TEE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE, OF TURRET. 



193 



THE PAST, PRESENT, AKD FUTURE, OF TURKEY. 



Br His Highness MIDHAT PASHA. 



ALL those who were awaiting with anxiety 

 a solution of the Eastern Question in con- 

 formity with the public interest of Europe must 

 at the present day, in view of the complications 

 of every description which have arisen, seek to 

 know what has been in reality the spring of their 

 miscalculations, the true cause of their illusions. 



To my thinking, this cause is due to the fact 

 that data contradictory or wanting in precision, 

 and information at once vague and incomplete, 

 have been given under different circumstances in 

 respect of the historical facts, the geographical 

 and ethnographical condition of the Ottoman 

 Empire, as well as in respect of the character, 

 manners, and aspirations, of the different peoples 

 of which it is composed. 



In point of fact, this information varies ac- 

 cording to the special views and tendencies of 

 different races, which differ among themselves 

 under the three heads of politics, religion, and 

 social organization ; and the truth, subjected in 

 turn to these opposite influences, remains for the 

 most part unknown, or shows itself only in an 

 uncertain light and half-veiled. 



But just as it is natural to see nationalities, 

 whose interests, by reason of the constant clash 

 of ideas and passions, can scarcely be harmon- 

 ized, provide public opinion — each in support of 

 its own cause — with contradictory information, 

 so there is no greater room for surprise when we 

 find that writers who have never seen the East, 

 or who, though acquainted with it, have yet not 

 sojourned there long enough to form clear and 

 precise ideas upon the questions as to which they 

 are called on to form a judgment, have not al- 

 ways conformed in their writings to the truth. 



It follows that to speak of the East a man 

 should know it well, just as, to judge properly of 

 the questions relating to it, it is necessary before 

 everything to have exact data as to the facts 

 which bear upon it. 



How many unsuspecting persons thought, 

 even till quite lately, that it was solely with a 

 view to the amelioration of the lot of the Oriental 

 Christians that Russia had taken upon herself 

 the sacrifices of a great war ! 



Was that indeed her object? And did this 

 plea not hide other designs which there is no 

 longer any need to divulge ? At the present dav 

 85 



every one knows what to think of it, the last 

 events of the war having laid bare the whole 

 truth. 



But since our enemies have not ceased to 

 speak of the alleged servitude of the Christians, 

 as well as of the duty incumbent on Europe to 

 deliver them from the yoke under which they 

 groan, and as many people still believe that 

 Christians in Turkey are looked upon as vile 

 slaves, and treated as such, it is necessary to 

 demonstrate the falsity of these accusations, and 

 to speak of the relations which exist in Turkey 

 between Mussulmans and Christians, and partic- 

 ularly of the principles that have always guided 

 the Government in its mode of action toward its 

 non-Mussulman subjects. 



A retrospective glance at history will cast a 

 new light on the state of things. 



It is notorious that throughout Islamism the 

 principle of government rests upon bases essen- 

 tially democratic, inasmuch as the sovereignty of 

 the people is therein recognized. The institutions 

 which at the different epochs of history have gov- 

 erned the different Mussulman states, although 

 clothed in a form more or less autocratic, have 

 nevertheless not altogether departed from this 

 principle, which has remained in our laws; con- 

 sequently every Mussulman looks upon himself 

 as a member of the great national family. He 

 enjoys by virtue of this title all civil rights, per- 

 sonal liberty, equality before the law ; and, if he 

 has not shown himself always disposed to admit 

 the same rights in an equal degree for other 

 races, it is impossible to deny that he has never 

 ceased to profess the principle of a wide tolera- 

 tion toward them. It is by virtue of this prin- 

 ciple that under Mussulman dominion all religions 

 have enjoyed security as well as fullness of liberty, 

 whether in the exercise of their worship or in the 

 administration at their own pleasure of the inter- 

 ests of their respective communities. We know, 

 further, that the Mussulman religion ordains jus- 

 tice, and threatens with the severest punishment 

 those who deviate from it. 



The founders of the Ottoman dynasty owed 

 their first successes more to the justice and tol- 

 erance which they displayed than to the force of 

 their arms. 



It was by equity that they developed their 



