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September i9, 1854.] TH E IE A D E R. ®&...
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A Russian Pamphilet:* Iv. (Conclusion.) ...
to live nearly one year , butah «»« cruples of the Ulemas were too strong for the tenderness of the gran dfather ; the infant was strangled in the bath . ; the unhappy mother died of grief some days after ., and the law has been fiuthfully observed ever since . The father of the present Sultan ascended the tlirone after strangling bis brother , who strangled his uncle . Abdul-Medjid himself observes the law of reclusion with regard to his brother Abdd-Azis , the presuniptive heir who must have no children , and whose life is only guaranteed by the minority of the children of the Sultan . How long has tease condition ofnanoiia f
dynastic morality ( d to be a . - iprogress Yet the present Sultan is the best man of his administration , as he is the most inoffensive and powerless . Even if his efforts to introduce toleration into his empire were crowned with success , they could only render its fall less disastrous to his people , and to the peace of the -world . If we wanted to establish by the testimony of the learned and of travellers our assertion that toleration in . Turkey is impossible—that it can be nothing but an official falsehood in the empire .-of the ' Koran—and in a state whose Sovereign is , in fact , Hie Pope of the East ., we might compile a volume of citations from the literature of France and Germany
The most liberal of legislators , the most generous of judges , become iviplacable in -their convictions when they are reduced to found their law and their justice on a -creed whicli they are obliged do venerate—not as an emanation of Iniman wisdom , 'iut'OS a revelation from above . The Thirks , who have . finished their education in . Enrqpe , return to Constantinople ^ believers neither in Mahomet nor in Christ ; accomplished in the vices of the West , and only more refinedpersecutors and oppressors than their fiithers were . ' ¦ ' ¦ . ;¦ ' ¦ . . / . ' ¦ ' ¦' ¦ . . , ¦ ¦ ¦¦ '¦[[ ' , ' : ' . / - ' } . , ¦ ¦ . ' . If they -h ^ ve preserved their religion , it is intensified into a fanatical hatred ofnGhristian society ^ and-. / a -sombre apprehension < of the nfatll of the Ottomau Empire . It is the army ikat has . n ^ ade jprogress' in- Turkey s no army has ^ seen so much Laid fighting . Yet out of a host < of Mussulman .
officers who . havestudied miliiaryscience in Europe , and who have risen to high posts in the SultanV army , not one distinguished name can be cited . The ' Gommari & er-h-i-ehief is an Austrian renegade . Are these attempts at ihe reconstitution of a power strong enough to serve as a : barrier against Russia ^ icoinpatrblfe ^ with the existence of the Qttpman supremacy ? We repl y * " that race > 'whose strength "was its fanaticism ,- is . condemned to impoV tence in : renouncing oppression . Will the oppressed races forget -their wrongs tinder the patronage of France and England ? Lord Redcliffe told the " Porte 'that it nxust no longjer count upon the permanent hasistance of the : Great Powers , and that the dominant race must reily on the sympathy' of the rasa ' s . ' It appears iiseless to tell a blind man how to "walk : he must be led : and leu 'he is , rafter roujrhlv .
We ; have seen . how the dominant Tace has acted upon the councils of the English ambassador , Cruelties and exactions drive the Greek populations to revolt , and then it Is " . Russian instigation" that has provoked insiiri'cetions whicll are obnoxious to the pblitical action of Russia . | The Ottomans Yrill not accept religious and political equality . They are treacherous by nature , and hereditary oppressors by the law of conquest : but they are not cowards . they will not accept Ithe passive part you offer them . Nor will , the oppressed and despised : raia fraternise -with . the Turk in the new Arcadia of y . our creation . . ...... But the ^ act is , religioua and moral consideration * ay © out of the question . The ^ Sultan himself is reduced to a fiction or pretext , at most a theory < The question is the partition of the East , the Oriental succession , the eventuality of , a Latin Empire , the destruction of " Russian power in the Black Sea . Constantinople ha 6
always been the knot of the Eastern question : its geographical position , its commercial advantages have been , enlarged upon by poets and diplomatists . Perhaps man has been forgotten in these exaggerations : the populations to whom God has assigned the fortunate shores of . the Boaphorus and the Hellespont have been lost in . geographical und commercial considerations . The political destinies of the Greek and Bulgarian , who were lords of those lands before the Turks ' encarnped in Europe , ' worth a thought . $ As to a , Latin Empire , the Oriental races are almost , more jealous of the spirital domination of the West than . of the Mussulman persecution ; this jealousy is traditional and inveterate . All the efforts of the Latin propaganda among the Greek and slave populations are condemned to sterility . The diplomatists arc not sincere in preaching to the Turks religious and political -equality . They know well enough that rfche moral and political education of the Oriental races ig not to be recast by a few notos and firmans . An absurd analogy has compared the emancipation of the Christians in
lurkey with the emancipation of the . Roman 'Catholics frx Ireland . Not to speak of the difference between England and Turkey , wo do not find that the ilotism of the Irish has gained much by the reform . The Catholic Church in Ireland is still oppressed ,, while the Anglican Church groans under the burden of its privileges . There is a certain expiation for every Government . which inscribes in its temporal code the- ' ( Miathenia of one religious persuasion ctc / aimt another in Che form of inequality of civil and political rights and privilege qf worship . Woo to the legislator mho denies the eternal right of man to liberty of conscience . Russia , youngest daughter of modern civilisation , lias had t 7 w inappreciable fiapjmiess to proclaim at the moment of her entering into the family of European States , tjut most complete equality of rights far all forms ofworship ; even the Mussulmans onjoy that right . - . , . The fu-noanB which , the Porte has prepared at the uiotafcion of Europe , admitting the . evidence of Christians and their public employment , and gonerally affirming oi-vil equality , are fancy snaoimens of Turkish style and calligraphy . Equality of rights for nil the subjects of the Sultan was solemnly assured by the " Act of GuHinno , " bearing date 1839 . We have seen its fruits .
- W « shall not believe in the sincerity of the councils addressed to the Porto until -the Turks have bceix porsuadud by gradual concessions to become Chriatians , and to impose the Greek rite of baptism upon the Sultan , the Ulenma , the army , and the owners of the soil . This w . cuw only bq analogous with the pvosauro of the West on the Chwefcian empire oi Byzantine , and with the- attempts in the fifteenth century to jmposo the Latin dojjma upon the Emperor and clergy of CQnatantiivQple , J . hiei would bo to act with frankness ) and dignity , though , we doubt it" the lurka would submit to the last extremity of apostucy , which their low
punishes with death . Nor -would that apostacy be favourable to the pretensions of the West . Turkey would then become the natural ally of Russia . We recommend to the English ministry the conversion of the Turks ; that is , at least , a good idea to put forward ; the English people would doubtless pay with rapture a few millions to the prosecution of a war for so nohlea cause . The feudal law which expropriated a conquered people is out of date . That exotic civilisation which denationalises peoples is impossible in the East . The Greek preserves his nationality distinct at London as at Marseilles , at Vienna as at Venice . The ^ Greeks , the Bulgarians , the Albanians , the Montenegrins , -the Bosnians ; those hardy , intelligent , and adventurous races will prolong the . struggle against your governmental system as they have against the Ottomans . They will present
a perpetual obstacle to all attempts at fusion with the conqueror , to all solutions of the Oriental problem which are adverse to tlie rights of nationality . ... . But who will have to answer at the supreme tribunal for all the blood to be shed by Christian nations iai this war ? Not unhappy Turkey ; she is Tiors de cause ; not Russia , as we have proved by an examination of her interests , and of the continuous and premeditated policy of her rival ; not -even -France , in spite of that pei-sonal -policy which the national feeling will soon or late condemn . The whole responsibilityof this war must fall upon a few English statesmen—notably upon Lord Redcliffe and LordPalmerston , who , while they detest each otherhave worked
icor-, dially together in driving their country to war . _ The ErigKsli nation has : been misled by the excessive instinct of her material interests . The opinion of enlightened and upright -men unanimously condemns those statesmen -whose names we cite before the bar of posterity . We ; do not absolve the English nation and the [ English Government . In less -than half a century England has dishonoured five pages of her history : in 1807 by the bombardment of Copenhagen ; in 1815 by-the barbarous treatmentof the Prometheus of St . Helena ; in 1819 b y the sale of the Christian ( town of Parga with its territory to ' . All Paclia , of Janina ; in 1839 by the Chinese war ; in 1649 % y the attack on Greece . . . v ' - . .
TVe wilinot : describe the consequences of the intrigues fomented in the principal sstates of Europe by the English Goyerriment . -We will equally abstaiii from penetrating the . ^ sonibre mysteries which are wrought over that immense space between the " Himalaya and the tropical sea : the groans of that slow necaionib of peoples offered as a holocaust to a company of \ merchants scarcely readh -our ears . Is hot'that lenormbus tragedy expiated "by the prematOTe decrepitude and ideath of the ^ agents of the crirrie ? >© r does the English nationfiatter itself . tJtat its Sabbath observaneey its Bible-Keading , and its closing of ' beer-houses , atone . for these liuge and Minous sius ? Such a dpctrin e of ' good works' would be inconsistent with the Protestant creed . Is the English nation content to balance profit and lqss with the cold and calculating smile of the counting-house for ever on its lips , careless enough how the ; pi'Ofit comes ? We doubt if this war -will not prove a bad speculation , if it do nptprovea
sixffi . disgrace to English , histox-y , and a preface to other wars . -Or let us admit the hypothesis that England , repudiating the traditions of the last centxii'y , and that political system by which she succeeded in destroying successively the three navies of Holland , Spain and France , in now attacking ^ the isolated navy of Ilnssia has no arricre pensee " against the navies of iF-rance and -the iTJnited 'States . Pretexts of war will not be wanting in the i ^ Tew World , nor in the Old . It will be enough i ; o proclaim the integrity of the provinces of a monarchy already in the situation of Tui'key and the sovereign rights of some pasteboard king . protected by the British flag and disguised in scarlet uniform . i . . . . We say to France , to . the nation as toillie ' Government : ambiguous policy leads to incoherent action . War is sometimes a < s * . d ^ necessity , an inevitable consequence . 'jSuch , -perhaps , is the present war between England and Russia . . Not so the war ibotween France and Russia .
Let France , instead of pursuing the phantom of an Eastcm . Einpire , seek in the Arab race 0 f Asia a . finer field of activity than Algeria . Instead of disputing with a few Greek monks the possession of a lamp and a doornail or two at the sanctuaries of Jerusalem , let her avenge her crusading ancestors , and the 'memory of Louie IX . ; God would acceptthis tash as anevejjiation of 1798 . " Elect of Universal Suffrage , and most sacred Majesty , abandon the idea of imposing , by the force of ai'ms , the law of a Mussulman minority upon the immense Christian majority of Bosnia , Epirus , and Thrace . If you interfere in the East do not stake French courage against the two indomitable forces , national and religious independence . Be rather the champion of England than of Mahomet . If you | , dream of an Eastern throne for a member of your family , remember the abdication of Fontaiuebleuu , inscribed among those glorious decrees which crcoted thrones for your family in Hoi-I f % ^ % ^ 1 ( vfvixl 'a iw * I aa a ta *¦ . 4 ^ . Ia / iJ . w 1 * #% 1 « r \ r '
^ ^ ^ * * * * JLU . UV 1 , Squill , JLVlljllVS , 1 U 1 U » W CSipUUllU We have proved the cause of the Emperor of Russia- to bo just , We doubt not he will persevere in his disinterested course . Providence has mssigned to liim a beau role ., and he will not swerve from it in pursuit of military conquest , Tn the East he has to save his church and to avenge £ hc disgrace of the . fifteenth century ; in the West ho has to wia the symprtthies of liations pervented , by demagogues and by England , to justify the opinion of those who have always done justice to his noble and chivalrous nature . In hia own dominions he will continue the civilizing work of Peter , the Great , and thus complete -the political system of Europe . The pcEiwanent interests of £ bo continent of Europe ai-e likowise tliose of Kwssia . France , royal , republican , or imperial—is , we repent , the natural ally of Russia . Those two States are the two arms of the body politic of the European Continent . In the ! Baat they may unite in dofeuoo of Oluuofcmu intorosts . Thoir alliance k necessary enough to pi-oteot Europe from Eagbflh insultand from the delugo of anarchy .
, , Wo have soen the Emperor of Russia reply to accusations oi tyranny ana intolerance , by progressively liboral institutions in hia dominions . Europe will bestow on Vim tire same praise tis it bestowed upon his brother ... . We have scarcely spoken of Austria , Prus 8 m , nn < l tho other Goi'man States . Yet in theprcsent Eurqpoan . dinicultios it is the Gormau nation tlmt as principally interested . Enilrtnd boasta of Imving sub- ^ diHod Germany >» . tb » lost great war . It may bo asked , did England pay a huwdrodthjpairt of the costs of the war to Germany ? Hob not Gorman honour been insulted
September I9, 1854.] Th E Ie A D E R. ®&...
September i 9 , 1854 . ] TH E IE A D E R . ®& g
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 9, 1854, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09091854/page/19/
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