Turkish Successes in Ai'abia. 28 1 



like ones ; encouragement to all wlio will cultivate 

 the soil : security for the high roads and military 

 occupation of the villages ; alliances entered into 

 with the Bedouin chiefs, and inducements offered 

 them to act as the police of the desert ; — nothing, 

 in idea, could be better or more European. It is 

 only in practice that the Turks fail, and that, I fear, 

 from incurable causes. Yet have they not wholly 

 failed. From a military point of view, the Pashas 

 can boast with some truth that, compared with 

 twenty years ago, no country has made more rapid 

 steps towards civilisation. The power of the Bedouin 

 tribes has within that period been seriously checked, 

 if not broken ; and it is quite conceivable that in 

 another twenty years, at the same rate of progress, 

 the Anazeh will have disappeared from the upper 

 Syrian desert, and the Shammar have been re- 

 claimed to settled life in Mesopotamia. On the 

 day when the alluvial valley of the Euphrates shall 

 be completely cultivated, and their access to the 

 river cut off in summer, the true Bedouins must 

 retire to the Nejd, whence they came, or abandon 

 their independent life. Turkish optimists are ex- 

 cusable if they count on this. But for my part, I 

 do not believe in the regeneration of Turkey, or 

 even in the maintenance of its military power for 

 any length of time. 



Tlie chief vice of the Turkish system, as now 

 seen in the desert, is one which affects the whole 

 empire, — ruthless taxation. The goose with the 



