Chapter IV

Measures suggested--Turkish regeneration--Decline of Fanaticism--
Equality of civil rights--The Ottoman Moniteur--Publicity--Judicial
institutions--Pressure from without--Payment of indemnity--War--
Resistance--Naval armament--Protection.

The reader will, I trust, do me the justice to believe that I have not embarked lightly in this discussion. While I remained in Constantinople, and since my return home, I have devoted to it my best attention. It is a question involving the most important interests of the Turkish people, and very serious interests and national feelings on the part of England and France. I am deeply impressed with the responsibility which any writer assumes, who deals with a topic that may find its issue in a partial or general war, of which, from every motive of religion, humanity, and civilization, I entertain the utmost abhorrence. My anxious desire is, if an individual may so speak, that the governments and the enlightened classes of the two most powerful nations in Europe shall direct their thoughts to this momentous subject _in time_, in order not to provoke a war, but to prevent it.

♦ MEASURES SUGGESTED ♦

The steps to be taken appear to me obvious. We have a treaty with the Porte, whereby it is clearly assumed, as a point agreed to on both sides, that the ancient regulation, prohibiting ships of war, at all times, from entering the two straits of the Dardanelles and the Black Sea, shall in future, so far as the Porte is concerned, “be observed by every power in time of peace.” Let a draft of a new treaty be framed on this subject, as isolated from all others; let it be confined to a declaration that the ancient rule shall be rigidly and impartially enforced against “every power,” without exception. If such a draft be agreed to by Russia, and I know not how, upon her own principles in defending the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi, she can object to it, the result must be that Turkey will return to her _status quo_ before the period of that transaction; that is to say, the Sultan will be again the sovereign of his own territory.

♦ TURKISH REGENERATION ♦

But it will be said that the Turkish empire is falling to pieces, that it is again in danger of being attacked by Ibrahim Pacha, that Albania is in insurrection, that other provinces are likely to follow its example, and that the Sultan does not possess sufficient power to render his authority respected. Assuming all these assertions to be indisputable, to what do they lead? Are we to be told that the Ottoman sovereign is to stand for ever in need of foreign assistance to suppress the turbulence of his own subjects? If this rule were to be applied to the other states of Europe, no such thing as the practical independence of a nation could exist upon that continent. The subjects of the Sultan are now discontented because they are oppressed by his subordinate officers. Let the causes of complaint be removed, and obedience will return. The individual who wears the ensigns of royalty in Turkey, though a weak and vain prince, happens to have a taste for European institutions and manners: and he has, in point of fact, already made very considerable progress towards an entire revolution in the habits of his people. He commenced this great enterprize by destroying the Janissaries--a body of men who, with arms in their hands, effectually controlled the state for centuries before his reign, sustained for their own purposes the fanaticism of the lower orders, and fermented every mean and dangerous prejudice and passion throughout the provinces.

♦ DECLINE OF FANATICISM ♦

The reader will have collected from the preceding pages of this work, that the age of religious frenzy has altogether passed away in Turkey. The Mahometan establishments of an ecclesiastical nature are, very generally, in a ruinous condition; and the people have utterly ceased to attend the mosques in the crowds which formerly displayed so much ardour of devotion to the Koran. The frequent returns of the plague amongst them, its long continuance, its remarkably fatal character, and the wide range of indiscriminate slaughter over which it rushes, as if urged by some supernatural energy, are, to my contemplation, the lurid flashes of a destroying angel’s wing, sent to announce the termination of the sway, which, for inscrutable purposes, had been permitted to the doctrines of the false prophet.

♦ EQUALITY OF CIVIL RIGHTS ♦

It is certain that, within this last year or two, the notion has been generally propagated for the first time among the Turkish inhabitants of Constantinople, that, instead of freely exposing themselves, as they did formerly, to the pestilence, under the impressions which they derived from their doctrines of fatalism, they now begin to understand that they may avoid it by proper precautions. Hence, when the contagion is around them, they shun the polluted atmosphere of the mosques. They have already yielded to the prohibition issued against the use of opium; they are beginning to ventilate and white-wash their houses; they keep at home, nurture their natural good sense, and attend to the education of their families. These are important changes in the habits of the people; and no mathematical demonstration can be clearer than this, that such changes as these are but the precursors of others still more important.

It is a remarkable fact, though unknown in England, where religious differences even very lately produced very serious differences in political privileges and rights, that the most perfect equality in this respect prevails in Turkey. It is not long since a firman was issued securing, even to the Jews in that country, all the privileges which any other person can enjoy there--an example of toleration which the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland has still to follow. The Divan, under the directions of the Sultan, has prepared, and commenced putting into execution, extensive plans for the education of the community, without, I believe, any distinction of religion. The plan contemplates the erection of colleges and universities, which of course must require the assistance of time, and of a more abundant treasury than the Sultan can at present command.

♦ OTTOMAN MONITEUR ♦

An official newspaper, entitled the “Ottoman Moniteur,” has been published at Constantinople for the last eighteen months. The Turkish copy, printed in a beautiful type, is first issued, and it is followed in a few days by a French copy, extremely well executed in all its departments. I visited the establishment where these journals are printed, and I saw no inferiority in any of its arrangements to those which supply our own community with intelligence. They had not indeed the steam-press, and now and then an irregularity occurs in the days of publication; but these are defects which may be easily amended. The press exists--it affords the example of sound, and I must add, even of free discussion, upon the most important subjects: and this is more than any of the northern capitals of Europe can boast of.

♦ PUBLICITY ♦

The names of the principal public officers throughout the empire are periodically announced in the columns of the “Moniteur.” Even this is a proclamation, warning them that they are acting under a responsibility, which is not to be abused with impunity. Their conduct is openly commented upon; and praise and censure are distributed with impartial discrimination, according as merit justifies the one, or malversation the other. The provincial governor can no longer perpetrate any serious outrage upon the personal rights of those placed under his authority. Rules have been established for the guidance of these satraps throughout all the branches of their office; and the slightest departure from those regulations, which evince the utmost regard to the dictates of humanity and justice, is punished in the most exemplary manner.

One would think that Mr. Hume had been lately a member of the Divan; for there is hardly any class of expenditure which has not undergone a thorough revision, with a view to cut off every source of outlay not absolutely indispensable to the service of the state. Much still remains to be done, with a view to place the internal revenues of Turkey upon a uniform and stable foundation; but this is a difficult task, requiring a higher state of political knowledge, and greater experience in fiscal combinations, than the Divan as yet can possess. Even upon this great subject, however, something has been done, and preparations for more extensive improvements are in progress. The duties payable in Turkish ports upon foreign merchandize are very unequally charged; and the British importer has to complain of the great advantages secured to his Russian rival in this respect by the treaty of Adrianople. Nevertheless, the trade of Turkey with England, as I have already stated, is constantly increasing.

♦ JUDICIAL INSTITUTIONS ♦

The judicial institutions of Turkey are all based upon principles of simplicity, equity, plain good sense, and economy. In the foundations of its jurisprudence no essential change is required: but the officers charged with its administration are frequently incompetent to the performance of their duties, and open to corruption. These abuses must be wholly eradicated in the course of a few years, if the Sultan be _left free to follow his own course_. So also the ancient municipal institutions of Turkey are famed for their simplicity and excellence in every respect. They only want revival, and the hands and thoughts of honest men to carry them to the highest perfection. Ten years of internal tranquillity actively devoted by the Divan to the completion of all the ameliorations which that body, under the inspiring guidance of the Sultan, has at this moment in view, would prepare the community for the great crowning achievement--a general representative assembly, where the Mahometan, the Armenian, the Greek, and the Jew, might be seen consulting in one common spirit for the welfare of their common country.

♦ PRESSURE FROM WITHOUT ♦

I fearlessly maintain, that no such result as this can ever be practicable in Turkey, unless she be protected without delay against the “pressure from without,” to borrow a most appropriate phrase from the most distinguished statesman of our age. That pressure is a Russian pressure--it is the smile of a cyclop who is sidling nearer to her every moment, in order that by his mere weight he may at length fall and crush her to the earth. Let us understand each other clearly throughout this discussion, and, above all things, let it be perfectly well felt that that pressure must be removed. Upon this point there must be no reserve. The Russian ambassador must not be “viceroy over the Sultan.”

♦ PAYMENT OF INDEMNITY ♦

In order to accomplish this object, England and France should guarantee to Russia the payment of the balance of the indemnity now due to the Czar from the Porte; and upon a convention being signed to that effect, Silistria should be evacuated. If such a guarantee be offered and refused, British and French troops should occupy the Chersonesus, or peninsula, which is situated between the Hellespont and the Gulph of Melanis, and the allied fleet should anchor in the Bosphorus. There would, probably, be no necessity for making any pecuniary advances to the Sultan to enable him to meet his engagements; but if a loan of five or six millions sterling be necessary for that purpose, as well as with a view to enable the Sultan “to set his house in order,” he will _then_ obtain it, without any difficulty whatever, in the London market.

These reasonable arrangements need not be embarrassed by any discussions about Wallachia, Moldavia, or Servia. If I be not much mistaken, these provinces will be enabled in due season to assert and maintain their own independence. Our business is at present with Turkey; and I apprehend that the most phlegmatic statesman can hardly say that there is any thing visionary in the proposed treaty and convention of which I have given the outlines. Should overtures proceed in the spirit of these suggestions from England and France to Russia, and should they be coldly received, trifled with, objected to, reasoned against, refused, let every weapon of diplomacy be blunted in the contest of mind against mind--but quickly--without protocols--without congresses--by means of a few short notes, within a limited time. And finally if all the means of negotiation be exhausted--if the designs of Russia upon Turkey be open and avowed--then let Russia proclaim her unjust WAR!

♦ WAR ♦

From the constitution of human society, such as the Creator has been pleased to frame it, one community of men has no means of vindicating its own rights and dignity, when deliberately outraged by another, except by superiority of physical force, and of skill and courage in directing the application of that force. It is to be lamented as a defect, for which no remedy can be found in a peaceable order of things, that no tribunal can possibly be established to which one great nation might appeal for redress when injured by another. Consequently war becomes of itself an institution for the administration of justice, though clothed with terrors, and attended sometimes with a waste of human life which no good man can behold without anguish. But the patriot must forget his heart, when his hand is to be raised for the defence of his country, and of her independence and interests, abroad or at home. It is an imperative duty on us all to avoid war if we can do so with safety--but the moment that safety is brought into question, to talk of forfeiting our national honour in order to spare our blood, is to provoke fresh aggressions until no honour can remain worth the sacrifice of an insect.

♦ RESISTANCE ♦

If war, then, should become inevitable, let us at once put on our shields. The telegraph has but to whisper to those shapeless masses which have lain for some years reposing like so many stranded whales, on the waters of Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, and suddenly, as if waking from a long sleep, they stretch forth their arms, put on their apparel, brace their mighty limbs for the battle and the storm, gather their thunders around them, and unfurling their ensigns, go forth in all the majesty of collected strength, the arbiters of offended justice, the champions of a roused and indignant people, the predestined of victory.

♦ NAVAL ARMAMENT ♦

♦ PROTECTION ♦

For England, war this year rather than the next--for the next rather than the years to follow--because now we are armed, and Russia has still her period of _eight years_ of preparation to complete. Her treasury has been exhausted by her preliminary efforts for the subjugation of Turkey, and by the enormous profusion of her corrupting policy in all quarters of Europe. Besides, a war now would be necessarily a maritime war alone--in a few years hence it would require half a world of troops. No blood would now be shed, if the Chersonesus were occupied, and our fleet were in the Bosphorus. Let us protect the Sultan until he shall have matured the reforms which at present exist principally on paper--until he shall have again become a _Power_--until he shall have recovered Silistria--built new fortresses on the Danube, signed the acts of absolute independence for Moldavia, Wallachia, and Servia, and opened his first Parliament--then Turkey will be safe; and whether Christian or Mahometan, as to the majority of its population, it cannot long remain behind the other nations of Europe in the career of prosperity, freedom, and above all of religion.