THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

DESTRUCTION OF THE JANISSARIES 247
storm of indignation. The Sultan, having accepted
the Russian ultimatum, naturally resented the sudden
intrusion of an entirely fresh demand; and Metternicli,
who stigmatised the protocol as a compound of
feebleness and folly,
1
encouraged the Porte to resist.
Sultan Mahmoud's stubborn temper, indeed, showed
no signs of yielding;
and at Constantinople the preparations
for the long-projected reforms in the organisation
of the army were pushed forward with new
vigour. The measures taken to achieve this recoiled
on the Ottoman Government itself. On the 15th of
June, the Janissaries, whose old-established privileges
were most affected by the reforms, rose in open insurrection.
Their opposition had, however, been foreseen.
They were overwhelmed by
masses of Anatolian
troops, whom the Sultan had collected in the capital
for the purpose, driven back into their barracks,
and there cut down to a man.
Sultan Mahmoud was
thus rid at a stroke of those proud and turbulent warriors
who for centuries had played in Constantinople
the part of the Praetorian guards at Rome. But,
though he was now free to pursue his schemes of military
reform, the destruction of the Janissaries had seriously
weakened his available forces; and he found
1 ' Une ceuvre pleine de faiblesse et de ridicule.' Metternich
to Baron Ottenfels. Prokesch, Appendix,
vii. 11.