MOHAMMEDANISM. 



581 



of 1860 forbidding subscriptions to the capital 

 stock of any railroad corporation, u unless the 

 same has been voted for by a majority of the 

 resident voters " who shall vote on the propo- 

 sition, was not complied with, and that the 

 charter of the company authorizing it to re- 

 ceive a subscription from the county did not 

 confer a vested right which the act of 1860 

 could not affect as to the method of receiving 

 the subscription. On this latter point the Court 

 said : u The right to a subscription is one thing, 

 the right to the method whereby that subscrip- 

 tion is made is another and totally different 

 thing, since the Legislature may well alter the 

 method without infringing the right." The 

 main argument in favor of the validity of the 

 bonds was that, whether issued strictly in con- 

 formity to the law and conditions or not, they 

 had been allowed to pass into the hands of 

 bona fide purchasers, and that it was therefore 

 too late for the county to object to them. On 

 this point the Court said : 



It is claimed, however, that a large number of the 

 bonds issued have been transferred to "innocent 

 purchasers," and therefore the bonds should be paid, 

 even unto the utmost farthing, regardless of what- 

 soever means, measures, and motives may have 

 caused the market to be flooded with the unwarrant- 

 ed issue. But where there is a total lack of power 

 to make tlie subscription, there can not be such a 

 thing as an innocent purchaser. But granting that 

 there may be, is it not barely possible that the tax- 

 payer who is called on to pay these unauthorized 

 bonds has some rights which the courts should feel 

 bound to respect? Is the judicial eye to bestow no 

 glance in the direction of the defendant to the ac- 

 tion? His property, at least, has been acquired in 

 no questionable manner, ana certainly his equities 

 to have that property protected against unlawful as- 

 sessments and seizures are evidently equal to the 

 equities of him who has bought these bonds with 

 the law and Constitution staring him in the face, 

 who, reaching out with insatiate arms to grasp in all 

 the shore, has " taken the chances," and, taking 

 them, has made speculations without profit and ven- 

 tures without gain. 



MOHAMMEDANISM. The following is a 

 statement of the Mohammedan population of 

 the world, according to the most recent esti- 

 mates : 



I. IN EUROPE : 



Turkey Proper 



Bulgaria 



Eastern Roumelia 



Bosnia and Herzegovina. 



Roumania 



Servia 



Montenegro. 



2,600.000 



590,000 



850,000 



500,000 



120,000 

 75,000 



25,000 



Russia 2,364,000 



6,624,000 

 II. IN ASIA : 



Russia... 5,064,000 



Turkey 13,000,000 



Persia 5,900,000 



Arabia. . . , 3,700,000 



India 40,800,000 



China 8,000,000 



Afghanistan and Beloochistan 4,630,000 



States of Central Asia 3,000,000 



Indian Archipelago 23,000,000 



III. IN AFRICA. 



Total 209,718,000 



The Mohammedan countries of some note 

 are the Turkish Empire, Persia, Afghanistan, 

 Morocco, Beloochistan, Bokhara, and Zanzi- 

 bar. The Mohammedans in other countries 

 are outnumbered or subjected to governments 

 holding other religions. The following is the 

 aggregate area of the prominent Mohammedan 

 countries : 



Square miles. 

 Turkish Empire (exclusive of Servia and , 



Roumania) 2,090.000 



Persia 63S,000 



Afghanistan 279,000 



Morocco 260,000 



Beloochistan 107,000 



Bokhara 84,000 



Zanzibar 43,000 



Total 3,501,000 



The only one of the Mohammedan nations 

 entitled to rank among the great Powers is 

 Turkey. In point of population it stands 

 fourth, following China, the British Empire, 

 and Russia, and in point of territorial extent 

 is sixth, being excelled in this item by the 

 countries already named, the United States, 

 and Brazil. The other countries rank in ter- 

 ritorial extent as follows: Persia, eleventh; 

 Afghanistan, twenty-first; Morocco, twenty- 

 second; Beloochistan, thirty-third; Bokhara, 

 thirty-fourth; and Zanzibar, forty-first. 



A severe blow was struck at the military 

 and political prestige of Mohammedanism when 

 Kussia overcame Turkey and imposed upon the 

 Sublime Porte the rigorous terms of the treaty 

 of San Stefano. Nearly all the Mohammedan 

 states have looked up to Turkey as the chief 

 nation and representative of their religious 

 system, and have regarded the Sultan as the 

 head and defender of their faith. It was ac- 

 knowledged by the Mohammedan lawyers that 

 the Sultan had no spiritual title to this position, 

 but that in a strict legal sense he was a usurper 

 in exercising its prerogatives; yet this was 

 overlooked in view of the fact that he was an 

 actual formidable sovereign, wielding a power 

 greater than that of any other Mohammedan 

 state, or of all others together. The vast ma- 

 jority of the Mohammedan people, being out of 

 the current of the world's transactions, had 

 not learned how the power of the Sultan had 

 gradually melted away under the pressure of 

 the Christian states, and believed that he was 

 still able to inspire non-Mohamrnedans with the 

 same awe that the barbarous Turkish hordes 

 commanded in the days of Ottoman glory. 

 The common Turks, according to the author of 

 a recently published German work, " Stambul 

 und das moderne Tiirkenthum," * imagined 

 that the European monarchs were only vassals 

 of the Sultan, and were indebted to him for 

 their thrones ; and during the Crimean war, 

 when the French and Sardinians fought with 

 the English on the side of the Turks against 

 the Russians, they were convinced that the 

 contingents of these nations were placed at the 

 command of the Porte as a matter of obliga- 



* Leipsic, 1877. 



