

J. B.

LETTER XXI.

SIR,

THE period which now presents itself to our view, being infinitely more pleasing, as well as more interesting, than that which we have just been contemplating, I shall not make any apology for troubling you with my further remarks and

reflections.

The period we now enter upon teems with great events, which are so many memorable epochs in human affairs. The place of the different na- tions of Europe, in the political scale, was now in