Excerpt from Travels in Various Countries of the East: Being a Continuation of Memoirs Relating to European and Asiatic Turkey, &C

Of the numerous works recently published by travellers in different provinces of European and Asiatic Turkey, and other countries of the East, the parts which afford the least gratification are those relating to the civil and political condition of the inhabitants. They refer us to no improvement in art or science; no disposition in the people to profit of the acquirements of the more enlightened states of Europe. The fear that the Emperor Selim the Third would introduce some changes in the government, suggested by the practice of Christian countries, was among the causes which led to his deposition and death. The Constantinopolitan press is not more actively employed now than it was when Mr. Browne cave his first account in 1798. No alteration has taken place in the mode of conducting the administration of the provincial governments-, numbers are annually destroyed by the plague, because no means are used to resist its progress; the communication between different parts of Asia Minor and Syria is interrupted by hordes of robbers; the chiefs of neighbouring districts are engaged in warfare with each other; and extensive districts, once celebrated for their luxuriant fertility, are abandoned, or badly cultivated.

The traveller, therefore, directs his attention to other objects; and these countries abound with many of great and varied interest, sufficient to repay him for the difficulties and dangers to which he is exposed.

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