XII.

TURKEY.-II.

FALSE principles of government, corrupt motives of action inflamed by religious animosities, conflicting interests arrayed against each other, rooted prejudices, and anti-social manners, have concurred to place the Ottoman Empire on an inclined plane. The position is one of natural determination towards a state of exhaustive weakness. The progress of other States in knowledge and national development increases by comparison the dangers of that decline. It has increased them practically, as a long series of defeats and losses on the side of Turkey may serve to testify. The expansive energies of civilisation can no longer brook the inertness, and in some respects the exclusiveness, of a country so fertile in resources, so obstructively situated, and offering at the same time a field of almost boundless extent for remunerative enterprise. The problem which calls for solution is simply this: Can the strength of the Empire be so far restored by means consistent with the wants and spirit of the age as to preserve internal order and to command the respect of foreign Powers?

The incurables, who for such means look to the revival of Mohammedan convictions, must tell us by what process of faith, no longer entertained even in Turkey by reflecting or educated minds, can operate as the motive power of a government compelled by the conditions of its tenure to restrain the passions, and frequently to counteract the impulsions, of an ignorant and fanatical race. Under a system of administration thus inspired, religious belief

H

must evidently be the rule of right, and the measure of individual worth. How then would Jew and Christian fare both as to political rights and as to personal consideration? Would the peace and well-being of the Empire be secured by forcibly renewing the submission of one half of its population to the pride and bigotry of the other? Would there be "no complaining in the streets," no danger of resistance, no appeal to the foreigner, no resentment in Christendom? Is the war of Hellenic independence a fable, the chastisement inflicted on Damascus a dream? Are the Greeks less sensible than they were of degradation and oppression, or the nations of Europe more deaf to the claims of humanity and the sympathies of religion?

Another and ampler basis than that of an unsanctioned revelation is wanted for the reconstruction of a dilapidated empire. Where but in the elements of social harmony, correction of discord and decomposition, can such a foundation be discovered? That civilising process, which carries out materially and morally the benevolent purposes of Providence, and knits together the various classes and pursuits of mankind by the bonds of social interest, combines whatever is necessary for the external defence, internal welfare, and legitimate advancement of a constituted community. Religion, in respect of belief, like the action of the lungs, is involuntary, and therefore, however essential to moral, as breathing is to bodily health, is not in that sense properly a subject of legal enforcement on individuals as such, and still less a just obstacle to the freedom of legislative enactment in other matters. A body politic, the compound of individual men, partakes of their mutable and mortal nature. If linked inseparably to laws believed to be divine, and therefore unalterable, the interests of the community, which require change of law with change of circumstances, must, in the end, be seriously, perhaps even fatally, com

THE SULTAN CANNOT REMAIN CALIPH.

99

877.] promised. To this dilemma it would seem that the Turks are now reduced. They must either be content to govern on larger principles, with the advantage of extending proportionally their means of improvement and independence, or they must incur the necessary consequences of persisting in error, and thereby having to contend with the disaffection of their Christian subjects and the resentment of their Christian allies. Sultans may continue to be caliphs for their Mussulman subjects, but they must learn to act as sovereigns for the people at large.

The difficulties suggested by this view of the question are by no means so great as they may appear to those who have only a general acquaintance with Turkey, its empire, and its history. The Koran is far from being that inelastic code of laws which many suppose. It has long ceased to be an exact mirror of Islamism as practised by the Ottoman authorities. The difference which has perceptibly grown up between the letter and the practice of the law is not merely one of suspension, such as the disuse of hostilities for the propagation of the faith, but positively active, as in the case of treaties and alliances with Christian Powers. This primary departure from the system of policy prescribed by Islamism dates from the sixteenth century. Solyman the Magnificent and Francis the First of France first set the example of an alliance between the sovereign of the Turks and a Christian Power. The act was founded on mutual convenience suggested by their respective international positions at the time. It led to the establishment of similar relations between the Porte and other European Powers, to the reception of consuls in the outports of Turkey, and to the exercise of jurisdiction by them over their own fellowsubjects. It was the first link in a series of concessions which may be fitly called extra-Koranic, and which were gradually made, to meet the necessity, more and more felt

by the Porte, of obtaining a less insulated position relative to the States of Christendom.

Internal reforms were commenced in the same spirit towards the close of the last century by Selim, the last Sultan of that name. The Janissaries, excited no doubt by the Ulemahs, broke into open rebellion, and the reaction which followed cost the reforming Sultan both his throne and his life. Mustapha, who succeeded to the throne, was not more fortunate than his cousin. It was reserved for his brother Mahmoud to realise the plans of Selim, and to revenge that Sultan's death by the extermination of the Janissaries. This ill-disciplined and unmanageable militia was replaced by a regular army formed on the European model. The Sultan put forth all his energy for its completion; but the weakness of his empire, proved and increased by successive misfortunes-by the war with Russia which terminated in the treaty of Adrianople, by the independence of Greece which followed the battle of Navarino, and by the victorious progress of Ibrahim Pasha into Syria and Asia Minor-compelled him to enter into closer relations with Christian Europe. The proclamation of Gulhané, and the introduction of extensive reforms under the name of Tanzimat-kairieh, gave a solemn and imposing earnest of Mahmoud's sincerity. They laid the foundations of a real improvement in the Turkish administrative system, and more especially in the treatment of Rayahs, non-Mussulman subjects bound to pay a yearly poll-tax to the Grand Seignior. Further and more decided measures of reform were subsequently adopted. Those of a judicial character were not the least important. A court was established for the trial of civil causes between the Porte's subjects and foreigners. It was a mixed tribunal, taking cognisance inore particularly of differences arising in trade and navigation. Its maxims of law and rules of procedure were

1877.]

PROGRESSIVE REFORM.

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derived from Christian sources. Our leading principles and forms of trial, exclusive of juries, were even admitted by firman in some of the criminal courts; and at Constantinople, in the highest of those courts where Mohammedan law prevailed, our Consul-General was allowed to sit with the power of watching the proceedings, and staying for his assent the execution of judgment on behalf of British subjects brought to trial on capital charges.

To these beneficial innovations are to be added the establishment of lazarettos for quarantine against plague and cholera; the suppression of the negro slave-trade with a view to that of slavery; the abolition of torture and of capital punishment in cases of conversion from Islamism; and the recognition of Protestantism as one of the protected and established religions in Turkey.

During the Crimean war a notable enlargement took place in other branches of social progress, inconsistent, more or less, with the restrictions of Mussulman law, but required by the necessities of the Empire. Loans were raised at interest in foreign countries for the service of the State. The Porte's Christian subjects were released from the payment of tribute, and were declared to be admissible as privates and officers to the imperial army. Turkish battalions were placed under the command of British commanders, and British agents were allowed to raise levies among the Turks for an irregular military corps to be paid and officered by Her Majesty's Government. At one time the suburbs of Pera and Galata were held, in aid of the police, by detachments of the French and English armies. On the cessation of hostilities all previous reforms, together with important additions, were confirmed and declared by an imperial proclamation known as the Hatt-y-homayoon, solemnly promulgated, and inserted, as a fact, in the general treaty of peace. Among its new provisions were