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.