194 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



nascent authory, and extended it to neighboring 

 countries, which, before ever they were attacked, 

 ■were already, such is the radiant power of justice, 

 annexed in spirit to their dominion. 



When Roumelia was conquered, it was in the 

 power of the conquerors to force the Christians 

 to embrace Islamism. They did nothing of the 

 sort ; the noble principles they professed forbade 

 them to exercise any pressure, any violence, on 

 the consciences of the populations subjected to 

 their sway. They allowed the conquered to pre- 

 serve their religion, their language, their property, 

 and all their goods, granting them, besides, the 

 privilege of directing at their pleasure the affairs 

 of their community, and of organizing as seemed 

 good to them their schools, over which the Gov- 

 ernment has never exercised any control. 



Our sovereigns may boast of having been, 

 and of being up to the present day, the protectors 

 of every form of worship, so much so that our 

 tolerance in the matter of religious belief has be- 

 come proverbial. 



To give an example of the tenderness of the 

 sultans with respect to the Christians, I may be 

 allowed to cite two facts in history which will 

 furnish the proof of what I am putting forward. 



After the conquest of Constantinople by Mo- 

 hammed II., the reestablishment of order, and 

 the proclamation of an amnesty, that sovereign 

 commanded a divan or official reception to be 

 held, to which he invited the Greek Patriarch. 

 He even sent all his ministers to meet him. At 

 this time the sovereign never rose in the presence 

 of any one whatever, and least of all could he be 

 expected to do so before the spiritual head of a 

 conquered nation ; but on this occasion he waived 

 the rule: quitting his place, he advanced ten 

 paces toward the patriarch, and, taking him by 

 the hand, made him sit beside him. He then 

 gave him, as a token of the renewal of his spirit- 

 ual authority, a sceptre which even to the present 

 day, on occasions of high ceremony, is carried by 

 a priest before the patriarch. 



Subsequently, this same sultan, wishing to 

 satisfy himself that the tribunals which he had 

 instituted at Constantinople were doing justice to 

 Christians as to Mussulmans, and with the view, 

 doubtless, of setting the conquered populations 

 at their ease as to the fears they might entertain 

 with respect to a procedure to which they were 

 not yet accustomed, requested the patriarch to 

 nominate two learned and competent ecclesiastics, 

 to whom he committed at once the inspection of 

 these tribunals for the space of a year according 

 to some, and of three years according to others, 



with orders to render an account of their labors 

 to him. 



It is established that these priests, after hav- 

 ing fulfilled their mission, betook themselves to 

 the palace to render an account of it to the sov- 

 ereign, and in the report which they submitted 

 to him they added : 



" If the tribunals which your majesty has insti- 

 tuted in the provinces of the empire execute the 

 same justice as those which perform their functions 

 here, and if this system lasts, your majesty may 

 be assured that your powerful and glorious gov- 

 ernment will soon have attained the apogee of its 

 glory, that its duration will be long, and that the 

 prosperity of its faithful subjects will be great." 



But while the Ottoman Government was es- 

 tablishing its authority, and was consolidating it 

 by justice, from one end of Europe to the other 

 the peoples were at the mercy of the ills engen- 

 dered of revolt and war. 



The nations of the East and of the North had 

 not yet emerged from the state of barbarism in 

 which they existed. As a consequence of this 

 state of things there was an influx of crowds of 

 immigrants from all directions toward the Otto- 

 man countries, where they sought refuge and pro- 

 tection. 



Those who read history will see the mass of 

 Jewish emigrants who fled from Spain to with- 

 draw themselves from persecution ; Armenians 

 came over to avoid being insulted and harassed ; 

 and Cossacks to escape the slavery of Russia. 

 All these fugitives recovered their liberty on the 

 soil of the empire. The hospitality which was 

 offered, and the protection which was granted 

 them, should suggest the reflection that at this 

 very day those who are still enjoying the same 

 prerogatives and a prosperity which is incontest- 

 able, since it has been acknowledged by our ene- 

 mies themselves, are the children and descend- 

 ants of these same emigrants. 



The state of things which I have roughly 

 sketched lasted till the eighteenth century. Dur- 

 ing this time Europe was becoming organized 

 and was entering by degrees on the path of 

 progress. Toward the end of that century a vig- 

 orous and energetic effort was giving a new 

 start to modern civilization and changing the form 

 and nature of governments, while the Ottoman 

 Empire, wanting men capable of appreciating the 

 excellence of realized progress and the necessity 

 of making the country take a step in advance, 

 had remained stationary, and had modified in no- 

 wise its ancient institutions, which themselves, it 

 must be admitted, had fallen into such a state 



