stance chiefly explains the favorable terms granted to the Servians,
who again revolted under Miloch Obrenovitch, in 181$.
By the compact of 18 17, Miloch was recognized as knes or
prince superior of Servia ; and although Turkish garrisons
were retained in the fortresses, a large measure of local autonomy
was granted to the Servians.
Indeed, the avoidance of trouble with foreign powers was
then essential to the safety of Turkey. Never was the country
in a worse state of anarchy. Mehemet Ali had made himself
practically independent in Egypt ; the fanatic Wahabites were
in possession of the Holy Places in Arabia; Ali Pasha of
Janina ruled as a sovereign prince in Epirus and defiantly
contemned the commands of the Sultan, while his example
was, to some extent, imitated by the provincial pashas ; the
rayahs were in revolt in several provinces, and the Janissaries
were rebellious. Few monarchs faced, in the decade succeeding
the Congress of Vienna, conditions more untoward than
those that surrounded Mahmoud II ; but he was a man of
resolute energy, and set about systematically to recover his
lost authority throughout the empire. The most serious obstacle
to this was Ali Pasha of Janina, and his destruction was
determined upon. For some years Ali treated lightly the
attacks made upon him, but when, in 1820, Mahmoud made
immense preparations for his destruction, he sought to obtain
the support of the Christian rayahs of Greece, and incited
them to revolt.1
The Greeks had made remarkable progress in wealth, intelligence
and national spirit since the Peace of Kainardji.
That peace had compelled the Ottoman Porte to receive
Russian consuls in the various cities and ports, and these were
nearly ali Greeks. During the French Revolution and
Napoleonic struggles almost the entire trade of the Levant