It is almost impossible to ascertain with any gree of exactness the amount of the Turkish nues, especially of the Marne and ractlfs. Mr. Eton makes the haratch, or capitation tax in rope and Asia amount in 1776 to 19,538,500 ters, and the general taxes, or farms'of the empire, to 18,397.000. These are the fixed revenues of the The casual revenue, arising from tions, &c. amounted to 6.907,000 piastres; so that the total amount of the Miri, or public treasury, was 44,942,500 piasters, or about 14,492.250 ling. The expenditure of the same year is stated at 36,968,133 piasters, or about 13,696,813 ster ling.
The taxes in this country, though unequally dis tributed, would not be so severely felt were it not for the violence and rapacity which attend their collection. " In Greece," says Lord J. Russel, " the haralch, and the tax on personal property, were farmed by the pachas to Greeks, called Codja bachis, who vexed by every kind of extortion and oppression, their unfortunate countrymen. If the population diminished, or riches decreased, in a particular district, the remaining inhabitants were obliged to bear the increased burden, and the ruin of the district was thus hastened and insured. The collector took special care to enrich himself : in the Morea it was imagined that the taxes in that province gave two millions of piasters to the sultan, a million to the pacha, and about a million and a half of francs to the codja-bachis." But, however oppressive the regular taxes, they are light in com parison with the extortion of the pachas. Though we must receive, with some allowance, the asser tion of Mr. Eton, " that the principal occupation of every pacha is to suck out the very vitals of his province;" yet when we consider that the gover nors arc frequently changed, and that there is no limit to their exactions but their own feelings of compassion, little reliance can be placed upon their humanity. " If a pacha is ambitious, his only means of maintaining himself are by large presents to the po•te, or a force sufficient to defend his in dependence; if he is covetous, he unavoidably makes use of the sunshine of his prosperity to amass a treasure; if he is fond of ostentation and expense, he draws from the vitals of the people the resources for his prodigality. Thus ambition, avarice, profusion, from one or other of which pas sions few mortals, with the power of indulging them, are free, alike mar the happiness of the un fortunate rajahs of Turkey." The obscurity in which the Turkish annals are involved, have prevented historians from tracing, with any degree of accuracy, the origin of those warlike tribes, who, under the name of Ottomans, have subjected to their dominion, and covered with ignorance and despotism, some of the fairest and most fertile portions of Asia and Europe. The
Turkish writers claim their descent from Turc, the eldest of the eight sons of Japhet, who is repre sented as the great progenitor of the Tartar tribes, or Huns, who dwelt in tents, and occupied, with their flocks and herds, the extensive plains on the north of China, India, and Persia, between the Cas pian and the sea of Japan; and parts of which have received the name of Turkistan. Little, however, is known of the history of this country until the middle of the sixth century, when one of these tribes, denominated Turks, who inhabited the Al tai mountains, and were chiefly engaged in the manufacture of iron, renounced their allegiance to the Geougen Tartars, to whom they had been long subject. After repeated victories, under Bertezena, their first leader, the name and dominion of the Geougen were extinguished; and the subject tribes, marching under the standard of the Turks, were led to distant and important conquests. On the banks of the Til they overthrew the khan of the Ogors or Varchonites, with 300,000 of his subjects. They subdued the Nephthalites, or White Huns, a polished and warlike people who then inhabited Great Bucharia, and in the invasion of China their forbearance was purchased with splendid gifts. In the course of fifty years they had established a powerful empire, extending from the wall of China to the sea of Azoff, and were connected in peace and in war with the Chinese, Persians, and Ro mans. They continued, like their fathers, to wan der from place to place without any fixed habita tions; and their favourite exercises were hunting and war. Attached to their native seats, the royal encampment was seldom far removed from mount Altai; and when the Roman ambassadors were first presented to Disabul, their khan " the tent of the monarch," according to Mr. Gibbon, " was sur rounded with silk hangings, embroidered in various figures, and the royal seat, the cups, and the vases, were of gold. Another pavilion was supported by columns of gilt wood, a bed of pure and massy gold was raised on four peacocks of the same metal, and before the entrance of the tent, dishes, basons, and statues of solid silver and admirable art, were ostentatiously piled in wagons, the monuments of valour rather than of industry." The Romans frequently experienced the benefit of the Turkish alliance, by their powerful diver sion, on the side of the Oxus, against their com mon enemy the Persians. But this extensive em pire, after a duration of 211 years, fell by its own weight. The princes of the blood, who were ap pointed to the government of its distant provinces, soon forgot their gratitude and their allegiance, and the vanquished tribes were encouraged and supported by the policy of China in resuming their independence.