Travels in European Turkey, in 1850; Through Bosnia, Servia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Thrace, Albania, and Epirus; With a Visit to Greece and the Ionian I - Edmund Spencer

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXV. Concluding Observations. Perhaps no species of writing provokes a greater share of discussion, and it may be of censure, than a hook of travels. The historian narrates the events of another age; the novelist and the poet the creation of their own mind; these, of course, cannot excite animadversion on merely personal grounds; but the traveller who takes upon himself, in addition to the task of describing the scenes and countries that have passed beneath his view, the arduous undertaking of depicting their social, religious, political, and moral state, and fearlessly proclaims what he has seen and heard, is certain to create a host of enemies, both at home and abroad, among those who may differ from him in opinion. Various works have issued from the British and Continental press, lauding the Austrian Government and the progressive system of civilization, that was gradually elevating its subjects in the social scale, under the paternal rule of the princes of the House of Hapsburg. The strength of the Austrian empire, the flourishing state of its finances, the general prosperity and contentment of the people were proclaimed as truths, that defied contradiction; yet recent events have sufficiently proved the fallacy of these statements, and the dislike entertained hy the mass of the population to despotic rule, and which must have given way before the force of public opinion, had it not been for the interference of foreign bayonets. We are told a similar tale of the civilizing reforms of the Sultan, the internal tranquillity of his dominions and the vast array of well-disciplined troops at his disposal, capable of defending the empire from aggression, no matter whence the attack proceeded. It is unnecessary to expatiate on the...