THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE, OF TURKEY. 



199 



All the other districts, including the fortresses 

 of the Quadrilateral, would continue, as in the 

 past, to belong exclusively to the Ottoman Em- 

 pire. These districts would not enjoy any special 

 institution, but woidd have the benefit, in the 

 same way as the other provinces, of the real and 

 indisputable advantages which a strict enforce- 

 ment of the constitution is bound to secure them. 

 Of all systems of government which could be es- 

 tablished, of all plans of administration which 

 could be devised, the Ottoman constitution, loy- 

 ally carried out, is assuredly what is best for the 

 East, since it bears in itself the germ of her re- 

 generation in the days to come by the intellectual 

 and material development of all the nationali- 

 ties. 



This constitution having been given by the 

 sovereign to his peoples will be safeguarded by 

 them ; it has become their property, and they at- 

 tach all the higher value to the possession of it, 

 in that they are convinced that in it alone lies 

 the welfare of the country. The fact that ma- 

 terial obstacles have hitherto stood in the way of 

 putting this national charter into execution, and 

 the further fact that certain persons have had to 

 suffer by reason of it, detract nothing from its 

 value. In Turkey every one is desirous to see 

 constitutional government acclimatized, estab- 

 lished, and becoming at the same time the soul 

 and the mainspring of our institutions. It might, 

 however, be objected, with some reason, that the 

 execution of it raises certain doubts in men's 

 minds. These doubts can only spring from the 

 fact that the Porte has not carried out complete- 

 ly certain promised reforms; but it appears to 

 me that public opinion in general does not suffi- 

 ciently take into account the numerous difficulties 

 which the Porte encountered in the task which 

 it had taken upon itself — difficulties which have 

 often been complicated by a foreign action tend- 

 ing to stir up on every occasion in Turkey intes- 

 tine disorders, which have naturally hindered her 

 from fulfilling with punctuality the engagements 

 she had entered into with Europe. Those who 



have followed with continuous attention the 

 march of events in the East must have observed 

 that there was nothing which Russia so much 

 dreaded as a real improvement in the condition 

 of affairs in Turkey, and accordingly she has al- 

 ways shown herself the foe of those who under 

 divers circumstances had taken the initiative in 

 the new reforms to be introduced into the admin- 

 istration of the country ; and it is not puerile to 

 suppose that in proclaiming the constitution the 

 Porte has, so to speak, hastened the outbreak of 

 the war ; not that Russia had not made up her 

 mind to wage it, but she might have put it off for 

 some time to come had not the promulgation of 

 the Ottoman charter hastened her resolve to at- 

 tack Turkey with the view of annihilating her 

 entirely if possible, or reducing her to such a 

 condition as should make it impossible for her to 

 rise again. 



This constitution, I am bound to admit, has 

 not yet and cannot have in itself the consistency 

 and the authority of the old European constitu- 

 tions ; but this lack of authority could so easily 

 be supplemented by Europe. Europe, which has 

 so harassed the Porte by its often unjust inter- 

 ferences, would here have a perfectly legitimate 

 opportunity of exerting an active superintendence 

 over the enforcement of this charter, which sums 

 up all progress possible for the East. This united 

 superintendence would have, besides this result, 

 that it would neutralize the action of Russia in the 

 East, an action which has been exerted hitthero 

 to her own advantage only, and to the greatest 

 prejudice of European interests. 



Turkey, in a word, ought to be governed by 

 constitutional regime, if it is desired that serious 

 reforms be carried out, that a fusion be effected 

 of the different races, and that out of this fusion 

 should spring the progressive development of the 

 populations, to whatever nationality and whatev- 

 er religion they may belong ; it is the only reme- 

 dy for our ills, and the sole means we have of 

 struggling with advantage against enemies at 

 home and abroad. — Nineteenth Century. 



