herself sufficiently powerful to resist any | Christian, the subject races are Mohammeattempt at aggression on the part of adjoin- dans, Hindoos, and of various other faiths. ing states. Whatever may be the terms We do not give equal rights to those we of the Treaty, supposing the most enlarged interpretation to have been given to the Five Points, we do not believe that the first has been attained. On the Asiatic frontier, now the most vulnerable point of the Ottoman Empire, and where probably the next attack will be made upon it, neither the influence nor the means of aggression of Russia have been diminished. On the contrary, they have been increased by the unfortunate issue of the campaign in Armenia and the fall of Kars. We have shown how little we have to hope in a military point of view from the new European frontier. Let us then inquire whether the results of the war furnish the elements of internal strength and prosperity.

govern, nor do we admit them to any public employment which confers the least power or authority except under the most immediate control of a British officer. For many years a struggle has been going on in favour of the admission of natives of India even to some of the humblest employments under Government. Their best friends have doubted how far it would be consistent with the safety of our Indian Empire to admit them to any share in the administration of affairs. No one would venture to suggest that we should throw open to them the government of a province, or even of a district, the command of our armies or even of a regiment. In our dealings with native states and native princes, we have too often abandoned every princiIt must alawys be borne in mind when ple of right and justice on the plea of necesdiscussing the so-called Eastern question, sity, or even on much less tenable grounds. that the difficulty of its solution arises from We do not dwell upon these facts to justify the elements of decay and disruption which the vices of the Turkish Government or exist in the Ottoman Empire itself. Tur- the cruelty and corruption of Turkish gokey is essentially weak, because, in Europe vernors, but to point out how tender and at least, and consequently in that portion of considerate we should be with Turkey, and her territories in which foreign influence is how much allowance we should make for most to be feared, the dominant Mohamme- her great difficulties. Those difficulties are dan race rules over a population conside- greatly increased by her Christian popularably superior in numbers to itself, and tions being brought into immediate contact speaking a language, claiming a descent, with powerful neighbours, whose policy it is and professing à religion which are those of to incite them against their rulers, and who its most formidable neighbour. If, then, can bring to bear, to encourage disaffection that population were to become strong and and revolt, the sympathy arising from comwere to be under the control of Russia, the munity of religion and of language. substitution of Russian for Turkish rule India we have not these dangers to contend would be sooner or later inevitable. To with, and yet we are more jealous and susavoid this result, and to maintain their picious of our Indian subjects than the dominion, it has hitherto been the policy | Turks have ever been of the Christians of the Turks to keep down as much as pos- | under their sway.

In

sible the Christians, to exclude them from We are too prone in dealing with Turkey real power, and to prevent them from ob- to overlook these considerations, and to taining that prosperity, that influence, and express indignation and surprise because that share in the administration of public the Porte does not at once change its entire affairs which would inevitably end in the policy. We demand concessions for the fall of the Ottoman rule in Europe. It Christians which are undoubtedly in the is not surprising that such should have abstract just; but we forgot that we are been the case. On the contrary, the Turks demanding them of a government which could not do otherwise. With them it has sees in them the germs of its own destrucbeen a question of their very existence. tion. Can we be surprised that it should We should be the last to condemn them for hesitate, or even refuse altogether, to make adopting that which may really be a nar- them? But nevertheless the Christian row-minded and short-sighted policy, but populations must be raised, and must be which we ourselves have shown is the most rendered a source of strength, and not of obvious one in dealing with conquered weakness, to Turkey. Unless this be done, races. Do we govern our Indian posses- the Ottoman empire must either speedily sions upon any other principle? The two fall to pieces, and become the prey of neighcases are identical in most respects-in bouring states, or it must remain a continual those in which they are not we are behind cause of embarrassment and danger to Euthe Turks. In India the dominant race is rope. The problem to be resolved is con

VOL. XCVIII.

19

.

sequently, what measures can be taken to | man into the treaty would have afforded to place them, as far as possible, on an equality with their Mohammedan fellow-subjects; to call out their energies, to develop their intelligence, and to give them a fair share in public employments, without affording just cause for alarm to the Turkish Government, and promoting the ambitious designs of Russia. At the same time they must be so dealt with, that in the event of the Ottoman race, from causes which may be in operation, being no longer able to maintain its rule in Europe, the subject Christian race may be ready to take its place, and may afford those elements of union and strength which will be necessary to the maintenance on the Bosphorus of a great independent empire, powerful enough to resist the encroachments of Russia, and civilized and intelligent enough to develop to the utmost the vast resources of those provinces which constitute the western portion of the Turkish empire. We believe that this may be accomplished; but we doubt whether the means which would effect it have yet been adapted to the purpose. The end and its achievement would be worthy of a great statesman, who, looking beyond the mere interests and influences of the day, would seek to ensure the freedom and prosperity of a large portion of the human race.

Russia, Austria, and France continual excuses for interference in the local affairs of. Turkey, and would have enabled them to re-establish and to extend their conflicting influences amongst the Christian populations, the objections were well founded. It is believed that, in consequence of the Porte's remonstrances, the firman is merely referred to in the treaty. In effecting this modification of the intention of the Congress, as well as in maintaining the just rights and prerogatives of his Sovereign, we have every reason to think that Aali Pasha received the cordial support of the British Plenipotentiaries, an additional proof, we trust, to the Porte of the disinterested friendship and policy of England.

The Allied Powers have endeavoured to obtain the objects we have described by exacting from the Sultan certain concessions in favour of his Christian subjects, which have been embodied in a Hatti-sheriff, or imperial rescript. This important document was framed by the Turkish ministers, in conjunction, it is understood, with the representatives of England, .France, and Austria. It was formally promulgated at Constantinople, like the celebrated Hatti-sheriff of Gulhané, in the presence of the chief dignitaries of the empire, the heads of the Mohammedan law, and consequently of the Mohammedan religion, and the chiefs of the principal non-Mussulman sects of the empire. It is understood that the Allies were desirous of making the firman still more binding upon the Turkish government, either by introducing it textually into the Treaty of Peace, or by appending it in such a manner as to render it, in fact, a part of the treaty itself. To this the Porte objected, declaring that it would be an infringement of the independence and dignity of the Sultan, if he were to be controlled by other powers in the administration of the affairs of his own dominions, and in the government of his own subjects. On this ground, as well as on the really more important one that the insertion of the fir

Although the firman has not been inserted in the treaty, the reference to it will, we doubt not, be considered as a solemn pledge from the Turkish Government to the parties to the treaty that its provisions shall be duly carried out. How far any one power will be able to place its own interpretation upon any part of that document, and to found pretensions upon that interpretation, will probably hereafter become matter for very serious discussion, and may lead to fresh misunderstandings and complications. Russia declares, in announcing peace, that the objects of the war have been attained, the rights of the Christians having been secured. But does she renounce her pretensions to place her own construction upon the nature of those rights? We doubt it. There are expressions in the new firman as ambiguous and as elastic as any of those stipulations in the treaties between Russia and Turkey which were the immediate cause of the war. For instance, after expressing the benevolent intentions of the Sultan-of which there can be no doubt-and confirming the provisions of the Hatti-sheriff of Gulhané, guaranteeing perfect security of person and property, and the preservation of their honour, to all, without distinction of class or of religion, it declares that all the privileges and spiritual immunities granted by the ancestors of the present Sultan, ab antiquo, and at subsequent dates, to the Christian communities or other non-Mussulman persuasions established in the Turkish empire, shall be confirmed and maintained.'. Unless the Treaty expressly explains the meaning of this declaration, in what, would we ask, does it differ from that which was m asked of the Porte by Prince Menschikoff? We have here an admission upon which Russia can found all her old claims to interfere in the affairs of the Christian popula

tions professing the Greek faith, and to in- the direct interference of some foreign missist upon the maintenance of the power of sion. Buildings for sacred purposes, if in the Greek clergy over their flocks-that towns, villages, or quarters inhabited expower which has hitherto been the source clusively by persons of the same creed, of infinite mischief to Turkey, has enabled may now be repaired upon the original Russia to exercise a direct control and in- plan without any permission being necesfluence in the affairs of the Oriental church, sary; plans for new buildings are still to and is opposed to all true improvement and be submitted to and approved by the civilization amongst the Christians of Euro- Porte; but it is expressly declared that pean Turkey. this intervention of the administrative authority shall be entirely gratuitous.

In order, we presume, to prevent the power of intermeddling which such a declaration might confer upon Russia, every Christian and non-Mussulman community is bound by the firman to examine into its actual immunities and privileges, and to submit within a fixed period to the Porte such reforms as may be required by the progress of civilization and of the age.' We are not aware when this examination is to take place, but we cannot believe that it will be carried on without the direct or indirect interference of Russia, who will make a great effort to regain her lost influence, and to maintain her ascendency over the Greek priesthood. We have in former articles pointed out the almost despotic powers of the Greek clergy, and the mode in which they were exercised to the advantage of Russia and to check the spread of real knowledge.

Hitherto the names and epithets usually applied to such as did not profess the Mussulman religion, by those in authority and by their Mohammedan fellow-subjects, were offensive and humiliating. Infidel and unbeliever had become the common designations of a Christian, and were generally employed without any intention of giving offence. All such expressions are now forbidden, and those, whether private individuals or in authority, who make use of injurious and offensive terms towards such as differ in faith from themselves are to be punished. At the same time 'any distinction or designation tending to make any class whatever inferior to another class on account of their religion, language, or race' is to be for ever effaced from public documents. This provision is undoubtedly of great importance, and, as far as the Government is concerned, can easily be adopted. It is but an act of justice to the Christian subjects of the Sultan. One mark of inferiority, to which, however, long custom had rendered the greater part of them indifferent, will now be removed; and even the assumed equality with which they will be outwardly treated will do much towards softening those feelings of contempt and superiority with which the Mohammedan has hitherto been accustomed to regard those who are of a different religion from himself.

The Hatti-sheriff, however, lays down some principles in reference to the reforms to be made in the discipline of the Greek church which are of considerable impor tance, and which, if put in practice, will undoubtedly prove of great advantage to the Christians themselves. The Patriarchs are no longer to be, as formerly, dependent for their tenure of office upon the caprice of the Porte or of foreign missions, but are to be elected for life. Ecclesiastical dues are to be abolished, and the Patriarchs, clergy, and heads of communities are to receive fixed salaries, the Christians of The outward barrier having thus been Turkey being thus relieved, should this broken down between the Mussulman and salutary change be enforced, from one of Christian, it is declared that all subjects of the chief sources of oppression, the rapacity and avarice of their own priesthood. The temporal administration of Christian and other non-Mussulman communities is to be taken from the bishops, who have exercised and abused the supreme authority claimed by them in civil cases, and is henceforward to be vested in a mixed assembly of ecclesiastics and laymen. Hitherto no church could be built or even repaired without express permission from the Turkish Government. This permission could only be obtained by heavy bribes to the Turkish Ministers and authorities, expensive proceedings at Constantinople, or

the Turkish empire, without distinction of nationality, shall be admissible to public employment, merit and capacity being decared to be the only qualifications required. How far a principle so liberal and so just-so far exceeding in these respects anything of which this country can at present boast-will be adopted in practice, may be a matter of doubt. The objection is in Turkey really one of state policy. Hitherto Christians have not been excluded from high offices of public trust, as long as those offices have not been directly accompanied by actual power in the control over public affairs. Greeks, Bulgarians, and Arme

nians, have been ambassadors, plenipo- | Europe, certainly of England. Christians
tentiaries, chief secretaries in Government have hitherto been received into the medi-
departments, and have filled other very cal schools of the Government, and into
important places, but they have not been some of the public institutions of the same
ministers, governors of provinces, or com- character; their admission into the mili-
manders of armies. We doubt whether it tary schools is a question depending
will be consistent with the safety and tran- upon their admission into the military
quillity of Turkey to raise any of its service.
Christian subjects to those dignities until
great changes take place in the con-
dition of theem pire. An honourable and
intelligent Englishman or Frenchman
might administer the government of a pro-
vince, or be safely charged with the duties
of a minister; but ask any reasonable man
who is acquainted with the state of Greece
since she has become an independent
kingdom, whether he would trust any
Greek who has yet been connected with
the administration of the affairs of that un-
happy country with power in Turkey?
Would it be safe that such should be the
case? Bad as Turkish government may
be-and it would be difficult to exaggerate
the corruption and incapacity which have
distinguished Turkish Ministers-yet we
doubt whether a Greek Government, with
its subserviency to Russia, would not be a
graver misfortune to the East, and a far
greater source of alarm and danger to
Europe. We do not, therefore, attach
much importance to this concession.

tion.

The next clause of the firman declares
that all subjects of the empire shall be re-
ceived into the civil and military schools of
the Government, and that every community
is authorised to establish public schools of
art, science, and industry. The method of
instruction, and the choice of professors in
these public schools, are to be under the
control of a mixed council of public instruc-
These provisions, if duly executed,
will be of great importance to the improve-
ment of the Christian communities. It
must not, however, be supposed that
schools have hitherto been wanting in
Turkey. There is scarcely a Christian or
a Mussulman village, however small, in
Turkey in Europe and in most parts of
Asia Minor, which has not got a school of
some kind.
In many Greek communities
these schools are founded upon excellent
principles, and are capable of great deve-
lopment, forming the groundwork of a
very extended and solid system of educa-
tion. A certain amount of teaching is
more prevalent in Turkey than in the
United Kingdom. The Turkish peasantry,
owing to the instruction they receive
when young, are far more intelligent and
far better informed as to their own faith
than the peasantry of most countries in

The most important provisions in the new firman are undoubtedly those connected with the administration of justice. In dealing with Mohammedan nations, it must always be borne in mind that with them law and religion are the same thing. As with the Jews, every law which regulates the public and private conduct of individuals, the relations of life, the obligations of society, even mere outward forms, is founded upon or traced to a religious precept. Consequently the lawyer and the priest are one and the same, or rather, the clergy of Christian states is replaced by the men of the law in Mussulman communities. Religious obligations are constantly remembered and enforced, and a man breaks off in the midst of the most important public business, or of the most pressing private avocations, to perform his ablutions and prayers. This intimate connexion between what we term religion and even the most insignificant duty and practice of life, is one of the phases of the Mohammedan character which most strikes the reflecting traveller. The greatest difficulties we have had to contend with in our relations with the Turks have arisen from their adherence to and reverence for these religious obligations. We are too apt to forget that we are calling upon men to break through rules and precepts which they have been taught from their youth upwards to consider as an essential part of their faith, and the neglect or contempt of which constitutes in their eyes a sin. The Mohammedan law, i. e. religion, forbids certain taxes, the custom-house, interest on money, various modes of dress, and a thousand things which intercourse with Europe, commerce, and civilization have compelled or will ultimately compel the Turks to adopt. But it requires time and other means than violence to overcome deeprooted convictions and prejudices. We may cite the instance of the first loan with Turkey. It was repudiated on religious grounds, and not from any want of honesty or good faith, the Porte having fully discharged its fair obligations. Since then the scruples of the Sultan have yielded to dire necessity. When we remember the ineffectual efforts of the wisest statesmen

ly expect for many years to

ever.

come, if

These changes with regard to the administration of the law are equally practicable, wise, and important. If enforced in the spirit in which they are announced, they will prove of incalculable benefit to the Christians of Turkey. They will conduce towards placing all the subjects of the Sultan, of whatever religious denomination, as nearly as possible upon an equality, and they will protect them against the acts of injustice and oppression to which they are now too often subjected. But, at the same time, it must not be expected that they will be fully acted on immediately. Much time must elapse before the prejudices which they will offend can be overcome, and before those who have been brought up in the belief that they are a superior race and above the law as regards their Christian fellow-subjects, can be compelled to look upon them as their equals in a court of justice.

The prisons, houses of detention, and other establishments of that nature, which have hitherto been a disgrace to Turkey, are to be reformed; corporal punishment is abolished, except in certain instances, and an effective police is to be established throughout the empire.

to break down common prejudices in the most civilized countries; when we call to mind that we have recently had prophets in England and still have Mormons, we may make some allowance for the difficulties with which the best-disposed of Turkish Ministers have to contend. The administration of justice to non-Mussulmans was one of the greatest. As the laws are the religion of the empire, they are dispensed by the lawyer-priest. The Christians not being bound, except in certain special cases, by the Mussulman law, have been consequently to a great extent excluded from its operation. In civil cases between Christians, the decision has hitherto been left to the patriarch, the bishop, and the heads of the respective communities, who are more corrupt, and at the same time, from their intimate knowledge of the circumstances of each individual, better able to extort money than even the Turkish authorities. Criminal cases have been summarily and arbitrarily dealt with by the pashas and local governors. An oath could not be administered to a Christian, and in many cases even his evidence could not be received against a Mussulman. To remedy the evils which ensued from this state of things, as the relations of commerce and trade increased, mixed commercial tribunals were devised, The next clause in the Hatti-sheriff is which affected to adjudicate equitably be- one which may affect the very existence tween persons of opposite creeds. But of the Ottoman empire. It declares that, they afforded little substantial justice, ex-equality of taxes entailing equality of cept where a pasha was sufficiently upright and independent to protect the Christian against the Mussulman; or unless, as in Constantinople, in suits in which Europeans were concerned, the agent of a foreign mission or consulate attended to watch the proceedings. The recent Hattisheriff constitutes mixed tribunals for the trial of all suits, commercial, correctional, and criminal, between Mussulmans and non-Mussulmans, and provides that the proceedings shall be public, and that oaths shall be administered to witnesses accord ing to the religious law of each sect. Civil suits are still to be tried before the mixed provincial councils, in the presence of the governor and judge of the place (a clumsy proceeding, which, as business increases, must be altered); and special cases exclusively affecting non-Mussulmans may be referred, at the request of the parties, to the council of the patriarchs or of the communities to which they belong. The laws are to be digested into a code, which is to be translated into all the languages current in the empire-a vast undertaking, the accomplishment of which we can scarce

burdens, as equality of duties entails that of rights, Christian subjects, and those of other non-Mussulman sects, as it has been already decided, shall, as well as Mussul. mans, be subject to the law of recruitment.' This provision, if carried into effect, will cause a radical change in one of those fundamental laws upon which is based the constitution of the Empire. Hitherto Christians, and non-Mussulmans, not being permitted to enter into the military service of the state, have been exempted from the conscription ;* they are subject instead to a capitation tax of so small an amount that it scarcely weighs even upon the most indigent. It is divided into three classes: the richest banker or merchant pays between twelve and fourteen shillings annually; the poorest man about four shillings. At this small price the Christians of Turkey have hitherto been exempted from the

submitted to the Turkish yoke on certain conditions, amongst others that of furnishing to the Sultan military aid in case of war, can scarcely be considered as exceptions.

*The Miridite and some Albanian tribes, who