TURKEY.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 329, 12 June 1878, Page 2

TURKEY.

Turkey is a historical fossil, belonging to the era when enthusiasm was the chief factor in military success. She could only flourish amid decay. Site could only be great and terrible when others were small and despicable. She was one of the plagues that flew and crawled in the darkness that separated the days of earlier and later civilization. Site preferred the dunghill to the garden, and she changed the garden, when she found it, to her liking. But though there was no beauty in her greatness or benignity in her power she was still both great and powerful. Her fleets were supreme on the Mediterranean, and her armies were the terror of Europe. She overran the Empire of the East ; stormed the city of Constantine, wrecked confederacies, dominated Hungary, besieged Vienna, nominated a king for the Poles, and had Peter the Great in her power —but let him go on terms that he never fulfilled. Even England sought her alliance in the days of the Armada. For a season churchmen prayed and crusaders bled in vain. But her power was one of the evils that time cures. She foil back to her level os naturally as the spent wave, leaving 'like it only wreck to tell the tale. Her weakness is now what her power was, the crux of statemen and the curse of Europe. In life she was a beast of prey ; in death she is carrion of unsavory smell round which Lions, Bears, and Eagles gather not to tear it, but to tear each other. Thus in power and in weakness, in life and in death she is damned to a bad eminence, and is faithful to her traditions being only evil and tiiat continually. She is held in her place not by inherent life, but by the power of others. The States of Europe, Russia excepted, wait like Macawber for something to turn up. In the meantime they make a convenience of Turkey, How are the mighty fallen! Thus, as Hamlet observed: “Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the cold a way; 0, that the dust that kept the world in awe Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!”

The story of tiio Bulgarian massacres is fresh in the minds of our readers. We need not recall its harrowing details to show that no colors could paint too darkly the Power with whom such horrors are common place. Wc mention them only because they give a clearer idea of the national morality and the mental culture of the Turks than the most subtile analysis could.

We may observe here that though wc condemn the- Turks, wo feed no logical necessity laid upon us to plead the cause of the llussian. We find it possible to disapprove of one without loving the other. We arc for the British Empire, and for or against either or both of the others according to the interests of that Empire. We are well aware that many declaim with high-sounding philanthophy against the sordid British mind that thinks of ‘interests’ when the lives of thousands are at stake, “If British interests” they ask “ required the annual sacrifice of twenty youths and twenty maidens, would yon still plead for those interests ? If British interests require the continuance of the Turkish rule, does not that mean the sacrifice of youths and maidens?” We reply, “Show us that, if wo abandon our interests, such sacrifices will cease ; show ns that to let Turkey fall, and to introduce war and anarchy among the hundreds of millions of India, would sacrifice no youths and maidens and we will agree with you ; till then we are for British interests.”

The Turkish Empire in Asia is about seven times the extent of the United Kingdom, and has a population of over 16,000,000. Of these about ton millions arc Turks, four millions are Mohammedans of other races, and the rest Christians. The Turkish possessions in Africa, arc about ten times as extensive as Great Britain and Ireland, and have a population of about 10,000,000, for the most part Mohammedans. Turkey in Europe, though the smallest, is by far the most important portion of the Empire. It is twice the extent of the three kingdoms, and has a population of about 17,000,000, of whom about live or six millions are Mohammedans, and the rest Christians. Of the whole Empire, about 25 millions are Mohammedans and 15 millions Christians. These figures must bo taken as estimates, like the figures relating to China or Japan ; for in Turney there is no census and no survey. The people may be divided into about thirty nationalities. The most distinct line of separation, is however, that of religion. The evidence of a Christian is not admitted on oath, as of any value ; lie has dailyto submit to insults and degradation that we have not space to detail, and which without detail are inconceivable, and he is not allowed to bear arms in defence of his country. Which latter piece of tyrauy, however, he seems to bear with considerable resignation. It is pleasant to note that about two-thirds of the population of European Turkey belong to a race and creed to which progress is not impossible. Doubtless they will ere long, if they are not subjected to some other power, re-erect the Empire of their ancestors, and as no country is better situated for commerce and defence, or has greater natural wealth, there is no reason why its future may not be glorious and happy. So blighting is the rule of the Turk, that from his vast dominion, with all his extortion, he can only wring a revenue of about £20,000,000 per annum, and so lavish is his expenditure, that for years he has been covering deficits of several millions, by loans, which totalled up about £174,000,000 in 1873; when it became pretty clear that he was insolvent. The most unpleasant part of it is, that many of these millions were spent in providing him with a powerful licet—a match for all the naval power of Russia, and with an army which, including reserves and irregulars, should amount to 882,000 men. Allah is Great! How was the Prophet glorified when the infidel’s gold was used to enable the true believers to resist the interference of the infidel in the affairs of infidels under the rule of Commander of the Faithful! '