The incurables, who for means of regenerating the Turkish empire look to the revival of Mahometan convictions, must tell us by what process a faith, no longer entertained even in Turkey by reflecting or educated minds, can operate as the motive power of a government compelled by the conditions of its tenure to restrain the passions, and frequently to counteract the impulses which from time to time infuriate an ignorant and fanatical race. Under a system of administration thus inspired religious belief must evidently be the rule of right, and the measure of individual worth. How then would Jew and Christian fare, either as to political right or in respect of personal consideration? Would the peace and well-being of the empire be secured in these times by forcibly renewing the submission of one-half of its population to the pride and bigotry of the other? Would there be no complaining in the streets,' no danger of resistance, no appeal to the foreigner, no resentment in Christendom? Is the war of Hellenic independence a fable? The chastisement inflicted on Damascus a dream? Are the Greeks less sensible than they were of degradation and oppression, or the nations of Europe more deaf to the claims of humanity and the sympathies of religion?

Lord Overstone's 'Impossible!' may be applied here with as much propriety as to the supposed capture of London. Attempt to force back the waters of a river to their source, and you will only deluge the country-perhaps even ruin, if not drown, its inhabitants. Another and ampler basis than that of an unsanctioned revelation is wanted for the reconstruction of a dilapidated empire. Where but in the elements of social harmony, corrective of discord and decomposition, can such a foundation be discoyered? That civilizing process, which carries out materially and morally the benevolent purposes of Providence, and knits together the various classes and pursuits of mankind by the bonds of genuine interest, combines whatever is necessary for the external defence, internal welfare, and legitimate advancement of a constituted community. Religion in respect of belief, like the action of the lungs, is involuntary, and therefore, however essential to moral as breathing to bodily health, is not in that sense properly a subject of legal enforcement on individuals as such, and still less a just obstacle to the freedom of legislative enactment in other matters. A body politic, the compound of individual man, partakes of his mutable and moral nature. If linked inseparably to laws believed to be divine, and therefore unalterable, the interests of the community, which require change of law with change of circumstances, must in the end be seriously, perhaps even fatally, compromised. To this dilemma it would seem that

the

the Turks are now reduced. They must either be content to govern on larger principles, with the advantage of proportionally extending their means of improvement and independence, or they must incur the necessary consequence of persisting in error and thereby having to contend with the disaffection of their Christian subjects and the resentment of their Christian allies. Sultans may continue to be Caliphs for their Mussulman subjects, but they must learn to act as Sovereigns for the people at large.

The difficulties suggested by this view of the question are by no means so great as they may appear to those who have only a general acquaintance with Turkey, its empire, and its history. The Koran is far from being that unelastic code of laws which many suppose. It has long ceased to be an exact mirror of Islamism as practised by the Ottoman authorities. The difference, which has perceptibly grown up between the letter and the practice of the law, is not merely one of suspension, such as the disuse of hostilities for the propagation of the faith, but positively active, as in the case of treaties and alliances with Christian Powers. This primary departure from the system of policy prescribed by Islamism dates from the sixteenth century. Solyman the Magnificent, and Francis the First of France, first set the example of an alliance between the Sovereign of the Turks and a Christian Power. The act was founded on mutual convenience suggested by their respective international positions at the time. It led to the establishment of similar relations between the Porte and other European Powers, to the reception of consuls in outports of Turkey, and to the exercise of jurisdiction by them over their own fellow-subjects. It was the first link in a series of concessions which may be fitly called extra-Koranic, and which were gradually made to the necessity, more and more felt by the Porte, of obtaining for herself a less insulated position as to the states of Christendom.

Internal reforms were commenced in the same spirit towards the close of the last century by Selim, the last sultan of that name. The Janissaries, excited, no doubt, by the Ulemah, broke into open rebellion, and the reaction which followed cost the reforming Sultan both his throne and his life. Mustapha, who succeeded to the former, was not more fortunate than his cousin. It was reserved for his brother Mahmoud to realize the plans of Selim, and to revenge that Sultan's death by the extermination of the Janissaries. This ill-disciplined and unmanageable militia was replaced by a regular army, formed on the European model. The Sultan put forth all his energy for its completion; but the weakness of his empire, proved and increased by successive misfortunes -by the war with Russia, which terminated in the Treaty of Adrianople;

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Adrianople; by the independence of Greece, which followed the battle of Navarino; and by the victorious progress of Ibrahim Pasha in Syria and Asia Minor-compelled him to enter into closer relations with Christian Europe. The proclamation of Gulhane, and the introduction of extensive reforms under the name of Tanzimat-Hairieh, gave a solemn and imposing earnest of Mahmoud's sincerity. They were the foundations of a real improvement in the Turkish administrative system, and more especially in the treatment of Rayahs, those Christian and other non-Mussulman subjects who were bound to pay a yearly polltax to the Grand Signior. Further and more decided measures of reform were subsequently adopted. Those of a judicial character were not the least important. A court was established for the trial of civil causes between the Porte's subjects and foreigners. It was a mixed tribunal, taking cognizance more particularly of differences arising in trade and navigation. Its maxims of law and rules of procedure were derived from Christian sources. Our leading principles and forms of trial, exclusive of juries, have been established even by firman in some of the criminal courts; and at Constantinople in the highest of those courts, where Mahometan law prevails unaltered, our Consul-General is allowed to sit with the power of watching the proceedings, and arresting, until he expresses his assent, the execution of judgment in the case of any British subject brought to trial on a capital charge.

To these beneficial innovations are to be added the establishment of Lazarettos for quarantine against plague and cholera; and at later periods the suppression of negro slave-trade with a view to that of slavery itself, the abolition of torture and of capital punishment in cases of conversion from Islamism, the recognition of Protestantism as one of the protected and established religions in Turkey.

During the Crimean war a notable enlargement took place in other branches of social progress, inconsistent, more or less, with the restrictions of Mussulman law, but required by the necessities of the empire. Loans were raised at interest in foreign countries for the service of the State. The Porte's Christian subjects, released from the payment of tribute, were declared to be admissible, as privates and officers, to the Imperial army. Turkish battalions were placed under the authority of British commanders; and British agents were allowed to raise levies among the Turks for an irregular military corps to be paid and officered by Her Majesty's Government. At one time the suburbs of Pera and Galata were held, in aid of the police, by detachments of the French and English armies.

On the cessation of hostilities all previous reforms, together with

important

important additions, were confirmed and declared by an imperial proclamation, known as the Hatt-y-Homayoun, solemnly promulgated and inserted as a pregnant fact in the general treaty of peace. Among its new provisions were two in particular, characterized by a degree of liberality which it would not be easy to surpass. By one the faculty of holding land in fee throughout Turkey was granted to foreign subjects, with a reserve of some preliminary arrangements. By the other both natives and foreigners are allowed full liberty of conscience in religious matters.

These are telling facts, and we are bound to give them our candid and serious attention. They have removed no small part of the difficulty which Islamism opposes in theory to the reformation of the Turkish Empire on European principles. They encourage a hope that the remaining obstacles may be gradually surmounted. Most of them show to demonstration that in Turkey, as elsewhere, custom and law must ultimately yield to consideration for the safety of the State. We are friends to the Sultan's empire. We do not seek to overthrow or to undermine its dominant faith. We only desire that religion should cease to be so applied to worldly affairs as to render the administration of them ruinous to the public weal. We urge the expediency, and indeed the necessity, of carrying fully into effect those salutary reforms which have been long and strenuously recommended to the Sultan by his allies, which have been adopted by his supreme authority, proclaimed in his name to the whole world, and recorded under the most solemn forms of international engagement. We desire, in other words, to obtain for the Porte a real instead of a fictitious independence-the well-grounded, durable respect, and not the mere precarious sufferance, of contemporary Powers.

All classes of the population would gradually feel the benefit of a change which could not fail to operate favourably on their interests in a national point of view. Any discontents which may prevail among the Turks arise principally out of causes independent of their religious prejudices, though naturally seen in connection with them. A state of transition in matters of deep and extensive concern is always attended with inconvenience to many, with a dislocation of partial interests, and a rupture of much that is sanctified, as it were, by habit and early associations. To halt between two systems, instead of frankly adopting the one which on the whole is preferable, can have no effect but that of prolonging evils incident to both. Unfortunately such has been hitherto the conduct of the Turkish Government, which, however excusable in some respects, is far from being necessary, and cannot fail to prolong their difficulties.

Under

Under the old system, confiscations, crown lands, royalties, property, whether moveable or immoveable, lapsing to the sovereign, forced labour, offerings not always quite voluntary, requisitions in kind, and other incidental sources of profit, were auxiliary to the revenue derived from tithes, taxes, and customs. The Spahis and Timariotes, who held their lands on condition of military service, were bound, when called upon, to take the field armed and mounted at their own expense. On the extermination of the Janissaries in 1826 a regular army, as mentioned above, was formed by Sultan Mahmoud, and later a civil list was established in place of the crown lands and other imperial sources of revenue. Life, property, and honour were also secured by charter to subjects of all classes against the assaults of arbitrary power. The Sultan and his Government had in consequence to look exclusively to the exchequer for ways and means in carrying on the administration, and providing for the peace, the defence, and general welfare of the empire. Hence it became more than ever necessary that an improved system of finance should be adopted, and that the collection of the taxes should be cleared of all those abuses and corrupt practices which at once oppressed the people and defrauded the treasury. A child may perceive that discontent, embarrassment, and ruin must be the necessary consequences of drying up the old sources of supply without opening new ones, of depriving the dominant classes of their long-cherished privileges without enabling them to realize the compensations offered by a more liberal and productive course.

Respect for the Sultan, consideration even for his weaknesses, submission to his authority, nay, to his pleasure, are still universal among the Mussulman population. From time to time, and not unfrequently, there are disturbances, now in this, now in that province; but they arise nearly always from local causes, and are confined within narrow limits. Excesses may be committed by some body of insurgents; the magistrates may be overpowered, individuals may suffer, and the immediate object of aversion may be swept away. But after a time the Sultan's authority is sure to ride over all obstacles, and to restore the public peace with more or less severity, and some feeble show of reparation. The army, inadequate as it is to the wants of the empire, ill-fed, ill-clothed, and ill-paid, thinned by frequent marches over miserable roads, and having no reason to rely upon its officers, rarely, if ever, fails to perform its duty. Discipline, though imperfect, gives it a constant advantage over the rude, extempore levies opposed to its arms. The worst of it is that such occurrences tend more and more to exhaust the strength of the empire by a two-fold process. Parties brought into conflict

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