EUROPEAN TURKEY. THE Eastern Question will be much more readily understood if the character of the Turkish government is kept in mind. 1. Turkey is not a nation in the same sense as England and France and Russia are nations. It is not a nation of Turks, but a nation ruled over by the Turks. According to an estimate given by Mr. Godkin, the Mussulmans number only about three millions out of a population of twelve millions in European Turkey. That process of assimilation which has taken place in England, for instance, between the conquering and subject peoples, has had no perceptible influence in south-eastern Europe. Mr. Freeman, the historical writer, in a recent article, calls the Turks an invading horde, who have remained an invading horde for five hundred years. He says that "the Greek, the Sclav, the other nations under Turkish power, remain now as distant from the Turk as they were in the days of the first conquest." 2. What, then, is the character of the Turk? We all know that he exalts with divine sanction self-respect and self-confidence, knows comparatively nothing about humility and self-denial, and ranks it a high virtue to despise the unbeliever, who can in no wise be his equal. As Mr. Godkin plainly says, as a people "the followers of the Prophet (Mahomet) began by looking on the whole world as their legitimate prey, and the sabre as the noblest and best instrument for the propagation of their creed—a combination of perhaps unequalled efficiency in narrowing the range of one's sympathy and giving zest to conquest and spoilation." Also: "Any one who wishes to get an idea of the cowed condition to which three centuries of Mussulman aggressions had reduced Christian powers can hardly do better than read the history of the demands of these Barbary States on the United States from 1785 to 1805, and of the attack of Lord Exmouth on Algiers in 1816, when he released two thousand eight hundred and seventy-five Christians from captivity, mostly Frenchmen and Italians, who had been seized in their fields and homes in Sardinia, Naples, and Provence, and sold into slavery in the interior. And yet this was only the close of a chapter of horrors nearly three centuries long, and those corsairs were but the western outposts of a system of organised oppression which covered the eastern shores of the Mediterranean and stretched back to the frontier of Persia. In fact it is probably no exaggeration to say that no single tributary to the great sea of human misery has equalled in depth and EUROPEAN TURKEY. duration that which has flowed from the contact of Islam with Christianity in Europe. Of all the political terrors by which the human imagination has been oppressed, probably not one has clouded the future of so many persons of all ages and sexes as the fear of Mussulman conquest or invasion.”. The details of this picture as carried out in any country can be readily conceived, especially when the lurid light of such atrocities as those recently committed in Bulgaria is thrown upon it. 3. European Turkey should be freed from such a tyranny. It may be asked, Is there no hope of reform? Our space will allow us to give but a very little of the testimony which can be easily gathered on this question. The Turk obstinately refuses to change his character. Edward Riggs, missionary in Asia Minor, states "that all antiquity and ignorance cannot outdo the awkwardness and inefficiency of the crooked stick, to which, under the name of the plough, they adhere with stolid indifference to modern inventions." But we cannot stop on these matters. This writer quotes the celebrated traveller Vambery as saying, "The conviction is inevitable that until the power of Islamism is broken, the true reformation of this land is an impossibility." In the opinion of Mr. Riggs, "the jealousies of the European governments allow the form and responsibilities of independent sovereignty to a ruler and people who have over and over again proved their incapacity for the discharge of such duties." Not long since Major A. G. Constable stated that the roots of all the evils endured by subject peoples of Turkey lies in the Mohammedan religion of their rulers, who govern not by any recognised code of secular law, but that derived from the Koran, the fundamental principle of which system, as regards subject races, is that there can be no equality between the true believer and the infidel; that the Koran is to the Turk what our constitution is to us; and that no law contradictory to its mandates can be binding. "A Sultan cannot, if he would, give to his Christian subjects that equality which they demand, and which is demanded for them by Russia and other Christian nations. A Sultan of Turkey, with all his power, which is apparently rather than really ¦ despotic, is perfectly helpless in any attempt to set aside or override the law of the Koran, which recognises no possibility of equality between an infidel and a believer in the religion of Mohammed." This is in accord with the facts. For nearly forty years the Sultans have been endeavouring to infuse new strength into the empire by reformatory decrees, but, continues Mr. BEWARE OF DOGS. Godkin, "testimony of the strongest kind has been steadily pouring in ever since, and is now astonishing Europe, that the condition of the Christian population has undergone little amelioration during that period of Turkish legislation or administration." No wonder that Mr. Freeman has come to the conclusion that the Eastern Question simply means "men are to be left under a form of local administration which, when the doer of a murder or suspected murder is not at hand, at once puts all his kinsfolk to the torture. And all this comes on top of the grinding fiscal exactions both of the landowners and of the Sultan's taxgatherers. . Men suffering under wrongs like these see but one answer to the question whether such things are to be any longer endured." "The people of the revolted lands know that no faith is to be placed in Turkish promises. They do not want reforms at the hand of the Turk; what they want is freedom from the Turk and all that belongs to him." He is confident that the one thing which is needed is to give to each province, as it demands it, full practical emancipation from the Turkish yoke. "Thus the Eastern Question may be solved." If practical independence is only to be had at the "cost of a nominal homage, or even fixed tribute, to the tottering despot of Constantinople, I do not think that practical independence should be refused on these terms." BEWARE OF DOGS. THE following is from the Sword and Trowel, Mr. Spurgeon's magazine, and he himself is the sensible but eccentric John Ploughman who discourses from the text, "Beware of dogs." These animals he divides into these classes; we abridge his sermon as follows: Firstly, then, let us be aware of dirty dogs, or, as Paul calls them, "evil-workers;" those who love filth and roll in it. Dirty dogs will spoil your clothes, and make you as foul as they are themselves. A man is known by the company he keeps; if you go with loose fellows your character will be tarred with the same brush as theirs. Secondly, beware of snarling dogs. There are plenty of these about; they are generally very small creatures, but they make up for their size by their noise. They yap and snap without end. They find fault with anything and everything. When they dare they howl, and when they cannot do that they lie down and growl inwardly. Beware of these creatures. Make no friends with an AN ICELANDIC CAVE. angry man: as well make a bed of stinging nettles, or wear a viper for a necklace. Thirdly, beware of fawning dogs. They jump up upon you, and leave the marks of their dirty paws. How they will lick and fondle you as long as there are bones to get. Too much sugar in the talk should lead us to suspect there is very little in the heart. The moment one praises you to your face mark him, for he is the very gentleman to rail at you behind your back. Fourthly, beware of greedy dogs, such as can never have enough. Grumbling is contagious; one discontented man sets others complaining, and this is a bad state of mind to fall into. Folks who are greedy are not always bonest, and if they see a chance they will put their spoon into their neighbour's porridge; why not into yours? Fifthly, beware of yelping dogs. Those who talk much tell a great many lies, and if you love truth you had better not love them. Those who talk much are likely enough to speak ill of their neighbours, and of yourself among the rest; and therefore, if you do not wish to be town talk, you will be wise to find other friends. Sixthly, beware of dogs that worry the sheep. Such get into our churches and cause a world of misery. Some have new doctrines as rotten as they are new; others have new plans, whims, and crotchets, and nothing will go right till these are tried; and there is a third sort, which are out of love with everybody and everything, and only come into the churches to see if they can make a row. Mark these and keep clear of them. Seventhly, beware of dogs who have returned to their vomit. An apostate is like a leper. As a rule, none are more bitter enemies of the cross than those who once professed to be followers of Jesus. He who can turn away from Christ is not a fit companion for any honest man. AN ICELANDIC CAVE. THE following description of an Icelandic cave is taken from Good Words : The interior of Iceland, as is generally known, is a great, uninhabited, grassless desert, for the population (only about 70,000 for an area one-fourth larger than Ireland) is mostly confined to the seashores and neighbouring valleys. In going from coast to coast this must be crossed; it edges the inhabited land as the sea does on the other side, and gives a wild charm— THE KING AND THE FARMER. for us, at least, who suffer from over-population. We were now on the borders of this region, crossing a great valley or plain of old lava, with a background of snow mountains. The lava was rather like a very rent and crevassed glacier, but all black, the sombre colouring being only relieved by the patches of grey and yellow lichen. Right in the middle rose the isolated conical hill, Erick's Jokull, with dark crags below, and perpetual snow and ice above. Even on that sunny day, the scene conveyed the strongest impression of vast, weird, remote desolation. We rode over the lava till we reached a great gaping pit, and then dismounting we clambered down over rough rocks into the cave of Surtsheller, which they say runs for two miles underground. The floor of the cavern was of transparent hard ice, covered near the entrance with some inches of water. The last sight of daylight, looking back, was therefore very pretty, as the ice gave a perfect blue reflection of the overarching rocks. Now lighting candles, we scrambled on over icy slopes. Down in the clear depths we could see the strange black shapes of the lava, as Dantè saw the traitors like flies in amber in the ice of his frozen Inferno. All this cavern must have been once a huge bubble in the boiling lava, and these fantastic boulders flung from some furious volcano. Then came the frost-giants and made the place their summer palace; for where the cavern is at its highest and the clear ice stands in tall columns and fretted arches reaching to the roof, it is curious and pretty enough for any fairy tale. In the light of our torch the whole place flashed back prismatic colours with a blaze that made our two candles seem very dim when it was out. At the far end of the cave, in a hollow rock, we found seals and coins and carved names left by former travellers, some of them dating from early in the century. We added our names, as we were the first ladies who had been in the caverns-not that there is any special difficulty about going there, but that, speaking broadly, no ladies travel in Iceland. We were glad to return to the warm daylight, feeling convinced that the outlaws who once inhabited these caves must soon have become the most rheumatic of men. THE KING AND THE FARMER. KING FREDERICK, OF PRUSSIA, when he was out riding one day, saw an old farmer who was ploughing a field and singing cheerfully over his work. "You must be well off, old man," cried the king. "Does this acre belong to you on which you so industriously labour?" |