The Reminiscences of a Bashi - Bazoitk. By Edward Vizetelly. (J. W.
Arrowsmith, Bristol.)—The story which Mr. Vizetelly tells is, it is true, ancient history, for it is a thing that happened twenty years ago ; nevertheless it is worth telling. The narrator attached himself, not without some difficulty, to a corps of Albanian cavalry. As a matter of fact, this corps never went into action, for, three of its members having been hanged for robbery and outrage, all the survivors except Mr. Vizetelly deserted en masse. He was then attached to the staff of a Turkish officer in high command, and had not a few opportunities of smelling powder, and that at close quarters. His descriptions of Bashi-Bazouks on the march is distinctly interesting, and it is a pity that circumstances prevented him from telling us bow they behaved in battle. The conduct of the Turkish troops presented
strange contrasts. Kars was the scene of our " " chief experiences. Nothing could have exceeded the constancy with which they held the Evelidah Tepe against the Russian attack under lifelikof. In fact, the garrison was absolutely destroyed at its post. On the other hand, the retreat from the Aladjah Dagh was a panic-stricken rout closely resembling the flight of the Greeks from Larissa. The last chapter is given to a description of a Greek insurrection in 1878. It would have been well if the miserable affair of last year had been snuffed out in the same contemptuous fashion. "Her Majesty's Government have had enough of all this nonsense," said Mr. Blount, the Consul at Salonica, to our author, "and there must be an end of it."
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