OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

147

“ fill, religious, charitable; a lover and encou-“ rager of the studious, and of all who excelled“ in any art or science; a good emperor, and“ a great general. No man obtained more, or“ greater victories than Amurath; Belgrade “ alone withstood his attacks. Under his reign,“ the soldier was ever victorious, the citizen rich“ and secure. If he subdued any country, his“ first care was to build moschs and caravanse-“ ras, hospitals and colleges. Every year he“ gave a thousand pieces of gold to the sons of“ the prophet; and sent two thousand five hun-“ died to the religious persons at Mecca, Me-“ cl ilia, and Jerusalem .” 1 This portrait is tran-scribed from the historian of the Othman empire:but the applause of a servile and superstitiouspeople has been lavished on the worst of tyrants,and the virtues of a sultan are often the vicesmost useful to himself, or most agreeable to hissubjects. A nation ignorant of the equal bene-fits of liberty and law, must be awed by theflashes of arbitrary power: the cruelty of a des-pot will assume the character of justice; his pro-fusion, of liberality; his obstinacy, of firmness.If the most reasonable excuse be rejected, fewacts of obedience will be found impossible ; andguilt must tremble, where innocence cannot al-ways be secure. The tranquillity of the people,and the discipline of the troops, were best main-tained by perpetual action in the field; war was

1 See Cantemir, History of the Otliman Empire, p.94. Murad, orMorad, may be more correct, but I have preferred the popular name,to that obscure diligence which is rarely successful in translating anOriental into the Roman alphabet.

CHAP.

LXVII.