It has engulphed Finland, Crimea, Poland, Bessarabia, Circassia, Georgia and many other provinces, and by its continued and systematic encroachments upon Turkey, even threatened to overwhelm Europe itself. Local circumstances have combined to favor her designs, and render her aggressions successful. The remarkable spirit of Mohammedan fanaticism led the Turks on to conquest. The neighboring countries were all subjugated, until the thirst for war enticed them into Europe, where victory still followed their banner. But the very nations that they conquered, many of whom were induced, by force or otherwise, to make their abode in the Turkish dominions, tended by degrees to undermine their power. With them came various religions and creeds, conflicting with each other, and creating the bitterest animosities. Apart from this, the vast extent of their territories, without any of the modern facilities of intercourse, rendered the empire unmanageable by an unenlightened and barbarous government. The army was numerous and powerful, but turbulent and refractory, usurping the power of governing to themselves, as attests the well known history of the Janissaries, who could only be subdued by the bold daring of the illustrious Mahmoud. A new army was organized, on European principles, and various civil reforms attempted, but without any beneficial result; for the neighboring nations, especially the formidable power of Russia, the inveterate enemy of Turkey, were anxiously regarding the waning decline of Ottoman supremacy. Russia, who never missed an opportunity to expedite the rain of this rival empire, has at various times waged war upon the most trifling pretexts. Upon the termination of the Greek insurrection, and immediately after the destruction of the Janissaries, a most aggressive and iniquitous war was commenced, in which the European powers acted as sleeping partners. The Albanian, Servian, Egyptian and Kürdish rebellions were each successively instigated by Russian and Austrian emissaries, or secret agents, until the whole country became the arena of party intrigue, and the direst confusion, thus realizing the plans of its enemy, and rendering it an easy prey to Moscovite cunning. To Europe, now awakened to a sense of her own impending danger, the division of Turkey seemed the only alternative, since that empire showed evident symptoms of decay and inability to resist so powerful an enemy as Russia. Reshid Pasha, one of the ablest and oldest statesmen and a true patriot, was at this time in Europe as representative of the Porte. On hearing of this proposed division of his country, he hastened home to offer his counsels to the young sultan who had just ascended the throne. By his representations and suggestions, his majesty was induced to issue a proclamation called the Tanzimat, or reformation, by which it was hoped that the country would be regenerated, and the world convinced that Turkey could maintain itself. THE TANZIMAT.