Turk

( Turc, Fr. ) The following account of the Turks has been given by a modern French writer:—“The Turks are a nation that is naturally warlike, whose armies are commanded by experienced generals, and are composed of bold and executive soldiers. They owe their knowlege of war, and their experience in tactics to three national causes, two of which do credit to their intellects. In the first place, they become enured to arms, from being bred to the profe ion from their earliest infancy: in the second, they are promoted upon the sole ground of merit, and by an uninterrupted gradation of rank: and in the third, they po e all the opportunities of learning the military art that constant practice and habitual warfare can afford. They are naturally robust, and constitutionally courageous, full of activity, and not at all enervated by the debaucheries of Europe, or the effeminacy of the East. Their predilection for war and enterprise, grows out of the recollection of past victories, and is strengthened by the two most powerful incentives to human daring, viz. reward and punishment; the first of which is extremely attractive, because it is extremely great, and the other equally deterring, because it is rigorous in the extreme. Add to these the strong influence of a religion, which holds out everlasting happine and seats near Mahomed in heaven, to all who die fighting for their country on the field of battle; and which further teaches them most implicitly to believe, that every Turk has written upon his forehead his fatal moment, with the kind of death he must submit to, and that nothing human can alter his destiny. When any thing is to be put into execution, the order they receive is absolute, free from every species of intervention or control, and emanating from one independent authority. The power which is entrusted to their generals (like that of the Romans to their dictators) is brief and comprehensive, viz.—“Promote the interests of your country or your sovereign.” See E ai sur la Science de la Guerre, tom. i. p. 207. Such is the character of the Turks, as detailed by their old allies the French. How far it corresponds with reality, especially in regard to military knowlege, we must leave to future historians to determine; observing at the same time, that a few sparks of British valor and perseverance have contributed more to the preservation of the Ottoman empire, during the present war, than all the fantastic images, or well-devised hypocrisies of Mahomed could have done. Our brave countrymen, on their return from Egypt, will probably be enabled to give a more faithful and correct account of their characters as soldiers.