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freedofrom offence December 9, 1854.] TH...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Stories Of The War. Our Camp In Turkey, ...
m , despite th absence of the degrading system of flogging , seems to be-first , the much better nuiteriel of which the army is composed , and the selfrespect which is always supported by the character of discipline . Where we degrade the French endeavour to elevate . A French soldier is usually a man of some education ; lie has a character to snpport or lose . He is not recruited , as with us , fro m among eUher agricultural boors , or men whose vices render civil life uneasy to them on the contrary , the French soldier constantly looks hopefully to the time when he may retire to the honours of citizenship , with the prestige of having been a brave man . Now , with us , such is the ori gin and training , the habits and vices of our ordinary soldiers , that , so far from the fact of a man's having served in the ranks being an advantage to liim , should he desire employment , if obliged to leave the service it is the greatest difficulty he . would have to overcome . To have been a soldier , or a soldier ' s wife , is tacitly to introduce the idea , that an individual has contracted such a
mass of disreputable habits , that to place him or her in positions where sobriety honesty , or respectability is concerned , is quite out of the question . The English soldier fights , while in the army , with all the bravery of the Briton ; but it is as a machine . He is governed by force , and in habits and feelings is often little better than a mere animal . The French soldier is intelligent ; he has also great nationality and , as the Colonel of the Fifth " Leger " told me , who had himself risen from the ranks , " I can generally manage a man with the two words , ' La France , et la gloire . '" If , however , these two talismanic words , fail in their power , and the soldier commits a great breach of discipline , such as striking his commanding officer ( a circumstance that occurred during my stay at Galiipoli ) , or any gross disobedience of orders , he is either shot , or , for offences of a character not so calculated to introduce disorganisation , he is sent to Algiers . Here , at a very considerable distance inland , the French have established a sort of Sanatorium for the recovery of debilitated military morals
and the offender is » ndemned to work either in chains on the highway , or in prison , according to his own character and that of his offences . The period required for hia recovery may be shortened by good conduct ; and when at length he is morally convalescent , the soldier is not sent back to the sneers of his comrades , or the scene of hia temptations and offences , but disposed of in a regiment serving in France , so to be brought under the good influences of family and social feelings there to regain his own amour-propre by cultivating the respect of others . The system is found to work well . Punishment in the French army is rare ; but when used , severe and prompt . Men are not hardened by punishments they learn to become indifferent to . Punishments that often depend on the humour of commanding officers , and being dealt forth capriciously , and sometimes in a manner incommensurate with the offence , tend orilv
to jrntate without reforming , and to increase rather than subdue insubordination . Neither are men degraded to a condition of despair among their comrades ; but every means is takea to encourage them to good , to hold up a high standard of militaryemulation , and to stimulate them to imitation of glorious exploits . Again , they are not treated as mere machines by their superiors . The French soldiers learn to feel that their health , their comfort , even their daily recreations , are subjects of interest to their officers ; this fact originates a strong degree of personal attachment , and the men feel elevated by their knowledge of the existence of this sympathy . My voyage in the Thabor afforded me great opportunities for observing these facts , and the staff officers on board were good enough to afford me many interesting proofs connected with such matters .
THE " Fir , LE DU REGIMENT . " The wives of French soldiers generally are never permitted to accompany their husbands on service , unless in the case of the one or two cantinieres , whose services to each regiment were likely to be useful . " We had only one Frenchwoman among the troops on board , the Thabor ; and she was a middle-aged Norman , who , in a somewhat dirty cap , orange neckerchief , draggled chintz dress and sabots , was anything but an attractive object . Having seen no other woman , however , except our pleasant little Marseilles stewardess , andayemme de chambre on her way to Constantinople , I was somewhat startled , the morning we anchored off Smyrna , at the sudden
apparition of a brilliant cantiniere , who , in red trousers , short skirt , and tight jacket , came clanking her spurs down the companion ladder at breakfast , and , strutting with a most self-possessed air into the saloon , touched her casquette to the colonel , and stated her intention of passing the day at Smyrna . Monsieur le Commandant smiled , bowed , addressed the individual as " Madame , " and requested she would have the goodness to be on board again at four . On this , she touched her cap a second time , wheeled round , and re-ascended the " companion" in most military style . Truly dress is a great improver of persons , for this dashing cantiniere was no other than tlio lady of the sabots , whose chance of creating : an impression was entirely the result of this arande tenue .
notwithstanding the very gallant and respectful manner in which our cantinierde announcement of intended absence had been rccoived by the colonel , I yet found that she also was withheld from feminine folly "by a system of excellent discipline . The original selection of a cantiniere is a matter of considerable caTe : she is neither required to be very young nor very pretty , but of a carriage , figure , and constitution suitable both for the due effect of her costume , and the due performance of her required duties . Her husband must be a man in the same company , in which she takes rank as a corporal , and he becomes responsible for the conduct of his wife . Should she commit acts worthy of Algiers , the husband suffers with her . The soldier must accompany hia wife to the scene of her punishment , and bo identified with her . So that , on one hand , the man has an object in maintaining a sense of duty and propriety in his Wife ; and the wife , on tho other hand , may be withheld from evil , by the knowledge that its punishment will involve her husband .
'flic trench officers treat the canCmieres of their regiments with marked respect and consideration , Their vuluo is understood , not only , as I was told , as sutlers , but aa nurses to theTsick , and assistants to the surgeons , in case of accidents to tho soldiers . Women of tlie regiment without such , specific duties would however , they consider , simply encumber tlio arm }'; consequently tho French soldiers do for themselves all that tho wives of tho English nro supposed to be required for , aa washerwomen and cqoko . The arrangement is doubtless a merciful one . Few French soldiers marry , because , being seldom in garrison , they fool indisposed for a condition which will only bring ¦ with it expenditure and anxiety . Tho few women who aro married are well cared for in Franco , when the regiment marches ; nnd , like the husband , enjoy a reputation whioh is rather a Bocurky to their employers than a difficulty in the possibility of employment . Tho cantinieres onjoy tho greatest ponnil > le respect and protection in the discharge of their duties . They Uoeoino the cure of the whole regiment . ; exposure and fatigue « ro nparcd thom in every possible way , and their health and privuey thoroughly regarded .
Mr 3 . Young tisaures us with delightful gusto that it is quite a mistake to suppose that Turkish women , though slaves , huvo not their own way , " and thufc " the Turkish husband is terribly henpecked at times . " u Poor man I " elm adds , with an accent of coinnuBurntion exquisitely feminine . " Poor Hiait , " is wo believe , an Knglish klioni . At all events it is a ehnruung concession .
TURKISH LADIES . It is quite a mistake to suppose that Turkish women , though slaves , have not their own way . They enjoy a great deal of liberty , as we have seen , in the bazaars , at the Sweet Waters , shopping at Pera , and on board steamers . They are quite ignorant , but exercise authority not the less on that account . Their tempers are unchecked by educational training ; and while their object is to preserve the beauty of their persons and , as they suppose , increase it by artificial means , they are determined not to forego an iota of their own privileges , some of which , as part of the harem system , are very considerable . In all these matters the ladies make common cause ; and the gossips , nurses , and female merchants , who make it their business to go from harem to harem , keep the ladies of each well acquainted with what is going on in another ; and should the desire for any particular possession or indulgence be so excited , and the lord of the harem be disposed to raise objections , his life is not a happy one till th « caprices of the ladies are satisfied ; and though a Turk may be a very dignified-locking individual mounted on a magnificently caparisoned horse in Staraboul , he cuts but a poor figure with his wives and slaves in the harem , where perhaps a hundred and fifty sharp-voiced ladies , with iron heels to their slippers , make common cause ; and he fa glad to surrender at discretion , amidst a shower of abuse and morocco shoes .
A Turkish husband is terribly henpecked at times , poor man ! as most men are when united to irrational , uneducated women , with vivacious tempers . Men have been known to shrink , and abandon their stronghold of independence even , before the steady , pertinacious attacks of even one lady of this description ; surely then , the poor Turk , even if only for this cause , deserves commiseration . What he may suffer too , as the ladies of the harem gain the idea of " the rights of women , " it is fearful to think of ; one trusts he will at once see the necessity of teaching the ladies to use their liberties aright , with true modesty , kindliness , and a sense of due responsibility in the social circle . The Circassians have abundance of spirit , more so perhaps than the Georgian ladies . And people still in Constantinople remember the Circassian , slave , who , becoming to a certain degree educated and intelligent , and quailing from the degradation of her position , left her master ' s house , and commenced an honourable and useful career . And when the pasha , in a spirit of admiring generosity—for he had loved her well , and was a man of nature higher than usual— -sent . lier the jewels he had presented to her , she ground the gems to powder , and so returned them .
The price of a Circassian slave in Constantinople , when I was there , was about fifty pounds . The barter had been forbidden , till a Russian general again permitted the disgraceful practice . The state in which the poor creatures arrive is generally fearful , and it is a profession in Stamboul to recover the beauty of these fair speculators ; for indeed many of them are so , and long for this condition of slavery in Turkey , as a means of acquiring wealth and influence , ambition being one of their ruling passions . A woman ' s opinion is worth having on any subject , even when accompanied by perfect ignorance , for then it is intuition , a faculty unknown to the ruder sex . Bat in the present case , our authoress speaks as an eyewitness , and there is , after all , so much of shrewdness and good sense in her sayings , that we notice with respect Mrs . Young ' s opinion of the
FUTTHIE OP TDRKEV . The period is come for great changes in the history and character of Turkey and its people . In past time no " Frank " could be a landholder there , but we may now look at no very distant epoch to the settlement of French and English as coldnists in Turkey , and that , under their efforts and enterprise , her lands , rich and beautiful aa they are , will develop to the full their long-treasured resources . Whatever good arises in Turkey will be forced upon it from without 5 it will originate in what Dr . Chalmers « alled " the expulsive force of a new idea . " The elements of decay , not of greatness , are within ; and these must crumble and be lost , and the new life spring up from among their ruins . There is now an immense population from the West pouring into Turkey . Not alone soldiery of every rank , and of varied faith and countries , but chaplains , men of science , nurses , and English ladies of high rank and tender nurture , of refined habits and warm womanly sympathies . It is impossible to believe , that , war once over , and the integrity of Turkey secured , her shores will be left , and her cities vacated , without mighty changes having arisen thera .
Between the Turkish ladies and our generous-hearted Englishwomen intercourse will arise , friendships commence . The Mussulmans and Circassians will see , wonder at , and at length desire , not only to enjoy the freedom , but to imitate the habits of these Christian ladies . The Turks themselves rnay learn that a frock coat and cloth trousers do not express civilisation , but that there is something more ; and mighty as he fancies himself , in his apathy , stolidity , and indolence , the Turk may discover at length what a miserable mistake he is , and begin to think that , after all , he has wasted more time than lias been exactly good for him in smoking and reading the Koran . Turner , in his amusing work , The Vindication of the British Bards , tolls us , that the three things that improve genius are , " proper exertion , frequent exertion , and successful exertion . " Now this seems to strike at tho very root of all hope as affects the character of the Turk ; because , though the Koran obliges him to be honest , foTbida him to be false either in word or in deed , it yet opposes all exertion ; and so , even if ho have any modicum of capability or " genius , " its improvomeut ia out of the question .
What then can arise ? The Turk hates the Greolc , despises tho Englishman , abhor e the Christian and the " Giaour" in any sliape . Tet the Turk , as he now is , will soon become impossible . A few may " sit in sick misery , " and pino in fatness ; but the majority will begin to escape from Ulematj and I minima , and , while they Hip their coffee , have their doubts of them . Solf-interesfwill have its weight . The Turks will flee great and enriching matters going on in art and science , and will not allow a trumpery old prejudice to stand in the way when they might share a few advantages . Then will come the love of pleasure . 1 have neon the Turks in Cairo in paroxysina of laughter in the parterre of the theatre , a clover French farce acting on the stage and
by degrees , the gentlemen of Stamboul will find that sitting upon a divan , with nn amber mouthpicced pino between their lips , is but n dull business . Lads w » Jl begin to laugh at their elders , and to cultivate science ; next they will laugh at tho Ulomaa ; and thirdly , they will scoff at the Muftis . These will be the first stages of progress . Tho next will show better things : learning , order in thought , inquiry . Meanwhile , amelioration will bo going on in tlio evils of the social syatom ; intercourse with the good , the wiae , tho gentle , will teach tlio Moslem charity;—and so , mid « o , gradually and progressively , wo hopes tho force and prennuro from without will change tho character of the Turk , and not leave him as be ia now , a wonder , n jost , and a stumblingblock to tho Eastern and Western world .
If such is not tho case , —if tlio Turk haft not enough depth in his nature to allow th < seeds of improvement to fructify nnd bring forth good fruit , to th « equal benoflt of himself and hi * neighbour , then tho Turk must Ijhcoiuu a . nonentity . It is impossible tha tho allied forces can luavo Turkey- —that mini of ocionco , teachero of religion , soldiers and groups of our kind und courugoouH country wornon , can quit tho shorea of Marmora , leaving Turkey to clone m > again , in all its folly , durkuo . tN , and degradation That fair land has better thingu in store fur iior thun to bo crushed and blighted by th <
Freedofrom Offence December 9, 1854.] Th...
freedofrom offence December 9 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 1169
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 9, 1854, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09121854/page/17/
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