THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE, OF TURKEY. 



195 



of disorganization that a change of system had 

 become inevitable. The material forces of the 

 empire were exhausted alike by intestine disor- 

 ders and by the periodical wars which it had to 

 maintain against Russia. 



Thus it befell that, constantly losing strength, 

 it had fallen to the rank of a second-rate power, 

 after having been for centuries one of the first 

 powers in the world ; and while European civili- 

 zation made growth and rose up beneath the 

 6hadow of the liberties secured to it by its new 

 institutions, Turkey, deprived of these advan- 

 tages, beheld its strength diminish, and began 

 herself to be conscious of the dangers to which 

 6he was exposed. 



To exorcise these dangers, and with the object 

 of restoring to the empire its ancient splendor, 

 the statesmen of Turkey, such as Rachid, Aaly, 

 Fuad, and others, labored in succession to endow 

 the empire with new institutions, and to destroy 

 the abuses of the old regime. Their efforts did not 

 remain barren ; if they were not always crowned 

 with complete success, the condition of Turkey, 

 such as it was before the last war, compared 

 with what it was thirty years earlier, discloses 

 the happy change which had taken place in the 

 state of the country ; it was an astonishing 

 transformation, so great that in any other coun- 

 try a century of effort would have appeared in- 

 sufficient for its realization. But so great also 

 was the rapidity of the progress made around us 

 that, ere long, these improvements were no lon- 

 ger sufficient. 



In spite of the reforms accomplished, a cer- 

 tain discontent continued to prevail among the 

 people, and gave rise to complaints which were 

 transmitted to Europe by the Christians. Whence 

 sprang this general uneasiness ? What was the 

 cause of these complaints ? Was it because the 

 Christians did not enjoy perfect equality ? Yet 

 since the reforms the condition of the Christians 

 had been ameliorated sensibly, and even beyond 

 all expectation. Many among them were ad- 

 mitted to the most important offices of the em- 

 pire ; they filled the public services, the tribunals, 

 the places under government ; and enjoyed be- 

 sides certain privileges which the Mussulmans 

 did not possess. 



Was it because they were oppressed by the 

 Mussulmans, as has been alleged ? It is another 

 mistake to suppose so ; for the Mussulmans 

 never have oppressed the Christians ; if the lat- 

 ter have had to suffer from abuses of admin- 

 istration, the Mussulmans themselves shared 

 their wrongs, and keenly desired an amelioration 



in the state of things. But because the Chris- 

 tians, as I have said, reechoed these grievances, 

 Europe was induced to believe that they alone 

 suffered under them. What was it, then, that 

 brought about the concert of complaints which 

 from time to time arose from the East ? The 

 explanation is simple. The Porte, by an anomaly 

 unfortunate but honorable to herself, had grant- 

 ed to the Christian races more liberty and more 

 means of instruction than it had allowed to the 

 Mussulmans. The eternal enemies of our em- 

 pire, profiting skillfully by this circumstance, 

 found no difficulty in inspiring some of these 

 races with separatist ideas. Thus the complaints 

 heard in Europe on the part of the Christians 

 arise not exactly from persecution or oppression, 

 but from the fact that they are urged on to hos- 

 tile aspirations, which they themselves can scarce- 

 ly be brought to admit. 



What ought to have been done at the outset 

 when reforms were undertaken would have been, 

 to group all these elements round a vivifying 

 and regenerative principle which would have 

 cemented their union ; to create for these races 

 a common country which would have rendered 

 them insensible to suggestions from without. 

 The task was difficult, but it was not impossible, 

 as afterward appeared by the attitude of the 

 Chamber when a constitutional system was inau- 

 gurated in Turkey. 



Russia, it is true, for her part neglected 

 nothing to create new obstacles in our way. 



After having appealed to the Treaty of Kai- 

 nardji to make a war against us in 1854, she used 

 every effort to destroy the treaty of 1856 by a 

 new weapon more dangerous and more expedi- 

 tious, which she added to the old ones ; to the 

 expedients of which she had up to that time 

 made use to enfeeble Turkey, she added a means 

 of attack more powerful than all the rest, name- 

 ly, Panslavism. 



She intrusted the committees with the care 

 of sowing in the Balkans the germ of rebellion, 

 while Russian diplomacy, so skillful in its manoeu- 

 vres, was accomplishing its task. 



Almost on the morrow of the evacuation of 

 the Ottoman territory by the allied troops, Prince 

 Gortchakoff hurled a note of denunciation against 

 the oppression of the Bulgarians by the Turkish 

 Government ; an inquiry was held, and disclosed 

 no act of this nature. About this time the Cir- 

 cassians and the Tartars, driven from their coun- 

 try, came to settle in Turkey ; this was the mo- 

 ment chosen by the Russian Government to 

 enjoin its agents to encourage Bulgarian emigra- 



