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1042 THE LEADER. [Saturday ,
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PROGRESS OF TICK STRIKES. Oisr a questio...
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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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Anti-Turkish Opinion On The Eastern Ques...
This revolution , they have predetermined , is to consist in tile downfall of the Turkish Empire . Hence , this is a notion widely disseminated among all those with whom the pulpit is still an educating power . There are , we believe , parts of England , and , at any rate , there are parts of Presbyterian Scotland , where , if a Peter the Hermit were again to appear , telling of the present condition of the Holyjband , and urging a crusade , he would find followers . With certain facilities thrown in the way , we can fancy a Scottish crusading expedition sailing for Bey- »
rout to conquer the Holy Land from the Turks , in the interest of that theological speculation which predicts the return of the Jews . This , we say , is a curious ingredient , more powerful than is perhaps suspected , in the present display of anti-Turkish feeling breaking out amongst us . It is certainly not for such romantic reasons that Mr . Cobden and Mr . Bright contemplate , with that amount of satisfaction which they have professed , the prospect of a disintegration of Turkey . But in their rhetoric on the Eastern Question , they , as well as the Times , gladly avail themselves of these reasons .
On the other hand , the poor Turks have then friends . In spite of all that has been said against them , they have now , and have always had , a band of apologists . It is said , and apparently without the possibility of contradiction , that personally the Turks are a more honourable , just , and upright race of men , with more of that sturdy quality , which Englishmen admire under the name of hone , than any of the supple and chattering races among which they hold rule . It is more than thirty years ago since Lord Byron , who knew the different nations of Europe as well as most people , and whose known sympathy with the u-reeks was likely to make him judge severely of their enemies , thus expressed his opinion of the Turks :
'' In all money transactions with the Moslems I ever found the strictest honour , the highest disinterestedness . . In transacting business with them there . ire none of those dirty peculations , under the name of interest , difference of exchange , commission , & c . & c , uniformly found in applying to a Greek consul to cash bills , even on the first houses of Pera * * In the capital and at Court the citizens and courtiers are formed in the same school with those of Christianity ; but there does not exist a more honourable , friendly , and highspirited character than the true Turkish provincial Aga , or Moslem country gentleman . It is not meant here
to designate the governors of towns , but those Agas who , by a kind of feudal tenure , possess lands and houses of more or less extent in Greece and Asia Minor . The lower orders are in as tolerable discipline an the rabble in countries with greater pretensions to civilization . A Moslem , in walking the streets of our country towns , would be more incommoded in England than a , Frank in a aimilar situation in Turkey . * * The Ottomans , with all their defects , are not a people to be despised . Equal at least to the Spaniards , they are superior to the Portuguese . If it bo difficult to pronounce what they : ire , we can at least say what they
are not . They aro not treacherous ; they are not cowardly ; they do not bum heretics ; they are not assassins ; nor has an enemy advanced to their capital . They are faithful to their Sultan till he becomes unfit to govern , arid devout to their God without an inquisition . Were they driven from St . Sophia to-morrow , and the French or KuHsians enthroned in their stead , it would becomo a question whether Europe would gain by the exchange . England would certainly be the loser . * * With regard to that ignorance of which they are ho generally , and sometimes justly accused , it may be doubted , always excepting Fiance and
England , in what useful points of knowledge they aro exoollod by other nations . Is it in the common arts of lifo V In their manufactures ? Is a Turkish nabro inferior to a Toledo ? or is a Turk wornc clothed or lorfgnd , or fed and taught , than a Spaniard ? Aro their Pachas worse educated than a Grandee , or an Eflendi than a Knight of St . . Tago : I think not . * * Jn all the mosques there are schools established , which jiro very regularly attended ; and the poor are taught , without the Church of Turkey boing put into peril . I believe the system in not yet published ; nor have I h (« u- < l whether , the Mufti and the Mollaa have
subscribed , or the Caiinac-in and the Tefterdar taken the alarm , ' for fear the ingenuous youth of the turban Hhouhl be taught not to pray to God in tkc . ir way . The ( i reeks also -a kind of eastern Irish Papists- —havo a college of their own at Maynooth no , atllaivjili ; where the heterodox receive much the name kind of countenance from the Ottoman as the Catholie college from the English Legislature . Who shall then ailirm that the Turku are ignorant bigots when they thus evince the exact proportion of Christian charity which is tolonttod in the most prosperous and orthodox of all poimihlo kingdoms' {" There aio many vyoll-informod men who
endorse every sentence of this estimate of the Turks by Lord Bjrron , and who , moreover , point to the fact that since Byron wrote , many reforms have been introduced in Turkey , making the country and it ' s Government even more respectable than they were then . They tell us of enlarged commerce , of increased toleration , of a freedom in travelling unknown in France or Germany , of unabated honour and punctuality in all commercial dealings , of noble firmness in protecting exiles and refugees . When the abuses still remaining in the Turkish administration are cited
to them , they reply , with Byron , that there are worse abuses in many countries that have a better name ; that all careers of reform must have- a beginning ; and that the Turks seem to have made their beginning , while certain nations nearer home have stopped short . If the fact that it is only the other day that the Turks admitted Christian testimony in their courts of law is cast in their teeth , they ask whether there was not also a certain moment , not very long ago , when it , first name into our own stiblime British heads
to grant Catholic Emancipation . Stop , they say Turkey may yet have a Parliament and all its concomitant proofs of free government and civilization—a Tory , a Whig , and a Radical party ; a Turkish Sir Robert Inglis , defending orthodoxy and the Koran ; a polygamous Cobden preaching free trade in Phrygia ; and a Lord John Uussell in very wide trousers , dubious as to the extension of the electoral districts in Mesopotamia , and uncertain whether he ought to go so low as a hundred-piastre franchise . A little while later
and there may even be sceptical societies , publicly debating the Koran ; and Constantinopolitan congresses , with , branch-meetings in Damascus and Bagdad , advocating the suppression of the hareem-system and the cause of female education . In short , without denying that there is at present much exaction and many abuses in Turkish rule in the East , they are hopeful that , without any external and violent attempt to oust the Turks from the factitious empire which they have made for themselves , the motley elements of that
empire may yet come into a better state of organization . At least they see no good practical mode of external interference . Mr . Urquhart goes so far as to say that " if wo had not the Turks in the East we should be obliged to create them . " It is an opinion , too , of Lord Palmerston , recorded in many a page of Hansard , that " it is of extreme importance , with a view to the preservation of the balance of power in Europe , that Turkey should be maintained in a state of independence . " The " Greek Empire" notion , offered
by many as a means of letting down Turkey easy , and the universal expectation of the advent of the Franks , which travellers in Syria report as prevalent among tlio tribes there , are , by these apologists of the Turks , traced , in part at least , to tlie subtle intrigues of Husaia , always preparing by intellectual missionaries for the work she completes by armies . Sympathizing "with the opinion of Mr . Cobden that this is not a time for shirking or keeping back any consideration pertinent to the whole question of tho East , we have thus fairly
represented the two aides of what may bo called the abstract Eastern question . Our own opinionRon this head have boon already expressed in these columns . But what wo desire emphatically to protest against , and-av'hat wo think we may protest against all the more effectively , after having shown that we do not blink tho abstract question , is the fallacy of substituting this abstract question , this purely speculative controversy , for tho real practical question now flung by stern facts
on tlio floor of Europe . 'There may bo two opinions jus to tlio likeability and necessity of tho Turks in their present situation ; there can , wo think , be but ono opinion among wifio and liberal men in Wohtern Europe as to tho desirability of Hoeing tho KuHsiaiia whore tho Turks , now are . . But it ib tho trick of aomo orators and newspapers to keep the two quoHtionfl intorblondod , and to make ( linpnuno of Turkey do tlio work of that argument in behalf of JiusHia which they do not even pretend to find .
1042 The Leader. [Saturday ,
1042 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Progress Of Tick Strikes. Oisr A Questio...
PROGRESS OF TICK STRIKES . Oisr a question of commercial industry it i . s a great point , to havo , we must not Hay , tlio uriiniNwion , but the diRtinet affirmation of Mr . Cobden , in regard to the LanmHliiro strike ; * ' thai ; there in ignorance , not confined to ono Iparty in tlio dispute , but ignorance , on both aides , and
deplorable in its results . " This is strictly true . We believe that both sides are ignorant to a degree , even greater than either one supposes . Certainly ) neither can taunt the other ¦ with , its want of knowledge ; least of all can the masters level their taunts at the workmen . From their position , and from their opportunities , they are bound to know many things , which the men must be excused from knowing , and they remain untaught in the most essential principles of their position . For example , they withhold explicit statements
from the men ; they regard their workpeople with a haughty distrust ; they insist on treating the question as one of interest , and yet they talk to tie men about their " misconduct" in resorting to strikes . If the masters kne \ v but half of wnat any man may know respecting the working , classes , they would be aware that a very little of candour , of rational representation , and of honest , direct language ~ language not servile , but
respectful and manly , would at once draw from the working classes much more than a corresponding spirit of amicable advance . If the matter is to be treated as one of interest , it should be dealt with , exclusively , on that ground ; and when the masters talk or the social obligations of the men , they either deal in cant , or they stultify their own profession to consider the question as one purely of self-interest and self-regard .
We cannot claim for the men . any exclusiveness of correct judgment . They fall into the same error with the masters , —they treat the matter as one of their own self-interest , while they reproach the masters with want of consideration , want of humanity , and want of other qualities which have nothing to do with the question of self-interest . If the men pursue their own advantage , which they have a right to do , they must expect the masters to do the same ; if it is to be a matter of good feeling on one side , it must be a matter of good feeling on the other , But good feeling is never a thing that can be extorted ; it can only be voluntarily rendered .
Both sides , indeed , are keenly alive to their own interest—to the great advantages which would be attained simply by their own successstrongly conscious of their own sacrifices , and very slightly considerate of the interests or sacrifices on the other side . The master feels that his capital , and the welfare of his family , are risked ; and if his books show him that lie cannot pay higher wages , the conduct of the men on strike appears wantonly to sacrifice that capital and those family interests . But the men feel , that
every abatement of wages is a diminution of comfort , if not of food , for their dearest dependents ; and when the master , in the exercise of an unexplained pride , stops his mill , the working-man , forgetting his own pride , blames the master for the pale looks of his wife and ckildron . A little explanation would make the workman understand , that if the master ' s outlay exceeds his income , not only could he havo no motive to continue liis business , but tho ycry means of carrying it on would be taken from him by tho inexorable
laws of commerce .. But the master is , it appoars to us , chargeable with unfair conduct to the hands . It has constantl y happened that tho employer has represented to his men the necessity of y ielding to him willing work when ho Haw the trade obliged him to give less payment to Mb labour . He thus made willing labour , which ho had purchased before , a matter of good feeling , and thus morally incurred an obligation to his hands . Yet , on niilvar > r » ii /> r > +. / -wiiairtn . q of T > TOHnfVritV . it ha 8 OlEOB .
happened that tho master him not repaid , by j spontaneous rino of wages , tho Iosh to - vWUjHJ tho men had submitted in . adverse times . At uw end of ' 47 , for example , tho working people wero giving to their employers tho name labour , anu tho same zeal , as before tho ton per cent , vuj taken oft "; but when tho times had somow ^ improved—and they havo somewhat , aJlnoij , not to the full extent supposed , —tlio musters aw . not , Htretch a point , sis they expected tlio men w * in
and did not exhibit that zeal paying " *; they had demanded in labour . Onthcso ft ™" " * the " men aro right in considering their claim being a " debt . " . - T i ] l 0 Thoro ih another consideration wJnoii - working man has a perfect right to advance , present thoro is a tendency for watfOB to cioc while food is rising . While . wages arc ton pei ; Iobh than they wore in ' 4 ( 5 , broad m forty P ° JV higher than it was in that year . - In J ™ . and Essex , men , heads of families , aro rcocivu h
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 29, 1853, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29101853/page/10/
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