Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924096160761 3 1924 096 160 761 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 2002 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY NOTE ON THE PANSLAVI.^TS OF RUSSIA. In my chapter on " The Reconstruction of the Creek Empire," I have -lery strongly expressed my opposition to Panslavism, and ha^e given the reasons on which it is grounded ; but, on the other hand, I think it is only right that I should record the very great esteem and regard whieh I entertain for the President of the Panslavist Committee (M. Aksakoff), Dr. Pohtsykovitch, ' and others who belong to it ; and I firmly believe that the Russian Panslavists, as a body, are infinitely superior, both in intelligence, patriotism, energy, influence, and character, to the great bulk of their countrymen who hold opposite opinions or none at all. It is generally believed that the just and necessary war in which Russia is now engaged in order to free the Christians of Turkey from the intolerable yoke of the Sultan might never have been waged but for the impulse which wa-^ given to the national spirit by the patriotic ardour of the Panslavists ;. but now that Russia is engaged in this great struggle, the whole nation feels as one man on the subject, from the Emperor to the humblest peasant, and they are unanimously determined to complete the heroic task which they have imder- taken, and which has already involved sacrifices of life and treasure which no possible gains in territory or otherwise can ever repay. As far as I can judge, one Panslavist is at least equal to ten average Russians, e^pecially the somniferous Rip Van Winkle Conservative party, who are opposed to all free development of Russian institutions. When Mr. Gladstone's powerful pamphlet appeared last year, the ruling party in Russia had not the intelligence to see that the publication of that work in the Russian and other European languages would afford more powerful support to the cause of the Christians in Turkey and their Russian liberators than a whole army of .'■oldiers, as opinion, not material force only, rules the world ; and it was reserved, as I am informed, for an English speculator from London to bring out the work in Russian, which was financially and politically a great success. In the case of the present work, a Panslavist Russian editor volunteered to translate it ; and whilst from 250 to 1,000 copies is the average number of an edition, he is to print no less than 7,400 in his first issue, which is both an extraordinary and unlooked-for practical compliment, which I appreciate more than any verbal and often insincere praise. In this great cause of the Christians of Turkey I shall work preferentially with the Panslavist party, as their volunteers are woirth any number of pressed men. Panslavism cannot, by any possibility, become a practical question for many years; and if, when this Eastern Question is sett'ed, it should become a burning que-ition during my life, and I should feel compelled to oppose it, it would be with infinite reluctance that I should find myself ranged against such brave, energetic, able, and worthy ojiponents, and I should be disponed to exclaim with the French at Fontenoy, "Gentlemen of the Panslavist party, fire first 1 " TURKISH RECREATIONS; Being their idea of " iniegrUi/," and " Jndependencn ,-" or, " Liberty ! Equality ! ! and Fraternity ! ! ! " INDEX TO THE ABOVE CARTOON. " The Unspeakable 'rurk."- -Cor/ji'/c. j E.- Transfi.veil, Spitlecl. and Ruriil. A. -Batak. , F.--Two PrieMs Hiiiig in Chains and Cruciticd. B. -A HIind Father jnd Daughter Shot Through. : G. -A Priest al Philipopolis C— I'enisiitid C:hiirrh. . H.— Raika. D^N^vu.r. a I'.iesi .11 Hatak ■ ['.-At Batak. AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM.— STRIKE, BUT HEAR. A DEFENCE OF EFSSIA AND THE CHRISTIANS OF TURKEY; IXCLUDING A SKETCH OF THE EASTERN QUESTION, FROM 1686 TO SEPTEMBER, 1877, "WITH ITS BEST SOI^UTION, " THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE GREEK EMPIRE," AND STRICTURES ON THEIR OPPONENTS ; WITH AN ORIGINAL CARTOON OF THE TURKISH ATROCITIES, A MAP OF TURKEY, AND SEVERAL CARICATURES. Sir i^olUmacije Shtclair, Bart, Jll J, What will this babbler say ? " " It would be absurd to think of bolstering up the Tarkiab power in Europe. It is gone, in fact. We must reconstruct the Greek Empire. There is no doubt it would have been better for the world if the Treaty of Adrianople had not been sig^nefl, if the Russians had entered Gtonstantinople, aud if the Turkish Empire had been dissolved." — The Bulte of Wellington, in 1829. "The Russians actually occupied Constantinople in 1833 as allies of the Turks." — Alison's History of Ewope. " The protection of the Christians of Turkey by Rxissia was, no doubt, prescribed by duty, and sanctioned by treaty."— iord Joltn Russell's Dis-patch to Sir Hamilton Seymour, 1853. "The newspaper outcry against Russia is no more respectable to me than the bowl- ings of Bedlam, proceeding as it does from the deepest ignorance, egoism, and paltry national jealousy." — Carlijle. ** No grass grows where the hoof of a Sultan's horse has trod." — Turlcish Proverh- "I am altogether a Rusa." — Lord ClLotham, 1773. "The * Pall Mall Gazette * seems to be written by maniacs for fools." — Forsyth. " Shall we ally ourselves with Sodom ? "—Freeman. *• J shall be sorry to lose a man of his [Sir Tollemache Sinclair's) courage, assiduity^ and talent.^' — Gladstone. LOIs^DON : CHAPMAN & HALL, PICCADILLY. uin edition in the Russian language of 7,400 copies v.iiU ve puhUshsd at St. Petersburg immediately/. This work may be reprinted gratuitously in any language but English and Russian. -J ' lOHDON: PRINTED BT W. H. AHD t,. COLLIHGIIIDGI:, C.TT PHE.S, 138 ASD 129, ALriEKSOATE SmEET, E.O. /^ CONTENTS. I'AQE The Truth about Russia I The Will of Peter the Great Proved to be a Forgery 33 Sketch of Past Phases of the Eastern Question . 3G History op the Present Phase of the Eastern Question 58 A Forecast of the Probable Eesults of the Present Eusso-TuRKisH War 95 Mahometanism Unmasked 102 The Sultan Not the Head of the Mahometan Religion . . . , 107 "The Unspeakable Tuuk" 113 Poland from a Common Sense Point of View . 154 Ireland the English Poland . . . .162 A Benevolent Despotism Better than Oppressive Parliamentary Government . . .171 Refutation of Colonel Mansfield . . . .180 The Indian Nightmare 189 "We must Reconstruct the Greek Empire" . 197 Concluding Chapter 230 EEEATA. PAGE. LIKE, ix 6 For " refused me " read " refused to insert." ix 30 {noU) For " ' Nihil quod teteget,' not ' v'wiat it ' " read '■ Nihil qtiod' tetigit non vitiavit." 9 33 For " In my letters to the Scotsman " read " In my chapter on the present phase of the Eastern Question." 17 IS Omii rfipe^jitow " When will this insolent assumption cease ? " 22 24 For "odius " read " odious." 23 5 Omit "taslr." 28 31 Omit " GermsLTi." 153 7 For " "We might " read " He might." 21.5 4 Omit "And I have had a dotted line traced thereon, in accordance •with M. Eianeoni's views." 243 21 For " Cabinet. The " read " Cahinet, the." 243 28 For " But, oh, defend," read " Spare, oh spare." ERRATA. In Note on Panslavists (at back of cartoon, line S),for " Pontsykovitoh," read " Poutsykovitch." PAOE. LINE. X 18 For " subsequently a Defence of," read " The trutli about." 23 16 For " Latakia " read " perfumed." 48 33 After " consequence of" wse/"* "tte jealousy of." 61 16 After "Lord Grey " insert " in 1877." 61 19 For "Les Responsibilitis " read " Les ResponsabUites. " 79 24 For " Prootocol " read " Declaration." Ill 1 Omit "(Shiites)." 114 5 After "Turks" insert apostrophes, to indicate close of quotation. 126 12 For "he " read "Lord Derby." 145 17 For " the Turk " read " a Turk." 146 22 For " Lavelayo" read " Lavelaye." 153 7 For "We" read "I." 162 2 Before " The exclusion " read " CNeQl Daunt says." 165 7 Omit from "and iii'ist" to end of sentence. 177 3 For " one " read " dog." „ 14 After "lawa" insert "phraseology." „ 29 For "and" read "for." 184 36 The foot-note should read thus : " Qui cum Jesu itis non itie cum Jesuitis." 185 20 After "an" insert "English." 192 36 After " deprived " insert " of it." 209 5 For "most" read " almoat." 233 11 After " Attorney- Gaaeral" insert " who was once a candidate for the Reform Club." 243 12 T/ie parenthesis should de placed after "1,200,000," instead of after " BritODs." „ 21 The clause beginning "the same" and ending at "event" (Jine 23) should he in parentheses, 247 15 (second column) For " Tanoredi " react " Tancred." 249 49 (drst column) For "Be Tocqueville on their jealousy of the Slavo- nians " read De Tocqueville on jealousy." 251 23 (second ooluma) For "Safket " read " Safvet." la Opinions oa Pablication^, 3rd page, line 32, for " Koluische " read " Kol- nische"; 5th page, line 14, omit "On Work on Franco- German War " ; 5th page, line 46, /or- "successful" read " unauoeessful." PREFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAND. A WOED TO MY CEITICS. Having received a large number of criticisms from various London, provincial, and contiaental newspapers, both on my " Defence of Russia," and on my speeches in Caithness, I avail myself of an unexpected delay which has occurred iu the publication of the complete boimd and illustrated edition of my ■work to make a few remarks in reply. Being, like Paul Jones, " grateful for praise, spontaneous and unbought," I cordially thank some of those who have done me the honour of noticing my book, for the kindly, genial, and sometimes only too flattering way in which they have criticised it ; whilst adverse critics have sometimes shown a disposition to give me fair play ; and even those who are most hostile, by the prominence they have given to my jJublication in their columns and their tuisjpar- ing antagonism, may perhaps do my work more good in the eyes of an impartial public than a portion of those who are friendly to my production, but some of these wiseacres persist in calling my work of upwards of 500 pages a jjamphlet, because, like all French works, the cheap edition is issued in paper covers. I have been immensely diverted by some of these adverse criti- cisms; and, though I prefer seeing others satirized, and am some- what given to irony myself, I enjoy it, even at my own expense, when cleverly done with, as it were, a sharp razor, and not a blunt and rusty knife. It is certainly a little singular that some of those who consider my book and my speeches utterly worthless and unreadable, should, nevertheless, have devoted leading articles and columns of type to the endeavour to demolish me ; and I have especially to notice the Standard, which used to be known as Mrs. Gamp, and which has honoured me with a column of censure in large type, for which I am infinitely obliged, whilst I should b 11 PEEFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAND. have been quite inconsolable if it had praised me. In the exami- nations at the primary schools, scholars arc classified according to standards, and I should imagine that the lowest possible standard must be the Standard newspaper, at any rate it is at the tail of the daily Press, and even Conservatives rarely read it, though, in compassion, and to help the party, they may reluctantly take it in. The Standard says : " A man so innocent of a joke was, perhaps, never produced north 6f the boundary line between England and Scotland." Now, I think few books on political subjects contain so many good stories and jokes, some of which have always en- joyed a great reputation, whilst others have been handed down to me by my father, who was one of the wittiest men I ever knew. It so happens that I am known among my friends as one who is especially fond of jokes, and I am willing to wager ten to one that I wUl beat the Editor of the Standard and all his staff in telHng stories in English and French, and in various dialects, giving him the benefit of a Conservative and Turcophile jiuy to decide who is the winner. By the way, perhaps, the Standard will take the opportunity of showing the point of the joke which it placards all over London, namely, that it is the largest news- paper in the world, whilst the Times is evidently not only as superior in quality and influence " as a silk purse to a sow's ear,'' but much more considerable in size. But I suppose this is a pious fraud to bolster up the waning fortunes of Mrs. Gamp. The Standard says my book contains " sportive essays of his own, of which it is only fair to say that they are entertaining beyond any idea of amusement which could be conceived by their author himself." As authors generally are sufficiently partial to their own works, tliis sentence is praise of the highest order. He adds that "Here may be found the cream of all that the pamphleteers and the writers on the Eastern Question have been saying on the Eastern Question," and these words alone show the TitUity of my work, and acquit me of the fatal error of quoting any of the shim milk of the Standard. As an illustration of the proverb that " none are so blind as those -who won't see," I may mention that one of my critics, with a letter before him from the Liberal Committee of Caithness, unanimously PHErACB TO SIXTH THOUSAND. HI expressing their satisfaction that I had agreed to remain till the Dissolution, says that " his constituents are heartily sick of him." Some newspapers say that the work is " unreadable " — " a crude heap of irrelevant and undigested material ; " others that " it gives the right information at the right moment," that " some chapters are especially valuable and highly instructive," that " the public could not do better than make a careful perusal of the work," that " everybody will find in it something suitable to his literary palate," that " it is a very well written work from a facile pen," that "there is much lively writing in it," that "the author is a solemn and conceited bore " {Glasgow Herald), that " the felling of trees would be a light task compared with the perusal of Sir T. Sinclair's rejected letters " [Pall Mall Gazette), and of another work of mine, " it was a capital lecture, full of cleverness a,nd of bold yet kindly truth-telling " {Scotsman), whilst the Saturday Revller, ndtQie stating that Scotch Liberals "must often despise the elected " M.P.'s, adds, that only eight of us have ever been heard of out of Scotland, in the face of the fact that some of my writings on the Eastern Question have been reproduced in the Eussian, French, German, and Greek languages. Some Turcophile newspapers complain of the large number of quotations which I have given from eminent statesmen and writers in favour of Russia and against Turkey, and no doubt some chapters — and especially the first — are overloaded with facts statistics, and quotations, but all of these have been selected and carefully pruned down to the narrowest compass; and I would con- sider it dishonest to plagiarize, unacknowledged, the ideas and words of other authors, as was proved against D'Israeli ; whilst the same journalspraise Baron de Worms' book on the Turkish side, though more than half of his book consists of entire Blue Books, unabridged and undigested; but according to the proverb, " One man may steal a horse, the other must not look over the fence." One critic, in spite of the proverb that you should not look a gift horse in the mouth, takes me to task for " worrying news- paper editors " by sending them my book ; adding " that it is almost an insult to expect an editor — much more to ask it — to wade through such a confused, unconnected, and disorganised &2 IV . PEEFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAND. mass of matter." The -writer of tliis sentence should have remem- Lerecl that people in glass houses should not throw stones, for his criticism is much more heterogeneous than my book, his • grammar leaves much to be desired ; and I did not ask him to criticise my book, but to send me any criticism If he chose to review it. I was not aware that an editor was of the neuter gender till this one informed me so, and if he is neuter he certainly is not neutral. More than one of these " men in the brazen mask " hit at me below the belt, but their adroitness and courage is not equal to their malignity. Another .editor 'complains of me for inflicting so intolerable a work on the patience of the reading public, but I have yet to learn that there is any Act of Parliament by which even a single individual can be compelled to buy it ; and though some chapters may be overloaded with quotations, and inartistically composed, there are others in each volume open to no such objection, and these alone are ■well worth the single shilling which is the price of each volume, and a great deal cheaper than his stupid journal at one penny. Nothing is more common than for an author to publish a volume of essays on any subject or variety of subjects, and maga- zines and reviews contain the most heterogeneous topics. Whj% then, should I be condemned for taking up the Eastern Question in all its ramifications ? And if I have, according to another editor, produced a " hodge-podge," I can only say there is no dish more j)alatable. There is hardly a sentence iji my book which is not directly or indirectly connected with the Eastern Qaestion, only some re- viewers are so dense, so prejudiced, or so careless that they camiot see what is obvious to any impartial and acute reader. Whatever faults there may be in the style and arrangement of my work, it is a curious fact that though I urged my Eussian translator to prune its excrescences, transpose any passages that were wrongly placed, vary any synonyms, omit those facts which i\'ere not likely to interest foreigners, and even whole chapters if he thought proper, without my being in the least offended or dissatisaed, he has translated and printed my work PREPACE TO SIXTH TnOUSAND. V verbatim, excepting that he has omitted the chapter on the recon- struotioa of the Greek Empire, which is contrary to the ideas of the Slav Committee, of whicli he is a member. If my work is so utterly devoid of merit, as some critics pretend, it is not likely that the Eussians would be such idiots as to print a first edition of 7,400 copies, an honour which they did not even confer on Mr. Gladstone, whose pamphlet was translated into Russian, and published by an English speculator. Many pamphlets have been published by the Eastern Association, and by individuals in favour of Eussia and the Christians, but not one has been trans- lated into Russian, nor have the Tarks thought it worth while to translate and publish either Baron de Worms' book or any of the other Turcomaniac works which Tarcophile critics so greatly IJrefer to mine. To collect all the books, pamphlets, newspapers, reviews, &c., from which I have quoted would cost an enormous sum, and those 'who find fault with my quotations do so because their views are so thoroughly confuted by my authorities that they have not a leg- to stand upon. They surely cannot pretend that they have previously read all, or even a large proportion, of the quotations I have made, and that they retain vividly in their memories any considerable proportion of those with which they were antecedently acquainted. Because this is the first book I ever published in the English language, my previous book on the Franco-German War having been published in German, and that I am unknown as an author, some of these unjust and unscrupulous critics think they can safely run down my work; but, if I obtain a clear stage and no favour, I am ready to meet (and refute) any number of them, and the more the .merrier. If the name of any well-known author had been on my title- page, they would have praised the book; and, if my name had been on one of Mr. Gladstone's works, they would have condemned it ; just as the critics of a former generation were taken in by Ireland's forgeries on Shakespeare, and lauded them as immortal works, but, when it was discovered that they were Ireland's own composition, they said that they were the greatest rubbish that anyone had ever written. VI PREFACE TO SIXTH THOXTSAND. Some of my critics fall foul of me for some gi-ammatical and other errors ivliicli are the fault of the printer, and which I have corrected in the Errata ; and this is, I suppose, their notion of fair play. The Nord Deutsche Allgemeine Zeihmg says of one of my chapters : " Sir T. Sinclair has a claim to the consideration of the Germans, who remember with pleasure their debt of gratitude to liim. So far no one could treat the subject with more warmth and eloqu^ence." The Nm-d says of another portion of my work that it made a great sensation in Eussia, and the Russian translator of my book is publisliing a first edition of 7,400 copies, the usual number being from 250 to 500, whilst the whole trade of London only subscribed for three copies ! Mr. Holyoake said of another publication of mine : — " There is an air of clever and amusing candour about it, there is a calcu- lating recklessness in the style, which is quite refreshing. The speaker appears to dash off his ideas, but, when the phrases have entertained the reader, there is found to be good sound sense in them." The World says : — " Sir ToUemache Sinclair is the clever and eccentric son of a more clever and eccentric father. He has much curious knowledge of out-of-the-way subjects, which has perhaps not received due recognition. He has an awkward way of occa- sionally bringing to light inconvenient passages in the lives of eminent individuals, and recently, as we noticed at the time in these columns, reminded the world of Mr. DTsraeli's overtures twenty years ago to Count Seebach — an allegation which may be regarded as historically established, and which was not in the remotest degree disposed of by the Prime Minister's jaunty letter to Sir S. Northcote. . . Valuable as is the service he might perform for the Liberal party, he remains a political homme incomp-is." I have also received autograph letters of thanks from Prince- Bismarck and Count Moltke for my writings in favour of Germany, and portions of this work have been reprinted in Greek and other languages. I further subjoin an able letter which I have received from M.. PBEPACB TO SIXTH THOUSAND. vii Aksakoflf, President of the Slav Committee of Moscow, which shows his opinion of my work even in its incomplete state, and wliich also shows that the general supposition in Western Europe that the design of the Slav party in Russia is to annex all the Slavonic race to the Eussian Empire, is entirely unfounded, and I may here further add a fact which appears in the Turcophile Globe of November 1, and which is most creditable to the Russians : — " During the last ten years the formation of scholarships in pre- ference to the erection of monuments, has been carried on with so much vigour, that during that period the number of purses established may be reckoned by thousands. . . Sometimes as many as a hundred have been authorised in one morning." The Daily Beview of Edinburgh, the organ of the Free Church, in a notice of my book, speaks of my " combined folly and vulgarity. That it should be possible for such a speaker and writer as the Member for Caithness to find a seat, though it has long been hereditary in his family, is a reflection alike on the House of Commons and the people of Caithness." This thick-skulled and venomous critic shows his ignorance by stating that the seat has been hereditary in my family, as Mr. Traill held it for nearly thirty years between my father and myself, and my great-grandfather never was in Parliament. The Daily Beview, in a leading article, abused me for saying that the leaders of the Liberal j)arty were supercilious and snubbed their followers, and defied me to give further and more satisfactory proofs ; but it is a fact that Mr. Smith, the Conservative First Lord of the Admiralty, was blackballed as a candidate for the Reform Club, because, forsooth, he was a trades- man, and that Sir John Holker, now Attorney-General, was also ex- cludedfrom the Reform, besides Sir H. Peek and manyothers, whose adherence materially strengthens the Conservative and weakens the Liberal party. I complained of being snubbed by Lord Hart- ington, not because I had not received more than my fair share of hospitality from liim, as I drew a soup ticket for dinner at Devonshire House in the usual lottery last season, and, though these entertainments are usually intolerably dull, and I sat be- tween an Obstructive and a Destructive, with a Constructive on the opposite side, still the dinner was excellent ; but the Hartington VIU PKBFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAND. sauce is, to me, most unpalatable, though other M.P.'s may not object to it, or even enjoy it. My critic does not explain how it can be a reflection on the House of Commons that I have been able not " to find a seat," as he says, but that I was willing to accept a seat, which was conferred on me unsolicited by the people of Caithness. The Birmingham Advertiser politely speaks of my essays as " sodden, unenlivened by a spark of wit or humour. It is merely coarse and disjointed irony, and if it were not the workmanship of Sir ToUemache Sinclair, we should say it was that of an idiot." On the other hand, the Wijoomhe Telegraph says, " We refer careful readers to this work with the greatest pleasure ; it is almost a complete Encyclopoedia on this subject. There can be no question of this, that Sir T. Sinclair writes well, and that very little of the book is taken up with redundant expressions or tautology;" and the Salford Weekly Chronicle, though hostile, adds, " Why cannot Sir ToUemache devote his rare and undoubted abilities to the promotion of some work by which he would leave as lasting a name, and as wholesome an iafluenoe as those who have gone before him?" I come now to the Athenxum, which treats me to a couple of pages of adverse but dull criticism, which would be dear at a farthing a line. It begins by calling me an elderly Highland gentleman, but I want many years of being elderly, and my residence is beyond the Highlands. He is again mistaken in saying that I stated I did not get a hearing in the House of Commons, for I spoke without any interruption to a supercilious House for an hour on the Eastern Question. My critic must have been at a great loss for points of attack as he has selected so trifling a subject as my observations on the diner h la Russe, but the real fact is, that these unknown, anonymous, and insignificant penny-a-liners usually, instead of reading the book they pretend to criticise, merely cast their eye over the index, or table of contents, and select any topic which they think will suit them ; and they remind me of an amusing satire on one of their fraternity, who is represented as saying, " I have now given the public all that it is necessary for them to know, and more than they can PEEFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAITO. IX appreciate of my decisions on tlie literature of the week. The above works are all that I have had leisure to look at ; still, the mere fact of my not having seen them would not prevent me from criticising all the rest if it was expedient or necessary. On the whole, I consider the works of this week decidedly iu advance of those of the last, as that Vi^as of its predecessor, which I attribute to my weekly critiques; and I doubt not that after diligent study of this week's critiques considerable progress will be manifested in future." The AiheiKBum then states, " Toleration, excqit to dissenters, says Sir ToUemache, is a tradition of Russian policy (p. 10); but it was Mr. Wallace, as I state, that said this, and I understand him to mean that whilst the Russians are tolerant to Roman Catholics, United Greeks, Jews, Mussulmans, &c., who are born in these faiths, they are, like the Mussulmans, not tolerant to those who abjure the orthodox religion, when they are born members of that creed. My critic says that "whole congregations and villages are commanded by the head of the Church to abjure the rites they have been brought up to reverence," but I have proved the con- trary in my chapter refuting Colonel Mansfield. My reviewer, too, while attacking the Czars for not giving a constitution to Russia, conveniently ignores the fact to which I had given prominence, that Finland has always had a most liberal con- stitution, and that Russia respected the Polish constitution till their unwise and unjustifiable rebellion, which rebellion was the main cause which prevented the Emperor from fulfilling his intention of giving a constitution to the whole empire. Even one of Mr. Freeman's lectures is pronounced by this superior being, whose name is probably as obscure as that of Mr. Freeman's is eminent, to be crude, whilst his own dicta are crude without the " c." With reference to my attack on oppressive parliaments, this new Longinus says: "It does so happen that all those cases occurred before the Parliaments of the three kingdoms was in- corporated into one," from which it follows that, in the opinion of this' critic, the greater respect for law and love of justice which characterised the hundred and odd Irish Members who joined the X PEEFAOE TO SIXTH THOXTSAND. Britisli Parliament, put an end to the lawlessness and oppression of tHe large -majority of English and Scotch members ! He also says " that the atrocities committed in Ireland by the English took place when there was neither national representation there, nor imperial representation here;'' but if the British Parliament took advantage of the absence of Irish representatives before the Union to oppress the Irish nation, and did not venture to do so afterwards, when the Union took place and they had to face the representatives of Ireland, their conduct was cowardly and wicked in the extreme. The reviewer, who, probably, himself often means the contrary of what he says, and sometimes does not appear to know his own meaning or his own mind, pretends, in the face of the quota- tion which I have given from the Duke of Wellington's des- patches, namely, "we must reconstruct the Greek Empire," that he had no such wish, and I never said he wished " to set up an Hellenic puppet;" in fact, on two successive occasions, the Greeks have chosen foreigners, and not Greeks, as kings. Besides, so far from the Greeks being puppets of the Eussians, their views are irreconcileably opposed, for the Greeks justly consider they have a right to the whole of Turkey as far as the Balkans, and the Eussians consider that the greater part of this territory beloilgs to the Slavonian race. My critic accuses me of taking " copious draughts of Punch " ; but about four pages out of upwards of five hundred cannot fairly be termed a " copious draught ; " and the conclusion is irresistible, from this and other exaggerations, that my critic was under the influence of copious draughts of another kind of punch, which is usually made from rum, though his attempts to be nim, are complete failures. Again, Lord Eobert Montagu's thick octavo volume is not a pamphlet, as my critic says ; but space would fail me to expose his numerous errors and the vindictive animus which he shows against me. If my book reaches a second edition I will unearth and name some of these critical foxes, and drag these (Grub Street) owls into an uncongenial daylight, instead of the misty twilight in which they like to hide themselves and spue their venom' over their opponents. Why do they not, like the manly and able PKEFACE TO SIXTH THOtTSAND. XI writers in the Contemporary and Fortnightly Meviews, in the Nine- teenth Century, the North American Review, the Revue cles Beitx Moncles, and the whole of the French newspapers, attach their names to their articles, instead of stabbing their victims in the dark with their vile and poisoned arrows ? With some of them I have the misfortune to be personally acquainted, and one of them told me that he was obliged to cut up and abuse my book, though he thought it extremely clever, amusing, and instructive. The Fall Mall Gazette, with an utter and un-English regard for fair play, abused my article on the " Indian Night- mare " in a leader filling the whole front page of the paper, and part of the next, disengenuously concealing my name, which I had published, and said that I was " arrogant, foolish, ignorant," &c.; but when I wrote a very short note, justifying myself, and pointing out a signal and ridiculous statistical mistake they had made, they refused to insert it, their principle being la mart sans phrase ; and I ask the public to say whether this is not most dishonest con- duct on the part of Mr. Greenwood, the editor of the Fall Mall. One of the most brilliant and successful writers on the Eastern Question, whose works have passed through many editions wrote to me as follows : — " As you know, I am diametrically opposed to your opinions upon the Eastern "War Question, but my partizan- ship does not prevent me from admiring the fiery Scot's combative spirit, the undaunted courage, and the almost romantic forgetful- ness of self and self interest with which you tear into the fight." In the meantime, hostile critics, au revoir, and may you soon have another Byron to demolish you in a new " English Bards and Scotch Eeviewers." LETTEE FROM M. AKSAKOFF, PRESIDENT OF THE SLAV COMMITTEE OF MOSCOW, TO SIR TOLLE- MACHE SINCLAIR. Sir, — If I have not written to you sooner it is not that I have delayed voluntarily to reply to you, but because, after having received the letter with which you have honoured me, I awaited the arrival of the proof-sheets of your book which is now in the press. I possess them now, and I hasten to thank you warmly XU PEEFAOE TO SIXTH THOUSAND. for the agreeable hours of moral satisfaction that you have caused me to experience. Without speaking of the thrilling interest which the numerous quotations on the Eastern Question collected in your book present, one feels oneself edified by that spirit of justice, by that laborious love of truth, by that courage of one's own opinion, by that noble and frank indignation against iniquity which your work displays, and which serve jpowerfuUy to reconcile we Eussians with the English nation. It is notorious, sir, that at this moment Russian society is more than outraged by the poUtical conduct of your Government, by its proceedings towards us, and by all the atrocious calumnies with which the greater part of the English newspapers — organs ■of the Beaoonsfield Ministry — inundate us. It is, therefore, a service rendered not only to the cause of the Eastern Christians, but to your own country, to show to the world in general, and to Russia in particular, that the existing Cabinet cannot be con- sidered as the true representative of the mind, of the thought, and of the sentiments of the English people. In protesting loudly, as you do, sir, in the name of the EngHsh nation, against the pohcy pursued by your Government, you save the honour and the repu- tation of your country, and you give us a pledge of peace and of possible reconciliation in the future. Sir, the East of Europe belongs to the Oriental Europeans ; the Slav countries belong to the Slavs. Russia, the only Slav country which has succeeded in creating a free power independent, and not destitute of strength, is bound by all its national aspirations and historical traditions to free its oppressed brethren of the same race, who are misunder- stood and despised by Western Europe, and given over to all the ignominy, all the atrocity, of the Turkish domination. It is not a question of territorial conquests for Russia ; it is a question of calling to an independent existence (political and social) all these different Slav groups which people the Balkan peninsula. There is no idea of annexation, but certainly it is not antagonists which we seek to create ; and all these Slav peoples should be, and will be, attached to Russia by the moral ties of religious, national, and physiological unity. Neither Western Europe in general, nor England in particular, have anything to do with this ; there is not PBEFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAND. xiil an iota of British interest -which is hazarded. The East has its reason and its right to exist ; let it manage itself in its interior relations as it thinks proper. If the "West is not of this opinion, it is because apparently it is not the question of the right or the security of the English domi- nation in India which engross its attention, but even the existence of Eussia and of the Slav world, of which for its i>art it would not like to see looming in the horizon a future of prosperity and power. But I think that Europe would do better to reconcile itself to this fact, and not to complicate the situation by fomenting in the Slav race, which is quite placable, sentiments of hatred and vengeance. Wliatever circumstances exist, let us be on the side of justice and truth. This is the only way to arrive at a solution of all the questions here below, and to conquer the falsehood raised up by modern civilisation into a real power of the first order, decorated by the title of Public Opinion ! The Grand Chancellor of this new Majesty, the High Priest of this new idol, is, without doubt, Beaconsfield. It is to be hoped, sir, that the united efforts of courageous men like yourself, Messrs. Freeman, Gladstone, Forster, and others, will succeed at last to cause the moral yoke to fall which weighs on so many* minds and on the consciences of a great pait of your countrymen. Be so good as to accept the expression of my gratitude and of my most sincere respect. Mosemv. T. AxsAiioiT. One of the criticisms on my book which has diverted me the most, is that which has appeared in the Jewish World. The reviewer opens his attack upon me with the well-known quotation from Job, "0 that mine enemy would write a book!" but as I, in the preface to my work, had made use of the same weapon against my opponents, he was by custom precluded from having recourse to it. My speeches and book have, according to this judicious and impartial critic, " excited by turns in the world at large contcmjjt, pity, disgust, and ridicule." I have even, he says,. XIV PEEFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAND. ■been guilty of the heinous and unparalleled offence of having " had the audacity to forward manuscripts to Mr. Gladstone ! " and, as I freely acknowledge that I did send some MSS. to him, I suppose I must expect a species of moral crucifixion at the hands ■of the Editor of the Jewish World, as it is no longer in the power of the Jews to inflict that punishment corporeally, or to make girdles of the entrails of their victims, as I have related from Gibbon's celebrated work He, however, is mistaken in saying that the Liberal leaders whom I have attacked "simply requite his egotistic impertinence with scornful silence," for Mr. Gladstone, in receiving a copy of my speech, wrote a letter by return of post to the Editor of the Northern Ensign, in which he says respecting me, " I shall be sorry to lose a man ■of his courage, assiduity, and talent ; " and, if this is Mr. ■Gladstone's way of showing his scorn, I wonder how he expresses his appreciation 1 This Shimei of the press then saj's, " But for the fact that the production is a unique psychological curiosity, and will afford am.usement to many, we should tegard it as a melancholy exhibition of indiscretion, to be passed over with ■contempt," but an author whose work is a unique Curiosity, which will afford amusement to many, may justly be proud of his success; iind, as the reviewer cannot explain why it is so unique a curiosity, nor what sources of amusement from his point of view the book contains, which alone would justify him logically, according to his own tlioery, in treating the work otherwise than with silent con- tempt, what excuse can he give his readers for cruelly inflicting on them about 230 lines of criticism on a production so utterly undeserving of notice ? In the very next sentence, however, the reviewer most incon- sistently says : " The most notable part of this unparalleled work is a chapter which Jews cannot fail to enjoy with intense avidity ; " but, if my chapter on the Jews is the most notable, it grammati- cally foUows that other chapters are either notable or more notable. Again, in these days when everyone complams of uniformity and tameness, it is no small compliment to be told that one has pro- duced an " unparalleled work ; " and, if " Jews canriot fail to enjoy with intense avidity " the chapter which I have written respecting PREFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAlfD. xT them, my book ought to have a very large circulation from Jewish purchasers alone, and if they have any gratitude they should send me a testimonial for writing something which they " enjoy loith intense avidity." Further on, my Jewish critic says " that in the uncontrollable bitterness he manifests against the founders of the Jewish race, and the heroes of subsequent Old Testament times, he is shaking to their foundations the very pillars which sustain Christianity in common with Judaism," and " shattering the fundamental sup- ports of Christianity ; " but, if I am such a moral Samson, and if my book is so powerful and dangerous, surely it would have been better to open fire against me by reversing Job's exclamation, and saying, "0 that mine enemy had not written this book ! " We are then told, "The Jews . . are now transfixed by the poisoned arrows of his insensate anger ; " but, if this is so, my skiU as an archer must be considerably greater than my reviewer pre- tends in the first part of his remarks. Whilst the rest of the human race, and especially the Ameri- cans, have the most supreme contempt for the Jews, as I have shown in my book, the Editor of the Jewish World has the modesty to say that the Creator " fashioned us [the Jews] in a mould superior to that in which the rest of mankind was cast.'' As regards external appearance and manner, the Jews are the most unprepossessing race that ever existed ; and as regards distinction in literature, science, philosophy, art, &c., they occupy a very humble place. There are about six millions of Jews in the world, and there are about thirty-six millions of Frenchmen ; and, if my reviewer's statement of the superiority of the Jewish race to any other was correct, in biographical dictionaries there should be considerably more than a sixth of the number of Jewish names as there are of French names (deducting French Jews from the other French names, and adding them to the rest of the Jewish race) ; but I question whether the ratio of French, English, or German names in any biographical dictionary would not be at least sixty times as numerous, or ten times as great in proportion to numbers, as XVI PEEFAOE TO SIXTH THOTTSAND. 1 those of Jews ; whilst as to great geniuses, where is the Jewish Shakespeare, Milton, Newton, Homer, Socrates, Plato, Voltaire, Eacine, Moliere, Goethe, Eaffaelle, Eubens, Beethoven, or Canova ? Echo answers, Where 1 I am subsequently called " this matchless traducer of our people," and again I have to thank my critic for the honour he confers on me in stating that I am " matchless," even although this matchlessness is, in his view, of a Satanic cast. I am also, he says, " the prince of political buffoons," and I am actuated hy " fiendish hate ; " but it appears that I am " insane," and " a ranting fanatic," from what is stated a little later ; and if I can write a book shaking to their foundations the very " pillars which sustain Christianity" when suj)posed to be in a state of mental aberration, what could I not do if, through the " condign punish- ment " which I have received from the Jewish World, I should recover my reason ? " Se chiusi m'occidete aperte die farete " as Metastasio says. I must, however, observe that my reviewer has not disproved even one of the numerous accusations I have brought against the' Jewish race, and for Avhich I have citkl the highest authorities,, and especially G-ibbon's charge that they massacred 460,000 of the inhabitants of Cyrene and Cyprus, with whom they dwelt in treacherous friendship, and made girdles of the entrails of their victims ; nor has he justified his co-religionists from my charge of totally disregarding their own laws ; in short, his reply is in accordance with the well-known instructions of a sharp Jewish attorney to a barrister who had to defend a rascally client, " No case ; abuse the plaintiff's attorney.'' The Editor of the Jewish Chronicle writes, in reply to a correspondent, as follows respecting my book : — " Can our correspondent not see that the very virulence of the attack and the vileness of the language- save us the trouble of an answer ? A writer like this scribbling Baronet has unmistakably 'rabies' reflected in his savage look. If you are not willing to knock down a mad dog, you simply go out of his way. Nobody mistakes the brute. Why, therefore, should we lose our time with commenting upon a book which simply excites. I PREFACE TO SIXTH THOrSAND. xvil loathing, and to whicli no rational being will give the slightest heed? — Ed. /. G." As the Editor of the Jewish Chronicle says " no rational being will give the slightest heed " to my book, it logically follows that in his opinion the Editor of the Jewish World, who has given the greatest " heed " to my work, is not a rational being. In answer to a second attack on me, I wrote as follows, as fast as my pen would dash over my paper : — To THE Editor of the " Jewish World." Sir, — I received last night a copy of the Jewish Wmid of the 26th inst., containing upwards of two columns and a half of a second editorial attack on my " Defence of Eussia," to which I have to reply with much greater brevity as follows : — In the first place, I protest against your stating that I admitted ■ that the generations of Jews who immediately succeeded those who crucified Jesus, were less unjust and inhuman. I merely said " it may he alleged " that this was the case, but I immediately proceed to prove it was not the case, and that they became in- finitely worse. You charge me with quoting " garbled extracts from Gibbon." Why not prove this,'if you can, by giving the entire passages and showing that my quotations did not fairly represent the opinions of the author ; and you give no evidence whatever of your reckless assertion that those allegations are " gross exaggerations." You pretend that whatever atrocities the Jews may have committed were done in self-defence ; but Gibbon distinctly states that the " horrid cruelties of the Jews in the cities of Egypt, of Cyprus, and of Gyrene, where they dwelt m treacherous friendship with the unsuspecting natives,'' " shocked humanity," and even in any case in which they were first attacked, none but Jewish fiends would " make girdles of the entrails of their victims," or " saw them asunder," as Gibbon states. There is not a scintilla of evidence that the Jews who dragged the body of the Patriarch of Constanti- nople through the streets in 1821 and threw it into the sea, or the 600 Jews who beat out the brains of the wounded Greeks after the battle of Navacta, were, as you in the most brazen mannei 6 XVIU PEEFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAND. assert, " unvoluntary agents in the melancholy scene," but, if so, they should have preferred death to committing murder ; and on the contrary, one of them boasted that he had despatched 68 victims. You then quote my reproach that the Jews do not perform the various ceremonies of the Mosaic Law, but you do not even attempt to deny the fact or to give reasons why they continuously disobey in almost every particular the law by which they profess to be bound ; but as the Israelites universally neg- lected to perform even the rite of circumcision during the forty years in the wilderness, this disregard of their own law is characteristic and hereditary. You afterwards take me to task for my attack on Baron Henry de Worms. Now, I find on inquiry that his family obtained, in August, 1874, permission from the Queen to call themselves barons ; but I maintain that Englishmen usually do not use foreign titles, even when they have inherited them through a long line of ancestors, like Mr. De Lisle, of Garendon, Marquis of Chateaunay, in France ; the Duke of Hamilton, Duke of Chatelherault, in France, and others, or when foreign titles have been conferred on their families for distinguished services, as in the case of the Duke of Wellington, Duke of Cuidad Eodrigo, Charlotte Mary Lady Bridport, Duchess of Bronte, &c. ; still less when these foreign titles have been bought for money, or obtained by rigging the market and financing foreign loans ; and neither Mrs. Jodrell, who is Countess of Cape St. Vincent, Mr. De La Poer, who is a Roman baron, Sir Horace St. Paul, who is Count St. Paul, Mrs. Stapleton Bretherton, who is a marchesa, Mr. Walrond, who is a marquis and a grandee of the first class in Spain, nor even Sir Francis Goldsmid, ever use their foreign titles ; and perhaps their reason is because they consider exotic titles degraded by being bought by Hebrew financiers. In fact, many Englishmen, such as Mr. Mackenzie, who is a Spanish Count and a Portuguese Marquis, do not even take the trouble of getting their names inserted at the end of the peerage. You subsequently say that I " endeavour to tear into shreds the sta- tistics quoted by him " (Baron de Worms), but you do not even try to show that the Baron's ludicrously erroneous statistics are PREFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAND. XIX right. You " challenge me to adduce a single instance in which we (the Jews) have taken the initiative in any conflict with Christians"; but I have quoted several, and especially the unpro- voked cruelties which they committed in the cities of Egypt, Cyprus, and Cyrene, and the dastardly and fiendish wickedness of their conduct to the Greek wounded after the battle ofNavacta. You not only deny that Jesus Christ was crucified at all, but you add that " We believe the story of the life and death of Jesus to be for the most part mythical." The whole civilised world, however (except Jews), Christian and infidel, firmly believe that Christ was crucified by the Jews, and independently of Christian evidence, there is abundance of pagan and hostile evidence to j)rove the fact. Neither Julian the Apostate, Gibbon, Voltaire, Hume, or any other freethinker ever attempted to deny the fact of the crucifixion, and even Mahomet believed that Christ was a prophet, and he would not therefore have put him to death as the Jews did. It would be much easier to prove that black is white, or that two and two make five (to anyone but a Jew) than to disprove the fact of the crucifixion, and all I need add on this point is to apply to you what Byron said of Bishop Berkeley: " When Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter, It was no matter what he said." You say you are a nation, but no statement could be more absurd. Nationality cannot exist without the colloquial use of the same language by all the individuals of the nation, whilst the majority of Jews know no more of Hebrew than the majority of Roman Catholics know of Latin; one proof of which is that all your newspapers are in European languages and none in Hebrew, and the mere identity of religion does not make the Russian, Turkish, French, English, German, Italian, and other Jews a nation any more than the gipsies of the world or the Quakers form a nation, in fact, even when the language, race, and religion are identical, and the people reside side by side, as in the case of Belgium and France, they do not always form one nation, and nothing would induce a Belgian to adopt French nationality. Surely you would hardly venture to assert that the six millions of Jews through- out the world really in their hearts desire to return to Judea, fof XX PEEFAOE TO SIXTH THOTISABT). it must be observed tliat the Jews are only a portioa of the Israelites, just as the people of London and Middlesex are only a portion of the English people, and yet you talk as if all Palestine rightfully belonged to you. Your race might easily buy up Judea, but if you went there you would not understand each other's language, it would be impossible for six millions to live there, and you would infallibly starve, unless, indeed, you were miraculously fed by manna and quails from heaven. You accuse me of " shaking the pillars of Christianity to their foundation,'' because, for instance, I express the horror which I feel at the conduct of the Israelites to the tribe of Benjamin, of whom they exterminated all the men, women, and children, except 600 men, and at the massacre of 42,000 flying Ephraimites by the Gileadites, merely because the Ephraimites said, " Ye Gileadites aie fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites, and among the Manassites," but I defy you to quote any text from the Old Tes- tament which justifies either of these more than Turkish atroci- ties. As the Old Testament tells us that the Lord said, " I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed imto Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him," there is abundant proof that at that time at least only an infini- tesimal minority of aU the Israelites believed in the national religion, and the overwhelming majority were not only disbelievers in the Mosaic dispensation, but believers in the hostile creed of Baal. Taking an average of the twelve tribes, the 7,000 in ques- tion would only give a dividend of less than 600 Jews who were faithful to the Mosaic law, but, strangely enough, Jehu is repre- sented as having gathered all the followers of Baal, without one single exception, into the house of Baal, where he treacherously massacred them ; and to hold the whole of the Israelites, except 7,000, the house of Baal must have been infinitely larger than St. Peter's at Rome, or the Crystal Palace, whilst it seems strange that not one of the whole of the people of Israel was intelligent enough not to suspect Jehu's stratagem, and that there was no sick, infirm, or dying man or pregnant woman in all Israel, who was not able and willing to go up to the house of Baal, and this murder of say a million of his countrymen is the more abominable PEEFACE TO SIXTH THOUSAND. XXI since Jehu lived and died an idolater, and " took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel." Even Jews, as will appear from the following extracts from a letter in the Jeivish World, signed " Barnard D. Isaacs," speak of " the delusions, the shams, which rob Judaism of its better part, and make it appear a snare and an imposture ; the watchmen of Judaism hide themselves, being afraid to view the inroad of in- fidelity, to mark the progress of humbug." The obscene passages in the Jewish ritual must be expunged. Such crimes as suggested by the confessional of Kippur must be removed from a book lisjjing the Eternal's praise, for it debases the pure and vitiates the innocent — in a word, it makes the mind the residence of low- thoughtedness, and the heart the domicile of depravity." It thus clearly appears that I, whom you term "the matchless traducer •" of your race, cannot say anything more severe of you than the thoughtful, intelligent, and honest among you say of yourselves, and that, in spite of your Selicoth, Hapthorah, Sedrahs, Hosanna Eabbahs, and other long prayers, you are but whited sepulchres, as Christ said of you. You scrupulously purchase Talysim and Sepher Torahs, you eat your Challoth, and you slaughter your animals in a manner which is a species of vivisec- tion ; but this is a mere whitening of the outside of the cup and the platter, and avails you nothing against the progress of infidelity and schism in your own fold. It is notorious that marriages are now taking place, contrary to your law and customs, between Jews and Christians, and in many other respects your co-religion- ists are rapidly forsaking their faith. To risk a Jeu de mots ; It is, however, hardly a flattering coincidence, that in the case of these Jeu d' amour marriages, the Jewish bride, who, of course, is married from disinterested affection, has always a large fortune, and it can hardly be said of the husband, que son bonheur est en Jew. You yourself, in a leading article, use the following just but severe language : — " It is an unfortunate fact that not only are our English co- religionists wofully deficient in general theological knowledge, but their acquaintance with Jewish literature is of the most infinitesi- mal character. This ignorance is owing, to a considerable extent. XXU PEEFACE TO SIXTH THOTJSAKD. to a want of enthusiasm, and even common interest, in our ancient literatrue. Yet it is due also in no small degree to a lack of com- petent teachers to expound it." I have further to observe, that though the Jews (who for centuries disbelieved in a future world) pretend that theirs is the only true faith, they churlishly, selfishly, and ungenerously refuse to make any efforts, or to spend any of that gold which; like Aaron's calf, is their idol, to convert the Christian or even the heathen Gen- tiles, and even discourage conversions, which is an ungrateful return for the enormous sums the Christians have lavished in the hopeless task of converting them. Every Hebrew convert to Christianity must cost at least athousand pounds, and in this and in other cases it seems to me clear that 'Le.Jeu ne vautpas la chandelle. As to the false accusations brought against the Roumanians and Servians for their conduct to the Jews, I now append from the columns of your own paper nearly the whole of an article which you have copied from the Jeioish Messenger, which proves that your race is infinitely worse treated in Morocco than even according to your own untrue statements in Eussia and in the Principalities and Servia, yet you enthusiastically support these cruel, oppressive, and'contemptuous Mussulmans, who hate and despise you, as appears by the following quotation from your paper from Adrianople : — " A striking feature of the Turkish war is the alacrity with which the Jewish population of Turkey respond to the calls made upon them. In some of the larger towns the Rabbis go from house to house to collect subscriptions for the wounded, and the utmost enthusiasm prevails." A correspondent of the Jewish Messenger furnishes that paper with an interesting article on the position of the Moorish Jews, from which we extract the most important features. "As to the language of the country, there are not more than two or three in every town who are able to read and write it ; the Mohammedans consider it sacrilege for their writing to be defiled by a Jew's hand, or tongue. Most of the native Jews have such primitive ideas that theyprefer supporting clerical or religious instruction to the utter loss of the secular. Many even refuse to allow their children to go to PREFACE TO SIXTH THOTJSAKD. XXiii schools, preferring to have them brought up as rabbis. At Mogador in particular, the schools are badly attended and worse conducted ; the leaders of the community take no interest in furtherance of secular education, and many of them are quite opposed to it. Thus the school in this town has not yet furnished any qualified pupils since its establishment, although much has been spent on it by the alliance and the Board of Deputies. " The native Jews of Morocco have a great many disabilities against them. They are only allowed to follow such trades as no Mohammedans will do, and even their shops are only to be allowed to be at places where they have little or no intercourse with their Moorish neighbours. They are not allowed to reside outside the Ghetto, and, where such does not exist, their quarters are generally separated from the rest of the inhabitants. A Jew must not wear shoes in any part of the town except the Mullah or Ghetto, nor ride about the town. No Jew is allowed to ride a horse, nor wear the same garb as the Mohammedans. They are not allowed to go to public baths, nor visit such places of recrea- tion as are frequented by Mohammedans. They are not deemed fit witnesses to give evidence before a court of law, and, were a case with a Mohammedan to be decided against a Jew, the latter cannot murmur against the sentence. No Jew can hold a public ofB.ce under government (except that of Eabbi or Sheik), and even rabbis' evidence, or deeds, are not considered legal if they are un- favourable to a Mohammedan. If a Jew be imprisoned or bastina- doed, he must pay the fees of the executioner ; pay for liis lodging in prison, and also the entrance as well as the outgoing fees. In case of refusal, his clothes are taken from him and left in the prison until he calls to redeem them. Jews must not sell any article of provisions above the rate fixed for them by a govern- ment official appointed for that purpose ; and, recently, a Jewish butcher was subjected to the^ torture of three thousand lashes for selling meat at a slight advance over a iixed price, which he did in order to compensate for his loss in a beast which turned out trefa, or unfit for food. " All work for government, such as tailoring, shoemaking, tinkering, scavenging, &c., must be done by Jews at a low rate XXIV PEEFACB TO SIXTH THOTJSAKD. of pay; which, however, the workmen never get, especially in Morocco city, where men and women of all trades are obliged to work most of their time for the government, and have work distributed at their homes, whether the women can do it or not. Many poor young women are compelled to quit their homes and go to work for a governor, or a sheriff, at his own house, and should these take a fancy to the poor woman, she is compelled to change her religion and remain with her seducer on the mere evidence of his statement that she wished to embrace Mohammedanism ; the protestations to the contrary are not believed. " In cases of work, neither Sabbaths nor festivals are respected ; the lash and prison being often employed to enforce obedience. " In most towns, the Jewish burial-grounds are not allowed to be walled in, and when a burial-ground is filled, they are not allowed to buy another, but bury one body over the other. The cemetery in Morocco city is either five or six deep already. Where Ghettos exist, the cemetery is within its walls, or close under them, in order not to contaminate the Mohammedan passers by. " At Morocco, where executions of criminals often take place, it is the Jews' task to salt the head, or limbs, of the culprits, and hang the same to the walls for public inspection, whence the name of 'Mullah' (salt), given to the Ghettos in general." It is clear that the Jewish race will for centuries submit to a life of humiliation, which no other race in the world would endure for a moment. The Menmonites emigrated from Eussia to America only because they were dissatisfied at being drawn for the conscription for the army, and even the Circassians and other natives have emigrated for comparatively trifling reasons, and if the Jews of Morocco had one spark of manliness they would emigrate too. Deal with my facts and arguments if yoa can ; but you are welcome to abuse me, for I consider your praise as censure, and your censure praise. I now take leave of the Editor of the Jemsh World, with my best compliments and thanks. Yours obediently, J. G. T. Sinclair. PREFACE. Having visited Turkey, Asia Minor, Greece, Syria, and Egypt ; having studied the Eastern Question with special interest for many years ; and having observed with astonishment and regret the pro- found ignorance and utterly erroneous views which prevail in Eng- land, even among our politicians and public writers, on this absor- bing topic- — a darkness which may be felt, like a November fog in London — I have devoted the whole of nay available leisure for the last six months to its further consideration, more especially in connection with the eventful history of Turkey during the last two years, and I now lay before the public the results of my investiga- tions and reflections. When it is considered that the Parliamentary Blue Books on the Turkish and collateral questions embrace several thousand closely printed folio pages ; that the debates in Parliament have occupied a considerable number of days ; that pamphlets by the score have had to be examined ; and that I have found it necessary to re-peruse many historical works, as also the whole of the debates on the Eastern and other relative questions for nearly a hundred years ; and not only to peruse carefully the more influential organs of the daily and weekly press of England, but frequently the journals of other countries ; some idea may be formed by the reader of the arduous nature of the task I have undertaken, which was far more laborious Tl PKBFACE. than I had anticipated ; and I own I am surprised to find that the collection of the materials for this work and the time occupied in writing it have occupied no less than six months, working some- times six, eight, or even ten hours a day. The deep interest I have always felt in the Eastern Question originally arose from my visit to Turkey, and the painful impression produced on my mind by the misery and oppression of the wretched Christians there, which caused an American to observe that " hell itself could not be conducted on stioh principles " as those which actuated the Ottoman Government ; and this interest was deepened and confirmed by the loss I sustained in the Crimea of my oldest and dearest friend, in what I have dilways considered an unjust, unnecessary, and aggressive war as regards Russia, and a fearful national crime as respects the Christians of Turkey, whom we deprived of the efficient and constant protection of Russia without providing any adequate substitute, and left to the " tender mercies of the wicked" (Turk), which David tells us " are cruel." I am well aware of the very homoeopathic influence which can possibly be exercised by anything that I can write, with however much earnestness and labour, and that even the best cause and the strongest arguments and facts made use of by my unknown and unskilful hands would be less attractive to the general public than the worst cause and the most fallacious arguments brought forward by a known and practised writer ; still I cannot resist the impulse which impels me to contribute my obscure mite to what in my soul and conscience I believe to be a just and sacred cause, namely, that of the Christians of Turkey and their disinterested and chivalrous Russian liberators. Let the reader, if he will, put aside and skip over as absolutely PKEPAOE. Vll worthless every line that I myself have written ;* still he will find in the numerous quotations which I have made from the works of the ablest writers and statesmen during the last hundred years on the Eastern and kindred questions, such a body of facts and argument* on this subject as he could hardly obtain in any other single work, and perhaps even those who are irreconcilably opposed to my views may thank me for guiding them through the mazes of the labyrinth which constitutes the Eastern Question. Few, probably, would have the patience to explore all the old and musty documents which I have had to examine, and without the resources of the libraries of the House of Commons and of the Travellers' Club, I should have been unable to collect a large portion of my materials. The Times news- paper of half a century ago, for instance, is out of print, and can hardly be purchased for money, yet it is impossible to treat the Eastern Question satisfactorily without turning from time to time to this able and instructive journal. This work has been composed amidst the countless distractions of Parliamentary duties, private business, and social-pleasures ; and, from the superabundance of materials which were continu- ally accumulating, and which had to be interpolated, the unity of the original design has been lost, and the style of the work, I fear, hopelessly destroyed, as I have not had time to digest properly the facts and arguments so as to fit them in always at the places where they ought to be, to vary my synonyms, and to intro- duce and dismiss them with a sufficient number of preliminary observations, which, besides, would have required several volumes. I felt alarmed at the idea that England might be involved in another Crimean war, when I would have desired another Navarino ; * However, as the Eussiau translator ia printing 7,400 copies at Ms own risk, for the first edition, it is probably tolerably readable. Vlll PREPACE. and I have, therefore, been anxious that my little work should appear before any such decided success was obtained by the Russians as would strengthen the Russophobists in urging the nation into a war with Russia, our best and oldest ally, for supposed British interests; and in this match against time I find myself beaten, and obliged to publish my work in its crude, unfinished state. It may, however, at least serve as a quarry where abler writers and more influential politicians may find abundance of material ready to their hands for defending the cause of the oppressed Christians or an armoury where anti-Turkish weapons may be found; and if it answers even these humble purposes I shall be abundantly satisfied. The characteristics of nearly all Parliamentary speeches and of most writings are that they are stilted in style and marred by ex- treme verbosity. One has to wait a considerable time to catch at rare intervals a fact or an argument, like au oasis in the desert of Sahara. On the other hand, my book falls into the oiDposite €rror of being crowded, like a marriage cake, with too many deli- cacies, and a very little will soon cloy the literary palate; or it is like Liebig's essence of meat, in which the nutriment of a whole ox is condensed into a small jar, the result being that it is absolutely uneatable unless dilated. As I am an enthusiastic, heart-and-soul, and out-and-out sup- porter of the cause of the Christians of Turkey, of their Russian deliverers, and of the Greek Empire, I may as well state that 1 am perfectly disinterested on this burning question. I have never held a single Turkish, Russian, or Greek bond, and I have no property, friends, or relatives in any of the three countries. In spite of the proverb, " Ton must not look a gift horse in the mouth," I have no doubt that my elaborate work will be severely criticised, but I am PEEFACE. IX- not at all thin-skinned, and all I desire is, tliat my opponeats will in fairness come forward with, their real named and not attack me anonymously, that I may have a clear stage and no favour, and that they wUl not imitate the Pall Mall Gazette,* which stigmatised me in a leading article of more than a page as "foolish, ignorant, presumptuous, and arrogant," and then refused me a few much too polite sentences to justify myself. Job, the most patient man that ever lived, wished that his enemy had written a book, and I hope the publication of this work will aflford the enemies of the Christian and Russian cause all the satis- faction which the patriarch anticipated for himself under sueh cir- cumstances. I will now append a few words to this Pi'eface to explain what this book contains. In the first portion will be found an historical retrospect of the Eastern Qaestion for nearly two hundred years, the substance of a speech of an hour's length which I delivered in the debate on the Eastern Qaestion, and an abridged and critical sketch of the Crimean war. I offered the whole of the materials then in my posse-ision to Mr. Gladstone — of whom it may be said that " (political) science is his forte and omniscience is his foible " — before the de- bate, hoping that he would make U3e of them with his usual skill, and that I should thus be able to spare the House the fatigue of listening to me, ani myself the uncongenial task of speaking to an unsympathetic and supercilious audience, who heard me as if j they were asking each other, in the words of my motto, "What will this babbler say?" — though I doubt if a single man in either House of Parliament knew even the simple and recent fact that the Russians occupied Constantinople in 1833 ; but his time was * A heading for a slasiing article in the Fall Moll Gazette against Die would be " Nihil quod leteaet" not " viviat it.' X PEEFACE. SO absorbed in the iiglily popular, interesting, and burning questions of English pottery and the remains of Troy, to say nothing of an infinite number of other topics of equally pressing importance, that he not only would not accept the park of anti- Turkish artillery which I had so laboriously collected, but never read a single syllable of a couple of columns of printed matter, which contained a condensation of the main facts and arguments with almost telegraphic brevity. Then comes a complete exhaustive, and, perhaps, exhausting critical analysis of the whole of the exist- ing phase of the Eastern Question, from January 1st, 1875, when the rising in the Herzegovina began, till the present date, including full extracts from the Andrassy Note, the Berlin Memorandum, the pro- ceedings of the jnference, the Protocol of London, the Russian and English declarations, and numerous other documents. There is then a. chapter called Mahometanism Unmasked, after- wards another to prove that the Sultan ia not the Head of the Mahometan Religion ; then a chapter on the Unspeakable Turk ; subsequently a Defence of Russia, including a detailed proof that the supposed "Will of Peter the Great was afargery; a common sense view of the Polish Question; a chapter on Benevolent Despotism better than Constitutionalism when tyrannical; on "Ireland the English Poland," showing that our conduct to that country has been worse than anything which has been ever proved ag.iinst Rub&ia ; and other chapters. Though I am most friendly to Russia, and to the Sla vonians generally, I am not a partisan of Pan-Slavism, and by sup porting the reconstruction of the Greek Empire, I unavoidably, but unwillingly, give what I trust will only be an evanescent dis satisfaction to a section of the Slavonic race, and especially of the Russian nationality. I have added to my work a most important and interesting leiter PRErACE. XI from Comte Seebach, formerly Saxon Minister in Paris, to Lord Beaconsfield, accusing him of now pursuing a policy on tte Eastern Question wliich. is inconsistent with hiB former professions and con- victions, and which is vacillatiag, weak, and insincere ; of having been in communication with the enemy during the Crimean War on British policy, and of having promised the Czar that if he became Minister, as he then expected, he would reverse the policy which England was then pursuing. Those of my readers who wish to master the salient points of the Eastern Question, without perusing too many dry details, will ob- tain a good general notion of the matter by reading the chapter headed, " Sketch of Past Phases of the Eastern Qustion," extending from page 36 to 57 ; and any of them who may suffer from sleep- lessness will find the longer chapter, headed, " History of the Present Phase of the Eastern Question," an almost infallible narcotic. Those who seek amusement wiU find some satire and fun in the chapters in the Appendix on Baron Henry de Worms' book, on " The Jew the Eternal Foe of the Christian," and on the Debates in the House of Commons on the Eastern Question ; and, most of all, in the capital sketch of Eastern Manners, from Thackeray ; the interview between the Englishman and the Turkish Pasha, by Kinglake, now out of print ; and the witty, sati rical verses on " The Buckinghamshire Buffoon." In concluding the Preface to this work de omnibus rebus et qui- husdam, aliis, I would recommend my readers to remember Dean Swift's tenth beatitude, " Blessed are they who expect nothing, for they shall never be disappointed." LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Ethnological Map ro race title. One Man may Steal a House 1 John Bull's Descent prom the Stiblimb to the EiDiouLors 17 Tttekish Ebceeation H3 The Sublime oe Eidiculous Porte . . . , 128 The Chivalrous Bashi-Bazouk 152 Disturbed Dreamer _ . 189 Brother Jonathan's Guess as to Britesii Policy . 240 APPENDIX : Map of Seat of War to facn title The Turkish School oe Manners and Customs . 36 Benjamin Bombastes 50 (U > o bo a W 0J3 X! , 1) 1 > , O M O o V •« '^ "^ Q. >? O ti .s-§ dg rt ^5 -" ^ ut< gs §2 o 1 -t-< , ; L) bX>;n a .? "^ ei "*- d o > .5S tn rt in c^ 1^ u in j3 cu *•* m a ; ■!-• U ■C o PQ-S " it sa O-S si J3 C ^•■a in ■*-* - C" i^ s II 1 >. c M "•a u-i o J3 •- u ■""bij A DEFENCE OF RUSSIA. THE TEUTH ABOUT EUSSIA. The Satii/rday Review admits that "the multitude is, for the moment, on his (Mr. Gladstone's) side,'' that is to say, the bulk of the people of England are opposed to the " unspeakable Turk," and favourable to the heroic task now being performed by Eussia, namely, enfranchising the Christians of Turkey from the cruelty and oppression of their Ottoman tyrants, whilst it is only the " west-end " and a parliamentary majority, chiefly returned by the influence of the licensed victuallers, who are in favour of Turkey, and hostile to the Turkish Christians and their Russian liberators. As, the people as well as the government of Russia have been in- sulted and maligned in the most discreditable manner by the partisans of Turkey, I now come forward in their defence to show that they have been our most constant and faithful alHes, that most of our greatest statesmen have, for generations, entertained the highest esteem and regard for that great country, and that Mr. Gladstone was justified iu the recent debate in stating, " The Emperor of Eussia is a gentleman, and a great benefactor to his people, and I believe the people of Eussia to be capable of as noble sentiments as any people in Europe." Thackeray, in his inimitable " Book of Snobs," gives the follow- B -i A DEFENCE OF KUSSIA. ing amusing satirical sketch of the idiotic lies which are invented in the clubs and told and believed in society about Eussia. Captain Spitfire, E.K, who had been refused a ship by the Whigs, says : — " ' Why wasn't the Princess Scragamoffsky at Lady Pal- merston's party, Minns ? ' ' Becaxise she canH shoio.' 'And why can't she show 1 ' ' Shall I teU you, Minns, why she can't show ? The Princess Scragamoffsky's back is flayed alive, Minns. I tell you it's raw, sir. On Tuesday last, at 12 o'clock, three drummers of the Preobajinski Regiment arrived at Ashburnham House, and at half-past 12, in the yellow drawing-room at the Russian Em- bassy, before the ambassadress and four ladies' maids, the Greek Papa, and the Secretary of Embassy, Madame de Scragamoffsky received thirteen dozen. She was knouted, sir — knouted in the midst of England — in Berkeley Square, for having said that the Grand Duchess Olga's hair was red. And now, sir, will you tell me that Lord Palmerston ought to continue Minister ? ' . . . Lord Palmerston's being sold to Eussia, the exact number of roubles paid, by what house in the city, is a favourite theme with this kind of snob." It will be remembered that the late Mr. Urquhart, formerly M.P., and previously Secretary of Embassy at Constantinople, maintainecl till his death that Lord Palmerston was bribed by Eussia, and made the Crimean War in her interest. A worse atrocity than the foregoing fictitious one occurred in the time of James I. Floyd had spoken slightingly of the Elector Palatine and his wife, and was, moreover, a Roman Catholic. It is difficult to understand how either of these circumstances was con- .strued into a breach of privilege. The following was his sentence, pronounced by the Lords at the instance of the Commons : " To be degraded from his gentility, and held an infamous person ; to stand twice in the pillory, to be branded in the forehead with the letter K (knave), to be whipped at the cart's tail from the Fleet to Westminster Hall, to pay a fine of £5,000, and to be a prisoner in Newgate during his life." Blount's sentence about the same time was more moderate, imprisonment and hard labour for life. THE TRUTH ABOUT RUSSIA. 3 Voltaire was so friendly to the Eussians that, after the fall of Jassy, he wrote, " Te Oatharinam laudamus te Dominam confitemur." To show the feelings of respect and regard which formerly pre- vailed in England towards Eussia, I may well begin by quoting the fact that the great Lord Chatham once said, " I am altogether a Euss." Mr. Pitt in 1791 proposed an increase of the navy in conse- quence of Eussia having taken Oczakow. Mr. Fox opposed this, and said, " In the war between Eussia and Turkey, Turkey has been the aggressor. I suspect that British influence has been used to induce Turkey to attach Eussia. I consider the terms proposed by the Empress Catherine extremely moderate. We had assisted Eussia in 1771 in entering the Mediterranean. How absurd to stop her now when she was gathering the legitimate fruits of a policy we had sup- ported. The advances of Eussia toioards the South could never, he thought, he injurious to our commerce." Mr. Burke, supporting Mr. Fox, maintained that " the attempt to bring the Turkish Empire into the European system was extremely new, and contrary to all former systems of the balance of power." Pitt carried his motion by 228 to 131, an enormous majority; yet the strength of the minority induced him to modify his policy. He instructed Mr. Whitworth not to deliver a menacing note, and, in the course of the summer, a treaty between Eussia and the Porte was concluded, by which the disputed fortress of Oczakow was given up to Eussia; and, under similar circumstances, the present Ministry should defer to the views of the minority, especially as Mr. Cross, in his speech in the debate, estimated our numbers at only about 100, whilst we had a minority of 225, in- cluding tellers, besides pairs, against a majority of 354, or about twenty per cent, more in proportion, in a larger House, than the minority obtained by Mr. Fox. Lord North, afterwards Lord Guildford, who spoke in the debate, was entirely opposed to a rupture with our ally Eussia about Oczakow. Mr. Fox in the debate said : " I cannot conceive any case in B 2 * A DEFENCE OF ETJSSIA. which a great and wise nation having committed itself by a menace can withdraw that menace without disgrace. The- converse of the proposition I can easily conceive — that there may he a demand, for instance, not fit to he made at all, but which being made, and with a menace, it is fit to insist upon. This- undoubtedly goes to make a nation, like an individual, cautious of committing itself, because there is no ground so tender as that of honour. How do Ministers think on this subject ? Oczakow was everything by itself, but when they added to Oczakow the honour of England it became nothing. Oczakow by itself threatened the- balance of Europe. Oczakow and honour -weighed nothing in the scale. Honour is in their political arithmetic a minus quantity to be subtracted from the value of Oczakow." This unanswerable argument of Mr. Fox's would alone afford a justification for Russia in now going to war with Turkey, for the circumstances of the case, as I have shown, compelled her to menace Turkey, and she could not recede with honour : whereas England, after sending the bold September despatch, put its tail between its legs, and ignominiously retreated when Turkey resisted. Guarantees for the benefit of the Christians were all important, but when the honour of England was added they became unnecessary. In the debate on 1st February, 1828, Sir James Macldntosh, the celebrated historian, said, " It was bare justice to Eussia to- say that her dealings with the Ottoman Power for the last seven years had been marked with as great forbearance as the conduct of that power (Turkey) had been distinguished by continued insolence and incorrigible contumacy." And Lord Holland said, in the same debate, " Eussia, too, was our ancient ally. . . . In 1770, our allies, the Eussians, sent a great fleet into the Mediterranean for the purpose of overpowering the Turlcs. What was the policy of this country ? To assist the Eussian navy • That fleet was re-fltted in our harbours, and with the munitions and implements which it received from us, burnt a Turkish town and fleet, and continued cruising in the Archipelago for no less than five or six years." THE TETJTH ABOUT RUSSIA. 5 In the debate on July 16th, 1828, Lord Aberdeen said, "His Imperial Majesty (the Czar) at once divested himself of the character of a belligerent in the Mediterranean, and no one ivouM ■deny tluittlie sincerity and tlie generosity the -Emperor ofHussia Iiaddis- fplayed in doing this were entitled to tlie highest praise" According to Bulwer's "Life of Pahnerston" (p. 283), "When the Crimean War was under consideration. Lord Aberdeen was accused of being over-Eussian." In the same debate. Lord Holland said, " Russia, which had for a long period out of deference to their feelings foregone the fair ■object of all her ambition — which, with an attention to the general policy of Europe,and a magnanimity unparalleled, had long resisted the strongest temptations, had attended only to the representations •of this country and her allies, and had waited faithfully to the last moment before she had taken any open measures to oppose the insults of Turkey — had resisted the dispositio n of her people to engage in war. Russia had now engaged in war which, upon all principles of policy and public law, she had a right to wage — nay, was called on by her duty to wage. ... " Lord Palmerston said, " In that war (1829), my opinion is that the Turks were the aggressors. . . . They seized Russian ships and cargoes, expelled Russian subjects from Turkey, and shut the Bosphorus against Russian commerce, all in violation of treaties, and declared their intention of not fulfilling the treaty of Akerman ; and aU this upon no other pretence than certain things which Russia had done in conjunction with her allies, England and France, to prevail upon Turkey to accede to some 3 C O s . & S — < >. S ■3 33 ■4H '3 o a* J3 o 1 ■»« ^H 1) 4) a^ o -M fc. 3-.«e W !;! •*3 1 1 1 4-> tt V) S* rt ^ T3 s Si o H- u 3fi^ .Ul t (fl \ ^ 05 i~, c rt 2 43 J en Ul |o3 s Orf P^ JS OJ >^ 01 CU o J^ J3 u a H 1 ^ -fl .2 F^-f c ^ g w en c y (U 3 a ■s 'd. (U 1 0) -lU JS i H THE TKUTH ABOUT BTJSSIA. 17 ing as it does from tlie deepest ignorance, egoism, and paltry- national jealousy;" and that tte public may see that Eussia is not the only power which is denounced by foreigners as aggressive and unscrupulous, I subjoin the following extract from a leading French newspaper, written some years ago : — " Are there any other seas, any other continents, seek an inhabited or uninhabited spot where she [England] has not planted her flag ?, All lands newly discovered she unhesitatingly annexes to herself When will this insolent usurpation cease 1 What balance can exist in the world in face of this ambition, which increases with conquest, and becomes extravagant by dint of impunity ? It is not one nation, but every nation which should open their eyes. It is essential not for one people, but for every people, to know whether the ocean is free, and if the universe is to fall back in presence of the shopkeeping Csesars, who avail themselves of the disunion of states to turn them all to account, and to aggrandise themselves on their common ruin." When will this insolent assumption cease ? Heine said, " Never again will I visit that detestable land ^England), where all the men are like machines, and all the machines like men. The din and the silence there are ahke desolating. When I was introduced to the Governor of Heligoland, And this stick of an Englishman stood motionless before me, without speaking a word, for several minutes, involuntarily the idea came into my head to look at him from behind to see if somebody had forgotten to wind him up. My heart sinks within me when I think that after aU Shakespeare was an Englishman, and belongs to the most repulsive people that God in His anger ever created."* Montalembert says : — " In the first place, England does not practice the belief in logic. She has reserved to herself from all time the unlimited use of the most striking inconsistency." Thackeray spealts thus of the British snob in his relation to foreigners : "I think in my heart that the British snob, for conceit and self-sufficiency and braggartism, in his way is without * This is not C[uite in accordance with the saying, " N'm Angli aed Angeli." c 18 A DEFENCE OF ETJSSIA. a parallel. . . . Oh, my country, if I were a Frencliman, how I should hate you ! That brutal, ignorant, peevish, bully of an Englishman is showing himself in every city of Europe. One of the dullest creatures under heaven, he goes trampling Europe under foot, shouldering his way into galleries and cathedrals, and bustling into palaces with his buckram uniform. At church or theatre, gala or picture-gallery, his face never varies. A thousand delightful sights pass before his bloodshot eyes and don't affect him. Countless brilliant scenes of life and manners are shown him, but never move him. He goes to church and calls the prac- tices there degrading and superstitious, as if his altar was the only one that was acceptable. He goes to picture-galleries, and is more ignorant about art than a French shoeblack. Art and nature pass, and there is no dot of admiration in his stupid eyes. Nothing moves him except when a very great man comes his way, and then the rigid, proud, self-confident, inflexible British snob can be as humble as a flunkey and as supple as a harlequin." De Tooqueville speaks thus of the typical Englishman : " The Englishman enjoys tranquilly the real and imaginary advantages that his country possesses in his estimation. If he concedes nothing to foreign countries, neither does he demand anything for his own. The blame of foreigners does not move him, and their praise does not flatter him in the least. He holds himself towards the world in a reserve full of disdain and ignorance ; his pride requires no aliment — it lives upon itself." The Russians are accused of stirring up the oppressed Christians of Turkey to revolt, and this is said by the Philo-Turks to be diabolical conduct ; but it is not diabolical for the Turks to send emissaries to incite the Circassians to revolt, and I may add a portion of the Circassians have revolted, solely because the Russians prevent them selling their women and children as slaves at Constantinople. As to the outcry against Russia for its annexations, it seems to be forgotten that Lithuania was no part of ancient Poland, but was annexed by the Poles ; that Finland belonged originally to Russia, and was ceded to Sweden in 1617; so that Russia, in taking THE TETTTH ABOUT EUSSIA. 19 possession of these provinces, only regained its o^Ta territory, whilst Georgia was voluntarily ceded by its ruler to Eussia. One way in which we have shown our neutrality is by the English Ambassador in Persia urging the Shah to be reconciled to the Sultan, and not to ally himself with Eussia. There are few subjects on which Englishmen are so contentedly ignorant as the past history and present condition of the Eussian Empire, and the Eussophobist party will not even read or listen to a single word in its favour, but hug with avidity their favourite prejudices against that great country. It is a total mistake to suppose that Eussia is entirely devoid of free institutions ; and at this moment the whole of Poland would have been in the enjoyment of a freer constitution than she had ever enjoyed before, if it had not been for the unfortunate and unwise rebellions in that country. Oourland has various privi- leges and immunities ; the Grand Duchy of Finland, which was finally restored to Eussia in 1809, possesses still a national parlia- ment, consisting of four estates, the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants ; the Emperor Alexander I., who was termed a republican monarch, openly pledged himself to give as liberal a constitution to the whole Eussian Empire as any country in the whole world possessed, and was only prevented by his premature death ; and there is eyery reason to hope and to believe that the present benevolent and patriotic Emperor, who has, so to speak, swallowed the camel of serf emancipation, will not strain at the gnat of giving a free constitution to his country. The following were the very words of the Czar Alexander I., on the opening of the Polish Diet, on the 27th March, 1818 ; and the earnestness and perfect sincerity with which he expressed his benevolent and patriotic intentions is quite equal to what the most ardent Liberal would reasonably desire. Having expatiated on the advantage of a constitutional regime, he added : — "With the assistance of God, I hope to extend its salutary influence to all the countries entrusted to my care — prove to the contemporary kings that liberal institutions, which they pretend to confound with the disastrous doctrines which in these days threaten the c 2 20 A DEFENCE OE RUSSIA. social system with, a frightful catastrophe, are not a dangerous illusion, but that, reduced in good faith to practice, and directed in a pure spirit towards Conservative ends and the good of humanity, they are perfectly alHed to order, and the best security for the happiness of nations." Even at present there is a Council of the Empire, consisting of about sixty members, which was established in 1810 ; and also a directing Senate, which was created so far back as 1711, divided into eight committees. The Czar appoints to all ecclesias- tical offices, but so does the Sovereign of England appoint bishops and other dignitaries ; but the Czar does not decide matters of doctrine, and is head of the Church like the Queen of England, but in no greater degree. The points in which the Greco-Eussian Church differs from the Eoman Catholic faith are its denying the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, its prohibiting the celibacy of the clergy, and its authorising all individuals to read and study the Scriptures in the vernacular ; and surely on all these points we agree much more nearly with the Greek than with the Eoman Catholic Church. Though English Protestants do not think that the marriage of clergymen should be obligatory, they certainly think such a regulation infinitely to be preferred to enforced celibacy. We equally deny the supremacy of the Pope, and we cordially approve of the permission to all individuals to read the Bible in the vernacular. It should be borne in mind that the Greek Church separated from the Latin Church, not in consequence of differences of doctrine, but because Pope Gregory II. excommuni- cated the Emperor Leo in 729, and five years afterwards the Greek Church condemned the worship of images, which is still retained by the Latins. In 1274, at the Council of Lyons, the Greek and Latin Churches were re-united, but again separated three years later. So far back as 1723, a union was proposed between the Church of England and the Greek Church, and the project has since been repeatedly renewed, so that any strictures on the Greek faith come with a very ill grace from us. There are several branches of the Greek Church, such as the THE TEUTH AEOtJT EUSSIA. 21 Bulgarian and the Eussian, who have different and independent heads or Patriarchs, yet they do not consider each other heterodox, as Eoman Catholics would. With reference to education in Eussia, in the Budget of 1876 no less a sum than £2,059,506 was set apart for this purpose ; whUst, before the recent Education Act for England, in 1868, our expenditure on education in England was only £781,329. In other words, Eussia, in proportion to population, laid out ahout two-thirds as much per head in 1876 as we did in 1868. The total foreign loans of Eussia are only £135,370,000, whilst in Turkey they are £184,981,783 : that is to say, the debt of Turkey for a population of 21,648,500, who have to pay the interest on the loans, exclusive of the small amount of the tributes, is nearly £9 per head ; whilst in Eussia it is only about £1 12s. per head, and in England £23 6s. 8d. per head. The total length of railways in Eussia is 11,576 miles, and of telegraphs 31,459 miles. Mr. Holms tells us that in 1865 our exports to Eussia were £2,923,000, and in 1875 £8,059,000, showing an increase in ten years only of 175 per cent. ; whilst our exports to Turkey in 1865 were £5,673,000, and in 1875 £5,897,000, an increase of less than 4 per cent. The number of vessels cleared between Great Britain and Eussia in 1875 were 7,360, with 2,843,766 tonnage, against 835 between Great Britain and Turkey, with only 550,448 tonnage. The whole country is divided into Mirs or Communes ; these again are united into Voloste or districts, with a population of about 2,000, each of which is presided over by an elder or starchine, who, in case the district consists of several villages, has above him a starosta. The Times states: — "The most radical vote passed by the French Chamber was that which made the votes of the Municipal Councils public. Harmless as such an arrangement may seem to English people, it might be unwise in France. Such, at least, was the belief of so staunch a Eepublican as M. Jules Simon." In Eussia the discussions of the provincial and village as- 22 A DEFENCE OE RUSSIA. semblies are public, so that Eussia in that respect has more liberty and better government than France. It should be noted also that Eussia has given notice that she intends to abide by the Declaration of Paris restricting maritime rights, not only towards those who signed it, but also towards Spain and the United States. In Eussia, too, the punishment of death is abolished, whilst only the other night in the House of Commons a large majority refused even to inquire by a Commission whether the law of homicide could be amended, chiefly in the direction of taking un- premeditated murder out of the category of capital crime, and leaving premeditated murder punishable with death. The donations of the Russians to the Christian cause, and to the support of the Eussian volunteers amounted to about the magnificent sum of £400,000, much more in proportion to the resources of Eussia than we subscribed to the Patriotic Fund. I have shown, on the evidence of Mr. Wallace and others,* that Eussia possesses provincial institutions freer and more democratic than those of England ; that the peasantry generally possess land, whilst only a small minority own land in England; and that they are evidently better fitted to receive Parliamentary franchise than our own agricultural labourers, to whom we persistently and un- justly refuse it. The Eussian nobility have none of that aristocratic hauteur and exclusiveness, and almost as odius condescension, which characterises a great portion of our English aristocracy, and altogether one is inclined to believe that the standard of happiness among the masses is quite equal to that of our own country, and that in many respects we have much to learn from that Eussia which so many ignorant Englishmen look down upon with such unjust and ineffable disdain. Middle-aged " west-enders " will recollect in their early youth that the prevalent idea of a Eussian in those days was that of a man whose favourite food was tallow candles, tainted oysters, and train oil ; but we have now learned to know them better, and have discovered that it was we, and not they, who were the real social * WHcli will be found in the appendix. THE TETJTK ABOUT RUSSIA. 23 barbarians. At that time we used to load our dinner-table with a profusion of food of every description, interspersed with heavy and tasteless family plate. The wretched master of the house at a large dinner party was nothing better than principal carver, a task task which he generally performed with the utmost awkwardness the perspiration on a hot summer's day streaming down his face in torrents as he vainly endeavoured to sever a joint, while the' perfume from the heterogeneous meats and vegetables formed an odour which certainly did not come from Araby the Blest. It is to Eussian good taste alone that we owe the present civi- lised system of dining " a la Russe,'' with nothing on the table but beautiful flowers and exquisite fruit served on Bohemian glass or china, mingled with elegant and tasteful silver epergnes ; and the merits of a Charlotte Eusse glacee, and of the delicious caviare, which is peculiar to Eussia, have at last dawned upon our torpid conceptions, while the delicate Eussian cigarette of Latakia tobacco has to a great extent supplanted the coarse weed from slaveholding Havannah, and the perfumed Eussian leather is also unrivalled in the world. The Eussians, too, are noted all over Europe for the ease, facility, and perfect accent with which they pro- nounce various languages, and especially French, which they speak so idiomatically that our neighbours over the silver streak cannot pay any foreigner a greater compliment than " Qu'il parle Frangais comme un Eusse," whilst you might almost count on your fingers aU the Englishmen who speak French to the same perfection. The following satuical fragment from Thackeray, about un- reasonable prejudice, as illustrated by quarrelling with a man for eating peas with a knife, is extremely applicable to the preju- dice against Eussia and the Eussians entertained at the " west- end." "I once knew a man who, dining in my company at the Europe coffee-house at Naples, ate peas with the assistance of his knife. He was a person with whose society I was greatly pleased at first indeed — we had met in the crater of Mount Vesuvius, and were subsequently robbed and held to ransom in Calabria — a man of great powers, excellent heart, and varied information, but I had never before seen him with a dish of peas, and his conduct 24 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. in regard to them caused me the deepest pain. After having seen him thus publicly comport himself, hut one course was open to me — to cut his acquaintance. . . Everybody at Naples remarked the separation of Damon and Pythias ; indeed, Marrovpfat had saved my life more than once, but what was I to do ? . . We met at Sir George GoUoper's after four years. . . What was my astonishment, what my delight, when I saw him use his fork like any other Christian. Old times' rushed back upon me ; his rescuing me from the brigands ; his gallant conduct in the affair with the Countess Degli Spinachi; his lending me £1,700. I almost burst into tears with joy ; my voice trembled with emotion. 'George, my boy,' I exclaimed; ' George Marrowfat, my dear fellow, a glass of wine ! ' We have- been the closest friends ever since." And so, when England and Eussia fully understand each other, they will be the best of allies. I may add that the war we undertook against the Affghans, which led to a severe repulse with the loss of 20,000 men, the Crimean. War, and the war which the " west-end " wishes us now to undertake in defence of alleged British interests, which never have been, and never will be, really attacked, remind me of the course pursued by the frogs, in the Irish song about St. Patrick, who all committed suicide to save themselves from'slaughter ; and of the conduct of the Greeks who captured Troy after a twenty years' siege, on the supposition that Helen had been carried off by Paris, and was held in captivity in the city, whilst it appears, as any one can see in Lempi-iere's Classical Dictionary, that Mene- laus, on visiting Egypt after the capture of Troy, found Helen then at the Court of Proteus, as Priam had vainly assured him,, and was convinced too late that the Trojan war had been under- taken on unjust and unpardonable grounds. France, after being hopelessly beaten in an aggressive and. unprovoked war, by a nation inferior in numbers and wealth to herself, has never ceased, even after the lapse of six years, from sulking, abusing, and maligning the Germans ; but Eussia, with a population of 86,000,000, after an heroic defence in an aggressive war, wrongfully waged against her, in which she contended bravely THE TRUTH ABOUT BUSSIA. 25 with the English, French, Sardinians, and Turks, with a popula- tion, including their dependencies, of about 326,000,000, or nearly four to one, has nobly and truly declared, " La Eussie ne boude pas elle se recueille." (Eussia does not sulk, she restores herself.) Those who are unacquainted with Eussia are very apt to speak with considerable severity of the Czars, as if they were always tyrants, but the truth is, that the rulers of that great country have usually been individuals of remarkable ability, and the last three, including the present sovereign, would have done honour to any age or country. I have related in the chapter headed, "Poland from a common sense point of view," how beneficent and successful the Emperor Alexander I. was in the government of Poland, and that he fully intended to establish a liberal constitutional govern- ment throughout the Eussian Empire, and there is no doubt that he was always received with the utmost enthusiasm, both in Poland and the other parts of the Empire. Alison tells us, "The Empress Elizabeth, too, was in the highest degree amiable and exemplary, self-denying, generous, and affectionate. The mind of Alexander, however, was naturally inclined to deep and mystical religious emotions, and he had been much affected by the dreadful scenes which he had witnessed at the inundation of St. Petersburg. During a temporary estrange- ment from the Empress he became a hermit in his palace, and sought a temporary respite to his anxiety in frequenting the houses of some highly respectable families in middle life, for the most part Germans, to whom his rank was known, but where he insisted upon being treated as an ordinary guest. There he often expressed his envy at the happiness which reigned in those domestic circumstances, and sighed to think that the Emperor of all the Eussias was compelled to seek at the hearths of others that felicity which his grandeur or his faults had denied him at his own. . . . Shortly afterwards he again sought the society of the Empress, who had returned to St. Petersburg, was attentive to her smallest wishes, and sought to efface the recollection of Tormer neglect by every kindness which affection could suggest." 26 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA, The health of the Empress requiring a change to the Crimea, " though his own health was broken, as he had not recovered from an attack of erysipelas, he resolved upon running the risk of the journey . . . but he had a presentiment that this journey ■would be his last, and that he was about to expire beside the Empress . . . and on this occasion he directed the metro- politan bishop in secret to have the service for the dead chanted for him when he returned on the following morning at four o'clock." On his death-bed, " causing the windows to be opened, he said, looking at the blue vault, ' What a beautiful day ! ' and feeling the arms of the Empress around him, he said tenderly, ' My love, you must be very fatigued.' These were his last words." During the whole journey of the remains from the Crimea to St. Petersburg, " every night when the procession rested, crowds of people from a great distance around flocked to the spot to kneel down and kiss the bier where their beloved Czar was laid, ' and at the funeral " the old grenadiers, his comrades in the campaigns in Germany and France, wept like children. . , . Had Alexander died shortly after the first capture of Paris in 1814, he would have left a name unique in the history of the world, for never before had so great a part been so nobly played on such a theatre. It is hard to say whether his fortitude in adversity, his resolution in danger, or his clemency in victory, were the most admirable." The Emperor Nicholas, again, repeatedly refused to accept his elder brother Constantine's voluntary abdication of the throne, and the interregnum continued three weeks, during which the two brothers — a thing unheard of — were mutually declining and urging the Empire on the other. Much has been said by those who are ignorant of the facts of the severity with which the Emperor Nicholas suppressed the revolt which occurred at his accession, but the fact is that only five suffered death, and only thirty-one were exiled to Siberia, which is nothing to the severity exercised by the English Government after the suppression of the rebellion in 1745, and till these executions there had not been one for eighty years previously at St. Petersburg. The Emperor THE TBUTH ABOUT ETJSSIA. 27 Nicholas behaved most generously to the wives and families of those who had been executed for treason, and he gave £2,500 with a valuable farm to the father of Pestel, one of the chief con- spirators. I have abeady mentioned in another page what Kinglake says in favour of the Czar Nicholas, and I need only add that he was " exemplary in all the relations of private life, a faithful husband, and an affectionate father;" whilst as a sovereign he was victorious over the Turks, but refrained from taking Constantinople, which he might, according to Wellington, have captured; and he had the laws codified, and the administration of justice purified, accelerated, and reformed. The sovereigns of other copntries, with half the abilities and worth of the Russian Emperors, are lauded to the skies, but such is the force of prejudice and ignorance that many seem to doubt if any good thing can come out of Eussia. A large portion of the English press teems with daily abuse, falsehood, and vituperation against Eussia, reminding one, for its impotent abjurgations, of the celebrated curtain lectures of Mrs, Caudle, which used to amuse us formerly in the best days of Punch, but without their humourous fun, which has been sup- planted by simple ill-nature. It is surely not by frantic abuse of either a nation or an in- dividual that we can expect to retain them in the right path, or, if they have wandered from it, to reform them; and, as prophecies lead to their own fulfilment, so individuals and even nations may be diverted from the path of justice by seeing that their motives and actions are misconstrued and calumniated, whilst those who have faith in the rectitude of individuals or of nations generally find their confidence amply repaid. England cannot afi"ord to lose one of the few really friendly nations who are allied to us, and if we cultivated amicable relations with Eussia, we should find our reward in such a course in our hour of need. If France had only been neutral in the Crimean war, and if prudent Prussia had joined us in the alliance with Turkey, the union of Germany would probably never have been effected, and France would not have been obliged to give up two provinces and to pay a war 28 A DEFENCE OF EUSSL4. indemnity of £200,000,000. It is perfectly clear that France' now sees her mistake, and that her only hope of a successful war of revenge lies in the Russian alliance. Even if Russia annexed Constantinople and converted the Black Sea into a Russian lake, France sees she would lose little or nothing by it, and even if she did lose something, she would gladly put up with it, provided a much greater loss fell upon Germany. The Times says, " Many thousands of Russian soldiers and horses have encamped at Ban Jassi, near Bucharest,^ during the march to the Danube, but the most scrupulous care has been observed towards the growing crops. The discipline of the troops- has been so good that they appear and disappear by thousands without attracting the attention of the citizens of Bucharest." Colonel Baker, who, like another Balaam, went to Turkey to curse the Russians, inadvertently " lets the cat out of the bag,'' cuts- the ground from under his own feet, and blesses the Russians altogether, for he naively admits, " The Russians are the most chivalrous and charming enemies, and very pleasant friends." The Figaro of Paris of 1st July says, the Russians "found fifteen Turkish corpses which the runaways had not time to carry away. They were respected even to what their pockets contained, which the Russian soldiers did not examine, in their disdain for men who had mutilated their countrymen." At last, about two months after the declaration of war, English officers, employed by the Ottoman Government, hjlve received notice that they have till the 5 th of July to choose between English and Turkish service, and Hobart Pasha has been removed from the British Navy List for the second time, with, no doubt, the understanding that he will be again replaced at the end of the war, and receive all his arrears of pay. We do not hear of any French, Italian, German, or American mercenaries, filibusters, or renegades fighting on the anti- christian side, and the Swiss are now debarred from taking ser- vice under any foreign government, and it is, I think, no wonder that the military attacM of England (Colonel Wellesley) has been received with marked coldness at the head-quarters of THE TKTTTH ABOUT EUSSIA. 29 the Eussian army, whilst the French and Italian military attacMs have been received with the utmost courtesy, especially as he is well known to have shown a marked hostility to Eussia even in the society of St. Petersburg, where he was most hospitably treated, and that he sent home reports, which were communicated to other governments, most disparaging to the Eussian army and nation. The Eussians are to be severely blamed, according to the Philo-Turkish press, because they do not cordially welcome the representative of a nation whose press, with but few honourable exceptions, is constantly maligning them without •the slightest regard to fair play or truth, and which gloats over every real or supposed misfortune which may happen to them, and eagerly hails any true or fictitious successes of the barbarous Turks, and glosses over and palliates their habitual cruelties towards the Christians. Of course the Eussians ought to entertain the most affectionate feelings to Hobart Pasha and those other English officers who have been instrumental in check- ing their advance, and in killing and wounding their relatives and friends, and one cannot but wonder at their blindness in resenting these services. The excellent conduct of the Eussian army is further proyed by the following statement in the Times of June 28th :— " The mosque of Matchin is carefully guarded, and no Eussian soldiers are allowed to, enter it. When the Turkish troops evacuated Matchin they advised the inhabitants to leave, but many ■of the Turks remained, and have been well treated by the Eussian troops." The Times says, July 12th : — " Meanwhile, what is the attitude of the people here (in Bulgaria) ? It is nothing to say that the ^Russians are received here with joyful acclamations, that people hung about them with thanks, and young girls brought them flowers. All this might possibly have been arranged beforehand, and mean no more than that they wished to conciliate their new masters. To English minds a far better proof of good feeling will be the fact that the houses are readily opened to the victors, and that all who can supply them with food and drink refuse to 30 A DBPENCE OF ETJSSIA. accept any payment. The languages are so nearly alike, that the Eussian speaks in Eussian, the Bulgarian in Bulgarian, and they understand each other. There is no mistaking the good feeling with -which the people meet them, and one can only sigh and say, ' Would that the release of this j)eople had been helped, not hindered, by England ! ' " To show that the Christians of Bulgaria welcome the Eussians as deliverers, I quote the following from the Times military cor- respondent at Tirnova : — " As our little column aijproaches each village the Turks slink out at the other end, and the ringing of bells first expresses the joy of the Bulgarians. They flock to meet the soldiers, always bringing water, flowers, bread, and such fruit as there is. . . . The soldiers drink greedily (water), but are not allowed to touch wine or spirits on the march, and the first request made by Prince Eugene, when encamping near a village, is that the people will not bring out any strong drink for the men. The result is good. So far I have only seen one man the worse for liquor. Above all, that town (Tirnova) has sent forth an agonizing cry winch, however it may read at an English breakfast table, appeals to the hearts of men (the Eussians) who are living for a time a life of struggle and danger. . , . The Dragoons (Eussians) follow the retreating enemy, and from which they (four battalions of Turks) have fled from a few Dragoons, assisted by a few rounds of artillery fire. . . . Never was there a more disgraceful panic. Infantry with guns Kterally frightened away by a few horsemen. One of the strongest positions taken by cavalry and horse artillery. . . . " No doubt now as to the welcome of the Eussians ; the poor people literally wept, prayed, and hung upon the necks of their deliverers, who were almost smothered in flowers. One saw rough cuirassiers of the Guard and dirty dragoons grinning with delight as they carried armfuls of flowers, as much as they could possibly manage, and have their hands seized and kissed by pretty delicate girls. There were no triumphal arches got up, no expressions of enthusiasm. Everything that was done came evidently and directly from the heart — the heart relieved from an intolerable yoke, and THE TEUTH ABOUT ETJSSIA. 31 a great and immediate danger. No one who has seen the entire and childish abandonment of this people to joy at their deliverance would have any other feeling but joy that it has been reheved. They treated me also as a saviour. Alas ! I was only there to relate how another nation had saved them ; and from how terrible a fate — not death only — but that living death which comes from a state of imutterable shame. . . . Eussia alone has made her greatness felt, and the other nations of Europe are (to the Bulgarians) abstractions. " The behaviour of the people to the Turks has been decidedly good. At first some of the Turks' houses were entered, and furni- ture taken away, but that sort of thing soon ceased. A committee was formed under the Archimandrite to watch over Turkish property, and such of the young men as have not already shouldered the rifle have turned themselves into special constables for the time being. Their pride is to show that they are superior in civilization to the Turks." The Eussian Minister of War, with his penny wise and pound foolish policy, is as highly blameable as the Prussian Minister of the same department, in not having provided the Eussian soldiers with the best possible rifle, for, says Truth, " The Turks, having discovered that their rifles have a longer range than those of the Eussians, go into battle with a firm conviction that they hold victory in their hands, and press forward with the rush of fiends to meet the foe." However, in the Franco-German war, though the French had a far better rifle than the Germans, they were, nevertheless, totally defeated. As to the results of our meddling and muddling policy on the Eastern Question, the Times correspondent states : — "I had a long conversation the other day with an Armenian who has been for twenty years connected with Turkish journalism, and is still on the staff of one of the principal Turkish papers. He protested with great bitterness and, as it seemed to me, with perfect sincerity, that Eng- land was responsible for the war ; that, but for English pohcy, Turkey would not have stood out against the wishes of Europe. It was the arrival of the fleet at Besika Bay that first encouraged 52 A DEFENCE OF RUSSIA. Turkey to reject the Berlin Memorandum. It was by the advice — not indeed the avowed — but the secret advice of England that Tur- key again rejected the proposals of the Conference. At the last moment she would have accepted the Protocol if she had beea made clearly and unmistakeably to understand that England really intended to adopt a policy of neutrality. A corresponding con- clusion was, that if any attempt were made to bring the British fleet through the Dardanelles under pretext of protecting Con- stantinople, England ought to be distinctly told that the Porte did not require her protection on any terms, and that she could enter the Straits only as the avowed ally of Turkey, and, conse- quently, the avowed enemy of Russia.'' At a Tory Opposition fish dinner the late Sir Eobert Peel once proposed a toast remarkably unlike a blessing for the Liberals : " May we avoid their flounders and may we get their plaices ; " a witty chancellor adding, " and d their soles." Lord Granville wittily said on this topic, " I admit that we have watched with mixed feelings of admiration and awe the enormous flounders of the present Government at home and abroad. Fancy what a water souchet the Besika Bay floimders would alone provide ; " and even the Turks will not allow " Dizzy " to play the game of Bezigue much longer. It is to be hoped that Eussia will gain such signal and immediate triumphs, that the Balkans will henceforth become the northern frontier if Turkey continues to exist. This would, I believe, be in the permanent interests of peace, and therefore in our interests. The reports of the gentle treatment by the Russians of the inhabitants of the conquered towns, and, above all, that they pay for all they take, have together done much to moderate the terror which their coming had inspired. As to the passage of the Dardanelles to Russian men of war, should we ourselves submit to such a condition mutatis mutandis. Should we even agree that no ships of war should go through the Suez Canal ? Would France agree that her Mediterranean fleet must never pass through the Straits of Gibraltar, and her Atlantic fleet never enter the Mediterranean by these Straits ? " WILL OF PETEE THE GREAT PROVED TO BE A EOSGERT. 33 THE WILL OF PETEE THE GEEAT PEOVED TO BE A FOEGEEY. M. Theodore Juste, an eminent Belgian historian, has recently published a work on the pretended Will of Peter the Great, which he does not hesitate to pronounce spurious; adding, "one re- cognises in this vehement composition the ideas and the claws of Napoleon." An abridgment of the Will was forged by a writer named Lesur, in 1812, when the French were burning to avenge the defeat and destruction of their army in the Eussian cam- paign ; and in another work published in 1814 against Eussia, Lesur acknowledges in the preface that he had written this second work at the command of the French Government. Sir Eobert Wilson, in his private diary, published in 1861, says, that among the eifects abandoned by the French, in the retreat from Eussia there was a great quantity of Lesur's first work, containing the abridgment of the Will, and he says that the work was published under the immediate superintendence of the French Government. Lesur had written another pamphlet in 1807 against Eussia, but there is no mention of this Will which he had not then been instructed to forge. In the introduction to the pamphlet of 1812, he says, "We are assured that there exists in the private archives of the empire of Eussia secret memoirs written by the hand of Peter the Great, where the projects which this Prince had conceived are explained without concealment." The first twelve of these fourteen heads are evidently prophecies, much after the events. In the other two, Lesur abandons accom- 34 A DEFENCE OF EITSSIA. plished facts for the realms of imagination, and talks of a " cloud of Asiatic hordes, ferocious and greedy of booty," as if Peter the Great -would have spoken thus of his own subjects. These hordes are to penetrate by force into Italy and France, to massacre the inhabitants of these countries, and to drag them into slavery in the deserts of Siberia. He does not say he saw the Will, either in Eussian or in a French translation, but merely repeats from hearsay ; and Voltaire tells us that Peter the Great was wholly unacquainted with French. One does not see why the Eussians should massacre the people of France and Italy if they submitted to the Emperor's authority, especially as they would have got more revenue out of the country with inhabitants than without them ; nor, how they could be dragged into captivity if they had been previously massacred; nor why, in a scheme for conquering the world, the means of getting the better of the English, who are spoken of with such peculiar respect, are not stated ? It was the author (in association with Alexandre Dumas) of the successful, but extravagant, drama ol the "Tour de Nesle,'' Gaillardet, who in 1836 first published the complete "Will in French, in the " Memoirs of the Chevalier d'Eon," stating that that individual brought it to France in 1757, and placed it in the hands of Louis XV. and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, and that it was a literal copy ; but if so, it must have been in Eussian, which the Chevalier d'Eon did not understand, and why cannot it now be seen and accurately translated, since it must still be in the archives of France ? All the contemporary memoirs of the Chevalier d'Eon ,*Sio we ver, were silent as to his great influence in Eussia, or as to the Will of Peter the Great, and in the " Memoirs of the Empress Catharine," which gives the fullest details of the life at court, his name is not even mentioned. Gaillardet pretends " that this document was kept in the archives of the castle of Peterhof, in the|neigh- bourhood of St. Petersburg," but in this summer residence of the Czars there are no archives at all ! In the text of the Will, section 12 directs Eussia "to attach and •WILL OF PETER THE GEEAT PROVED TO BE A FORGEET. 35 unite round itself all the disunited Greeks, or schismatics," as if Peter the Great would call his own church schismatical ? It is clear that Gaillardet thought some of Lesur's text much too improbable, as he omits several long passages which Lesur published; amongst others this: "They (the Eussian armed fleet) will appear suddenly in the Mediterranean, and in the ocean, tO' pour forth all their nomad people, ferocious and greedy of booty,^ to inundate Italy, Spain, and. France, of whose inhabitants they will massacre a portion ; another they will drag into slavery to repeople the deserts of Siberia, and they will put the rest in such a state that they cannot break the yoke." It will be observed, too, that clause xiv. of the Will directs that these Asiatic hordes shall start in vessels under the convoy of the Black Sea and Baltic fleets, from the ports of Azov and Archangel; and apparently, like most Frenchmen, Gaillardet was so ignorant of geography, that he fancied the port of Archangel was on the Baltic, whilst in fact it is on the Arctic Ocean (rather a cold and uninviting place for the hordes of Central Asia) ; besides, how could these Asiatic hordes be conveyed to Archangel ? and why should they not rather have been embarked at the Eussian ports- on the Baltic, which are far nearer to their country, and to their predatory destination ? So shrewd a man as Peter the Great, who had visited England, Holland, and other countries, and knew that the fleets of the Western Powers must necessarily be far superior to any fleet which Eussia could man, even if a benevolent fairy gave her the ships for nothing, must have foreseen that until nearly the whole of Europe was conquered by a land army, a task in itself impossible, he would have no chance of contend- ing at sea with England alone, still less with a combination of the fleets of the European Powers ; and this ridiculous Will does not tell us how the English and other fleets would be employed whUe this armada was being gathered for the conquest of Europe. D i; 36 A DEFENCE OF RUSSIA. SKETCH OF PAST PHASES OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. As one of the few members of Parliament wlio have visited Turkey, I shall now state my views on this engrossing question in the following pages. The principal reason which is given by most of those Englishmen who advocate the cause of Turkey is the supposed danger to our Indian Empire if Eussia were victorious in a war with the Ottoman Empire ; and it has been often, but erroneously, asserted that the defence of Turkey against Eussia has been 'the traditional and invariable policy of England. Even if tliis were the case, it would not be a sufficient reason for adhering to that course, if it is shown, as it has been, to have been! useless and wrong, more especially under the totally different circumstances of the present cridis ; and the Times admitted in 1861 as to the Crimean War, ten years before the Eussians re^ pudiated a portion of the Treaty of Paris : " Never was so great an effort made for so worthless an object. It is with no small reluctance we admit a gigantic effort and an infinite sacrifice td have been made in vain." I i If Eussia had invented some flimsy excuse for suddenly making an unprovoked attack on Turkey, had refused all offers of arbitra- tion, had peremptorily declined the advice of England, and had openly declared that she would d,ttack and endeavour to annes the whole Turkish Empire in Europe as a step to the conquest of India and of the world, in accordance with the forged Will of I SKBTCa OE PAST PHASES 01' THE EASTERN QUESTION. 37 Peter the Great, and if the Christians had been -wisely and justly goyerned by the Turks, we might possibly have been justified in defending Turkey; but even then we should have been no more bound in honour to do so unless all the other guaranteeing Powers had joined us than we were to defend Denmark against Germany. But in the present case, as Russia has waited patiently for years to obtain the fulfilment of the fallacious and treacherous promises of the Sultan, upwards of twenty years ago, to do justice to its co-religionists and fellow-Sclavonians, as it has modified its very reasonable requirements beyond what the most sanguine friend of Turkey would have deemed possible, even at some sacrifice of its dignity and consistency, to meet the views of the other Powers, and especially of England ; and as the cause of quarrel has been publicly stated by us to be most serious and just; I cannot see, now that Turkey has contemptuously, arrogantly, and foolishly refused the unanimous proposals of the Great Powers, how we could with any fairness en- deavour to thwart Russia in nobly enforcing on the Porte the decisions of the Conference, even although the result might be the immediate overthrow of the Ottoman Empire and the occu- pation and annexation of Constantinople by Russia. On the contrary, we ought, I think, to be grateful to Russia if she, un- aided, undertakes the heroic task of enfranchising ten millions of Christians from the tyranny of thirty millions of Mussulmans. If the happiness and welfare of the Christians of Turkey can only be secured by some remote and, I believe, imaginary risk to our Indian Empire, from which, unlike the Dutch, we exact no tribute, and which weakens our military resources in case of a European war by abstracting a large portion of our troops, we are bound to run that risk. But how can it be shown that we should be exposed to any danger, however trifling and distant, if Constantinople belonged to Russia ? and what proof is there that Russia would endeavour to incorporate Turkey with her dominions, or that the Christians of Turkey, a large portion of whom speak a different language, and who notoriously wish to form independent states, could or would be compelled to 38 A DEEENOE OF EUSSIA. become Eussian subjects, especially now that the Czar has pledged his honour that he does not wish to incorporate Turkey with his dominions? Supposing that Eussia could annex the whole of Turkey, the maritime population of the enlarged Empire would not enable her to man a fleet which would approach being a match for the British navy, since our mercantile marine is about equal to that of the whole world combined ; and if, contrary to all probability and experience, she made a piratical and unprovoked Attempt to intercept our communications with India by making an attack on Egypt, our squadron at Malta would have a less distance to traverse, and would easily capture and destroy the Eussian armada. With strange inconsistency the very same individuals who are in such a state of alarm at the supposed Sanger which we even now incur in India from Eussian ambition, and the still more imminent risk which we should run if Eussia took Constantinople, •declare that Eussia is unable to vanquish Turkey single-handed, although the result of every war but one between the two countries for about two centuries has been the triumph of Eussia ; and they affect to think that some thirty-eight millions of semi-barbarous Moslems, weakened by the presence among them of about ten millions of disaffected Christians, and who are in a miserable minority in European Turkey, would be more than a match for eighty-six millions of civilised Eussians, whilst, with 200 millions of Indian subjects, backed by a British army, superior in number to any which the Eussians could send along the trackless deserts of Central Asia, we could not defend Hindostan against an in- vading army of Eussians — in other words, whilst they hold that a Turk is equal to nearly three Eussians, a superior number of Englishmen, near their resources, would not be equal to an in- ferior number of Eussians at an immense distance from their base of operations, and though we should be supported by 200 millions of our Indian subjects, a large portion of whom are notoriously equal, if not superior, to Turkish troops. Colonel Vincent has published a statement, which has been very favourably noticed by the press, in which, though he avows SKETcn or PAST phases of the easteen question. 39 himself a philo-Turk and anti-Russian, he admits that Eussia bas now an army of about 360,000 men on the Turkish frontier, ind generals of the highest repute and experience, like Kauff- man, Tchernayeflf, and others, -while the Turks have no com- manders of reputation, and the Sultan could not bring into the field even 100,000 men to oppose them. And it will not be for- gotten that Diebitch, in 1829, with only 110,000 men, vanquished the Turks, and dictated to them an ignominious peace ; whilst at sea they are so contemptible that in the Greek war of indepen- dence, sixteen small Greek vessels chased forty large Turkish men-of-war to Constantinople. The inefficiency of the Turkish army and navy, as proved by a long series of defeats, is only ex- ceeded by the venality which has signalised the leaders of both 3ervices ; for when Paskiewitch attacked Asia Minor, he had no difficulty in inducing any number of the very same Mussulman troops who had fought against him to serve under his command. The battle of Nezib was won by Ibrahim Pasha against over- whelming odds by bribing the commanders of some of the Turkish regiments, and the whole Turkish fleet immediately afterwards deserted to the Pasha of Egypt. The anti-Eussian party farther say that Eussia could not vanquish the Turks be- cause she cannot raise a loan on the European money market ; but as her Three per Cents, are at 51, whilst the Turkish Six per Cents. are at 8, it is clear that her credit is more than twelve times as goodas that of Turkey ; and no power whose Five per Cents, are at 81 has ever failed in getting a loan of reasonable amount ; whilst Turkey could not obtain a shilling on any terms whatever. With refer- ence to the charges of inordinate ambition, of pecuniary greed, and of atrocious cruelty in Central Asia, which have been un- scrupulously brought against Eussia, Mr. Gladstone, in his pam- phlet on Eussian policy in Turkistan, shows that, so far from there being any mutual hostility between England and Eussia in those regions, England refused to take the part of the Khivans against Eussia, and advised them to submit to the demands of the Czar, and the Eussians refused to take the part of the exiled ruler of Afghanistan against England, on account of its friendship -10 A DEFENCE OF EITSSIA. for our country. He also states that wlien Hativizah was conquered by the Eussians in 1870, they gave it back to the Amir of Bokhara, in spite of the desire of the people to be ruled by them ; that the ruler of Khokand was a scoundrel, who had been repeatedly driven out by his subjects; that the Khan of Khiva might have been deposed and all his territories annexed, but that Eussia refrained from doing so ; that Tashkend was taken by Tchernayeff in 1864, contrary to the orders and wishes of the Eussian Government, and that that officer was severely punished for his disobedience ; that Eussia has paid to the Mohammedan religion a respect so profound that missionary efforts are actually put down, a measure which we do not adopt even in India ; that the annual expenditure of Turkistan was in 1872 five and a half millions of roubles, against a revenue of only two millions ; that Schuyler, the American Consul, says, " The rule of Eussia is, on the whole, beneficial to the natives, and it would be manifestly unjust to them to with- draw her protection and leave them to anarchy and to the unbridled rule of fanatical despots;" that Maghan says, "The conduct of the Eussian soldiery in the Khivan campaign was infinitely better than that of European troops in European battles ; " and that the Chinese Envoy said in his report to his Emperor of the conduct of the Eussians, " The Dzian Dzian (General Kolpakofsky) of Semiretch quieted in every way those who remained in Suidun, both Mantchoos and Chinese, both soldiery and civilians, as well as the Chinese Mussulmans, not harming any one. Not even a single blade of grass, nor a single tree, nor a fowl, nor a dog received any harm or injury, not a hair was touched, so that children were not frightened, and the people submitted, not without delight and ecstasy." Schuyler farther says, " Strict orders were given by General Kauffman at the same time to the soldiers to send out no foraging parties, and to take nothing from the inhabitants, but to pay cash for everything at the bazaar ; and in one case a soldier was sentenced to be hung for stealing a cow." It should further be noted that, so far from showing an over- SKETCH OP PAST PHASES OP THE EASTERN aTJESTION. 41 weening desire for territory, which can only be acquired at a prodigious cost and held at a ruinous loss, Russia has sold the whole of her possessions in America to the United States for an old song, and has repeatedly restored to Turkey and Persia pro- vinces that she has captured and might have annexed. Again, Russia refused for nearly seven years to aid the Greek insurrec- tion, and if it were so inordinately ambitious it could easily conquer China, with which it is conterminous, with more than double the population of India, and which would have been sub- verted by the Taepings but for the skill of our own Gordon. Even if the possession of Constantinople did menace at some remote date our Indian Empire, how do we know but that before that period arrived, when we had made in the meantime a long series of wars, and perhaps doubled our debt and risked our national existence to protect the effete and incorrigible Turks, we might be deprived of India by a new mutiny; or the three Empires might partition Turkey as they partitioned Poland ; or France might aid Russia to conquer Turkey, on condition that Russia should aid France in a war of revenge against Germany ; or Turkey might be subverted by another Mehemet Ali ; or Russia by an internal revolution, or by the re-establishment of Polish independence 1 Well did Jefferson say : " How much misery has been caused in the world by misfortunes which never happened." That large number of persons who do not give themselves the trouble of reading history or of thinking for themselves, and who consider precedent the only safe rule, just as they would pro- bably uphold the custom of Suttee if it existed in England, range themselves on the anti-Christian side because they erroneously imagine that England has always taken that course. It is erro- neously supposed that the poUcy of England has always been to defend Turkey against Russia, but as I shall now show, the facts of the case prove the very contrary. From 1686 to 1877, a period of 191 years, there have been ten wars between Russia and Turkey, which have lasted cumulatively about forty-two years; and until 1787, though all but one, the Crimean war. 42 A DEFENCE OF ErsSIA. ended disastrously for Turkey, we never made the sligttest attempt to aid the Turks, even by negotiation, still less by force of arms. In that year we first gave a little indirect and ineflfectual aid to Turkey, but in the end we urged them to cede a considerable territory to Russia. In 1806 we made war on Turkey, which had most ungratefully and treacherously declared war against us, in spite of our recent services in driving the French out of Egypt and Syria, and this, too, at the darkest moment of our death-struggle with Napoleon ; and we then forced the Dardanelles and demanded the surrender of the Turkish fleet, and the cession of Moldavia and Wallachia to Eussia. In 1812 we did not protest against the cession of the whole of Bessarabia and other territory to Eussia. In 1815 we de- prived Turkey of the Ionian Islands, which were tributary to the Sultan, and thus violated the integrity of the Ottoman Empire. In 1826 the treaty of Akerman was signed, and the Sultan had the baseness to send a circular to Europe stating that when he signed the treaty he had not the slightest intention of being bound by it. This was an illustration of the perfidy of the Turk, which reminds me of a story of Mirabeau's brother, who said of himself, " I swore, indeed, but I did not promise to keep my word ; " and on another occasion, " In any other family than my own I should be considered a rogue, but a clever fellow ; in my own I pass for an honest man, but a dunce ; " and again he said, " Je suis ;paije mais lion vendu." In 1827 we joined Eussia in destroying the Turkish fleet at Nava- rino, and in the establishment of Greek independence, thus placing the Turkish coasts at the mercy of Eussia. Though the Duke of Wellington was hostile to the Greek revolution, and called Nava- rino " an untoward event," yet at the close of 1829 he said, " It would be absurd to think of bolstering up the Turkish power in Europe. It is gone, in fact. . . . "We must reconstruct the Greek Empire. There is no doubt it would have been more fortunate and better for the world if the treaty of peace (Adrianoi^lfc) had not been signed, and if the Eussians had entered Constantinople, and if the Turkish Empire had been SKETCH or PAST PHASES OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 43 dissolyed.'' In 1830 we acquiesced in the conquest of Algeria by France, wHcli deprived Turkey of about three millions of subjects and a large tribute. In 1833, wlien the Pasha of Egypt revolted, and his son Ibrahim conquered Syria and Asia Minor, and advanced within eighty leagues of Constantinople, -we refused the supplications of the Turks for assistance, and they wer.e obliged to implore the aid of Eussia, which sent a squadron and an army, which occupied Constantinople with our consent. Yet the Eussians, whom some suppose to be so faithless and unscrupulous, honourably retired when the danger of Turkey was over. In 1839 the Pasha of Egypt again rebelled, and after some months' delay, we for the first time supported Turkey by force of arms at the imminent risk of a war with France, which considered itself insulted by our conduct, and was burning to avenge "Waterloo. At that time our regular forces were under 100,000 men, of whom three-fourths were in Ireland or in the colonies, and not more than 25,000 men and 46 guns could have been collected to defend our shores against the 300,000 men and 300 guns which the French could have brought against us, whilst we had only three ships of the line and three frigates to guard the coast of the Channel against the French naval force, and we had only nine line-of-battle ships in the Mediterranean against fifteen French sail- of-the-line of much heavier weight of metal and more numerous crews than ours, supported by five Egyptian sail-of-the-line. Yet in 1840 we risked a defeat and even our national existence to pre- vent the ungrateful Turks from being regenerated by the more enlightened government of Mehemet Ali ; and Eussia, instead of joining France and Egypt against us, which would almost have insured our defeat, and instead of then securing Constantinojple, as she might have done, by arrangement with France and Egypt, joined with us in maintaining, by force of arms, the integrity of that Ottoman Empire which she is persistently accused of wishing to appropriate. In July, 1853, the Eussians crossed the Pruth, but we did not declare war till March, 1854; and when peace was made, in 44 A DEFENCE OE ET7SSIA. March, 1856, we did not, as we miglit have done, compel Russia after her defeat to surrender even the most recent of her conquests from Turkey, nor to pay any indemnity to that Power for a war which had weakened it, and injured its finances more than a large cession of territory. In 1853, the mixed Commission decided in favour of the claims made by Eussia as to the possession of the holy places by the Greek Church, to the unbounded irritation of the Latins, and especially the French, who had obtained a firman by threats of war on the pretext of an obsolete treaty one hundred years old, contrary to the recent firmans between Russia and the Porte. Prince Menschikoflf then sent in an ultimatum to the Sultan, in which he demanded that in the Ottoman dominions the Greeks should have precisely the same privileges as the Latins, and that these privileges shoidd be made perpetual and irrevocable. As the Sultan refused these just, necessary, and moderate terms, the Russians occupied the Princi- palities as a material guarantee. The treaty of Kainardji, in 1774, it is quite evident, gave Eussia the right of protecting the Christians in Turkey. It is not usual to put articles in treaties which have no meaning. If these articles were intended to have no meaning, why were they inserted 1 But there is further evidence of this, for Lord John Russell, in a despatch to Sir Hamilton Seymour, in 1853, said, " The protection of tlie Christians of Turkey hy liussia was no doubt prescribed by duty and sanctioned by treaty;" and the Plenipotentiaries at Vienna of four Powers said it was necessary to abolish the exclusive protectorate which, for 180 years, had been exercised by Russia ; so that, even if Russia's treaty right were insuflScient, as forty years' prescription sufiices in England, 180 years should be adequate for Russia. I can hardly state a higher authority than that for this assertion, for Lord John Russell was then Foreign Secretary, and England was responsible for any admissions he had made. Lord Clarendon too stated in 1853, " The word of His Imperial Majesty (the Czar) would be preferable to any convention that could be framed. They (Her Majesty's Government) feel entire SKETCH OF PAST PHASES OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 45 confidence in the rectitude of His Imperial Majesty's intentions, and as they have the satisfaction to know that the interests of Russia and England in the East are identical, they entertain an earnest hope that a similar policy there will prevail." A conference was then held at Vienna, at which the four Great Powers were represented, and on the 31st July, 1853, a Note was prepared hy the Plenipotentiaries, which was immediately accepted by Eussia without the slightest alteration, and which embodied the very principle for which she had all along contended, namely, equality between the Greeks and Latins, and permanence of those privileges which the Turks had been in the habit of alter- nately giving and withdrawing. The Porte insisted on important alterations, which would have left the oppressed Christians at their mercy, but these were instantly declined by Eussia, and then the four Powers most inconsistently and unjustly sided with Turkey against Eussia, whilst they were obviously bound in honour to adhere to that Note, and at first they expressed disappointment and dissatisfaction at the conduct of the Porte. The Turks then de- clared war, and commenced hostilities by firing on a Eussian flotilla. The Eussians, in their turn, subsequently sent a declaration of hostilities, and then the English and French fleets entered the Dardanelles, and instead of settling themselves the terms of peace, obsequiously asked the Porte what their terms should be. The Porte demanded (1) Evacuation of the Principalities, (2) Eevision of the Treaties, (3) Maintenance of religious privileges of communities of all confessions, (4) Definitive settlement of con- vention respecting the holy places ; and we most absurdly approved of these terms, instead of insisting that the evacuationalone should suflice. In November, 1853, the Eussians destroyed the Turkish fleet at Sinope, and early in 1854: the Emperor of the French, who was leading England by the nose in the whole negotiation, wrote a hypocritical letter in favour of peace, to which the Czar replied, that long before the Eussian occupation of the Principalities, when England hesitated to assume a hostile attitude. Napoleon took the initiative in sending liis fleet as far as Salamis. That while 46 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. Napoleon makes it appear that the explanatory commentaries of the Vienna Note rendered it impossible for France and England to recommend its adoption by the Porte, he should have recollected that the Eussian commentaries followed, and did not precede the pure and simple acceptance of the Note by Eussia, and also their urgent recommendation of it to Turkey. BesideS; the Czar added, " if any point of our commentaries had given rise to difficulties, I offered a satisfactory solution of them at Olmiitz, and such it was considered by Austria and Prussia. Unfor- tunately, a portion of the Anglo-French fleet had entered the Dardanelles under the pretext of there protecting the lives and properties of EngUsh and French subjects, and in order to allow the whole to enter without violating the Treaty of 1841, it icas necessary that the Ottoman Government should declare ivar against us. I learn for the first time from your Majestjr, that while protecting the reinforcement of Turkish troops upon their own territory, the two Powers have resolved to prohibit to us the navigation of the Black Sea — that is to say, apparently to take from us the right of protecting our own coasts. Would you, yourself, Sire, if you were in my place, accept such a position ? I boldly answer. No." (9th February, 1854.) As to the Crimean war, I consider it a most foolish and wicked war, and one cannot but feel indignant at the weakness and cowardice of Austria in connection with that struggle. In my opinion, when we had induced the Eussians to leave the Principalities the war should have ceased, but we were then tied to the chariot wheels of Napoleon III., the tyrant of France, and it suited his dynastic purpose to continue the war untU the conquest of Sebastopol. When Lord Aberdeen met Parliament in February, 1854, he said he could not " prove " that there was any danger to thi.5 country, in the war between Eussia and Turkey. Now, if there was no danger in Febniary, it was difficult to^ under- stand how there could be danger in March, when war was declared, the affair of Sinope having happened in November, and everything being in stain qiio ; and I look for^rard with alarm to SKETCH OF PAST PHASES OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 47 the approaching Parliamentary recess, when the country mio-ht suddenly fiad itself " drifted into " a perfectly unnecessary and wrongful war.* In February, 1854, Austria assured the English and French ambassadors at Vienna that, " if the two Western Powers would fix a day for the evacuation of the Principalities, after which, if the notice should be unattended to, hostilities should commence, the cabinet of Vienna would support the summons ; " whilst Prussia declared that she was not called upon to engage in the struggle until her own interests were involved, which would only be the case if Eussia, which then occupied the Principalities, should annex them. On this, Herr Von Vincke, the leader of the Prussian Liberals, said, " Instead of co-operating on the basis of that which she considers right and just, Prussia is making herself the post-boy or letter-carrier of Europe." In consequence of this Austrian intimation, we stupidly and precipitately sent an ultimatum to Russia on 27th February, requiring the promise of the evacuation of the Principalities, but nothing else, by the 30th of April, and unless this pledge were given within six days, the British Cabinet would consider the silence of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg equivalent to a decla- ration of war. The answer of the Czar, as might have been anticipated, and as perhaps was desired, to this unnecessarily insulting and peremptory dispatch was, " L' Emperev/r ne juge pas convenable de dormer aucime reponse d, la, lettre de Lord Clarendon." Austria then having cleverly and unscrupulously led us on the ice, and committed us irretrievably to war with Russia, sneaked out of the quarrel and left us to our fate, having made as it were a fool's mate of us in the political game of chess. Obviously, Austria and Prussia, as every one now sees, though we were then as blind as bats, have the chief interest in preventing Russia from acquiring either the mouths of the Danube or Con- stantinople, and they were, as it were, by the irresistible force of * KingUke tells us that at the meeting of the Cibinet which adopted the dispatch which led to the war the majority were asleep ! 48 A DEFENCE OE EtTSSIA. circumstances, in the front line of the battle, whilst England and France could, with the most perfect safety to their interests, have remained wholly aloof from the contest, and the most we could have been reasonably expected to do in case of a Eussian annexation of the Principalities or of Constantinople, would have been to send our naval forces to control the Eussian fleet, whilst Austria, and not only Prussia but Germany, should at their own cost have fur- nished all the land forces, and we have been made catspaws of to snatch the German chestnuts out of the fire. Kinglake says on this subject : — " Of all the great Powers, Austria was the chief sufferer. Austria was on the spot. Austria was the Power which instantly and in a summary way could force the Czar to quit his hold, and yet the charge of undertaking a duty which pressed upon her more than upon any other State in Europe was voluntarily taken upon them- selves by two States (England and France) whose dominions were vastly distant from the scene of the evil deed. It was much as though the forces of the United States and Brazil were to come across the Atlantic to defend Antwerp from the French, whilst the English looked on and thanked their enter- prising friends for relieving them of their duty." Napoleon, however, actually pretended, in his message to his credulous and obsequious Chambers, that " France had quite as much interest, and perhaps more, than England in the influence of Eussia not being extended indefinitely over Constantinople, for to rule at Constantinople is to rule over the Mediterranean." Yet the Turks, who do rule at Constantinople, do not rule over the Mediterranean, nor would the Eussians if they held Constantinople, for all the powers that border on the Mediterranean combined would not be a match for England alone ; and though it would be monstrous for Eussia to have a single port, even the coaling station at Villafranca, which Eussia obligingly gave up in consequence of the jealousy of France, or the smallest squadron in the Mediterranean, no one, of course, could reasonably complain if, as the French have often boasted, it " became a French lake." SKETCH OF PAST PHASES OF THE EASTERN QXrESTION. 49 On the 20th April, 1854, Prussia and Austria signed a treaty by which both guaranteed each others' territories, and which declared that either the annexation of the Principalities or an attack on the Balkans was a necessary casus belli. The Russians evacuated the Principalities early in July, and the Austrians, after delaying ten weeks from the date of the signature of the treaty by which Turkey allowed them to occupy these provinces, and waiting some weeks after the last Russian had retired, moved bravely forward on' the 20th of August, as soon as there was no possible risk of fighting, and by this occupation they shielded Russia from an attack on the part of the Turks, and released a large number of Russian troops, who were sent to iight against us in the Crimea. On July 25, Count Nesselrode told Austria : " We replied by silence to the summons of France and England, because it was couched in an offensive form, was preceded by open provocation, and was destitute of all conditions of reciprocity. If in the opinion of the Austrian Government the prolonged occupation of the Principalities was the motive of the war, it ought to be a consequence that when the occupation ceased the war should cease. If the interests of Austria and the whole of Germany should suffer temporarily from our operations on the Danube, they must suffer still more, as well as other neutral States, from the situation brought about by the mari- time operations of France and England in the Euxine, the North Sea, and the Baltic." Austria and Prussia both expressed their opinion that Russia, in evacuating the Principalities, " had removed the only ground of complaint which could justify a hostile attitude towards her ; " but the French and English Governments took a widely different view, and would no longer be satisfied' with the status quo ante helium, and wickedly and foolishly involved both England and France in an aggressive war against Russia, which has cost us seventy-five millions of treasure and tens of thousands of lives, whilst it has retarded the emancipation of the Christians from Turkish oppression and cruelty, and the advance of Russia in civiKsation, by nearly a quarter of a century. As we were duped E 50 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. in the negotiations and entrapped into the war, so we were befooled in the conduct of the campaign. In the attack on the Eussian army at the Alma, the French, who were far more numerous, persuaded us to let them fight on the side which was protected by the guns of both fleets, whilst we were exposed ; and in taking up the positions before Sebastopol we a second time were fools enough, with a smaller number of troops, to take up the most exposed and dangerous position, consequently we got nearly all the hard blows, whilst the French secured nearly all the so-called glory. We then continued that war until we had nflicted the greatest loss upon a nation which had been our oldest, our best, and our most consistent aUy. On 18th April, 1855, Lord John Eussell, supported by M. Drouyn de I'Huys and Austria, proposed at Vienna a system of counterpoise in the Black Sea between Eussia and Turkey, to which Eussia agreed, and the war might then have terminated, and a very large part of the slaughter and pecuniary loss of the Crimean war might have been spared ; but the French and English Governments refused to adopt this reasonable proposi- tion, and in consequence both Lord John EusseU and M. Drouyn de I'Huys resigned. At last, in December, 1855, Austria, after repeated efforts, suc- ceeded in bringing about negotiations for peace ; but so bellicose were France and England that Count Buol stated that, when he sounded the Cabinets of Paris and London, " Although we found them imbued with the firm resolution not to lend themselves to the initiative of any overtures for peace, nevertheless, to our great satisfaction, we found such dispositions in those Cabinets as to lead us to hope that they would not refuse to examine and accept conditions of a nature to offer all the guarantees of a permanent peace." Considering that we were then victorious over Eussia, it would have been more magnanimous and more consistent with nations which make such gushing professions of Christianity, to have generously tendered to Eussia such conditions of peace as were consistent with its national honour, instead of taking, as we did, an unfair advantage of our victory, and inflicting on that SKETCH OF PAST PHASES OP THE EASTERN QTJESTIOir. 51 great country tlie indignity and wrong of limiting her fleet in the Black Sea (which, was thus made into a Turkish lake) to an insig- nificant and insufficient number of vessels, and placing her coasts and the Cliristians of Turkey at the mercy of the barbarous and incorrigible Turks, expressly barring all the Powers, individually or collectively, from giving these oppressed Christians aid, what- ever cruelties might be perpetrated upon them, even if, for instance, one-third of the whole population was either massacred or sold into slavery, as in the case of the Greeks at the end of the war of independence, whilst previously for 180 years the wretched Rayahs had enjoyed the constant protection of Eussia. Lord Aberdeen told a distinguished M.P., who repeated it to me, that he considered the Crimean War "unjust and unnecessary," and on the 30th January, 1855, Lord Aberdeen and Mr. Gladstone resigned. Lord Grey, too, said, " I think now as I thought then — that the Crimean War was unnecessary, and, therefore, unjustifiable. I am of opinion that all the blood that was shed and all the treasure that was expended in the course of that memorable contest has had the effect of leaving matters in the East in a worse position than they otherwise would have been.'' Soon after the conclusion of peace, the question of the relation of the Principalities to Turkey arose. Eussia, and even France, wished to erect them into a separate kingdom ; but Austria and England, true to their retrograde policy, wished to keep them in strict subservience to the Porte. On this subject the Times re- marked in 1858, "Diplomacy does, indeed, cut a sorry figure in this matter. First, she regarded the provinces as so important to Turkey that she went to war rather than suffer them, even for a time, to be rent from her ; then she referred what was really the question of their future connection with Turkey to the people themselves ; she overruled their decision because she wished them still to be dependent on Turkey ; and she has now apparently ended by giving them a constitution which annihilates their dependence as effectually as if they had been formally united into a single kingdom ; and in performing this feat she has kept the E 2 52 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. provinces in an unsettled and miserable state for what, doubtless, appears to great diplomatists tlie very moderate period of two years and a half." In the same year the Turks, who are so indignant at any of their territory being taken from them, declared Tunis an integral part of their Empire; and only last year the Khedive made an unjprovoked and unjust war on Abyssinia, hoping to annex further territories to Egypt, and consequently to the Turkish Empire, but was ignominiously defeated by the brave Abyssinian Christians in spite of the aid of renegade Europeans. In 1854 the Turks, who are now so tenacious about their dignity and imaginary independence, agreed to the occupation of the Principalities by Austria for two years, and in 1860 they con- sented to an armed occupation of Syria by the French for nearly a year after one of those periodical massacres which occur so fre- quently in Turkey ; yet, forsooth, they will not allow Bulgaria, after they have committed even worse horrors than on other oc- casions, for which they have decorated and rewarded some of the chief perpetrators, to be occupied temporarily even by a gen- darmerie officered by foreigners. In 1867 the European Powers agreed to recommend the Turks to give up Candia, instead of desiring to maintain the integrity of Turkey. In 1871 the Eussians very wisely seized the opportunity of the Eranco-German War to repudiate the humiliating, oppressive, and unjust Treaty of Paris, by which the Eussian coasts were placed at the mercy of the Turkish fleet, and the Turks were the very first to consent ; so that, being without allies, and not caring to be more Turldsh than the Turks, we were obliged to consent to see the chief result of the Crimean War irrecoverably lost. Yet though we only beat the Eussians in the Crimea with the greatest difficulty with the aid of the French, the Sardinians, and the Turks, and with the indirect support of the Austrians, who occu- pied the Principalities, there are those who actually suppose we could now cope with Eussia supported by Turkey alone, at such an enormous distance from our supplies, and with the risk of SKETCH or PAST PHASES OP THE EASTBBN QXTESTIOIT. 53 having Germany against us, grateful for the friendly neutrality of Eussia during tlie Austrian and Franco-German Wars, and perhaps Austria, which might probably be won over by Eussia by the pro- mise of a large slice of Turkey ; while Eoumania, Greece, Crete, Egypt, Servia, and Montenegro probably would take the opportu- nity of declaring war against Turkey and joining Eussia; and heterodox Persia might take the opportunity of appropriating some of the territory of the orthodox Mussulmans of Turkey, and especially Mesopotamia, which contains their sacred places. In 1873 England was obliged to check Turkish aggressions in South Arabia, tending to impede our communications with India. In 1874 Austria, Germany, and Eussia informed the Turks that they considered themselves justified in concluding separate treaties with Eoumania, and they paid no regard to the protest of the Turks. Some years ago we too infringed the integrity of Turkey, by annexing Aden and Perim, to the great indignation of the Frencli, who themselves had annexed Algiers. The "west-end" seem to think that Christianity and demoralization go together in the case of the Eayalis, whilst Mahometanism and all the virtues characterise the Turks ; but if this is so, why do they not turn Mussulmans 1 Then, besides giving encouragement to Turkey, we have insulted Eussia in every way. It is currently stated that there is a division among the Ministers of the Crown on this subject. In the newspapers I find the subject commented on and names given. I think it is clear that there are three parties in the Cabinet. The general opinion is, that the Prime Minister, the Secretary for War, and the Postmaster-General are strong for Turkey, and would have been quite willing to have launched us into a war in support of Turkey against Eussia. On the other hand, I believe there are Lord Salisbury, the Lord Chancellor, and the Home Secretary, who are in favour of the Christians in Turkey. But half the Ministers are neutral, and as the wind blows in one quarter or another, they change sides. In short, the Ministry have boxed the compass of political vacillation. A great deal has been said about Mohammedans sympathising 54 A DEPEKCE OF UUSSIA. with the Sultan, but there are no fewer than 165 millions of Mohammedans, of "whom only thirty-eight millions are Turks, and the general body of Mohammedans do not regard the Sultan as their head. There are some who think that Europe should have faith in the gimcrack and illusory Constitution which Turkey has granted, and by which a large majority of Mussulmans have just been returned in European Turkey, with a few discredited Christians, in a population in which the Turks are in a small minority ; but all our leading politicians have declared their want of confidence in it, and as Midhat Pasha, its author, thanks to his own Constitution, has escaped the bowstring, and has been exiled, the project will probably soon collapse. It would be impossible to work a Parliament in which the different nations of Europe were represented, though we are all Christians— aU civilized, and accustomed to free institutions ; but a Parliament consisting of the same barbarous Turks, of polyglot languages, most of them believing in a base, superstitious, and persecuting religion, and many of them addicted to unnatural vices, to polygamy and white slavery, is an utter ab- surdity. Yet the Turks coolly invite us to wait no less than four years to see how it works ! This is traversing the narrow line which separates the Sublime from the Ridiculous Porte. The last time we trusted Turkey we spent, between debt and increase of taxes, about seventy-five milKons sterling in the Crimean war, besides about thrice as much of which she has picked our pockets by means of loans ; and if a war in her defence is really just and necessary for India, why should not India and our colonies bear their share of the expense? whilst the Turks should pay the remainder, until we could recover the cost from Eussia ; and the British lives thrown away in riveting the chains of fanatic Mussulmans on the poor Christians of Turkey, and the loss of credit by doing this for a selfish object, would be a sufficient contribution on the part of England. One can easily understand why the Eoman Catholics side with the Turks, as the Russians and the Christians of Turkey are Greeks, and religious sects hate each other in inverse propor- SKETCH OF PAST PHASES 03? THE EASTERN QUESTION. 55 tion to their differences ; and we can also comprehend wliy the Hungarians take the same side, and have sent a sword to Abdul Kerim Pasha, since they have never forgiven Eussia for putting down their rebellion in 1849 ; and, while claiming freedom for themselves, they have always dreaded and tyrannised over their Sclavonic fellow-subjects j but it is astounding that Protestant Englishmen should have any sympathy with bloodthirsty Turks, and should not prefer a progressive nation like the Eussians, who have abolished serfdom at enormous cost, who have established liberty of the press, and who may soon be expected to obtain a real and not a sham Constitution. It is quite evident from the first debate in the House of Commons that the present Govern- ment do not intend to go to war with Eussia even if she does attack Turkey, and the Liberal party are disposed to compel Tur- key, by force of arms if necessary, to accept the decision of the Conference, provided the other powers wiU join us, but not to help Turkey under any circumstances. The Turks, on their part, are by no means sanguine as to the result of the war with Eussia, as appears from the report of the meeting of their Grand Council in the Allgenmne Zeitung ; and whilst the Patriarchs of the Chris- tians pretend to be warmly attached to the Ottoman cause, it is- impossible for anyone to believe they are sincere ; for though the Greek Patriarch, on the occasion of the Greek war of indepen- dence, declared against his country and his religion, this did not prevent him from being murdered, with every aggravation of cruelty, by the Turks j and there can be little doubt that these servile Patriarchs will share the same fate if war ensues. At the Turkish Council, Eushdi Pasha, late Grand Vizier, said, " In the progress of history, considerable portions of the Ottoman Empire have passed into the hands of Austria and Eussia ; but great as has been the damage inflicted upon us by these losses, it was less injurious than the semi-independence accorded to Servia and Montenegro.'' So that, if the Turks had their way, they would re- duce the Principalities to the same miserable level as Bosnia and Bulgaria, and these provinces can never expect to be placed on the same footing as Servia. 36 A DEFENCE OP E0SSIA. The Grand Vizier, Midhat Pasha, said, " You are aware that ■vve have no money, and that the portals of the money market are closed against us. No army can he supported without money." Eifaat Bey said, " We have reason to fear the issue of the war, should war break out ; " and the Grand Vizier then said, " Who Imows what may be in store for us if we go to war 1 Before long we may have no bread, and people may be driven to wish the Conference programme had been accepted. ... It should be remembered that public opinion is against us in all Europe. . . . Public opinion is stronger than any other power." As to the arrogance of the Turks, it suffices to quote Abedin Bey : " We are proud to think that in consequence of our answer six ambassadors will leave Constantinople simultaneously. It re- dounds to the glory of the Ottoman race that we are going to give the whole lot of them one reply." Our selfish and foolish policy has alone prevented the Christians of Turkey from being enfranchised from Mussulman cruelty and oppression more than half a century ago, and most of the atrocities of the Greek war of independence would have been prevented, without our going to war, if we had not held back Russia by our advice and the fear of our intervention in favour of Turkey. Either we were wrong in destroying the Turkish fleet at Navarino, and thus establishing Greek independence, or if, as I believe, we were right, we should have adopted that step several years sooner, and thus saved about one-third of the population of Greece from death or slavery, whilst we should also have prevented the sacrifice of the lives of hundreds of thousands of our esteemed friends the Turks who perished in that hopeless struggle. The infamous and unparalleled massacre of Scios in 1822 resulted in the murder of 25,000 persons, whilst 45,000 women and children were sold into slavery, and 15,000 escaped, and only 1,800 out of a population of 85,000 re- mained on the island alive. Yet we not only would not interfere, but for years prevented other nations from putting an end to atrocities compared with which the customs of Dahomey are merciful. As to thesupposed sympathy of the Mussulman races for Turkey, Sir George Campbell, who is a first-rate authority on this subject, SKETCH OF PAST PHASES OE THE EASTBEN QUESTION. 57 states that the Mussulmans of India, many of whom are heterodox Shiites, would not resent our going to war with Turkey for the Christians. The Mussulmans of Russia are quite loyal, and Lady Duff Gordon says in her book on Egypt, that the Egyptians were strongly in favour of the Cretans in their insurrection, and long to be free of Turkish domination ; and the Khedive, who managed to send about 50,000 men against Abyssinia, has only despatched 3,000 extra men to aid Turkey, iu addition to his small contingent of 9,000. Whatever may be the solution of the Eastern Question — whether the Turkish possessions iu Europe are divided between the Slavs and Greeks, and the Greek Empire is re-established, or the greater portion of Turkey is absorbed by Eussia, or whether Constantinople is made into a free and neutral city like Frankfort or Hamburg formerly were, with the fortifications of the Darda- nelles destroyed and perpetually abolished, the Mussulmans can live in greater happiness and comfort at present under an enlight- ened and progressive Christian Government, than under a stupid and perverse tyranny, which farms the tithe to rogues, who insist in taking it in kind, and let the crops rot in the ground till it suits their convenience or interest to collect as much as they can extort; and the Mussulmans of Turkey would be as well off as those of India, Algeria, Eussia, or China, whilst those who are dissatisfied with Christian rule can sell their possessions, as was done on the occasion of the establishment of Greek independence, when the Greeks agreed to sell their possessions in Turkey, and the Turks theirs in Greece. As an illustration of the results of Ottoman domination, history tells us that in the days of Pericles, Athens contained 21,000 freemen and 400,000 slaves, and the gross revenue of Athens after the battle of Cheronea, when all its foreign colonies had been lost, was equivalent to £500,000 of our money, whilst in November, 1826, its population was reduced to 9,040, and the revenue of Attica to £3,000 a year. 58 A DEFEIS'CE OF RTJSSIA. HISTOEY OF THE PEESENT PHASE OF THE EASTEEN QUESTION. In January, 1875, a large number of the peasantry of Herzego- vina, to escape from unjust exactions and imprisonment at the hands of the tithe farmers, fled to Montenegro. At the request of the Prince of Montenegro, Dervish Pasha, the Governor of Herze- govina, agreed to let them come back, and offered them an amnesty. But they were stopped on the frontiers by Turkish troops, and two of them were killed. Dervish explained that the soldiers had acted without orders, but after the people did come back to their homes they were exposed to outrage and insult. ^heir houses were burnt, some of them were beaten, and one was put to death. Eesistance followed, and the month of June saw the beginning of a desultory contest. In England, if a man is injured in a railway accident, the company has to pay enormous damages ; but in Turkey, it appears that the compensation to the family for killing a peasant intentionally is to burn his house down and to have recourse to a general beating all round. According to the admission of the Turkish press, the value of the plundered and destroyed property of the Bulgarians, in the district of Philippopolis alone, was £2,000,000, whilst the Commission, up to January 26th, 1877, had only expended about £20,000, or one-hundredth part of the damage, on the construction of houses and distribution of cattle and seed in some of the burnt villages {Times, February 14th, 1877). The real amount of the losses sustained by the Bulgarians in Philippopolis alone was much HISTORY OP PBESENT PHASE OP THE EASTERN QUESTION. 59 greater, and the total losses of the Christians in Turkey were probably more than £6,000,000 ; but the British Government, thought it quite impossible for the Turks to afford to give com- pensation to the Christians, though these same Turks can afford a war which may cost sixty millions or more, brought on entirely by their own obstinacy, stupidity, and arrogance. Philo-Turldsh Englishmen boldly assert, without a scintilla of proof, that these insurrections are got up by Eussian 'agents, who first urge the peasants to rebel, and then induce the Turks to send Bashi-Bazouks to massacre them ; and in this particular case they will perhaps allege that the Eussians induced the tithe farmers to oppress the people, then the peasants to escape, and, lastly, the Turkish troops to beat and massacre them. Perhaps also the Eus- sians induced the Turks to raise the tithes 12^ per cent., that there might be more money to buy munitions of war to be used against themselves. A pamphlet, called " Secret Dispatches of General Ignatieff," has been published, and the author appears to think that against Eussia even forged and poisoned weapons are justifiable, for these pretended dispatches, according to his own statement, were ob- tained by Khalil Cherif Pasha by bribing a member of the Eussian Embassy at Vienna to betray his trust; and the author very naively says, "At first sight it would appear improbable that copies of letters emanating from so many different personages should be deposited in any one place ; " and he might have added that, if such a scoundrel was found in the Eussian Embassy, he would be pretty sure to supply any number of forged dispatches seasoned to the taste of his employers so long as money was forth- coming ; but the probability is that these dispatches were forged, like the Will of Peter the Great, by Khalil Pasha himself, and if he was capable of bribing one of the Eussian Embassy, he was equally capable of causing dispatches to be forged. These secret dispatches chiefly relate to ecclesiastical squabbles between the Orthodox and Bulgarian Churches ; and as another sample of the way in which the Christians are treated in Turkey I find at page 39, "The Exarch (in December, 1874), at the Grand Vizier's re- 60 A DEFENCE OP RUSSIA. quest, waited on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to inform him of the wishes of the Bulgarian community. . . . Instead of listening to the explanation and wishes of the venerable prelate, the Ottoman Minister very haughtily stated that, the relations be- tween the Orthodox and Bulgarian Churches not being the same as heretofore, the Porte had decided upon cancelling the firman promulgated under Ali." This anonymous pamphleteer, who is apparelitly ashamed to give his name in connection with pretended dispatches obtained by bribery, and who admits that " there is a natural dislike in all honourable minds to use documents that have been surreptitiously obtained," has discovered the following mare's nest, namely, that the enormous sum of 40,110 roubles (or £5,400) was spent by the Moscow Slavic Committee in the second quarter of 1872. I do not know whether the statement of this credulous and unscrupulous pamphleteer is correct, but Mr. Mackenzie Wallace tells us that the accounts of this Committee are published periodically, and that copies are freely given to foreigners. How- ever, even on the new Junius's own showing, about £2,900 was for the support of 21G agents of this Committee at the Universities and special schools; £1,750 for ordinary expenditure of 65 per- manent agents in Slav provinces of Austria as well as Turkey ; and there remains the colossal sum of £750 per quarter, or £3,000 a year, called extraordinary expenditure of agents in Bohemia, Gallicia, and Hungarian Russia (?) as well as Bulgaria ; and supposing two-thirds of this amount was spent in bribing, inciting, and arming the 3,732,300 Slavs in Turkey, it would give the magnificent, irresistible, and tempting sum of about half a farthing per head per annum, whilst the cost of a military substi- tute in France used to be from £100 and upwards in time of peace, and half a farthing would be a slender remuneration for the risk of being tortured and executed as a traitor. After Khalil's conduct in obtaining, or pretending to obtain, Eussian dispatches by bribery, the reader will not be at all surprised to learn by Tnbth, of July 26th, that he is now recalled from being Turkish Ambassador at Paris, because he has been posted as a defaulter at four clubs for 40,000 francs, which he has HISTORY OF PEESENT PHASE OF THE EASTERN QTJESTION. 61 lost but cannot pay. For more than a month he shrank from appearing in the Bois and on the Boulevards. He is, however, no worse than the average of Pashas, as will appear by another quotation from Truth: — "Eedif must needs make a few more thousands out of the bread to be supplied to the devoted soldiers of the Ottoman army. Provisions were short in Armenia, and urgent telegrams came for supplies of biscuit. A hundred tons of filth, composed of mill sweepings and chaff full of insects, and utterly rotten, were passed as biscuit by the War Department, and would have been sent and taken credit for as food, but for the timely intervention of the Parliament. The scheme was bloAvn upon, and, from that day, the Sultan began to look closely into details. The result has been the discredit of the man, who has done more in his nine months of power to wreck the hopes of the Empire than even Mahmoud Nedim, the avowed advocate of Russian interests." TrM^/j says:^"Khalil would have it believed that he bought, when he was Turkish Ambassador at Vienna, the dispatches of General Ignatieff, which have appeared in a pamphlet called Les Eesponsibilitis, that has been published here (Oonstantinoi^lej ; but this is a fanfaronade, for the very excellent reason that the dispatches in question were written by the compiler himself. That strong Philo-Turk, Mr. Holmes, the British Consul .(who does not understand the Christian languages), says he met a body of Turkish troops going to attack the insurgents, whom he had left, and who had been assured that they might assemble in safety. He and his colleagues were very indignant at a breach of trust which might have seemed to cast doubt on the good faith of the Consuls themselves. The Herzegovinians complained that the so-called tithes * had been advanced to 12^ per cent., that the taxes had been collected with gross unfairness, that Christians were made to undergo forced labour on the public road,s, that their horses were used for the * A titte is a tenth, and 12J per cent, cannotj be a tenth, any more than a quarter can he made a half. 62 A DEFENCE OF RUSSIA. service of the army, that the Agas were tyrannical, the courts corrupt, and property, life, and honour insecure; and actually these misguided peasants thought it a hardship that their evidence should not be receivable in a Court of Justice against a Mussul- man. The Christians added that they would die rather than suffer such slavery. Now Servir Pasha, the Turkish Commissioner, could not and did not deny any of these charges, but promised various reforms, . such as that the MedjHs, or local councils, should be reorganised, the tithes should be levied on the land instead of on the growing crops, the taxes on animals should be reformed, administrative de- crees and legal judgments should be translated into the Slav lan- guage, the requisition of horses should be abolished, and a committee of Turks, Greeks, and Catholics should be appointed to see that the new rules were put in force. On December 13th, the princi- ples of these reforms were set forth by an Imperial firman. Thus, as Musurus Pasha said, " the edifice of which the founda- tion was laid by the firman of G-ulhani in 1839, and the body completed by the Hatti Humayoun of 1856, was now crowned and made perfect by the second firman." It appears then, by the statement of Musurus, that it took no less than seventeen years to erect the structure of imaginary justice to the Rayahs, but after this long period it was so rotten and insufScient that, instead of being crowned, it was rebuilt in 1875. The Turkish promises, like pie crust, are only made to be broken, and as the Imperial hatts have no crowns, the promises poured in at one end pass in- stantly out at the other. Hypocritical and false as Turkish promises are, the poor Christians often cannot even obtain this counterfeit coin when they complain of the grinding oppression under which they groan, and experience has now taught them that they are as utterly valueless as Bank of Elegance notes. The Turkish jiromises remind me of a story of a person who went to Yorkshire to buy a valuable horse, and bribed the groom to tell him its faults, the first of which was, that when he was turned loose in a field he was very hard to catch ; but it was only with great pressure that the groom was induced to tell the second HISTORY OF PKESENT PHASE OF TUE EASTERN QTJESTIOlf. 63 and fatal fault, " when he is caugM lie is good for notliing," which is exactly the state of the case as to Turkish promises. After the labours of centuries we do not yet think our British institu- tions faultless, and are continually reforming them ; in fact, Montesquieu once said, " The English Constitution is the best in the world, nevertheless it is detestable ; '' but the Turks, cleverer than ourselves, have in 1875, according to their view, constructed the only charter in the world which is absolutely " perfect." The Christians of Turkey probably recollected that the edifice of Turkish perfidy was really " crowned and made perfect " so far back as 1826, by which the protectorate of Eussia over the Chris- tians was confirmed, when, on the occasion of the signature of the treaty of Akerman, the Sultan sent a circular to his agents, to say that, when he had signed the treaty, he had not the slightest inten- tion of observing it, and if a solemn treaty with a powerful nation like Eussia could be thus treated, how much less would a Sultan hesitate to break faith with the Eayahs, the Giaours, the infidel dogs of Christians. On December 30th, 1875, the famous Andrassy Note was first made known to our Government, in a dispatch from the Austrian Chancellor to Count Beust. The Andrassy Note proposed that the revenue derived in Bosnia and Herzegovina from indirect taxation should be applied as before to the general purposes of the Ottoman Empire, while the income obtained from direct taxation should be spent on the province itself; complete re- ligious liberty should be established ; the system of farming the taxes abolished; and the execution of these reforms should be placed under the care of a special commission, half the members of which should be Mussulmans and half Christians. Count Andrassy also showed that much of the ill-feeling was caused by the fact that the Mahometans owned most of the soil and the Christians tilled it. Hence he urged that the State should sell portions of its waste lands to the peasantry on easy terms. After considerable hesitation the English Government, who are Turcicis- Turciores, at the instance of the Turkish Government, gave a general but feeble support to the Andrassy Note, and the Porte 64 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA, accepted all tlie demands save the one defining the purposes to ■wliicli the indirect and the direct taxes of the revolted provinces should be applied. It promised, however, that a certain amount, which might be a nominal sum, in the Turkish depreciated paper, should be set apart for local wants. The Philo-Turks say that, though the Christians in Turkey may be occasionally massacred, it is not on religious grounds, and that no country is more tolerant than Turkey ; bat Count Andrassy says in his famous Note, " This fanatical hatred and this distrust must be attributed to the neighbourhood of peoples of the same race, enjoying in their plenitude that religious liberty of which the Christians of Herzegovina and Bosnia see themselves de- prived — the construction of edifices devoted to religious worship and teaching, and the use of bells. The constitution of religious communities find themselves still subjected to obstacles which appear to the Christians as so many inveterate souvenirs of the war of conquest. . . . Eestricted as they are, the concessions in question have always been insufficient to content the Christians. . . . In fact, the testimony of Christians against Mussulmans is received by the tribunals of Constantinople and of the greater part of the other large towns, but in some distant provinces, such as Herzegovina and Bosnia, the judges refuse to admit its validity. . . . In spite of formal declarations, the system of farming the revenue is still in force in its full extent." It seems strange that we alone, of all nations of the world, should have hesitated to accept the Andrassy Note, and should be so very much more jealous of the independence of the Sultan than he is himself. It shows, too, how grinding and intolerant are the Turks, that, to keep the Christians in poverty, misery, and sub- jection, they will not even sell them the waste lands, and prefer losing revenue to aUowmg the Christians the bare possibility of prosperity. The next event was the assassination by the Turks of Salonica, in their own mosque, of the French and German Consuls, for not even that is sacred to these barbarians. Upon this, France and Germany sent joint squadrons to Salonica, where the funerals of the HISTOBY or PHESENT PHASE OF THE EASTEEN QXJE&TION. 65 Consuls were celebrated witli great pomp, large bodies of French and German soldiers, in defiance of the obsolete principle of Turkish independence, patrolling the streets, and one or two of the culprits, after trial, were executed. The French and Germans, however, forgot to demand a heavy pecuniary compensation for the families of the victims, which the Turks would have felt more than the execution of one or two obscure culprits. We come now to the Bulgarian insurrection, which broke out on April 20th, 1 875, caused by the same tyranny, cruelty, and oppression as in the case of Herzegovina and Bosnia. In fact, it is as impossible for the Turk to act justly as it is for the tiger to change his skin or the leopard his spots. The insurrection was at first suppressed, and the various Turkish Commissioners, in their report, affirmed that, though at Avrat Alan the insurgents seized about one hundred Mussulmans of all ranks, and " killed them one by one with the utmost refinement of cruelty," yet, when those very rebels capitulated, they did not lose a single man, and " have not had to suffer any bad treatment on the part of the soldiers.'' The Bulgarians, according to these Commissioners, set fire to their own villages as well as to those of their Mussulman neighbours. The Turkish troops, in their measures of repression, only slew 1,836 Bulgarians. The rebels killed in all 530 Mussul- mans. Upon the restoration of order, and the return of those insurgents who were not detained as prisoners to their homes, the Mussulmans gave back to their Christian friends the property of the latter, which they had saved from the burning villages. Such was the interesting result of the historical amity in which, according to the Commissioners, the Bulgarians had lived for centuries with their Moslem compatriots, " under the cegis of the laws and the paternal protection of the Government.'' This is certainly a touching picture of the lion lying down with the lamb, but somewhat too good to be true. Credat Judaus Apelles. A series of admirable letters in the Daily Neu-s now informed the world of the foul series of bestial and infamous atrocities perpetrated by these Turldsh fiends, and of which the Turkish Commissioners had just given this false and fraudulent account ; CG A DEEENCC OF ECSSIA. and on September 6fcli, Mr. Gladstone, to liis eternal lionour, published, bis first pampHet on the subject, which excited the horror and execration against barbarous, incorrigible, and cruel Turkey, not only of England and Europe, but of the whole world. Mr. Baring soon after published his report, in which he states that "no fewer tJian 12,000 persons perished in the Saiidjdk of Fliilippopolis alone," while he believed that the whole number of Mussulmans killed by the Christians in this formidable rebellion was only 163; so that, instead of the old law of retaliation, which claims a life for a life, the Turks consider about eighty Christian lives equivalent to that of one Moslem. Probably a very much larger number than 12,000 perished in the Sandjak of Philip- popolis alone, as Mr. Baring is almost as rabid a Turcophile as Sir H. Elliott, and in his reports is continually evincing his reluc- tance to believe the Christians, and his credulity as to Turkish statements. Most likely from 20,000 to 30,000 were massacred throughout the disturbed provinces, as the Sandjak of Philip- popoHs does not probably include more than a tenth of the popu- lation of the disturbed provinces. As to Batak, Mr. Baring says, " On May 9th, the inhabitants, seeing that things were going badly with them, and that no aid came from without, had a parley with Achmet Aga, who solemnly swore that, if they only gave up their arms, not a hair of their heads should be touched. . . The villagers believed Achmet's oath and surrendered their arms, but this demand was followed by one for all the money in the village, which, of course, had also to be acceded to. No sooner was the money given up, than tlics Bashi-Bazouks set upon the people and slaughtered them like sheej). A large number of people, probably about 1,000 or 1,200, took refuge in the church and churchyard, the latter being surrounded by a wall. The church itself is a solid building, and resisted all the attempts of the Bashi-Bazouks to burn it from the outside ; they consequently fired in through the windows, and, getting upon the roof, tore off the tiles and threw burning pieces of wood and rags dipped in petroleum among the mass of unhappy human beings inside. At last the door was forced in, the massacre com- HISTORY OF PEESENT PHASE OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 67 pleted, and the inside of the church burnt. . . The spectacle which the church and churchyard presented must he seen to be described. Hardly a corpse had been buried. . . I visited this valley of the shadow of death on July 31st, more than two months and a half after the massacre, but stUl the stench was so ■overpowering that one could hardly force one's way into the ■churchyard. In the streets at every step lay human remains rotting and sweltering in the summer sun. . . . From the remains of female wearing apparel scattered about, it is plain that many of the persons here massacred were women. It is to be feared also that some of the richer villagers were subjected to cruel tortures before being put to death, in hopes that they would reveal the existence of hidden treasure. Thus Petro Triandaphyllos and Pope Necio were roasted, and Stoyan Stoychoff had his ears, nose, hands, and feet cut off." Mr. Baring adds the all-impor- tant fact that " Achmet Aga had received for this exploit the order of the Medjidie, and he has since been condemned to death by a majority of five to one of even a Turkish tribunal, but never €xecuted." It is evident that Mr. Baring has considerably understated the real horrors of the Turkish atrocities, as will appear from con- trasting his account with that of Mr. Schuyler, the American Consul, which I here subjoin ; but tliis is not surprising, as Mr. Baring took with him M. Guarracino, his father-in-law, as Turkish interpreter, upon which General Ignatieff said it was an indication that the inquiry would not be a thorough one, and that M. Guan-acino was hostile to him. Mr. Schuyler states :— " The inhabitants of some villages were massacred after ex- hibitions of the most ferocious cruelty, and the violation not only of women and girls, hit even of persons of the other sex. The crimes were committed by the regular troops as well as the Bashi-Bazouks. It is very difficult to estimate the number of Bulgarians who were killed during the few days that these disturbances lasted, but I am inclined to put 15,000 as the lowest for the districts I have iiamed. In one (village), an old man teas violated on the altar, and afterwards hurnt alive. . . From F 2 68 A DErENCE OF ETJSSIA. the numerous statements made to me hardly a woman in the towa escaped violation and brutal treatment. The ruffians attacked children of eight, and old women of eighty, sparing neither age nor sex. Old men had their eyes torn out and their limbs cut off, and were' thus left to die unless some more charitably disposed person gave them the final thrust. Pregnant women were ripped open and the unborn babes carried triumphantly on the points of bayonets and sabres, while little children were made to bear the dripping heads of their comrades. This scene of rapine, lust, and murder was continued for three days, when the survivors were made to bury the bodies of the dead. The perpetrators of these atrocities were chiefly regular troops commanded by Fasli Pasha. Of the 8,000 inhabitants of Batak, not 2,000 are known to survive. Pully 5,000 perished here. . . . There was a house, the floor of which was white with the ashes and charred bones of thirty persons burnt alive. Here was the spot where a village notable was spitted on a pike and then roasted. Here the schoolhouse, where 200 women and children who had taken refuge there were burnt aUve. . . . I am unable to find that the Bulgarians committed any atrocities that deserve the name. I have vainly tried to obtain from the Turkish officals a list of such outrages, but have heard nothing but vaguo statements. No Turldsh women or children were killed in cold blood ; no Mussulman women were violated ; no Mussulmans were tortured ; no purely Turkish village was attacked or burnt ; no Mussulman's house was pillaged ; no mosque was desecrated or destroyed. The report of the Turkish Special Commissioner may be characterised as a tissue of falsehoods. In the Report of the extraordinaryTurkish tribunal, it is said that forty-nine villages, Mussulman and Christian, with 11,453 houses, were burnt by the insurgents ! " Some of the persons accused of rebellion — or rather of resisting the assassination of their relatives, the violation of their women, and the robbery of their property — were put upon their trial at Philippopolis ; and so grinding is the oppression of the Moslem, that Mr. Baring says, as to the Special Commission, " When before HISTORY OF PRESENT PHASE OF THE EASTERN QXJESTION. 69 the latter they were defended hy a Christian, but on the only occasion I attended the court it was hard to say whether the pri- soners or their counsel displayed the most abject signs of terror." He proceeds to say, " The manner in which the rising was suppressed was inhuman in the last degree, fifty innocent persons suffering for every guilty one." In the case of military revolts, the ancient Romans sometimes had recourse to a practice which, even in those days, was thought cruel and severe, namely, decimation ; but, whereas the most bloodthirsty Consul would have contented himself with twenty out of 200 mutineers, the Turks require 10,000 innocent persons for 200 rebels, or fifty times as many. On May 11th, 1876, Prince Goitschakoflf and Count Andrassy met Prince Bismarck in Berlin, and then was framed the Berlin Memorandum. In brief and peremptory words it stated that, as the Sultan had given the Powers a pledge to execute the reforms specified in the Andrassy Note, he had at the' same time given them a moral right to insist that he should keep his word. The Christians could not trust the promises of the Turks. "It is most essential, therefore,'' said the Note, " to establish certain guarantees of a nature to ensure beyond doubt the loyal and full application of the measures agreed upon between the Powers and the Porte." The recommendations of the Berlin Memorandum were — an armistice of two months to afford time for negotiations between the Porte and the Bosnian and Herzegovinian delegates, the following points being taken as the basis of discussion : (1) That materials for the reconstruction of the houses and churches destroyed during the insurrection shall be furnished to the returning refugees, and that their subsistence shall be assured to them until such time as they are in a position to earn their own livelihood. (2) As far as the distribution of relief depends upon the Turkish Commissary, that ofiicial is to consult as to the measures to be taken with the mixed Commission men- tioned in the Note of December 30th, so as to guarantee the faithful application of the reforms, and to control their execution — the Commission to consist of natives representing the two reli- 7Q A DEFENCE OF KUSSIA. gions of the country, and to be presided over by a Herzegovinia: Christian. (3) To avert collision, advice is to be given to Cor stantinople to concentrate the Turkish troops at points to b agreed upon, at any rate until excitement has subsided. (4) Th Christians to retain their arms as well as the Mussulmans. (S The Consuls or delegates of the Powers to pre,side over the appli cation of thej reforms in general, and of the measures of repatria tion in particular. Lastly came the all-important addition that, i the armistice expired without the objects of the Powers beini attained, " the three Imperial Courts are of opinion that it wil become necessary to reinforce diplomatic action by the sanction o an understanding with a view to those efficacious measures whicl would appear to be demanded in the interest of general peace ti arrest the mischief and prevent its further development." Franc( and Italy agreed to support the Note, and urged the Englisl Government to follow the same course. On May 19 th, howevei Lord Derby intimated to Lord Odo EussoU that the Governmen declined to accept a plan in tlie preparation of which it had not beet consulted, and which it did not believe would succeed. Lor( Derby even refused to press the Porte to grant a two months armistice. Nothing could be more moderate and satisfactory than th Berlin Memorandum, and it will be seen that Lord Derby di( not refuse to support it, as the Government now say, because ii meant coercion, but because their vanity was piqued at not beini consulted in its preparation, and of course no plan which thes Solons had not contrived could possibly succeed. France anc Italy cordially consented to the Berlin Memorandum, and, there fore, did contemplate contingent coercion, whilst our Governmen said they did not agree to the Memorandum ; and thus we weri the first and only nation to introduce discord into the Europeai concert by insisting on playing too many eccentric solos, an( becoming offended at the same supposed neglect which gave m oifence whatever either to France or Italy, though France migh naturally be supposed to be more apt to detect or imagine a sligh from Germany than ourselves ; and why should England tab HISTORY or PllESENT PHASE OF THE EA.STEEN QUESTION. 71 the huff at not being consulted about the preparation of the Berlin Memorandum, when she was not consulted previously about the preparation of the Andrassy Note ? On the 30th of June Servia chivalrously announced that she intended to join her arms to those of Bosnia and Herzegovina to secure the liberation of its kindred Christians from the yoke of the Porte. "Our movement," said Prince Milan, "is purely national. It excludes every element of social revolution and religious fanaticism. We do not carry with us revolution, fire, and destruction, but right, order, and security," The French actually wished that the Powers should join in restraining Servia from going to war,, as if this would not have been an infringement of the phantom independence of Turkey ; but as the other Powers wisely refused, the proposal was dropped, and Sir H. Elliott ex- pressed a fervent wish that the Servians might be defeated. Fighting against such enormous odds, though aided by only about 4,000 Eussian volunteers, according to the reliable authority of Mr. Mackenzie Wallace, the Servians, after gaining some advan- tages, sustained such reverses that on the 24th of July Prince Milan summoned the Consuls of the Powers in Belgrade to the palace and intimated his willingness to accept the intervention of the Powers for the purpose of bringing about a cessation of hos- tilities. On September 1st England proposed that there should be an armistice for a month. The Porte declined to grant an armistice, but had the effrontery to propose peace on the follomng out- rageous terms : (1) That Prince Milan should do homage to the Sultan in Constantinople (whether by kissing his toe or licking the dust upon his feet is not stated) ; that four of the Servian for- tresses should be garrisoned by Turkish troops ; that the number of the Servian fortresses should be limited ; that Servia should pay either an indemnity or a larger tribute ; and that the Porte should have a right to construct and work a railway through the Princi- palities. These demands were declared to be inadmissible by the Powers, who declared in favour of the status quo ante lellum, but the customary amount of foolish arrogance on the part of the 72 A DKFENCE OF EUSSIA, Turks was enhanced by the circumstance that Sultan Murad was insane, and had to be deposed. On September 16th, the Porte agreed to a suspension of hostilities till the 25th, and meantime Prince Milan was pro- claimed King at Deligrad ; nevertheless, Turkey agreed to prolong the truce till October 2nd, but as Servia considered a mere suspen- sion injurious, hostilities were resumed, and, unfortunately, Servia in five days was defeated by overwhelming forces and a superior artillery. Russia then demanded an armistice of a month or six weeks, on which the Porte proposed that which in the preceding month she scornfully refused to grant when humbly solicited by her obsequious friend, England, and eagerly offered an armistice of four times the duration which Russia, its hereditary enemy, de- manded. Russia refused to agree to so long a term, and though our Russophobists pretend that she was afraid 'or unable to go to war, she boldly sent Turkey an ultimatum on October 31st, and the Porte at once ate the leek and surrendered at discretion on this important point. On September 26th, Russia informed England that in its opinion force should be used to stop the war and put an end to Turkish misrule. The Czar proposed that Bulgaria should be occupied by Russian troops, that Bosnia should be occupied by Austrian soldiers, and that the united fleets of the Powers should enter the Bosjihorus. The Czar was willing to abandon the idea of any occupation, " if the naval demonstration were considered sufficient by Her Majesty's Government." On October 3rd, Lord Derby intimated that the Cabinet would propose an armistice of not less than one month, but that it would not support the plan of an armed demonstration. England then, which had considered an armistice of a month sufficient, im- mediately bowed to the superior judgment of Turkey, and accepted the six months' truce, in which she was followed by France, Austria, and Germany ; but Prince Gortscliakoif pointed out that Russia could not ask Servia to accept so long an armistice, because the Principality could not keep its army on the war footing for such a length of time without putting too severe a HISTOBT OF PKESENT PHASE Or THE EASTERN QXTESTION. 73 strain on its resources ; lience Russia insisted that tlie armistice should not exceed six weeks, and in this policy Italj' agreed. It is obvious that, if this proposal of Russia had been accepted by England, all the other Powers would have acquiesced, and the war would have been avoided. An English and French squadron, when England was under a Liberal Grovernment, on the occasion of the massacres in Syria, had successfully used coercion and compelled the reluctant Turks to submit to a French occupation cT the province, and I append the very words which Safvet Pasha made use of on that occasion : " It is owing to the coun- sels of the representatives of the Powers, and the vision held out to us of foreign troops landing on our territories, notwithstanding the refasal which we should have given to the conclusion of the Convention, that we have been reduced to choose the lesser of two evils." It is also notorious that Admiral Duckworth's squadron in 1806, after forcing the Dardanelles, might have captured Constantinople and put an end to the Turkish Empire if he had threatened an immediate attack ; and Austria had in 1853 sent a peremptory ultimatum to Turkey demanding concessions to Montenegro, which was instantly swallowed by the Turks ; so that experience shows that the Porte will always submit to the imperative demands of any one of the great Powers but Russia ; and she only sometimes dares to refuse Russia, because she knows that England has an inveterate prejudice against that country and in her favour. On November 2nd, the Czar, at an interview with the English Ambassador at Livadia, said "he pledged his sacred word and honour in the most earnest and solemn manner, that he had no intention of acquiring Constantinople, and that, if necessity should oblige him to occupy a portion of Bulgaria, it would only be provisionally, and until the peace and safety of the Christian population could be secured." The Czar earnestly requested the Ambassador to do his utmost to dispel the cloud of suspicion and distrust of Russia which had gathered in England. Next day Lord Derby telegraphed to Lord A. Loftus that the Cabinet had received the assurances of His Majesty with the 74 A DEFEKCE OF EUSSIA. greatest satisfaction.. Yet on November 9tli, at the Lord Mayor's banquet, Lord Beaconsfield made a braggadocio threatening and insulting speech respecting Russia, studiously concealing the con- ciliatory assurances of the Czar from the British public. No "wonder the Czar was irritated at such disgraceful and disin- genuous conduct, and at the implication that his most sacred word of honour could not be trusted and that England defied him ; consequently next day, at Moscow, he expressed a hope that the Conference at Constantinople which England had suggested would bring peace, and he added, " Should this, however, not be achieved, and should I see that we cannot obtain such guarantees as are necessary for carrying out what we have a right to demand of the Porte, I am firmly determined to act independently, and I am convinced that in this case the whole of Russia will respond to my summons should I consider it necessary, and should the honour of Eussia require it ; " and the Czar, finding that up to November 21st the English Government had withheld for their own purposes his conciliatory conversation with our Ambassador from the British public and the world, at last succeeded on that evening in extorting its publication. It seems to me clear that Lord Beaconsfield's intemperate and insolent speech at the Guildhall, which necessarily entailed the Czar's declaration at Moscow, was one of the chief causes of the war, for after that declaration was thus provoked by a studied insult and the suppression of a conciliatory conversation, the Czar bound himself, without that amount of delay which might otherwise have been possible, to go to war with Turkey if the Conference failed. The chief instructions to Lord Salisbury for the Conference were '•' that the Porte should simultaneously undertake, in a pro- tocol to be signed at Constantinople with the representatives of the mediating Powers, to grant to Bosnia and Herzegovina a system of local or administratire autonomy ; by which is to be under- stood a system of local institutions which shall give the popula- tion some control over their own local affairs, and guarantees against the exercise of arbitrary authority. There is to he no ques- tion of a tributary state. Guarantees of a similar kind to be also HISTOBT or PRESENT PHASE OP THE EASTERN QtTESTION. 75 provided against maladministration in Bulgaria. . . . These bases have generally been accepted by the other Powers." Lord Stratford had, however, recommended that these provinces should be made into tributary states, but the Government was in that respect even more Turkish than Lord Stratford. To exonerate, however, " the Eltchi," as he is called in Kinglake's work, of the, to him, distressing charge of being on the whole a whit less Turkish even than the Turks, I may quote the following sentence from a speech of his : " Should any aggression be made on the territories or national independence of Turkey, we could not in honour reject the appeal which would doubtless be made to our good faith, even if it were to involve us in hostilities with an aggressive Power, or an aggressive coalition : " so that, according to this " English Sultan,'' we are bound in honour to fight, not only Eussia, but Austria and Prussia, in fact all the powers of the world, if they violated the independence or integrity of Turkey. Four days later Lord Derby wrote another dispatch about the Bul- garian atrocities asking for redress ; but the blood-stained butcher responsible for the worst of the excesses, Chefket Pasha, was stilL at large, and, as it was said, defying the agents of the law to in- terfere with him, as " he had in his pocket the evidence that whatever was done in Bulgaria was simply in compliance with the order of the Government ; " and as he has not even yet been punished, but has been rewarded, and is now in command of the left wing of the Turkish army of Asia, it is as clear as that two and two make four that the Turkish Government ordered the Bul- garian massacres. When Lord Salisbury visited BerUn on his way to Constanti- nople, the Emperor of Germany told him that " the course taken by the Emperor Alexander had been imposed upon him by circum- stances, and that the promises of the Porte could no longer be accepted ; " so that, though the English Government pretend the contrary, it is clear that the Emperor of Germany thoroughly approved of the Moscow declaration, and thought that, if no suffi- cient redress was obtained for the Christians of Turkey at the Con- ference, the Czar was not only entitled but bound to coerce Turkey. 76 A DEFENCE OF ETTESIA. At the meeting of the Conference on December 22nd, Safvet Pasha, with even more than the ordinary amount of Turkish falsehood and audacity, had the assurance to say, as to the Bul- garian massacres, " If the vast scale on which the conspiracy was organised is taken into consideration, along with the numerous means of action of which it was able to dispose, and the circum- stances extraordinarily unfavourable for the Imperial Government in the midst of which it burst forth, one will be astonished that an insurrection which had for its object to convert all the penin- sula of the Balkans into a great field of carnage, could have been suppressed and completely brought to nothing in so short a time, and without there being more sacrifices to deplore." If this out- rageous misrepresentation had been reaUy credited by the ignorant Turks, of course Lord Derby's dispatch of September was an unjustifiable insult, and would have warranted the Porte in going to war with us if it was not withdrawn with an ample apology ; but, fortunately, the ferocious Turk tempers justice with mercy, and (though we are only infidel dogs) will not too severely punish a poor old ally like England merely for an angry dispatch. At Eome the Italian Minister, M. Melegari, told Lord Salisbury that " the action of the Powers ought not to be derived from or limited by the Treaty of Paris, but that their functions were rather those of mediators, deriving their title solely from the events of the war and the acceptance of the Conference by the Porte." M. Melegari stated (30th December, 1876) :— " The Powers should not be Umited in seeking for solutions to the questions which will be submitted to the Qonference by the obligations of the Treaty of Paris, and he cannot admit that the Porte is free to refuse the decisions which the Conference may adopt." As the Turks resisted all concessions, the representatives of the Powers ignominiously attenuated their proposals, and when it was pointed out that some of the propositions wliich the Turks declined were identical with those in the Andrassy Note, both Safvet Pasha and Edhem Pasha declared that they had never even read that Note. So much for the knowledge and intelligence of Turkish ministers. The Conference, however, most obligingly HISTOB.Y OF PRESENT PHASE OF THE KiSTEEN QTJESTIOIf. 77 did not insist that the Turks should even grant the inade- quate concessions of the Andrassy Note. They suggested an occupation of the disturbed provinces by Belgian soldiers, but Belgium refused to send them, and the Porte to receive them. Then it was suggested that the Turkish troops in Bulgaria should be confined to fortified places and certain large towns, and that order should be kept by a National Guard, composed of Christians and Mussulmans, and virtually placed under the command of the Governor-General. These demands were abandoned. The Conference had further claimed that the necessary reforms should be executed by an International Commission, which should have at its command a special gendarmerie, composed partly of Euro- peans and partly of Turks. The military part of that stipulation was also abandoned. Finally, the Conference was content to demand that the first governors of Bosnia and Bulgaria should be appointed with the consent of the Powers, and that the Powers should be allowed to form an International Commission, which should, however, have no military means of executing its own decrees. The Conference might fairly have demanded that the provinces of Bulgaria, Herzegovina, and Bosnia should at least have an autonomy equal to that of the Lebanon, where there is a Christian governor, a local police, and no Turkish troops per- mitted within its bounds. Every suggestion of material gua- rantees had vanished ; yet, on the 18th, the Grand Council of the Porte peremptorily rejected even these slight and utterly inade- quate demands, which were far less irksome to Turkey than those to which she had consented on the occasion of the French occu- pation of Syria, and on many other occasions, and than the terms indicated in the Andrassy Note, to which the Porte not only assented, but pressed reluctant England to adopt ; and on the fol- lowing day Safvet Pasha signified that decision to the final meeting of the Ambassadors ; and on this, as a mark of the displeasure of the Powers, all their Ambassadors were withdrawn from Constan- tinople, but the Turks, according to their wont, pocketed this affront, and did not, as is the invariable practice in civilised coun- tries, withdraw their Ambassadors from the Courts of the PowersJ 78 A DEFENCE OE ETJSSIA. It is obvious that, as the Porte agreed to the Conference, she was bound by its decision, unless, indeed, she could prove that bribery, coercion, or other unfair means had been used to influence it. No lawyer or other man of business in England wUl accept a reference unless the parties bind themselves beforehand to abide by his deci- sion -without appeal, and it was most discreditable and undignified for England to propose or accept a Conference on any other terms. The concessions made by the Powers to Turkish arrogance were ■equally humiliating and useless ; and I think Eussia especially went too far in allowing the conditions to be attenuated to such a degree that they were ludicrously inadequate to the purpose, in deference to the wishes of the Powers, and especially of England. England, however, was the sole cause of the failure of the Conference, by openly, unnecessarily, and ostentatiously proclaim- ing that she would be no party to contingent coercion ; and, even if the English Cabinet thought coercion injudicious, they should have refrained from stating their views on that question till after the Conference. Would any member of the present Cabinet, if lie had a claim against an ifldividual, tell his opponent that if he resisted that claim he would not enforce it ? and, if such conduct would be considered silly in an individual, how much more idiotic and reprehensible is it in a Government 1 It is notorious that Lord Beaconsfield is the heart and soul of the Turkish party in the Cabinet, that he contrived this predetermined fiasco, and it may be said, to quote a familiar text, "Benjamin's* m^ss was five times so great as that of any of the others" in the bungling of the British Cabinet. The Conference hai'ing proved abortive, as every man of sense foresaw, Kussia asked the Powers what they proposed to do, but before they had replied, she invited them to wait for the commu- nication of a Protocol which she was preparing. By that Protocol, Eussia of its own accord (conditionally) agreed to dispense with guarantees for the amelioration of the condition of the Christians for an indefinite period, and to trust to the promises of the Sultan, but it concludes by these words : "If the * Lord Beaconsfield's (Christian or Jewish ?) name is Benjamin. HISTOKT OF PKESENT PHASE OF THE EASTEEN QUESTION. 79 condition of the Christian subjects of the Porte should' iiot be improved in a manner to prevent the return of the complications which periodically disturb the peace of the East, they think it right to declare that such a state of affairs would be incompatible with their interests, and those of Europe in general. In such case they reserve to themselves to consider in common as to the means which they may deem best fitted to secure the well-being of the Christian populations and the interests of the general peace." This judicious Protocol was very willingly signed by the Ambassadors of all the Powers, except Lord Derby, who signed it reluctantly and ungraciously, and who added a declaration which rendered it abortive, and which the other Powers did not agree to sign. In this, again, the English Government showed them- selves more Turkish than the Turks, for the Sultan said to Sir H. Elliott (see despatch, October 7th, 1876), " Let the European Powers give me time to carry out the measures upon which I am determined, and, if at the end of a fixed period I should be found not to have done so, I shall be ready to submit to their dictation ; " whilst the English Ministry would not promise to use coercion at any future period, however remote. Italy, however, made the following declaration : "Italy is only bound by the signature of the Protocol of this day's date, so long as the agreement happily established between all the Powers by the Protocol itself is maintained." The terms of the Protocol are as follows : " Inasmuch as it is solely in the interests of European peace that her Britannic Majesty's Government have consented to sign the Protocol proposed by that of Eussia, it is understood beforehand that in the event of the object proposed not being attained, namely, reciprocal disarmament on the part of Eussia and Turkey, and peace between them, the Protocol in question shall be considered null and void ; " and on the same day, 31st March, 1877, the Ambassadors of all the Powers being present, Eussia made the following declaration : " If peace with Montenegro is concluded, and the Porte accepts the advice of Europe, and shows itself ready to replace its forces on a peace footing, and seriously to undertake the reforms mentioned in the 80 A DEPENCE OP RUSSIA. Protocol, let it send to St. Petersburg a Special Envoy to treat of disarmament, to which his Majesty the Emperor would also consent. If massacres similar to those which have occurred in Bulgaria take place, this would necessarily put a stop to the measures of demobilization." It has been objected to the Russian declaration that it was derogatory to the Porte to send an Envoy to St. Petersburg to treat about disarmament, but as Eussia had allowed the Con- ference to take place at Constantinople, where, according to a member of the Grand Council, the Russian Ambassador had been obliged to leave in consequence of the glorious answer of Turkey to the " demands of the whole lot " of the Powers, it was manifestly impossible for Russia to risk being exposed to that indignity a second time, and it was, besides, the turn of St. Petersburg to be the place for this second negotiation ; and so little did the Turks consider sending an Ambassador to Russia to treat for disarmament derogatory, that Musurus Pasha told Lord Derby he had telegraphed to Constantinople strongly urging the expediency of this step. Thus England again broke away from the European concert, and no Power intimated its disapproval of the Russian declaration. Though the Protocol was signed on the 31st of March, yet on the 4th of April, Russia was obliged to complain that England delayed to join in its presentation to the Porte, although the armistice had only another week to run. Lord Derby, on the 5th of April, in a dispatch to Mr. Jocelyn, committed himself to the following opinion, which is totally at variance with what he says in his last unjust and insulting dispatch to Prince Gortschakoff : " Her Majesty's Government consider that the Protocol, talcen in conjunction toith the declaration made on behalf of Bussia by Count Schouvaloflf, gives an oppor- tunity for the arrangement of a mutual disannament by Russia and Turkey, of which the latter ought on every account to avail herself." Before the Porte received the Protocol, Mr. Jocelyn wrote a dispatch, on the 3rd of April, to Lord Derby, which shows that HISTOUT OF PRESENT PHASE OF THE EASIEEBT QTTESTIO:?. 81 tlie mutual demobilization on which. England so strenuously insisted would have been an unwise and dangerous measure : " It has evidently come to the knowledge of the Porte that some clause exists in the Protocol, or in the Declaration, menacing cessation of the disarmament of Eussia in presence of any dis- turbance involving outrage upon Christians, and they cannot conceal from themselves the fact that such acts of violence are not unlikely to occur during the demobilization of their own iirmy. They are well aware that thousands of men, to whom from six to thirty-three months' arrears of pay will remain due — many of them called under arms at a cruel sacrifice to their domestic happiness and their agricultural prospects — will be sent home starving and uncared for, and will, moreover, be certain to come into contact with portions of the Christian populations oil the way to their homes. It is not difficult to see what may be the deplorable consequences of such a state of things." We have next the dispatch of Lord Derby to Mr. Jooelyn, on the 9 th of April, in which he says that the Turkish Ambassador had informed him "that the Porte felt that the contents of the Protocol were derogatory to the Sultan's dignity and independence, and that, rather than accede to its provisions, it would be better for Turkey to face the alternative of war, even of an unsuccessful war, resulting in the loss of one or two provinces." Lord Derby observed in reply, that "so far from the question being one merely of the loss of a province or two, it seemed to him to be a matter for apprehension whether at the close of the conflict the Ottoman Empire would still be in exist- ence." From this it seems logically to flow that the Government will not go to war with Eussia for Constantinople, or any other portion of the Ottoman dominion, to retain the sovereignty of the Turks, unless, indeed, certain portions in which British interests are supposed to be involved are annexed by Eussia, instead of being made independent or handed over to other Powers, such as the kingdom of Greece. " As Musurus Pasha spoke of the Turks retiring into Asia, if compelled, and maintaining there their independence of rule G 82 A DEPENCB OF RUSSIA. I asked Mm whether he meant seriously to contend that it would he better, in the interests of the Porte, that the Turks should be driven out of Europe than that the Sultan's Government should tacitly acquiesce in a document to which they were not required or requested to give any formal and express assent, which had been drawn up and signed without their being consulted, for which, therefore, they were in no way responsible, and which, after all, called upon the Porte, as I understood its tenor, to do no more than it had either already expressed itself ready to do, or than it might be presumed to be willing to do, with a view to the well- being and security of Turkey.'' Musurus Pasha replied that " the Protocol was a virtual abrogation of the 9th article of the Treaty of Paris ; that to allow it to pass in silence would, in the opinion of the Porte, be to surrender all that Turkey had fought for in re- gard to the Sultan's freedom from foreign intervention, and that this was a humiliation to which his Government would not at any risk submit." There is no doubt that the Protocol was an infrac- tion of the Treaty of Paris, but so was the September dispatch, and so was the action of the French and German Governments in landing a force at Salonica on the occasion of the murder of their Consuls ; so that, when Lord Derby taxes Russia with violating the Treaty of Paris, he should recollect that we were the first to break it on the occasion of the coercion used by us in the case of the Syrian massacres, and that people in glass houses should not throw stones. On April 6th, Prince Gortschakoff told the English Ambassa- dor that Eussia did not require Turkey to accept the Protocol, but the conditions of the Declaration, and he expressed his regret that England had communicated her declaration to the Porte, as it would encourage its resistance to the Protocol and the Eussian Declaration. The communication of the English Declaration was another illustration of the imbecility of the conduct of the Govern- ment, and made the rejection of the Protocol and Eussian Decla- ration absolutely certain ; it was like playing a game of ecarte with your own cards faced whilst your adversary's cards are con- cealed. The Eussian Minister told Lord A. Loftus that the HISTOP.Y OF PEESENT PHASE OP THE EASTEBN QTJESTION. 83 mobilization cost his country at tlie rate of upwards of £40,000,000 a year, and it was all very well for us to talk of delay who are much richer and yet had not this grievous burden ; and consequently Eussia's patience at this rate for the preceding six months, to meet England's wishes, must have cost about £20,000,000, or as much as the whole sum which we are so proud of having given to emancipate the negroes in the West Indies. Prince Gortschakoff further said that Turkey must give a favourable decision by the 13th of April, or else Eussia would de- clare war ; but if Lord Derby, considered that, if Eussia carried out this threat, she would violate the Treaty of Paris, break up the European concert, and do injustice to Turkey by not giving her time for those reforms in which the English Government had previously said they had no faith — if they had recanted that opinion, why did he not at once warn Eussia, instead of waiting till Eussia had taken the irrevocable step of declaring war and then writing her an insulting and unjust dispatch t On AprO. 12th, Lord Derby received the Turkish communica- tion, definitely refusing to submit to the Protocol or Eussian Declaration, and much of which I have already related as having passed between Lord Derby and Musurus Pasha. The Turks said, " The Imperial Government is prepared to replace its armies on a peace footing as soon as it sees that the Russian Govern- ment is taking measures of a similar character ; " so that Turkey actually required that, instead of the simultaneous disarmament proposed by England, Eussia should disarm first, which was obviously ridiculous and unfair. The dispatch proceeds to say that Turkey " believes that Europe is convinced that the dis- orders which have disturbed the tranquillity of the provinces were due to external pressure, that the Imperial Government cannot be held responsible for them, and that, consequently, the Eussian Government would not be justified in making the demo- bilization of its armies depend on such contingencies." Now, this was a deliberate falsehood, for Safvet Pasha, who framed the dispatch, had heard the Ambassadors of all the Powers lay G 2 8-1 A DEFENCE OF ETJSSIA. the blame of the massacres oa the Turkish Government, and even at his own packed Grand Council, Eifaat Bey said, " It should be remembered that public opinion is against us in all Europe ; " and it was absurd to suppose that, if a general massacre of the Chris- tians commenced, Eussia would begin or continue to demobilize. In a succeeding sentence the dispatch does not say whether Tur- key would or would not send an Ambassador to St. Petersburg, but has recourse to equivocation, and coolly suggests that Eussia should telegraph to direct a disarmament without arranging any conditions with Turkey, or obtaining any pledge of simultaneous disarmament. In a subsequent passage it is said that the last part of the Protocol, which I have already quoted, " must provoke the legitimate protestations of the Imperial Government, and encounter its most formal opposition. Turkey, as an indepen- dent State, cannot submit to be placed under any surveillance, whether collective or not. The Treaty of Paris explicitly declared the principle of non-intervention ; that Treaty which binds the other high contracting parties as well, cannot be abolished by a Protocol in which Turkey has taken no part." The Turks seem to hold that all clauses which are advantasreous to them are eter- nally binding, whilst they may violate those they do not like with impunity, and without superseding the Treaty. Instead of iDerforming its promises of justice to the Christians, Turkey has indulged itself with frequent periodical battues, in which thousands of Christians have been massacred, and the Treaty of Paris, as regards Turkey, is waste paper. On the same day Lord Derby wrote to Mr. Jocelyn to say that he had received the Turldsh dispatch, and regretted the view which the Porte took of the Protocol and Declarations, but that it was unnecessarj'' to discuss a step "adopted by the Porte after full consideration, and which could not now be retraced. I said, however, that it did not seem to me clear . . . whether the Porte would or would not consent to send an Ambassador to St. Petersburg to treat on the question of mutual disai-mament. . . . Musurus Pasha stated that his Government were not prepared to adopt any such measure, and he further expressed an opinion that HISTORY OP PRESENT PHASE OP THE EASTERN QUESTION. 85 matters could not be settled in a satisfactory manner unless the Powers consented to annul the Protocol ; " and the force of arro- gance could no further go than to suppose that all the Powers of Europe, at the bidding of barbarous, ignorant, and stupid Turkey, would withdraw a document which they had all deliberately signed. Lord Derby then said, " The divergence between the views of our two Governments appeared so wide as to render discussion useless, and I said I did not see what further steps Her Majesty's Government could take to avert a war which appeared to have become inevitable." But, if he saw it was inevitable, how came he to express surprise and concern in the insulting dispatch which he wrote to Prince Gortschakoff on the declaration of war ? and how could it be necessary for England to write such a dispatch or any dispatch at all, when none of the other Powers thought it necessary to do so 1 It is thus abundantly clear that it was the vacillating conduct of England that is the chief cause of the present war between Russia and Turkey. The next step in their negotiations was the dispatch of Prince Gortschakoff of April 7th, 1877, the most important passages of which are as follows : — " The Protocol signed in London on the 1 9th March of this year was the last expression of the' collective will of Europe. The Imperial Cabinet had suggested it as a supreme effort of conciliation. . . . The Forte has just answered by a fresh refusal. This eventuality had not been contemplated ly the Protocol of London. . . . This document had confined itself to stipulating that, in case the great Powers were deceived in their hope of seeing the Porte energetically apply the measures destined to afford to the condition of the Christian population the improve- ment unanimously called for as indispensable to the tranquillity of Europe, they reserved to themselves to consider in common as to the means which they might deem best fitted to secure the well- being of those populations and the interest of the general peace. Thus, the Cabinet had foreseen the case of the Porte not fulfilling the promises it might have made, but not that of its rejecting the demands of Europe. . . , . The refusal of the Porte, and the reason on 86 A DEFENCE OE ETTSSIA. which it is founded, leaye no hope of deference on its part to the ■wishes and counsels of Europe, and no guarantee for the application of the reforms suggested for the improvement of the Christian population. . . , In these circumstances evert/ chance is closed for efforts of conciliation. There remains no alternative but to allow the state of things to continue which the Powers have declared incompatible with their interests and those of Europe in general, or else to seek to obtain by coercion what the unanimous efforts of the Cabinet have not succeeded in obtaining from the Porte by persuasion. Our august Master has resolved to undertake this work. In assuming this taslc, our august Master fulfils a duty im- posed upon Mm in the interest of Russia, whose peaceful development is hindered hy this permanent disturbance in the East. His Imperial Majesty has the conviction that he responds at the same time to the sentiments and interests of Europe." Lord Derby answered on May 1st : — " The Protocol . . . required from the Sultan no fresh guarantees for the reform of his administration. . . . Her Majesty's Government cannot, therefore, admit .... that the answer of the Porte removed all hope of deference on its part to the wishes and advice of Europe, and all security for the application of the suggested reforms. . . . They have not concealed their feeling that the presence of large Russian forces on the frontiers of Turkey, menacing its safety, rendered disarma- ment impossible, and exciting a feeling of apprehension and fanaticism among the Mussulman population, constituted a natural obstacle to internal purification and reform. They cannot believe that the continuance of these armies on Turkish soil will alleviate the difficulty or improve the condition of the Christian population In the Conference of London in 1871 .... Russia signed a declaration affirming it to be an essential principle of the law of nations that no Power can liberate itself from the eogagement of a Treaty, nor nullify the stipulations thereof, unless with the consent of the co-treating parties by means of an amicable arrangement. In taking action against Turkey on his own part, and having HISTOEY OF PRESENT PHASE OF THE EASTEEN QUESTION'. 87 recourse to arms without further consultation ■with, his allies, the Emperor of Eussia has separated himself from the European con- cert hitherto maintained, and has at the^ame time departed from the rule to which he himself had solemnly recorded his consent. It is impossible to foresee the consequence of such an act, and the Government feel bound to state, iu a manner equally formal and public, that the decision of the Russian Grovernment is not one which can have their concurrence or approval." This dispatch of Prince Gorfcschakoff's is as able, logical, and ■courteous as that of Lord Derby is confused, inconsistent, and insulting. Eussia points out that the refusal of the Protocol was an eventuality which none of the Powers had foreseen, and this fact, ■even if it stood alone, clearly stamps the action of the Porte with the emphatic condemnation of Europe j since, if it was wrong to break promises which they expected the Porte to make of doing justice to the Christians, it was still worse to refuse even to promise justice to them ; and while most probably they would, ■with their usual bad faith, have broken these promises, it is quite certain that they would not be better than their word, and fulfil •duties that they had not even promised to perform. It is quite •evident that the other Powers of Europe agree with Prince Gort- schakoff that Eussia was compelled, both in the interests of the Christians of Turkey and for her own protection, not to delay any longer in going to war, as silence gives consent ; and not one of the other Powers has even yet followed the pernicious example of England by sending any reply whatever to such self-evident pro- positions, still less by sending an insulting, or even a cold, reserved, or doubtful answer. Many of even their own most consistent followers strongly dis- •approve of Lord Derby's dispatch; for instance, the Duke of Eutland, who expressed his regret at the strong terms in which the dispatch of 1st of May was drawn up. "He thought it most important that this country should be acting in concert with the .rest of Europe for the maintenance of a strict neutrality, but he understood that the document he referred to had created the 88 A DEFENCE OP RUSSIA. greatest consternation in foreign countries. It blamed Eussia for breaking the Treaty of 1856. But he denied that the statement was correct, for at the conference, and during the drawing up of the protocol afterwards, Eussia went to the utmost extent possible to meet the wishes of the Powers, and he thought therefore that Eussia was justified in saying that she would fulfil the duties imposed by the Treaty of Paris. He added that the Government ought to be grateful to Mr. Gladstone for the part he took in telling them he knew the feeling of the country on the subject." Government say that if they had not answered this dispatch then, silence would have implied consent, therefore it conclusively follows that the silence of all the other powers implies their full assent. Besides the duty imposed specially on Eussia of protecting its co-religionists and fellow Slavonians, Prince Gortschakoff points out that the war is also necessary for the interest of Eussia, whose peaceful development is hindered by the permanent disturbances in the East. La Eochefoucauld cynically said that few things give us so much pleasure as the misfortunes of our best friends, and naturally the Philo-Turks in the Cabinet still more rejoice in the evils sustained by their hated enemies, the Eussians. Our rival's house is on fire, but we bear it with exemplary philosophy. Lord Derby practically says England is in no hurry, and is willing to wait an indefinite time for justice to the Christians and the pacification of the East of Europe, which she knows by the past twenty years' experience will not, and cannot, take place without coercion, since equal justice to the Christians, as Freeman points out, is contrary to the Mussulman religion. It is true that England said, at the Conference, that the Eussian army was the only hope of the Powers obtaining satisfactory guarantees. We now eat our words, and say the contrary, namely, " that the presence of large Eussian forces on the frontiers of Turkey, menacing its safety, rendered disarmament impossible; " yet we made this impossible condition a sine qud non for our adhering to the Protocol. The force of inconsistency and absurdity could surely go no further. Lord Derby cannot believe that " the HISTORY OF PRESENT PBASB OF THE EASTERN QTTESTION. 89 entrance of the Russian armies on Turkish soil will alleviate the difficulty or improve the condition of the Christian population." The scepticism of Lord Derby is, perhaps, even more absurd than his credulity, for every sane man must see that when the Russian armies arrive in Bulgaria and the other oppressed districts, the Christians will no longer have anything to fear; and as Russia left behind her after the Crimea the liberties of the Principalities, in spite of the English policy of subjecting them to Turkey, she will certainly not be less magnanimous to the other Christian populations of Turkey. Suppose Catholic and French-speaking Belgium was still oppressed by Protestant and Dutch-speaking Holland, and was in continual insurrection, would France tolerate an insulting dispatch from Russia, accusing her of violating treaties, breaking up the European concert, and disregarding its own solemn promises, if, after two years' patience, the other Powers declined to interfere, and she, therefore, went to war with Holland to protect her co- religionists the kindred people of Belgium? Besides, Lord Derby said this year that treaties were no longer binding when circumstances had changed ; and does he now mean to say that there has been no change in the circumstances since the Treaty of Paris, when he has so oftentimes said the contrary 1 Lord Derby had expressly told Turkey, as I have already shown, that if she did not accept the Protocol it was certain that Russia would go to war ; and yet he affects surprise that she has done the very thing which he foretold. If, in the meantime, this weathercock or chameleon of a Foreign Secretary had changed his. mind, why did he not warn Russia before the declaration of war that, if she did attack Turkey, he would, after all, on re-considera- tion, consider it a violation of treaties and a culpable departure from the European concert, in which case possibly Russia might have waited to obtain a decision of the majority of the Powers on this point, when I have no doubt whatever that she would have been adjudged to be in the right and England in the wrong. That the English public may judge how the dispatch of Lord Derby is viewed in Russia, and that you cannot insult a great 90 A DEFENCE OF RUSSIA. nation -vrith impunity, I append the following extract from a long article in the Grajdavine of St. Petersburg : — "After shedding our blood for the Slavonians, we are ex- pected, no matter whether victors or vanquished, to subordinate ourselves to the London and A^enna governments. ... In a word, when the Eussian soldier has served long enough as food for the Turkish cannon, peace may be concluded on the terms of the disgraceful Constantinople Conference, a Conference which, as we know from the confessions of European diplomacy, was England's way of befooling Russia. ... If anything is to be done in the way of improving the condition of the Slav in Turkey, it is to be done by England. Having committed the signal mis- take of declaring war, Russia, it would seem, ought to apologise to England, and to stop operations the moment England, Austria, and Turkey demand it. . . . During the war we are to act as fools and jesters for the entertainment of the Anglo- Austrians ; after the war to behave as cowards and poltroons. . . . Is it for this that Russia has existed this thousand years 1 . . . The contempt for our Russian aspirations expressed in the Andrassy Memoran- dum, the Berlin Protocol, the Constantinople Conference, and the London Protocol, and last, not least, in the brutality of England's final note to this government — a brutality which took all the world by surprise— all this is nothing in comparison to the scorn cast upon us at a moment of enthusiastic devotion to the" sacred work in hand. There is no exaggeration in this. Even after the Note of the London to the St. Petersburg cabinet' — a Note the scornful tone of which offended not only the Russian Czar and people, but violated the time-honoured traditions of European diplomacy — our diplomatic representatives abroad preserved a calm and indifferent attitude. There was no sign they resented the blow they had received. . . . All this is the more provoking, as the foreigners expect us to recognise our inferiority to the rest of Europe. Europe is a palace tenanted by noble lords and gentle- men ; the Russians' place is in the ante-room. If England and Austria are so eager to restore peace, it is because they dis- cover their inability to stop us. As to their threats, they are a HISTORY OF PEESENT PHASE OF THE EASTEBJT QTrESTION. 91 vain boast and no more. While thej fancied Eussia unable to go to war, they played the double game of insulting our sovereign and of turning bis moderate and pacific sentiments to account. Is it possible that we again fall into this abominable trap ? " Eussia may submit to this and a few other insults for a while; but if she is too much provoked,she will inevitably be compelled to with- draw her ambassador from England, as the Emperor Nicholas did previously to the Crimean War, and to send his passports to ours. As Turkey has — thanks to the silly English bondholders — the command of the sea, Eussia has very little to fear if we oblige her to go to war with us by persisting in studied insults and gross injustice, such as threatening her if she exercises her just belligerent rights against Egypt, or attacks any locality where we think British interests are involved. Sebastopol is already destroyed, at a cost of 75 millions, whilst the Eussians might very well have agreed to destroy it themselves for a third of the money, which would probably have rebuilt it afterwards and left an ample margin ; and there is no other con- siderable naval arsenal which we could attack with any prospect of success, since, even when we had the French and Turkish fleets to support us, we could do very little injury to Eussia, either in the Baltic or the Black Sea, except at Sebastopol, during the Crimean War ; and as to a military expedition without France, • it would be altogether preposterous. The next move on the political chess-board was the intimation sent by Lord Derby to Eussia about Egyyt, and also to Turkey — another violation of the independence of that State and of the Treaty of Paris — that "England would regard an attempt to blockade, or otherwise to interfere with the Canal or its apj)roaches, as a menace to India, and as a grave injury to the commerce of the world." Yet the Government, in answer to Sir W. Harcourt, said " The Cabinet has no wish to prescribe the particular limitations which either belligerent Power shall place on its rights." Now I conceive if we tell Eussia that we will go to war with her if she attacks the Canal, the purchase of which Mrs. Thistlethwayte recommended some years ago, we are bound in 92 A DEFENCE OF ETJSSIA. honour, and to preventEussia from unintentionally involvingherself in war witli us, to state clearly and distinctly how far she may go without menacing India or injuring the commerce of the world. Our contention is manifestly absurd, for supposing a Russian man- of-war entered the Canal to pass through, according to our dictum, the Turks may not capture it by an attack of their land forces ; and if it is protected, Russia is being helped against Turkey. Suppose, too, that Russia was as malicious as Philo-Turks pretend, she has only to send a number of old merchantmen into the Canal loaded with enormous blocks of stone, and to sink them by a pretended accident, and then the commerce of the world is as effectually stopped as if she took possession of the Canal, and then, contrary to the rights of nations and her own interests, shut it up. Whilst the Russians have agreed to comply with our wishes, the Turks, it is understood, have stated that they would attack any Russian vessel in the Canal, but of course we .shall as usual submit to the decision of Turkey. I defy any one to show that even the occupation of the whole of Egypt, and the stoppage of the Suez Canal, would be a menace to India, even if Russia went to war with us, since Russia could not attack India from Egypt, as we have the command of the sea, and our trade could be conducted in that case, as before, by the Cape of Good Hope ; and if Russia did occupy Egypt and had possession of the Canal, and did not go to war with us, she would have no motive whatever to obstruct our commerce, or that of any other nation but Turkey, and the traffic of the world would be con- ducted otherwise precisely as before. It will be observed that Captain Hobart, who one might other- wise forget to be an Englishman under his Turkish rank as Hobart Pasha, has returned to Constantinople, having as yet achieved with his enormous fleet no better feat than capturing several prizes loaded with com, all EngUsh property, which will contribute to make bread dearer to the English people, when it is already at an unusually high price, and when there is much distress from commercial depression. But what can one expect from a mercenary adventurer 1 HISTOKT OF PHESENT PHASE OF THE EASTEKN QUESTION. 93 Mr. Freeman thus severely, but justly, animadverts on the conduct of this man, Hobart, who ought to be, if he is not abeady, like Omar Pasha, a naturalised and Mahometan Turk : " Crete in the end was conquered, and again to the shame of England, it was largely conquered by means of an Englishman. This was an English naval oflcer, Hobart by name, who was not ashamed to enter into the service of the barbarian, to take his pay, and help him to bring Christian nations under the yoke. . . . There was another Englishman, Eobert of St. Albans, a Knight of the Temple, who betrayed his order, his country, and his faith ; who took service under Saladin, and mocked the last agonies of the Christians when Jerusalem was taken. The shame of Eobert of St. Albans has its like in the shame of Hobart." This capture has been wrongfully made, in spite of the notorious fact that the blockade is ineffective, and that the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs admitted in the House of Commons, on June 11th, that the G-overnment "had heard privately that a line of steamers was running from Odessa to Nicholaieff," which clearly and irrefutably establishes the fact that the blockade is ineffective, and several captures of Turkish vessels have been made in the Black Sea by the Eussian navy. Yet we submit to any wrong and any amount of loss to help our dear friends the Turks. The Nord i)eutsch6 Allgemdne Zeiiung of 11th October, 1876, gays : — " Amongst the German people nothing is less existent than sentiments which might lead German policy to take chest- nuts out of the fire for England, and England will not be able to find in Germany an ally which will be disposed to share its profits and losses on the Eastern Question.'' The National Zeitung says : " The Tory ministry has deceived itself in respect to public opinion in its own country, as it has also deceived itself on the subject of the situation of Europe. England would be alone in a contest against Eussia, as we were alone in our contest against France. Let the Czar annex to his empire Batoum, Kars, Erzerouni, and even Trebizond — that v,^ill be a matter of indifference to no matter what state in Europe, 94 A DEFENCE OP ETJSSIA. England excepted. On the contrary, the more that Eussia is involved in the affairs of Asia the less she will he able to weigh on Europe. It follows from all this that an Anglo-Eussian War is only an eventuality of a distant future. England has always heen obliged, in consequence of its insular position, to make its great wars with allies on the Continent ; even in the contest with the Americans she required mercenary German troops. For the first time she has no ally." POEECAST OF PROBABLE BESTJLTS. 95 A FORECAST OF THE PEOBABLE EESULTS OF THE PEESENT EUSSO-TUEKISH WAE. It seems to be universally believed, that Turkey must succumb in ber present struggle -with Eussia ; indeed, tbe corrupt bureaucracy and wire pullers of Constantinople anticipate and fear tbe result. We have abeady seen tbat tbe Eussians have gained impor- tant successes, especially at Ardaban, that tbe Principalities have joined Eussia and declared T7ar against Turkey, that Servia and Greece are shortly expected to do the same, and that a state of siege has had to be proclaimed in Constantinople to prevent tbe instant dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Two Turkish monitors have been already blown up, and tbe Turkish fleet will probably be soon as afraid of the Eussians as they were in the Greek war of inde- pendence, when sixteen small Greek vessels drove forty Turkish men-of-war to seek safety at Constantinople. The soldiers, and even tbe officers, as I have already stated on Mr. Jocelyn's authority, are in arrears of pay for from six to thirty-three months. They are badly clothed, badly fed, and utterly unfit for campaigning, whilst the Eussian army, besides being more numerous, is in tbe highest state of efiiciency, and has all the confidence of being commanded by officers of proved ability, and fighting in a just and noble cause, instead of being driven to tbe shambles by Turkish Pashas, who are mere palace favourites and carpet knights, in an unjust and disgraceful cause. The odds, however, are not so unequal as to entitle the Turks to any sympathy for being the weakest, as, though tbe popu- 96 A DEFENCE OF filTSSIA. lation is not much more tlian half that of Eussia, it is more concentrated. They have the services of many foreign, and I regret to say, some English mercenaries. They are fighting on their own soil ; and besides, thanks to the credulous English and other investors, the Turks have been supplied gratuitously with an apparently formidable fleet. However, when the Eussian fleet in the Baltic and elsewhere reinforces the Black Sea fleet, and when a few more Turkish men-of-war have been blown up by such heroes as blew up the last monitor, we shall soon see the Turks eagerly suing for peace, and the harder the terms are the better I for one shall be satisfied. It would not be just to the Eussian people if the Czar was not to exact such conditions of peace as would amply compensate Eussia for the sacrifices it has made, as well as give far better security to the Christians than those which the Porte declined at the Conference. England very foolishly, with quixotic liberality, and to the utter neglect of our just rights, at the conclusion of a war foregoes- all claim to costs, though no Englishman ever fails to demand and exact costs and damages in any action at law which is decided in his favour. The Germans, to their credit, compelled France to pay an indemnity, which not only paid their expenses, but left a considerable margin to pension the widows and orphans of those who were killed by the French in an unjust war ; and I trust Eussia wiU pursue the same course in so far as it is practicable with such a bankrupt as Turkey. I would fain hope that Eussia would re-establish the Greek Empire, but T should anticipate that Eussia would at least demand that all that part of Turkey north of the Balkans should form one State or confederation of States perfectly independent of Turkey — ^but if she only did this, a very large portion of Bulgaria, including Philippopolis, the scene of the massacres, which is south of the Balkans, would remain under Turkish oppression, which would be most illogical and ob- jectionable — that Montenegro should obtain a large accession of territory ; that the whole of Epirus, Thessaly, and all the remaining Turkish islands should be added to Greece ; and that POEECAST OF PEOBABLE EESULTS. 97 she herself should obtain the whole of Armenia and the Eu- phrates Valley, down to the Persian Gulf; that Egypt should fee independent, and obtain Syria and Palestine; and that she should receive from the Principalities, from Servia, and from Egypt, a sum to be raised like the indemnity paid by France to Germany, equal to the capital value of the tribute now paid by these States to Turkey ; not as tribute, for they would be as free of Russia as of Turkey. Some politicians have expressed much curiosity as to the course which Germany might probably pursue in case of the great Eussian victories which may be expected, and I think we have some indica- tion of this in the debate in the Prussian Parliament, on December 5 th, in a speech by Prince Bismarck, in which he says, "Eussia does not aim at great conquests. The Emperor Alexander has ever been a loyal ally to us, and Eussia only asks us for our co- operation at the Conference for the improvement of the position of the Christians in Turkey, a purpose to which our Emperor and our nation willingly offer a helping hand. That we shall sup- port this object is beyond all question. This support is justified by sympathy for our co-religionists and for the purposes of civilization. Should the Conference not lead to any results, warlike action on the part of Eussia is probable. Eussia, however, does not ask our assistance for that purpose, although no one wiU expect us to impose our veto against it, since objects are concerned for which we ourselves are striving. ... As long as we stand upon this place you will never succeed ia making a rent in our friendship for Eussia, a friendship which has lasted for centuries, and is based upon history. We must maintain good relations with the Powers, and can only actively interpose if one of our friends is imperilled by another power,'' which is supposed to refer to Austria. It seems to me from this perfectly clear that Prussia intends to adopt a very friendly neutrality to Eussia, and that nothing but perhaps a permanent annexation, not a temporary occupation of the mouths of the Danube and Constantinople, would induce Germany]^to go to war with Eussia. H 98 A DEPENCE OF EUSSIA. As to Austro-Hungary, the President of the Hungarian Ministry, M. Tisza, has wisely pointed out to the Hungarian Philo-Turks that it might have been plausibly argued, that seven years ago Austria ought to have made common cause with France, to prevent Prussia from becoming the Dictator of Central^ Europe, and from some day annexing the German Provinces [of Austria. Yet Austria prudently kept out of the Franco-German War, and in the same way she will keep out of the Eusso-Turkish War possible. Those who are now'^urging on the British nation to under- take another Crimean war should first think over^the following eloquent sentences by Mr. G. A. Sala, whichi appeared in the Illustrated London News and afterwards in the Times : — " The bodies of some eight thousand^ Englishmen moulder peacefully in this graveyard, I fancy that the remembrance of their deaths might moderate the frenzy of the politicians who seem bent on hounding England on to a fresh war with Russia. Surely those politicians must be mainly young"^men, or they must have very short memories. I remember the episodes of the Crimean war as though they had happened yesterday, for then, as now, I was earning my daily bread by literature and journalism ; and the war brought me every day fresh materials for my pen. I was within an ace in 1856 of going to Sebastopol; but I went to Russia instead. Can you not recall, you who are middle-aged, and whose memories are good, those two miserable years between the fight at the Alma and the fall of the MalakoflF! Do you remember the Ghost's Derby Day of 1855 ? Do you remember when, on the clifi" at Brighton and the Marina at St. Leonard's, you could scarcely walk ten paces without, meeting groups of ladies and children clad in deepest mourning for their fathers, husbands, brothers, sweethearts, slain in that wretched Cherso- nese, or who had sickened and died in the cheerless wards of the Scutari Hospital 1 Are we to have those years of private agony and bereavement, of public blundering|and mismanagement, over again 1 I suppose so. Glory is a very fine Jthing. I am only a jpelcm, a civilian, and I know nothing about ^Glory ; but I confess FORECAST • 03? PKOBABLB RESULTS. 99, that my blood runs cold, and that my heart sickens, when I heai- politicians pertly prating about the 'arbitrament of the sword,' and ' war clearing the atmosphere,' and so forth. I never met Glory yet, and I don't know what he or she is like ; but I have met war face to face half a dozen times in as many countries. I have looked into the whites, or rather the crimsons, of his eyes, and I have gazed upon the Sisters who follow him wheresoever he goes. They are Three Sisters, and their names are Rapine and Disease and Death. This is, of course, a miserably craven and spiritless way of looking at War. I cannot help it. I have seen only War's madness and wickedness, its foulness and squalor. To me it has represented nothing but robbery and profligacy, but famine and slaughter ; and I can but think that if the warlike politicians were to witness just half an hour of actual warfare as I have witnessed it, in America, in Italy, in Mexico, in France, in Spain, their martial ardour would cool down a little, and they would not be quite so prompt to blow the bellicose trumpet.'' If we involve ourselves in a war with Eussia without the assist- ance of any other Power but effete Turkey, we may expect such enormous financial difficulties. that we may perhaps be obliged to return to that former system of taxation, which now exists in America, upon almost every article which we use, and which the late Sydney Smith depicted as follows :— " We can inform Brother Jonathan," he writes, " what are the inevitable consequences of being too fond of glory — taxes. Taxes upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under foot — taxes upon everything which it is pleasant to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste — taxes upon warmth, light, and locomotion — taxes on everjrthing on the earth or in the waters under the earth — on everything that comes from abroad or is grown at home — taxes on the raw material — ^taxes upon every fresh value that is added to it by the industry of man — taxes on the sauce which pampers man's appetite and the drug that restores him to health — on the ermine which decorates the judge and the rope wliich hangs the criminal — on the poor man's salt and the rich man's spice — on the brass nails of the coffin and the H 2 100 A DEFENCE OF EI7SSIA. ribbons of the bride — at bed or board, coucbant or levant, we must pay. The schoolboy whips his taxed top, the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road ; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid 7 per cent., into a spoon which has paid 15 per cent., flings him- self back upon his chintz bed, which has paid 22 per cent., and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a licence of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death. His whole property is then immediately taxed from 2 to 10 per cent. Besides the probate, large fees are demanded for burying him. in the chanceL His virtues are handed down to posterity on taxed marble, and he is then gathered to his fathers — to be taxed no more." Mr. Sandford, a Conservative M.P., in the debate of the 30th of May, made the following very sensible observations on the Eastern Question, and concluded by a reasonable but inadequate programme of the probable terms of peace, sajdng, "The suppression of these conversations (between Lord Salisbury and Prince Bismarck and the Due Decazes) created alarm, the more so because the conversations at "Vienna and at Eome had been given. . . . The Foreign Secretary himself said that treaties were not eternal, and could only be maintained as long as circumstances permitted. . . . He believed that the Government of Turkej^ was intolerable alike for its Mahometan and its Christian subjects, and the mistake made in the autumn agitation was, that too exclusive stress was laid on the grievances of the Christians. When the disturbances first broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the great Powers should have told Turkey that, if she did not undertake to reform her administration in a certain time, united Europe would call upon her to introduce some changes in her form of government. . . . We had no right to coerce Turkey without warning her, and up to the present moment the only warning she had received was that she was not to be coerced. We could not coerce Turkey as the ally of Russia, but as a member of the European concert. He looked on the Crimean War at the time with no very rOEECAST OF PI10BA2JLE BESTJLTS. 101 favourable eye, believing it was undertaken for French rather than for English interests, and he had then thought it of com- paratively small importance whether Constantinople was occupied by Russians or by Turks. ... He believed in the moderation of the Czar. Eussia would probably expect the restoration of the territoiy in Bessarabia taken from her by the Treaty of Paris, perhaps also some part of Asia Minor. She might likewise possibly demand the passage of her fleet through the Dardanelles, and that the Bulgarians should be governed by independent rulers. Herzegovina and Bosnia might be added to Austria, and some small addition of territory given to Montenegro. The Sultan could retain the residue of his dominions, but only as the satrap of Eussia." Mr. Bourke said, " Under the Treaty of Paris, ' the common law right of interference ' remained exactly where it was before, and our great proof of that was that in 1859 Her Majesty's Government addressed to the Porte one of the strongest despatches ever penned, calling attention to the condition of the Christian races under Ottoman rule, and stating unequivocally that this coun- try would ' insist ' — that was the word used — ^upon the promises of the Sultan being carried out. Therefore the right of inter- ference not only existed theoretically under the Treaty of Paris, but had been acted upon by this country and acknowledged hy the Pm-te:- 102 A DBPENCE 01 ETTSSIA. MAHOMETAl^ISM UNMASKED. The Philo-TurHsh party— and especially the Pall Mall Gazette, of which Mr. Forsyth said the other day, " From its raving style lately it seemed to be written by maniacs for fools '' — Are never tired of throwing dust in the eyes of the British publicon the Eastern Question, and they try to mate us believe that the Mahometan religion is at least equal, if not superior, to Greek Christianity. I, therefore, now append some illustrations of Mahometanism, which is one of the basest, grossest, and most ridiculous supersti- tions which have ever degraded hunlanity, drawn from Ockley's " History of the Saracens," a standard work, and from other sources. One of the crucial tests of the moral worth of any race or nation is the mode in which theirwomenare treated, and the opinion which the men entertain of the female sex ; and Tacitus, in his great work on the Germans, especially praised them for their high respect and esteem for their women. His words, as nearly as I can recollect them, are : " Neither did they despise their counsel nor disregard their advice, but they considered that there was a singular wisdom and something holy about them." Now the Mahometans have attained an unenviable pre-eminence both for the contempt and distrust their religion inculcates for women, and for the state of debasement and ignorance in which they keep them, as if on purpose to degrade them to their own vile conception of the sex ; and as to the sensual Paradise to which the stupid and libidinous Turks look forward, Tom Moore tells us — " A Moslem's heaven 's easy made, ' 'Tis tut black ejes and lemonade" (i.e., houris and sherbet). A truly virtuous wife is, according to Mussulmans, rarely to be met with, and their general depravity is declared to be much greater than that of men. When woman was created, the devil, we are told, was delighted and said, " Thou art half of my MAHOMETANISM UNMASKED. 103 host, and thou art the depository of my secrets, and thou, art my arrow with which I shoot and miss not." Mahomet said, " I stood at the gate of Paradise, and, lo ! most of the inmates were poor, and / stood at the' gate of hell, and most of the inmates were women." Mahomet could neither read nor write, and was pre-eminently immoral, and he married Ayesha, when she had attained the mature age of nine. In heaven he found an angel of so prodi- gious a stature that the distance between his eyes was equal to the length of a journey of 70,000 days, and in the fifth heaven he saw an angel so large that he could have swallowed the seven heavens and seven earths as easUy as a pea, but he does not tell us how an angel who could swallow seven heavens and seven earths could be contained in the fifth heaven only. Mahomet was so reverenced by his bigoted disciples that they would gather his spittle up and swallow it. He had fifteen wives, whereas his own Koran allows no Mussulman to have more than four, and he openly avowed that his chief pleasures were women and perfumes. The notorious Wilkes used to say of himself, " I never was a Wilkite," and so Mahomet never was a Mussulman, but laughed in his sleeve at the credulity of his followers. On one occasion, he accepted a challenge to bring the moon from heaven in presence of the whole assembly. Upon uttering his command that luminary, full oried, though but five days old, leaped from the firmament, and bounding through the air alighted on the top of the Kaaba, after having encircled it by seven distinct evo- lutions. She, or more probably the man in the moon, is said to have paid reverence to the Prophet, addressing him in elegant Arabic in set phrases of encomium, and concluding with the formula of the Mussulman faith. This done, the moon is said to have descended from the Kaaba, to have entered the right sleeve of Mahomet's mantle, and to have made its exit by the left. After having traversed every part of his flowing robe, the planet separated into two parts as it mounted in the air. Then these two parts re-united in one round and luminous orb as before. No wonder that this idiotic superstition spread among the Arab savages, for Malcolm, in his History of Persia, relates the following 101 A DEl'EKCE or EUESIA. intervie-w between the King of Persia and three Arab chiefs. The Arabs said, " Whatever thou hast said regarding the former con- dition of the Arabs is true. Their food was green lizards ; they buried their daughters alive ; nay, some of them feasted on dead carcases and drank blood, while others slew then? relations, and thought themselves great and valiant men when by such an act they possessed themselves of more] property. They were clothed with hair garments ; knew not good from evil, and made no dis- tinction between what is lawful and unlawful." Omar said, " If any man makes profession of our religion and then leaves it, we kill him." "When Jerusalem capitulated, the foUowmg were some of the conditions which Omar granted, and these stipulations have been usually imitated by his successors : " The Christians shall build no new churches either in the city or adjoining terri- tory. They shall not refuse entrance to Mussulmans to their churches by night or day. If any Mussulman should be on a journey, they shall be obliged to entertain him gratis for three days. They shall not persuade anyone to be of their religion. They shall pay respect to the Mussulmans, and, if they be sitting, rise up to them. They shall not ride upon saddles nor bear any sort of arms. They shall be obliged to keep the same sort of habifc wherever they gO, and always wear girdles upon their waists." Omar, like a true barbarian, ordered the magnificent AJexandrian library to be destroyed, saying that if they were adverse to the Koran they were injurious, whilst if they were favourable to it they were unnecessary, and the books were distributed among the warm baths in Alexandria to heat them, and it took six months before they were destroyed. Dick Turpin and the other old English highwaymen, when they stopped a traveller, gave him the apparent choice of his money o-r his hfe, but if he resisted, the highwayman took his life and then his money. The Mahometans, after ravaging Asia and Africa, pursued their bloody conquests in Europe, and if it had not been for the victory of Charles Martel, at Tours, over the Saracens, European civilization would have been extinguished. The Turks, too, like a swarm of human locusts, devastated and conquered MAHOMETAKISM TJKMASKED. 105 Hungary, and if it had not been for Sobieski, who had, hoTT- ever, to abandon Polish Podolia to them, they might perhaps have overrun Europe. Like the highwaymen, the Mahometans offer those on whom they make unprovoked wars the choice of conversion, tribute, or the sword — or rather they offer this to the few they allow to remain, after killing most of the able-bodied men, and selling the women, girls, and goodAooldng lays into a slavery worse than death. Conversion to their abominable super- stition is, of course, out of the question, and there remains onlj'' tribute or legalised robbery without any limit but the capacity of endurance of their unfortunate victims. Freeman tells us in his recent admirable work on "The Ottoman Power in Europe " : " For a Mahometan to embrace Christianity is a crime to be punished by death. . . . Other religions, Chris- tianity among them, have been propagated by the sword, but it is Mahometanism alone which lays it down as a matter of religious duty that it should be so propagated. . . . ' No Christian nation has ever embraced Mahometanism; no Mahometan nation has ever embraced Christianityf . . . The utmost that the best Mahometan ruler can do is to save his subjects of other religions from actual persecution, from actual personal oppression; he cannot save them from degradation. He cannot, without forsak- ing the principles of his own religion, put them on the same level as Mussulmans. The utmost that he can do is to put his non- Mussulman subjects in a state which in every western country would be looked upon as fully justifying them in revolting against his rule. , . . No Mahometan ruler, I repeat, can give more than contemptuous toleration ; he cannot give real equality of rights. One Mahometan ruler tried to do so, and not only tried, but succeeded. But he succeeded only by casting away tho faith, which hindered his work. Akbar was the one prince born in Islam who gave equal rights to his subjects who did not pro- fess the faith of Islam ; but he was also the one prince bom in Islam who cast away the faith of Islam. The Ottoman Turk has no claim to be placed side by side with the higher specimens of his own creed, with the early Saracens, or the Indian Moghuls." 106 A DEPENCB OF KITSSIA. THE SULTAN NOT THE HEAD OF THE MAHOMETAN EELIGION. The anti-Cliristiaii party in England dishonestly persist in endeavouring to frighten the country with the idea that the Sultan is the sacred head of the Mahometan religion, and that, if we had joined iu contingent coercion, or even if we refrain from aiding him against Eussia, there would be great risk of a rebellion of the forty millions of Mahometans who inhabit India, though, if they did rebel, we have one hundred and fifty millions of non-Mahometans, besides British troops, to put them down. It has been shown over and over again in the House of Commons, ia the press, at public meetings, and elsewhere, by men who have lived for the greater portion of their lives in India, and who have attained high positions there (like Sir George Campbell), that this is all nonsense. But none are so blind as those who will not see, and as to their prejudices, like the toys which represent fat Chinese mandarins rounded below, the stronger the blow with which they are knocked over the more violent is the recoil with which they reassume their former position. Mr. BaiUie, who is recognised as, perhaps, the greatest authority in England on Indian laws and customs, in a paper read before the Asiatic Society, showed conclusively that the Sultan of Turkey has no claim whatever to be the head of the Mussulman religion. At the present time there is no Caliph, and, as the head of the Mahometan religion must be of the tribe of Koreish, with which the Sultan has not the most distant aflSnity, he is utterly disqualified from the possibility of becoming Caliph, and has never undergone the necessary preliminary of being duly elected ; and the only recognised chief of the Mussulmans is the THE SUIiTAlf NOT TEE HEAD OF MAHOMETAN EELIQION. 107 Shereef of Mecca, who is of tlie rigit lineage. Tlie total number of Mahometans, according to Dieterici, in 1859, was 170,000,000, of ■which ahout 42,000,000 inhabit the Turkish Empire, and of these 3,611,480 are encamped in Europe, whilst there are 4,792,443 Christians in the Turkish dominions in Europe. According to the Almanac de Gotha for 1877, whilst -there are 40,227,552 Ma- hometans in India, and 8,428,658 Mahometans in the Eussian Empire, of whom 2,363,658 are in Europe, the rest of the Mahometans inhabit various parts of Asia, including China and Africa; and by far the greater portion have never even heard of the existence of the Sultan; the Emperor of Morocco, for instance, does not at all recognise the precedence of the Sublime Porte, nor did any Mahometan Power in the whole world give the least assistance to Turkey in any of the ten wars which she has waged with such disastrous results against Eussia, nor did the Sultan receive any pecuniary assistance from individual Mussulmans of any other nationality. It is notorious that Mehemet Ali rebelled against the Sultan, that his son marched within eighty leagues of Constantinople amid the acclamations of the people of Syria and Asia Minor, and that Mehemet Ali would infallibly have become Sultan if the Eussians had not in 1833 protected Constantinople by a fleet and army, and in 1839 the whole Turldsh fleet voluntarily sailed into Alexandria and embraced the service of Mehemet Ali. Ali Pasha and various other Turkish subjects have also rebelled against the Sultan. Even now that the Sultan is contending single-handed against Eussia, the Khedive of Egypt, after urgent and incessant en- treaties for assistance, has only sent 3,000 men to aid the Sultan in addition to the 9,000 whom he is bound to supply, whilst he sent about 50,000 men to make an unprovoked attack on Abyssinia. Even the Turks have not and could not possibly enter- tain any respect or regard for the Sultans, or, if they do, they take a singiilar way of showing it, namely, deposing and murdering them. Of the thirty-six Sultans who have reigned between A.D. 1299 and A.D. 1877 no less than fifteen were deposed, of whom seven 1.08 A DEEBNCE OF ETTSSIA. are known to have been murdered, and most of tlie remaining ten were probably also assassinated ; so that the way the Turks show their affection and respect for their Sultans is to depose every second Sultan, and to murder at least one in three. The following facts will show how far the Sultans of Turkey deserved the regard and esteem of their subjects, and the unpre- cedented loyalty of the Turks to their sovereign : — Amurath I. (accession, a.d. 1360) was stabbed by a soldier, of which wound he died. Bajazet I. (1389) died imprisoned. Solyman (1403) was dethroned by his brother. Musa Ohelebi (1410) was strangled. Amurath III. (1574) killed his five brothers — their mother in grief stabbed herself. Mahomet III. (1595) strangled aU his brothers and drowned his father's wives. Mustapha I. (1617) was deposed and imprisoned. Osman II. (1618) was strangled. Mustapha I. was made Sultan again, then deposed, again iim- prisoned, and strangled. Ibrahim (1640) was strangled. Mahomet IV. (1648) was deposed by his brother. Mustapha 11. (1695) was deposed. Ahmed III. (1703) was deposed and died (or was murdered 1) in prison. Selim III. (1789) was deposed and murdered. Abdul Aziz (1861) was deposed and alleged to have committed suicide, but it is suspected that he was miirdered. Amurath V. (1876) was deposed. The above dates are those of the accession of the various Sultans. As to the present Sultan,* who married a Belgian shop girl, that clever journal. Truth, says on February 22nd, 1877 : "We have seen enough of Abdul Hamid to know that he is utterly weak, and, although liberal and well-intentioned, has no notion of govem- • The Sultan's wife was a niece of Mrs. Tomtins, linendraper at Pera. THE STILTAS' NOT THE HEAD OF MAHOMETAN EELIGION. 109 ment, and is not likely to acquire any while Malimond directs his entourage. It is strange how Sultan after Sultan seems to succumh to some mysterious influence, so soon as he ascends the throne. It is said that Hamid will soon suffer from the mental malady that affected his two predecessors." And here is the account which the same well-informed and amusing paper gives of the Sultan's appearance at the opening of the Turkish ParUament : " More years ago than I care to count, I saw the father of the present Sultan, when on a visit to the second city of his empire, descend from his carriage and enter the house of a prosperous English merchant. ... I was a child then, but I was struck by that monarch's uncertain gait, by his downcast «ye, his depressed and timid look, bespeaking indifference so profound that I would have given anything to catch hold of him and shake him up into even momentary effervescence. When I saw Abdul Hamid come out yesterday, ' His father's son,' I said. He swayed on his stem, so to say, just as his father did, like a Teed shaken by the wind. There was no more expression on his ■countenance than on the egg I cracked at breakfast. Wearily he took up his place. With downcast eyes, with a weary gesture, he summoned the Grand Vizier to his side, and with a languid hand he thnist a scroll into the Sadrazan's hand — the scroll which contained, his speech — without betraying the slightest interest. . . . When the monotonous voice of Said Pasha was hushed, Abdul Hamid, who had stood all the time swaying like a tulip on its stem, made an awkward temana to the assembly, and with duck-like steps regained his apartments. The whole ceremony •was simply deathlike ; not a smile nor a gesture relieved it." It has not been the custom of the Sultans of Turkey for some centuries to contract regular marriages nor to restrict themselves, though falsely pretending to be the head of the Mahometan reli- gion, to the number of wives prescribed by the Koran. The women are bought and brought in like brood mares. So much for the Sultans, of whom it used to be said, as an evidence of their devastating ferocity, " No grass grows where the hoof of a Sultan's horse has trod." 110- A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. Dr. Birdwood states that the absurd theory that the Sultan is the Caliph, or the head of the Mussulman religion, has been trumped up by an able and learned but unscrupulous renegade named Ahmed Faris Effendi, the editor of the (Al) Jaw&ih, of Constantinople, an Arabic newspaper, which unfortunately has a large circulation throughout the East, and even among Eastern Christians. Ahmed Faris was originally a Maronite, was converted to Protestantism, was employed as a teacher in the schools of the Church Missionary Society at Cairo, afterwards translated the whole Bible into Arabic, then embraced Mahometanism, and about 1858 started this mischievous paper, which, however, is not read more extensively in many parts of the East than the Times. Dr. Birdwood says, " There is not the slightest authority for the claim of the Sultans of Constantinople to the Caliphate, but their assumption of the title is an illegal and heretical usurpation, and the assumption of their preposterous pretension to it by Mahometans is discreditable equally to their orthodoxy, their intelligence, and their good faith, . . . There has been no Caliph of Islam since Bagdad was taken by the Tartars in A.D. 1258. A pretender to the lineage of the Abassides was, a few years afterwards, set up as a false Caliph by the Mameluke Sultans of Egypt, and when Egypt was conquered by Selim I, the pre- tence is, that the Sultans of Constantinople succeeded to the false Caliphate. But the Arabs never accepted the Cairene Caliphs, and in fact the pretension of the Sultans was practically lost sight of for centuries, and it is only since 1856 that the spiritual theory of the ofiice has been revived. . . . The arrangement of the succession to the false Egyptian Caliphate . . was simoniacal and detestable in the eyes of all orthodox Mahometans." Englishmen talk of the Sultan of Turkey as the Sultan, but, in fact, the first Sultan was only an Emir, and assumed the title without any right, and there are a considerable number of other Sultans, such as the Sultan of Zanzibar, &c. Professor Monier Williams, who has recently returned from India, says in the Times, as to the Mahometans : " By far the THE STJIiTAN NOT THE HEAD OP MAHOMETAN EELIGIOlf. Ill majority are, like tHe Turks, Sunnis (Shiites) ; but from conver- sations I liad with several learned men, I feel convinced that they have no idea, of acknowledging the Sultan of Constantinople as their spiritual head, and that the existence of sympathy between India and Turkey is a figment of political agitators." I will terminate this chapter with the following touching sketch, from the able pen of the lamented Thackeray : — " In this dismal but splendid museum I remarked [two little tombs, with Httle red fezzes, very small and for very young heads evidently, which were lying under the Httle embroidered palls of state. I forget whether they had candles too; but their little flame of life was soon extinguished, and there was no need of many pounds of wax to typify it. These were the tombs of Mahmoud's grandsons, nephews of the present Light of the Universe, and children of his sister, the wife of HaHl Pacha. Little children die in all ways ; those of the ' much maligned ' Mahometan royal race perish by the bow-string. Sultan Mahmoud (may he rest in glory ! ) strangled the one ; but, having some spark of human feehng, was so moved by the wretchedness and agony of the poor bereaved mother, his daughter, that Ms royal heart relented towards her, and he promised that should she ever have another chUd it should be allowed to Hve. He died, and Abdul Medjid (may his name be blessed ! ), the debauched young man whom we just saw riding to the mosque, succeeded. The sister, whom he is said to have loved, became again a mother, and had a son ; but she relied upon her father's word and her august brother's love, and hoped that this little one should be spared. The same accursed hand tore this infant out of its mother's bosom and HUed it. The poor woman's heart broke outright ; at this second calamity~she died. But on her death-bed she sent for her brother, rebuked him as a perjurer and an assassin, and expired, calling down the Divine justice on his head. She lies now by the side of the two little fezzes. . . . After the murder of that little child, it seems to me one can never look with anything but horror upon the butcherly Herod who ordered it. The death of the seventy 112 A DEFENCE OF UrSSIA. thousand Janissaries ascends to historic dignity, and tates rank as war ; hut a great prince and Light of the Universe, who jorocures abortions, and throttles Httle babies, dwindles away into such a frightful insignificance of crime, that those may respect him who will. I pity their excellencies the ambassadors who are ■obliged to smirk and cringe to such a rascal." 'the unspeakable TUEK." H3 "THE UNSPEAKABLE TUEK." Of all the races who profess the Mahometan religion, the Turks are the most ignorant, the most debased, and the most cruel and oppres- sive. Even to men of their own race and religion they have often acted with the utmost barbarity and injustice. When Paskiewitch took one of the chief fortresses in Asia, Suleiman, the governor, defended it with extraordinary valour ; but when it was taken, the Grand Vizier sent him as usual the bowstring, and the life of this brave man was only saved by the mingled entreaties and threats of the magnanimous Russian General, whose interest it obviously was that so formidable an adversary should be destroyed. Then, again, there never was an act more perfidious and cruel than the massacre of the Janissaries, and besides the original massacre, thousands suspected of favouring them were executed daily for a considerable time. The Conservative historian, Alison, who cannot be suspected of any bias against the Turks, says respecting Turkey, " In the level country, where the horsemen of the Osmanlis have found it easy to extend their ravages, and the Pashas their oppression, the human race has in many places wholly disappeared; and the mournful traveller, after traversing for days together the richest plains, studded with the ruins of ancient cities, now left without a single inhabitant, has repeatedly expressed a dread of the entire annihilation of the human species in the very garden of nature, the places in the world best adapted for its reception. " M. de Tchitchatchef mentions a rich plain in Asia Minor of 600 square miles, and of which scarcely fifty are cultivated. The I 11-1 A DEFENCE OF KUSSIA. Tiirkisli Empire is perishing from want of inhabitants. The Ottoman Empire now contains not a third of its population in former times — not a fifth of what it is capable of maintaining. Constantinople is fed from Alexandria, Odessa, and Galatz, not from the lands possessed or directly ruled by Turks ; and at one period these tyrants went so far as to prohibit the exportation of grain from Moldavia or Wallachia to any other place than Con- stantinople. . . . "Justice is venal in the Ottoman. . . . The Turkish jurisprudence consists in a few maxims from the Koran, and a few traditionary principles handed down in the courts. Written statutes, collections of decisions, they have none. . . . The defendant or culprit, if poor, is bastinadoed ; if rich or a Prank, he is amerced in a pecuniary fine, called an ' avaria '; if a thief or robber, he is hanged. . . . The situations of Vizier, Cadi, and the like are sold to the highest bidder. . . . The number of servants and retainers in the establishments of the Pashas and the aflluent amounts to 1,500,000, a burden nearly as heavy as a standing army to the same amount would be, and far more enervating to the state. ... A tax of 1 7 per cent, is levied on incomes, and there is an export duty of 12 per cent. ... If a hostile army reaches Constantinople, the conquest of the capital is easy, aud cannot be long averted. The ancient walls still remain in imposing majesty, but they are in many places mouldering ; and by cutting off the aqueducts which supply the city with water, it may easily be starved into submission." In 1529, Soliman the Magnificent mass acred the garrison of Buda, contrary to the capitulation, and at Altenburg all the inhabitants were slaughtered. Of Mahomet II. it is said that " he knew neither .faith nor law, cared nothing for integrity, and laughed at all religions, not excepting that of the Prophet." In 1G83, says Lady Verney, the GrandVizier caused the Pasha of Buda to be strangled in his presence because his soldiers refused to fight, though he was a brave, honest, old man who had been wounded before Vienna. As to the atrocities of the Turks to the Chris- tians, a series of the English statutes or the " Encyclopoedia Britan- "the tTKSPEAKABLE TTJFJC." 115 iiica," volumes as numerous as tliose of Hansard's Parliamentary- Debates, printed in diamond type, would not nearly suffice to con- tain them. I have already cited Mr. Baring's report on the massacre of Batak and other evidence, and it would weary and disgust the reader to give an abstract of the more prominent instances of Turkish cruelty and barbarity ; and when one peruses the horrible details, one is apt to think that the world consists of men and women who have the ordinary feelings of humanity, and of Turlcs who are mere beasts of prey. I will, however, quote a few more instances of Turkish ferocity. When the Turks took Zbaras, in Poland, in 1672, Ibrahim cut to pieces the whole population, except the women, whowererescued for the seraglios, and the boys, who were retained for that modern Sodom — Constantinople. The old and the chil- dren perished in the flames or by the sword, and the Turks moved on to other sieges where the same horrible cruelties were exercised. The Philo-Turks may, therefore, take note that their Ottoman allies have exercised far worse cruelties on their new- found friends, the Poles, than any which can be alleged against the Eussians. In the debate on 29th January, 1828, Lord John Russell said, " We believe the battle (Navarino) to have been a glorious vic- tory and a necessary consequence of the Treaty of London, and, m.oreover, as honest a victory as had ever been gained from the beginning of the world. . . . Turkey was spoken of con- stantly as our ancient ally. Now the fact was, that there had never been any alliance between Turkey and this country prior to 1799, and it was not twenty years since Mr. Arbuthnot had been compelled to fly privately from Constantinople from his fear that his personal safety would be endangered by a violation of the ordinary rights of ambassadors." It was then, I may add, the custom of Turkey to imprison ambassadors who displeased them in the Seven Towers, and the Turldsh Government usually bribed the dragoman to pretend, in translating the ambassador's speech, that he was using the most obsequious and even slavish language such as, ''■ Your vile slave lays at your feet the homage of your poor I 2 IIG A DEFE^^CE OF RUSSIA. dependent, the chief of the English infidels, and comes to preaenfr his usual tribute, to implore your clemency, and to hear and obey your commands ;" and he was told to explain the upright position and bold mien of the Ambassador, by saying — in Turkish, of course- — that that was the most abject position for an Englishman, and that kneeling and licking the dust would be a mark of contempt and an assertion of equality with the Sultan. In the same debate Lord Holland contended that the Turk could not be termed, in any correct sense of the words, an ally of this country at all, and much less an ancient ally. " The anti- social race," said his lordship, " which now enjoys the throne of the Constantines, considers itself naturally at war with every nation with which it has not entered into a formal treaty of peace. But can a treaty of peace be fairly considered as a treaty of alliance ? The first treaty made between this country and Tur- key, I have no doubt, was considered by the Turks as an act of grace and concession, yielded by them, in the plenitude of their power, to those dogs of Christians, the Nazarene nations. . . We had no political relations with Turkey, in any sense of the word, until the year 1699. In 1699, we oifered our services to mediate between the Emperor of Germany and the Turkish power, who were then at war ; and we did so, in order to leave our ancient ally, the House of Austria — ^for Austria was our ancient ally ; and Bussia, too, was our ancient ally — in a situation to direct her arms, along with us, against the then colossal power of Prance. And what was the result of that negotiation ? We were accused, by French writers — I shall not stop to examine whether rightly or wrongly — of having exercised our mediation with gross par- tiality, and with having inflicted by it a severe injury on the Ottoman power. One of the articles in the treaty into which the Turks entered under our mediation was to this eflfect : that they should surrender the whole of the Morea and of Greece into the hands of the Venetians. So that the result of our first political negotiation with Turkey was to wrest Greece from its dominion ; though, unfortunately, not for ever. In the year 1718, we again entered into a political negotiation with Turkey ; but under cir- "the UXSPEAICUiLE TUBE." 117 «umstances which, I coutend, still preclude us from denominating her our ' ancient ally.' It is right, ho-wever, to state that, by that treaty, we recognised Turkey as the Sovereign of Greece, which a fatal war had enabled her to recover from the Venetians. . . Mr. Addison, too, who was not only a philosopher, but one of the wisest and best men on the face of the earth, remarked upon the bad effect of the numerous journalists in this country, and the great spirit of writing and reading politics in the country, and went on to say that, though there was no absurdity to which people, by this itch for talking and writing politics, might not be brought, he did not believe it possible that there could be persons in England who could think that loe were interested in the prosperity of the Ottoman empire / . . . Almost every man who had held •office, and had authority, stated that the opinion of Lord Chatham teas, tJuit loe should never have any land of connection whatever with the Ottoman Porte 1 and that opinion was fortified during the seven years' war by a similar opinion of the King of Prussia. In 1770, our allies, the Russians, sent a great fleet into the Mediterranean, for tlie purpose of overpowering the Turks. What was the policy of this country ? To assist the Russian navy. That fleet was refitted in our harbours, and, with the munitions and implements which it received from us, burnt a Turkish town and fleet, and continued cruising in the Archipelago for no less than five or six years. . . . Mr. Burke, too, spoke thus of our ' ancient and faithful ally,' the Turk : ' I have never before heard it held forth that the Turkish Empire has ever been considered as any part of the balance of power in Europe. They despise and contemn all Christian princes as ■infidels, and only wish to subdue and exterminate them and their people ! What have these worse than savages to do with the powers of Europe, but to spread war, destruction, and pestilence amongst them t, The ministers and the policy vMch shall give these people any weight in Europe will deserve all tlie bans and curses of posterity.' Very strange language this in an English House of Commons, regarding an ' ancient and faithful ally ! ' This mighty master proceeds : 'All that is holy in religion, all that is moral and humane, demands an abhorrence of everything lohich 118 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. tends to extend the power of that cruel and icasteful Empire. Any Christian power is to he 'preferred to these destructive savages ! ' In truth, the first alliance really made with Turkey by this country was an alliance formed in the year 1798 or 1799, in con- sequence of the invasion of Egypt by the French, who have often been reproached with being, though they never acknowledged that they were, an ancient ally of the Ottoman Empire. When they invaded Egypt, and not before, we entered into a treaty of alliance with the Porte. My lords, I have looked into that treaty this very evening, and I am surprised to find that, so far from its being a treaty of alliance formed for the mutual interests of Turkey and England as against the rest of the world, or as connected with commerce — so far from being a treaty of alliance formed for the protection of the Turkish Empire against its immediate invaders — it is a treaty of alliance on the invitation of an old and natural ally, the Emperor of Russia, to enter, for the first time, into an alliance with the Turk. The words of the first article are, ' His Britannic Majesty, connected already with His Majesty the Emperor of Eussia by tliic ties of the strictest alliance, accedes by the present treaty to the defensive alliance which has just been concluded between His Majesty the Ottoman Emperor, and the Emperor of Russia, as far as the stipulations thereof are applicable to the local circumstances of his Empire and that of the Sublime Porte.' Thus all the alliance which we then made with Turkey, was made at the express request of Russia. This treaty of alliance itself, too, was limited in its duration to seven years ; and, strange to say, long before these seven years had expired, Turhey had broken all the main articles of that treaty lohich hound it to remain at peace with Bussia. It hrohe them, too, in so far as they related to ourselves." In the debate on the 1st February, 1828, Mr. Hobhouse (afterwards Lord Broughton) said that he spent some time in Tur- key, and was in habits of intercourse with a number of very respect- able Mussulmans, but he never met with one who had even heard of the English House of Commons. "To me it seems," said he, " very likely that the Grand Signior will be greatly exasperated "the insfSPEAKAELE TUrUv." 11& when lie finds himself called by the King of England ' his ancient ally.' What '. the brother of the sun and moon ! the lord of the Black and Wliite Seas ! the vicar of Mahomet ! — to class him with a mere lord of merchants, with the master of infidel slaves, who are permitted to sell scissors and to buy raisins in the Levant ! " Sir James Mackintosh, thecelebrated historian, said in the same debate, " It was bare justice to Russia to say that her dealings with the Ottoman power for the last seven years had been marked with as great forbearance as the conduct of that power (Turkey) had been distinguished by continued insolence and incorrigible contumacy. If any one were disposed to deny this, let them look to the history of the Servian deputies, and they must admit that if Russia was to be blamed at all, it was rather for the long- patience she had exercised than for any premature interferences. . . . A body of Servian deputies appointed to carry the pro- visions of the treaty of Bucharest into effect, went to Constanti- nople for that purpose, and the Turks sent these deputies to the Seven Towers and kept them in confinement for the space of seven years, and all this Russia endured. The war against the Greeks was waged against defenceless women and children, with the superadded aggravation of the burning of villages, the rooting up of trees, the destruction not only of works of art but of the productions of nature herself as well as those of men." On 24th March, 1828, Mr. Peel (afterwards Sir Robert) told the House of Commons, " Previous to the signature of the Treaty (of July 6th) an intimation was given to His Majesty's Govern- ment that it icas the intention of Turkey to remove from the Mcrrca the female part of the population and the children for the piirpose of selling them in Ecjypt as slaves, &c. Distinct notiiication was given to Ibrahim Pasha that so violent an exercise of rights — if rights they could be called — that a proceeding so repugnant to the established usage of civilized nations never would be permitted by His Majesty, and that this country would certainly resist any attempt to carry such an object into effect." Lord Holland further stated, July 16th, 1828, "I hope I shall never see— God forbid that I should ever see — for the proposition 120 A DEFENCE OE RUSSIA. would be scouted from one end of England to another — any pre- parations or any proposition or any attempt to defend this our ancient ally (Turkey) from the attacks of its enemies. There was no arrangement made in that treaty for preserving the crumbling and hateful, or as Mr. Burke called it, the wasteful and disgusting Empire of the Turks from dismemberment and destruction. "If it was the intention of those who signed the treaty of peace to sign it with a mental reservation . . . their conduct would resemble that of some infidel Christian in Constantinople — some d )g as he is there called — who would prostrate himself at the feet of the Grand Signior and say, ' I shall be obliged to your sublime highness to emancipate all the rebellious Greeks, to enable them to buy and sell property, to enjoy perfect freedom in truth and toleration in religion ; and if you do not consent to make these concessions, why, I will go home with my tail between my legs and take no ulterior measures to enforce my request.' " I certainly was very much surprised to be told by the noble viscount that there are traditional agreements between Turkey and this country, and that Mussulmans were so superior to Chris- tians in their adherence to their engagements that he would trust the word of a Turk more than he would a Christian oath." So late as 1816, the Barbary Pirates (subjects of Turkey) preyed on the commerce of the world, and sold the Christians captured by them into slavery ; yet we did not, as we ought to have done, force the Porte to put down piracy and slavery, but tamely submitted, until at last we could bear it no longer, and we sent Lord Exmouth to batter down that nest of pirates, Algiers, and compel them to give up Christian slavery and piracy. Even when the British army was in Bulgaria, we were unable to protect the Christians, as appears by the following letter from Lord Eaglan to the Secretary of State for War, dated Varna, August 8th, 1854. Yet the Philo-Turkish party wish to persuade us that the wrongs of the Christians can be redressed, not only without liberating the Christians from Turkish rule, but without even granting them the same constitution as the Principalities, or even the local autonomy of Syria. He gives the reason " how it "the unspeakable TUfiK." 131 arose that the Bulgarian peasantry manifest such reluctance to bring supplies to our camp," as follows : — " The reason is now obvious. These unfortunate people dare not appear there. They are liable to be robbed on their return home, and to be ill-used as soon as it is known that they are in possession of any money, and they are fortunate if they are not carried off, and, if not ransomed at the price demanded, murdered, as the accompanying papers show to have been the case in more than one instance. Hence it is that the Christian inhabitants of the province hail any change as preferable to the yoke under which they are now being crushed, and it may be relied upon that, as long as the Turks are allowed to carry arms, and the Bulgarians are not permitted to carry any, the existence of the latter will be, to use the language of Colonel Gordon, little better than that of slaves." I am here reminded of a magnificent passage in Burke's speech on the trial of Warren Hastings, Tvhich I will quote as nearly as I •can recollect it : " There, where that flag was flying which was wont to cheer the oppressed and elevate the subdued heart of misery, these interesting but unfortunate beings were doomed to experience that there is something deeper than destruction — something blacker than despair ! " In reply to this, the Duke of Newcastle merely said that he would " write to Lord Clarendon, with the view to a formal application to the Porte through Lord Stratford," and of course nothing was done ; and, having secured the integrity of the Porte by obliging the Eussians to evacuate the Principalities, we then proceeded to establish its independence by invading Eussia, de- stroying Sebastopol, and ultimately forcing Eussia to abandon her protection of the Turkish Christians, and debarring ourselves from providing any equivalent substitute. Lord Stratford de Eedcliffe, on June 22nd, 1853, says in a letter to M. Pisani, " You will communicate to Eedschid Pasha the several extracts of consular reports from Scutari, Monastir, and Prevosa, annexed to this instruction. You will observe that they relate in jjart to those acts of disorder, injustice, and corruption, 122 A DEFENCE OF RUSSIA. sometimes of a very atrocious kind, ichich 1 have frequently brought by your means to the knowledge of the Ottoman Porte." In another letter he says, " The character of these disorderly and brutal outrages may be said with truth to be in general that of Mussulman fanaticism, excited by cupidity and hatred against the Sultan's Christian subjects." Up to the end of 1853, no Christian was allowed, even by the laws of Turkey, to give evidence in a court of justice against a Mussulman, and to the present day the law is a dead letter, except in the great cities. The Turks establish their hospitals close to their batteries, and then complain if the Russians or Roumanians injure them, but they themselves fire at the Russian hospitals, though they are established at points far removed from the batteries. They also have been laying waste the Dobrudscha, their own country, which is a most barbarous and cruel proceeding. The Philo-Turks hope that the Russians will lose a considerable number of men in the Dobrudscha, but the fact is, it is not so unhealthy as they suppose. A French army corps lost a large number of men from cholera there during the Crimean War, but the cholera was equally de- structive elsewhere, and the crew of an English man-of-war, in the Black Sea, suffered nearly as much. The most formidable enemy of the Russians in 1829 was not the Turks, but the plague, which is chiefly caused by the abominable iilth of the Turkish towns, and getting rid of the Turks would probably stamp out the plague. The Bashi-Bazouks, says the Times, near Matchin, cut off the noses and lips of Russian soldiers. These mutilated bodies were seen by foreign correspondents. Mr. Denton says, in the Times : — " Prince Nicholas of Monte- negro was ready to maintain peace, but he would not purchase a peace on the conditions insisted upon, which were the expulsion of the Herzegovinian refugees — women, old men, and children, for the most part — without a guarantee for their safety. Prince Nicholas pleaded for their safety, and asked for a promise that they should not suffer because they had fled in terror from the Turk. This was refused. ..." Mr. Gladstone at Birminffham made the following able re- "the ■unspeakable TURK." 123 marks on the Eastern Question : — " In the newspapers of Aus- tralia you will find articles on the afflictions of the subject races in Turkey as animated as any of those that have been written in our own journals . . . and at Otago, in New Zealand, there was held a public meeting, distinguished by as much enthusiasm as public meetings in Birmingham, to describe the sorrow and indignation with which they had heard of these horrors, and of the fact that no remedy had been applied. . . . Colonel Baker's book on Turkey, if you do read it, suppose you follow him in his reasoning, you will be apt to come to the conclusion that, after all, Christianity has been ratlier a calamity to the world, because Turks are persons, on the whole, of superior virtue. He says, indeed, they have certain vices, that they are extremely venal and corrupt, but how do you think he accounts for it ? He says they got inocu- lated with these vices because, when they came into this country, they found it completely possessed by venality and corruption, and so the pure Mahometan virtue of the Turks gradually gave way to venality and corruption, which they inherited from their Christian predecessors in this country ; and so, when slavery was abolished in the West Indies, was it because English travellers, going to the West Indies for their pleasure, or their sport, or their profit, brought back from thence those damning reports ? No ; almost the whole of them did as most of our travellers in Turkey now do — they came back saying what fine fellows the planters were, and how hospitable they were, how kind they were, how upright and truthful they were, and what shabby, mean, lying, pilfering fellows the negroes were. . . . " The Government has made this excuse for the Turkish Govern- ment, • that they were really and in good faith afraid of Mahome- tan opinion.' This was no novelty, no apology ; it was the truth, but, being the truth, it was an aggravation of the case, for what did it show ? . . . That the opinion of the Mahometan people, and not merely of a few official men, as we are sometimes told, demanded the massacres. . . . The Turks came in like other conquerors by force, but, instead of amalgamating themselves with the people, they stood apart from them like oil from water, and 124 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. claimed to use them for their purpose, to sell to them their own lives, those lives to be held at their mercy, their property, their liberty, their honour to be at the free disposal of the Turk at his sole will and pleasure. . . . When the Turks disappear, what will they leave behind i Many bitter and unhappy homes, no laws, no institutions, no public works. I read in a history of the little state of Montenegro an account of a bridge which the late sovereign of that small but noble territory had projected, or I be- lieve I may say actually executed, over a mountain stream. The historian said, small as this bridge might be, yet probably it is a more considerable work, as a work of peace and utility, than has ever been executed by the united force of the Ottoman Govern- ment and people. . . . " We are told we are a school of sentiment. I ask how it happens that every historian in this country is strongly on our side — that men so widely differing in their accidents of character and opinion as Mr. Freeman, Mr. Froude, and Mr. Carlyle, and I believe I might add to them Mr. Stubbs, Mr. Green, and many more of those gentlemen who represent the historical school of England — share those opinions which have been expressed to us on this platform to-night 1 " Lord Granville said, in the debate at the beginning of the session, " There were 5,500 persons murdered in Lebanon, and there were some 20,000 women and children wander- ing about in a state of starvation. The Governor of Damascus was executed. The Bulgarian massacres were crimes which Mr. Baring justly describes as the most heinous that have stained the history of the present century.'' The Duke of Argyll said, "There are people who desire ' peace at any price,' but it is a price to be paid by others and not by themselves. Anything for a quiet life ; but the quietness is to be for themselves, and not for others. That is a feeling of utter Relfishness, and my belief is, that this policy will end in war. I find a note from Sir H. Bulwer (in 1860) to the Grand Vizier, ia which he coolly lays down this principle to the Prime Minister of Turkey — that all reforms which the Turks could not understand "the rNSPEAICABLE TURK." 125 must be carried into effect by Europeans, and tben he proceeds to say that the Turkish race is perfectly effete. There is not a single judge in Turkey who is not venal. ... In the Christian provinces of Turkey its Government is nothing better than a Government of Bashi-Bazouks." Lord Beaconsfield on this observed, "The noble duke has charged us with lajdng it down as a principle that in no circumstances could we advise coercion to be applied to Turkey. I listened in vain to my noble friend (Lord Derby) if he gave expression to so un- qualified a dogma." Lord Hartington said : " In the speech in the Guildhall, Lord Beaconsfield indulged in wha,t I cannot help considering taunts towards Eussia. I willingly admit that there were interspersed here and there expressions of great civility to Eussia and her Government, but remember that something was said about an ultimatum being an ugly word, when an ultimatum had just been presented by Eussia to the Porte, and something also about an ultimatum being a proceeding like bringing an action when the debt had been paid iuto court. . . . If, for the security of our Indian Empire it should be our fortune to contend against the forces of nature, and against the laws of human progress, then I say we shaU have undertaken a task which will prove beyond our powers of accomplishment. There is no power which can restore the sap and vigour to the hfeless trunk, and there is no power which can check the growth of the living, although strugghng, tree. The Turkish domination is the life- less trunk, the struggling nationalities are the Kving tree, and this House is asked to-night to assert that with these nationalities, and not with the remnant of a shameful past, are the sympathies of the British nation." The Chancellor of the Exchequer stated, " I cannot put the smallest confidence in any Constitution of that kind affording a remedy for the evil which you have to deal with." Lord Derby said, " I do not lay much stress, any more than the noble earl opposite, upon the new Constitution of the Porte. I frequently warned the Austrian Government as to the manner 126 A DEFENCE OP RUSSIA. in -wliioli Austrian volunteers -were crossing the frontier and entering Herzegovina. I was much impressed by a suggestion thrown out by Midhat Pasha at the Conference that the Porte should be allowed a reasonable time to consider what had been suggested, and if within that reasonable time, what- ever it might be, nothing was done, he considered that so far as he was concerned the Powers would have a right to demand guarantees." Even Midhat Pasha, therefore, admits that even- tually the Powers would have a right to use coercion, but the English Turcophile G-overnment thinks that never so long as the world lasts shall we be justiiied in using coercion. Twelve years ago he made this telling statement, "I believe the breaking up of the Turkish Empire to be only a question of time, and probably not a very long time. The Turks have played their part in history ; they have had their day, and that day is over, and I confess I do not understand, except it be from the influence of old diplomatic traditions, the determination of your older statesmen to stand by the Turkish rule, whether right or wrong. I think we are making for ourselves enemies of races which will very soon become, in Eastern countries, dominant races, and I think we are keeping back countries by whose improvement we, as the great traders of the world, would be the great gainers ; and that we are doing this for no earthly advantage, present or prospective. I admit that England has an interest, and a very strong one, in the neutrality of Egypt, and some interest, also, though to a less extent, in Constantinople not falling into the hands of a great European Power ; but, these two points set aside, I can conceive no injury arising to Great Britain from any transfer of power which might affect the Turkish Empire." The Earl of Dudley remarked, " I am one of those who, up to this time, have had faith in what was declared to be the Imperial policy at Moscow. Turkey is faithless and bankrupt, and no re- lations should be hettl with her until the wrongs of her Christian people are redressed. The peace of Europe is a secondary con- sideration, so far as this country is concerned. The first and main one is, that the Christian subjects of the Porte should be more " THE UNSPEAKABLE TUEK." 127 fairly governed, and that tlie undertaking about to be given should not pass on the bare promise that reforms will be carried out." The Marquis of Bath said, " If peace can only be secured by leaving the Christian populations of Turkey under that horrible Government, and in that wretched condition in which we know they are at present, I doubt much whether peace is worth pre- serving at that price.'' Mr. Forsyth said, " In Turkey no crop can be gathered until the tax-gatherer has levied one-eighth of the value of the produce, and in Nevesinge (Herzegovina) the tax-gatherer did not come to exact the tithe until January, 1875. The peasants, to save themselves from starvation, had in the meantime gathered in a portion of their crops. There is no doubt that there was a strong sympathjr for the insurgents felt by the Slavonic population of Russia and Austria ; but I defy any one to prove that this dispo- sition has been fomented by Austrian or Eussian intrigue. . . ." Mr. Evans, in his " Tour through Bosnia,'' says, " In the heat of summer men are stripped naked and tied to a tree, smeared over with honey or other sweet stuff, and left to the tender mercies of the insect world. For winter extortion it is found convenient to bind people to stakes, and leave them barefooted to be frost- bitten, or at other times they are shoved into a pig stye, and cold water poured on them. A favourite plan is to draw a party of Eayahs up a tree or into a chamber, and then smoke them with greenwood. . . . The Bosnians are of a temperament admirably fitted for Parliamentary Government j and what is more, owing to their still preserving the relics of the free institutions of the primitive Slavs, they are familiar with its machinery. In their family comm unities, in their village councils, the first principles of representative government are practised every day.'' Lord E. Fitzmaurice said, " It has been said that the rebellion was got up by foreign emissaries. Was there ever a rebellion of which this has not been said ? But assume — and I do not deny that foreigners have entered these countries, men of the same re- ligion and nationality, though owning a different political allegiance — what stronger argument can be used against the 128 A DEFENCE OF ETJSSIA. Turkish Government ? Imagine foreign emissaries coming to stir up a rebellion in England. They would speedily find their way to the nearest horse-pond, hut in Turkey they were welcomed." Mr. Holms said, "Lord Aberdeen and Mr. Sidney Herbert believed that the British forces and their ally were to take Sebastopol in a few days. Lord Eaglan and Admiral Dundas were of the same opinion, and formed strange estimates of the Russian forces — the one estimating them at 30,000, and the other at 1 20,000 men. The commerce of Turkey had greatly diminished in our case to the amount of 23 per cent., whilst Russia could show a mile of railway for every £10,000 she had borrowed." Sir H. Elliott wrote, " The Porte has never intimated an in- tention of disarming the Christians." But notwithstanding this. Her Majesty's Government, more Turkish than the Turks, rush into the field, and say this is a thing we cannot hear of, for a collision will be certain to ensue. They therefore proposed that one side (the Christian) should be disarmed and that it should then go into the presence of an armed (Mahometan) population. Sir W. Vernon Harcourt stated, " The Government of Turkey is a Government tempered by assassination and maintained by massacre. What a spectacle did those Sultans offer to the world — a dynasty of worn-out and impotent debauchees, who let loose on mankind a horde of uncontrollable wild beasts. They could no longer accept complicity with such a detestable and detested Government — an abominable and abominated race. The hand- writing of Belshazzar was already flaming on their walls. They had been weighed in the balance of European opinion and their scale had kicked the beam. For four centuries they had been the curse of Europe, Africa, and Asia. They had occupied the finest portions of the globe — the famous cities of the East — the cradles of genius and art ; but, where their hoofs had trodden, the grass had never grown. Those famous spots, so dear to the memories of mankind, were now the haunts of wild beasts, of which the worst were those who bore a human form. What reason was there to allege that in this matter the conduct of Russia had been IHE.^UBLIME ^^0R IMDICULOUSf; fORTE . /roniAe- Daily Graphic ofA'cirlcrA "the unspeakable TURK." 129 wanting in moderation 1 Indeed, considering her national sym- patHes and tlie terrible nature of the provocation, it seemed to him that her self-restraint had been astonishing." Vice-Consul Dupuis wrote from Adrianople, " Judicial torture, as your excellency is aware, is a common practice in connection with judicial proceedings now going on against Bulgarian political prisoners. . . . It is proved that in many cases they (the Turks) fired from the train on inoffensive Bulgarian laboiirers, and at Adakem two women and a man were wounded while attending to their work in the fields. . . . The wife of Nicholas Kozam, who had been confined, was killed with her four cliildren, an old woman, and a servant girl. Their bodies were, I was told, subsequently found in a well, that of the babj^ horribly gashed. The wife of Christo Isantchoff was killed as well as her two daughters, one of whom had not long been confined of twins ; both babies, together with one of the children of the second daughter, were cut into pieces. Pope Peter Patcharatoff was put into the poluse — a sort of cupboard where it is impossible to stretch one's Umbs, and sleep is out of the question — for five days." AVith reference to the working of the ridiculous Turkish Con- stitution, the Times writes as foUows : — " The issue has dissipated any hopes of equality or fraternity formed by the Christians. . . . The crucial test was furnished by the BiU on the Vilayets — that is, on the administration of the provinces. That measure, of Ministerial origin, provided that the local councUs should consist half of Mahometans and half of non- Mahometans, whatever the number of inhabitants in the district represented. If only a tenth part were Mahometans, as is the case in some places, that tenth would balance the other nine-tenths in the council ; and if, through the divisions of its opponents, it could bring over a single member, it would possess a majorit3^ Thus on the very brink of a war occasioned by the oppression of a. religious caste, and in the face of the positive enactment of the Con- stitution, these incorrigible Turks deliberately re-asserted the supremacy of their own people and the subjection of the Chris- 130 A DEPENOB OP ETTSSIA. tians in every province of the Empire. The Christian members protested, but in vain. They were outvoted and silenced. The Chamber is now practically as much a Maliometan assembly as any delegation of the Softas themselves." And it further gave, on April 6th, the following account of the- way in which this sham Constitution protects the rights and liberties even of Mussulmans : — " It is my painful duty to send you the report of a recent atrocity perpetrated by the Turkish GovernmeDit in the capital itself. The young students of the Military School, as I informed you, presented a petition to the Porte denouncing Midhat's banish- ment as unconstitutional, and soliciting his recall. The students- were marshalled out into the school-yard and biddea to reveal the author of the petition. One of them. All Nasmi, a most promis- ing pupil, aged 22, stepped forward and avowed himself guilty of the authorship. He was imprisoned and tried, add last week con- demned to receive 200 blows with a stick on the soles of his feet. He died under the infliction, after receiving 105 blows. " Other equally sad consequence of Midhat's disgrace are worth recording. Said Eflfendi, a writer in the Mussarak, is kept a prisoner, with a chain round his body and fetters on his feet, for denouncing the unconstitutionality of the Grand Yizier's exile.. With respect to Kemal Bey, it seems that the Palace insists on his being condemned, and the sentence will soon be pronounced. One wonders what becomes of the liberty of the person, of opinion, of equal justice, and the trials with open doors. One wonders, above aU. things, what has become of the abolition of all inhuman bodily punishment, bastinado, &c., solemnly decreed in a hundred Imperial Firmans. " The interest which attaches to the way in which the Turks will carry out their new Constitution gives importance to the elections, for the first Ottoman Parliament which are now being held. These elections have just been finished in. the vilayet of Adrian- ople, and the results have been such as fully to justify the distrust which the Bulgarians have felt for the Constitution from the very beginning. According to the 65th Article of the Constitution, "the unspeaeabi-e tubk." 131 every 50,000 male inhabitants (noufoussi-zv/kur) of Ottoman nation- ality will return a member. As, however, it will be the duty of the first Parliament to pass an electoral law for the present elec- tions the Government have fixed the number of members each vilayet has to return ; while as regards the mode of their election they have decreed that the members of the Provincial Adminis- trative and Judicial Councils should vote for them. Now, according to the law of these Councils, half of their members are Mussulmans, the other half being representatives of different non-Mussulman communities — Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews. They are summoned in this instance to vote on behalf of the inhabitants of the vilayet of Adrianople for eight members — four Mussulmans, and four non-Mussulmans. As the Turkish members of these Councils, in face of the internecine divisions of their non-Mussulman colleagues, could have it all their own way, they have returned four Mussulmans, two Greeks, one Bulgarian, and one Jew. There is one Bulgarian, be it remembered, for the whole Bulgarian population of this vilayet, which, at the lowest calculation, numbers more than 400,000 male inhabitants. According to the 65th Article of the Constitution, therefore, these 400,000 male Bulgarian inhabitants ought to have returned eight members instead of one. But this is not aU. The Bulgarians, unlike the Greeks, Arminians, and other non-Mussulman races' of Turkey, are not scattered over many vilayets, but are grouped in compact masses, in five only — in those of the Danube, Sophia, Adrianople, Monastir, and Salonica. We do not yet know the result of the elections in the other vilayets, but nothing leads us to suppose that a larger number of Bulgarian members will be sent by them ; at the very utmost we may hope that two Bulgarians will be returned by each of the first two vilayets, and one by each of the last three. So it may be confidently predicted that the number of Bulgarian members in the first Turkish Chamber of Deputies will be between five and seven. Yet the Christian Bulgarians of Turkey in Europe number, at least, 2,000,000 noufous (male inhabitants), and ought, therefore, according to the Constitution, to have forty representatives in the Parliament. K 2 132 A DEFENCE OE EUSSIA. It may be remarked that this will only be a temporary injustice, lasting only so long as the first Parliament lasts, and that as re- gards futute elections, the Eeform Bill which wUl be passed by the iirst Parliament will set the matter right. I doubt very much whether a Chamber of Eepresentatives, elected under such con- ditions, will ever pass a good electoral law. But, even assuming: that it will perform more than it promises, it may be observed that it is just because this first Session will have so many impor- tant matters to decide that the Bulgarians ought to have been properly represented. Nor is it only the number but also the quality of the men who are being returned that causes grave misgivings as to the benefits which the country is to derive from its Parliament. All the eight members for this vilayet, with one exception, are natives of Adrianople, and not the most briUiant natives either. The Greeks especially complain very much of the utter incapacity of the two men who have been elected as their representEttives. The Turkish electors are now doing — possibly by superior attractions — what the Turkish Government did in 1868. At that time AU Pasha had hit upon the happy thought of imposing upon the good faith of Europe by infusing as large a non-Mussulman element into the Councils of State (Shurdi Devlet) as was consistent with the principle of Mahometan preponder- ance. But to effect even this slight infusion with safety to the interests of the dominant class it was essential that the non-Mus- sulman members should be intellectually as insignificant as possible ; accordingly the four divisions of the Shurdi Devlet were filled with nonentities, who often contributed to the enlivenment, if not to the enlightenment, of that most important assembly. "This Constitution is the very opposite of a reform ; its whole spirit is 'retrograde, and designed to consolidate the Moslem- power at the expense of the Christians. It declares the Cheri to be the fundamental law of the empire, the Sultan to be the Sacred Caliph, the religion of the State Mahometan. It makes no provision for securing a Christian Administration in the Christian provinces; it makes provision for breaking up the Christian primary schools and substitiiting the Turkish language- "the -unspeakable T0EK." 13 3- for tlie Christian languages j it grants no religious liberty, but simply toleration of recognised communities ; it does not open the army to Christians. The Irad6 issued this week — we had sbeen informed that the era of Irad^s was over — opening the mili- tary schools to Christians, is a simple repetition of a similar one issued fifteen years ago, which was followed by the introduction ■of half a dozen boys into the school, when it was found that the plan would not work. This means no more, and was issued for European consumption, like the other. " The Christians certainly have nothing to hope from the Par- liament. According to the Constitution, the 5,000,000 Bulgarians ought to have fifty members in the new House ; in fact, they have only four, and these practically appointed by Midhat Pasha. This is equality under the Constitution. The Constitution does not even promise any real improvement in general administration for the benefit of Moslems. " The Sultan, the Grand Vizier, and the Sheik-ul-Islam remain, as before, the irresponsible, absolute rulers of the country, with .all the real power in their hands. The Senate is to be made up of old public functionaries — i.e., of the same ignorant, corrupt officials who have been doing their best to ruin the Empire for the last twenty years. The House of Deputies will be two-thirds Moslem, and the members are chiefly petty officials, many of whom can neither read nor write. To attempt to improve the general condition of this country by the addition of the cumbrous and expensive machinery of a Parliament to an Administration which already sufiers from the enormous development of the official class is the greatest absurdity ever thought of. Even Oliver Cromwell could not get a Parliament out of Puritan England which was not a curse to the country. Will Midhat do better in collecting together a herd of ignorant and fanatical Turkish officials, with a few almost equally ignorant and fanatical ■Christian sycophants 1 " Truth says :— " The Turkish M.P.'s are freely called 'Esbek,' or -ass, by the President, and are told to hold their tongues." In Crete there are about 220,000 Christians to 40,000 Mussul- 134 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. mans ; yet the Turks have as many representatives in the sham Constitution. They were promised remission of taxes and that some part of the revenue should be spent on local improvements, but this has not been done ; nor are Christians and Mussulmans equal before the lavf. Then again as to Turkish Finance, the World says, "If the Turkish Government had shown a little more common honesty in its dealings with its English creditors, it would have been in every way better off at the present moment. . . . Credit is as useful as capital any day, and the lack of it Turkey is now destined to discover. Ludhi Effendi is said to be coming over here on a borrowing expedition. We cannot imagine that anyone will be insane enough to lend him anything. . . . The bondholders of 1871 are even now trying hard to get possession of funds which have actually been remitted from Egypt (as part payment of its tribute to Turkey) on their account, but which are withheld by the dishonesty of Turkish financiers. While such a piece of rascality as this is being com- mitted at the expense of Englishmen, who have abeady lent their money to the Porte, with what face can an agent of that Govern- ment make his appearance here and ask for a new loan 1 If Eng- lish investors refused to lend a shilling to any foreign Government for ten years to come ... we should hot then see again such an insolent mendicant at our doors as the Turkish Govern- ment, clutching -with, one hand the money which belongs to its creditors, and holding out the other to beg for more. "The Turks, in order to obtain fresh money in the, English' market, have since released the funds in the Bank of England of the tribute loan, but only on levjdng £178,000 as black mail." Mr. Gladstone thus sarcastically depicts the' conduct of Turkey to her creditors : — "Turkey, in 1875, determined to pay her creditors only half the interest due to them, and in 1876 a new minister of the most enlightened type said that the edict which ordained that half should be paid had offended the moral sense of the country, and therefore it should be repealed. The effect of that was that "the TJKSPEAK4BLE TtTRK." 135 ■none was paid at all. I understand that wliat is called the Turkish Parliament contemplates that the first rate of interest to be paid, including sinking fund, would be 1 per cent, on the •capital received." . . . Forty years ago Mr. Cobden thus wrote of the Turks : "Pro- bably in nothing has this people been more unduly represented i;han in the praises which have been bestowed on their unrestricted principles of trade. The Turk knows nothing and cares as little about freedom of commerce — he disdains trade himself, and ■despises it in others ; and if he has failed to imitate more civilized nations (though in this point of view not wiser) by fortifying his •coasts with custom-houses, it is certainly from no wise principle ■of taxation, but simply because such a circuitous method of fiscal taxation would be far too complicated and wearisome for the minds of Ottoman governors, who prefer the simple mode of raising a revenue by the direct extortion of the Pasha or the Aga." Mehemet Kuprisli Pasha, an intelligent Turk, formerly Minister •at Berlin and London, acknowledged to Mr. Senior that Turkey "was without " a single real road, except a bit about five miles long Tvhich the French made for us." How hopeless it is to expect a population to grow in wealth and comfort under such a system of government may be gathered from the following incidents : — " Captain Ward, an Englishman, rented, at a distance of about twelve miles from Constantinople, 4,000 acres of land ; the soU was of the finest description ; the rent only £70 a year. Captain Ward spent from £3,000 to £4,000 in cultivating and improving the property, but the want of roads nullified all his efforts. He was unable to bring his produce to market, for it was more costly to move a quarter of grain from a distance of twenty miles in the interior of Turkey to Constantinople than it was to convey it from London to that port." In the preface to an interesting little book, which has just been issued, and the author of which (Mr. Barkley) is a civil engineer, who was for some years employed on the construction of a railway between the Danube and the Black Sea — we find a statement inade which so strikingly illustrates the misery and misrule 136 A DEPENCE OF RUSSIA. which exists under this Turkish system of " commercial enlighten- ment " that we cannot refrain from quoting it. " About twelve miles from Varna, and not far off the route to Shumla, is the flourishing village of Gebedji, which is partly Turkish, partly Bulgar. On entering it, one is at once struck by the appearance of prosperity exhibited in the well-built houses and large flocks of cattle. Between this village and the road is a swamp with a narrow but deep brook running through it. To assist in the construction of the line, which passed by the village, I caused a road to be made across the marsh, and a wooden bridge thrown over the brook. The first night after the bridge was completed it was cut down ; and on making inquiries about it, a Turk; told me that rather than live with this easy access to the road, the inhabitants, both Turks and Bulgars, would burn their houses and migrate to some spot where Turkish officials, Turkish troops, and, above all, Turkish Zaptiehs (police- men) could not so easily get at them." The government of Turkey is nothing but an organised system of corruption and robbery. Intelligent Turks themselves know and acknowledge this to be the case. Achmed Veofic Effendi, Minister of Justice at Constantinoplfe in 1857, said to Mr. Senior, " With us government is supposed to exist for the benefit, not of the governed, but of the governors." Violence, extortion, treachery, and fraud are the characteristic features of a modern Turkish administration. The highest office's of the state are bought and sold, and if by chance one Turkish statesman is found occasionally to make an effort to resist the contagion of corruption, the chances are that he is sacrificed at once by some political or harem intrigue, and ends his days in poverty and obscurity. Another of Mr. Senior's correspondents says : — " The Turk is utterly unimprovable. He hates change, and he hates civiliza- tion ; he hates Europeans — he hates and fears all that they pro- pose. There is not a word in the Hatti Humayoon that does not disgust, or irritate, or alarm him. Nothing but force will oblige him to give to it the appearance of execution. And what is the value of apparent reforms in a people without an aristocracy, " THE UNSPEAKABLE TUEK." 137 without a middle-class, witliout a public opinion, without the means of communication, without newspapers, without even a post-office, accustomed for 400 years to plunder and oppress Eayahs, and to he oppressed and plundered by sultans, pashas, ■cadis, and janissaries ?" As to the capacity of Bulgaria and Bosnia for freedom, writing from Adrianople in 1867, Vice-Consul Blunt said : — " As far as my experience goes, I consider the Bulgarians to be, on the whole, a shrewd, active, and industrious people, ranking in ■capacity and intelligence with any other of the European races. They require only the full development of their good qualities for attaining a high accomplishment in modern civilisation. The aspirations of the younger and more impartial generation have for the present no other political purport than to place the Bulgarian nationality on the same footing with the remainder of the Christian communities of the Ottoman Empire." Mr. Monson says, " I have been told to day that the body of a man who was ransomed was handed over to the peasant who went to fetch it and hacked to pieces, and that the Turks admit that they tortured him for two days by tearing out his finger-nails, An atrocity which is proved, it is said, by the condition of the ■corpse, and they executed two Herzegovinian refugees whom they employed to obtaLu provisions for their troops." M. Eistich, Servian Minister for Foreign Affairs, said, " The Ottoman army,' though the Servian population has nowhere opposed any resistance to the invasion, has burnt, pillaged, and sacked everywhere on its passage. All the villages which it has passed axe reduced to ashes and the churches have been shelltid. The Tcherkesse and the Bashi Bazouks were organized into bands of incendiaries. Each squad is composed of four armed men, and a fifth who carries bottles of petroleum. In many instances they have carried off women and girls, whose fate is unknown. Among the prisoners taken by us at Widdin are twelve convicts snatched from the galleys for the army. After the combat of Velike Tzvor, Colonel Leschianine ordered the Servian troops to proceed to bury the dead. Osman Pasha refused to receive the 138 A DEFENCE OF ETJSSIA. flag of truce sent to arrange this. The corpses of both camps re- main unburied." Consul Eeade says, " So slight was the cord with which one of the insurgents was executed by the Turks that it broke three times, and it did not break the fourth time solely from the unfor- tunate man being in fact partly held up by several of the military ; the intense suffering of the wretched man may be imagined. The other two who suffered were most inhumanly treated by their ■executioners, who appeared to be gloating over their revolting task by making use of the most shocking expressions and gestures to every Bulgarian Christian they met." Consul Brophy says Chefket Pasha massacred the Bulgarians of Boyadjak, who, in the words of a Mussulman present, said they allowed themselves to be slaughtered like sheep ; out of two thou- sand men, women, and children only about fifty escaped." Mr. Baring says there is only a train to Yamboli three times a week, and that "the Turkish authorities purposely fostered •dissensions between them (the Bulgarians) and the Greeks ; that the overcrowding of the prisons at PhilippopoUs was terrific. 250 men were confined for four days in a bath in which there was not the smallest attempt at drainage, the stench becoming so fear- ful that the guards could not even sit in the ante-room but had to .stay in the street ; that a priest declared to him that he was con- fined for seven days in a privy, during three of which he had neither food nor water, and for twenty-one days in the polizzi, .already alluded to, where it is impossible to sleep. "At Peroustitza the number of kiUed was three hundred, and the oflScial report says most of those committed suicide (I suppose to save themselves, Hke St. Patrick's frogs, from slaughter), the fact being that one man did." " There is no doubt that numbers of women were violated on the road. Some of the women I saw sitting on the ruins of their houses singing the most melancholy sort of dirge, others wandered about the churchyard among the corpses, while a few who seemed more than half bereft of reason, rushed about tearing their hair, TDeating their brows, and uttering piercing shrieks." These deeds "the ttnspeakable ttjek." 139 were committed not only by Bashi-Bazouks, but also by regulars, the Arab soldiers in particular distinguishing themselves by their licentiousness and cruelty. Fasli Pasha arrested two men totally unconnected with the revolution, he then indulged freely in drinking, and ordered the prisoners to be hung immediately ; the Tabour Agace refused to carry this order out unless the Pasha gave it in writing, upon which he was placed under arrest, another officer was called up, and the men were hung. The next morning, it is said, the Pasha asked to have the prisoners brought before him. The people of Bellova have now sixty oxen. A Government order comes for eighty ; only half this number is forthcoming, and the soldiers on their arrival beat the people. The Circassians liave Hved by robbery ever since they have been in the country. The " Soultans " have taken away the land of their neighbours. They also impose forced labour on the rayahs, and otherwise annoy them. The Ulema, or ministers of religion and professors of law, pay no taxes, their property is hereditary, their persons are sacred, their blood may on no account be shed, nor can they be punished legally in any way but by imprisonment and exile. Consul Hohnes reports that the firman directing the tax in lieu of military service on non-Mussulman subjects of the Porte should be levied between the ages of twenty and forty, has been repealed, and henceforward it will be levied between the ages of fifteen and seventy-five. He adds, " Sultan Hamid is supposed by the Mussulmans to be of a firm and resolute disposition, averse to any reforms in favour of the Christians of the Empire. Another instance of Turkish inconsistency and oppression is that the Sheik-ul-Islam * has proclaimed a holy war against the infidel, whilst the Sultan has imposed compulsory service on the Christians ! The Times says : — "Before the battle of the 16th inst., in which the Russians were successful, a Turkish commander knew so little of the neighbouring ground that he begged our correspondent to * Since depose J. 140 A DEFENCE OV EUSSIA. make a sketch of an important pass ; and the army was so badly posted and led that it was cut to pieces. The Turldsh general did not know what ' strategy ' meant, and in the right wing of the Army there was but one officer 'fit to command a corporal's guard.' The Kurdish irregulars are said to be a cowardly, cruel, and useless rabble. Mukhtar Pasha caused this morning two regi- mental officers to be degraded and flogged in the citadel of Erze- roum for want of gallantry.'' There have been constant ministerial changes in Turkey in recent years, the average term of service of the members of the Divan not amounting to more than four months. Whilst the Turcophiles pretend that the Sultan could not have allowed reforms carried on under foreign auspices without sacri- ficing the independence of the Empire and raising a storm of indignation amongst the Mussulman population. Consul Calvert writes (December 17th, 1876) : — " I have now seen all the local ' Beys ' or Turkish landowners. They every one comment strongly on the wretched state to which the population at large has been reduced through Ottoman mis- government, and which has caused the discontent that has brought the country to its present pass. One Bey, without any leading question on my part, volunteered confidentially his -opinion on this subject as follows : — " ' The best remedy,' he said, ' for these evils would be for the foreign Powers to insist on the association of an experienced European in the administration of the province, with power to xiontrol all abuses.' " He made this remark as an original idea of his own, and apparently in ignorance that anything of the sort had been pro- jected by the Western Powers. " I must add that whilst all spoke strongly regarding the exist- ing evils, they insisted that the Moslems are worse off than the Christians, especially in that the latter are exempted from the conscription. They added that they would gladly pay the mili- tary exemption tax many times over to obtain the same privilege. " The Beys, with hardly an exception, reside now in the pro- "the TmSPEAIABLE TURK." 141- vincial towns, only visiting their estates occasionally ; they have- no country seats. So far from asserting towards the Government any will or opinion of their own, they even obsequiously watch for the cue which is given them as occasion may require." We all know the story of the drummer who was flogging a soldier, who not unnaturally complained; upon which the- drummer said to him, " There is no pleasing you, whether I flog high or low ; you continually find fault ; " and so the Turlis appear to think the Christians most unreasonable. They diversify as much as possible the tortures they inflict on them. They try impaling, tearing out their eyes, ripping up women with child, violation, and the most ingenious and novel forms of cruelty. But the Christians are still not satisfied. Here is another specimen from the dispatch of Consul Calvert : — " The most general form of torture was as follows : The prisoner was hung up with an iron collar round his neck, attached to a chain passed through a ring let into one of the beams above. The end of this chain was pulled by zaptiehs, and the prisoner lifted up until one toe barely touched the ground. This treat- ment was occasionally varied by keeping him suspended alto- gether. The collar catching the sufferers under the chin, prevented actual strangulation, and they were kept in these positions till they swooned. These proceedings were conducted in person by the Yuzbashi Suleiman Aga, who, during the process of hanging up, kept beating the unfortunate men unmercifully, sometimes •with a stick of ordinary size, sometimes -srith a knotted cudgel as thick as one's -wrist, calling out at every blow, ' Speak, then, speak ! ' The hands of the victims were sometimes manacled,, sometimes free ; but in all cases, whenever they raised them in the attempt to ease the strain on their necks, they were struck over the hands to make them desist. A certain Abdullah Tchaousch, a zaptieh sergeant, is stated to have been, next to the Yiisbashi himself, the most zealous actor in these doings. " The priests came in for an extra share of ill-usage. Four of them were fastened by the neck to an iron hoop, and were made to move round in a circle, and were flogged as they did so. They 142 A DEFENCE OE BTJSSIA. were left for a whole night fastened to this hoop, in which posi- tion it was impossible for them to lie down. Among these priests was Pop Petko, of Yeni-kioi, who appears to have been subjected to greater cruelty and brataHty than any of the others. In his case and that of Pop Ivan, of Kravenick (who was one of those attached to the hoop), an additional form of torture was employed. The temples and jaws of these unfortunate men were pressed bj' an iron instrument till their eyes almost started from their heads, and their teeth were so loosened that in the case of Pop Petko one of them fell out. During this process they were repeatedly told to declare what they knew'. On the last occasion, when Pop Petko was hung up, the torture was prolonged to no less than twenty -four hours, during which time he was altogether lifted off the ground four times for spaces varying from half-an- hour to one hour. The priests were plucked by the beard aud hair as they were hanging. One day the Yusbashi's son, a lad fifteen or sixteen years old, fell upon Pop Petko most savagely, knocking him down, garotting him tiU the blood came from his throat, and plucking out the hairs of his beard and head by hand- fulls. Again, being placed near the door, which opened upon the courtyard, a person from outside one day dealt him so violent a blow on the ear that it suppurated, and he was deaf for many days afterwards. His legs, when they were released, were swollen to twice their size, and his health was so shattered by all these brutalities that he was confined to his bed for months after his release." " A zaptieh arrived in the village of Brankortsi, in Bulgaria, on last Christmas Day. He wished to be quartered upon one Petko, because that man had two young and pretty daughters who would be obliged to wait upon him. But the cmet, the village head-man, said this could not be, as two Albanians had been already placed at Petko's house ; whereupon the zaptieh beat the cmet, which was received as in the ordinary course of things. But the zaptieh did not stop there. He stabled his horse, and came out with bridle, saddle, and saddle-bags, and actually bridled and harnessed and then mounted the terrified and unre- " THE TUTSPEAKABIE TUEK." 143 sisting cmet. The wretch rode his ' man-horse' up and down the street, forcing him into puddles where the mud was deepest. When they came to the house which the CTmt had destined for the zaptieh's residence, the rider pulled up, alighted, and was soon surrounded by the villagers, all aghast at the sight of the strange equestrian group, yet never daring to interfere or remonstrate. The zaptieh bade the landlord bring out an armful of hay, and as the man ventured to intercede for the poor cmet, the zaptieh struck him in the face with so heavy a blow as to stretch him almost senseless on the ground. The ' man-horse ' was brought up, tied by his rider to a post outside the door, and, whip in hand, bidden to eat the hay. The poor man, now thoroughly unmanned, and bathing that forage with his tears, tried to comply with the brutal order, and took some of the hay between his teeth." Brigadier-General Williams, in a despatch addressed to Lord Clarendon from Erzeroum on February 6th, 18S5, says : — " The buying and selling of slaves by the Officers of the Kars army, is as notorious as any other malpractices on their part. Boys are preferred by those brutes, and the girls are sent to Cori- stantiaople ; and until, the allied consuls are authorised to demand the restitution of these victims to Turkish sensuality, and are provided with funds to send them back to their families in Georgia ; and until the Porte is bound by treaty to send the culprits so detected to the galleys for a certain specified time, this infamous traffic will flourish ; and all which has been said, or may be written, about abolitionary firmans, simply adds mockery to crime and woe. ' When I saw Mustapha Pacha quit the camp at Kars, and fawn upon the soldiers drawn out in line to salute him who had robbed and starved them, he was closely followed, and that at noon-day, by two Georgian slaves under an escort of regular cavalry. They had been bought the day previous to his departure, and this traffic was notorious throughout the camp. Your lordship may therefore infer that, had the Turks penetrated into Georgia last campaign, very few youths of either sex would have escaped pollution ; and I feel bound to tell your lordship my 144 A DEFENCE OP EUSSIA. opinion on this most interesting subject, which is, that if England does not effectually repress this trade by stringent treaty, Russia wiU accomplish it by her arms ; that is, if peace leave her in possession of Georgia." The reader should remember that this was the testimony, not of an anti-slavery emissary, or even of a subject Christian, but of a commander who had fought gallantly for the Turks, and whose name wiU. be remembered by posterity as that of the " Hero of Kars." Vice-consul Brophy writes, " The murder of the shepherd of TeUakem was perpetrated because he refused to give some Turks sixty sheep or their value. His body was found with the jaw- bone smashed and the teeth all knocked out. A knife had been passed through the throat, not so as to cut it thoroughly, but to stick him like a pig." M. Eistich, Minister of Servia, says, " The country has been systematically ravaged, the fields are laid waste, whole villages delivered to the flames. . . During the battle of the 22nd of August before Alexinatz, they fired on an ambulance until they saw the red flag disappear. Some Turkish horsemen having met the Secretary of the Eed Cross Committee of Alexinatz in the exercise of his duty, rushed upon him. First, they cut off the arm which bore the badge, then they cut the cross itself from this unhappy man's arm, who expired in the most horrible torments." In an enclosure, M. Eistich sends a declaration from seven inhabitants of Bulgaria : " We are forced to be present at the dis- honour of our daughters, who are ravished under our eyes, and who fall victims to the vile passions of the Turks. Our children are carried off into slavery and forced to embrace the Mahometan religion. Those who resist are mercilessly slaughtered ; our wives are ripped up, and the children cut out of their bodies with the sword ; our houses are set on fire, our cattle carried off, our chm-ches desecrated and destroyed." Colonel Horvatovitch states, " Bodies have been thrown into the wells, and wherever there was drinking water. In the streets- body was found, and the legs were entirely flayed from the thighs "IHE UNSPEAKABLE TTOtK." 145 to tlie feet. Govko Kaissia was tortured and killed in his house by a red hot iron." M. Durando tells us in the Italian Green Book : — " In relating their griefs, the state of nudity and of privation of their families wandering among the rocks, these men shed floods of tears." Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., told Sir H. Elliott, " Although there was no rising here (in the Dobroudja) the Bashi Bazouks and the Circassians have committed the same horrors as everywhere else. As elsewhere they violated girls over ten years old and women ; other children they cut in pieces and burnt in sight of the mothers. . . These scenes, worthy of cannibals, were repeated in other villages. . . At SiUstria many bodies have been seen in the Danube, and these bodies have been recognised to be those of the poor Bulgarians who were arrested , . all these corpses had their hands tied behind their backs. , . A Bulgarian peasant being one day with his wife, his son, his daughter-in-law, and some children in the field, the Turk, accompanied by some fellow;- countrymen aU armed to the teeth, came upon them suddenly, first kiUed the men by disembowelling them, afterwards violated the women, and finally cut their throats as weU as the children's. To tliis day the assassins walk freely about and boast of their exploit. The Ottoman authorities do not stir a finger. They think this horrible atrocity appropriate, for it only affects Ohiaours." The atrocities of the Turks, to use the expression of a French writer, are " crimes peut-etre inconnues aux enfers " ; they spare neither men in their anger, nor women in their lust. To show with what chivalrous magnanimity Prince Nicholas of Montenegro carries on the war agaiast the Turks, in spite of their barbarous conduct to the Montenegrins, I quote what Mr. Monson vmtes from Cettigne on October 5, 1876 : " Prince Nicholas is very anxious to show by every means in his power that he knows how to carry on the war with courtesy towards the enemy. " The Grand Vizier having requested permission to send provi- sions into Medim during the late war, His Highness replied that he would do that himself on condition that he might be allowed 146 A DEFENCE OF RUSSIA. to verify the number of the garrison, although he knew that the fortress was reduced to such straits that it must soon surrender from famine. " Again, Osman Pasha having told Mr. Stillman that his health was affected by the monotony of his life at Cettigne, the Prince at once allowed him three weeks leave of absence to go to Bagusa for change of air, and supplied him with a sum of money far more than enough to pay his expenses handsomely." As to Turkish slavery, I have to observe, in former times a " good middbng" Circassian girl was worth £100. Mr. Joseph Cooper, hon. secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, in his recent pamphlet, "Turkey and Egjrpt, Past and Present, in Relation to Africa,'' estimates that the number of negroes annually taken from Africa, chiefly for the supply of Turkey and Egjrpt, is over 70,000, but that for every slave who reaches his destination five die en route, or are killed in the savage warfare which takes place in the effort to capture them. " In mutUatiiig the negroes for the harems, two out of three," says Major MiUingen, " die under the operation." A good female cook fetches £75 at Constantinople, and some- times as much as £1,000 is given for a Circassian beauty. Fuad Pasha, in a letter to Professor Lavelayo in 1868, said that " the abolition of slavery was a principle to which the Turkish Government adheres with its whole heart," yet Major MiUingen says, " a wife of Fuad Pasha, ia common with other great ladies of Stamboul, was well known as an extensive trader in Circassian beauties." At the beginning of the last century, as quoted by Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Lady Mary Wortley Montague wrote : — " We crossed the deserts of Servia, almost quite overgrown with wood in a country naturally fertile. The inhabitants are industrious ; Ijut the oppression of the peasants is so great that they are forced to abandon their houses and neglect their tillage ; all they have being a prey to the janis- saries whenever they please to seize upon it. We had a guard of 500 of them, and I was almost in tears to see their insolences to "the ■onspeakablb tttrk." 147 the poor villages through which we passed. . . . Indeed the janissaries had no mercy on their (the peasants') poverty, Idlling all the poultry and sheep they could find, without asking to whom they helonged. . . . When the pachas travel it is yet worse." More than twelve years ago, our ambassador at Constantinople, a well-known Turcophile, Sir Henry Bulwer, recorded the fol- lowing opinion of the permanent characteristics of Turkish rule : — "Wherever the Turk is sufSciently predominant to be implicitly obeyed, laziness, corruption, and extravagance mark his rule ; and wherever he is too feeble to exert more than a doubtfal and nominal authority, the system of government which prevails is that of the Arab robber and the lawless Highland chieftain." K there be one person in England likely to be a favourable witness for Turkey, it is Mr. Layard ; and yet here is his descrip- tion of what he himself saw of the treatment of the unfortunate Nestorian Christians in Kurdistan : — " Their church was in ruins —around were the charred remains of the burnt cottages, and the neglected orchards overgrown with weeds. A body of Turkish troops had lately visited the village, and had destroyed the little that had been restored since the Kurdish invasion. The same taxes had been collected three times, and even four times over. The relations of those who had run away to escape from the exactions had been compelled to pay for the fugitives. Tlie chief had been thrown, with his arms tied lehind his lack, on a heap of lurning straw, and compelled to disclose where a little money that had been saved by the villagers had been buried. The priest Jiad been tm-n from tlie altar, and beaten before his congregation. Men showed me the marks of torture on their body, and of iron fetters round their limbs. For the sake of ringing a few piastres from this poverty- stricken people, all these deeds of violence had been committed by officers sent by the Pmie to protect the Christian subjects of the Sultan, wJiom they pretended to Jiave released from the misrule of the Kurdish chiefs." The Times correspondent with the Turkish army in Asia reluc- tantly states :— " Arriving in the country a strong Philo-Turk, 148 A DErBNCE OF ETJSSIA. deeply impressed with the necessity of preserving ' the integrity of the Empire,' in order to uphold ' British interests,' I now fain would cry with Mr. Freeman, ' Perish our Indian interests rather than one English soldier should fall fighting for Turkey.' . • • After accompanying a Turkish army in the field, after witnessing the privations of the men owing to the criminally faulty commis- sariat arrangements ; after seeing the miseries of the wounded untended and uncared for ; after hearing of, as well as seeing the oppression habitually exercised on Christians by aU Mahomedans. . . . . I cannot help feeling that she is past redemption, and that any encouragement given her will only prolong the present struggle, afibrd Russia a pretext for further aggression, and make the blow, when it does come, fall harder upon the mis- guided nation." The editors and compositors of the Turkish iiewspapers Selamet and Massamt have been exiled and the publication of these journals suspended for articles urging the removal of Eedif Pasha. A forced loan of five millions has been voted to be obtained by an anticipatory collection of double taxes and of ordinary revenue. When the Chamber of Deputies demanded explanations from the War Minister, he refused to appear. With reference to the conduct of the Montenegrins to the Turkish wounded and prisoners, I now append the following portion of a dispatch from Prince Nicholas. The Prmce of Montenegro says : — " I observe with pleasure that the Government of her Majesty the Queen does justice to my personal feehngs in this respect, and this impression, sir, will certainly have been confirmed by your own reports. You have yourself beSn able to see how our prisoners are treated. In aU we have had about a thousand, who have been fed, cared for, even clothed, and afterwards set at liberty. You have been in a position to compare our proceedings with those of the Turks, who have made no prisoners, or have only kept them a few days to behead them afterwards, as you wiU have been informed by some of your fellow countrymen, eye-witnesses of .such deeds in Moulrtar Pasha's camp. "the tinspeaxable tube." 149 " I regret to find in your letter notHng indicating tte special cases of cruelty which have been brought to the knowledge of the English Ambassador at the Sublime Porte. " In the absence of aU information on this point, I must pre- sume that certain wounded are referred to of whom mention has been made in the papers, and who have been exhibited in the hospitals of Constantinople, whither they had been conveyed from Albania. Now these same men, to the number of seven, have, at the request of the Vali, been inspected in the ambulances at Scutari by the European Consuls, who have borne witness to their noses having been mutilated ; but at that time there was no question of prisoners being impaled and others cut to pieces alive or slashed with knives ; all these horrors were added after the wounded had been conveyed to the capital and exposed to view there. " Certainly, I was very indignant and angry upon learningjthat our auxiliaries the Kutchi had treated in such a way soldiers left for dead on the field of battle, and I gave most strict orders that such acts should not be repeated. From the commencement of the war I have neglected no means to induce our people to renounce the barbarous habits which they had been taught by their adversaries themselves. " In the late actions, the latter have not rendered this task an easy one, for, from the first day of active hostilities, the heads of twenty-two Montenegrins, beheaded alive, have been exposed by them on the bridge of Podgoritza ; and the Turkish Commander- in-Chief, personally, refused to give up these sinister trophies to four of our women who had the courage to go to him and claim them for interment. "Besides this, the Orthodox Greek priest of one of our villages has been subjected by them to one of the tortures which they accuse us of having employed ; they have hacked him to pieces alive with the sabre. " Notwithstanding this, assisted by my officers, I have done all I can to prevent reprisals. The many strangers, including the Agents of various States, who have followed my head-quarters, 150 A DEFENCE OF ETJSSIA. can attest how far I have succeeded ; I leave myseK in their hands. " In every case, even in the most terrible moments of a mortal straggle of centuries, have the Montenegrins never allowed them- selves to be carried away by the example of their enemies, so as to commit upon ithem the horrible cruelties of which the papers have spoken." This statement is confirmed by the following dispatch from Consul Monson : — " With reference to m.f dispatch of the 4th instant, reporting a conversation which I had had with Prince Nicholas respecting the multUations of Turkish soldiers by Montenegrins, I have the honour to state that Colonel Thommel informs me that he has addressed a full report to Count Andrassy upon this subject, upon which his presence at the Prince's head- quarters during most of the campaign, and his acquaintance with the country for the last twenty years, enable him to speak with more authority than I can pretend to claim4 " I have reason, however, to believe that the gist of his opinion, formed from personal observation and the information of trust- worthy individuals, is to the effect that comparatively little reproach on the score of inhmnanity can fairly be made against the Mon- tenegrins for their conduct in the recent combats; and that he sub- stantially confirms the Prince's statements as I have reported them." The rascality of the Turks in fabricating atrocities which they pretend were committed by the Montenegrins is shown by the following dispatch from Consul Monson : — " With reference to my dispatch of the 24th December last, inclosing copies of my correspondence with Prince Nicholas respecting the alleged mutilation of wounded Turks by Montenegrins, I have the honour to state that the ' Glas Czrnagora ' of yesterday publishes a letter addressed by an inhabitant of Podgoritza to a friend at Cettigne, giving an account of the manner in which, by the order of Hussein Pasha, the faces of some of the unburied dead (Turkish soldiers) at Fimdina had been recently mutilated and disfigured, in order to prove to three English surgeons that the charges of atrocities, made against the Montenegrins were not unfounded." "the TTfrSPEAEABLE TTIRK." 151 Mr. Holms tells us that in 1865 our trade with European Turkey was £8,282,068 ; in 1875 it had fallen to £7,931,841 ; and our exports of British produce fell from £4,961,731 in 1865 to £3,630,365 in 1875, a decrease of more than 25 per cent. The estimated expenditure of Turkey for 1875-6 was £23,143,000, exclusive of £9,500,000 for the insurrection in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to meet this the nominal revenue is £1 9, 106,000 ; but it was calculated that not more than £15,300,000 would be collected. To show the financial effect of freeing a province from Turkish tyranny, it suffices to say, that Roumania, which in 1861 only took from us £196,000 worth of goods, in 1875 took from us goods to the amount of £1,163,231. The words which that eloquent writer, De Maistre, uses towards an eminent sceptical writer, with a slight alteration, apply most aptly to the " Unspeakable Turk '' : — " He plimges into filth ; he rolls himself in it, he saturates himself with it ; he invents prodigies of horror — ^monstrosities which make the blood run cold ; he abandons his imagination to the powers of darkness, which lend him all their strength to carry him to the furthest limits of evil England applauds him, Sodom would 'have banished him." A Times correspondent at Alexandria writes : — " Some three or four days ago I had occasion to visit on a matter of business one of the better class of Turkish officials, who has held at different times the positions of Governor of Alexandria, Minister of Foreign Affairs ad interim, and Minister of Justice. ... A big map lay open before the Pasha, who pointed me out Kars with considerable pride. ... A reference on my part to the presence of Sir Fenwick Williams at the former siege did not meet with the success I had expected. ' Very likely, very likely; there are Englishmen everywhere all over the place ; ' and another Turk present borrowed from Scripture an uncomplimentary com- parison for my countrymen, and told me that ' the English went to and fro like Sheitan (Arabic for Satan) himself.' An unfor- tunate reference to Besika Bay brought upon me a fire of good- natured chaff (if it is hot profane to apply such a term to the 152 A DEFKfrCE OF ErSSIA. pleasantry of sober Osmanlis). ' Why was' the fleet going there 1 ' repeated the Pasha. ' Because there was good shooting,' said one.. 'Was it to protect the Christians?' asked another. ' Because they find we are getting on too well without them,' said a third. ' Because you want us more than we want you,' said a fourth. An Arab of the better fellah class said, ' Allah is great ; the Murki (Russians) are damned ; the English are soon to be aU Mussulmans. ' " " The bearer of this paper (says the receipt for the tax) is a Christian, who has paid the capitulary contribution. He is permitted to wear his head on his shoulders during one year." The Hatti Humayoun (which means ' august writing ') which was published in 1827 by Sultan Mahmoud, begins with these words : — " All reasonable men know that the Mussulman is the mortal enemy of infidels." Major Eussell, in his "Eussian Wars with Turkey," quotes the following absurd language which, according to him, was uttered by Lord Pahnerston : — " I much question that there is any process of decay now going on in the Turkish Empire. . . . All that we hear every day of the week about the decay of the Turkish. Empire, and its being a dead body and a sapless trunk and so forth, is jiure and unadulterated nonsense. I by no means think with you (Sydney Herbert) that he (the Emperor of Eussia) will have an easy victory over the Turks. On the contrary, if the betting is not even, I would lay odds on the Turks ! I do not believe in the disaffection of the Turkish provinces ! " The Times, writing from Shumla, says, " Every village is full of loungers. . . In the whole of the village I speak of, there were not, I should say, so many household utensils and comfort-giving articles as would be found in the poorest cottage in a Suffolk hamlet. Tables, chairs, cups, glasses, mugs are unknown. The mess is brought on to the ground in the cauldron it has been cooked in, and host and guests snatch from it with their fingers. Even an educated Turk writing a letter wiU take it off the table and finish it on the back of a book, or even holding it in his hand.. It would be impossible to send the Turks out of Europe with bao- and baggage, for practically they have neither. The Chivalrous BaShi-Bazouk. From the Daily Graphic of New York. t:^^£!^J/F aJ^^eit/ -(^^e/^na tZm^TTiac/, ^e^e/ /^d^^Me/f^) cHteuMM i^nythrieJ Cd^na-Txy ifp-Kja^ayft(4. Tf'^JOf "the unspeakable TURK." 153 " The spirit (of the Turks) is just what makes a soldier. They leave family and friends seemingly without a regret ; the home- sickness which depresses the conscripts of Christian armies- appears to be unknown to them ; they serve with a strange miz- ture of apathy and devotion, careless of their own lives, thoughtless of those they have left behind." "We might have added that there is probably not a single tooth- brush among the whole Ottoman population. It seems never to occur to our thick-skulled and hard-hearted Turcomaniac wiseacres that if we went off on a wild-goose chase with our handful of soldiers to defend imaginary British interests in the East, the Germans might take the opportunity of seizing. Holland, the French might annex Belgium, or another Indian mutiny might take place ; but I suppose they think some 50,000 British troops are a match for any number of millions of the soldiers of other countries, and that we can easily beat the world, in arms. Suppose the Indian mutineers had had the " gumption " to rebel when we were engaged in the Crimean War, what would havfr become of our Indian Empire ? While we were fighting with Eussia to protect the supposed outworks of our Indian citadel, at the cost of the national disgrace of rivetting the chains of the Turk on the oppressed Christians, the fortress itself would, probably have been irretrievably lost. 154 A DEFENOE OP EXTSSIA. POLAND FEOM A COMMON SENSE POINT OF VIEW. A GKEAT outcry is now raised by the Philo-Turkish party about tlie- real and imaginary wrongs of Poland, as a set-off to the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria and elsewhere; but when Mr. Horsman, and other Liberals, brought the wrongs of Poland before the House of Commons, at the time when the Russian excesses were- committed, the Conservative party were silent and indifferent,, though it now suits their purpose to furbish up this blunt and rusty weapon ; and some of the most violent partisans of Turkey are probably holders of Tarkish non-dividend-paying Stocks, while' I have never held a single bond, either of impecunious Turkey or dividend-paying and honest Eussia. Perhaps few are aware that in a preceding century the Poles invaded Eussia, annexed great portions ©f that country, and imposed a PoUsh prince on the Eussian throne, and that. therefore there was a hostile feeling in Eussia against Poland, on that account. In addition to this, there was a continual state- of anarchy in Poland ; and in the seventeenth century Sweden conquered Poland, and held it in bondage for five years, and when the partition of Poland took place, it was not a Eussian proposal at aU; but the Eussian Government, seeing that. Prussia and Austria were determined to have a partition, decided, that the least evil was to have its own share of the plunder. To show what was the state of Poland before its partition, it- suffices to quote the following account of it from Voltaire's " Life of Charles XII." ;— " This great country is very fertile ;. but the people are, in consequence, so much the less industrious. POLAND FEOM A COMMON SENSE POINT OP VIEW. 155 The workmen and mercTiauts one sees in Poland are Scotckmen, Frenchmen, Jews especially. . . . This country remains poor,, in spite of its abundance, because its people is enslaved, and because its nobility is proud and lazy. . . . Every gentle- man has the right to give his vote in the election of a king, and to be one himself. . . . The throne is almost always at auction, and, as a Pole is seldom rich enough to buy it, it has. been often sold to foreigners. The nobility and the clergy defend their liberty against their king, and take it away from the rest of the nation. All the people are slaves. . . . There the peasant does not sow for himself, but for the lord to -whom he, his fisld, and the work of his hands belong, and who can sell him and cut his throat with the beasts of the earth. Every one whO' is a gentleman is his own master. It is necessary, to judge him in a criminal affair, to have an assembly of the whole nation ; he can only be arrested after being condemned, consequently he is. scarcely ever punished. . . . The nobility, jealous of its- liberty, often sell its suffrages and rarely its affections. Scarcely have they elected a king when they fear his ambition, and oppose to him their cabals. . . . Every gentleman enjoys the right to oppose himself to the laws of the senate. A single gentleman who says, ' I protest,' arrests by this word alone the unanimous resolution of all the rest ; and if he leaves the place where the Diet is held it must then separate." Voltaire further tells us that there were about 100,000 of these tyrannical, indolent, factious and turbulent nobles, and that they did not even use their native language, but spoke Latin. A few particulars of the dismal history of Poland may interest their new-found friends, the Philo-Turks. In 1079, King Boleslaus murdered St. Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow, with his own hands. In 1164, Casimir II. invaded and conquered Prussia, which he placed under tribute. In 1296, King Premislas was assassinated. In 1 349, Casimir the Great conquered Little Eussia and Silesia ; and in 1366 he took Eed Eussia from the Lithuanians. In 1498 the Wallachians invaded Poland, and carried off 100,000 Poles, •whom they sold to the Turks as slaves. 156 A DEFENCE OP EXTSSIA. In 1648, Casimir V. invaded the Ukraine, and ravaged it with fire and sword ; and in 1668 this same prince, tired of the ingrati- tude and factiousness of the Poles, abdicated, in spite of their entreaties that he would remain their sovereign, and retired to a monastery in France, of which he became abbe, and where he would never allow himself to be called king. On the occasion of his abdication, he told the Polish Diet, more than a century before the first partition : " I foresee the misfortunes which threaten our country ; please God that I may be a false prophet. The Musco- vite and the Cossack will join themselves to the people who speak the same language as themselves, and will appropriate Lithuania j the boundaries of Great Poland wiU be open to Brandenburg ; i and Prussia herself wiU put forward treaties, or the right of conquest, to invade our territory. In the midst of this dismemberment of our states, the house of Austria will not let the opportunity escape of fixing its views on Cracow." Other nations besides the Eussians have treated the Poles with severity, and especially the Turks, whose cruelties to them I have related in the chapter on " The Unspeakable Turk." For instance, Voltaire tells us that the Swedes under Charles XII., when in Poland, in a certain district " seized all the peasants they could find ; they obliged them to hang each other, and the last ' was forced to pass the rope around his own neck, and to be his own executioner. They burnt all their dwellings." When the King of Poland himself foresaw and prophesied its partition, and when he proved by his abdication that it was im- possible for the wisest, bravest, and best of princes to govern this anarchical and ungrateful nation, the only wonder is that the neighbouring states, who had been tormented for centuries by cruel and aggressive wars levied on them by the Poles merely to keep their turbulent nobility employed, did not extinguish the Polish volcano sooner. In the middle of the seventeenth century the Cossacks of the Dnieper threw off their allegiance to Poland and became subjects of the Czar, and in Lithuanian Poland serfdom was more oppres- sive than in Russia. POLAIfD FEOM A COMMON SENSE POINT OF YIEW. 157 In 1815, the Emperor Alexander, wlio was considered a Ee- publican monarcli, granted the Poles a more liberal constitution than even England expected or desired ; and it worked extremely well for fifteen years, during which period Poland made far greater progress than in any former period of her eventful history. The Poles have trumped up a story, without any adequate proof, that the Emperor Nicholas intended to deprive them of their con- stitution ; but as he ascended the throne on December 24th, 1825, and faithfully performed his constitutional duties as sovereign of Poland until after the unjustifiable revolution of 1830, this charge falls to the ground. In fact, why should the Czar, who respected the free constitution of Fiuland and Courland tiU the day of his 4eath, have broken faith with the Poles alone ? In 1846, Austria, Eussia, and Prussia, finding that Cracow was a nest of conspirators plotting against the peace and security of their three countries, took possession of the republic, and it was annexed, not to Eussia, which is always accused of being so super- eminently greedy, but to Austria, for whom England has never any expressions but those of the most extravagant compliment. Though England protested against the conduct of the three Powers to Cracow, Lord Palmerston, the bitter enemy of Eussia in later life, approved of it, as may be seen by Lord Balling's life of that statesman (p. 248 : " Cracow ") :— " There is something to be said for the three Courts, but then they have spoiled their own case by not choosing to own ■that they were afraid of disturbances at home." The grounds put forward in their notes to the Cracow Senate are utterly untenable; however, Lord Calling adds : "It was considered that Eussia and Austria had - a right to interfere with Cracow if the persons who resided there menaced the tranquillity of their dominions ; and no doubt this was the case. But the two Govern- ments would not acknowledge that they could be menaced, and this Lord Pahnerston thought spoilt their case." An additional illustration of the truculent character of the Poles, and of the fact that other nations have treated them with ■undue severity as well as Eussia, is supplied by the circumstance 158 A DEJENCB OJ? ETJ8SIA. that in February, 1846, tte peasantry of G-allicia, in Austrian Poland, were incited to insurrection by the nobles and clergy. The Austrians, to prevent this, excited in the peasantry a suspicion of the motives of the nobles, and offered a reward for every noble delivered up, alive or dead. A general massacre of the nobility in the circle of Tarnow, followed, and the sanguinary peasantry, who are supposed to be such devout Catholics, completed their abominable atrocities by gratuitously murdering the Roman Catholic clergy also. If we really felt so strongly for the wrongs of Poland as we and the French pretend, why did we not on the occasion of the Crimean War fight for the independence, or at least the autonomy, of Russian Poland, and demand as a sine qiiA nan of peace that Poland should have institutions as liberal as those of another portion of the Russian empire, namely, Finland 1 And if the Poles had possessed ordinary good sense they would have revolted in 1854, when Russia was engaged in the Crimean War, instead of waiting till years after the peace of Paris, when the undivided strength of Russia could be used against them. The Polish legion which served under Napoleon obtained an infamous notoriety for its surpassing cruelties, and one might almost have supposed that the legion of devils whom Christ cast out, and which entered into the herd of swine, had taken subse- quent possession of these Poles. As to the French, who are so full of verbal and lachrymose senti- mentality at the wrongs of Poland, they did not restore their kingdom when Napoleon wintered in their country on the occasion of his Russian campaign ; and he remorselessly and ungratefully left them, at the peace, in the power of Russia. In 1862, the Emperor Alexander II. promised reform and the re-establishment of Poland as a separate kingdom ; but, in conse- quence of the incurable turbulence of the Polish nobles, who were afraid of the emancipation of their miserable serfs and of the in- habitants of some of the towns, the revolution broke out in that year. In 1863, the Poles invaded Volhynia, and tried to raise an insurrection, but they were wholly unsuccessful. POLAND rEOM A COMIION SENSE POINT OP VIEW. 159 On the occasion of ttis rebellion, Prince Gortschakoff, the ■governor, at first acted •with great forbearance; and though. <3-eneral Gerstenzweig, the military governor, was assassinated, no very severe measures were adopted ; and the Eoman Catholic Archbishop of Warsaw, FeHnski, exhorted the Poles to submission. In May, 1862, the Grand Duke Constantine was appointed governor, and begun with a lenient policy, but his life was attempted by Jaroszynski ; and Telkner, the chief o^ the police, as well as many other Russians, were murdered, some of whom were poisoned. Upon this, deplorable measures of excessive rigour were adopted to queU the rebellion and restore order ; but none of them were so bad as the conduct of the French under General Pelissier, so recently as the reign of Louis Philippe, who suffocated a large number of men, women, and children in a cave in Algeria ; but then ill-treatment of Eoman Catholics by Greek heretics is a much more heinous sin than infinitely worse treatment of mere Arabs by orthodox Catholics. After all, the severity of Russia was nothing in comparison -with the Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria and elsewhere ; and about the worst thing which was alleged against Russia, namely, its treatment of the Polish ladies, was precisely the same as that of General Butler to the ladies of New Orleans during the War of Secession in America. As to the innumerable Polish nobles, Madame de MotteviUe said of their ostentatious appearance, " Many diamonds and little linen." As every one knows, the begging for Polish exiles was a continual nuisance for a long succession of years, and a large pro- portion of these exiles either possessed or fabricated the titles of count or baron, which they could only have obtained from the Russian, Austrian, or Prussian Governments, since there were no titles whatever in Poland ; now it seems rather contemptible for men to complain of tyranny, and to retain the titles given them by the alleged tyrants; and Sobieski, King of Poland, spoke bitterly of " the insane ambition of a plebeian noblesse." It should be observed, too, that torture was not abolished in Poland till 1770 i60 A DEPENCE OF ETJSSIA. We have imperative duties to the Christians of Turkey, because by an aggressive war we deprived them of the protection of Russia, and because we can force the Turks to do them justice by our fleet alone ; but we have no duties to the Poles, who have never even been our allies, but were some of our most deter- mined enemies when we fought with the French ; and, besides, it is neither the right nor the duty of England to make military promenades across the territories of friendly nations, and it would be impossible for us to land an army in Eussia and march it into Poland. My firm belief is that the true policy of the Poles as a Sclavonian race in these days, when the principle of nationality is the only link which can effectually and permanently bind men together, is to throw in their lot frankly and cordially with Eussia, in which case the Czar would most certainly perform the promise he made in 1861, and which he was prevented from fulfilling by their unwise revolution, of restoring to them a liberal constitution. The Eussian Emperor has been the very best friend whom the over- whelming majority of the Polish nation have ever had, since he has transformed them from slaves to freemen ; and the difference in religion should be no bar to a complete union between two kindred nations, each of whom has something to forgive the other, •since nowadays Protestants live happily in Belgium and else- where under a Catholic sovereign, and the Pope has recently declared that nowhere in the world have Eoman CathoHcs such freedom in the exercise of their religion as in England, where the Protestants are in an overwhelming and permanent majority. The Eussians have been severely blamed for abolishing the Polish Constitution after the rebellion, but it seems to be for- gotten that, on the occasion of an infinitely less serious rebellion in Jamaica, England adopted precisely the same course, and abolished the Constitution of Jamaica. Alison says : — " The cessation of the jealousy and hostility which had so long subsisted between Eussia and Poland, and the opening «f the vast market of Muscovy to Polish industry, was an immense advantage. Warsaw, which in 1797 had only 66,572 inhabitants, POLAUD FROM A COMMON SENSE POINT OF VIEW. 161 rose to 140,000 in 1842. Tte revenue augmented before 1830 threefold ; and the entire kingdom, which in 1815 had only a hundred weaving looms, had, in 1830, 6,000 looms ; whilst the scholars, who were only a few hundreds in 1815, rose to 35,000 in 1830." To show, in conclusion, that the Poles are not so anti-Eussian as some pretend, the Times says of the present Diet of G-alHcia : " The leaders of the Polish nohility, rich proprietors, who possess vast domains in Eussia, carefully avoid all that could be construed as a provocation by the Eussian G-overnment, and in regard to this the governor. Count Potocki, has even gone the length of, disapproving the singing of Polish national airs." M 162 A DEPENOE or EUSSIA. IRELAND THE ENGLISH POLAND. The exclusion of the great body of the natives from the benefit of the English law continued for several centuries, from the reign of Henry IL till that of Elizabeth, and its effect was " to deprive the whole Jbish nation (excepting the five tribes already men- tioned, the descendants of the colonists, and the inhabitants of the seaports) of all remedy at law for any injury done them, and even of aU power of suing for redress in any court of justice." King John landed at Waterford in 1185. " He commenced by offering personal insults to the Ksh chieftains who came to oifer their respects to him as the son of their sovereign (Henry II.). He and his courtiers plucked their beards, ridiculed their dress and manners, mimicked their attitudes, and finally turned them out of the presence." The Statute of Kilkenny, passed in 1367, " forbade, under pain of high treason, marriage, fosterage, or gossipred between persons of EngHsh descent and the old Irish families. It also forbade aU persons of English descent to use the Irish language or to adopt Irish names. ... It strictly forbade the Kiag's subjects in Ireland to entertain in their houses Irish minstrels, musicians, or story tellers. It also forbade them to allow an Irish horse to graze upon their lands." Richard II. stipulated that MacMurrough, Prince of Leinster, should quit Leinster by a certain day, having surrendered all the territories there to His Majesty, his heirs and successors. " Hia Majesty gave full licence and encouragement to MacMurrough to seize upon all such territories belonging to the Irish septs in any other part of the realm which he could grasp by violence. He also undertook to pay MacMurrough a pension of eighty marks." lEELAiro THE ENGLISH POLAMI). 163 In the reign of Henry V. a statute was passed in England *' forbidding all Irisli adventurers whatsoever to come into Eng- land, at the same time ordering all who had already come to •depart without delay. ... It also included the sons of the Irish nobility, who were then studying in the English Inns of Court and in the Universities." " In the year 1463 a Parliament, held at Trim by Fitz-Eustace, Lord Portchester made a law " that anybody may kill thieves or robbers, or any person going to steal or rot, having no faithful men ■of good name and in the English dress in their company.'' After the battle of Knockton,Lord Gormanstown said toKildare, ■" We have beaten our enemies, but in order to finish the good work we ought now to cut the throats of the Irish who have helped us to do so." Lord Grey, the English commander, "invited five uncles of Lord Thomas (Fitzgerald) to a feast, in the ncddst of which he treacherously seized them, and sent them in custody to England." .... Henry VIII. " had them all hanged at Tyburn.'' The Government (time of Henry VIII.) " transferred the tithes to the Protestant clergy, and the greater portion of abbey lands to powerful laymen, thus throwing on the Catholic people of Ire- land the support of two Churches, their own and the new one." The Lord Lieutenant, Sir William Fitz- William (reign of Eliza- beth), "marched into Monaghan, seized on the chief of the McMahons, had him tried and convicted on a false charge of high treason by a jury of common soldiers, by whom the hapless chief was murdered on the spot." By means of anonymous and false charges, and convictions by packed juries, James I. "confiscated in Ulster 385,000 acres." . . , . Afterwards he issued " a Commission for the discovery of defective titles." Sir William Parsons's (the head of this Com- mission) mode of proceeding was torture and subornation of per- jury. In the celebrated case of the O'Byrnes of the Eanelaghs, " he suborned witnesses to swear an accusation against these gentle- men. . . . He had one witness, named Archer, placed on a gridiron over a charcoal fire, burned in several parts of his body M 2 j164 a defence of Russia. with hot irons, and barbarously flogged, in order to compel the wretchedmantoswear against the two O'Byrnes. . . . When he was tortured beyond his endurance he promised to swear all that Parsons wished, and by this diabolical proceeding the pro- prietors were robbed of their inheritance." In 1628 the Catholic, and some of the Protestant, nobility of Ireland framed a petition to the King, Charles I., requesting the concession of " certain privileges called the graces "... which were " security of property, religious liberty, free trade, mitigation of the severities practised by the Established clergy (Protestant), abolition of the private prisons kept by that clergy for the incar- ceration of persons condemned in the Church courts, a free pardon for all past political offences." . ; . For these they offered him the sum — an enormous one for those days — of £100,000." . . . Charles took the money, but did not grant the graces ! By means of the Commission to inquire into defective titles the proprietors were (by Strafford) put upon their trial to show title. The judges were bribed by four shillings in the ppupd.on the first year's rent of the estates, to be paid them in the event of a verdict being found for the King. ' The jurors were also bribed, and the people were overawed during the trials by the presence of a strong military force. ... In one or two instances the jurors stood but against both terror and corruption, for which they were fined, pilloried, their ears cut off and their tongues bored through, and their foreheads marked with hot irons " {vide " Jour- nals of the Irish House of Commons,'' vol i. p. 307). . . . " The proprietors were afforded the alternative of redeeming their estates by the payment of a fine to the Crown for new titles. . . . Strafford in this manner extorted £17,000 from the O'Byrnes, and £70,000 from the London Companies to ,whom James I. had granted lands in Ulster. ... It has been asserted that there was a great massacre of the Pro- testants committed by the Irish Catholics in 1641. No proof whatever or mention is made of this in the Government docu- ments or proclamations of the period. Milton says .600,000 were massacred ; Burton and Temple say 300,000 ; Frankland, May, lEELAND THE ENGLISH POLAND. 165 and Baker say 200^000; Eapin says 154,000; Warwick says 100,000; Clarendon says 40,000 or 50,000; David Hume says 40,000; Dr. Warner says 4,028." According to Sir William Petty, the best statist of his day, the entire number of Irish Protestants then only amounted to about 220,000. (So that the Catholics killed, according to Milton, three times the whole population and must have killed themselves also, but then one is puzzled to understand how any Irishmen are still alive.) Dr. Leland says (Book v. chap. 4.), " The favourite object of the Irish governors and the English Parliament was the utter extermi- nation of all the Catholic inhabitants of Ireland." Carter says {"Life of Ormonde," i. 330), " The Lords Justices (!) had set their hearts on the extirpation, not only of the mere Irish, but likewise of all the old English families that were Roman Catholics." Lord Clarendon (i. 215) says that the ParHamentary party "had sworn to extirpate the whole Irish nation!" On the 10th October, 1648, Charles I. had written to Ormonde, "Be not startled at my great concessions concerning Ireland, for they will come to nothing." Charles II. began by confirming the peace which Ormonde had signed with the confederate Catholics ; but having landed in Scotland in 1650, he declared " that it was null and void ; that he did detest and abhor Popery, super- stition and idolatry, together with prelacy, resolving not to tolerate, much less to allow those in any part of his dominions, and to ■endeavour the extirpation thereof to the utmost of his power." Cromwell, on takiag possession of Drogheda, though he had promised quarter, "massacred the inhabitants in cold blood." For three days the slaughter continued, and Cromwell, in his despatch to Parliament, thanked God for that great mercy, as he called it. . . . At Wexford he massacred 300 women who had assembled at the Cross. . . . The ancient possessions of the men who had fought for the King were - given over to the hosts of Cromwellian adventurers, and aU the loyal Irish who survived the late war, and who could be collected, were driven into the province of Connaught, and forbidden to recross the Shannon under pain of death. 166 A DEPENOE OF RTTSSIA. Charles II., at his restoration, "confirmed the Cromwellian party in the estates they had seized from his loyal sufifering Irish Catholic subjects." " The English zealots dragged him (Oliver Plunket, Archbishop of Armagh) to London, to answer for his alleged participation in a rebellious conspiracy. He Qffered to bring witnesses from Ireland to establish his innocence, but was refused the time necessary for that purpose. He was of course found guilty and hanged, though not a tittle of credible evidence was produced against him. . . ." The Irish army at the time of the Treaty of Limerick was 15,000 strong. Of these about 12,500 resolved to depart from Ireland and enter the service of France. They formed the com- mencement of the Irish Brigade in France. The English Parliament in 1698 presented an address to- "William III., praying him to discourage the woollen manufacture of Ireland. William's answer was : " I shall do all that in me lies to discourage the wooUen manufacture of Ireland, and to encourage the linen manufacture therein." He did the first and not the second. : In the reign of Queen Anne an Act, generally known as the Penal Code, was 'passed against the Irish. "The Catholics were thereby rendered incapable of acquiring landed property in fee or by lease, or for any term longer than thirty-one years; and even for that limited time they were not permitted to possess an interest in their land greater than one-third the amount of the rent, on pain of forfeiting the entire to the good Protestant who should discover the extent of such interest. ... If the child of a Papist possessing an estate should conform to Protestantism, the parent was debarred from disposing of his property by sale, mortgage, or will, and the Court of Chancery was empowered to order an annuity out of the estate for the use of such con- forming child. . . . Catholics were declared incapable of inheriting the estates of their Protestant relations. The estate of a Catholic who had not a Protestant heir was to be divided in gavel among all his children. All men were to be qualified for office,, or for voting at elections, by taking the oath of abjuration, and by lEELAND THE ENGLISH POLAITD 167 receiying the sacrament of the Lord's Supper as administered in the Established Protestant Church. A Catholic possessing a horse, no matter of what value, was compelled to surrender the horse to any Protestant on payment of £5. ... A grant of £40 per annum was made to every Popish priest who should embrace the Established religion." In 6th George I., the English Parliament enacted a law de- claring itself possessed of full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the people of the kingdom of Ireland. The English Parliament also deprived the Irish House of Lords of its final jurisdiction in cases ot appeal. ... By the Irish Parliament a Bill was actually passed by both Houses which decreed a personal penalty on every Catholic ecclesiastic of so revoltingly indecent a nature, that i it cannot be explicitly mentioned.- . . . This bill did not pass, being defeated in the English Privy Council. In 1747 the Protestant Primate, Dr. Stone, " converted his house into a brothel to win the support of the younger members of Parliament to his measures, by pandering to their vices. The Irish Commons in 17S5, had granted the Minister new taxes to the amount of £140,000, on the faith of his conceding to Ireland certain commercial advantages known as the eleven propositions. " The Minister took the taxes, but instead of con- ceding the eleven propositions, he introduced a code of twenty propositions injurious to Irish commerce, which had been suggested by the leading English merchants. This code encoun- tered a powerful, but at first fruitless resistance in the Irish House of Commons, and the measure was ultimately withdrawn, an event which the people signalized by an illumination." In 1795-6 " A persecution, accompanied with aU the circum- stances of ferocious cruelty, then raged in the country. Neither age nor sex, nor even acknowledged innocence, could excite mercy. The only crime with which the wretched objects were charged was the profession of the Eoman Catholic faith. A lawless ban- ditti constituted themselves judges of this new delinquency, and the sentence they pronounced was equally concise and terrible. It 168 A DEFENCE OF ETJSSIA. was nothing less than confiscation of property and immediate banishment " (Lord Gosford's address to the Magistracy of Armagh, DMin Journal, 5th January, 1796). Lord Gosford added, " These horrors are now acting with impunity." Lord Moira, in his . speech in the British House of Lords, 22nd November, 1797, says :— " I have known a man, in order to extort confession of a sup- posed crime, or of that of some neighbour, picketed till he actually fainted ; picketed a second time till he fainted again ; and when he came to himself, a third time picketed till he once more fainted, and all this on mere suspicion." " Men had been taken and hung up till they were half dead, and afterwards threatened with a repetition of this treatment unless they made a confession of their imputed guilt. . . . These were not particular acts of cruelty, but part of a system." The venial rebellions in Scotland in favour of the Stuart dynasty were stamped out by England with the most merciless severity, and Smollett, the poet, novelist, and historian, thus pathetically describes the barbarities committed in the Highlands by order of the butcher Cumberland after the battle of Culloden, in 1746, in the noble verses which he called "The Tears of Scotland." THE TEAES OP SCOTLAND.* By Tobias Smollett (1721—1771). Moum, hapless Caledonia ! mourn Thy 'banished peace, thy laurels torn ! Thy son?, for valour long renowned, Lie slaughtered on their native ground ; Thy hospitable roofs no more Invite the stranger to the door. In smoky ruins sunk they lie, The monuments of cruelty. * This poem was originally written in six stanzas, but on some one repre- senting to Smollett that such a diatribe against Government would injure his prospects, he sat down and added the seventh stanza, which is a still stronger invective. IRELAND THE ENGLISH POLAND. 169 Tiie ■wretched owner sees afar His all tecome tlie prey of war, Betliinks him of hia babes and wife, Tbeu smites his breast and curses life ! Thy swains are famished on the rooks Where once they fed their wanton flocks ; Thy ravished virgins shriek in vain, Thy infants perish on the plain ! "What boots it then, in every clime. Through the wide-spreading waste of time, Thy martial glory, drowned with praise, Still shone with undiminished blaze ? Thy towering spirit now is broke. Thy neck is bended to the yoke. "What foreign arms could never quell. By civil rage and rancour fell. The rural pipe and merry lay i^'o more shall cheer the happy day ; No social scenes of gay delight Beguile the dreary winter night. No strains but those of sorrow flow. And naught be heard but sounds of woe, "While the pale phantoms of the slain Olide nightly o'er the silent plain. Oh, baneful cause ! oh, fatal morn ! Accursed to ages yet unborn ! The sons against their father stood, The parent shed his children's blood. Tet when the rage of battle ceased The victor's soul was not appeased : The Baked and forlorn must feel Devouring flames and murdering steel ! The pious mother, doomed to death, Poreaken wanders o'er the heath ; The bleak wind whistles round her head. Her helpless orphans cry for bread. Bereft of shelter, food, and friend. She views the shades of night descend, And, stretched beneath the inclement skies, "Weeps o'er her tender babes and dies. 170 A DEFENCE OP EUSSIA. While the wann hlood bedews my veins. And unimpaired rememhrance reigns, Eesentment of my ooxmtry's fate Vithin my filial breast shall beat. And, spite of her insulting foe, My sympathising verse shall flow. Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn ! BENEVOLENT DESPOTISM. 171 A BENEVOLENT DESPOTISM BETTEE THAN OPPEESSIVE PAELIAMENTAEY GOVEENMENT. Me. Freeman, in his valuable work on the Ottoman Govern- ment, writes as follows : — "A king who rules despotically over several nations wiU often rule them better than if he ruled with a common Parliament for aU of them ; for a weU-disposed despot may deal equal justice to all the nations under his rule, and may not rule in the interest of any one nation in particular. But in a common Parliament of two or more nations which have a mutual dislike, that nation which has the greatest numbers wiU outvote the others, and aU legislation will be done in the interest of the dominant nation only. To take one instance only. The Germans who were under the rule of the Danish kings, complained much less while the Danish kings ruled despotically, than they did after Denmark had a free Constitution. And now that things are turned about, now that some Danes are under German rule, they have still less chance of being heard than the Germans had who were' under Danish rule." After the Eevolution, the course of taking the law into their own hands (and being thus prosecutors, judge, and jury), appears to have been resorted to by the House of Commons ; and the journals from that period to the year 1768 are fuU of cases, to the number of several hundreds, in which the House of Commons, who cannot examine witnesses on oath, entertained complaints of breach of privilege by members in respect of matters 172 A DEFENCE OE EUSSIA. having no sort of connection with their puhlic character. The following are a few of the instances in which such complaints were referred to a Committee of Privileges — ^bringing actions against them, proceeding in Chancery against them, deliveiing declarations in ejectment, driving away their cattle, digging their coals, cutting their woods, breaking down their fences, ploughing up their lands, killing their rabbits, fishing in their ponds, breaking open their gates and driving over their fields, distraining upon their lands, taking goods which they had pre- viously distrained, erecting buildings on their wastes, distraining upon their tenants and arresting or -suing their servants. Some of the instances of privilege are sufiiciently ludicrous. Picking a member's pocket and delivering an exorbitant bill of costs were held breaches of privilege ; whilst on the other hand Dr. Steward's servant, who had unluckily been " committed to prison for getting a woman with child," claimed and was allowed his privilege. In the greater number of these cases questions of private right were in controversy which ought to have been tried at law, and with which privilege had nothing whatever to do. Yet under this colour they were brought under the jurisdiction of the House, and the parties complained of were frequently ordered into cus- tody iriihout being even heard in their defence. The consequences may be easily imagined. In general, the unfortunate individuals abandoned their claims, and made satisfaction to the members ; in others, where they were more obstinate, they were chiefly committed to prison. One of these cases is thus stated by Lord Brougham in Mr. Long WeUesley's case, Euss. and My, 659 : "In the year 1759 an action of trespass for breaking and entering a fishery was tried in the House of Commons, to the lasting opprobrium of Parlia^ mentary privilege, to the scandal and disgrace of the House of ' Parliament that tried it, and to the astonishment and alarm of aU good men, whether lawyers or laymen. Admiral Griffin made complaint to the House, whereof he was a member, that three men, whose names were stated, had broken into and entered his fishery at Plymouth, had taken the fish therefrom, and destroyed BENEYOLENT DESPOTISM. 173 tlie nets therein ; and the House forthwitli, instead of indignantly and in mockery of sucli a pretension, dismissing the charge, and censuring him who made it, ordered the defendants in the tres: pass, for so they must he called, to he committed into the custody of the Sergeant-at-arms. They were committed iato that custody accordingly. They were hrought to the har of the House of Commons, and there on their knees they confessed their fault. They promised never again to ofiend the admiral by interfering with his alleged right of fishery, and upon this confession and promise they were discharged on paying their fees. So that, by way of privilege, a trespass was actually tried by the plaintiff himself, sitting in judgment against his adversary the defendant, and the judge (for in this case the House and the complaining party must be considered as identical) was pleased to decide in his own favour." From the manner in which the case is stated by Lord Brougham^i it might be supposed that he considered it as a solitary instance; in times so recent of so gross an abuse of privilege. But this is not so. There are several subsequent cases, and one so lately as 1768, of a precisely similar character (Commons' Journals, vol. xxxi. p. 540). In 1667 the right of fishing at Coton, on the Eiver Thame, was in dispute between Mr. Luttrell, a member of the House, and a gentleman of the name of Adderley. On the 1st December, 1767,. Mr. Luttrell complained to the House " that in breach of the privilege of this House, Henry Fidler, John Baker, and Matthew, Barrow had, by the instigation of Charles Bowyer Adderley, Esq., forcibly entered upon his fishery and taken fish thereout." The matter was referred to the Committee of Privileges. The com- mittee heard witnesses to prove the 'title of Mr. Luttrell and the fact of trespass on the one hand, and to prove the title of Mr. Adderley on the other. The witnesses, of course, were not examined upon oath (the House not having power to administer, an oath) ; the evidence received was, as may be imagined, for the most part inadmissible at law; and upon the whole matter the committee came to the following resolution (which was adopted- 174 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. by the House) : — "Eesolved, that it is the opinion of this com- mittee that Henry Fidler hath not, by the instigation of Charles Adderley, Esq., forcibly entered upon a fishery at Coton, on the Eiver Thame, the property of and in possession of Simon Lut- treU, Esq., a member of this House, and taken fish thereout in breach of the privilege of this House." Similar resolutions were passed with respect to Baker and Barrow. Whether the committee meant to decide that no forcible entry had been made, or that it had not been done by the instigation of Adderley, or that the fishery was not the property of Mr. Luttrell, or that he was not in possession of it, or that the tres- pass was not a breach of the privilege of the House, it is difficult, and, indeed, not very important, to understand. "In 1641 it was ordered by the Commons that no member shall either give a copy, or publish or print anything relating to the proceedings of the House ; and that all members of the House are enjoined to deliver out no copy or notes of anything that is brought into the House, or propounded or agitated in the House ; and that it is a breach of the privilege of this House for any person whatsoever to print or publish in print anything relating to the proceedings of the House, without the leave of the House. Formerly persons brought to the bar of either House of Parliament had to kneel, but the practice is now discontinued since the refusal of Mr. Murray to kneel when brought up at the bar of the House of Commons in 1750. For this refusal he was declared guilty of ' a high and most dangerous contempt of the authority and privilege of this House,' and was committed close prisoner to Newgate, and was not allowed the use of pen, ink, and paper." I conclude this chapter by quoting Macaulay's opinion of the House of Commons, which shows that he, though a most success- ful debater as well as a briUiant writer, had a. very contemptuous opinion of its judgment as regards oratory -.-r- " A place in which I would not promise success to any man. I have great doubts even about Jeffrey. It is the most peculiar audience in the world, I should say that a man's being a good BENEVOLENT DESPOTISM. 175 writer, a good orator at tlie bar, a good mob orator, or a good orator in debating clubs, was ratber a reason for expecting him to fail than for expecting bim to succeed in tbe House of Commons. A place wbere Walpole succeeded and Addison failed, wbere Dundas succeeded and Burke failed, wbere Peel now succeeds and where Mackintosh fails, where Erskine and Scarlett were dinner bells, where Laurence and JekyU, tbe two wittiest men, or nearly so, of their time, were thought bores, is surely a very strange place." Mr. Pamell had the audacity to say of the House of Commons : — " We have only been at work two months, and they, the English members, would be glad to be rid of us. But I don't know what state of mind they wiU be in when the end of the session comes. Nor can they devise a plan to stop us. If we had only ten men we could put a stop to all their work. If we can't meet them in the field with cold steel, we have yet a weapon left to us. Ireland knows that it would be futile to resort to arms for tbe restitution of her rights, and that the lives of her sons would be thrown away. But we must use the weapon we have until England learns sense, by inflicting inconvenience upon her, by paying her back measure for measure, returning insult for insult, and thus have vengeance upon her. "If he were to tell them that the Speaker was a man of great ability, but that he looked upon Home Eule members much as a trapper would look upon vermin, he would, in all probability, incur his displeasure and the consequences of that displeasure. There was an innate feeling of snobbery among the English consti- tuencies which compelled the members to become snobs them- selves, and to bow to the House. Mr. Biggar and himself had shown them that it was not necessary to take their tone from the House." Mr. Egerton, in "Sybil," says in 1839, as to speeches in the House — " Fishy is down, Boshy is up." The Honse of Commons is about the clumsiest and most iQ- contrived machine for the transaction of business winch could possibly be imagined. It sits usually from four in the afternoon 1 7& A DEFENCE OF RUSSIA. . till an indefinite hour in the morning, fifty embryo Acts of Parliament being, sometimes on tbe paper for discussion on a. single day, and it is absolutely impossible that the affairs of the nation can be efiiciently discussed and settled after dinner in the dog days, when the majority of members, wearied out with the fatigues of the day, are half asleep. The House of Lords does, not condemn itself to any such late hours, and neither the courts of law, vestry, parocliial, county, or other meetings take place in the middle of the night; but, if this post prandial system is a good one, all other business meetings should be made equally nocturnal, and the dull lees of the human intellect must be esteemed better than its sparkling wine ; but, perhaps, with our English dislike of logic, we have invented this system, which is not followed by any other country, or even by our own colonies, in order to avoid the insupportable evU of being consistent and like other nations who are idiotic enough to be logical. This owlish system of legisla- tion injures the health and shortens the lives of most members, but, like the Medes and Persians, English legislators, afraid of their own shadow, have always been apt to answer as the Barons did, when it was proposed to establish the just and humane Scotch law of legitimacy for the Draconian and wicked English system wMch stUl exists of visiting on children the frailties of, their jparents, and preventing the latter, however willing, from doing them justice, " Nolvmus mutari legum Anglim." Every session, at the massacre of the innocents, we sacrifice that large and sometimes greater portion of the session wliich has been spent in introducing and advancing measures up to, it may be, the third and last reading, instead of, as common sense (which is the most uncommon commodity in the world) would prescribe, resuming measures in the next session at the point at wliich they were left in the precediog session. i Another illustration of the folly and imbecility of Parliament is, that it allowed a minority of only five members, whose sole object was killing time by useless and mischievous adjournments, on a recent occasion to trot the other members round the treadmill of the division lobbies till about six the following afternoon in EEWEVOLBNT DESPOTISM. 177 eighteen successive divisions ; but on a former occasion victory remained with the five, who compelled the House to beat an igno- minious retreat ; just as you may see a little one chasing a whole flock of sheep, any one of which, if it had only the necessary courage and sense, could cut short its existence in a single moment ; and tolerating from them, with a patience they seldom display to modest members, interminable speeches Hke bags of wind with nothing in them, which might be stopped by limiting the duration of speeches, as in the French and other assemblies, and the compulsory closing of the debate, which no minority com- plains of in any other country. Again, when a Scotch Bill, for instance, is under discussion, you will hardly see a single EngUsh or Irish member present in the House, as they do not understand Scotch laws and customs, yet all the other business of the country is suspended during the pro- gress of Scotch business, which might be avoided by the simple expedient (recommended by the highest living authority on this subject) of Grand Committees which could elaborate Scotch and Irish legislation, like existing Committees on Private Bills, and then the Bills could come before the full House on the report or third reading, after the garrulous members had talked themselves hoarse. It would almost seem as if we might do weU to take a lesson from even the Ottoman Parliament as to the best means of conducting business, or we could teach them the seeret of doing the minimum of work with the maximum of fatigue and the greatest possible expenditure of time. I may add that the English system of starving juries into a spurious unanimity and of restricting their verdict, even in trials for murder, to guilty or not guilty, is a reproach to the age ; and in Scotland, juries decide by a majority, as common sense prescribes ; and when the evidence of guilt is, as in the trial of Madeleine Smith (which I attended), very strong but insufficient to justify conviction, their verdict by a majority was " not proven," thus branding her with a weU-merited stigma, rather than hang a possibly innocent, but probably guilty person. As a sample of the intelligence and political ability of the 178 A DErENCE or HTJSSIA. country party, as they call themselves, I subjoin the following extract from the World : — " Should a memher of any one of those foreign nationalities, which are so often and so fertently admonished to take a lesson in the art of constitutional government from this country, happen to have made a personal study of the House of Commons towards the close of last Session, or of the progress of the contested elec- tion recently held in North Northamptonshire, he may be pardoned if he has failed to discern the peculiar excellences of the British representative system. Lord Burghley naively said to the electors, ' You know all about who I am ; you have read my address ; you know what my principles are, and whether you agree with them or whether you don't, don't much matter.' This is perfectly true; and with this frank statement of facts, his lordship's constituents ought to have been content. The sequel shows either that Lord Burghley, in a spirit of military gallantry, volunteered to under- take a task for which he was not equal, or that his agents were culpably negligent in repressing inconvenient inquiries. One elector wanted to know what his future representative thought about County Boards. Lord Burghley, with great acumen, detected what is commonly called a ' sell ' in the inquiry. ' You are trying,' he said, ' to catch me. You tell me your opinion, and I will then tell you mine.' The answer came at last. His lordship perceived that he was not the victim, of any hoaxing or disingenuous conundrum, and with much readiness said, 'Why, with reference to County Boards — I have not read of them before.' The following elegant extract from a report of the Wellingborough News will convey the best notion of the lively and edifying scene : '"Mr. Thomas Watts wished to know why a man living in a town! was more entitled to vote than a man living in the country. (Hear, hear.) " ' Lord Burghley : I suppose if you live in a borough, as I apprehend you do, you are a better man than if you lived in the country. " ' Mr. Watts : I want your opinion, not mine BENEVOLEHT DESPOTISM. 179 " ' L'ord BurgUey : My opinion is mucli the same — (laughter) — knowing little of politics as I do. (Laughter.) I suppose you wish to hear a Httle more, although my lungs are cracking. I reaUy can't last out much longer. I have got two ears, but only one mouth. (Eoars of laughter.) " ' Mr. Watts : Were you afraid the army was going out to the East, and was that the reason you left it 1 " ' Lord Burghley : " Sir, I am an Englishman ; you are an Englishman ; and I am almost ashamed, and I think it rather an insult for one Englishman to say to another Englishman, in so many words, that he ran away. (Loud cheers.) " ' Mr. Thos. Watts (excitedly) : I have read in the history of my country of ears being slit and of noses being cut off. Who did it 1 " ' Lord Burghley : Well now, gentlemen, I can't talk to you much longer, because I shall bu'st if I do. (Loud laughter.) ' " Not the slightest political significance can be attached to the immense majority by which Lord Burghley defeated Captain Wyatfc-EdgeU. The Liberal candidate was indeed ostensibly sup- ported by the great Whig families who are influential in North- amptonshire. As a matter of fact this support was thoroughly insincere and practically worthless. Captaia EdgeU, to judge from his speeches and his conduct throughout the election, is a sensible sort of person, and he ought to have known from the first that he was not the man to whom the Whigs would give their personal service or influence. He is not connected with any one of the great Whig houses ; he is not within the charmed circles ; he has not even gone through the show of initiation into the exclu- sive mysteries. Had a Spencer, a Cavendish, or a Gordon been forthcoming, it is likely enough that the election would have had a different result. But if Captain Wyatt-EdgeU really expected that his Whig friends would give him the slightest assistance as against Lord Burghley, he can know very little either of English politics in general or of local politics in particular." 2 N 180 A DEFENCE OF BrSSU. EEFUTATION OF COLONEL MANSFIELD. Colonel Mansfield's report, instead of iDeing original and the result of enquiries made by him on the spot, is merely a repro- duction of the correspondence in the foreign Polish gazettes, such as the Gazette Narodowa and the Dziennik Polski of Lemberg. It, therefore, is a document of no sort of authority or value. Colonel Mansfield reports, on 21st September, 1871, that an Imperial ordinance had been issued, iq virtue of which the hetero- dox Churches in Poland had been placed under the authority of the Holy Synod, and he adds that its evident object was the forced entrance of the United Greeks into the fold of the ortho- dox Church. The fact is, however, not only that no such ordi- nance exists, but that the authority of the Holy Synod cannot possibly extend beyond its own fold, and that never at any time has any one of the heterodox Churches been even temporarily placed^under its superintendence ; and why, one wonders, did not Colonel Mansfield forward a copy of this supposed ordinance, if a forged one has been palmed on his credulity 1 After the insurrec- tion of 1863-4, the administration of the United Greek diocese of Chelm, recognising the danger which menaced the United Greek Church, and with it Russian or Euthenian nationality from the Latiu Church and Polonism, took in hand to purify the United Greek rite from aU foreign admixture, and amongst other things the use of organs in churches, and on the 2nd October, 1873, the Consistory of the United Greeks of Chelm ordered by circular that from the 1st January, 1874, the Oriental rite should be strictly observed in all the churches of the diocese, without, however, EEFTJTATION OF COLONEL MAITSFIELD. 181 separating from the Catholic Church. This ordinance had so much the more authority since it was hased on the very act of the Union several times confirmed by the Popes in the course of cen turies, and it was accepted by nearly all those interested. However, in several places, such as Horodyszeze and othei Ijarishes of the Government of Seidlce, the peasants seized the keys of the church, or penetrating with violence into the churches during the celebration of divine service, began vociferat- ing and insulting the priests, to force them to officiate accord- ing to the half Latinised rite. The local administration being unable to quell these tumults, a military force had to be employed, and after several soldiers and officers had been wounded by stones from the mob, and barricades had been constructed to prevent entrance into a church, the soldiers had to fire in self-defence, and in all ten men were killed and fourteen wounded in the whole of the united Greek insurrection, whilst no one was flogged, as was asserted. In February, 1874, order was re-established everywhere but in a few isolated parishes, where the peasants did not attend the churches or seek the services of the priests for their religious wants ; but, on some of the ringleaders being arrested, and on fines never exceeding £60 being imposed on some of the Com- munes, these disturbances ceased. On May 23rd, 1874, a Papal Bull was issued by Pius IX. in opposition to the decisions of his predecessors, blaming the before- mentioned circular of the diocesan administration of Chohn, and exhorting the Uniats not to submit to it. The agitation on the publication of this Bull was received and spread over thirty- three parishes of Seidlce. The peasants directed their hostility principally against the priests, who had strictly obeyed the cir- cular ; and in many places, not content with forcing fi:om them the keys of the churches, they drove them and their families from their houses. The military had then again to be sent for, and were qxiartered in the disturbed parishes until tranquillity was re- established, but no physical force was usrfd. A curious circumstance is that the Circular of October 2, 1873, 182 A DEPENOE OF RUSSIA. * was received witliout any opposition by the United Greek popu- lation of Lublin, where it is more numerous, and only met with, a twice repeated resistance from the Uniats of Siedlce. The Papal Bull, too, failed in its effect at Lublin, the reason being that at Lublin the Uniats are established in large and compact masses, while in Siedlce they are isolated from each other by numerous Roman Catholic communes, contrary to what Colonel Mansfield asserts. Fatigued at last by the pressure undergone from their Eoman Catholic neighbours, and wishing to get rid for the future of these lamentable results, several United Greek communes — in the first place six — spontaneously formed the idea to re-enter the circle of the orthodox Church. This initiative produced a great effect, and the example was speedily followed by forty-five parishes in Siedlce, who addressed, a petition to the Governor demanding authority to pass over to orthodoxy. The Government decided to proceed with the utmost circum- spection, and only to accede to the demands which were the free expression of a general desire of those interested, and it demanded that the petitions in question should be accompanied by communal decisions with reference to this matter, besides which individuals were sent to investigate on the spot if these acts were really spontaneous. After these precautions had been satisfactorily adopted, forty- five parishes were admitted into the orthodox Church on the 12th of January, 1875, and on forty-four other parishes petitioning for the same favour, seven of them were refused because the demand had not been general and spontaneous. In April and May this example was followed by the United Greeks of Souwaiki and Lublin, and in the same way, after the disruption of the Church of Scotland in 1843, large numbers of Presbyterians, tired of the squabbles between the Free Church and the Establishment, sought and obtained admission into the fold of the Episcopal Church of Scotland. I have to remark, in conclusion, on this subject is, that it can hardly be a matter of" importance to Russia, which contains 60,120,996 orthodox Greeks, to force even the whole 246,485 EErUTATIOH- OF COLOITEL MANSFIELD. 183" United Greeks in Poland into the orthodox fold, still less the minority, which has, after all this fuss, actually joined it ; and one does not understand, if these eighty-two congregations of United Greeks were forced to return to the orthodox fold, why the greater number who stUl remain outside it are not equally compelled to enter, and why, too, they do not attempt to compel the four-and- arhalf millions of Polish Catholics to rejoin the Greek Church, as the ferocious Catholics of France tried to force the Huguenots into the Eomanish faith by persecution, exile, and massacres. Mr. Gladstone informs us that so far from the Eussians being prone to proselytise, "Russia has paid to the Mahometan religion a respect so profound that missionary efforts are actually put down, a course we do not adopt, even in India;" and, as I have already stated, they rejected seven parishes which they might have secured because the desire for union was not sufficiently spontaneous and general. It is quite evident that in proportion as the temporal power of the Pope has become weaker, his spiritual rule has ■ become more exacting, and it is absolutely despotic since the whole temporal power has vanished. Formerly, in cases of mixed marriages of Protestants and Catholics, the boys were brought up in the religion of the father, and the girls in that of the mother ; now the Pope cruelly refuses to permit any Catholic to marry a Protestant, unless the Protestant will promise to educate aU the children in the Romish superstition. Then again, the unparalleled absurdity of the doctrine of the infallibilty of the Pope has been forced down the reluctant throats of the Catholics aU over the world by the present tyrannical Pope, and in the case of these Uniats he has illegally deprived them of the liberty of their reforming rite secured by the article of the union with the Catholic Church. Yet so inconsistent and unscrupulous is the Roman Catholic ■Church, that they aUow the priests of the United Greeks to marry and to preserve other distinctive features of their former creed, so that in two adjoining communes in Poland, for instance, there are often two priests who might each have a foot in the territory of the other, and one of these, a United Greek, is allowed by the Pope to marry, whilst, if the Roman Catholic priest, his neighbour, 184 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. married, he would be driven with ignominy from his Church — excommunicated like Luther — and if he died unrepentant, and without repudiating his wife, he would be adjudged to have gone to the region of eternal punishment ; in fact, it seems as if in case Luther had been a United Greek, he might possibly not have instituted the Eeformation. Sydney Smith wittily characterises Popery as posture and imposture, flections and genuflections, bowing to the right, curt- seying to the left, and an immense amount of man millinery. I may add, as the Roman Catholics are so addicted to trumping up false charges! against Eussia, with reference to its conduct to their co-religionists, and the United Greeks in Poland, that Count Valerian Krasinski, a Protestant Pole, whom I personally knew, says in his " Historical Sketch of the Else, Progress, and Decline of the Eeformation in Poland " (published by Murray in 2 vols, in 1838), " The Protestant cause attained in that country (Poland) in the course of half a century such a degree of strength that its final triumph over Eomanism seemed to be quite certain. Yet, notwithstanding this advantageous position, it was overthrown, and nearly destroyed in the course of another half century. This extraordinary reaction was not effected by the strong hand of a legally cmstituted authority, as was the case in Italy, Spain, and some other countries, Jwi iy a bigoted and unprinci^pled faction, acting not with the assistance, but in opposition to the laws of the country. . . The Jesuits,* who defended in that country the interests of Eome, being unable to combat their antagonists with fire and sword, adopted other measures, which inflicted on Poland calamities more severe than those which might have been produced by bloody con- flicts between religious parties. . . the odious maxim that no- faith should bekept with heretics was continually advocated by them. . . The public schools were for a long time almost exclusively ' conducted by them. This measure produced its natural conse- quences ; science and literature were almost annihilated ; and Poland, which had made rapidstrides in every kind of improve- ment during the sixteenth century instead of advancing, retro- * Qui cum Jesu non itia Jesuitia. EEFrTATION OP COLONEL MANSFIELD. 1&5 graded with equal rapiditj'. The celehrated Jesuit Skarga, who lived at the end of the sixteenth, and beginning of the seventeenth century, complains that more than 2,000 Romanist Churches were made into Protestant ones, but there are now only 327,815 Protestants in Poland. The Eoman Catholic Church of all others should be the most chary of bandying reproaches, since its cruelties and absurdities are infinitely greater than those of aU the other Churches put together ; and, within the last few weeks, Cardinal Antonelli, the favourite minister and confidant of Pio Nono, who died in the odour of sanctity, is proved to have been a hypocrite, a thoroughly immoral man, and that he expended no less a sum than £80,000 in bringing up and educating one of his illegitimate children, the Countess Lambertini. The Toilet is evidently totally unable to reply to my facts and arguments on the treatment of the Polish Uniats, for in an article in reply to what I wrote in the Press and St. James's Chronicle on that subject, in which I had inadvertently and incorrectly stated that Colonel Mansfield was married to a Polish lady, instead of, as is the fact, that she is an Ultramontane pervert, they said that this mistake alone invalidated all that I had said. I will wind up this chapter by quoting the appalling picture which Sir James Stephen draws of the crimes of the Papacy, which certainly cannot be paralleled ia the history of the Patriarchs of the Greek Church, who have been usually men of the highest character : — " Except in the annals of Eastern despotisms, no parallel can be found for the disasters of the Papacy during the century and a half which followed the extinction of the Carlovingian dynasty. Of the twenty-four Popes who during that period ascended the apostolic throne, two were murdered, five were driven into exile, four were deposed, and three resigned their hazardous dignity. Some of these Vicars of Christ were raised to that awful pre- eminence by arms and some by money. Two received it from the hands of princely courtesans. One was self-appointed. A well- filled purse purchased one papal abdication ; the promise of a fair 186 A DEFEKCE OF BTJSSIA. . bride anotlier. One of these holy fathers pillaged the treasury, fled with the spoil, returned to Eome, ejected his substitute, and mutilated him in a manner too revolting for description. In one page of this dismal history we read of the disinterred corpse of a former Pope brought before his successor to receive a retrospective sentence of deposition, and in the next we find the judge himself undergoing the same posthumous condemnation, though without the same filthy ceremonial. Of these heirs of St. Peter, one entered on his infallibility in his eighteenth year, and one before he had seen his twelfth summer. One, again, took to himself a coadjutor that he might command, in person, such legions as Eome then sent into the field. Another, Judas-like, agreed for oertaiu pieces of silver to recognize the Patriarch of Constantinople as universal Bishop. All sacred things had become venal ; crime and de- bauchery held revel in the Vatican, while the afilicted Church, wedded at once to three husbands (such was the language of the times), witnessed the celebration of as many rival masses in the metropolis of Christendom." — Edinburgh Mevieio, No. 164. Here is Truth's account of Saint AntoneUi : — " Paying the other day a visit, I found two young ladies, with arms round each other's waist, deep in the 'Peerage.' A dehcate forefinger of one of the fair creatures ran along the printed hnes of the volume, stopping at short intervals. At each pause she said, ' It can't be this one.' I did not wish to eavesdrop ; but so charming was the unconsciously formed tableau vivant, that it went against me to disturb it. I do not know how long I might have remained listening and admiring, if the girl who was not pointing had not _ cast her eyes towards a pier-glass. Seeing me reflected there, she turned round and said, with the artless grace of her age, ' How nice of you to drop in Just as we're trying to find out what duchess married when Cardinal AntonelK's daughter was a very little baby. Of course, you know all about the scandal Were you not in Eome in 1855 1 Can you remember what English girls of very high rank used to ride that year on the Campagna, and which of them was most intimate at the Borgh6sd palace ? ' I could have told, but I held my tongue. BEPUTATION OF COLONEL MAlfSITELD. 187 " I am not surprised at the Countess Lambertini's claim to the 37,000,000 fr. at which Antonelli's fortune is estimated. What I wonder at is, that there are not a great many other claimants. The Cardinal ever evinced a repugnance for holy orders. To be a deacon, he was obliged to take a vow of celibacy ; but he knew himself too well to become a priest, and in aU his life never confessed a penitent. Numerous were the young Eomans whom he brought up and settled. ^ The daughter of a Portuguese singer was watched by him with paternal fondness from her cradle up- wards. A boy now in the Papal Guard often visited him in his rooms in the Vatican, and never left him without a handsome present. The Cardinal bought an estate near Terracina for this youth, who was the son of a Sicilian Abbess. His Eminence was lavish in his generosity to the daughter of a diplomatic Count and Countess from Munich. "In his wiU, AntoneUi repudiated with virtuous indignation the reports wicked men had spread about the immensity of his fortune and its origin. He derived, he said, the best part of it from his respectable father, who was a farmer at Sonnina. In England this was believed ; in Eome it was not. " The respectable father left eight children, and unless a loaves and fishes miracle was performed at the cutting up of his estate, what feU to each inheritor could not have been a fat portion. There were five sons and three daughters ; and Jacopo was the fifth chUd. An excellent family man was this Prince of the Church. His relations were shrewd, avaricious confadini, but close-mouthed and reliable. He was not ashamed of them ; and they served him faithfully in transacting financial business. " Cardinal AntoneUi was concerned with the fimanciaUsts of Louis Napoleon. His brother Angelo, under the pretext of being sent to Paris to surveiller Sacconi, the Nuncio, went there to operate with Mirfes — the patron, by-the-bye, of Louis VeuUlot. Angelo, on the downfall of that financiahst, ^ot hold of a Viennese clerk of Eothschild's, a handsome, impudent fellow, gifted with a florid kind of eloquence. He advised him to be ■converted and to enter orders, and he secretly pushed him on at 188 A DEFENCE OF ErSSIA. the Tuileries, where the Hebrew priest, who was at once raised to red stockings, became a prodigious favourite of the ladies, the confessor of the Empress, and cut out the beau. Nigra. "Mlippe Antonelli, another brother, was also a financiahst. He was the Cardinal's man of straw at the Eoman Bank, of which he was the manager. Filippe is counted the most miserly man in Rome. He Hves in a small house at Santa Agata alia Suburra, and bears the title of Count. " Gregcrio, the eldest brother, is the gentleman of the family. His special function was to look after the Cardinal's children, and to negotiate hush-money payments. His son Agostino was the uncle's favourite, and was obliged by him to marry a daughter of the Countess G-arcia. It was stipulated, however, that this marriage was only to be a Platonic partnership. The niece-in- law was given a royal dower, and was bequeathed the Cardinal's silver-gilt breakfast-service, which he prayed her not ' to lock up, but use freely.' Since his death she has gone to live in Paris. " Signora Marconi, who adopted the girl Loreta, was a fine- looMng Eoman lady, without an avowable income. She kept a political salon, received a mixed company, was well with the Monsignori, went to the Borghfee receptions, and was suspected of taking secret-service money from three great Empires. Since 1870 she has professed herself a Garibaldian.'' Pope Pius IX., who has for years ignored King Victor Emanuel, and repulsed his advances, has now, it is said, written an autograph letter urging his Majesty to burk the inquiry. ,THK INDIAN MIGHTMAEE. 189 THE INDIAN NIGHTMAEE. Me. Lainq, formerly Einance Minister in India, in his thouglitful speech on the Eastern Question in the recent debate, though labouring under the unusual disadvantage of thoroughly- understanding the subject which he discussed, has shown us as clearly as any proposition in Euclid, that it is impossible for Eussia successfully to invade India, as an army of only 30,000 Eussians would require 100,000 camels, 75,000 horses, and half a million of camp followers if they operated on the side of Afghanistan ; while even if they acquired the Euphrates Valley as far as the Persian Gulf and forced on us, in spite of our strenuous opposition, the enormous benefit of a railway to that point, at a ruinous loss to themselves (as the Erench compelled our reluctant acceptance of the inestimable benefits of the Suez Canal), the British Fleet could prevent a Eussian army even from embarking on the Persian Gulf to invade India on that side. He further quoted Lord Hardinge's statement: — "As to a Hussian invasion of India,, depend upon it, it is a political night- mare; " and the Duke of Wellington's opinion : " Lord Hardinge is quite right. Eely upon it you have nothing to apprehend from Eussia in that quarter." In fact, the Eussians could more easily conquer China, with which it is already conterminous, and which contains treble the population of India. Mr. Mackenzie Wallace, after an exhaustive study of Eussia during six years, in his recent work, which has been most favour- ably noticed by all the most influential organs of the Press, says respecting this Indian Scare : — "If we could not repel the inva- sion of Eussia, we have no right to hold India. ... If the ■■90 A DErENOE OF EUSSIA. uativG populations are so disaffected, it follows that our vaunted civilizing influence is merely a fine name for rule by terrorism." The great majority of the Eussophohists at the " -west- end," however, in spite of any amount of incontrovertible facts and unanswerable arguments from such pre-eminent authorities as the Duke of Wellington and Lord Hardinge, are determined to believe in the Indian Scare, as it suits their wild and unpatriotic purpose of driving the nation into a war with our old and faithful ally Eussia, to rivet the chains of the " unspeakable Turk " on. the wretched Christians of that effete empire, on the specious pretext of British interests, and they axe, or affect to be, as credulous on this subject as the "west-end " generally is about the ghost which is supposed to haunt one of the houses in Berkeley- square ; and if the facts are against their favourite theories they simply say, " So much the worse for the facts." Though it is self-evident that Eussia cannot conquer India, it is quite possible that the people of India, after another mutiny, might obtain their independence ; and I purpose, therefore, now to show what is the pecuniary value of India to us. The very idea of such a supposed misfortune as the loss of India is enough to take away the breath of most Englishmen, who very erroneously suppose that India is, as it were, the key- stone of the arch on which the whole fabric of British prosperity rests, and that if such an event happened we must prepare for national bankruptcy and ruin, and for the speedy appearance of Macaulay's New Zealander, to contemplate the ruins of what was once a great country from a broken arch of London Bridge. Mr. Bright, however, and many other men of eminence, so far from being anxious to retain India at any cost, are in favour of our educating the various peoples of India to self-government, and that, as soon as this can be effected, we should then leave the country to govern itself, just as we gave 'up our rule over the Ionian Islands ; and it seems strange that when even the Sultdn' has given a Constitution to Turkey, we should not give one considerably more liberal and effective to India. So fax from the possession of India being an unalloyed benefit THE INDIAIT NIGHTMAItB. 191 to US or to them, it involves very eonsiderablo drawlDaeks. It is an appalling consideration for England to have the responsibility for the happiness and well-'being of nearly 200,000,000 of people resting on its shoulders, and to have no certainty that we govern them with their free consent, and that if a pUhucite were taken we should not he bound in honour to leave the country. It is now a settled maxim of English policy that if Canada, Australia, or any other colony wished to separate from us and become independent, we should say, as Q-eneral Scott and a large minority of the Americans said on the occasion of the Secession, " Wayward sisters, go in peace ; " but the British trade with Canada and Australia alone is £61,678,683, or about 10 per cent, more than that of India ; and how could we consistently reimpose our sway on India if another mutiny drove us out, and a stable government was formed, or if we granted India a free Constitu- tion and an overwhelming majority voted against the continuance of our rule ? The possession of India, in the opinion of most statesmen, compels the retention of the abominable and disgraceful opium traffic, which produced £8,556,629, out of a total Indian revenue of £50,670,171 in 1873-74, or more than a sixth; and this trade involves us in periodical wars with China, to force the Govern- ment of that country to allow their people, at the point of the bayonet, to receive this deleterious drug, which has more than anything else demoralized a nation numbering about half the human race. Again, we have to keep up a force of about 70,000 British troops in India, the result being that, in case of an in- vasion of England or an European war, our military resources are greatly diminished. An Indian engineer, too, wrote some very able letters in the Times, some years ago, in which he held the distressing opinion that the very excellence of our rule was its greatest fault, since, without famine, pestilence, and the sword, the population was rapidly outgrowing its means of subsistence. It is also the opinion of most missionaries that the influence of our bad example is the great obstacle to the spread of Christianity in 192 A DEFENCE OF EtTSSIA. Indiaj on the belief in ■which, according to the Athanasian Creed, which is generally swallowed by the "westrend," the eternal salvation of 190,000,000 of human beings depends. If, as is so often and so recklessly asserted, our rule in India is eq[ually beneficial to England and to our Indian subjects, it fol- lows that on the occasion of the Crimean "War, and at any future time when we conceive we are obliged to fight for India, half the cost of the war should be defrayed out of Indian resources, and the other half partly out of British and partly out of colonial resources, since we are such grand signers as, apparently, to con- sider it ungentlemanly and mean to make our defeated enemy pay the costs of the war, as the Germans did in the case of the Franco-German War. It appears from the annual statement of the trade of the United Kingdom, presented to Parliament for 1875, that the total amount of the imports from India in that year was £30,137,295, and of the exports to India, not only of British but also of foreign and colonial produce, £25,595,115, together, £55,732,410, while the total export and import trade of Great Britain was £655,551,900; so that, after all, our Indian trade is only about 8 per cent, of the whole. Our trade with India amounts to about 6s. per head of population, as against a trade of about 7s. 5d. per head, or nearly 25 per cent, more, with Protectionist and much-abused Eussia, whUe our commerce with that model of perfection, Pree-trade Turkey, is only about 9s. per head, or about 20 per cent, more than that with Russia. I will assume that the profits of our trade with India are 10 per cent., which I am informed on good authority is a hi^h average, and this would give about 5^ millions sterling as the real profit which we derive from it. Kow, as Messrs. Jones, Lloyd, and Co.'sbank was sold about 12 years ago to the London and Westminster bank for five years' purchase of the net profit, I think I am over stating the case in placing a similar value on the profits of our trade with India, especially with the imminent danger which we run, according to the "west-end," of bein"- deprived by Eussia, to say nothing about the chances of our >/ THE INDIAX B-IGHTJIAEE. 193 being driven out of it by another mutiny, or voted out, if we give them a Constitution. This would give £27,500,000 as the present value of our trade with India, or about one-third of what the Crimean War cost us to preserve this very trade, of which we should not have lost a farthing if there had been no Crimean War. But even if we lost India, how can it be shown that our trade with it would diminish ? The new Government would have every m.otive for increasing rather than curtailing their exports to England, while as to the imports into India of English produce, a considerable portion of which consists of foreign and colonial goods, it seems to be forgotten that no advantage is now given in India to British produce more than to that of any other country, and that a considerable protective duty is levied by us, though professing free traders, on British cotton goods imported into India. Why should India, if independent, take dearer and inferior produce from other countries in preference to better and cheaper articles from Britain ? In addition, however, to our trade with India, it may be said that we have other important interests, and these are — The Indian Debt, amounting to £107,368,949; Capital Stock of the East India Company, £12,000,000 ; Eailway Stock, £95,119,119 total, £214,488,068. And two more Crimean wars, and another Afghan war would cost us as much, with the wars for India which preceded it, as the whole value of our stock in India of every description But a very considerable portion of this sum is held in India or by foreigners, and there is the house, land, and other property owned by Englishmen. There are, again, the claims of officers of the civil and military services in India to compensations^pensions and retiring allowances, but clearly if Mr. Bright's plan were carried out, and if in a few years the people of India were sufficiently educated to undertake the sole charge of governing themselves, we could and would stipulate that all these obligations should be honourably and faithfully fulfilled ; and as Japan, Egypt, and other States of similar character to that of India, punctually pay the interest on o 194 A. DEFENCE OE ETTSSIA. their debts, there is no reason why the people of India, grateful to us for our paternal government, and rememhering that, unlike Holland, we exacted no tribute from them, should not regularly and honestly perform promises, on the faith of which we had made them independent. A signal instance of the folly and wickedness of going to war for supposed or inadequate " British interests" without previously calculating their real value, is furnished by the American War of Independence, which we undertook in order to extort from our colonies a paltry tea duty of 3d. per pound, which at the same rate per head of population as the produce of the present English duty would have produced £150,000 a year gross, but which, as tea was then enormously dear, and our colonists were then poorer and less luxurious than we now are, would probably, after deducting the cost of collection, not have realized more than £50,000 a year. Lord Chatham, and most of our greatest statesmen, held that we were not entitled to tax the colonies for our benefit, and we do not now attempt to do so in the case of any of them. Yet, we fought for nearly ten years for this wretched stake, and even let loose the lied Indian savages to scalp, mutilate, and massacre them ; and in the end, though our popula- tion was 7,227,586, against a colonial population of 2,614,300, with a little assistance from the French (which was greater odds than those of the Russians against the Turks, besides our having the command of the sea, which the Russians have not), our armies were compelled to surrender, and we were obliged to make peace (little more than 90 years ago), after an outlay on the war of £124,000,000, which would have been a ridiculous price to pay for even the gross produce of the tea tax at thei present English rate of consumption ; for at the usual present rate of interest on American securities this £150,000 a year would be only worth £3,000,000, while we spent more than 40 times as much in attempting to secure this tea duty, and failed to get it, to say nothing of the thousands of priceless lives sacrificed on both sides, and the permanent alienation of as loyal and attached Englishmen as any in the world. THE INDIAN NIGHTMABE. 195 "With, reference to the trade of the Black Sea, supposing that Euasia not only obtained the whole of it, but even annexed European Turkey, which has a population of 8,315,000, and if the Eussian tariff were established, the loss of trade to us, being the difference between 7s. 5d. in Russia per head and 9s. in Turkey (supposing the Eussian tariff to be established), would be only £656,600 a year ; and on the profits of this trade only £65,000 a year would be lost to us, while we should gain enormously in the long run, since the best authorities are agreed that Turkey does not contain more than one-fifth part of the population which it could maintain, or than it formerly possessed, and at this rate we lose a trade of nearly £50,000,000, which we should enjoy if Turkey were adequately populated, even if the Eussian tariff were not reduced, as it most probably wiU be. Mr. Mackenzie Wallace justly observes, as to the Black Sea question, " The possession of the Dardanelles gives naval supremacy in the Black Sea and not in the Mediterranean, and in the event of a war it can matter little to us whether the Eussian fleet is shut up in the Black Sea or in the harbour of Sebastopol ; in either case it is quite harmless so far as the Mediterranean and our communication with India are concerned." Lord Derby has recently intimated to Eussia that if she presumed to exercise her full beUigerent right by blockading the Suez Canal, we should consider it a " menace to India." As we have given a similar notice to Turkey, we have committed another breach of the Treaty of Paris, and another infringement of the independence of Turkey. But how can it be shown that if Eussia, exercising her legitimate right of conquest, annexed Egypt, our empire in India would be menaced ? It would be the interest of Eussia to keep open the Suez Canal when at peace with England, and if we were 'at war with her we should have command of the sea, and we should be no worse off than we were before the opening of the Suez Canal. Eussia could not menace India though it possessed Egypt, because our fleet would effectually prevent any force ever being embarked from Egypt for the invasion of India. "We should never have 2 196 A DEFENCE OF ETJSSIA. dared to treat the United States as we are now treating Eussia during the War of Secession, wlien tlie Northern States illegally blockaded the Southern States without recognizing them as belligerents, though the consequences to us were infinitely more serious than the occupation of Egypt by Eussia, since it pro- duced a cotton famine and threw our factory hands into a state of destitution and misery, besides enormously diminishing our exports. It appears that Count Sohouvaloff has arrived in London with a letter to Lord Derby, stating that Eussia does not intend to blockade or otherwise interfere with the Suez Canal ; and as Turkey has the command of the sea as against Eussia, it is obvious that the threatening and insulting communication of Lord Derby was altogether unnecessary. The Times judiciously observes : — " The real interests of England being those of general peace and freedom, the commu- nity of states tends to find its interests identical with hers. As her commerce is connected with that of the whole world, it is protected by the natural advantages of international trade. As she does not seek conquest she does not invite aggression. Such is the answer to those who say that a naval power like Italy or Prance might attack our communications with the East. It would never do so lightly, because its own interests lie in the same line with ours. If it were at war with this country, its naval stations in the Mediterranean Sea would no doubt arm it vrith a powerful weapon. But to declare war rather than permit «uch stations to be constructed would be wasteful foUy, since it might involve an expendittire of a hundred millions directly, to ward off a danger which might never approach. The wiser oourse would be to increase our navy in the Mediterranean. By paying a somewhat higher premium on our naval insurance policy, in the shape of a slight addition to the estimates, we could neutralise the possibilities of danger. It is cheaper to pay a million a year for a time than to fling two or three hundred millions away at once in a rash war." 197 'WE MUST EECONSTRUCT THE GKEEK EMPffiE."— Duke of Wellington, 1829. This momentous sentence from one of tlie greatest of English heroes, who had been previously one of the staunchest supporters of the integrity of Turkey, and one of the greatest opponents of the independence of Greece, ought to have the strongest possible weight with all Enghshmen, and more especially with the Conservative party, of which he was the consistent and powerful champion. Now, however, the Philo-Turkish party are so obstinately wedded to their prejudices in favour of Mahometan tyranny, that even the great name of the Duke of "Wellington is no talisman against their attacks ; and since I stated in my speech in the House of Commons that the Iron Duke had expressed his regret that the Russians had made peace- at Adrianople, instead of taking Constantinople (which he positively states they might have done) and dissolving the Turkish Empire, some of the strongest partisans of Turkey say that after all the Duke was not a great statesman. I am astonished and ashamed to have to defend the reputation, of the Great Duke as a statesman against the attacks of Conser- vatives ; but I shall do so, not in my own insignificant language,, but in the words of one of the most eminent statesmen of modern times, M. Thiers, who, as a Frenchman who made an idol of Napoleon, can hardly be suspected of any undue prejudice in favour of the great British general who destroyed the power of Napoleon at Waterloo, and marched triumphantly to Paris. 198 A DErENCE OF BTJSSIA. M. Thiers says truly and candidly, but reluctantly : " There is no use denying it — every circumstance considered, the Duke of Wellington was the greatest general whom the late wars have offered for contemplation. His mind was so equally poised, not- withstanding the vivacity of his genius, that he was always ready and equally prompt on every occasion. He united the power- ful combination of Napoleon to the steady judgment of Moreau. No man can deny to him the most equable judgment tlat was ever met with in a great soldier." The Duke was by education and temperament a Conservative, and as such his naturally excellent judgment was sometimes warped by the prejudices of his party, and more especially on the Greek and Turkish questions. But the force of his intellect, and the reach and acuteness of his vision, is shown by the fact that he was the iirst great statesman to prophecy the dissolution of the Ottoman Power, and to see that the only effectual and legitimate solution of the Eastern Question is the re-establishment of the Greek Empire. It is equally strange and humiliating to an Englishman to reflect that after all the immeasurable obligations under which the whole civilized world lie to the Greek race — ^by far the noblest and greatest which has ever existed — we should not only have refused their entreaties for assistance when they struggled for their independence, but should also have persistently and uniformly for six long years, with the other powers of Europe, refrained from taking up their cause. The Greeks may be said to have invented European civilization, the only civilization worthy of the name. Thousands of years ago the immortal poems of Homer, the tragedies of Sophocles, the wisdom of Socrates and of Plato, the science of Euclid, the sculpture of Phidias, sprang into existence almost from nothing. In every department of literature, philosophy, and taste, the Greeks sprung, as it were, at a bound, not only to the highest eminence, but to ■ an elevation which after thousands of years, with all the advantages of their labours, we have never suc- ceeded in rivalling. " 'WB MUST EECONSTRtrCT THE GEBEK EMPIRE. ' 199 If the Greeks had never existed, we miglit probably have been now roaming as savages in the woods and wastes of Britain, for ifc is wildly improbable that that divine spark which animated the Greeks would ever have been illumined in any other race. Not only in every walk of literature, in science, in philosophy, in architecture, in painting, in sculpture and in music, did the Greeks excel, but their bravery in the field was something almost more than mortal, and their heroic conduct at Marathon and Salamis has never been surpassed since the world began ; and the victories of the Greeks against the Persians repelled the barbaric hordes from Europe, which would have overwhelmed our civilization. There are those, however, who are too dull and matter-of-fact to be alive to our indelible and immeasurable obligations to that race of demigods — the ancient Greeks ; and who, moreover, say that even if they possessed all the qualities claimed for them by their grateful admirers, the present race of Greeks is degenerate and unworthy. But I shall now prove by historical facts which cannot be denied that the Greeks are still worthy of our highest esteem and regard, and that in their War of Independence they developed an amount of bravery in no respect inferior to that of the heroes of Marathon and Salamis ; and the glories of the renaissance, and of the revival of learning from the darkness of the Middle Ages, were the result of Greek literature and taste introduced by the refugees on the con- quest of Constantiaople. It should be borne in mind that before the war of independence the Greeks had been enslaved by the over- whelming masses of the Turkish hordes for nearly 400 years, during the whole of which period they had been deprived of the use of arms, and that the strongest and most promising of their male children were annually taken from them , as tribute children, by an unprecedented refinement of cruelty brought up as Mahometans, enrolled among the janissaries, and sent, ignorant of their birth and lineage, to oppress their own kindred ; whilst the ancient Greeks had been always free, and trained from their youth to the use of arms. Odysseus, one of the Greek chiefs, thus explained to Mahomet Pacha why the Greeks took up arms : — " It was the injustice of 200 A DErENCB OF EtTSSIA. the viziers, -waywodes, cadis, and Baloukbastis, each of whom closed the book of Mahomed and opened a book of his own. Any virgin that pleased them they took by force ; any merchant in Negroponte who was making money they beheaded and seized his goods ; any proprietor of a good estate they slew and occupied his property ; and every drunken vagabond in the streets would murder respectable Greeks, and was not punished for it." The whole of the Christian or Infidel dogs had to purchase their lives annually by the capitation tax called " redemption of the price of heads ; " and no one, not even the Turks, could have an here- ditary right to an estate, and if the proprietor died without a male child, the property went to the Sultan, to the exclusion of the daughters ; whilst if there were sons, their right of succession was restored by a pajrment of one-tenth of the value, so that if a similar system was established iu England, a man succeeding to an estate of £1,000 a year, which might be saleable at thirty years' purchase, would pay £3,000 immediately, whereas in England it would only be about £250, payable by instalments spread over a long time. The only way in which property can be settled in perpetuity is by leaving it in trust to a mosque, and about three-fourths of the surface of Turkey is thus in the hands of the mosques, who release it to the owners for a ransom ; and no Christian can become a landed proprietor, — whikt the situations of vizier, cadi, pasha, and the like, are sold to the highest bidder. The Greek revolution was preceded by a very melancholy event, which awakened the sympathy of Europe, and showed in the most convincing manner the fearful oppression under which the Greeks had so long groaned, and the ardent patriotism of that un- fortunate nation. The town of Parga, which is on the seacoast of the mainland opposite the Ionian Islands, was transferred from the French to Great Britain in 1814 ; but the treaty of 1815 did not mention it, and the Turks claimed it, as all the mainland was by that treaty awarded to them. The inhabitants took the alarm, and the English governor promised that the place should not be delivered "■we MUST EECOKSTBtJCT THE GREEK EMPIRE." 2Q1 up till the property of those -who might choose to emigrate should he paid for, and they themselves be transferred to the Ionian Islands ; and they unanimously " resolved to abandon their country rather than stay in it with dishonour, and that they virould disinter and burn the bones of their forefathers." The property of the people -was estimated at £500,000, but the- Turks would not pay more than one-third of the real value. In June, 1819, every family marched solemnly out of its dwelling; and the men, preceded by their priests, proceeded to the sepulchres of their fathers, and silently unearthed and collected their remains, which they put upon a huge pile of wood, to which they set fire» and stood motionless and silent till all was consumed. The Turks became impatient to get into the town, but the citizens told the governor that if a single Mussulman was admitted before the re- mains of their ancestors were secured from profanation, and them- selves with their families safely embarked, they would instantly put to death their wives and children, and die with arms in their hands, after having taken a bloody revenge on those who had bought and sold their country. The remonstrance was successful ; the march of the Mussulmans was arrested, the pile burnt out, and the people embarked in silence with their wives and children. The Mussulmans soon after entered, and they found only one single inhabitant in the place, and he was drunk, and lying near the yet smoldng pile ! Parga was taken possession of by the British in 1814, upon a specific engagement with the heroic people of that town (who had a few months previously repulsed 20,000 Turks from its walls) that it was to follow the fate of the Ionian Islands. Parga was a free state. For three or four centuries it had cherished the spirit of liberty, while the countries around had been enslaved ; yet we, by design or by culpable carelessness, surrendered this magnanimous people to the " unspeakable Turk." In the debate in 1819 Mr. Scarlett (afterwards Lord Abinger) said, " I look upon the sur- render of Parga as an act as treacherous and perfidious as has ever disgraced modern diplomacy ; " and Sir James Mackintosh called it " as perfidious a transfer as could ever disgrace any free 202 A DErENCE OF EUSSIA. country. . . . The cession of Parga would be, I maintain, the most ahominable that ever was made of or hj a free people. There was no example among nations where faith was kept of giving up a free and Christian people to a Mahometan tyrant." I have already briefly narrated in another part of this work the statistics of the massacre of Chios, and other Turkish atroci- ties ; and I might now advert to the massacre at Adrianople of many thousand Greeks — which was so atrocious that even the European diplomatists interfered, and obtained the dismissal of the Grand Vizier who had instigated it — and the massacre at Smyrna of a still larger number of Christians and the forced exile of 15,000 ; but the reader will already, not only have supped full of horrors, but have dined and breakfasted on so many, that I will for a while spare him, and proceed to the case of Cyprus, which had a population in ancient times of above a million, which had sunk in 1826 to about 70,000, of whom half were Christians and half Mahometans ; and of the 35,000 Christians a large portion were now naassacred, and their wives and daughters violated, or sold to Turkish harems. After the defeat at Armoughi in 1823, 600 women and children who had taken refuge in the grotto of Stonorambella were, " after being blockaded for a month, inhumanly smoked to death like bees by the Turks." In 1824 the greatest of modern poets. Lord Byron, threw in his lot, impaired his fortune, and sacrificed his invaluable life, in the glorious cause of Greek independence. Yet Europe for three years longer cynically and ungratefully looked on at this heroic struggle, and the Austrian Avisos gave information, obtainable only by a neutral, to the Turks, as to the position, numbers, and movements of the Greek fleets and armies. In the same year (1824) the garrison of Ipsara, hopeless of relief, and having lost two-thirds of their number, determined to perish like the Three Hundred at Thermopylse. They sent a soldier with a lighted torch to fire a powder-magazine outside the walls ; and as he fell, pierced by several balls, before reaching it, five others were sent on a similar errand, and all shared the same fate. Upon this "we MtrST EECONSTEUCT THE GBEEK EMPIEE." 203 the Greeks resolved to blow ttemselves up with the powder they had within the monastery, but in such a way as to involve their enemies in their ruin. They 3eased firing, accordingly, for some time ; and the Turks, thinking the defenders had all fallen, after a pause rushed tumultuously forward to the assault of the walls, which were scaled on every side. Suddenly the Hellenic flag was lowered, a white flag bearing the words "Liberty or Death" waved in the air, a signal gun was discharged, and, immediately after, a rumbling noise, followed by a loud explosion, was heard, and the monastery, with the whole of its defenders and thousands of its assailants, was blown into the air. The Turks after their victory sent 500 heads and 1,000 ears to Constantinople, which were displayed in ghastly rows at the gate of the Seraglio. Ten females only were made slaves, for the Psarriotte women, in an heroic spirit, drowned themselves, with their infants, to avoid be- coming the spoil of the victors, and forty years later, in 1867, a similar holocaust was offered up by the Cretan insurgents at the monastery of Arkali. Thus had the Greeks, in the fourth year of the war, with a population of only five hundred thousand souls — or, say one hundred and twenty-five thousand fighting-men, repeUed the forces of an empire of thirty-five millions of men, or seventy times their number, — a feat quite as heroic as that of the ancient Greeks in resisting Xerxes. In 1825 the Turks, after ravaging the plains of theMorea, and burning the houses, drove away the inhabitants as slaves without mercy. A market was opened at Modon for the sale of captives of both sexes, who were crowded in dungeons loaded with irons, unmercifully beaten by their guards, and often murdered in pure wanton cruelty during the night. Such, indeed, was the severity with which they were treated, that, in comparison with it, the old Turkish system of beheading or blowing from the mouth of a gun every male person above sixteen might be considered as merciful. At the siege of Missolonghi, in 1826, the Turks impaled alive in front of their lines a priest, two women, and several children ; 204 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. yet the brave garrison, in spite of want of ammunition and food, refused to surrender. In 1826 the Greek Government was in such miserable financial straits that the treasury contained only sixteen piastres, or about five shillings ; yet they continued the war, and on the 7th of October in that year the heroic Greeks, with a fleet of only 14 small vessels, drove 40 sail of large Turkish vessels igno- miniously before them to Constantinople. The result of the bravery of the Greeks was that all the Turkish corps which were marched overland into Greece melted away by desertion. Such was the horror at the Greek war which pervaded all classes of the Ottomans. At last the lethargic conscience and the dormant sympathy of Europe was awakened, and some faint and half-hearted eflEbrts were made to intervenein favour of Greece ; but it was by accident, and not by design, that the Battle of Navarino was fought, by which the successful issue of the struggle was at last made certain. The very insigniScant share of credit which devolved on England for its conduct during the Greek war of independence and the cynical disregard of the British Government for the most ordinary feehngs of humanity, will appear from the following extract from Bulwer's lAfe of Lord Palmerston : — ■ " When first came the account that the fleet of 40 sail, which left Navarino in December, after Codrington's boasted annihilation of the Turkish fleet, and which consisted of 17 sail that had actually got into Navarino after the battle, although Codrington was ordered to prevent any sea movement, — when accounts came that this fleet had carried away five or six thousand Greek slaves, I called the attention of the Cabinet to this circumstance, and urged that it would be a stain on our national character if we did not make an effort to recover these wretches. The DuJce received the pvposition coldly; Aberdeen treated it as a thing ice had no right to interfere with ; Bathurst as the exercise of a legitimate right on the part of the Turks, and Ellenborough as rather a laudable action. Peel showed me a despatch by which it appeared that the practice of the Egyptians had been, from " WE MUST EECONSXRUCT THE GEEEK EMPIEE." 205 the time they first entered the Morea, to consider the Greek population as a preserve of slaves. . . . The total number thus seized, first and last, was from fifteen to twenty thousand. . . . Pozzo said that 640 slaves had been redeemed by the French Government, and he believed (though I do not) that the English Government had contributed something towards the expense of this redemption." The opinion which Lord Palmerston entertained on the Greek question is further shown by the following extract : — " Memwandum on Greek affairs sent ly Lm-d Palmerston to Lord Goderich, Dec. 6th, 1827. — Persuasion, reasoning, and threat having failed to sway the Porte, actual coercion must be resorted to ; and it only remains to be considered what shall be the action and extent of that coercion, and where it can be the most effectually applied. We have at present in Portugal 5,000 men. Why should not that force, instead of coming home, be sent to the Ionian Islands 1 We have already 5,000 men at Malta and the Ionian Islands. From these and from Sir W. Clinton's division, and landing detachments of marines and sailors from the fleet, it would be easy to land at least 8,000 men upon the Morea. If, however, it were thought that any force which we might thus be able to bring would be too small to secure a rapid and easy success, would it not be possible to persuade France to detach for that purpose some part of her troops in Spain 1 . . . and thus give in a short space of time the double example of England and France fighting side by side, both by land and sea.' This proposal was renewed by Lord Palmerston to the Duke of Wellington, when the Duke became head of the Cabinet, and the only objections which the Duke put forward were that less than 15,000 men would be too few, and that was more than we could conveniently send. These objections vanished in six months time, and the English Cabinet consented in July to what Lord Palmerston had proposed in December. The delay in enforcing the Treaty of London produced the very war which that treaty was intended to avert. The result to Turkey was much bloodshed and the conditions of the treaty of Adrianople; while the Greeks were the gainers, because 206 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. they obtained complete independence, instead of only that autonomy which was all that was originally contemplated by the allies." And the discreditable course pursued by England is justly and severely censured in the following passage from Lord Palmerston's speech in 1829 : — Lord Palmerston said : "The Morea, I say, has indeed been cleared. I wish the arms of England had had a more direct and prominent share in that honourable exploit. But w^hy were the arms of France checked at the Isthmus of Coriath 1 Was it that France herself shrank back with alarm at the consequences of a further advance ? or was it that the narrow policy of England stepped in and arrested her progress 1 Shall I be told — that the Morea and the Cyclades are to be liberated Greece, and that the Isthmus of Corinth is its northern boundary ? I say that wiU not be — that cannot be; it is impossible that it should be. A larger and wider limit, extending at least to the line drawn from Volo to Arta, is indispensably necessary for Greece. . . . But in this, as in clearing the Morea, France will hold the first and England the second place. The merit of giving this extended limit will, in public opinion, be accorded to the enlight- ened liberality of France. France will have the credit of being supposed to have dragged England reluctantly after her. England will bear the odium of having vainly attempted to clog the pro- gress of France. ... I have seen that it has been said elsewhere that the allies are negotiating with Turkey. I should have thought that the allies had had enough of negotiating with Turkey about Greece, and that they had by this time discovered that even Turkey herself would rather that on this subject they should dictate. ... I said that the delay in executing the treaty of July, 1827, had brought upon them that very evil of war in the east of Europe which that treaty was calculated to prevent. Have the Government laboured honit fide and in good earnest to bring about peace in the only way in which it can be accomplished ? If they have not, and if by any want of resolution and decision they shall ultimately have endangered the tranquillity of all Europe ; if, balancing between ""WE MTJST EECONSTEUCT THE GEEEK EMPIEE." 207 a wish, to assist Turkey and an inability to find any pretence for doing so, ttey Lave, by the ambiguity and mixed character of their language to Turkey, allowed her to be deceived by what she is to expect from England, and have thereby been instrumental in encouraging her resistance to a just accommodation; then, indeed, they will have incurred a responsibility which I should be sorry to share. ... It is thus that they (Europe) see in the delay in executing the treaty of July, not so much fear of Tuxkish resistance as invincible repugnance to Grecian freedom." The most distinguished hero of the Greek War of Independence (Canaris) still lives, and quite recently, though lie has attained the age of ninety years, he has been chosen Premier of Greece by the unanimous voice of his countrymen. "Fifty-six years ago he was the captain of a small vessel trading peacefully between Constantinople and Odessa. He had taken no part in the intrigues which produced the insurrection, and his personal safety was secure. He was no adventurer, but a law-abiding citizen, with wife and children ; no glory hunter, but a man content to live a quiet and humble life. For more than a year after the rising of his country- men he remained in obscurity, and not until the massacre of the innocent Chians had sent a thrill of horror through the length and breadth of Christendom was his name heard. Then he per- formed those wonderful feats of daring with his fire ships against the ferocious Turks which so powerfully contributed to the estab- lishment of Greek independence, and he struck such terror into the oificers and crews of the Turkish fleet that, with only fourteen small vessels, he chased forty large Turkish men-of-war to Constan- tinople, where they were laid up. It is hard to find, in the history of Greece, a parallel to the heroism of Canaris. Cincinnatus, re- tiring to his farm from the Dictatorship of Rome and returning to power at the importunities of his fellow citizens, seems to have been such a man as Canaris. He was raised to the rank of Admii-al and made a Senator, but he lives at a little hamlet — an oasis in the desert that stretches around Athens. He spends the autumn of life in gardening, carpentering, and feeding the chickens. 208 A DEFEKCE OF EUSSIA. His chamber, destitute of the most ordinary luxuries, seemed a fitting shrine for the honest soul within it, for he voluntarily ends his life surrounded by the homeliness and frugality with which it began." — Times. So acute, energetic, and business-like is the modern Greek, that he has driven the merchants of all other nations from various branches of trade, especially that in com, of which the Greeks have almost a monopoly ; and in Odessa, Marseilles, Manchester, and even London, the Greek merchants beat the Russians, the Frenchmen, and the Englishmen, on their own soil. Historians have calculated that between those who were massacred, those who were killed in battle, and those who were sold into a slavery worse than death, one-half of the population of Greece had perished in the struggle for freedom and in- dependence, and yet there are ignorant and prejudiced people who affect to undervalue this heroic struggle ! In the Franco-German War the French submitted to a peace dictated by the Germans, by which i they surrendered two pro- vinces, and were compelled to pay an indemnity of £200,000,000, after an estimated loss of less than 100,000 men killed, and about 360,000 prisoners led into a humane and temporary cap- tivity ; but, to enable them to rank with the heroic Greeks, they would have had to resist till no less than 20,000,000 had either been killed or taken prisoners — though the fate of the latter would have been immeasurably superior to that of the Greeks who were sold as slaves. Russia has now a unique and unrivalled opportunity of proving her magnanimity, disinterestedness, and regard for the general interests of humanity by restoring the Greek Empire. The Times of June 9th, states : " The defect of our policy in relation to Russia — a defect inevitably fatal to its ultimate success — is that it demands the permanent barbarism, desolation, and inaccessibility of all the countries from the Adriatic to the Chinese Empire — a large part of the Eastern Hemisphere. Be- cause we have 'interests' in India, and the increase of Russian power might at some remote time, and under certain improbable "■Wis MUST EJECONSTBUC r THE QEEEK ElIPIEE." 209 circumstances, incommode us on our way thither, therefore nes change can be permitted on any portion of the globe contiguous^ to the Eussian Empire. The lands most blessed by Nature, the ' most famous in history, must remain for ever the abode of slothn and barbarianism, most sealed to the traveller, the populatioitv perishing, the villages falling into ruin, the desert advancing. This is said to be British policy." Anything more inhuman and utterly abominable than such a*, policy cannot well be imagined, and a people who avowed they were actuated by it would deserve to be treated, like pirates, as* enemies to the human race. Let Russia set us and the world a grand and almost unparalleled example of magnanimity by restoring the Greek Empire. Russia, has now two gates to its commerce : the key of the one (the: Sound) is safely intrusted to Denmark ; surely it would be far better to intrust the other to their co-religionists, the enterprising: and civilized Greeks, who would be eternally grateful for this» magnificent gift, than to leave it with the efiFete, barbarous, and» hostile Turks. To put the matter on a lower ground : Russia would obvionsly be in a stronger position relatively to the Greek Empire,„ supposing it to extend to the Balkans, which would include a, population of only about seven millions, which would be largely diminished by an emigration of Turks to Asia, — than if the key of their Southern commerce remained in the hands of the forty-eight millions who inhabit the present Turkish Empire. There is plenty of room for any Sclavonians who now live south of the Balkans, in the territory north of that range, which has not a quarter of the population that it formerly possessed, and the Greeks would, buy out the Sclavonians and Turks as they formerly did in. Greece. As long as the Turks remain at Constantinople there can be no per- manent peace ; and if the Greek Empire had been established in, 1829, as the Duke of Wellington desired, Russia would have been, saved the enormous cost in human life and in money of the Crimean war, of that in which they are now engaged against Turkey, and of p 210 A DEFENCE OF ETTSSIA. the future wars wliicli they 77111 liave yet to wage against that barbarous country — and possibly against some of the other * European Powers — ^if this war has any other result than the re-estab- lishment of the Greek Empire ; whilst if they once proclaimed this intention, the sympathies of the civilized world would be in their favour, and, not only the kingdom of Greece, but all the Greeks throughout European Turkey, would rise to a man in their favour, and the Turkish Empire would be instantly dissolved. By altering one or two words, a remarkable sentence which De Tocqueville applies to the jealousy of aristocracy among American democrats applies accurately to the idiotic, suicidal, and dog-in-the- manger mutual jealousies between the Greeks and the Slavonians : " I think that the Slavonians have a natural taste for liberty. Left to themselves, they seek after it. They love it, and they see with pain that they are deprived of it. But they have against the Greeks an ardent, insatiable, eternal, invincible jealousy. They wish liberty, with the possession of a large portion of the ancient limits of Greece, and if they cannot obtain it, they wish it still in slavery. They will suffer poverty, serfdom, barbarism, but they will not suffer a Greek Empire." The mutual jealousies of Greek and Slav have retained them both under the oppressive rule of the barbarous Turk for centuries, and if it goes on, hundreds of years more may elapse before they are free and independent. The whole world, except the Slavonians, is utterly opposed to the acquisition of ancient Macedonia and Thrace, or any part of them, by any other race than the Greeks, to whom they originally belonged ; and, though they may keep the Greeks out by maintaining the Ottoman Empire, they never can possess any territory south of the Balkans, the ancient Mount Hoemus of Greece. Panslavism is a chimsera as much as Pan-Latinism would be for the purpose of uniting France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy into one Latin confederation. Pan-Gallicanism, which would be opposed to the death by the Belgians, the Swiss, the French Canadians, and the people of the Channel Islands, or Pan Anglo- Saxonism, which has not yet been even lioar.'l of; .ind evon Pnn-Scandinaviani.=m, though there is much ""WE MUST EECONSTETJCT THE GEBEK EMPIRE." 211 more similarity between tte Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes than among the Slavonians, has been abandoned as an imprac- ticable scheme. It appears that at the Slavonian Congress, held in 1866, at Moscow, the German language was chosen as the only possible medium of intercommunication between the different Slav deputies, whose various idioms were incomprehensible to each other. See Bevue des Deux Monies, 1st September, 1867. I may add that these leaky Pans are usually covered with a poisonous moral verdigris, and that no amount of tin will ever make them safe and watertight. The reader will find in the complete edition of my work on the Eastern Question an ethnological map, which is indispensable to anyone who wishes to discover a just and permanent solution to the Eastern Question, and I would strongly recommend its .study to all who wish to understand the Eastern Question. The numbers and influence of the Greek race in European Turkey have been very much underrated not only by Slavonic writers but by the Germans, who seek to hold a supremacy over the non-Russian Slavonians through the Hungarians who dominate the Slavonic races of Austria. Besides the prevailing fallacy as to the prevalence of the Slavonian element south of the Balkans, especially in Macedonia and Thrace, from which it is utterly incredible that the prevail- ing and ancient Greek element should have been eradicated any more than in Greece proper, the fact is that there are, both in Turkey in Europe and Asia Minor, Christian peoples who, although in their religious rites, their schools, and their ofl&cial relations, they use the Greek tongue, are mistaken for Turks because they have been obliged to adopt the Turkish vernacular ; and that they are not Turks in race is certain, because there is no instance of any Mahometan people embracing Christianity, and if they did they would have used the Turkish language as the Russians use Russian in their religious rites ; besides, death is the punishment of all Mussulmans who abandon their religion. It is only the European Turks vrho are permitted to be called Osmanlis ; they 212 A DEFENCE OF RUSSIA. look upon the Asiatic Turks as an inferior race, since the Osmanlis in Europe perform no maauai labour, whereas in Asiatic Turkey they do. The Osmanlis have even a proverb, " Bin Turk bir toorp yazek toorp ! " a thousand Turks for a radish. Poor radish ! at being valued so cheap " (Adolphus Slade's "Record of Travel"). The Bosnian and Herzegovinian Mahometans, the Pomak in Bulgaria,, and the Balaadfes, or true believers, in Macedonia, and the Toshks and Ghegs in Albania, and a large population in Crete, who are all, by way of being Mahometans, use exclusively the Greek language, and you may hear them saying, " By the Holy Virgin, I am a Mahometan." Before the Greek war of independence 60,000 Turks were settled in Greece, but with the exception of a small Mussulman community in the south of Eubcea, all have emigrated. ,Mr, Eton, in his "Survey of the Turkish Empire," says of the Albanian Mahometans, " They look' on the Turks with the utmost contempt. . . . They know little of their religion, and pay little regard to it. Their women are not veiled ; they drink wine, and intermarry with the Christians. It is true, indeed, that they will not eat pork, but if thei husband and wife are of different religions they make no scruple of boiling in the same pot apiec e of pork and a piece of muttob." Mr. Thornton says, in his " Present State of Turkey," " Pro- fessed Mahometans have evel related to me the miracles of Chris- tian saints on behalf of the independence of their country." . . . Greek characters are used iu writing Albanian, and Mathieu says in " La Turquie et ses Differents Peuples,'' " The Albanian Mussul- mans are still more hostile' to the Turks than their Christian brethren, and it is from them that those revolts have come which have so often enfeebled the Ottoman Power, and a change of cir- cumstances would probably clause a new change of religion." The difference in language between the Ghegs and the Toshks in Albania is so great that common intercourse through one of their special idioms is impossible, and there are few Albanians who do not speak Greek, that being their only medium for intellectual and commercial comraunion. Indeed, the Bible was not trans- "WZ MUST EECOJSrSTIlTJCT THE GREEK EMPIEE." 213 lated into the Albanian dialect of Greek till 1830. Mathieu •says, " Numerous Albanian villages occupy Macedonia and Thrace, or Greece, and never does the. least dissension arise between them iind the Greeks. The famous tribe of the Suliotes, who took so active and glorious a part in the struggle for Greek emancipation, is even of pure Albanian race. . . . The Albanians of the south tend to become amalgamated with Greece." The Bulgarians themselves are not a pure Slavonic race, but are chiefly of Tartar origin. South of the Balkans there are many villages with Bul- garian names, but all the towns have remained Greek, and most of the so-called Bulgarians south of the Balkans are of Hellenic descent, and may be called Bulgarophone Greeks, for they are of the Greek type, and their character, manners, customs, and dress are Greek, whilst those north of the Balkans have the Mongolian type, and dress in the pootoor (breeches, large and fuU to the knee, and tight round the leg to the ankle) and the characteristic cylindri- cal-shaped cap or calpak of sheepskin, whilst the language of the Bulgarophone Greek contains an immense admixture of Greek words, totally unintelligible to northern Bulgarians. M. Cousiniery, for many years French Consul, says in his " Voyage dans le Macedoine/' " The Bulgarians pride themselves on being Greeks ; " and Ubicini says, " This supremacy of the Greeks lasts still at the present day; the best schools are possessed and directed by Greeks, and it is the general opinion that where their influence ceases to manifest itself barbarism commences." Many of the Bulgarians south of the Balkans remain faithful to the Church of Constantinople, whereas those north of the Balkans have an independent Church of their own. Mr. McFarlane, in ■" Kismet," says, " In Thrace there are Bulgarian shepherds and farm labourers, but these do not bring their families with them, .and they generally come down in the spring and return in the autumn to their own country. Mr. Layard confidently affirmed that the Greek population in all European Turkey was only 1,750,000. I believe that if you multiplied his figures by two you would get nearer the amount." In Macedonia the Sandjaks of Salonica, Cassandra, Berria, and Serres, numbering in all 250,000 214 A DEFENCE Or ETJSSIA. souls, are almost purely Greek. In Thessaly, the only other race, the Turks, are daily being Hellenized, indeed, all the Turks of Larissa now speak Greek, and almost all the Southern Albanians have adopted the Greek language. M. Mathieu, in his work already quoted, "La Turquie et ses DifFerents Peuples, 1857," gives the number of Greeks in European Turkey at 2,540,000, and the Albanians at 850,000; and if we add those Albanians who are Greek in religion and in language, we shall arrive at a total of about 3,000,000, whilst he estimates the Bulgarians at 2,800,000, most of whom are north of the Balkans. It is difficult to mention with too much commendation the admirable' ethnological and statistical work by M. Bianconi, the French ex-engineer-in-chief of the Turkish railways from 1872 to 1S76, Member of the Geographical Society of France, published in May, 1877, by LassaiUy, of 61, Eue EicheHeu, Paris. The same intelligent and well informed author has also pub- lished another more detailed work called "La Verite sur la Turquie." M. Bianconi has possessed unrivalled opportunities of studying the geography and ethnology of Turkey, from having been, for upwards of four years, not only resident like a consul, but specially occupied in surveying the country for railways. His work is characterised by the most absolute and laudable impartiality as between the rival claims of the Slavonian, Greek, and other races, and while he unsparingly denounces the oppres- sion of the Turkish Government, he holds the scales equally and without bias between Greek and Slav, speaking in kindly and sympathising language of both races, and of none more than the Bulgarians, who are, he says, "indefatigable labourers, gentle, peaceful in general, very poor, good fathers of families, and most obKging." It is extremely satisfactory to me to find that the very valuable map appended to his work differs but slightly from mine, which is the same of which he speaks as Stanford's map. The difference between my map and his wOl be approximately imderstood by my readers, if they will look for Mangolia, on the Black Sea, which is M. Bianconi's northern land of the Greek race, and then proceed ""WE MUST EECONSTEUOT THE GEEEK BMPIEE." 215 westward to Dobrol, East Saghra, Tatar Bazardjik, Kouprala, and thence to Ergent on tlie Adriatic Sea, on the east coast of Albania. These limits can also be roughly traced in the ordinary map attached to the cheap edition of my work, and I have had a dotted line traced thereon, in accordance with ,M. Bianconi's views. It will be seen that M. Biancpni's boundary line between the Greeks and Bulgarians is slightly more favourable to the latter than that given in my Ethnological or Stanford map as regards the east and centre, but on the east mine is somewhat less favourable to the Greeks than that of M. Bianconi. The map which was used at the Conference at Constantinople, in the absence of those of Stanford and M. Bianconi, which were not then published, was that of Kiepert, of which M, Bianconi speaks as follows : — " The German geographer has not completed his work even ia a topographical point of view ; numerous errors appear ia it as in that of others. In the centre of Turkey we have in our surveys proved considerable inaccuracies, found localities, water-courses, mountains even, which do not figure in the map of this famous geographer. ... I must, however, avow here with regret that I, a French engineer, have had very often to show how much our maps are inferior to those of the Germans and Austrians, at least so far as Turkey is concerned." He thus shows that he has little or none of that national vanity which is so characteristic of the French. M. Bianconi has, however, no prejudice in favour of the Stan- ford map, OT the statistics which accompany it, while agreeing with it in the main, and regarding it as the best which had appeared prior to his own work, and he has freely pointed out what he conceives to be the faults of both ; for instance, he inquires how . it is that Stanford states that while there are 2,900,000 Mussulmans, there are only 1,120,000 Turks, but the difference is accounted for by the author by those Slavs, Greeks, and other races v/hich have embraced, however reluctantly, Mahometanism. I myself am inclined to think that Stanford's statistics are in tliis instance inaccurate, and that M. Bianconi is ■216 A DEFENCE OP RUSSIA. rigiit in estimating the wliole of the Mussulman race in Turkey at 1,410,000, of whom only 650,000 are Turks, the rest being Bosnians, Bulgarians, Albanians, and Greeks, who at heart are not Mussulmans, and would readily return to the faith of their fathers; so that if all the Turks had to leave Europe, there would ■only be about 150,000 families to dispose of in the rich and un- •occupied lands of Asia Minor. Whilst the Bulgarians in Turkey are estimated by M. Bianconi at 3,100,000, of whom only about ^00,000 are settled on the south side of the Balkans, against a Greek population in Turkey and Greece of 7,800,000, whereof about 60,000 live north of the Balkans, the Greek Christians in Turkey in Europe are in number 3,700,000, and, if we add the Albanians, 4,070,000, whilst the entire Greek race, including the Greek kingdom, number 7,800,000, and at no distant period, if the Greek Empire was re-established, it might become a first-rate power, with a population equal to what that of England was when she overthrew Napoleon. M. Bianconi points out that while Western Europe believe •that Turkey is as homogeneous an empire as it appears on the map, Egypt is onlj^ connected with Turkey by tribute ; the pro- vinces of Hedjaz and Yemen are no longer part of the Empire, and the immense countries which separate Bagdad from the country of 'Iram, for they provide no soldiers, and pay no taxes. The tribes of the Mirdites, the Dobri, the Koutchi, the Klementi, the Bamam, the Pulati, and the Mati, and the Isle of Samos, have never ad- TLiitted on their territory Ottoman functionaries, and only pay a smaU tribute. In Turkey, no part of the revenue is devoted to education, but there are stUl in Macedonia 34 Hellenic, 126 Primary, 57 Eudi- mentary, and 22 girls' schools, all Greek, with 10,918 scholars ; and in Thrace 32 Hellenic, IQS Primary, 42 Eudimentary, and 15 girls' schools, also all Greek, with 13,564 pupils. I think that these facts and figures sufficiently prove that if the Turkish Empire, as I believe and hope, is now to be dissolved, the Greek race are fairly entitled to the whole of Turkey to the 'line of the Balkans and to the southern half of Albania ; but to " WB ilirST BECOXSTBUCT THE GREEK EMPIRE." 217 preserve the free navigation from the Black Sea to the Medi- terranean, all the forts of the Dardanelles should be destroyed, and the reconstructed Greek Empire should be prohibited from ever rebuilding them, whilst Russia may fairly claim maritime outlets for her commerce by annexing a port on the Syrian coast of the Mediterranean and another on the Persian Gulf. The Greeks were about to attack Turkey in aid of Eussia during the Crimean War, but were prevented by the English and French fleets. Why should they not joia Russia now, in which case, even if the Turks are allowed to retaiu Constantinople, Macedonia, and Thrace, they will, at least, make sure of Thessaly and Epirus, as well as probably Crete, and the other Greek islands. Surely half a loaf is better than no bread ; and if they secure this first instal- ment of their right, they wiU the more readily afterwards obtaia the remainder. It is quite clear that in no country in the world are the Jews better treated in every respect than in Greece, as appears by the following letter published ia the Daily News of Monday, October 30, 1876:— " Honoured Sir, — Being informed, to our great astonishment, that in your enlightened country there are some who erroneously imagine that the aliens ia race and religion dwelling in Greece do not obtain at the hands of the Greek Government those rights which the laws confer upon Greek citizens, nor at the hands of the Greek people that fellow feeling which is an indispensable condition for the association in. life of equal citizens, we consider it a duty imposed upon us by justice to declare before you, that being settled here from old, and forming a community of nearly five thousand, we live in perfect peace and in close friendliness with our fellow citizens and brethren the Greeks, obtaining the fullest liberty of conscience, possessing our own places of worship, enjoy- ing equal political and civil rights, finding a full and impartial dispensation of justice at the Greek Courts of Law, and from all the other authorities, being in no way hindered in the exercise of our religion, and in no way disqualified among the rest of our 218 A DEFEKCE OF BTJSSL'. fellow-citizens with whom we serve in the army, and exercise in full liberty and perfect equality the same political rights, freely taking part in the parliamentary and municipal elections, by virtue of which some of us, having obtained the lawful majority, attained to the posts of communal councillors and aldermen, while others of us have exercised and still exercise the calling of lawyers and notaries at the law courts ; finally, that we are not liable to any tax:es heavier than those borne by the rest of the Hellenes, and that under the Hellenic Government we live in prosperity and happiness. " We feel it our bounden duty to make these facts known ; and expressing to you, Mr. Editor, and to the magnanimous British nation, our thanks for the wishes you have expressed in favour of an amelioration of the lot of the subjugated Greeks, we undersign ourselves, "(Signed) Samuel B. Eieti, A. L. DE Semos, Eaphael D. Jeshua, J. Theophilus de Maedo, The Elders of the Jews in Corcyra." '•' The Chief Eabbi of Corfu confirms the contents of the ahove document, and certifies to the authenticity of the foregoing signa- tures of Messieurs the Elders of the Jews in Corcjrra. "(Signed), Joseph E. Levi, " Corfu, Oct. 8 (20), 1876." The Chief Eabbi." " I hereby certify to the authenticity of the foregoing signature of the Chief Eabbi of the Jewish community at Corcyra, Monsieur E. Levi "(Signed), N. Marinos, the Nomarch." " Corfu, Oct. 11 (23), 1876." " I hereby certify that the above signature of the Nomarch of this Island, N. Marines, is genuine and authentic. "(Signed), CHARLES Seeright, " British Consulate, Corfu, Oct. 23, 1876. H.M.'s Consul." "■WE MUST EECONSTEUCT THE GEEEK EMPIEE." 219 Mr. Gladstone, in his article on the Hellenic Factor on the Eastern Problem, says :— " Probably for the first time during two thousand years, the silence of the Pnyx at Athens was broken a few weeks ago by the stir of an assembly comprising, as we are told, about ten thousand persons.* The meeting was first addressed by the Professor of History in the University at Athens, who advanced this among his claims to speak on the occasion — that he had seen his brother and his brother-in-law beheaded, and his father and his uncle hung. "The iirst stage of the descent of the Greeks was when they came under the Roman dominion. But Grcecia capita fervm victm-em cepit. This first reverse was mitigated by the majesty of the Power to which they succumbed, and by a continuous intellectual Teign ; such that, when Christianity went forth into the world, no sooner had it moved outwards from its cradle in Jerusalem, than it assumed the aspect of a Greek rehgion. That aspect it bore for centuries. In the Greek tongue, and by minds in which the Greek element predominated, was moulded that creed which stiU remains the intellectual basis of the Christian system. In the second century, it was still the ruling Christian tongue in Rome, where Pope Victor was the first who wrote in Latin on the business of the Church.f But even political jealousy was not so keen and sharp-eyed an enemy ' to Greek indepen- dence as ecclesiastical ambition. Of this we have the most ex- traordinary proof in the letter addressed by Pope Pius II. to Mahomet II. shortly after the capture of Constantinople. The Pontiflf exhorts the victorious Sultan (1461) to embrace Chris- tianity, and not only promises, upon that condition, to confer on him, by virtue of his own apostolical authority, the legitimate sovereignty of aU the countries he had conquered from the Greeks, but engages to use him for the re-establishment over those countries of the supremacy of the Papal Chair. ' Tuum hrachium,' he says, ' in eos imploraremus, qui jura Ecclesice Bomance * Compte Rendu de I'Assemblee, &c. AthSnes, 1876. t Dollinger, "Hippolytus uud KallistuB," chap. i. p. 28. Plummer's Trans- latiOD, p. 25. ■220 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. nonnunq%iam usurpant, et contra matrem suam cwnua erigunt.'* Such was the consolation administered, on the Christian side and from the highest quarter, to those crushed under the calamity of Ottoman domination. It was their peculiar fate to he smitten on one cheek because they were Christians, and on the other because they were not Latin Christians. Had it not been, says Dr. Pichler, the learned historian of the Schism, for the religious division of JEast and West, the Turks never could have established their dominion in Europe.f "Before Mr. Canning took office in 1822, the British Govern- ment viewed the Greek rebellion with an evil eye, from jealousy of Eussia. According to Finlay,J its aversion was greater than that of " any other Christian Government." Its nearest represen- tative, Sir Thomas Maitland, well known in the Ionian Islands as King Tom, after breaking faith with the people there by the establishment of a government virtually absolute in his own hands, endeavoured (but in vain) to detect by the low use of espionage the plans, yet in embryo, of the revolution. "But to the Emperor Nicholas and to his country, aided by the ^ood offices of Prussia, redounded the final honour of including in the Eussian Treaty of Peace the provisions of July 1827. The tenth article of the Treaty of Adrianople is the international charter of the independent existence of Greece. § Though the •Sultan had vaguely agreed to the concession before the Treaty, at the instance of England and France, yet his wUHngness to comply may be set down, in the main, to the formidable nearness of the ilussian army. " Brigandage had long since been occasional and limited, at the * PicUer, i. 501. f Ibid. i. 498. X Greek Eevolution, ii. 161 ; Gordon i. 315. Also compare Triooupi, Hel- Ifnikfe Epanastasis, i. 339, seqq. ; ii. 219 ; iii. 267. On the ohango in the English policy, and its effect, see Tricoupi, 191—194. The majority of Mr. Canning's Cabinet did not sympathize with him ; hut he had the adyantage of Ji thoroughly loyal chief in Lord Liverpool. § Finlay, Greek EeTolution, ii. 222 ; La Eussie et la Turquie.pp. 102 — 113. "we must EECONSTKTTOT the GREEK EMPIRE." 221 time when England was shocked and harrowed hj a deplorable but single outrage, of a kind from which Italy has been but lately purged, and Sicily, we must fear, is not yet purged altogether. The venality, unblushing and almost universal, among public men at Constantinople, hides its head in Athens, much as it did in England under Sir Robert Walpole. Recently detected in the gross transactions between certain ministers and certain bishops, it was brought to trial, and severely punished by the regular unbiassed action of the Courts. In this small and almost municipal State, the independence of the Judiciary appears to be- placed beyond question ; of itself an inestimable advantage. The higher clergy live in harmony vsdth the State, the lower with the people ; and the correspondence of our Foreign Office would show instances of their liberal feeling, such as are likely to exercise a beneficial influence upon Eastern Christendom at large. Their union with the people at large makes them an important element of strength to the social fabric. It was indeed an union cemented by suffering. On Easter Day, in April 1821, the Patriarch Gre- gorios * was arrested in his robes, after divine service, and hanged at the gate of his own palace in Constantinople. After three days he was cut down, and his body delivered to a rabble of low Jews, who dragged it through the streets, and threw it into the sea. Gordon enumerates about twenty Bishops, who were massacred or executed by the Turks in the early stages of the Revolution.f As for the priests, they suffered everywhere, and first of all. J " The statistical record, moreover, of the progress of Greece, drawn from pubHc sources, is far from being wholly unsatis- factory. "The population, which stood in 1834 at 650,000, had risen, in 1870 to 1,238,000 ; that is to say, it had nearly doubled in thirty-six years ; a more rapid rate of increase than that of Great * Gordon, i. 187. Finlay, i. 230. Tricoupi, Helleaikfe Epanastasis, vol. i. pp. 102 — 107, chap. vi. t Gordon, i. 187, 188, 190, 194, 306. J Ibid. i. 192. 222 A DEEEKCE OP ETJSSIA. Britain, and far beyond the ordinary European rate. Witli tlie Ionian Islands, Greece must now contain a number of souls con- siderably beyond a milHon and a half. "In 1830, Greece had 110 schools, with 9,249 scholars. In 1860, it had 752 schools, with 52,860 scholars. The University of Athens, which in 1837 had 52 students, in 1866 sould show 1,182. "The revenue, which was £275,000 in 1833, was £518,000 in 1845, and £1,283,000 in 1873 ; or probably about a million, after allowing for the Ionian Islands. "For the shipping and trade of Greece, the figures, though imperfect, are not unsatisfactory. The number of Greek seamen, augmented by the addition of the Ionian Islands, was in 1871 no less than 35,000. But before that annexation they were 24,000 ; or almost three times as many, in proportion to population, as those of the United Kingdom. The tonnage is over 400,000 for 1871. Before the union with the Ionian Islands, the imports and exports averaged for 1853-7, £1,546,000; but for 1858-62 £2,885i000. For 1867-71 they had risen to £4,662,000. That portion of Greek trade which is carried on with the United Kingdom, and which was in 1861 £923,000, had risen in 1871 to £2,332,000. "Mr. Finlay speaks of the strong leaning of the Ionian popula- tion to Russia. This may have been true, and with very good reason for it,in the time of Sir Thomas Maitland ; or in the Island which, according to Gordon,* " groaned for years under the iron rod of a wretch, whose odious tyranny would have dis- graced a Turkish Pasha." Of that people who still fondle in their memories the names of Canning and of Byron, there are in the Levant, we may safely say, four millions on whose affections we may take a standing hold, by giving a little friendly care at this juncture to the case of the Hellenic provinces. " An Athenian '"' says, as to the schism between the Greek and Bulgarian Churches : — " The whole of Servia and the Northern *Yol i. p. 318. ""WE MUST KECONSTEUCT THE GEEEK EMPIRE." 223 Provinces had always a clergy of their own, and a large propor- tion of both the priests and bishops of Bulgaria were natives educated in the seminary of Chalki. If the proportion was not greater it was owing to the natural inaptitude and disinclination of the Bulgarians for intellectual occupations. This is so positive that even the present Bulgarian Exarch Anthimos, of Widin, the prelate whom they choose to hold first that post of national trust, is a Greek by birth and education, and was, until his defec- tion, one of the Constantinopolitan Synod. The same was the case with Panaretos, the Bulgarian Bishop of Philippopolis, and with most of their ablest priests and bishops who are now the mainstay of the Exarchate. It so happens, however, that the Exarch is now elected in the same manner as the Patriarch, the Porte having in each case the casting vote, and the Bulgarian Bishops are nominated by precisely the same process as the Greek prelates. " Still, what diflSculties had these men to contend with in a State where, far from receiving any remuneration for their ministry, they had, like every other Giaour, to purchase the very privilege of life ! The ministers of the Church had to pay for their posts — as every other ofB.ce is paid for in Turkey — to the Governors, and they had, consequently, to recoup themselves as best they could. But how has it fared with the new Exarchate 1 Why, it has hardly been in existence for four years as a brand new national establishment, and already two Bishops have been expelled from their sees by their own Bulgarian flocks for un- merciful fleecing. " The Greeks, notwithstanding systematic and barbarous perse- cution, had, with characteristic ability and perseverance, secured the control of all the trade of the Black Sea, and of the mouths of the Danube, and the sole object in life of most of those devoted men was, by stinting themselves of the commonest necessities, to amass a fortune, which they bequeathed for the establishment of schools, hospitals, and orphanages, and for the publication of books propagating useful knowledge among their countrymen. Those savings were almost universally invested in landed estates 224 A DEFENCE OF ET78SIA. in the Danubian Principalities, then under Greek Hospodars, and in Bessarabia, equally safe from Turkish depredations, and the- deeds of ownership were made over to one of three great national institutions, namely, the Patriarchate, of Constantinople, the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and the Brotherhood of the Monks of Mount Athos. Thus, in the course of time, immense sums of money accumulated in the hands of the Greek clergy, who, what- ever their shortcomings, made so eifectual a use of their trust that the revival of Greek learning and the consequent awakening of the people are clearly traceable to that agency. Prince Couza of Eoumania was prevailed upon to sequestrate by one stroke of the pen the whole of the Danubian estates, which, yielding several mil- lions of yearly income, were not the property of the Church of the Principalities, but the bequest of aliens to alien institutions. A more glaring case of unscrupulous spoliation has never been recorded. " The Patriarchate soon discovered these tactics, and obviously deriving no advantage from the aUegiance of a people given over to agitation, offered to recognize a separate head, not of a Bulgarian Orthodox Church, but of an Orthodox Church in Bulgaria, and to concede to it the same privileges of administering its internal affairs which the Synods of Greece and Servia already enjoy, provided the Bulgarian Committee fixed territorial limits to this new organization. " Aali Pasha issued a firman in 1870, by^virtue^of which a separate Bulgarian Exarchate was established, having power to appoint a Bulgarian Bishop in whatever locality a part of the population, however insignificant, was pronounced to be Bulgarian. " The manner in which this firman worked is as follows : ' In most of the towns and villages on the tract of land between Bulgaria proper, Thrace, and Macedonia, the population is un- fortunately mixed. The Greek schools, hospitals, and churches, supported out of the Danubian Estates Income, were rapidly being closed for want of funds. But the Bulgarian agitators, feeling themselves well backed and encouraged, took by actual assault school-houses and churches which had been erected with. Greek funds, and had always been recognized as Greek institutions.' "we must beconstetjct the geeek empiee." 225 " In these circumstances, it was impossible for the Greek Patriarchate to allow this movement to extend unchecked. A Synod of all the Oriental Churches was convened at Constanti- , nople, and on the Exarch refusing to lay down territorial limits to his jurisdiction, a schism between the Greek and the Bulgarian Churches was proclaimed in October, 1872." " An Athenian " also says, as to Greek brigandage : — " It may be asked, What right has Greece to question at all the measures adopted by a neighbouring State with regard to its territory ? The right of the Greek Government is a three-fold one — it refers to the security of its frontiers, to the existing international relations, and to the inalienable and irrefragable bonds which unite all the members of the Greek nation together. It appears to me unnecessary to dilate upon the nature and mode of existence of the Circassians stationed in colonies near the frontier. When they do not actually burn and butcher, as they have lately done in Bulgaria, they subsist by ch£d-stealuig, cattle-Ufting, and systematic brigandage. They have no trade «scept depredation, and no acknowledged pursuit except the commerce of human flesh, beginning with their own children. They accept no fixed locality as their abode, and a ' settlement ' with them simply means a provisional centre of operations, which they shift as soon as the country around has ceased to afford any attraction in the way of availaWe plunder. Consequently, even a distant approach of these marauders is a continual source of danger and apprehension. " I am at a loss to offer a precedent adequately illustrative •of the present case, for the simple reason that no European Government ever attempted so flagrant a breach of all inter- national obKgations and so shameless a disregard of the dictates of decency. To say nothing of the premiums offered by civilized Governments for the destruction of locusts and for the strict circumscription of the cattle plague — and these are less severe visitations than an incursion of Circassians — I must remind English readers that the people of Hampstead protested against the establishment of a fever hospital in their vicinity, and 226 A DEFENCE OF UTJSSIA. that your Australian colonists refused to receive convicts and ticket-of-leave men, all of whom are imder proper restraint and quite harmless as compared with Circassians. I will also add that Prince Bismarck's protest against the employment of the savage Turcos by France against Germany was accepted in England as a just condemnation of an inadmissible mode of carry- ittg on civilized warfare. " Greece is not at war with Turkey — the relations between the two countries had never been so friendly as of late — ^the more reason why Greece should expect to be treated in perfect loyalty and unreserved confidence. "We have been bitterly reproached with the existence of brigandage on the Greco-Turkish border. We protested that the evil was fomented in Turkey and thence let loose upon us ; that it was impossible to adequately guard our frontiers — such as the Protecting Powers, in their wisdom, had decided to mark out — against daily incursions, and that Greece was as little responsible for these periodical irruptions of brigandage from the other sides as Canada has ever been deemed for the Fenian raids. So long as Turkey made it a practice to line the frontiers with irregular Albanians and Bashi-Bazouks, who were only an organized and officially recognized body of brigands, and who allowed bands to cross over into Greece on the under- standuig that the spoil was to be divided on their return, it was impossible to answer even for the safety of Attica itself, which is only a day's march from the frontier. Thanks to the intervention of the British Ambassador at Constantinople, the Porte was at last prevailed upon to substitute in 1874 regular troops at the frontier, and at Sir Henry Elliott's* suggestion General Ali Pasha, a renegade Pole, but an honest man and an able officer, was placed in command in Thessaly. Brigandage had since then disappeared, and it was only on the removal of AH Pasha to the seat of war and the return of irregulars to Thessaly that trouble again began, thus proving to demonstration, on the one hand, the injustice of * Poor Sir Henry (Elliott) is a good -worthy sort of upper clert. He is enubbed now by every one. "we must llECOKSTEUCT THE GREEK EMPIRE." 22f imputing to Greece the eyU of brigandage, and on the other, th« complete control which Turkey has always possessed over our own internal security." In an article ia the Bevm des Deux Monies, M. Leroy-Beauheu says : " The Greece of 1830 is by its configuration even deprived of internal equilibrium. Composed exclusively of the Hellenic pro- vinces of the South, it is quite southern by the character of its inhabitants as well as by latitude, and wants the counterpoise wMch the provinces of the North Epirus and Thessaly would have given it. Existiag Greece is like a France confined to Pro- vengals and Gascons, the most Hvely perhaps, the best speakers, the most intelligent even of all the French ; but assuredly, neither the wisest nor the quietest. "The Greece of 1830 resembles also an Italy reduced to Naples and Sicily, all meridional, aU maritime. The heavy Boeotians and the wild Etolians do not suffice to give to the kingdom the interior balance which it wants, it would have required the steadfast populations of Thessaly and Epirus. As the alloy of a grosser metal gives to gold or sUver more strength, the heavier blood of the Albanians would have happily corrected in the northern provinces Greek ductility. Within the actual limits of Greece on a restricted and impoverished soil with^such a predominance of the element which is naturally the most turbulent of them, the circumstance as to which one must be astonished is not the faults of the Greeks as to their revolutions, their bankruptcies, it is their wisdom, their relative prosperity, their progress. Though the Greeks of the kingdom may, perhaps, have often been iuferior to their brethren outside, they have performed the miracle of living in conditions where existence seemed impossible, and of preserving liberty under conditions where absolutism seemed their only chance of safety. . . . Primary instruction is more general among the Greeks than among many western nations — -than, for instance, in England and Belgium. . . . The principal article of com merce of Greece with the foreigner is currants. The produce of the kingdom is thus at the caprice of the English plum pudding Q 2 228 A DEFEKCE or RUSSIA. and cookery. . . . The Greek fleet is equal to that of Eussia, of which the European territory is a hundred times larger than that of Greece, and very much greater than that of the Ottoman Empire, of which most of the vessels are manned by Greeks. . ■ In contesting with each other the possession of Thrace and Macedonia, in presence of their common master, Greeks and Slavs ■ seem, according to the popular expresssion, to fight for the skin of the bear before they have killed it. . . It is the ethnological map of Kiepert, which has served, they say, as a basis for the studies of the Conference. The Bulgarians accept usually the results of these labours, the Greeks reject them. I ought to say that a professor of the Lyceum of GaUta Serai, M. A. Synvet, has just presented, with the aid of information supplied liim by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, facts in a more favourable light for the Greek claims. . . . " In the dioceses (Eparchies) of which they took possession, the Bulgarians, yesterday under the yoke of the Phanarcotes, have sometimes used their power to oppress in their turn their former masters, shutting the Greek churches and schools, and desiring to impose the use of Slavonian on those whom they reproached wUh having wished to compel them to speak Greek. The two rival nationalities, led away by the ambitious views, for the future seem thus to have given themselves the mission to maintain themselves recii^rocally in servitude. ' To divide to reign ' is a maxim, of wliicli the practice is so much the more easy to the Mussulman master, since the Christian subjects take upon themselves to apply it for them. The Greeks and the Slavs, who have so often revolted against the Turks, take care usually not to do so at the same time ; they wait to rise until the Porte has done with their rivals. If the territory to which the Greeks may aspire to possess them- selves is limited, the Greek mind wiU always possess a much vaster field. Their dispersion over two or three continents only neutralizes the grandeur and the political strength of the Greeks, by increasing their moral influence. Thanks to it, the language of Athens will extend far beyond the land of the kingdom, and Hellenism will remain grander and more powerful than Greece." "■ffE MtrST BECONSTKUCT-THE GEEEK EMPIRE." 229 Mr. Holms, M.P., says that Athens, which had in 1830 only 7,000 inhabitants, now has 50,000 ; and the revenue of Greece, which was £612,600 in 1833, is now £1,416,000. The mercantile marine of Greece, which nearly perished at the end of the War of Independ- ence, and in 1835 numbered but 3,370 vessels, of 90j000 tons, at the end of 1872 reached 6,142 vessels, of 420,210 tons, and with 35,000 sailors. At Constantinople and Leghorn the Greek flag ranks second only to the English ; at Marseilles only to that of France ; and a large portion of the trade of the Black Sea and eastern parts of the Mediterranean is carried on under the Greek flag. The number of Greek houses in London is 120, in Liverpool 30, and in Manchester 64; and in London there is a Greek bank and a Greek school, as well as a Greek insurance establishment. Where do we see a Turkish house of business ] They are un- known in any commercial town in Europe. I may add that, as in the case of Themistocles, who every one allowed to be at least second in valour at the battle of Salamis, and whom all then recognised as first, so the Greeks must be admitted by the universal suffrage of Europe to have done more for civilization than any race which ever existed. 2'30 A DEFENCE 01' KUSSIA. CONCLUDING CHAPTEE. Mt self-imposed task is now ended, but I cannot but look rue- fully on tke vast mass of valuable materials ■wHcli I tave been reluctantly obliged to sacrifice in a species of Massacre of tbe Innocents, in order to retain my work -within reasonable limits. My wisli and intention has been to write a book which should enable an ordinary Englishman, who had previously known nothing whatever respecting the Eastern Question, to acquire a complete acquaintance with the whole subject, in all its details and with its various side issues, at a single sitting, and that it should be published at a sufiB.ciently low price to place it within the reach of all classes. No one can be more fully aware than I am of the very nume- rous faults and imperfections of my work, but I trust that the friends of the Christian cause, at least, wiU accept my abundant good will for my inadequate performance. As to those who are hostile to the Christians and to Eussia, and who are favourable to Turkey, as I have given them no quarter, I expect none myself, and am ready to maintain my ground against all comers. As Mr. Gladstone has been chastised with rods, I must expect to be chastised with scorpions, since, though heartily in favour of the Christians, he is but a lukewarm supporter of Eussia, whilst I support that great country out and out. I must say, I think the attacks made on Mr. Gladstone for the course he has pursued on this question are palpably unjust to him and most discreditable to their authors. To begin with the pawns on the Government side of the poli- COSCLTJDING CHAPTEE. 231 tical chessboard, I will quote as a specimen of most culpable detraction the following passage from an address which was ■delivered by Mr. Ashbury, M.P. for Brighton, to his constituents in January last : — "It must not be forgotten that he (Mr. Gladstone) has written a series of pamphlets by which he has put into his pocket about ten thousand English sovereigns. Why has he not shown his sympathy by sending blankets to that amount ? As far as I am concerned, I can scarcely conceive a more discreditable transac- tion; an honourable gentleman taking advantage of his former position of Prime Minister, as leader of tbe Liberal party, and, as he hoped, future leader of the Governmeut — but which I hope he will never be — to take advantage of his prestige and trade on suf- fering humanity in order to put money in his pochet.'" Such venomous and unjust attacks must give annoyance even to so eminent a man as Mr. Gladstone, while praise from this and similar quarters could not afford the smallest satisfaction, and if I am. asked to explain this apparent inconsistency, I answer in the words of Byron, that " the kick of an ass can give pain to one to whom its most exquisite braying can give no pleasure." Now, as Mr. Gladstone, in the course of his long and honour- able career, has repeatedly resignedoffi.ee on grounds which even •his opponents often showed thought over-punctQiousness, and when he could have retained his position with perfect credit — as he a few years ago dissolved Parliament and risked his tenure of power when he had a majority of nearly a hundred in his favour — he of all public men is the one who is least open to such a charge. As I have mentioned Mr. Ashbury, I wUl point out one or two amongst many of the egregious errors into which he fell in the address in question, which was greedily swallowed by his dull and credulous listeners. He said, " The number of Mahometans in that particular portion of Turkey is 3,230,000 against 4,270 Christians." But the fact is, as appears by the Almanac de Gotha, the Christians, whom he estimates at 4,270, number 4,792,443, so that his estimate is less than one- thousandth of their actual numbers, a degree of inaccuracy which may rank 232 A DEFENCE OE. ILVSaiA.^ . "with. Dr. Kenealy's estimate that the English have massacred four thousand millions of people. He subsequently says that fifteen to twenty thousand Eussians joined the Seryian army, whilst Mr. Mackenzie Wallace says the real numbers were four thousand; so that, whUst geese dwindled t» goslings in the matterof (the Christian)populationinMr.Ashbury'& hands, they became swans in the case of the Eussian volunteers. Another mis-statement is, that the Turkish fleet was destroyed at Sinope in 1864, whilst that event really happened in 1853, and it i^ utterly untrue a? stated by Mr. Ashbury that the destruc- tion of the Turkish fleet at Sinope took place before a declara- tion of war, for war was declared by Turkey against Eussia on the 6th October, 1853, and by Eussia against Turkey on the Ist November,1853, whilst the destruction of the Turkish fleet at Sinope took place on the 30th November, 1853. The lecturer proceeded to say, "It was currently reported and believed that he (the Sultan) had invited Q-eneral Ignatieff to garrison Constantinople with Eussian troops." If this is true, it is no more than took place in 1833, when the Eussians alone- saved Constantinople from being captured by Ibrahim Pasha, and it shows that the Eussians are not so ambitious as Mr. Ashbury and his friends pretend, since, if General Ignatieff had taken advantage of this invitation, it would have been impossible to have prevented another Eussian occupation of Constantinople. We are then told that Lord Palmerston said of Mr. Gladstone, " Gladstone will either ruin his country or die in the madhouse ;"^ but, having asked some of those best acquainted with Lord Palmerston, they positively assure me that he was incapable of using such an expression towards one of our greatest statesmen, for whom he had the utmost respect and regard, and whose colleague he had been. We are afterwards told that in the twelve months previous to the dissolution of 1874, " Government supporters al every elec- tion " were defeated, which is totally untrue. Next comes the amazing statement " that our imports and ex- ports are two hundred times greater than those of Eussia." Now,. CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 233 the " statesman's Year Book " gives tlie total value of the Eussian imports at £60,000,000 sterling, and the exports at £52,000,000, or together £112,000,000 ; and two hundred times that amount, according to Mr. Ashbury's statement, would he the prodigious sum of £22,400,000,000, whilst the total exports and imports of the United Kingdom in 1875 were £655,551,900, or less than one thirty-fourth part of Mr. Ashbury's estimate. This is the way in which members of "the stupid party" justify their appellation, and enlighten their constituents with wildly inaccu- rate facts and obsolete and erroneous theories. I now come to the Attorney-General, who attempted tO' harpoon our Liberal whale, and did not hesitate to say in a. speech to his constituents that Mr. Gladstone "had entered into a warfare against the Government, animated by a vindictive malignity founded on his escliision from office ; " and surely this, as Mr. Gladstone pointed out, is most improper and im- justifiable language from one who probably wUl occupy one day the highest judicial position. The most outrageous of the attacks on Mr. Gladstone, how- ever, proceeded from Lord Beaconsfield, who thus endeavoured to tomahawk and scalp him at Aylesbury: "It would b& affectation in me to pretend that the Government is backed by the country. The opinion of a large party in this country would, if carried out, be injurious to the interests of Eng- land and fatal to peace The danger at such a moment is this, that designing politicians may take advantage of such sublime sentiments and may apply them for their sinister ends. . . Such conduct outrages the principles of patriotism ; it injures the common welfare of humanity in the general havoc- and, crime it may accomplish, and, may le fairly described as tuorse- than any of those Bulgarian atrocities of which we have heard so much." Everyone knows that this Parthian arrow was meant for Mr. Gladstone, and a more odious, unjust, and disgraceful charge was never brought by one politician against another, especially behind his back, when he had no opportunity of replying ; for why did not Lord Beaconsfield give him notice of his intended attack ? iJ34 A DEFENCE OF RUSSIA. and I will be bound he would have rushed to repel it from the fur- thest corner of the country. LordBeaconstield pays Aylesbury the ■doubtful compliment of periodically exhibiting there his celebrated decoys, which are generally but rather lame specimens of those ducks for which Aylesbury is famous, and if they swallow all his statements, the town will hereafter be still more celebrated for the ■abundance of its geese. It sufB.ees to refute Lord Beaconsfield and the other Turcophiles who stated that the agitation initiated by Mr. Gladstone had been injurious and factitious — such as Lord Derby, who described the feeling of the British people last autumn as a got-up sentiment, and expressed his opinion that the effect of it had been mischievous — to quote the following sentence from one of his own colleagues (Lord Carnarvon) : " He did not disagree, if he rightly understood it, with the public feeling and opinion. . . He thought, on the contrary, it was a credit to the country. He rejoiced that there was neither delay Bor hesitation in the expression of that feeling, and so far from weakening the hands of the Government, he believed that if rightly understood at home and abroad, nothing would more strengthen the hands of his noble friend, the Foreign Secretary, than the burst of indignation which had just gone through the length and breadth of the land." When I consider the foregoing envenomed attauk of the Turcophiles on such a man as Mr. Gladstone, after his almost unparalleled services, and that all who favour Russia are treated as political Ishmaels and social Pariahs, I ought, I suppose, to feel greater alarm than I really do at the fate which may be in store for me who have given so much greater cause of offence, especially as I have not only upheld the cause of the Christians •of Turkey, but also that of their heroic Russian liberators. As I have arranged with an official of high position that this work wiU reach the Emperor of Russia, and as it is to be published in the Russian language, I venture to take this opportunity of earnestly and respectfully urging on him the •expediency, as well as the justice, of immediately renewing the promise made by the Emperor Alexander I. of granting a OONCLUDINa CHAPTEE. 235 liberal constitution to the whole Eussiau Empire, to take effect as soon as the national war of liberation of the Christians of Turkey is satisfactorily concluded. Almost the only friends and weU-wishers of the Eussian Empire in England belong to the Liberal party, and they are hampered and discouraged in their advocacy of the sacred cause of the Christians of Turkey by the unfortunate circumstance that Eussia has not a constitution. The overwhelming majority of Englishmen make a species of idol of parliamentary government, and absurdly consider it a panacea for all political and social evils. In fact, just as Cicero too broadly said,"Inic[ui3simam pacem justissimo bello anteferj," so the typical Briton would be apt to prefer the Irish Parliament, the Eump Parliament of Cromwell, the subservient and state- nominated chambers of Napoleon III., or even the Turkish Assembly, with all its absurdity, injustice, stupidity, and folly, to the rule of an Antoninus, an Alfred the Great, or an Alexander II. of Eussia. I think it was Montesquieu who said that the people of England are free only during the time of the elections, which need not take place more than once in seven years, and during the whole interval, as at present, we are at the beck and call of a siugle man (Lord BeaconsfLeld), who will not take the sense of the people, though he has publicly avowed that they do not approve of his policy. Alter all, there are only about two millions of voters out of a population of thirty millions, so that only one fifteenth have the franchise ; and the seats are so absurdly dis- tributed, that the balance of power iS in favour of the minority of the electors, who possess the majority of seats, and the whole agricultural population are as much disfranchised as if they were serfs. They are good enough to die for their country, but not to vote ; whilst the Eayahs of Turkey, if they have no power, at least do not serve in the army. It is quite obvious that in the Southern States of the American Sepublic the existence of Parliamentary Institutions was an absolute bar to the emancipation of the great majority of the 236 A DEFENCE OF EUSSIA. population, who were slaves, treated with the utmost barbarity and injustice, and demoralized and degraded even the mean whites, who were the most numerous portion by far of the white population, and who were the instruments of the tyranny of the planters ; and an English seaman once seeing some mean whites driving a number of negro men and women to the market for sale with knotted whips, was heard to remark, "If the devil don't seize them 'ere fellows, we might as well not have any devil." If there had been a benevolent and intelligent absolute Government in the Southern States, the negroes would probably have been emancipated a generation sooner — when we eman- cipated our negroes in the "West Indies — and a bloody war, with a colossal debt far exceeding the total value of the negroes, would have been avoided. On the other hand, benevolent and intelligent absolute sovereigns are rare, and experience shows that in the long run parliamentary government is by far the best for any civilized and Christian country. It was impossible that Eussia could have had an efficient parliamentary government as long as serfdom existed, and England probably retarded by several years the emancipation of the serfs, by the Crimean "War; but now that they have been freed for sixteen years, and have for ten years worked the local institutions which the Ozar has given them q^uite as well, according to Mr. Mackenzie "Wallace, as the people of any other country in Europe, it is clear that they are now perfectly fitted to receive a liberal constitution. Middle-aged men recollect when Austria and other countries- were as absolute governments as Eussia ; but Englishmen never had a bad word for Austria, aU the vials of their wrath being reserved, since Lord Palmerston's reign, for Russia, which could never apparently do right ; whilst Austria, even in suppressing the Gallician revolt, and inciting the peasants to massacre the nobles, could never do wrong. The Emperor of Eussia could, if he thought proper, at first proceed tentatively, say by allowing each Mir or Commune to elect an elector, and all the electors in CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 237 eacli province could elect a member to the Eussian House of Commons. The provincial assemblies might again elect Senators, and under such a system there -would be no fear but that the Parliament would be only too Conservative. From Mr. Wallace's account, the Emperor Alexander is evi- dently not a man of inordinate ambition, with an overweening and jealous attachment to absolute authority, and it would not be to him an enormous sacrifice to become a constitutional sovereign, reigning but not governing, as he already is in Finland, and as Alexander I. and Nicholas were in Poland ; whilst surely the Eussians in 1877 are more fit for parliamentary government than the Poles were in 1815. Now that even the Turks have the pretence of a constitution, surely the Eussians should have the reality, and they would then rally round their great country the cordial sympathies of the Liberal party in Europe. If the serfs had been emancipated in 1850, and if three years later and before the Crimean "War Eussia had obtained a free constitution, the Crimean War would probably never have taken place. Eussia would have been saved an exhausting expenditure of blood and treasure, and the Liberal party throughout the world, which is everywhere the strongest and most intelligent, woidd have then willingly concurred in all the territorial arrangements which I have sketched as the probable result of the present war. After all, the position of a constitutional sovereign is not incompatible with very con- siderable influence, and as much power as would content any reasonable individual. Louis Philippe had even a preponder- ating influence in the government of Prance, though a constitu- tional monarch, and Leopold, the King of the Belgians, who was offered several kingdoms, was second to no sovereign in Europe for the reputation and influence he enjoyed, which extended far beyond the limits of the small kingdom he governed. The Eussians, too, are about the most loyal nation in the world, and the great difficulty I see in Eussian parliamentary government is that there would hardly be any opposition. A critic might here remark that it is very easy to be liberal at 238 A DEPE:fCB OF EUS8IA. tlie expense of others, and to propose to a Eussian Czar to part with, absolute power ; but the Emperor of Austria has done the very same thing, to his great honour .and enormous advantage, and, to compare great things with trifles, in my own very obscure sphere I have had the satisfaction of doing something which, however comparatively utterly insignificant, was still in the same direction. It happened that I possessed the old feudal privilege of nominating the magistrates for the small town which adjoins my castle, and I could have made a chimney sweep chief magis- trate and a justice of the peace besides, and a servant and a street beggar second and third bailies, as they are called. I, however, considered this a most improper and unjust privHego for me to possess, and one which was quite contrary to the spirit of the age ; so I, in my small way, gave a constitution to the little town, and am not even a constitutional but an abdicated sovereign. So far, however, from having lost influence in the town by doing an act which . saved me from an obnoxious and distasteful responsibility, I have been twice, unexpectedly to myself, returned as member for my county, chiefly, as I believe, because I had divested myself of a power which I was not morally justified in retaining. Voltaire teUs us that Eussia had made more progress in fifty years than any other nation in Europe in five hundred years, which is the strongest possible proof that in his opinion|her institutions then suited her ; but now that education is general in Russia, and that a national spirit, which finds its expression in the enthusiastic words, " Matuscka Eoosyia " (Mother Eussia), has been aroused of sympathy with fellow Slavonians, consti- tutional liberty is imperatively and immediately necessary, and literature, art, science, commerce, every interest, would progress wish renewed vigour, so that Eussia would advance, not by an arithmetical, but by a geometrical progression. Eor those whose intellectual calibre does not permit them to read anything drier than works of fiction, and who can only swallow the pill of knowledge when profusely silverised, and for those who,having been beguiled into reading my facts, arguments. COSCLTJDING CHAPTEE. 239 and statistics, and wlio, after such a dose of senna or castor oil, require a honne louche, I have provided that requisite in the shape of an amusing satirical sketch by Thackeray of life in a Mahometan country, and a genial and humorous account of an interview between a Turkish Pasha and a typical West Indian, by the graphic pen of Kinglake. Voltaire apologised on one occasion to a lady for -writing a long letter to her because he had not time to write a short one, but I have endeavoured to economise my readers' time by an elaborate and arduous condensation of facts and arguments at the expense of my own. / con/ess, to use a stereotyped parliamentary phrase, I am greatly alarmed by the presentiment that Lord Beaoonsfield will endeavour to take advantage of the parliamentary recess, early next month, to involve us in a war -with Eussia in favour of Turkey, by -which we should incur the guilt of subjecting the Christians to the intolerable yoke of their Ottoman oppressors. It is -well-known that the early -works of Lord Beaconsfield, or rather of Mr. Disraeli, are of a somewhat prophetic character. In his "Tancred," published about thirty years ago, we find the title of Empress of India, and also that of the Earl of Beacons- field. In the same -work there are some remarks which are not inapplicable to the present state of the Eastern Question, and to the opinions of a most eminent statesman. Keferinis, the cele- brated Prime Minister of the Queen of Ansorey) a great master of the art of " amplification of phraseology," thus expresses himseK : " It is not to be dcDied, or in any way concealed, that a Turk, especially if he be a Pasha, is, of all obscene and utter children of the devil, the most entirely contemptible and thoroughly to be execrated." The chief hope of those who -warmly espouse the Christian cause is that Lord Salisbury, -who has shown so much ability and resolution hitherto in opposing the pro-Turkish party in the Cabinet, -will remain firm, and if he and the others who follow him leave the Government if a -warlike policy is persisted in, Lord Beaconsfield -would either have to resign or dissolve Parliament. 240 A DErENCE OP IIUSSIA. It is a monstrous injustice and anachronism that on the fic- titious pretence that a declaration of war is a prerogative of the Crown, the whole lives and properties of every Englishman, and even our national existence, are at the mercy of a single man, alien in race, feeling, and character to our country, whilst in the United States there is a committee of foreign relations of the Senate, without whose concurrence not even the most insignifi- cant treaty can be ratified ; and this body rejected the Johnson Treaty, negotiated by Lord Derby, so that by our absurd system the Americans can bind us, whilst they are themselves free. The present Parliament was elected, and a Conservative majority unexpectedly returned, chiefly by the influence of the Licensed Yictuallers, whom Lord Aberdare had irreconcilably offended ; and surely three years later we are entitled to have an appeal to the nation on the gigantic issue of peace or war, with effete Turkey only as an ally, against our old and powerful ally Eussia. There are plenty of men on the Liberal side of the House of Commons who, if any attempt is made by Government to get additional supplies of men or money by hook or by crook, will divide^ the house any number of times that may be necessary to defeat them, if we remained till this time twelve months, or until the war is ended; and I would fain hope that Her Majesty sympathises with the atrocious wrongs of the Christians, and that if Lord Beaconsfield (who, as I have ehewhere shown, is stated by Count Seebach to have treated with the enemy in the Crimean "War, and who has himself admitted that the Govern- ment is not backed by the country) endeavoured to persuade the Queen to sign a declaration of war against Russia, she would dismiss him instantly from office, send for Mr. Gladstone, and appeal to the country. Mr. Gladstone, in a letter to the Baptists of Worcestershire, says, "The Government have aheady, in 1877, asked from Par- liament for military and naval purposes £24,700,000. In 1870 we had asked £20,500,000, adding to this sum the £2,000,000 we asked after the Franco-German War began; we had Brother Jonathan's " Guess" as to our best Policy on the Eastern Question. From Harper's Illustrated Journal, of New York. . LKITKK 111 TllK I.ONIIDN • TISIF.S _^ r, , ,,.,-,. ifii. ri [.r, 1 Fills Hint mir iiilrotiiluuii Pn-ml \f llj \\lA\ Illl.TlTl-," !•' "'■"ll "»•" ^'lL■tlllll 111' . - 1 1,, r 1 1 II «lil. Ii Hliall ci'irll.Tl H"-«lii III .|.-.li.n: «iir in:iiii1i.l 1.1 1.41(.-tlj II" r. t liu.- -11111111 (fiiii Oil' Haldi, 31111 biTipiw •r. -Liin-r'nli 111.' 1-1--1' "I '"'•■■ ui' "I" ~ '■■I"'. "''^"■" • "*' '• "'"- 1,-1 :hni ^"l Kii"!!. "I'll. <l all K>ir.i|ii-. lo .l.-clurr .■,,11,1 11' Till- liil.c 1 lin-i- ..■nil! l.Jkii.iii aj. nil in.li.piUnlil,. I' ..nr i.i—'ii' ■illnin' iiini ..olUikb nur.ly u Kr«»» »'■'•. An «i tiiL't.-i.- iti'T.' 11* n"ii« .i-lM. .ir .iiiiiciv«l.lc W ii«- .-n.'i.l K.I,i;i ..Imf-f.- Ill uil' nmli I.. liM y Sum/ im.l Ekm". ""il '" inTliii; iili'itii'lli.T rlnir iif oiiy ruimrLiuTj wlili ihu vA 1.1 'Inn iir niiy I'llu'r I'-dll'li Uili ri-pl irlml.'Svr, II pliniild Mirljiii.l/.-nri'»lli;i">iuliij In Iw c.iliii.-.l.nl itllli wich « Tdril ,1 11. ■ >-li11 IibpI, u" 111 (rvul oil .illRliC 111 luili-, n >ii-l> loMvc I'rilliltiii 3imI niiiilliiiuii'iK I" (^".1 > ""rlil, ili>' <-'w liiluri' [or I, im lioji.' Ml It 1- cn >' ""It of Ivli.i; cmirli'-fcl In the ,iii»,iiuil -ri.li.ilk xliiHil'il nii'l.lrlll.-.l liil" n iicmi,»«Mi' ollnn|il lit „,.',„|»T -.-It ..i.-.'ni"L Til. iitT-i,i.i|HToiiitry«(r«i'u'l Hiw-w ni.iru r,-.|nTl .l.l.' I., uh: tliBii II"' hui'liiic ul IWInni. lT(Kirrfliic w -. (r.,111 II K-\-fl lini'Tnncr, eco'ii""!. "I"! imllrs in'iuiiil (.■■il- 'lli>-»r iliiiiL'- I uTilc iiiii on lieani-ii-, Imi mi n mi' kiHiwI'ilK"". - '.liili' lliiTi' I" J.'l '111". I'-'l I" • I''" "iTl'" '111' "ini'il.'*' ""'1 ...._i ilihi.i; 'lilt B llriii-li ):m-.'riiii..-tii i-niilil IIOTOGRAPH OF AN M.P.,. BY DICKENS .... 231 '< THE GREAT BATTLE OF KATSH-TARTAR BAZARDJIK " . 241 AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE UTTER IMPOSSIBILITY OF PER- SUADING ENGLISHMEN TO BELIEVE ANYTHING CON- TRARY TO THEIR PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS . . . 249 LIST OF INDIVIDUALS AND AUTHORITIES QUOTED . .251 APPENDIX SOME CURIOUS AND COMIC INCIDENTS OF THE DEBATE ON THE EASTERN QUESTION, I PBOCEED to make a few remarks on the great debate on the Eastern Question, in which I took part myself, which lasted five nights, and on vrhich occasion fifty-one memhera spoke, whilst many others were " crushed out " of the discussion, which occupies ahout sixty columns of the Times. By far the larger portion of the speeches were, as Byron said of a speech of Wilberforce, " Words, words, nothing but words," with hardly any ideas, facts, or arguments — in short, even more insipid than those articles in magazines which are known as pad- ding. A lai'ge number of members only profess — and rather glory in — complete ignorance of foreign languages and foreign politics, and they remind me of a lady who had spent some years in Italy, and who, on being asked if she had acquired the Italian language, said she had escaped wonderfully well. In the discussion which preceded the debate the Chancellor of the Exchequer fully and candidly admitted that the Conservatives were the stupid party, and if it had been my fate to have followed him I would certainly have said, " It would be rude to contradict you." Lord Sandon, at a later period of the debate, congratulated himself on his party having been at last elevated by Mr. Childers into " an a APPENDIX. intellectual party," but this opinion found no support on the Liberal side, and the course pursued by the Conservatives must have soon dissipated Mr. Childers' amiable delusion, and I am inclined to think that some of them who had received a classical education were tinder the impression that the true meaning of the words rus in urhe, which they had learned at Eton, was that the Russian should never be allowed to put his foot in the City of Constantinople, like the witty politician who supported a motion for taxing the funds on the words, Quodcunque infimdis ascescH. Many of those who spoke relied whoUy for their materials on pre- ceding speeches, and served up the same indigestible and unpalat- able hash time after time with a refinement of cruelty to the wearied listeners of which even a Turk would hardly have been guilty. Some of them had a faint notion that there had been a rebellion in Herze- govina and a massacre in Bulgaria, but whether these provinces were north, south, east, or west of the Balkans, they had not the faintest idea. Then they had heard of the Andrassy Note, the Berlin Memorandum, and the Protocol ; and the PhUo-Turks were told by their leaders that these documents meant coercion, and coercion meant war and destruction of British interests, and that the Ministers had acted right, whUst the Philo-Christians held that the policy of Ministers was wrong, that coercion was the only way of avoiding a bloody war, and that there was no fear of British interests being imperilled, and we had the permutations and combinations on these and a few other topics, which, by the rules of arithmetic, amount to an almost infinite number. A most ludicrous feature of the debates in the House of Commons, especially on great occasions, is to observe the anxiety with which members who intend to speak watch for the conclusion of the speech of the member actually addressing the House, and the look of dis- comfiture and disgust which they assume when, after one legitimate peroration, the orator — as, alas ! they often do (especially front benchers, who seem, though often excruciatingly wearisome, to think that their dignity requires that they should speak at considerable length)— indulges himself (but not his audience) in a second or even a third peroration; and, i£ he halts for a moment to take breath or a sip of water, and there is a false start, you may often observe a COMIC nsrCIDENTS OF DEBATE ON EASTEEN QUESTIOIT. 3 dozen members rise, like so many postboys in the saddle. At last when the speaker oomes to a full stop, there is another uprising of possibly a score of members, like a covey of partridges, and then the Speaker, who has been previously told by the whips on both sides who is to speak next (who is supposed to be the individual who first •catches the Speaker's eye), calls out the name of the selected person, and sometimes sees a man of the most diminutive proportions behind a Daniel Lambert, and the others, chopf alien, have to resume their seats, often amidst the humiliating titters of the audience; and I myself was not called, after rising more than a score of times, till the fifth night of the debate. Nothing can be more absurd and un- dignified than the whole proceeding, and it is obviously unfair and undesirable, as small, aged, infirm, and plainly- dressed speakers can- not be expected to catch the Speaker's eye as rapidly as colossal, young, and vigorous men, with perhaps a very conspicuous cravat or other article of attire ; and in. aU other countries there is either a ballot for precedence in speaking, or else each member is taken in the order in which he writes his name in the list of intending speakers; but in England even Liberals are apt to think any English custom absolutely perfect, however clearly absurd to any unpreju- diced mind ; even the cruelties which disgrace the English public schools, such as fagging, bullying, flogging, and "tunding" little boys by older and stronger youths, which caused a poor little Blue- coat School boy the other day in sheer despair to commit suicide. The extreme right of the pro-Russian position was at first occupied by Mr. Courtney, who was favourably heard on that night, whilst he spoke on a subsequent day in favour of woman's rights amidst that unceasing storm of interruption which in France is called a charivari. Mr. Courtney advocated the immediate and gradual dismemberment of Turkey for its own preservation, just as the amputation of a mortified limb sometimes saves the human body, and he was in favour of the coercion of Turkey by England and Russia alone, if the other Powers would not join ; but I my- self went a step further, and held that we should even have coerced Turkey single-handed, if Russia and the other Powers would not have joined us. The fxirthest advanced post on the Philo-Turkish side, in the 4 APPENDIX. absence o£ Butler Johnstone Pasha, was occupied by Dr. Kenealy, after whom Blcho Effendi was a bad second. The House learned some ■very surprising facts from the learned doctor, which might fitly be placed in a new edition of the veracious and amusing life of Baron Munchausen ; but the extravagance and absurdity of his language injured his own cause so that the advocates of Turkey must have exclaimed, "Save us from our friends; as to our enemies, we can take care of them ourselves." Previously, however, to arriving at this climax of absurdity, which turned the debate into a screaming farce, I must notice a few of the other speeches. Mr. Cross, though his speech was, on the whole, business-like and sensible, committed himself to the following very absurd state- ments. " Why the Suez Canal should be attacked by B ussia in any shape I cannot imagine.'' Sydney Smith tells us that it requires a surgical operation to get a Scotchman to understand a joke ; and it would require apparently some such process to excite the sluggish imagination of the Home Secretary. Egypt, as part of Turkey, is at war with Russia, and if the lukewarm Khedive joined the Sultan heartily in the war, and proposed to despatch as many troops as he did to Abyssinia, namely, 50,000 men or more, instead of the 12,000 he is now sending, it would be then of the utmost importance to Russia, not only to take possession of the Suez Canal, allowing neutral traffic to continue, but to occupy the whole of Egypt. He then goes on to say, "Take another place in which the world is interested. I mean Egypt." B ut having thus " taken Egypt " (I write from the report in the Times ), he does not say what he or Russia should do with it, but rushes with breathless speed to the Dardanelles ; and then he winds up magnificently with the following rather presumptuous sentence, " Is it necessary for carrying on the war between Russia and Turkey, and for the pro- tection of the Christians in Turkey, that Con stantinople should be either attacked, approached, or occupied ? I say, ' No.' " In other words, " Sic volo sic jubeo stet pro ratione volun tas." It takes one's breath away to see that a Cabinet Minister, who has never had even the most superficial knowledge of military affairs, should actually take it upon him to pronounce ex cathedra that it could not be neces- sary for carrying on the war that Constantinople even should be COMIC INCIDENTS OF DEBATE ON EASTEEN QUESTION. 5 approached ! Why, it is impossible to carry on the war at all with- out a forward movement, which is necessarily an approach to Constantinople, unless Mr. Cross's idea of carrying on war is to remain stationary, or perhaps that the Russians should obtain a victory by retreating from their frontier towards Archangel or Siberia. It has been held as an axiom, since the creation of the world, that the shortest and most effectual way to vanquish an enemy is to aim at his heart, and in the case of a hostile country, to attack the capital ; and if the Germans, for instance, had not marched upon Paris in the Franco-German war they would never have attained so signal and speedy a victory. This new Moltke of the Ministry should give a course of lectures on tactics and strategy, and no doubt the Russians will be curious to listen to the arguments on which this extraordinary opinion is based. I come now to Lord Sandon, who said he " confessed that at one time this session he began to feel despondent as to the prospects of the Conservative party." This tallies with what Lord Be aconsfield had said in the autumn, that "it would be affectation in me to pre- tend that the policy of the Government is backed by the country ; " and proves that they know they are acting counter to the wishes of the nation, and ai'e therefore bound in honour to dissolve, as Mr. Gladstone did with double the majority, and appeal to the country. We had then a most sensible and excellent speech from Mr. Baxter, in a House containing about a dozen members, in which he told us that Sir Henry Elliott " was a much greater believer in the Turks than the Turks were in themselves." He " saw a good many Turkish Pashas, and aU of them gloried in having none of their money invested in the Turkish funds." I will now briefly notice the frothy but amusing speech of Sir Robert Peel, which went in at one ear and went out at the other, leaving Mr. Porster only one remark to answer, namely, that th e hon. baronet had said that the Liberals " ai-e hungry wolves with out a shepherd ; " but, as the House of Commons is neither quick nor critical, and easily amused with the feeblest attempt at wit, this Irish bull was not detected till the speech was over, when Mr. Porster quietly observed that "we might be hungry, and we might be wolves, biit in that case it is not likely we should want a shepherd." 6 APPENDIX. I now come to Mr. Bourke's speech, who " put his foot into it" with a vengeance, as I shall proceed to show in the following amazing pas- sage : — "The hon. member (Mr. Oonrtney) said the Turkish fleet was ■commanded by Englishmen ; that there was not a single ironclad in it which did not depend for navigation on an English engineer ; and thali, if war broke out between England and Turkey, the consequence would be that the Ottoman fleet would be reduced to inaction unless the English on board would forego their nationality. They received the money of Twrkey on the faith that they were to stick to their nhips in time of war, amd that to throw over their master would he to jplay the part of a traitor." This extraordinary statement was received with cheers from the Conservatives, who would equally have ■cheered an assertion that black was white, and I suppose wc ought to receive it as a maxim of law laid down by no less a person than the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that in case Eng- land went to war with Turkey, it would not be treason, as we hitherto supposed, for Englishmen in the Turkish service to fight against their country, but it would be treason for them to refuse to fight iigainst it! The force of absurdity could hardly go further. He further remarked that " it was important in the present emergency, for the sake, not only of this country, but of the world, to show Europe and the universe that we were atinited people." Now, there was not a single member of Parliament on either side who had a word to say against the first resolution, and if the Government had only agreed to it, as many on their own side wished, and Colonel Lindsay expressly recommended, we should have presented pre- cisely that firm and united front to the world which Mr. Bourke desired, but hardly " to the universe," as he enthusiastically wished, since the heavenly bodies can hardly be expected to take an interest in bhe attitude of even so august a body as the British Parliament Lord Blcho subsequently, with his usual "bumptiousness"' and self- confidence, in which the House does not share in the smallest degree, roundly stated that " Lord Salisbury and those who went out with him were entirely ignorant of the character of the Turkish mind, and of the feelings and sentiments of the country; and they disregarded alto- gether the warnings of those who were acquainted with the position of affairs at the Porte." There are thus three policies before the COMIC INCIDENTS OF DEBATE ON EASTBEN QUESTION. 7 coniitry — that of the Government, that of Mr. Gladstone, and that of Lord Elcho, in which, however, I believe he has not a single foUower — " Vetat c'est moi." Lord Elcho, with more temerity than discretion, avowed the opinion " that by the first week in July Russia would be at Adrianople, and that by the first week in August she would be at Constantinople; others put it sooner." We have now reached August, and the Russians have not yet completely crossed the Danube, so that the oracular prediction of Lord Elcho has not the slightest chance of fulfilment. I will now refer to Major O' Gorman's speech, in which he told us the hitherto unimagined fact that " among the Bashi-Bazouks were Spaniards, Portuguese, Frenchmen, Hollanders, Prussians, Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Italians, Greeks, Maltese, Cretans, Cyprians, Samians, and even Trojans ! There were also Russians, and he ventured to say that, if they were paraded to-morrow at the "Wellington Barracks, it would be found that 75 per cent, of them were Russian troops sent by the Emperor Alexander for the purpose of committing the atrocities, paid with Russian money, and probably commanded by Russian officers." I fear the House of Commons and the country are not sufficiently grateful to the Irish for returning the gallant Major and other Home Rulers to enlighten us on these and other points, which are utterly unknown, and would not be believed in any part of Europe. We now come to the acme of absurdity, in the shape of Dr. Kenealy's speech, in which he made the following astounding statements : " Every person in Bulgaria had at this moment as much local liberty as was enjoyed anywhere. The number of persons destroyed by the Bashi-Bazouks did not probably exceed 4,000 or 5,000. We considered ourselves to be at the head of civilization and Christianity, and yet the number of persons we had massacred in putting down rebellions would amount to the same number of millions ;" so that, according to Dr. Kenealy, England has mas- sacred at least four thousand millions, or about four times the entire ■ population of the globe ! ! ! The House of Commons and the country, until this immortal speech, were not aware of the enormous and unprecedented influ- ence wielded by Dr. Kenealy, for it appears from his account of 8 APPENDIX. himself (liis trumpeter apparently being dead), that he carries along with him the whole House of Commons, except one member (Mr. WhaUey), which no other man ever did since Parliament existed, and also overwhelming numbers of his countrymen : — " Now, from my place in this House, I myself warn Russia, speaking the voice of mUlions, speaking the voice of all present with the single exception of the honourable member behind me, that if she attempted to take Egypt, Constantinople, or the Euphrates valley, England would resist her to the last drop of her blood." I can imagine that the Bussians must have trembled when they read this crushing speech, and how they must have thanKed their stars that Dr. Kenealy is not, as he ought to be — having the entire House of Commons, all but one man, in his favour — Prime Minister of England, with, perhaps, the Claimant as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Mr. Whalley the sole but formidable occupant (a host in himself) of the Opposition benches. It is refreshing to turn from these absurdities of the debate to the able but rather prolix speech of Mr. Gladstone, from which I extract the following admirable pas- sages, the latter forming the conclusion of this powerful oration. PART or MR. GLADSTONE'S SPEECH IN THE DEBATE ON THE EASTERN QUESTION. " I DO not deny that coercion involves the possibility of war ; but I say that history shows that coercion, adequately supported and in a good cause, need not be followed by war. I hope the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs has given up his view that Mr. Can- ning did not contemplate the use of force. Although the Treaty of 1827 did not use the word 'force,' yet in its additional articles it as plainly contemplated it as if the word had been actually employed. In the instructions which were subsequently given to the Admirals tbc word 'force' was used. The battle of Navarino, although a ME. GLADSTONE ON THE EASTERN QUESTION. 9 result of the employment of force, was not war. The whole of our history is full of such examples of coercion. In 1832 there was coercion of Holland by the united action of England and France. England on that occasion blockaded the Scheldt. Another instance occurred in 1850, when Greece was compelled to submit to the principal claims of England in the case of Don Pacifico by the undisguised use of coercion. Coercion was again, in 1853, applied to Greece to prevent her from taking any part — her action would, of course, be adverse to Turkey — in the Crimean War. In 1860, too, in the case of Turkey herself, coercion was used as a threat by England and the other Powers, and it was that which induced her to agree to the occupation of the Lebanon. Now, in not one of those five instances was there a state of war. Well, among the strangest fictions which have been set abroad by those who take a contrary view from that which I am advocating, is the existence of a hardy, indomitable — as it has been termed by the First Lord of the Admiralty — pluck in Turkey. Indomitable pluck! Most indomi- table, undoubtedly, in destroying women and children in Bulgaria, and in campaigns against the ploughmen and swineherds of Servia. Where, I would ask, was this indomitable pluck when she had to meet the heroic soldiers of Montenegro ? In the course of years and of revolution, almost every capital in Europe has been occupied by hostile troops, but Turkey has never waited for the occupation of her capital. Long before her enemy has reached Constantinople she has taken care to make her peace. Therefore, from our whole experience of Turkey, it is an idle and visionary pretext to suppose that war between Turkey and united Europe, or war even between Turkey and any great combination of the Powers, would have been the result of a threat of coercion. But, sir, is there a united Europe P There never has been a united Europe, but only because you prevented it. Russia said to Turkey, 'Tou must.' Austria was willing to undertake naval operations. We have no evidence that France would have declined, but in November France was aware that England would have no coercion, and France then held aloof. Another doctrine has been set up by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He says that no country gets any benefit from the use of fcreiT arms. But if a country has a tyrannical government. 10 APrEKDIX. and you substitute for it a free government, that is, I think, a very great improvement. That was done in Spain in the Peninsular "War. That was done for Belgium in 1830. The liberties of Greece and Italy were established by the use of foreign arms — in the case of Italy by the arms first of France and' then of Ger- many. The liberties of Portugal were established and con- iii'med by Mr. Canning in 1836 by the use of foreign arms. The liberties of the United States themselves were only estab- lished by the powerful aid they received from foreign arms. I do not hesitate to say that the cause of the revolted subjects of Turkey against their oppressors is as holy a cause as ever animated the breast, or as ever stirred the hand of man. Sir, what part are we to play ? Looking at this latter controversy — the controversy between Turkey and her subjects — the horrible massacres of last year, the proofs which had been afforded that they are only parts and indications of a system, that their recurrence is to be ex- pected, and is a matter of moral certainty if they are now allowed to pass with impunity — looking at the total want of result from Lord Derby's efforts, at that mockery which had been cast in our teeth in return for what I quite admit was upon ordinary principles an insulting despatch. Can we, sir, say with regard to this gi-eat battle of freedom against oppression which is now going on, which has been renewed from time to time, and for which one-third of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina are at this moment not only suffering exile, but, terrible to say, absolute starvation, upon which depends the fate of millions of the subject races that inhabit the Turkish Empire — can we, with all this before us, be content with what I will call a vigorous array of remonstrances, well intended, I grant, but without result, as the poUoy of this great country P Can we, I say, looking upon that battle, lay our hands upon our hearts and, in the face of God and man, say with respect to it, ' We have well and sufficiently performed our part ? ' Sir, there were other days when England was the hope of Freedom. Wherever in the world a high aspiration was entertained or a noble blow was struck, it was to England that the eyes of the oppressed were always turned — to this favourite, this darling home of so much pi-ivilege and so miioh happi- ness, where the people that had built up a noble edifice for themselves MR. GLADSTONE THE EASTERN QITESTION. 11 would, it was well known, be ready to do what in them lay to secure the benefit of the same inestimable boon for others. Ton talk to me of the established tradition- in regard to Turkey. I appeal to the established tradition, older, wider, nobler far — a tradition not which disregards British intei-ests, but which teaches you to seek the promotion of those interests in obeying the dictates of honour and of justice. And, sir, what is to be the end of this ? Are we to identify the fantastic ideas some people entertain about this policy and that policy with British interests, and then fall down and wor- ship them P Or are we to look, not at the sentiment, but at the hard facts of the case, which Lord Derby told us fifteen years ago, namely, that it is the population of those countries that will ultimately possess them — that will ultimately determine their future condition P It is to this that we should look, and there is now before the world a glorious prize. A portion of these people are making an effort to retrieve what they have lost — I mean those in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another portion — a band of heroes such as the world has rarely seen — stand on the rocks of Montenegro, are ready now, as they have ever been during the four hundred years of their exile from their fertile plain, to meet the Turk at any odds for the re-establishment of justice and of peace in those countries. Another portion still, the five millions of Bulgarians cowed and beaten down to the ground, hardly venturing to look upwards, even to their Father in heaven, have ex- tended their hands to you, they have sent you their petition, they have prayed for your help and protection. They have told you that they do not want alliance with Russia or with any foreign power, but that they want to be delivered from an intolerable burden of woe and shame. That burden of woe and shame — the greatest that exists on God's earth— is one that we thought imited Europe was about to remove, that in the Protocol united Europe was pledged to remove, but which for the present you seem to have no efficacious means of contributing to the removal of. But, sir, the removal of that load of woe and shame is a great and noble prize. It is a pi-ize well worth competing for. It is not yet too late to try to win it. I believe there are men in the Cabinet who would try to win it. It is not yet too late, I say, to become competitors for that prize ; but be assured that whether you mean to claim for yourselves a part of the immortal 12 APPENDIX. crown of fame whioL will be the reward of true labour in tbat cause, or whether you turn your backs upon that cause and your own duty, I believe, for one, that the knell of Turkish tyranny in those pro- vinces has sounded. It is about to be destroyed, perhaps not in the way or by the means that we should choose ; but come the boon from what hands it may, I believe it wUl be gladly accepted by Christen, dom and by the world." ani. GLADSTONE OX ETTSSIAN DEEDS IN TUBKISTAN. 13 MR. GLADSTONE ON RUSSIAN DEEDS IN TtTRKISTAN. An outcry being raised against Russia for alleged atrocities in Asia, I subjoin the following : — 1. After tte taking of Khiva, and the conclusion with the Khan of ■the new arrangements, owing to the restless ambition of the of^cers, ■General Kauffmann intimated to the Tomud Turkomans, on the 17th of July, 1873, that out of the war indemnity to be paid they must find 300,000 roubles, or £41,000, in cash within nineteen days. This they promised after some hesitation. He detained as hostages twelve among the elders whom he had himself invited to Khiva to receive the announcement. He placed a force under General G-olovatschef in close proximity to the Tomuds, and prescribed, by a,n order dated July 18, No. 1,167, of which Schuyler gives the trans- lated words, that, if they assembled with a view to resistance, or even to leaving the country, they and their families should be com- pletely destroyed, and their herds and property confiscated. General Golovatschef also said, " Ton are not to spare either sex or age ; kUl aU of them." On the 31st General Kauffmann arrived at Hyali. At this time " the butchery and destruction by the troops had been so great " (of this no details are given beyond the burning of villages along the road) " that the Turkomans showed signs of yielding." It was agreed to take half the amount in camels ; for the other half (of 810,000 roubles) the women had to sell their ornaments at forced prices* in the Russian camp. The time had been extended to AaoTist 14. On that day only one-third of the sum had been paid, and the troops proceeded to act upon their orders. The numbers * MaoGahan, however, says that they were taken by Kauffmann's order at twenty-five rouble to the pound of silver. C 2 14 APPENDIX. of the tribe, the amount of execution, are nowhere Btated; but the Cossacks cut down everybody, " seemed to get quite furious," and " cut down everybody, whether small child or old man." This was on August 19. The Turkomans, in their irregular manner, availing themselves of every covert, resisted bravely, but in vain. Schuyler, in this part of his statement, quotes the statement made to him by a Russian eye-witness, Mr. Gromoff (ii. 359), who saw several such cases J saw one dead woman, one dead and one wounded child ; and relates, on two later days, when the Turkomans had attacked and been repulsed — " We burned, as we had done tefore, grain, houses, and everything which we met ; and the cavalry, which was in advance, cut down every person, man,, woman, or child. . . . They were generally women and children whom we met. I saw much cruelty " (ii. 361). 2. My next duty is to give the most material allegations of fact in reply from the paper of " A Russian." He states : — a. That this campaign of eleven days was one of most severe and desperate fighting against formidable warriors: the General (Golovatschef), and nearly all his staff, were wounded, Prince Leuchtenberg twice barely escaping death. The Russians, he appears to convey, were enormously outnumbered. This statement as to the character of the campaign is not incon- sistent with, but is in some degree supported by, Schuyler's narrative. '■A Russian" also refers largely to MacGahan's "Campaigning on the Oxus."* 6. That in the movement of these military nomads, the wives and children were mixed with the men, and often in the midst of the mortal struggle. "The French in suppressing the Commune certainly killed a much larger number of women and children than in that Turkoman campaign." Bat some were slain unavoidably and inadvertently. c. That all the Turkomans except the Bagram Shall (Schuyler uses the name of Tomuds) were left unmolested by the expe- dition. d. That after a bloody battle near the Uzbeg village of Ilyali, in * Sampson Low. London, 1874. ME. GLADSTONE ON BUSSIAIT DEEDS IN TUItKISTAN. 15 ■wMch. the Russians suffered severely, tlie Uzbeg inliabitants were not molested (MacGaban, p. 392). e. That on the Eubmission of the Tarkomans, all operations ceased ; that the wounded and prisoners were well cared for. /. Noticing some positive errors of date in Schuyler's accoimt of ■Oromoff's statement, he thinks there are probably errors of fact ■also. The statement is not endorsed by Gromoff. g. " A Russian " relies implicitly on the evidence of MacGahan, as an impartial American who actually went through the operations of the campaign. He is quoted (pp. 363 — 365) to the effect that, himself present in the action of the first day, he saw the Cossacks pass by a group of twenty or thirty women aiid children. One left the ranks, and aimed his piece at them ; but it missed fire, when MacGahan himself struck him across the face with his riding-whip, and ordered him back to his place.* The man obeyed : and with this exception " there was no violence offered to women and children." JBufc he saw a young Cossack officer punish one of his men with his sword for " having tried to kill a woman.'' The apologist does not believe that there was or could have been such an order as that ascribed by Schuyler in his translation to Kauffmann ; and he points out that the destruction of property, not of life, was the true way of striking an effectual blow at the refractory tribe. h. He questions upon grounds which he sets forth, the soundness of Schuyler's translations, and thus the genuineness of the citations. I may add that the later battle, one of great sevei'ity, is described in MacGahan, chap. x. He tells of women cowering in silent dread — " They expected to be treated as they knew their own husbands, brothers, and lovers would have treated the vanquished under like circumstances " (p. 399) ; of a woman holding her dying husband's head ; of children sitting in the baggage carts, or crying, or crawling about among the wheels ; of a child laughing at General Golovats- chef 's banner ; of an old woman wounded in the neck, " but she might easily have been taken for a man, as she wore no turban * It is, perhaps, fair to give the counterpart to this truth. " It was curious to see a Coasaok stop from his work of plunder to give a child a piece of brsad or a drink of water from his flask, in the gentlest manaer possible, and then .resume his occupation " (p. 406). 16 APrENDIX. This was the only woman I saw wounded, though I was told there were three or four other cases." He mentions, iowever, in p. 400, anotter ■woman, " -with bleeding face," seen by bimself . MacGaban's account of tbe orders given is in conflict witb Scbnyler's. Tbe orders were to " give tbe men no quarter, wbetber tbey resisted or not" (p. 401). On tbe otber side, be tells of a Russian picket of six, probably surprised by tbe Turkomans, and all found naked and beadless (p. 376). In p. 400 we bave a general summing up:— " I must say, however, that cases of violence towards women were very rare ; and although the Russians here were fighting harharlans, whO' commit all sorts of atrocities upon their prisoners, which fact might have excused a good deal of cruelty on the part of the soldiers, their conduct was infinitely better than that of European troops in European hattles"* 3. I bave next to set forth tbe representation of the case as it wa» given in tbe Tall Mall Gazette of October 5, in its leading article, under tbe bead of Russian Atrocity. Atrocity, when imputed to Russia, of course did not require tbe inverted commas, wbicb in the case of the Bulgarian acts bad been boldly used for denoting dis- belief. In this leading article, tbe proof is at once treated as com- plete. With this promptitude we may compare the reserve maintained on the " sentimental " side, wbicb for weeks and weeks declined to assume tbe truth of tbe reports from Bulgaria, until official attesta- tion bad been obtained, tbe accusation made known to tbe parties, and ample time for contradiction allowed. It was boldly asserted that the proceedings offered " an almost exact parallel to tbe Turkish atrocities ;" " differing only from them in some circumstances which make them less excusable." Let us see what these circumstances of difference are. (1) "Tbe tribes" (Schuyler mentions a tribe, tbe Tomuds) were "virtually independent communities, which bad sometimes sub- mitted to intermittent control from the Eban of Khiva." They were nomad subjects of the Khan, ranging over parts of bis dominions * MacGahan, humanely carrying off a little girl, meets an officer of the staff doing the same, and makes the remark, "The Tomuds seem to have ahaudoned their girls with less reluctance than their boys." Of. pp. 403 — 411. MR. GLADSTONE ON EUSSIAN DEEDS IN TUEKISTAN. 17 included in his treaties, constantly interfering in his government, and independent only in tie sense in which Donald Bean Lean (see ""Waverley") and his Highlanders, 120 years ago, were virtually independent of the King of England. (2) These Turkomans had " given no special oflfence." It may be hard to say what is a " special offence " on the part of a race whose common non-special occupation is that of pillage and slave-dealing, with the murders attendant upon them. In the very account from which the Pall Mall Gazette was quoting, is given a specimen of conduct which deserves notice : — " There were a large numter of Persian slaves in Khiva. On talcing the town the Russians declared slavery at an end. The Persians were to be sent back to their country [Schuyler, ii. 353] in parties of five or six hundred. They desired to go by Mashad, but the route by Krasnovodeh was preferred, that they ■might escape the Turkomans. Two parties were sent accordingly by this safe route. One of them was attacked by the Turkomans, and the Persians either killed or reinslaved " (ii. 364). The special offence, as towards the Russians, seems to havs been that, while the Turkomans were the bravest and most truthful, thej were also the fiercest and most intractable of the inhabitants of Khiva; that they alone offered the Russians a keen resistance; and that, rightly or wrongly, a measure of great severity against the largest of their tribes was judged to be indispensable for the establishment of anything like peace or order in the country. According to MacGahan, these Tomuds, from what he learned after his arrival in Europe, fell upon their Uzbeg neighbours, and pillaged them, by way of compensation for their losses from the Russians (p. 410). (3) General Kauffmann, says the journal, issued his orders. " Here they are. ' I order you immediately to move on the settlements of the Tomuds . . . and to give over the settlements of the Tomuds and their families to complete destruction, and their herds and property to con- fiscation.' " This is pari of a sentence ; the commencement, which is omitted, completes the sense by supplying the condition. Before the words just extracted come these words (ii. 357) : "If your Excellency sees that the Tomuds are not occupying themselves with getting 1 8 ArPENDIX. togetlier money, hut are assembling for the purpose of opposing our troops, or perhaps even for leaving tlie country, I order you," and so forth. It seems to have been thought well to represent the Turko- mans as an innocent, unresisting race ; and for this purpose a con- ditional order is turned into one without conditions. (4) Oertaialy the officers (Schuyler, ii. 355) praised the Turko- mans for honesty and straightforwardness ; and they had been kind and hospitable to certain Russian exploring parties {ibid.); and so had all the inhabitants (ii. 354). But it is the cheerful submission of to-day, followed by the deadly assault of to-m.orrow, that consti- tutes one of the greatest difficulties of a position like that of the Russians among these Asiatic tribes. That these wild piratical tribes were trustworthy in their ordinary dealings is quite possible. Schuyler does not give his authority for these statements, bat I do not doubt them. (5) It does not so greatly touch the conduct of General Kauff mann, but as regards the Russian Government and people, an impartial observer might take note that the responsibility is not quite the same for what was done in a land of railways, at less than 200 miles from the capital, to a peasantry foreign to the ordinary use of arms, and one of the most pacific in the world, but stirred by long and incurable oppression, and for what was done to a tribe of robbers, at ten times the distance, in the heart of the Asiatic deserts, with the channels of information slow, and the central power of administration wholly without share in ihe particular transaction. (6) It is very strange that this newspaper-writer should fail to notice that the climax of Turkish iniquity in Bulgaria does not lie iu mere slaughter; but in the combination, without protest or resistance from any, of widespread destruction of life with exquisite refinements of torture, and with the wholesale indulgence of fierce and utterly bestial lusts. "We can hardly conceive that these features of the case, which raise or sink it from the human to the diabolical, are absolutely of no account in the view of the Pall Mall Gazette. We seem, then, to have before us, first, as well established, an unsparing slaughter in hard-fought action of the brave warriors of a marauding tribe, down to the time of their submission. I am ME, GLADSTONE ON RTTSSIAN DEEDS IN TUEKISTAN. 19 mot able to say whether this was necessary or not. MacGahan seems to have thought the measure ill-advised, if not more. But I hold that we English are not in a condition to condemn, it either as a Bulgarian atrocity or as any other, unless upon the principle — too often, I am sorry to say, tolerated — that there is to be one rule for us, and another for other nations. I will here refer only to the slaughter of the Dyaks in their boats, leas than thirty years ago, by Eajah Brooke and a British naval force. They were pirates ; but they offered (I speak from memory) no resistance. They had no alternative of submission offered. The case was discussed in Eng- land and in Parliament, and the conduct of Rajah Brooke was approved by the majority. Lord Herbert and Mr. Hume were among the small number who condemned it. Secondly, we have alleged orders of General Kauffmann, con- ditional, it is true, but, as set out by Schuyler, commanding the ■extermination of the women and children, as well as the men, of the marauding tribe. It cannot, I hope, be long before we know incontrovertibly whether this order has been correctly understood and given by Schuyler. If so, it can find no apologist here ; but the mere issue of it, whether executed or not, will stand, though as a perfectly isolated, yet as a brutal and shameful act, deserving, as was well said in the Daily News, every censure except that bestowed on, and so richly due to, the Turkish proceedings in Bulgaria, and the Government which rewarded their authors. Thirdly, as to the fact whether the women and children were slaughtered or were spared. We have here a distinct and singular conflict of evidence. Schuyler, founding himself on the verbal statement of Gromoff, a Russian eye-witness, which he took down "from his lips" (p. 359), affirms it. MacGahan, the friend of- Schuyler, trusted by him, and himself an eye-witness on foot and horseback of the whole campaign, not less distinctly denies it, and affirms that the conduct of the Russian soldiery, under most trying circumstances, was " infinitely better than that of European* troops in European battles." * The Cossacks engaged in these actions appear to have been Cossacks of the Kirghiz country, distinct from and (Schuyler, ii. 232) inferior to the well- Icnown Cossacks of the Ural and the Don. 20 APPENDIX. On every ground we must hope that this contradiction will be cleared np. As between the two, I cannot but think the testimony in MaoGahan, who is an eye-witness, and writes in very full detail, preferable to that of Schuyler, who only reports one, and gives us a rough, hasty sketch ; and also because it has been much longer before the world. I can charge no unfairness upon others who may think otherwise. But what are we to say of the enlightened anti- sentimental newspaper which gives and exaggerates the statement in Schuyler, and passes without notice, in its judicial work, the evidence of MacUahan, long ago set before the world ? But fourthly, and lastly, the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette did more : he suppressed and garbled evidence material to the case from the very book, the very pages, he professed to quote. Of this we have already seen something ; but not nearly all. o. He suppresses the case of Kuldja. This town was occupied by the Russians after a campaign of eleven days, with two battles. Before the entry into the city one of the tribes in Kuldja, exaspe- rated at the surrender of the Sultan, massacred more than 2,000 of the others. The Russians entered ; and here is the account of their conduct, reported by a Chinese agent to his Emperor : — " The Dzian-Dziun* of Semiretcli, quieted in every way those who remained in Suidun, both Mantchoos and Chinese, both soldiery and civilians, as well as the Chinese Mussulmans, not harming anyone ; not even a single blade of grass, nor a single tree ; not a fowl, nor a dog received any harm or injury •, not a hair was touched. All this is owing to the orders of the Dzian-Dziun of Semiretch. . ," And again at the close — " The leader of the Great Eussian Empire, the Dzian-D ziun of Semiretch, with his army, inspired with humanity and truth, has quieted everyone. This petty foreign power saved the nation from fire and water ; it subdued the whole four countries without the least harm, so that children are not frightened, and the people submitted not without delight and ecstasy " (ii. 186 — 188). b. In the opening of the article of October 5, 1 find this passage— " In the early part of his work on Turkistan, he (Schuyler) expressly com- pliments the Bussians on their humanity in Central Asia, jfrohably then not Imowmg tvhat stories he should have to tell hefore he had done." General Kolpakofsliv. ME. GLADSTONE OW EUSSIAN DEEDS IJf TUEKISTAN. 21 This is a garbling which simply amounta to falsification. It means, if it means anything, that Schuyler's compliment refers to- the early part of his experience, and could not have been given when it was completed; as if the work were a journal in which the remarks are to be taken with respect to the date at which they are given. It is nothing of the sort. The passage occurs in connection with the capture of Tashkent. It will be found in vol. i., p. 75 :— " It is said that the bazaar was sacked, and many of the inhabitants mas- sacred. If so, this was an exceptional case ; for the Russian movements in Central Asia have been marked by great disoiplirie and humanity/."* The writer in the Fall Mall Gazette had evidently read the pas- sage, of which he gives an account (without a reference) that it would be weakness to call anything but dishonest. It has nothing to do with earlier or later experience. At Tashkent, he had no experience at all, for his visit was some nine years after the cap- ture ; and he takes occasion, from a rumour he heard there, to give- a general judgment on the operations of the Eassians in direct con- tradiction to the charges which the Pall Mall Gazette has to make, and in complete accordance with the testimony of MacGaban.f Hence the passage had to be let alone or falsified; and the latter of the two was chosen. c. Even yet I have to give another instance of this editor's wonderful faculty of suppressing evidence : — In vol. ii., p. 354, on the page containing the commencement of the Turkoman narrative which he quotes, we find the account of the massacre of the Persians, which he suppresses ; and in pp. 352, 353 * I ought, perhaps, to state that I have read the whole of Schuyler's boot»- and that I am not aware of any passage in it, apart from what is treated in this, article, which can in any way impugn this strong and general commendation. t A week later, in a review of Schuyler's book — in the literary, not the poli- tical department of the paper (written as a literary and not a political article) — it is stated that "in some instances " we have "ample evidence" from his. book that "the Eussians have not always pursued a barbarous or heartless policy.'' This is a little better, if it be not indeed a little wtirse — as providing a sort of quotable passage in defence of any accusation of disingenuousness — a passage, be it observed, however, late enough not to interfere with the effect of the previous falsification, for which no sort or kind of apology is made. 32 APPENDIX. tte account of the capture of Khiva and the fearfully severe dis- ■cipline enforced on the Russian soldiery : — " These arrangements heing made, General Kauffmanu declared to the popiilation of the Khanate the mercy of the Emperor, on conditioa that they : should live quietly and peaceahly, and occupy themselves with their hnsiness and with agricultural lahour. . . Strict orders were given at the same time ■to the soldiers to send out no foraging parties, and to take nothing from the inhahitauts, but to pay cash for everything at the bazaars. ... In one case a, soldier was sentenced to be hung for stealing a cow. The evidence of the native accuser had been accepted without other proof, and he was only able to escape because his comrades and;the officers of his company proved that the -cow had followed the company ever since crossing the Amir Darya. At -another time, six soldiers were sentenced to be shot ; but these severities were exercising such discontent among the troops, officers as well as soldiers, .hat at the personal request of the two Grand Dukes the men ivere pardoned." On what principle^of justice, charity, or decency is General Kauff- mann to be deprived of the benefit of this remarkable testimony ? 'But the introduction of this passage immediately preceding would liave sadly marred the telling and needful parallel between Ehiva and Bulgaria, and this, too, was suppressed accordingly. Such is the " information" supplied, at this epoch of blazing light, in a most great and solemn cause, to millionaire drawing-rooms, to the loungers in arm-chairs at clubs, to Tory members of Parliament,* greedy for something so say to constituencies but recently astounded by the discovery of a huge iniquity, too long kept back from them ; and this by a journal which in the faintest perfume of humanity smells a dangerous fanaticism. But what means are not sanctified by their end, when the purpose is, not indeed to whitewash Islam in Bulgaria, for that is now despaired of, but to do the next best thing, namely, to black-wash the country which is its historical antagonist ? * See, for example, the speech of Sir Thomas Bateson, M.P., a few days ago, at Belfast ; and the speech of Mr. Hanbury, M.P., at Hanley. "Mr. Schuyler went also into Central Asia with the Russian Army, and he narrated how precisely the same atrocities had been committed by the Russians in Central Asia." — Staffordshire Daily Sentinel, October 18, 1876. The sentences would be correct if the word ' ' not " were inserted in each of them. It is truly a royal road to learning, when research begins and ends with the leading article of a newspaper MR. GliADSTOHT! ON EUSSIAN DEEDS IN TUBKISTAN. 23' To expose cruelty is good : but there are other things besides cruelty which ought to be exposed, and among these is the deliberate fraud of a trusted or, in his own chosen phrase, a responsible* adviser. Untruth, even when used for beneficial ends, is bad and base. It is here used for no good end. It is not meant to draw forth tears for- Tm-komans, not undeserving of them, though in some respects they be. It is meant to sow strife, with the risk of bloodshed ; and the- end in view, and the means employed, are worthy of one another. W. E. Gladstone. * Fall Mall Gazette, Octoter 23, p. 9 : " Immunity in Politics." 24 APPENDIX. MR. BRIGHT ON THE EASTERN QUESTION. Yet, conBidering our vast interests and our vast peril, there is always — at least, so far as my recollection goes — a war party in this country. There is a war party in the press. Unfor'-uaately for the public interest, there is hardly anything which teads so much to enhance the profits of the proprietors of newspapers as a stirring and exciting conflict. We have a war party in Parliament. There are always men who sit there, and though the great majority sit upon the side opposite to that which I sit, still there are, unhappily, a few upon our side who, if we look to their conduct, are not strongly in favour of peace. In 1870 there was a war between Prussia and France. You know the residt was that France was vanquished and that Prussia became Germany. There were persons then who advised that we should take sides. Some said, '' There is great danger to ourselves." Some said one thing and some another, and eminent men said, " If you are in favour of peace, as England would be, you should declare war against that Power by whom war is declared — that is, if France declares war against Prussia, you should support Prussia in the interests of peace, and declare war against France ; if Prussia should declare war against France, then you should join France in the interests of peace, and make war against Prussia." Well now, in these cases, you see that war was avoided, that we escaped its penalties, and I would ask you now, is there one single man in the United Kingdom outside Bedlam — and I doubt if there be one inside it— who regrets the course of neutrality which the people and the Government of the United Kingdom pursued ? But ME. BEIGHT ON THE EASTEEN QITESTION'. 25 there was one case in. wliicli we took a different course, and that was the case of the war between Russia and Turkey in 1853. Turkey declared war against Russia, and we, after advising the Turk to accept a proposition of mediation and arbitration, which the Turk refused, and which Russia accepted, we took sides with Turkey, not- withstanding, and entered into a sanguinary conflict with Russia. Now, if in 1853 we had advised the Porte to make the concession urged upon it by Russia, which was only to strengthen the hands of Russia in defence of the Christian subjects of Turkey, Turkey would have avoided that war which was the forerunner, it may be, of its destruction. We should have avoided the contest into which we entered ; three-quarters of a million of men, according to Mr. King- lake (more, I think, he puts it at) would have been saved from slaughter and death by toil and neglect and disease ; niillions — I know not how much, perhaps two or three hundred millions — oi treasure would not have been wasted ; and in all probability we should have avoided the vast increase of the armaments of the Con- tinent which was made after that war and as an immediate consequence of it, and some of the many subsequent wars that have disturbed the peace of Europe. I remember a line that Milton wrote. In one of his grand sonnets he says, " For what can war but needless wars still breed ? " and that war has bred indescribable loss and suffering to several of the nations of Europe. But the war party is always jealous of somebody; it always hates somebody. Forty years ago it was jealous of Russia ; and at that time to such an extent were the people afraid of Russia that they believed that we in the North of England, especially on the eastern coast of Yorkshire, were in danger of an invasion from the Baltic. Now, we know that that would have been a game that would have established the lunacy of any man who sent out a fleet with such a purpose ; and yet, under that sort of panic, the Government of that time added 6,000 men to the English navy, and then the public began to think that after all perhaps they might be safe. I am sorry to say that the course pursued by England, repre- sented by Her Majesty's Government, made European concert all 26 APPENDIX. but impossible. It may be thougbt reasonable that, if we were not willing to enforce tbe verdict arrived at, we might, at any rate, have stood aside and left Turkey to her fate. Russia has undertaken ta enforce that verdict. Now, I have not anything to say in defence of Russia except this, that if the Conference was wise, and the negotiations were a joint interference, it seems to me to be only in accordance with reason and logic that somebody should enforce the verdict. Russia on the borders of Turkey suffers more, of course, than we do from the disturbances in Turkish provinces, and the people of Russia have got sympathy with the Christian population of Turkey ; that sympathy exercises a great influence on the Russian Government, which, therefore, steps forward, in accordance with the conduct of nations, as we find it in all the histories, to de- fend that Christian population and to put down evils, disturbances, and oppression which had become intolerable in the eyes of Europe. We might have supposed that our Government would be entirely neutral, but its neutrality is not exactly of the kind which I think it ought to have shown. For example, we say to Russia, " Ton must not touch Egypt " ; but Egypt is at war with Russia, because Egypt is constantly sending ships of war and troopships and soldiers to the Sultan. Russia, sensibly enough, not anxious to come in con- tact with England, pledges herself that Egypt shall be kept out- side of the military operations in which she is engaged. "We say further, at least many people say-L-I am not sure whether the Government have said it in express language, but people believe they mean it — that Russia shall not approach Constantinople ; but i£ Russia is not to approach Constantinople, what is that but to pro- long the war ? — to give Turkey an inducement not to make peace, and to shut out Russia from one of the commonest rights of the victor ; for surely to attack the capital city of an empire or kingdom at war, and to occupy it, is the speediest mode of bringing that war to a conclusion. Our Government now appears to hold as far as it can the doctrine and the policy of 1854 ; it adheres to what has been called the ghostly phantom of the balance of power. That balance of power is a curious shadowy thing which has been served for much evil. In 1830 the French, under Charles X., captured Algiers, and made themselves possessors of a large tract on the northern ME. BRIGHT ON THE EASTERN aXTESTION. 27 shores of the Mediterranean. At that time it was said that Franco was making the Mediterranean into a French lake, and was dis- turbing the balance of power. Happily we did not go to war for it. Ten days after the capture of Algiers, the King of the French — King of France, as he called himself — was a refugee on the shores of this island, and from that time to this has Algeria been a costly burden to the French people. I do not doubt that in forty-seven years since that transaction France has spent 100 millions of money as the result of its possession of Algeria, and it would he a small estimate to say that it has cost them more than a hundred thousand French lives, and France is not a bit stronger to-day and the balance of power is not in the smallest degree disturbed by the conquest of Algeria by France. Russia has over and over again proclaimed in -every form of word, by every kind of solemnity of expression, that it is not their intention even to attempt to hold Constantinople. Then there comes the question of opening the Straits, and you hear con- tinually the word Bosphorus. The Straits are open to the trade of all nations, and were opened by the Russians themselves a hundred years ago, after they had been closed to the new commerce of the world during 300 years of their possession by the Turks. Now, I hold the opening of the Straits to be absolutely inevitable, but Tinder conditions which the Powers of Europe could find no difficulty in arranging. But there is no reason to suppose that Russia, any more than France, would interfere with the Canal. There is no -country in Europe that until these vUe suspicions were aroused was more disposed to a perpetual amity with England than the country of Russia. One more observation on this : I said that those Straits pass through Turkish territory ; and that you might make provision that not more than one ship or two ships, or whatever limited number was thought proper, should be at one time in the Straits between the two seas, and -therefore the possessors of Constantinople, whether the Turks or the Greeks, would be free from menace and bombardment from any fleet passing down the channel. But surely the Straits, which the Creator of the world made for the traffic and service of the world, have as good a right to be open to the world as the canal which was mada by M. LeBseps with the money of his French shareholders. It seems to 28 APPENBIX. me only tte other day tliat I lieard Lord Palmerston, -wlaen he was Prime Minister in the House of Commons, declare that this Suez Canal was a chimera — that it was a sort of thing that could not be made ; that it could not succeed if it were made ; that it would be no advantage to England ; that England should have nothing to do with it ; and that none of its money should be spent upon it. "Wei!, the resultjwas that it was aU thrown upon France, and France, stimu- lated by the hostility of the English Minister, brought forth its money in vast sums ; and under the wonderful energy of M. Lesseps, the Canal was made, and not only made, but succeeds, and will pay. "Well, I believe also that the other nations would be quite willing to see the Straits between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean just as freely open. They have no kind of interest such as we pretend to have. Our interests are, to my mind, purely visionary. Russia is not a nation, nor likely to be for a long time a nation that will have great fleets to traverse the Mediterranean as we have, and if she had a fleet there it would be no more hostile to us than the new created and growing fleet of Italy, or the now existing and formidable one of France ; and when I come to consider the position of Russia, shut up as she is in the north, in the Baltic by the frost, her only entrance by the Sound, which is narrow, that she has no great navigable rivers running into the ocean — I say it is one of the most unjust ideas, and one of the very wildest and unstatesmanlike notions, that this country can perpetually forbid a nation of eighty millions of people to obtain that access to the main ocean which the Creator of the world made equally for aU his people upon the globe. A year and ahaK ago, I suppose now, they astonished the country by the announcement that they had become the possessors of a large number of shares in the Suez Canal. They gave twice as much for them as it was said the Khedive had offered them for in another quarter. But I am not objecting to a couple of millions here or there. "Well, Lord Salisbury was endeavouring by all the means in his power to urge the Turk to make those most moderate concessions which at the time of the conference only demanded that with which Russia would have been content and the war would have been avoided; but the war party in this country, thewarpress, the war public men, and that portion of the public which I call the rowdy war party — there are MR. BEIOHT ON THE EASTEEX QUESTION. 29 rowdies among tKe rioli as well as among tlie poor — all tKat party were speaking with, another voice, and stimulating and encouraging the Turk to resist, thus bringing Turkey to the catastrophe in which she now finds herself, I was talking the other day to a Frenchman, a very eminent Frenchman, who, in all probability, when there is another Liberal Government in France — which I hope may be soon — will form an important member of it. We had been talking about Egypt and upon the language which was held by some people in this country with regard to it. I said to him, " What would be thought in France if England were, under any pretence and by any means, whether by force or by purchase, or in any way, to obtain possession of Egypt ? " He said he thought it would create the vei'y worst impression in that country, and his opinion was, that no Government could maintain itself in Prance which permitted such a measure without the strongest protest and remonstrance; and whether protest and remonstrance would be all it was not very easy to determine. Now, in this discord with regard to what should be done, there is one other consideration of great importance, and that is, that England has no allies. I believe there is no country in Europe at this moment, no other country, that feels with us in reference to this question. We are alone in Europe, utterly, I believe, with reference to the Bosphorus, and with reference to any question of danger as connected with the closing of the Canal. Among other nations our demands are felt to be unreasonable and arrogant, and I confess I sometimes feel that we stand a risk of some European com- bination against us, and that we shall find ourselves not triumphant, but baffled. And when the final settlem^t comes of these questions, unless we can be moderate and just, I suspect there is great danger that we may suffer a humiliation which not the nation only as a whole, but which all of us individually may be made severely to feel. I began by saying that we were a great Empire; it becomes a great State like this to set always to the world a great and noble example. I quote a passage from a recent speech of Lord Dei-by with a senti- ment of the utmost admiration and the fullest concurrence. He says " We must always remember that the greatest of British interests is the interests of peace." Let us believe, whether it be the United D 2 30 APPENDIX. States on tie otlier side of the Atlantic, or wliether it be the great empire of Kussia in the east of Europe, that there are good and great and nohle men in those countries ; that there is no disposition whatso- ever, as I believe there is none, to make quarrels with this country or to do evil of any kind to us. Great as our nation is and its dependen- cies in every quarter of the globe, great wiU be its influence for good; and, though the world moves but slowly — far too slowly, for our ardent hopes — to its brighter day, history will declare with an impar- tial voice that Britain, clearing off her ancient errors, led the grand procession of the nations in the path of civilization and of peace. EXTRACT FKOM T^ALLAOE's " RTISSIA." 31 EXTEACT FEOM WALLACE'S "EUSSIA." Mr. Wallace, after passing six years in Eussia, speaks of it as follows : — " The village Communes, containing about five-sixths of the population, are capital specimens of representative consti- tutional government of the extreme democratic type. No class of men in the world is more good-natured, pacific, and loyal than the Russian peasantry. " The advocates of women's rights will be interested to hear that women who, on account of the absence or death of their husbands, happen to be for the moment heads of households, as such are entitled to be present in the village assembly, and their right to take part in the deliberations is never questioned. The decisions of the village assembly are therefore usually characterized by plain, practical, common sense. There are many villages in the Eastern provinces of European Eussia which have been for many generations half Tartar and half Eussian, and the amalga- mation of the two nationalities has not yet begun ; they live in perfect good fellowship; elect as village elder sometimes a Eussian and sometimes a Tartar, and discuss the commercial affairs in the village assembly without reference to religious matters. I know one village where the good fellowship went even a step further : the Christians determined to repair their church, and the Mahometans helped them to transport wood for the purpose. It therefore is clear that while the Mussulmans rob, plunder, and massacre the Christians in Turkey, where they have the upper hand, and are armed, the Christians in Eussia, who are the dominant race, treat their Mussulman fellow 32 APPBKBIX. subjects with the utmost kindness and respect, and that the Mahometans themselves are happier and better under Christian than MussuLnan rule. " In each Province there is an assembly called the Zemstvo. This assembly is composed partly of nobles and partly of peasants, the latter being decidedly in the majority, and no trace of antagonism seemed to exist between the two classes. Landed proprietors and their ci-devant serfs evidently met for the moment on a footing of eciuality Instead of that violent antagonism which might have been expected there was a great deal too much unanimity. During three weeks I was daily present at their deliberations The Zemstvo of Novgorod's proceedings in the assembly of 1870 were conducted in a business-like satisfactory way. The Zemstvo is, however, a modern institution created about ten years ago ; it fulfils tolerably well its ordinary every day duties, and is very little tainted with peculation and jobbery. It has greatly improved the condition of the hospitals, asylums, and other benevolent institutions committed to its charge, and it has done much for the spread of popular education; it has created a new and more equitable system of rating and a system of mutual fire insurance. Of all the countries in which I have travelled, Eussia certainly bears off the palm in all that regards hospitality. All classes of the Russian people have a certain kindly apathetic good nature which makes them very charitable towards their neighbours. Eussia advances in the path of progress by a series of unconnected frantic efforts, each of which is naturally followed by a period of temporary exhaustion. The Eussian noblesse has little or nothing of what we call aristocratic feeling ; little or nothing of that haughty domineering exclusive spirit which we are accustomed to associate with the word aristocracy .... we can scarcely ever find a Eussian who is proud of his birth, or imagines that the fact of his having a long pedigree gives him any right to political privileges or social consideration. The son of a small proprietor, or even of a parish priest, may rise to the highest offices of state, whilst the descendant of the half mythical ESTEACT FEOM 'WALLACE'S " EUSSIA." 33 Eurik may descend to the rank of peasants. It is said that not long ago a certain Prince Krapota gained his living as a cabman in St. Petersburg. There are hundreds of princes and princesses who have not the right to appear at Court, and who would not be admitted into what is called St. Petersburg society, or indeed into refined society in any country ; there are 652,887 hereditary nobles in Russia, and 374,367 personal nobles, together 1,027,254. Between the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants there are no distinctions of race and no impassable barriers. " The Crimean and other Tartars used to make raids into Eussia and Poland, and up to 1783, when the Crimea was conquered and annexed to Eussia, large numbers of Eussian men, women, and children were sold as slaves in Constantinople, and to the Persians, Arabs, and Syrians. When they have valuable boys and girls they first fatten them, clothe them in silk, and put powder and rouge on their cheeks. " The experiment of Jewish colonies has failed, their houses are in a most dilapitated condition, and their villages remind one of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet. " The Slavophiles seem to favour the idea of a grand Slavonic confederation, in which the hegemony would belong to Eussia. " The Emperor Alexander is of a Idnd-hearted, humane disposition, singularly free from military ambition; he has a goodly portion of sober common sense, a Kmited confidence in his own judgment, and a consciousness of enormous responsibility. " To protect an open frontier against the incursions of nomadic tribes three methods are possible, the construction of a great wall, the establishment of a strong military cordon, and the permanent subjugation of the marauders. The first of these expedients, adopted by the Eomans in Britain and by the Chinese on their north-western frontier, is enormously expensive, and utterly impossible in a country like Eussia ; the second was constantly tried and found wanting; the third is alone practicable and efiicient. Though the Government has long since recognised that the acquisition of barren thinly populated steppes is a oi APPENDIX. burden rather than an advantage, it has been compelled to go on making annexations for the purpose of seK defence. "Kussia has on four occasions since Peter the Great ceded territory. To Persia she ceded in 1729 Mazanderan and Arkabad; and in 1735 a large part of the Caucasus. In 1856, by the Treaty of Paris, she gave up the mouth of the Danube and part of Bessarabia; and in 1867 she sold to the United States her American possessions. To these ought perhaps to be added the strip of territory which she lately conquered from the Khivans and handed over to Bokhara, and, Kuldja which she ceded to the Chinese. " Certain it is that the Eussian peasantry have reason to con- gratulate themselves that they were emancipated by a Eussian autocrat, and not by a British House of Commons; and it is equally certain that in some of the annexed provinces the lower classes enjoy advantages which they would not possess under British rule. (This is the sentiment to which Mr. Arch gave utterance recently. ) If the Khan of Khiva had conscientiously fulfilled his international obligations the expedition would not have been undertaken. Eussia must push forward her frontier towards India until she reaches a government which is able and willing to keep order within its boundaries, and to prevent its subjects from committing depredations on their neighbours. As none of the petty states of Central Asia seem capable of permanently fulfilling this condition, it is pretty certain that the Eussian and British frontiers will one day meet. As to the com- plications and disputes which inevitably arise between contiguous nations, I think they are fewer and less dangerous than those which arise between nations separated from each other by a small state which is incapable of making its neutrality respected, and is kept alive simply by the jealousy of rival powers. Germany does not periodically go to war with Holland or Eussia, though separated from them by a mere artificial frontier, whilst France and Austria have never been prevented from going to war with each other by the broad intervening territory. " As to the Slavonic Committee, whatever it did it did openly.. EXTEACT FROM "WALLACE'S "RUSSIA." 35- Detailed reports of its proceedings were largely circulated in Russia, and freely given to foreigners. " Tchernayeff has made for himself the reputation, by his campaigns in Central Asia, of a brave, able soldier, and an honest patriotic man. I must say that I know no body of men who are more sensitive to humanitarian conceptions than the Eussian educated class. Probably about 4,000 Eussian volunteers went to Servia. "Eussian autocracy, founded on the unbounded hereditary devotion of the people, peasantry and nobles alike, cannot for a moment be compared with French autocracy in the time of Napoleon III. " Again and again whilst observing Eussia's policy towards the Servians and Montenegrins, I have been reminded of the anecdote about the French revolutionary leader, who, before advancing to- a barricade, pointed to the crowd and whispered confidentially to a friend, ' II faut bien les suivre, je suis leur chef.' " As to the cleanliuess of the Eussian peasants, Mr. Wallace tells us that they take a weekly vapour bath, which cannot be said of the peasantry of any other country in the world, including our •' great unwashed ; '' and he further says, " I encountered peasants who had a small collection of books, and twice I found in such collections, much to my astonishment, a Eussian translation of ' Bucldes' History of Civilization.' " Now, if all Europe were ran- sacked, it is doubtful if two other peasants could be found who. possessed a book of the same calibre. 36 APPENDIX, EXTEACTS FEOM ME. FEEEMAN'S "OTTOMAN POWEE IN EUEOPE." "It is a fact well worthy of remembrance, that both the Bulgarians and, somewhat later, the Eussians, when they became dissatisfied with their own heathen religion, had Mahometanism and Christianity both set before them, and that they deliberately chose Christianity. . . . The Christian subject of the Turkish Government does not wish to reform the Turkish Government ; he does not wish to reconstruct it after the model of some other Government; he simply wishes to get rid of it altogether. . . . The Bosnian Christian looks upon the Servian or Montenegrin as his countryman; he looks on the Turk as a foreigner. Christianity has got rid of the two great evils of polygamy and slavery. Mahometanism cannot get rid of them, because they are allowed and consecrated by the Mahometan law. There are at this day vast nations of Turks, some of them mere savages, who have never embraced Mahometanism. ... It was the increased wrongdoing of the Turks, both towards the native Christians and towards the pilgrims from the West, which caused the cry for help that led to the Crusades. There were no Crusades as long as the Saracens ruled ; as soon as the Turks came in the Crusades began. " Othman bears a high character among Turkish rulers, yet he murdered his uncle simply for dissuading him from a dangerous enterprise. . . . Orkhan first demanded a tribute of children. The deepest of wrongs which other tyrants did as an occasional EXTRACTS FEOM " OTTOJIAN POWER IN EUROPE." S7 ■outrage thus became under the Ottomans a settled law. fixed proportion of the strongest and most promising boys among the conquered Christian nations were carried off for the service of the Ottoman princes, and were brought up in the Mahometan faith, and iu this way the strength of the conquered nations was turned against themselves. They could not throw off the yoke, because those among them who were their natural leaders were pressed into the service of their enemies. It was not tUl the practice of leyy'mg the tribute on children was left off that the ■conquered nations showed any power to stir. While the Ottoman power was strongest, the chief posts of the Empire, civil and military, were constantly held not by native Turks, but by Christian renegades of all nations, and the flower of the army were the janissaries formed of tribute children. " The Turks were able to use each people that they brought under their power as helpers against the next people whom they attacked. Thus at Kussova, Amurath had already Christian tributaries fighting on his side. From this time, till Servia was completely incorporated with the Turkish dominions, the Servians had to fight in the Turkish armies against the other Christian nations which the Turks attacked. "The most remarkable conquest of Bajazet was in Asia. Philadelphia still held out, and its citizens still deemed themselves subjects of the Emperors at Constantinople. Yet, when Bajazet thought proper to add the city to his dominions, the Emperor Manuel and his son were forced, as tributaries of the Sultan, to send their contingent to the Turkish army, and to help in the conquest of their own city. "Euboea was conquered by the Turks in 1471, when the Venetian governor, Erizzo, who had stipulated for the safety of his head, had his body sawn asunder. . . . The last Bosnian king was promised his life, but he and his sons were put to death none the less. . . . Speaking roughly, the lower clergy throughout the conquered lands have always been patriotic leaders, while the bishops and other higher clergy have been slaves and instruments of the Turks. ... In Albania 38 ArPENDIS. a large part of tlie country did become Mahometan, while other parts remained Christian, some tribes being Catholic and some- Orthodox. . . . " The Mufti Djemali, whose name deserves to be remembered,, several times turned the Sultan from bloody purposes. At last he withstood Selim, when he wished to massacre all the Chris- tians in his dominion, and to forbid the exercise of the Christiau religion. . . . " In the days of Sobieski and Eugene, men had not learned to talk about the integrity and independence of the Ottoman. Empire, or to think it a good thing for Christian nations to be held in Turkish bondage. They did not openly profess the doctrine that certain nations should be deprived of the rights of human beings for the sake of the supposed interests of some other nation. " "When Belgrade submitted in 1813, the Turks promised to put no man to death. Turk-like, they beheaded and impaled the men to whom they had promised their lives. Men stiU live who remember seeing their fathers writhing on the stakes before the citadel of Belgrade. . . . " The Albanians generally, both Christian and Mahometan, have always kept up a strong national feeling. . . . They have always been discontented and often rebellious subjects of the Turks, . . . It is most important to remember that the rising (for independence) was in no way confined to the narrow bounds of that part of Greece which was set free in the end. The whole Greek nation rose in every part of the Turkish dominions where they had numbers and strength to use. They rose throughout Greece itself, in Epiros, Thessaly, and Macedonia, in Crete too, and Cyprus, and others of the islands. The Greek revolution was mainly the work of the Greeks themselves, count- ing among them the Christian Albanians. " Ibrahim, who afterwards, like most tyrants, was honourably received in England, went on the deliberate principle of making the whole world a desert, by slaying or enslaving the whole Christian population. EXTRACTS FBOM " OTTOMAN POWER IN EUKOPE." 39 " Prince Leopold, afterwards King of the Belgians, accepted the crown (of Greece), hut he presently resigned it, because he saw that no Greek state would flourish which was pent up in such a narrow frontier. " If we could fancy a state of things in which our English country was free, and the next country was under Turkish bondage, it is quite certain that the men of the free country would help their enslaved neighbours when they revolted . . . but then they ought to be called ' foreign intriguers ' too, for there is no greater difference between the men of Montenegro and the men of Herzegovina, than there is between the men of Yorkshire and the men of Lancashire. . . . " Some of these poor people (the Cretans) were carried otf in safety to Greece in ships of several European nations, amongst others in the English ship ' Assurance.' . . . But the English Foreign Secretary, now Earl of Derby, forbade that any such act of humanity should be done again. It does not appear that any other European nation acted in the same way. England alone . . . must bear 'the shame of having in cold blood forbidden that old men and women, and children, and helpless persons of all kinds, should be saved from the jaws of the bar- barians. No blacker page in the history of England, no blacker page in the history of human nature, can be found. . . . No treaty, no oath, can bind a man to commit a crime, nor can it bind him, when he has the power of hindering a crime, to allow it to be done. " They (the alleged foreign intriguers in Turkey) are foreign intriguers in the same sense in which Sir Philip Sidney was a foreign intriguer when he died at Zutphen, for the freedom of the Netherlands. ... As Englishmen then fought and died for the freedom of a kindred land, so now many men from Mon- tenegro (from Austria), from Russia, and from Italy, too, fought and died the same glorious death for the freedom of the oppressed Slavonic land. . . . At a time when no Montenegro prisoner was ever spared by the Turks, but when Turkish prisoners, a Pasha among them, were living quite comfortably in Montenegro, 40 APPENDIX. we were told of the horrible atrocities of the Montenegrins. . . . The old custom which the Montenegrins had learned of the Turks was to bring home the heads of slain enemies as trophies . . . but it is not now done by any troops who are under Montenegrin discipline. But the custom of cutting off the dead enemy's nose has still been sometimes kept up by the irregular insurgent band, and in one or two cases a man who was thought to be dead was wakened up by the loss of his nose. . . . After all, though to cut off a dead man's nose is a brutal thing, it is hardly so brutal as roasting, torturing, and impaling living people. . . . " When Sir Henry Bulwer was Ambassador at Constantinople, a circular was sent to the British Consuls in the Turkish dominions, bidding them send in an account of the state of the country. Another letter went with the circular, bidding them to make their report as favourable as they could to the Turks. . . . He (Sir Henry) was to act as an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country. . . . We look on, we count the cost, we see how the wrong-doer deals with his victim, and we determined to uphold the wrong-doer, because we think that to uphold him will suit some interest of our own. There is no question of national glory, no question of national honour, nothing which can stir up even a false enthusiasm. It is a calm mercantile calculation that the wrongs of millions of men will pay. The Turkish bully is at heart a coward. ... A wanton murder of Mussulmans by Mussulmans has been known to go un- punished when Christian witnesses only could prove the fact. " The Bosnian Beys, the descendants of renegades, still keeping up the old spite of the renegades, are described none the less as very lax votaries of Islam, as remembering their Christian descent, as treasuring up the patents of nobility which their fore- fathers received from the ancient Christian lungs. Those who know them well think that if they were put under a Christian government, thsir re-conversion would not be hard, the Bey would easily slide back into the baron. . . . There is a mosque at Chalkis, and there is a mosque at Belgrade. The few Mahometans EXTEAOTS FROM " OTTOMAIT PO"WEE IN EUROPE." 41 at Chalkis suffer no wrong or disability. . . . When the Turkish garrison left Belgrade, the settled Mussulman population -went also. But why did they go 1 Not by their own free-will — not by the will of the Servians, who wished them to stay. They went by orders from Constantinople, where the ruling powers wished to make out a case against Servia, as if Servia had driven them out. But the mosque is there still, and its minister is paid by the Servian state for his services towards any Mussulman remnant that may be left, or towards any Mussulman traveller that may pass by." 42 APPENDIX. TEANSLATION OF COMTE SEEBACH'S "OPEN LET- TEE" TO LORD BEACONSFIELD, PUBLISHED IIST THE NORD, OF BRUSSELS, ON 23rd JUNE, 1877. " Many years have elapsed, my lord, since I had the good for- tune to make your acquaintance, and our paths having no longer ■crossed each other, I would fear to have become an unknown person to you if I was not certain that the circumstances — important for you as well as for me — in the midst of which we met must have preserved for me in your recollection the place which you have not •ceased to occupy in mine. " Our relations, it is true, have not survived the interests which had created them, but they lasted long enough to have obtained for me on your part proofs of esteem and of confidence to which I am happy to be able to pay even tardily my debt of gratitude in bringing you, my lord, by this open letter, an irrefutable testi- mony against the calumnies which impute to you the responsi- bility of the inundation with which Europe is now threatened. " To tliis effect I have to evoke the recollection of a time iilready far from us, and to formulate summarily the political situation which then brought us together. It was, my lord, at that period of the Crimean War when a great storm was formed over the head of Lord Palmerston. " In the course of the first winter campaign the most important London journal had unveiled the faults of the military organiza- tion of England with great patriotic courage, and rendered the Government responsible for the evil consequences of the indolence COIITE SEEBACh's " OPEN LETTER " TO LOED BEAOONSFIELD. 43 •which had left the third of the army to perish in physical suffer- ings past human endurance. At these heartrending revelations a great cry of stupor and indignation had resounded in the three kingdoms, from one end to the other, and it burst forth with all the more force when the bloody repulses undergone under the walls of Sebastopol placed the fear of a great disaster in the place of the hopes of peace wliioh the prompt reconstitution of the army had caused to revive. "All the pohtical atmosphere was troubled by these cruel deceptions. On both sides of the Channel the ancient antagonism^ which even blood shed in common and the intoxication of the first successes had not succeeded in entirely extinguishing, was re- kindled. The distrust, which had never ceased to reign secretly in tlie camps, penetrated into the Governments ; and the report having spread that the Emperor Napoleon would proceed to the theatre of war, all the English journals attributed to him more or less openly the intention to seek the occasion of a meeting with the sovereign of Russia to negotiate directly a peace to the detriment of the honour of England. " The word treason was pronounced, and for the first time the- mass of the country began to doubt the ability of the statesman to whom it had confided its destinies, and who, until then, had held the British Uon in a leash whilst imprinting on his policy always and everywhere the seal of the brutal motto of the Eomans. The proud sentiment of Civis Bomanus mm being no' longer allowable to the English nation, the popularity of Lord Palmerston was shaken at its base ; and being chief — not in name, but in fact — of the Opposition, you were, my lord, justified in thinking that the moment for securing his succession was near. The' ministerial combinations of your party had reserved to you without contest the direction of foreign affairs, which you did not then, however, know except by the newspapers, and you adopted then the resolution to go to Paris to draw from better sources, and to ascertain especially, yourself, the reality or the erroneousness of the apprehensions which the oscillations of French policy caused in England. 44 APPENDIX. "A mutual friend, wlio had preceded you to explore the ground, made me aware of your projects, my lord, and as soon as you arrived you did me the honour to come and see me, and to place immediately our relations on the footing of intimacy in making me acquainted from the very first with all the phases of the political life of the ' Nobody ' of former times, as it pleased you to call yourself, and in admitting to me afterwards, without reserve, that, being on the point of reaching the summit of the social ladder, you had to ask me for a service which would assist you to sur- round your name with a new glory. " To be believed, on my word, that I have rendered you this service, of which the prehminaries were the frankness with which you expressed yourself towards me concerning the direction which you intended to impress on English policy, and which permits me to guarantee your real sentiments in the present crisis, it is neces- sary to define the situation which the war last made for me in Paris. " Nominated Minister of Saxony in France, a short time before the disappearance of the Eepublic, after having filled during fifteen years the same functions at St. Petersburg, where I had become the son-in-law of the Chancellor of the Empire, Count Nesselrode, I had been received by the chief of the State with much good- will, which was due in part to private affairs which he had at heart, and also to the illusion that my family connections might be utilised in the difficulties which even then the French Government foresaw on the side of Russia at the moment when it would change in form. " In both cases my duties prevented me from responding to the expectations of the Prince President, but I had been fortunate enough to be able to reconcile them with the wishes I formed at tliis time with the men of order in Europe for the consolidation of the Napoleonic dynasty, and the Emperor recollected this. " Grateful by natural disposition — as no man ever was in a greater degree — he gave me credit for the attachment which I had shown for his person ; and when the curtain rose in the East for the i^rologue of the great drama to which the struggle taking COUTE SEEBACh's " OPEN LETTER" TO L02D BBACONSFIELD. 45 place at this moment on the banks of the Danube will, perhaps, furnish the epilogue, the Emperor Napoleon gave me a great proof of regard by conducting me spontaneously into his study to have with me a distinct and clear explanation on the subject of the evident conflict between my official position and my well- known sympathies for the adversary that France was going to combat. " Far from diminishing the confidence which, in the course of the negotiations which preceded the rupture, the Emperor had never ceased to testify towards me by confidential communications on his personal grievances against Eussia, this conversation strengthened it, and left him the certainty that, whilst regretting profoundly his policy of the moment, I was, nevertheless, ready to serve him loyally, with the approbation of my sovereign as soon as it was modified. " In this order of ideas I had demanded and obtained authority from the French and Saxon Governments to accept the mission which the Cabinet of St. Petersburg wished to confide to me, to take under the protection of my legation the Russian subjects who remained in France ; and the terms in which the Emperor expressly confirmed it verbally, showed me clearly that he attached to it the same anticipations as myself. " As I am not writing a chapter of my memoirs, I may dispense with enlarging on the ways and means which have reahzed them, by conducting gradually, in the midst of the clang of arms, and in spite of diplomacy, to a tacit reconciliation between the sovereigns of Russia and France. This reconciliation furnished, after the taking of Sebastopol, the basis of the confidential negotiations between the two Governments, from which arose the Conferences and the Peace of Paris. " This reconciliation was still little advanced at the time when we met, my lord, but I was sufficiently aware of the dominant ideas at St. Petersburg to be able to assure you that the vague and adventurous policy of the Emperor Napoleon would never prevail there against that which you had decided to cause England -to follow, as soon as you had taken the reins of Government. E 2 46 APPENDIX. "In your prepossessions, my lord, a very small place was reserved for tlie present time, of 77111011 you considered the diffi- culties as a Minister directing a great Empire aware of his per- sonal superiority. " Deeply convinced that the coalition into which England had allowed itself to be drawn placed it in the position of a dupe, you determined to dissolve it by concessions to the just exigencies of the adversary, which would hasten, if necessary, in spite of France, the conclusion of peace. " All your glances were turned towards the future, which you judged with the clearness of the prophet kings of the Old Testa- ment. In your eyes, my lord, Europe was of necessity condemned to be transformed by accident, by fire, and blood, if England and Eussia did not come to an understanding on the leading features of their policy in the East, and you had no doubt of establishing this concord by adopting principles diametrically opposed to those of Lord Pahnerston. " According to you, the vital interests of the two Governments enjoined on them to remain strictly united in Europe, as well as ill Asia, in order to preserve to each the sphere of action agreed upon. " The programme which you traced for yourself, determining distinctly its character and limits, and knowing it to be identical with that which the Emperor Nicholas and Count Nesselrode in his long and brilliant career had used aU their efforts to establish, I was sure that the prospect of seeing it realised by your initiative, my lord, would become at St. Petersburg an element of peace. I transmitted it then at your express demand to the Chancellor, with the request to make his august master acquainted with it. Both hailed it as the certain promise of a new era of repose in Europe; " Unfortunately the English people did not fulfil these hopes, and banished yours amongst those with which vanquished parties, too often delude themselves. Lord Palmerston remained in power. " I stop here, my lord, for I think I have attained the object of my letter. COTJNT SEEBACH's CHAEGES AGADfST LORD BEACONSEIELD. 47 " A statesman who lias grown old in the management of great affairs may modify his views, but he cannot renounce the convic- tions of his whole life at the end of his career without heing enlightened by experience. Now, since the period of which I have just spoken, aU the events in the East have shown the correctness of the fundamental principle of the policy which you preached a quarter of a century ago; and as it would be an injus- tice to you, my lord, to believe that you had adopted it lightly, the world may, at least, in strict justice accuse you of not having had the courage to adhere to your opinion in the council of the Queen, whilst before God the heavy responsibility for the torrents of blood which will be shed in a few days must fall wholly on the heads of your colleagues, who have taken advantage of your weakness by doing violence to the convictions which sleep in the recesses of your conscience. " Be so good, my lord, as to receive my letter with the senti- ments which have dictated it, and of which I claim all the merit, not having had in my complete independence to ask counsel or advice from any one. Accept at the same time, my lord, the assurance of my highest consideration. "Count Seebach. " Chateau d'TJnwiirde, near Loeban, Saxony.'" OOUNT SEEBACH'S CHARGES AGAINST LORD BEACONSFIELD. TO THE EDITOR 01" THE " DAILY NEWS." SiE, — An interesting letter addressed to Lord Beaconsfield from ■Oomte Seebach, who was Saxon Minister at Paris during the Crimean War, appears in the Nord of June 23rd, from, which I extract the following passages concerning Lord Beaconsfield, which conclusively show that his inner convictions on the Eastern ■Question are entirely at variance with his acts and language. Lord Beaconsfield, then Mr. Disraeli, fully expecting the fall of the Government after the harrowing account of the dreadful sufiFerings of the English troops during the first winter of the Crimean War, 48 APPENDIX. and that he -would succeed to power, went to Paris to study the political situation, and put himself into communication with Comte Seebach, sitting at his feet as a disciple, " and placing our relations on the footing of intimacy by mating me aware from the first of all the phases of the political life of the ' Nobody ' of former times as it pleased you to call yourself, and in acknowledging to me without concealment that, being on the point of reaching the summit of the social ladder, you had to ask me to render you a service which would aid you to surround your name with a new glory. . . Profonndly convinced that the coalition into which England had allowed itself to be inveigled reserved for it the part of a dupe, you promised yourself to dissolve it by concessions to the just requirements of the adversary (Russia), which would hasten, if necessary, in spite of France, the conclusion of peace. . . Tou did not doubt that yon could establish an agreement (with Russia) by adopting principles diametrically opposed to those of Lord Palmerston. " According to you, the vital interests of the two Governments (England and Russia) demanded from them to remain closely united in Europe, as in Asia, to preserve to each the sphere of action agreed upon. . . . " The programme which you had traced for yourself, determining distinctly its character and limits, knowing it to be identical with that which the Emperor Nicholas and Count Nesselrode in his long and brilliant career had nsed all their efforts to carry out, I was sure that the prospect of seeing it realised by your initiative would become at St. Petersbiirg an element of peace. I transmitted it then on your express demand to the Chancellor, with the request to bring it to the knowledge of his august master. Both welcomed it as the certain promise of an era of repose in Europe. As, since the time respecting which I have just spoken, aU the events in the East have shown the truth of the fundamental principle of the policy which you advocated a quarter of a century ago, and as it would be an injustice to you, my lord, to think that yoti then adopted them inconsiderately, people may at least in fair justice accuse you of not having the courage of maintaining your opinion in the council of the Queen, whilst the responsibility before God for- couifr seeeach's chaeges against lord beaconspield. 49 tte torrents of blood wMch will flow in a few days must faU wholly on your colleagues wlio have taken advantage of your weakness by violating the convictions wbich. sleep in the recesses of your conscience." It is clear from this important document that Lord Beaoonsfield is, after all, only the tool of more designing colleagues, and that be is playing a part which is contrary to his convictions, and which he knows to be contrary to justice and to the interest of England. I may add that for the chief of the Opposition to send a message to the Ozar intimating his entire disapproval of the policy then being jiursued by his country, when we were at war with Sussia, seems in the highest degree reprehensible and unpatriotic. The Speaker has refused to allow me to put any question what- ever on this subject to the Government in the House of Oommonp, but I sent the letter in the original French to Lord Beaoonsfield, with a private letter from myself, and a copy of the question which I am. not allowed to ask, because it relates to an event stated to have happened upwards of twenty years ago, when Lord Beaeonsfield was not Minister I Lord Beaeonsfield, instead of committing himself by a written reply to my letter, has informed me, through the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he has no recollection of having made the statement attributed to him by Oomte Seebach, but he does not positively deny their substantial or even their verbal accuracy, and no un- prejudiced person can possibly believe that he can really have J'orgotten the substance of his communication through Oomte Seebach to the Emperor of Russia. I have in my possession tbe original letter of Oount Seebach to the editor of the Nord, written on paper bearing his monogram and coronet; also a letter from him to a Breslau paper, in which he pledges his word of honour that the letter to Lord Beaeonsfield was not written at the insti- gation of Russia; and as I personally know the editor of the Nord, I am quite ready to assume the whole responsibility of guaranteeing the authenticity of this letter, and of stating my firm belief that every syllable which it contains is literally true. Tour obedient servant, J. G. T. Sinclair. 50 APPENDIX. LOED BBACONSFIELD AND COUNT SEEBACH. TO THE EDITOR OF THE " DAILY NEWS." Sir, — I observe in your columns to-day a letter from Sir Tollemaclie Sinclair, in whicli my name is mentioned, and which appears to re- quire some explanation on my part. Sir Tollemache Sinclair some days ago informed me that he was about to put a question to me on the subject of a letter ■which he said had been written by Count Seebach, but of which I had not previously heard. On my telling him that I knew nothing abotit it, he gave me a letter addressed to Lord Beaconsfield, which he had left unfastened in order that I might read it and give it to the Prime Minister, together with a notice that he was about to put a question to me on the subject. I accordingly read the letter myself, and then sent it to Lord Beaconsfield. He wrote to me in reply a letter which I took down with me to the House of Commons, prepared to read it in answer to Sir Tollemache Sinclair's question, but I was informed by the Speaker that he had ruled that the question could not be put. When I subsequently met Sir Tollemache in the lobby I had not the letter itself at hand, but I mentioned its general purport to him. I much regret that Sir Tollemache did not express to me his wish- to see the letter itself, as I should of course have shown it to him. There was no intentional want of courtesy towards him either on my own part or certainly on that of Lord Beaconsfield, who naturally regarded his letter to me as the answer to that which he had received at my hands, and to which he did not think that any other reply was expected. — I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant, July 6. Stafford H. Northcote. P.S. — I subjoin a copy of Lord Beaconefield's letter. " 2, WhitehaU-gardens, S.W., June 30, 1877. " My dear Chancellor of the Exchequer, — I remember meet- ing Count Seebach, for the first time, at Paris after the Crimean War PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVAEI.-August 4, lS77. BENJAMIN BOMBASTES, ■• WHO DAKE8 THIS PAIR OP BOOTS DISPLACE, MUST MEET BOMBASTES FACE TO PACE !- THUS DO I CHALLENGE ALL THE HUMAN KACE !" (Bji the kind per mission of t he Proprietors of •• Punch") LOED BEACONSFIELD AND COUNT SEEBACH. 51 and ■when, by the by, there never was less prospect of a change in ■the Ministry of England. I was not aware until this moment of the important acquaintance I was making. I have not the slightest recollection of any observation I ever made to him ; and I hope his Excellency will not be offended by my adding that I have not the slightest recollection of anything he ever said to me. " I should think the Emperor of Russia and Prince Gortschakoff must have been a little surprised by being diplomatically informed of the casual remarks of a private member of Parliament. " It proves, I think, that the duties of the Court of Saxony were not of an absorbing character. — Tours sincerely, " (Signed) Beaconsfield." To this I wrote the following rejoinder : — COUNT SEEBACH AND LOED BEACONSPIELD. TO THE EDITOE OF THE "DAILY NEWS." SiE, — The Philo-Turkish portion of " society '' seem to think that Lord Beaconsfield's short and evasive letter on the subject of Count Seebach's long and important communication, addressed to him in the Nord of the 24th of June, conclusively refutes it, because he states that he met him " for the first time at Paris after the Crimean War ; " and if this statement were true Count Seebaoh would stand con- victed before all Earopenot only of a wilful and gratuitous falsehood, but of having accused the Pi-ime Minister of England of conduct which falls but little short of treason, and it would have been quite unnecessary for him to have said anything more than the words I have just quoted, and the very fact that he makes several further remarks which, on his representation of the case, were superfluous, is in itself suspicious. It is, however, utterly absurd to suppose that even the most mendacious and unscrupulous individual in the whole world would commit such an obvious blunder as to say that he was intimately acquainted with Lord Beaconsfield during the Crimean War, and that he was requested by him to make a most important commnni- eation to the Emperor of Kussia, when, in point of fact, he never 52 APPENDIX. met him till after the Crimean War -was over, when the message in question wotild have been wholly irrelevant and utterly useless j aEcl this is the more incredible since Count Seebaoh is a veteran and skilful diplomatist, who had very great influence both with the Czar and the Emperor of the French, and is about the last individunl who would have committed an easily detected fault, which, in the words of Talleyrand, would have been " worse than a crime." I have no doubt whatever that Count Seebaoh will immediately produce ample evidence, from the most unimpeachable sources, that he knew Lord Beaconsfield most intimately during the Crimean War, and when this is established every tmprg'udiced person will believe that every- thing which Count Seebaoh states in the letter of the 23rd of June is at least substantially correct. It will be observed that Count See- bach's letter is not only extremely courteous, but even flattering to Lord Beaconsfield, for, strangely enough, the Count does not appear to consider that the statements he makes involve very grave charges against him; but appears, on the contrary, to think they are very much to his credit, and it is therefore the more surprising that Lord Beaconsfield's reply is couched in the most offensive, disdain- ful, and depreciatory terms. Lord Beaconsfield says, sarcastically, " I was not aware till this moment of the important acquaintance I was making ; " but if so he was probably the only public man in Europe who professed the most superficial knowledge of foreign politics who was ignorant oi Count Seebaoh's position and influence. He then proceeds to say, " I have not the slightest recollection of any observation I ever made to him . . . and I have not the slightest recollection of anything he ever said to me ; " as much as to say that Count Seebach, who was a highly important personage in the opinion of the two Emperors, was such an insignificant individual in the judgment of that much greater man, Mr. Disraeli, that what the Count said to him went in at one ear and out at the other. Lord Beaconsfield concludes by saying, "I should think the Emperor of Russia and Prince Gortschakoff must have been a little surprised by being diplo- matically informed of the casual remarks of a private member of Parliament. It proves, I think, that the duties of the Court of Saxony were not of an absorbing character." Now, in the first place. Count Seebach expressly stated that it was to Count Nesselrode, then Chancellor of the Russian Empire, and not to Prince Gortschakoff, who did not fill that office, that Lord LORD BEACONSI'IELD AlfD COTJNT SEEBACH. 53' "Beaconsfield's message was sent ; and I very much doubt if his lord- ship has even yet read the letter ■which I sent him in the original French, which he has undertaken to answer like Alexandre Dumas, who wrote an account of a tour which he never made at all. Then, again, as Lord Beaconsfield had heen in office in 1852, it is a prevarication to say that he was a private individual, and it is clear that a message sent hy the leader of the Opposition to the Czar during the Crimean War, that he expected to be in power im- mediately, and that he " did not doubt that he would establish an agreement with Russia by adopting principles diametrically opposed to those of Lord Palmerston, if necessary, in spite of France," cannot be fairly called "casual remarks of a private member of Parliament," and he would have scoffed at such a lame excuse if Count Seebaoh's letter had referred to Lord Harfcington instead of to him. The Turcophiles, however, say that even if conclusive evidence can be pro- duced to prove the substance of all Count Seebach has stated, it only amounts to a change of opinion as regards the proper policy of England towards Russia; but those who are careless or shallow enough to make such a remark fail to see the bearings of the case. It is obviously quite as allowable for Lord Beaconsfield to change his opinion in one direction as for Mr. Gladstone, who was in favour of the Crimean "War, to alter his views in the opposite direction, and thus make that fair exchange of policies which is proverbially no robbery ; but surely every one on reflection must see that, though Mr. Bright cordially disapproved o£ the Crimean War at the time, he would never have been guilty of so unpatriotic and unwise an act as to send a message to the Czar during the war, to say that if he became Minister of England he would reverse the policy of England, if necessary, in spite of France ; whilst the boundless recklessness and egregious bungling of Lord Beaconsfield are conclusively established by the fact that he told the Turks before the Conference that England would not coerce them, and thus made the negotiations an inevitable failure, and the maintenance of peace absolutely impossible. Suppose that before the battle of Inkerman was fought the Emperor of Russia contemplated making peace with us, it is obvious that if in the interval he received the message in question from the leader of the Opposition and expectant of power in England, he would undubitably determine to abandon the idea of. agreeing to a peace on Lord Palmerston's hard terms when he was likely soon £4 APPENDIX. to obtain much, more advantageous conditions from tlie new Minis- itry, and thus the battle of Inkerman may have been fought, and the war prolonged, at an enormous cost of blood and treasure, in consequence of this mischievous and unjustifiable message. If it could be clearly proved that this supposed case actually occurred, there is hardly a man in England who would not hold that Lord ■Beaconsfield deserved at least perpetual ostracism from power ; and if it did not take place, he is deserving of the severest censure for the results which might have ensued from his message. The public will not fail to observe with astonishment that Lord Beaconsfield tardily treats this very grave charge affecting his per- sonal honour and character, which is brought against him — not by an anonymous correspondent or an unknown or discredited individua}, but by a distinguished foreign nobleman and diplomatist — with reckless and unbecoming levity, instead of promptly and categori- cally repelling such cii'cumstantial, dishonouring, and compromising -charges with indignation and scorn, and that he merely states that he does not recollect what he said to Count Seebach, which would not avail him ia any court of law against the express, distinct, and positive assertions which the Count makes against him. In conclusion, I wish to refer your readers to the very able and -interesting article in the World on the subject, headed "A Lame Explanation." — Your obedient servant, J. G. T. Sinclair. TRANSLATION OP COUNT SEEBACH'S REJOINDER TO LORD BEACONSFIELD'S REPLY. TO THE EDITOB OF " THE NOED." SlE, — The contest in which Sir J. ToUemaohe Sinclair, member of the English Parliament, has engaged in the press with Lord Beacons- field, obliges me to request you to publish the few lines by which, at the date of the 2nd inst., I authorised yoii to place at his disposal the original of the open letter, which I took the liberty of addressing to the noble lord and for which he asked you. Not having the honour of XORD BKA.CONSFIELD AND COUNT SEEBACH. 55' personally knowiEg Sir T. Sinclair, I am so mucli the more deeply obliged for tlie sentiments whicli be bas been so good as to testify towards me in bis letter to the Daily News, republished by the Nord of the 9tb inst., but my gratitude cannot go so far as to make me- deviate from the line of conduct which I had marked ou,t for myself after mature consideration. Neither to a greater or less extent will I take part in the suit for high treason which he has commenced against his adversary. Lord Beaconsfield is free to take refuge behind his feeble memory to confound it. His case fails ; dates and men, all these little contrivances of which he has made use in the- answer which he bas deigned to make me tbrotigh the medium of Sir Stafford Northcote and of Sir T. Sinclair, do not absolve him from the obligation to attempt a last effort in order to remember our con- versations, if not as exactly as they live in my recollection and, per- haps, also elsewhere, but at least sufficiently to be able to lay his hand on his conscience to oppose to my clear and precise affirmations a denial quite as distinct and categorical. Even then, however, I would leave public opinion to speak, which will decide which of uS' two has had the less interest to falsify the truth. The incident in so- far as it concerns me is then definitively terminated. Accept, sir, the assurance of my distinguished consideration. COUNT SEEBACH. Chclteau d'Unwurde, near Loetan, Saxony. July 15, 1877. A LAMB EXPLANATION. FEOM THE "WOELD." The statements contained in the letter of Lord Beaconsfieldr printed in the Daily News of Saturday last, in reply to Sir Tolle- mache Sinclair's quotations from the Nwd, are of a truly surprising character. In ihe Nord of June 3rd, there appeared a letter from Count Seebach, in which an account was given of a conversation held by him with Mr. Disraeli twenty years ago. According to this- 56 APPENDIX. narrative tlie tten leader of the Opposition in the Honse of Com- mons drew up, for tie benefit of the Saxon Minister in the French ■capital, the programme of an amicable concert to be established between England and Russia. This statement Lord Beaconsfield contradicts in a letter addressed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, saying, that while he recollects meeting Count Seebach in Paris, he " was not aware of the important acquaintamoe he was making;" that "he has not the slighest recollection of any observation he ever made ; " and that he thinks " the Emperor of Russia must have been a little surprised by being diplomatically informed of the casual Temarks of a private Member of Parliament,'' uttered at a time *'when there was no prospect of a change in the Ministry of Eng- land." Of course, in 1857, Mr. Disraeli was technically a private Member of Parliament, but he had been Chancellor of the Ex- chequer five years previously; he was the leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons, and his position was one of at least as great influence as Lord Hartington's now. Secondly, it seems strange that Mr. Disraeli can have been ignorant of the " importance" of Count Seebach, who had married the daughter of Count Nesselrode, who was not merely well known in diplomatic circles, but who had been notoriously the representa- tive of Russian interests during the Crimean War, and who was mainly instrumental in bringing about the pi'eliminary negotiations for the Treaty of Paris. Thirdly, as regards Lord Beaconsfield's remark on the apparent impossibility of the Conservatives coming into power in 1857, it is an impossibility which was certainly not recognized at the time. In that year Mr. Disraeli was engaged, and with a reasonable chance of success, in the attempt to form a Conservative coalition with the Peelitep and the Liberal malcontents in opposition to Lord Palmerston, who had irritated and alienated the minds of many of his party by his supposed wish to prolong the war with Russia ; and to such a coalition a speech made by Mr. Disi-aeli at the beginning of the Session of 1857 was manifestly intended to pave the way. INTEETIEW OF AH ENGLISHMAIT AKD A TURKISH PASHA. 57 INTERVIEW OF AN ENGLISHMAN AND A TUEKISH PASHA. (^From KinglaJce's " Hothen," now out of print.) Pasha. — The Englishman is -welcome j most blessed among hours is this the hour of his coming. Dragoman {to the Traveller). — The Pasha pays you his com- pliments. Travbllek. — Give him my best compliments in return, and say I'm delighted to have the honour of seeing him. Dragoman {to the Paslid). — His Lordship, this Englishman, Lord of London, Scorner of Ireland, Suppressor of France, has quitted his government, and left his enemies to breathe for a moment, and has crossed the broad waters in strict disguise with a small, but eternally faithful retinue of followers, in order that he might look upon the bright countenance of the Pasha among Pashas — ^the Pasha of the everlasting PashaUk of Karagho- lookdoor. Traveller {to the Dragoman). — What on earth have you been saying about London ? The Pasha will be taking me for a mere cockney. Have I not told you always to say that I am from a branch of the family of Mudcombe Park, and that I am to be a magistrate for the county of Bedfordshire, only I've not qualified ; and that I should have been a deputy-lieutenant, if it had not been for the extraordinary conduct of Lord Mountpromise ; and that I was a candidate for Goldborough at the last election, and that I should have won easy if my committee had not bee 58 APPENDIX. bought. I -wisli to heaven that, if you do say anything about me^ you'd tell the simple truth. Dragoman is silent. Pasha. — ^What says the friendly Lord of London ? Is there aught that I can grant him within the Pashalik of Karagho- lookdoor. Dragoman {growing sulhy and literal). — This friendly English- man, this branch of Mudcombe, this head jjurveyor of Gold- borough, this possible policeman of Bedfordshire, is recounting his achievements and the number of his titles. Pasha. — The end of his honours is more distant than the ends of the earth, and the catalogue of his glorious deeds is brighter than the firmament of heaven ! Dragoman {to the Traveller). — The Pasha congratulates your Excellency. Traveller. — ^About Goldborough ? The deuce he does ! but I want to get at his views in relation to the present state of th& Ottoman Empire. Tell him the Houses of Parliament have met and that there has been a speech from the throne pledging England to preserve the integrity of the Sultan's dominions. Dragoman {to tlie Pasha). — This branch of Mudcombe, this possible policeman of Bedfordshire, informs your Highness that in England the talking houses have met, and that the integrity of the Sultan's dominions has been assured for ever and ever by a speech from the velvet chair. Pasha, — ^Wonderful chair ! wonderful houses ! Whirr, whirr ! all by wheels ! Whiz, whiz ! all by steam ! Wonderful chair, wonderful houses, wonderful people ! Whirr, whirr ! all by wheels ! Whiz, whiz ! all by steam ! Traveller {to the Dragoman). — ^What does the Pasha mean by that whizzing ? He does not mean to say, does he, that our Government will ever abandon their pledges to the Sultan ? Dragoman. — No, your Excellency, but he says the English talk by wheels and by steam. Traveller. — That's an exaggeration ; but say that the English really have carried machinery to great perfection. Tell the Pasha INTERVIEW OF AN ENGLISHMAST AND A TURKISH PASHA. 59 (he'll be struck with that) that, whenever we have any disturb- ances to put down, even at two or three hundred miles from London, we can send troops by the thousand to the scene of action in a few hours. Dragoman (recovering Ms tempet and freedom of speech). — His Excellency, this Lord of Mudcombe, observes to your Highness that whenever the Irish or the French or the Indians rebel against the English, whole armies of soldiers and brigades of artillery are dropped into a mighty chasm, called Euston Square, and in the biting of a cartridge they arise up again in Man- chester, or Dublin, or Paris, or Delhi, and utterly exterminate the enemies of England from the face of the earth. Pasha. — I know it — I know all. The particulars have been faithfully related to me, and my mind comprehends locomotives. The armies of the English ride upon the vapours of boiling cauldrons, and their horses are flaming coals ! Whirr, whirr ! all by wheels. Whiz, whiz ! all by steam ! Traveller {to his Dragoman). — I wish to have the opinion of an unprejudiced Ottoman gentleman as to the prospects of our English commerce and manufactures ; just ask the Pasha to give me his views on the subject. Pasha (after having received the communication from tlie Drago- man). — The ships of the English swarm like flies ; their printed calicoes cover the whole earth, and by the side of their swords the blades of Damascus are blades of grass. All India is but an item in the ledger books of the merchants, whose lumber rooms are filled with ancient thrones ! Wliirr, whirr ! all by wheels ; Whiz, whiz ! all by steam ! Dragoman. — The Pasha compliments the cutlery of England, and also the East India Company. Traveller. — The Pasha's right about the cutlery' (I tried my scimitar with the common officers' swords (Wilkinson's ?) be- longing to our fellows at Malta,, and they cut it like the leaf of a novel). Well (to the Dragoman), tell the Pasha I am exceedingly "■ratified to find that he entertains such a high opinion of our manufacturing energy, but I should like him to know, though, GO ArPENDIX. that we have got something in England besides that. These foreigners are always imagining that we have nothing but ships and railways and East India Companies. Do just tell the Pasha that our rural districts deserve his attention, and that even within the last two hundred years there has been an evident improvement in the culture of the turnip ; and if he does not take any interest about that,' at all events, you can explain that we have our virtues in the country, that we are a truth-telling people, and lite the Osmanlees, are faithful in the performance of our promises. Oh, by the by, whilst you are about it, you may as well just say at the end, that the British yeoman is still, thank God ! the British yeoman. Pasha {after hearing the Dragoman). — It is true ! it is true ! Through all Feringhistan the English are foremost and best ; for the Russians are drilled swine, and the Germans are sleeping babes, and theltalians are the servants of songs, and the French are the sons of newspapers, and the Greeks they are weavers of lies, but the English and the Osmanlees are brothers together in righteousness ; for the Osmanlees believe in one only God, and cleave to the Koran and destroy idols, so do the English worship one God and abominate graven images, and tell the truth, and believe in a book ; and though they drink the juice of the grape, yet to say that they worship their prophet as God, or to say that they are eaters of pork, these are lies — lies born of Greeks and nursed by Jews. Dragoman. — The Pasha compliments the English. Traveller {rising). — ^Well, I've had enough of this. Tell the Pasha I am greatly obliged to him for his hospitality, and still more for his kindness in furnishing me with horses and say that I must now be off. Pasha {after hearing the Dragoman, and standing up on his divan). — Proud are the sires, and blessed are the dams of the horses that shall carry his Excellency to the end of his prosperous journey. May the saddle beneath him glide down to the gates of the happy city like a boat swimming in the third river of Paradise. May hesleep th e sleep of a child when his friends are around him. ISfTEBYIEW OF AN ENGLISHMAN AND A TUBiaSH PASHA. 61 and while that his enemies are abroad, may his eyes flame red through the darkness more red than the eyes of ten tigers ! Farewell. Dkagoman. — The Pasha wishes your Excellency a pleasant journey. So ends the visit. F 2 62 APPEKDIS. SKETCH OF MAITNERS IN THE EAST, BY THACKERAY. All their humour, my dragoman tells me, is of this questionable sort ; and a young Egyptian gentleman, son of a Pasha, whom I subsequently met at Malta, confirmed the statement, and gave a detail of the practices of private life which was anything but edifying. The great aim of woman, he said, in the much-maligned Orient, is to administer to the brutality of her lord ; her merit is in knowing how to vary the beast's pleasures. He could give us no idea, he said, of the wit of the Egyptian women, and their sldll in double entendre; nor, I presume, did we lose much by our ignorance. What I would urge, humbly, however, is this : Do not let us be led away by German writers and aesthetics, Semilas- soisms, Hahnhahnisms, and the like. The life of the East is a life of brutes. The much maligned Orient, I am confident, has not been maligned near enough ; for the good reason that none of us can tell the amount of horrible sensuality practised there. Beyond the jack-pudding rascal and . his audience, there was on the green a spot, on which was pointed out to me a mark, as of blood. That morning the blood had spouted from the neck of an Amaoot soldier, who had been executed for murder. These Amaoots are the curse and terror of the citizens. Their camps are without the city ; but they are always brawling, or drunken, 01 murdering within, in spite of the rigid law which is applied to them, and which brings one or more of the scoundrels to deatli almost every week. THACICEKAY S SKETCH OF MANNEUg IN THE EAST. 63 Some of our party Had seen this fellow borne by the hotel the day before, in the midst of a crowd of soldiers who had appre- hended him. The man was still formidable to his score of captors. His clothes had been torn off ; his limbs were bound with cords ; but he was struggling frantically to get free ; and my informant described the figure and appearance of the naked, bound, writhing savage, as quite a model of beauty. Walking in the street, this fellow had just before been struck by the looks of a woman who was passing, and laid hands on her. She ran away, and he pursued her. She ran into the police-bar- rack, which was luckily hard by ; but the Arnaoot was nothing daunted, and followed into the midst of the police. One of them tried to stop him. The Arnaoot pulled out a pistol, and shot the policeman dead. He cut down three or four more before he was secured. He knew his inevitable end must be death : that he could not seize upon the woman : that he could not hope to resist half a regiment of armed soldiers : yet his instinct of lust and murder was too strong ; and so he had his head taken off quite calmly this morning, many of his comrades attending their brother's last moments. He cared not the least about dying ; and knelt down and had his head off as coolly as if he were looking on at the same ceremony performed on another. "WTien the head was off, and the blood was spouting on the ground, a married woman, who had no children, came fom^ard very eagerly out of the crowd to smear herself with it — the application of criminals' blood being considered a very favourable medicine for women afflicted with barrenness, so she indulged in this remedy. But one of the Arnaoots standing near said, " What ! you likes blood, do you ? " (or words to that effect.) " Let's see how your's mixes with my comrade's." And thereupon, taking out a pistol, he shot the woman in the midst of the crowd and the guards who were attending the execution ; was seized of course by the latter ; and no doubt to-morrow morning will have his head off too. It would be a good chapter to write — the Death of the Arnaoot — but I shan't go. Seeing one man hanged is quite enough in the eourse of a life. J'y ai iU, as the Frenchman said of hunting. 64 APPENDIX. Ttese Arnaoots are the terror of the town. They seized hold of an Englishman the other day, and jvere very near pistol- ling him. Last week one of them murdered a shopkeeper at Boulak, who refused to sell him a water-melon at a price which he, the soldier, fixed upon it. So, for the matter of three-halfpence, he killed the shopkeeper ; and had his own rascally head chopped off, universally regretted by his friends. Why, I wonder, does not his Highness the Pasha invite the Arnaoots to a dijedner at the Citadel, as he did the Mamelukes, and serve them up the same sort of breakfast ? The walls are considerably heightened since Emin Bey and his horse leapt them, and it is probable that not one of them would escape. This sort of pistol practicfr is common enough here, it would appear ; and not among the Arnaoots merely, but the higher orders. Thus, a short time since, one of his Highness's grandsons, whom I shall call Bluebeard Pasha (lest a revelation of the name of the said Pasha might interrupt our good relations with his country) — one of the young Pashas being backward rather in his education, and anxious to learn mathematics, and the elegant de- portment of civilized life, sent to England for a tutor. I have lieard he was a Cambridge man, and had learned both algebra and politeness under the Eeverend Doctor Whizzle, of College. One day, when Mr. MacWhirter, B.A., was walking in Shoubra gardens, with his Highness the young Bluebeard Pasha, inducting him into the usages of polished society, and favouring him with reminiscences of Trumpington, there came up a poor fellah, who flung himself at the feet of young Bluebeard, and calling for justice in a loud and pathetic voice, and holding out a petition, besought his Highness to cast a gracious eye upon the same, and see that his slave had justice done him. Bluebeard Pasha was so deeply engaged and interested by his re- spected tutor's conversation, that he told the poor fellah to go to the deuce, and resumed the discourse which his ill-timed outcry for justice had interrupted. But the unlucky wight of a fellah was pushed by his evil destiny, and thought he would make yet another application. So he took a short cut down one of the garden lanes, thackeeat's sketch of manners in the east. 65 and as the Prince and the Reverend Mr. MacWhirter, his tutor, came along, once more engaged in pleasant disquisition, behold the fellah was once more in their way, kneeling at the august Bluebeard's feet, yelling out for justice as before, and thrusting his petition into the royal face. When the Prince's conversation was thus interrupted a second time, his royal patience and clemency were at an end. " Man," said he, " once before I bade thee not to pester me with thy clamour, and lo ! you have disobeyed me — take the consequences of disobedience to a Prince, and thy blood be upon thine own head." So saying, he drew out a pistol, and blew out the brains of that fellah, so that he never bawled out for justice any more. The Eeverend Mr. MacWhirter was astonished at this mode of proceeding : " Gracious Prince," said he, " we do not shoot an Undergraduate at Cambridge even for walking over a college grassplot. Let me suggest to your Eoyal Highness that this method of ridding yourself of a poor devil's importunities is such as we should consider abrupt and almost cruel in Europe. Let me beg you to moderate your royal impetuosity for the future .; and, as your Highness's tutor, entreat you to be a little less prodigal of your powder and shot." " MoUah ! " said his Highness, here interrupting his governor's affectionate appeal, "you are good to talk about Trumpington and the Pons Asinorum, but if you interfere with the course of justice in any way, or prevent me from shooting any dog of an Arab who snarls at my heels, I have another pistol ; and, by the beard of the prophet, a bullet for you too ! " So saying, he pulled out the weapon, with such a terriiic and significant glance at the Eeverend Mr. MacWhirter, that that gentleman wished himself back in his Combination Room again ; and is by this time, let us hope, safely housed there. 66 APPENDIX. EXTRACT FEOM "RIDE TO KHIVA." (From Punch.) Instead of rej)lying to so harmless a book as Captain Burnaby's, I subjoin extracts from the " Diary of my Ride to Khiva," from Mr. Burnand's clever Punch papers : — " He thought he had better retain the horse vrith thankshi {i.e., Tartar expression of gratitude). The horse -will be of the greatest use to me. Note, crossed another river, or the same, the Oxus, I fancy . " Met a Kirghiz man — a Kirghiz man is a sort of travelling butcher, who sells Kirghizzes {i.e., Tartaric for carcasses) — the clay after the one last mentioned. " Met sixteen wolves to-day, all wrapped up in sheep's clothing to keej) themselves warm. Tried Mr. Gladstone's name on them with excellent effect ; have not seen them again. " Wednesday. — Came up to fort number one. Found General Kauffman here taking care of number one. Gave Kauifman some lozenges for his voice. ' Kauff, man, no more,' said I, plea- santly, and he went into fits. I asked him if we should be stopped before we got to Khiva. He answered ^vith considerable caution, and put his finger to his nose. The last thing I saw of the old General was his left eye, as he winked at us through a loop-hole in fort number one. Thermometer going down to twenty degrees below nothing. " I was belated for one night and ran short of provisions, but — you know what a good legerdemainist I am — well, I made an omelette in my hat, drank a glass of Pommard (this sounds like something for the hair, but it isn't when properly pronounced) from the inexhaustible bottle, made an orange tree grow, took an orange for dessert, and went to sleeji. EXTEAOT FEOlt " EIDB TO KHIVA." 67 "12 mid-day. — Stopped to lunchski, as we call it in this country. The driver eats tallow candles and drinks wickski, a Russian spirit distilled fiom candle ends. A Eussian never takes a bath, he always goes in for a dip. Came to a sign-post ; examined it ; found I had been for two days riding towards Persia. . . Met a Tartar gentleman on the road. He asked us to share his dinner with him, potski luckski, as they call it here. I hope to be dressed in kremlin, a peculiar sort of warm waterproof coat, and kopeck, a head-dress worn at night, when travelling through the snow and tied under the chin with a small moujik, a kind of leather thong with a silver clasp. " Russian is spoken as read backwards, and takes some time to master. "5.30. A.M. — Sleigh driver wrapped up in thick capes, five in number. Sleigh driver's boy up behind with buns to feed tlio wolves. This was a happy idea of mine, based upon early recol- lections of the Zoological Gardens. I never yet knew a wolf or a bear refuse a bun. " One o'clock. — -Time for lunchski preparations. Suddenly wolves appear within a mile of us. No lunchski — horrid thought ! One o'clock must be the hour of the wolves' lunchski. Can the horse do it 1 The wolves ! the wolves ! Send cheque at once. This is my last appeal ; forward it by my friend. If we can only give wolves a check. 10, night. — The Towers of Gladitzova in sight. Horse drop- ping ! Children must be thrown over ! Begun with sleigh- driver's boy. Sleigh-driver's boy suggests beginning with sleigh- driver. The wolves are witliin two hundred yards of us. It must be done ! The sleigh-driver has five capes, a thick fur coat, and a whip. With the whip he can defend himself, and the wolves will be a long time before they can get through his capes, liis boots, and at him. Wolves within one hundred yards. One wild cry — a struggle — it is done. " 3.30 P.M. — Distant mountains melted. First view of Khiva. See distinctly the name over the gate." 68 ArPEKDIX. "PUNCH" ON ALLEGED RUSSIAN ATROCITIES. Philo-Twh {triumphantly). — Aha ! judicious and judicial Mr. Punch, what do you now think of the great atrocity question ] Time for the St. James's Hall sentimentalists to shut up shop, eh ? Mr. Punch. — ^And why, my jubilant friend ? Philo-Turk. — ^Why ? Hasn't Cossack cruelty quite put Bashi- Bazouk barbarity into the shade 1 Hasn't the Muscovite lamb proved himself a more sanguinary butcher than the Ottoman wolf? But, of course, you won't admit it. Party philanthropy is con- veniently blind of one eye. Mr. Punch {calmly). — As was shown wh§n the accounts of the Bulgarian horrors were pooh-poohed as " coffee-house babble" Philo-Turk {eagerly). — Oh, that was before they were proved to be well-founded. Mr. Punch. — ^Is the same desire to wait for proof shoivn in the same quarters now 1 Party spirit is always one-eyed, but it is the special business of Mr. Punch to keep both his eyes open. Philo-Turk — Then be so good as to cast them over these recent accounts of Russian atrocities, and tell me what you think of them. Mr. Punch.- — I have already done so. At the risk of raising your wrath, I must sum up my judgment, for the present, thus : — " Oases not parallel, and facts not proven." Nay, do not explode, and do not misunderstand me. If the Russians have rivalled the Turks in ruffianism, Mr. Punch will be the last to palliate or con- done their unpardonable offence against humanity, honesty, and — policy. My baton falls with equal thwacks, AVhate'er their robes, on rascals' b.'icks. "punch" on alleged eussiau ateocities. 69 It has had occasion to fall heavily on Muscovite shoulders before now, and may again. But discrimination is not partiality. The incidental and unpremeditated horrors of a furious -war do not afford a parallel to the deliberate brutalities of an inhuman rule. When it is shown that the Russian " atrocities " are parallel to the horrors of Bulgaria, not only in being bloody and bestial, but in being deliberate and unpimished — nay, rewarded — then Mr. Punch will have a word to say on the subject which even Philo-Tukk will not find feeble or apologetic. But until that is made clear to a candid judgment, Mr. Punch declines to greet every big- capitalled account of " Eussian Atrocities " with a howl which smacks more of partisan triumph than humane horror. PMlo-Turk — Pot and kettle, Mr. Punch — pot and kettle ! Mr. Punch. — ^Well, at any rate, " it was kettle began it ; " and the Turkish kettle's denunciation of the Russian pot might come with better grace had it been preceded by recognition of his own yet deeper blackness. Philo-Turh. — ^But at least you'll own the Russian has not a very clean record ? Mr. Punch. — He has not ; and he is now suffering in public judgment for the blots on the pages of his past. It is the less necessary to make a case against him, as some seem so anxious to do. For that, plenty of materials are sure to be forthcoming when a semi-civilized power meets its hereditary enemy face to face, in defence, whether disinterestedly or not, of a subject race embit- tered and brutahzed by centuries of oppression and outrage. Philo-Tiirh. — But would the Russian make a better master of the Bulgarian than the Turk has made ? Mr. Punch. — In the long run probably he would — ^though, remembering Poland, and regarding popular opinion, it requires the courage of Mr. Punch to say so. The Russians are a growing and an improving people, sympathetic in race and religion with those they are fighting for. The Turk is effete, unimprovable, and an alien in religion and in race. But it is not a question of change of masters. It is because the action of Russia opens up to far-seeing men a prospect of emancipation beyond her own 70 APrsNDix. purposes or desires, that lovers of freedom lean to her side in this particular issue. But if the self-appointed champion turn tyrant and butcher, be sure the butcher shall be denounced and the tyrant withstood. Philo-Turk. — All, yes — when it is too late ! Mr. Punch. — The plausible reproach that raw haste is always huiHng at the deliberation it mistakes for delay. To move in wUd fear of danger before the summons of duty sounds is as un- manly, and may be as disastrous, as to lag when it sounds indeed. Philo-Turlc. — You think, then, it has not sounded yet ? Mr. Punch. — It sounded one charge some time since ; but at the desire of those who are now so clamorous, was unhappily disregarded. At present it is silent. Trust Mr. Punch to catch the first notes of the alarum, and to echo it with all his vigour of lung and trumpet. A nrw EEMARKS ON THE ALLEGED fiUSSIAN ATROCITIES. 71 A FEW EEMARKS ON THE ALLEGED EUSSIAN ATEOCITIES. With reference to the Polish atrocities, I have discussed the sub- ject with sufficient fuhiess in the chapter headed " Poland from a Common Sense Point of View,'' and I have quoted the whole of what Mr. Gladstone has stated with reference to those with which Russia has heen charged in Turkistan, and I need not, therefore, touch upon them here. With regard to the alleged Russian atrocities during the pre- sent war, I have to remark that if one was not already accus- tomed to Turkish mendacity and recklessness, one would be startled by the audacity with which Aarifi Pasha pretends to have ascertained the exact number of Turks massacred by the Russians, for, whilst Mr. Baring could only estimate in thousands, the Pasha not only descends to hundreds or even tens, but even to one man, his figures being 4,763, to say nothing of those burnt in the mosque; but the Daily Telegraph of July 25tli trumps even Aarifi Pasha, for it states " the Bulgarian atrocities are as nothing compared loith the deso- lation the Russians are causing wherever they make their appear- ance, or with the murderous slaughters of the old, young, and weak that follow ia their footsteps." The Daily Telegraph, which is well knoivn as a sensational journal in the American style, conducted by Jewish proprietors, seems to think there is no bounds to the credulity of the public, and I would venture to suggest that even its imaginative powers are far exceeded by those of Dr. Kenealy, whose services would 72 APPENDIX. be invaluable as an editor or correspondent with a fancy which can hardly be surpassed, since, while the Daily Telegraph only magnifies Aarifi Pasha's figures from 4,763 to the 20,000, which is the least number which can be deduced from Mr. Sclrayler's report, the Doctor, as I have already stated, said that the English had massacred 4,000,000,000 of people, a number which would suffice to girdle the globe with about 180 parallel rows of human bodies, each touchiag the other, or a pillar 4,000 miles high, or 1,300 Mont Blancs piled on the top of each other ; whilst, if the. skulls were as thick and the hearts as hard as those of many of the Turcophiles, they would make the strongest road in the world, fit for the passage of the heaviest artillery. Mr. Goschen said at Fishmongers' Hall, " StUl less would he make a speech of blood and thunder (he might have added, ' of greased lightning '), because he was not a contributor to the Daily Telegraph " (so that whatever Egypt may be, Turkey ii not a land of Goschen), and that newspaper, whose war correspondent probably well knew the meaning of Turkish backsheesh, should now assume the title of the " Munchausen Gazette,'' the " Derby Dilly Trumpeter," the " Anti-Gladstonian," or the "Blood and Thunder News." If the Russian soldiery are so ferocious, it is very singular that the French never complained of Eussian atrocities so far back as the French retreat from Moscow, and surely they have improved in humanity instead of degenerating since that time ; on the other hand, the abominable and bestial cruelties of the Turcos in the Franco-German war are notorious, and it is probably on account of their unrivalled inhumanity that in the English Prayer-book we pray especially for Jews and Turks and name no other races. On the other hand, the Russophobes and Turcomaniacs in England apparently exclaim with Tom Hood's needlewoman in the " Song of a Shirt "— " 'Tis oh, to hare a slave As well as the harharous Turk, Where ■woman has never a soiil to save, And torttireil Christians work." A FEW REMARKS ON THE ALLEGED EUSSIAX ATROCITIES. 73 Tlie first point which it is necessary for the Pliilo-Turks to establish is, that any atrocities were ever committed ; secondlj'-, the extent and nature of these atrocities ; and lastly, that they were committed by the Eussians and not by the Bulgarians • for surely atrocities committed in revenge for previous massacres by the Bulgarians are less culpable than similar acts committed by the Russian soldiers, whose hearths and homes have not been destroyed by the Turks ; and the Eussians cannot fairly have Bulgarian atrocities fathered upon them, any more than we should have been accountable during the Crimean War for any cruel acts performed by our French, Italian, or Turkish allies ; or than the French soldiers were held accountable for the horrible cruelties perpetrated by the Turcos on the German wounded in the Franco-German war., The only accusation deserving of full credit is that contained in the telegram from the twenty representatives of the Press, dated Shumla, July 10th, 1877, in which "they declare they have seen mth their own eyes, and, questioned, at Easgrad and at Shumla, children, women, and old men suffering from lance and sabre ivounds, not to mention the shot wounds which might be attributed to the chances of legitimate conflict. These victims give horrible accounts of the treatment of fugitive Mussulmans by the Eussian troops, and sometimes also by the Bulgarians. According to their statements the entire population of several villages have been massacred either on the roads or in the villages which were being pillaged. Every day more wounded people arrive. The undersigned declare that the women and children are most numerous among the victims, and that the wounds are lance wounds." Now, the first reflection which occurs to one's mind is, that the Turks must be an arrant set of fools and cowards to have left their women and children in the lurch, instead of carrying them off, or, if that was impossible, remaining to protect them and share their fate, but this is only what one might expect from them, since the Titms correspondent says, " After the battle in the iSJiipka Pass, the prisoners stated that the Pasha went away first. 74 APPENDIX. and was soon followed by 10,000 men, all regulars; and that these positions, abandoned by the Turks, were so well fortified that the Russians could not help admiring their construction," so that a handful of really brave men might have held them against a much greater force than that of the Russians. The newspaper correspondents in the first portion of their telegram say that the wounds were lance and sah'e wounds, whilst at the close they say .they are lance woimds, and this shows that they are not quite certain of their facts. One wonders also that they did not count, or at least approximately estimate, the victims ; no one can form any idea whether only two men, two . women, and two children were wounded, or whether there were tens, hundreds, thousands, or Dr. Kenealy would perhaps estimate them at millions, of victims. ' The correspondents do not say whether the children were help- less babies, such as those the Turks toss on bayonets or rip out of their mothers' wombs, or were strong boys, such as those who may be observed in a woodcut of the Illustrated London News (of July 28) dragging up a Krupp gun to be used against the Russians ; and of course it would be an atrocity if the Russian cavalry, by using the lance, coHipelled them to desist. Referring to the Parliamentary Paper now before me, I find that Mr. Layard, our ambassador, the well-known thick and thin supporter of Turkey, whose appointment was characterised by the Turks as " a delicate attention," says that " the Porte states that above 1,000 Circassians were put to death, no quarter having been given to a force of Circassian cavalry that had been surprised during the night." I suj^pose, therefore, that Mr. Layard con- siders that the Tiirks have the sole right of killing their enemies in fair battle, whilst the Russians have the privilege of being killed. We thesn have the cloven foot of the "Daily Bellowgraph,' confirming a report that fronli 1,000 to 1,500 of the inhabi- tants of Ardahan were massacred by the Russians, but Lord Derby says in his despatch, dated July 17, 1877, that the number killed was 800, and that they were killed, not by the Russians, but by the Lesghian troops in the Russian service. A FEW RBMAEKS OX THE ALLEQED RUSSIAN ATROCITIES. 75 The Daily News says : " It is not difficult to understand what are termed by the Daily Telegraph 'Russian atrocities.' The Turkish inhabitants of Bulgaria fall back on the advance of the Russians, carrying off, in a long train, not only their own flocks and herds, but the flocks and herds of their Bulgarian neighbours. Their retreating trains are surrounded by armed men to defend them. The Cossack cavalry, who scour the country, when they come up with these trains, call upon them to surrender their impedimenta. The armed Turks refuse, and then shots are exchanged, and a scrimmage ensues. Naturally, some of the women and cluldren, who are in the waggons in the midst of the train, get hit ; but — and I speak entirely without prejudice, and merely as an impartial looker-on — this seems to me to be the fault of the Turks, who, instead of surrendering their flocks and herds, and those of their neighbours that they have laid hands on, prefer to risk, not only their own lives, but those of their wives and children. If there is one rule of war more clearly established than another, it is, that the peaceful inhabitants of an invaded country must submit to the orders of the invaders, and that they must either refrain . from hostile acts, or take the consequences of not refraining from them. This, the Germans, during the Franco-German war, had some difiiculty in impressing upon the French peasantry. But, as the peasantry were intelligent enough to perceive the necessity of the distinction, they very soon honestly accepted it, and acted on it." To showhowthe Turks deal with murderers, even when convicted and sentenced, I quote from the Bevue des Deux Monies, February 1, 1877 ; — " A French Consul having been assassinated by a subject of Abdul Medjid, the French embassy exacted the rigorous punish- ment of the culprit, who was apprehended and tried. The mur- derer was imanimously condemned to hard labour in perpetuity. Some days after, the secretary of the embassy, who had been assessor at the trial, making an excursion to Broussa, had the un- expected pleasure of meeting at the corner of the street a face which he recognised. It was that of the murderer, of whom the 76 APPENDIX. penalty had been commuted, and whose hard labour consisted in going about freely wherever he chose. He had only killed a Ghiaour." The Times states: — "Sir Arnold Kemball has telegraphed, ' Atrocities by Eussians at Ardahan quite untrue,' and that part of the Eussian forces at Bayazid were massacred after they had surrendered." Another Times correspondent says, "Here in a bam, covered with a little straw, we found the bodies of three people (Bulgarians) — a young fair-haired woman of about twenty to twenty-two, with a fuU round form and light golden hair in great masses all about her face and shoulders lying across the bodies of apparently two men, though it is pos- sible there may have been more. It was an awful sight, and the story seemed self-evident. The men had been murdered first, and- the woman, having first been ravished, had been thrown across their bodies. . . . The evidence convinced me that this mas- sacre had been a cold-blooded, undeserved attack by the Bashi- Bazouks on the defenceless Bulgarians. To begin with, not one single Turkish corpse has been or apparently can be produced. . . . The General Selim Pasha said to the station-master, ' For God's sake, get those people away, for I cannot answer for my troops.' ... It is painful to see the magnificent crops all ready for carting, left rotting in the fields for hundreds of miles. The terror is so great that they have not the heart to gather them in, besides which, every cart or waggon is away with fugitives." It therefore aj)pears that the Turcomaniacs in England have a far better opinion of the Turkish troops than that which is held by even the Turkish generals. The Eussian Ambassador writes to the Times to say that in the Schipka Pass the Turks, not being able to defend a position, hoisted the white flag. The Eussians ceased firing and advanced, when they were received with a frightful and treacherous discharge of grape shot and musketry. The Turks then fled, and the Eus- sians found a large heap of heads of their soldiers, who had been wounded, made prisoners, and then massacred and decapitated. A FEW EEMASES ON THE ALLEGED ErSSLiN ATROCITIES. 77 The correspondent of the Times with the Turkish army in Armenia writes :— " Of course, Turkish official accounts tell of the atrocities committed by the Eussians, pillaging of vUlages, outrages on women, and slaying of children being freely attributed to the foe. I believe none of these things. I have now for the last week been following in the wake of the retiring Eussian army, and can see no traces nor hear any reports of any such misdeeds. On the contrary, they appeared to have behaved with the greatest moderation and paid for everything they consumed. I regret that now I have to place on record an act wliich reflects the greatest discredit on the Turkish commander. On the 3rd inst., two Karakapaks were seized by a Circassian patrol, they were taken up before the Muchir, quietly led to a secluded spot, and there by his orders shot and left to lie imburied on the bare hill- side. ... I trust that all who did see the ghastly sight will place on record their detestation of the cowardly deed, so utterly opposed to all sense of justice, and so opposed to all mihtary law. General Loris Mehkoff said to me, ' Had we been at war ivith a civilized people, I would have written a letter to inform the au- thorities that I had left so many hundred wounded in such and such a village, and requested that their persons should be respected. But here it would be madness to trust them, and so I was obliged to retreat ; otherwise, I assure you, I should have advanced, and by this time would have been before Erzeroum. In this way the Turks have a great advantage over us, which is totally one sided, for we, on the contrary, take as great care of Turkish wounded prisoners as of our own. For example, at ArdaJian we found an hospital with 800 Turlis. They were totally destitute of "medical appliances, and, although my stores of bandages and medicines were insufficient for my own uses, I gave orders that everything should be divided impartially between the two nationalities.' " The heroism of the Eussian marine appears from the following circumstance, which also shows the utter worthlessness of the Turkish navy. The " Vesta," an ordinary trading steamer, v/ith some mortars under the Eussian Captain Basanoff, fought for five hours with a large Turkish ironclad with a twelve-inch cuirass, and G 2 78 APPENDIX. would probably have captured her if two other Turkish men-of-war had not come to the ironclad's assistance, when the " Vesta " escaped. The Stamboul, Constantinople newspaper, of July 19th, calls attention to one flagrant case of fabrication (of Russian and Chris- tian cruelties) which had appeared in the semi-ofi&cial Turquie of the preceding day, and which was so badly put together as to bear internal evidence of falsehood ; and these papers, for daring to deviate into truth, were soon after suspended by the Porte. The Times correspondent at Constantinople writes : — " Atrocity- mongering goes on amongst otherwise perfectly honest men. They turn bewildered and disgusted from the mass of contradictory evidence presented to them, and, in despair, end in believing what naturally they are predisposed to believe, namely, pretty nearly everything that tells for their own party, and little or nothing that tells against it. Even official reports, written with the fullest sense of responsibility present or future, cannot always be trusted. Not that the writers, usually gentlemen, with a character and position at stake, have the deliberate intention to deceive, but either they approach the enquiry with a parti pis, or they have the sole or easiest access to sources of information from which they see only one side. Your readers will kindly remember that any Turkish atrocities must always arrive a week or so later than any Russian crimes, but in the Provinces, where the officials control not merely telegrams but even letters of correspondents, none but Russian atrocities can be sent in any way, and the more of these the correspondent sends the higher the favour he enjoys, and the greater the facilities given him for moving from place to place and transmitting news. This had led in some instances to very ignoble bidding for official patronage and protection. I am told on perfectly trustworthy testimony of one correspondent (query, was this the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph ?) who offered to send whatever the authorities liked. They might, if they so pleased, dictate his letters, if in return they would give him ad- vantages not conceded to the rest of his professional brethren. Another correspondent stooped to the trick of altering a letter in- A FEW EKMAUKS OS THE ALLEGED RUSSIAN ATKOCITIES. 79 tended for a London newspaper without the writer's knowledge, though of course with the connivance of the Turkish authorities, and presumably to curry favour -with them. In this particular instance, the trick was detected through the mistake of taking into his cou- fidence a correspondent luho happened to he a gentleman; but how often it has been tried and succeeded in other instances there is no means of ascertaining." The Karapapaks, who have committed some depredations in Armenia, are Mussulman bands living on Turkish territory, and for whose services the Eussians pay only because they would fight against them. The Constantinople correspondent of the Standard attributes the alleged acts of cruelty and pillage to the Bulgarians and not to the Eussians, whilst the correspondent of the Cologne Gazette, though that paper is ardently Turkophile, says, " The Eussian soldier, in fact, is of a kindly disposition. He is under a discipline which of itself would resia-ain him from certain excesses. I have nowhere seen that Eussian soldiers have given way to blameable excesses. As soon as the Eussians enter into districts they establish order everywhere, and take the mosques under their special protection." The Times correspondent with the Turkish army in Asia writes : " I do not know why some of the money collected in England for the relief of Turkish soldiers has not been diverted from the capa- cious maw of the European Turkish army to the far worse equipped 4th Army Corps (in Asia). Here the men have received no pay for two years, their rations are distributed with gross irregularity, and it is a very rare occurrence for the men ever to see meat. Thus on short commons, unable to purchase even the commonest necessaries of life, it is not to be wondered at that the unfortunate soldiers suffer terribly from sickness, and when once struck down, it is still less surprising that the death-rate is so high. I can only trust that, should the good people of England forward any sums of money to Erzeroum to be expended on behalf of the Turkish soldiers, they will annex as a condition that it is on no account to pass through Turkish hands. " Last night a party of Circassians captured a Eussian post bag. 80 APPENDIX. containing some eighty private letters from officers present at the battle of Lewin. There is a great difference between the 5,000 lolled and wounded of the Turkish dispatch, and the 790 of the ■Russian officers' letters. . . . Mr. Williams, who accompanied the staff of Eeiss Ahmed Pasha, saw the Kurds busy opening the graves and despoiling the corpses of their clothes. A grave con- taining some Turkish bodies had been opened and the bodies disinterred. These were all clothed in uniform, showing that the Russians respect the bodies of their slain, and bury them ivith decency. On our (the Turkish) side, however, I regret to say that hoth officers and men roam over the field, stripping all the corpses, which are invariably buried naked. . . . The custom of despoihng the slain is openly sanctioned by authority." A naval correspondent of the Times writes from Tlierapia : " I wish it to be understood that myself and two Europeans by whom I was accompanied failed to find the sUghtest trace of a massacre, either in our quarter or the other ; nor could the large bribe of a napoleon for any single corpse I could be shown purchase anybody who could earn it. I also went to the trouble with my inter[ireter of looking into every single waggon that was loading with refugees, and I spent nearly an hour with him cross- ' questioning them about it. Not a single man, woman, or child had a scratch to show, though naturally only too eager to do so." Le Temps says : " The dead and wounded Russians who had fallen into their hands had been decapitated and mutilated. I saw yester- day the field of battle and the mutilated corpses. In spite of the general indignation, care is given to the Turkish wounded, and the Turkish ambulance of Kazanlyk has been scrupulously resj)ected." The Tim£s says : " The Catholic Priests excite hatred (in Bosnia) against the members of the Orthodox Greek Church, and declare that the Mahometans are much nearer to them than the schis- matical Slavs. They have succeeded, with the consent of the Turkish authorities, in organising a (Roman) Catholic legion, which has been provided with the uniform of the Nizam, and this even- ing this new levy has marched against the insurgents." Mr. Layard is compelled to admit that " the captain of A lE-W EEMASKS ON THE ALLEGED HrSSIAN ATEOOITIBS. 81 H.M.S. 'Rapid' informs me that the Turks are withdrawing from the Dobrudscha. Everything lias been destroyed, and the Chris- tians being exposed to great outrages from Circassians and Tar- tars, many being killed." Though everything was wantonly destroyed, even their own property, by the Turks, the Russians are subsequently accused of destroying what consequently did not €xist. We have afterwards a telegram from Safvet Pasha (whose mendacity and incapacity were so great that he is now dismissed) to say that a Russian division, after burning some villages, " pitilessly killed three inoffensive women." There is no proof whatever of tliis fact, but the women may have been petroleuses or spies, or they may have fired at and killed Russian soldiers ; and, after all, Turks who kill and torture women and children by the thousand should not be so squeamish about three women who were killed, but not tortured. Our friend Safvet, who might appropriately be called " the Pasha of many Taels," a few days later narrates the awful and appalling fact that one inhabitant of a village, of which he does not even know the name, was killed in a skirmish, whilst five were taken prisoners, and that sis other persons were afterwards ..slain, " whose corpses were afterwards subjected to horrible indig- nities;" but the Turks, instead of" tearing out the eyes " of corpses, pull them out of living men. Eight Turkish soldiers, he pretends, were afterwards beaten to death with sticks by the Russians, but this is not quite so painful or inhuman as the following fact, related by General Tchemayeff to M. Ristich : — " The bodies of our wounded prisoners were found fastened to the ground by wooden pegs, their hands spread out, their feet and other parts of their bodies charred, their toes cut off, their stomachs mutilated by knife cuts, their countenances contracted by pain. The presence of the corpses of the Nizams prove that these atrocities are the work of regular troops." The veracious Safvet (the same man who said at the Conference that he had not even seen the Andrassy Note, when it suited his purpose) adds that 1,500 famiUes, which would be about 7,000 persons, from Soukhum Kale, who took refuge in the forests to 82 APPENDIX. escape the barbarous treatment of tlie Eussians, died of starva- tion. The Eussians probably never knew of this emigration, nor where the people went ; but they ought to be both omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, and I suppose Safvet thinks they should have sent provisions for the 7,000 to the forests, and main- tained them all till the conclusion of the war. Safvet continues in another dispatch, when we have had a little time to digest the 7,000 victims, which was rather a large demand on our credulity, " Oustroudja and Kadisle have been plundered by the Cossacks, who massacred about thirty of the Mussulman inhabitants, without distinction of age or sex ; " and subsequently, " some Cossacks . . . having come upon some Mussulmans . . . massacred them, without sparing the women and chil- dren." After the battues of the Turks in their Christian pro- vinces, with all the delights of varied tortures, the slaughter of these probably imaginary victims, without any tortures, seems but tame. Safvet should really get the Daily Belloiograph correspondent to correct his telegrams, and, though they may not be true, they might at least be made consistent. On July 16 th he says : " The inhabi- tants of Tems, near Timova, having taken refuge in the mosque at the approach of the enemy, were burnt alive within the walls. The enemy, having come upon 300 waggons filled with fugitive families, destroyed them with cannon shots, and then completed the work of extermination by massacring all, both men and women, that they could get hold of." The reader will observe that the inhabitants were first of all burnt alive within the mosque ; then they were apparently restored to life, I suppose, by a Mahometan miracle, and escaped in 300 wag- gons, which would probably suffice for the whole population before they had been burnt, and then the waggons, filled with fugitive families, were so cleverly destroyed by cannon shots that all of them remained to be afterwards massacred. This reminds me of an Irish story of a man who was accused of stealing a watch and, when placed on his defence, he said, first, he did not take it, and if he did he paid for it, and if he didn't it was of no value. A FEW EEMAEKS ON THE ALLEGED B.TJSSIAN ATROCITIES. 83 Vice-Consul Biliotte unmistakably intimates Lis opinion of the correspondent of a, daily paper, in stating ia reference to the re- ported death of the 1,500 families from starvation, " I had, a few days previously, heard the identical report, and although my informant was an English officer, on whose word all reliance could he placed, still I did not feel justified, he being the correspondent of a daily paper, to communicate the netvs to your Excellency (Mr. Layard) 5«/w« I received information on the subject also from other sources." The Turkish commander at Utah Kilisse telegraphs : — " From the information received it has unhappily been ascertained that there were in the said church about ten corpses of Mussulmans and Christians, who had been killed some ten days before. , . . The Russians wounded the cure of the church, and, having put him in irons, wounded as he was, took him off with them." This Turkish commander in some respects trumps even the practised Safvet, and his telegram is really creditable to a be- ginner in the art of fabrication. The Russians might possibly have killed some Mussulmans, but they never would have killed the Christians, nor wounded and carried off the cure. The Tim,es correspondent in Montenegro writes from Ostrog : — " Fort Rastrovatz, with a garrison of forty men, surrendered yesterday. The prisoners are well treated, and as soon as their fears of decapitation were quieted became very gay and contented, with no desire to return to the Turkish authorities. They are mostly Albanian Mzams, are unpaid, and were poorly fed." The Turkish generals are such incapable and lazy dolts that the Sultan is obliged to employ as his commanders-in-chief renegade Christians — Omar Pasha in the Crimean war, and now Mehemet Pasha, a German. The incautious Safvet on the 14th of July makes an admission which proves that the Montenegrins have never disgraced them- selves to the full extent that some inventive writers have pre- tended. "'The Montenegrins who mutilated their prisoners alicays respected women and children." The mutilation of living prisoners here charged by Safvet is a wilful and malicious falsehood, as is 84 APPENDIX. shown by Consul Monson's reports, especially one in which he says, "I am in a position to p-ove that the Turkish prisoners during their detention in Montenegro were treated with truly admirable humanity and generosity." Having now gone through the Parliamentary paper, I shall proceed to quote from other authorities what they think of the so-caUed Russian atrocities. As to the alleged Russian atrocities in Bulgaria, I quote the fol- lowing observations from Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet : — " Among secondary, but stiUvery weighty, reasons why we ought not to have left to the sole charge of Russia an European responsibility, was the liigli hkeUhood, to say the least, that in Bulgaria, at any rate, the operations of the war would be tainted with barbarity. It may have been observed that we have no trustworthy evidence to show that this contingency has been realised on the Russian side in the Armenian campaign ; and, in that country, the war had not been preceded by any but the normal misconduct of the governing power. But, upon the south bank of the Danube, the land bristled with stinging and exasperating recollections. The Bul- garians are men, as I believe, of at any rate the average humanity of Christendom; but had they foregone every opportunity of retaliation after the frightful massacres of 1876, they would have been angels. For weeks past the Porte has published official accounts of cruelties inflicted on the Mahometan population ; cruelties very far short of those which it had itseK commanded and rewarded, but still utterly detestable. To these utterances, excej)t by a few fanatics, little heed was given ; for the world had learned, on conclusive evidence, that the arts of falsehood have received a portentous development in Turkey, and have become the very basis and mainspring, so to say, of Ottoman official speech. As late as on the 15th of July the correspondent of the Daily News — and the title is now one of just authority — declared his conviction that there had not then been a single case in Bul- garia of personal maltreatment of a Turkish civilian by a Russian soldier. I can hardly hope this is now the fact. While I have little fear that there has been, on the part of Russians, widely A JEW BEMAEKS ON THE ALLEGED EUSSIAN ATEOCITIES. 85 extended cruelty, tliere must be among tliem, at least here and there, ruffians whom discipline will ill restrain ; and we have also to bear in mind the diversity of races and civilizations in their army. The subject is one that calls for the closest attention. We have first to wait, as we waited last year, for a full exhibition of the facts ; and then, without respect of persons, to estimate them as they deserve. Above all, we shall then have to observe, and honestly to appreciate, the conduct of the Russian Government in reference to proved barbarity. I have shown at large that the essence of the case of 1876 lies, not in the massacres themselves, but in the conduct of the Porte about the massacres ; the false- hoods, the chicane, the mockery and perversion of justice, the denial of redress, the neglect and punishment of the good Mahometans, and finally the rewards and promotions of the bad, in pretty close proportions to their badness. If the Eussian Government descends to the same guilt, I heartily hope it wUl be covered with the same, or more than the same infamy. But if it actively assists or boldly undertakes the detection of crime — ^if, above all, it inflicts prompt and condign punishment on the offenders, of whatever race or land they be — it will then have done all that such a woful case admits to clear its own character, and to vindicate the honour of Christian civilization." The correspondent of the Gh-aphic, in describing the pillage at Sistova by the Bulgarians, adds : — "In justice to the Eussian soldiery we should state that they took no part in these wanton outrages, but, on the contrary, immediately directed their efforts to stop the pillage." Tlie Illustrated London Neivs has a woodcut of the Eussian General Zimmermann, who refused to accept the customary offer of bread and salt from the elders of Malchan, scolding the Bul- garians for destroying Turkish property, and of the Czar, with his own hands, distributing cigarettes to the Turkish prisoners. From the Daily News : — " We do not blame Mr. Layard for telegraphing to Lord Derby a multitude of rumours, the truth of which he admits he has no means of ascertaining. One of the most prominent charges relates to the sinking of 86 APPENDIX. some Turkish merchant vessels at Aidos and Amasra, and the cruel destruction of their defenceless, unresisting crews. According to the 'facts' as told in the dispatch to Musurus Pasha, torpedo launches had wantonly blown up three Turkish Tcssels without giving the sailors time or means to save their lives. The place, date, and circumstances of the affair were narrated, yet, according to our Consul-General at Odessa, the crews said to have perished were all landed on the Anatolian coast, or sent to Constantinople. . . . Our correspondent (with the Turkish army), who is near the scene of many of the alleged atrocities, and who is obviously no partisan of the former (the Russians and Bulgarians), chronicles no gross outrages com- mitted by them. Their worst acts seem to be wrecking Hie abandoned Turkish quarters. He searched to little purpose in the reports for clear intimations as to the authority for the fouler charges. He found, as a rule, only vague, unsatisfactory references to ' trustworthy sources,' ' we hear,' ' it is stated,' or ' infor- mation was received.' . . . One of the few authorities whom he cites by name is the correspondent of a contemporary, which has been little distinguished by impartiality or accuracy of infor- mation. The reports, for the most part, are on hearsaj'- and anonymous. The few telegrams from our Consuls do not speak of what they have seen. . . . Some of the charges are obviously unsusceptible of proof . . . Moreover, ' the greater part of Turkey,' as Mr. Layard truly says, ' is in lamentable anarchy and disorder, and there is but little security for life and property.' " The Times says : "Our telegraphic intelligence contains an amazing list of the atrocities, which, according to the Porte, have been per- petrated by the Russians and Bulgarians. The report, which is signed by the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, is a model of arith- metical explicitness. . . . The total number of the victims in one day's report is 4,763, besides those burnt in the mosque ! The Porte can scarcely be surprised to hear that such a report does not quite comply with those troublesome rules of legal evidence which are found necessary in Western society. . . . After investigating for weeks the atrocities committed by the Turks, A FEW REMARKS OH THE ALLEGED RUSSIAN ATEOCITIBS. 87 Mr. Baring failed to come within sight of the statistical accuracy which Aarifi Pasha has reached in a few days, at a distance of 300 or 400 miles from the scenes of the infamies which he records. A little evidence would have been a valuable addition to his arithmetical exactness. . . . It is difficult to ascertain how the Porte could have gained so exact a knowledge of the mas- sacres in other villages. Those places are in the hands of the Russians. All the Turkish officials must have been driven away, and it is hard to believe that the Cossacks would have furnished exact evidence of their own barbarities. The mystery is increased by the fact that these atrocities have not been described by the newspaper correspondents in Bulgaria, although these gentlemen have written some very unflattering accounts of the acts of pillage committed hy the Bidgarians and the Russians in the deserted Iwuses of flu, Turks. . . It was not by vague reports or by the loose state- ments of Slavonic Committees that the indignation of this country was stirred against Turkey last year. Our own Consuls sent reports, which, although at first discredited as ' coffee-house babble,' turned out to be true. The American missionaries, the railway officials, and educated Bulgarians placed a mass of proofs before unofficial Englishmen and Sir Henry ElKott." Although a British Consul has testified that the Turkish sailors whom the Turks asserted had been destroyed by the Eussians are all alive and uninjured, the " West-end " are still incredulous, and they remind me of a story which O'Connell once told in the House of Commons. He said, ' " On one occasion I was counsel in Ireland for a man accused of murder. I produced but one witness, but that one witness would have secured the instant acquittal of the prisoner in any court in Europe ; the witness was the man supposed to be murdered himself, yet the jury brought in a verdict of guilty," and this is precisely what the " West- end " are doing as regards Russia. The disgraoeful and insulting way in which Sir Arnold Kemball is treated by the Turks appears from the following paragraph from the Times correspondent : — " It is but a duty I owe to the English public that they should be informed of the very scant 88 APPENDIX. / courtesy our military attacM receives at the hands of the Turkish officers. Sir Arnold Kemball is too old a soldier, too tried a poli- tician, and too deeply imbued ivith a sense of the extremely deli- cate nature of Ms mission, ever to let fall even a hint that he is dissatisfied with the treatment he receives ; hut it must, neverthe- less, be galling to an oificer of his position to be left without attendants, allowed to bivouack on the open ground, when even regimental officers carry tents, and to be not only kept in the dark as to the intentions of the commander-in-chief, but constantly misinformed as to the actual state of affairs. Attended by only his aide-de-camp and one Turkish orderly officer, Sir Arnold may be seen riding through the camp, making himself thoroughly acquainted with the real state of affairs ; and, althou.gh attired in the uniform of a British general officer, he is rarely received with any marks of respect, and is stUl more rarely saluted by either officers or men ; all day long in the saddle, at night sleeping on the bare ground, wrapped only in his cloak, sharing the rations of the Turkish soldier, and cheerfully putting up with privations that few of our generals would stand ; '' whilst as to their treatment of newspaper correspondents, I quote the Paris correspondent of the Times, who says, " Ahmed Ajoid, the Turkish commander in Bul- garia, has expelled aU the newspaper correspondents, and even the English and French military attacMs, who have retired to Eas- grad ; " and Truth informs us — " The Daily News is coming to the front in its war corres- pondence. It has two correspondents with the Russian army in Bulgaria, each of whom has three aides-de-camp, who are themselves men of education, and able to collect news. Mr. Archibald Forbes, the well-known correspondent of the news- paper, crossed the Danube in the first boat. He wrote a telegraphic despatch of above 3,000 words, whilst standing in a swamp, which reached nearly up to his waist. This dispatch was carried over the river, and handed to a horseman, who rode with it to the nearest telegraph station. Besides these two principal correspondents, there are numerous others at all points where anything of interest is likely to occur. In Asia the Daily News A 'FEW BEMARKS ON THE ALLEGED EUSSIAN' ATEOCITIES. 89 has four correspondents, and several in Turkey in Europe, who have to dodge about, and to conceal their occupation, because, were it known, they would immediately be turned out of the country. The Turkish authorities have taken it into their silly heads that they can bribe English newspapers to adopt the Turkish side, and to endorse Turkish lies, by only allowing the correspondents of pro-Turkish journals in the Empire. As the Times and the Baihj Neios do not come under the category of such journals, the French viper, Blaque Bey, hunts down their corres- pondents, and when he does not dare to expel them, confiscates their telegrams and their letters. The details of the manoeuvres of the correspondents of these two journals, by means of which they outwit the censorship of this renegade, would fill a volume. The system of the Turks is all the more foolish, because its con- sequence is, that no one believes a word of the telegrams and the letters published in pro-Turkish journals." When the Daihj News correspondent was ejected from Eustchuk, because the Turks do not approve of that journal, a Frenchman, who had resided some time in Turkey, was sent to the town, with directions to supply the place of the ejected one. So soon as the Turks learned what his mission was, he was arrested, taken to Constantinople, and imprisoned there. After a week of con- iinement, he managed to communicate with the French represen- tative, who insisted upon his release. This was conceded with an ill grace, but he was ordered immediately to leave the country." Colonel Brackenbury, the correspondent of the Times, M. Dick de Loulay, special correspondent of the Monde Illustrd and Moni- teur Universel, M. Lamothe, correspondent of the Temps, and M. Tellier, correspondent of the lUustracion Espanole, signed at Kesanlik, on July 21st, a declaration in the form of a Protocol, affirming that the Turkish regular troops had committed atrocities on the Russian wounded at the defence of the Shipka Pass on July 17th and 18th. Colonel Wellesley says that he found twenty-seven wounded Mussulmans in a hospitaljin Biela carefully attended to by Russian 90 APPENDIX. doctors and Russian ladies of the Red Cross. All tliese were found by tlie Russians in the neighbouring villages, and they one and all say that they {the Mussulmans) were woimded by the Circas- sians before the arrival of the Russians (Daily News, August 7th, 1877). The XIX. Siecle of Paris says, " As for the atrocities of the Russians in Bulgaria, of which the English press make so great a noise, where the devil does it take them from 1 I am not aware of what the Russians may have done in Asia, at Ardahan, or at Bayazid j but I can affirm that on the banks of the Danube, from whence the Mussulmans — of whom the number is besides very limited — had in part emigrated, the Russians have respected those which remained and have treated as allies the Bulgarians and other Christians.'' The Times correspondent further says, " When the tirailleurs came near the redoubt, pressing forward step by step, a large white flag was displayed, and signs were made by the Turks that they wished to surrender the redoubt without further fighting. At first the Russians doubted and hesi- tated to trust their enemy. But the white flag, which was ad- vanced and waved, was so large a flag there could be no question as to its meaning. On that day, as on the day before, the gallant Major Liegnitz, of the Prussian stafl[', was with the skirmishers, not to fight, but to watch, and from his lips, confirming the story of the Russians, I have the following details. So confident were all in the evident purpose of the flag thus displayed, that he actually walked up to and entered into conversation with one of the Turks in the first line of skirmishers, and wished to go forward with those who passed on to receive the surrender of the fort, but was forbidden. As the men emerged from their cover as skirmishers and stood exposed and expectant, there came from the fort, first two or three shots, which might have been accidental, then one or two more, and, finally, at a given signal from both ends of the fort, a heavy volley, followed by a second. The tirailleurs recoiled for a few moments, but then recovered themselves and took the fort within a quarter of an hour. . . . A PBT EEMABKS ON THE ALLEGED STJaSIAif ATROCITIES. 91 "Tliis morning orders had been given for a renewal of the attempt by attacting the piece of road from both sides, and with the aid of artillery ; but a flag of truce came in from the Turks, and the officer who bore it was commissioned by the Pasha commanding to say that he could resist no longer, being in want of bread and ammunition, and would march his men to the Eussian camp, there to lay down their arms if the Eussians would promise not to attack. Strangely enough, the traitors of the day before were trusted agaia, and time was given them to execute their promise. But not a man showed himself; and when General Gourko sent messengers up to ascertain the reason, it was found that these ' gentlemen ' had pledged their military honour and broken their pledge. This and the abominable trick of the day before, worthy only of untutored savages, are enough to stamp with infamy the character of a nation whose Eegular Army it was that did these things; but how are the horrible deeds they had further com- mitted to be described 1 Can what we saw yesterday have been an ugly dream 1 No ; it is only too terrible a reality. Let me only teU what the Staff saw as they rode up yesterday afternoon. Passing up the narrow winding road, with heaps of rough stones and boulders at every step, we came upon dead bodies of such as had fallen, out of the power of the Turk. There they lay, with that expression fixed on their faces which came from their hearts at the moment when they feU. An officer told me of one case he had seen of a wounded Mussulman vnth smashed thigh lying on the ground. When the Eussians came to give him help he writhed his body into a half-sitting position, then, with gnashing teeth and grin, like a savage animal, fired at and wounded an officer. In a moment Cossacks sprang forward and transfixed him with their lances, but the same savage expression of perfect rage and hatred remained on his face after death. His lips were drawn back over his teeth, his face vrrinkled, his eyes, though dulled, yet wearing an expression of ferocity. But the dead killed in battle have often placid faces, for the warrior's mind has turned to softer thoughts before nature fixed the last expression. Presently we are met by men caiTying downwards on a stretcher the headless 'yi APPENDIX. liody of an officer, and it begins to be told that tliis is not a solitary example. On tbe top of the pass the whole truth is told. The Turk, that 'gentleman' of English drawing-rooms, regularly en- rolled in the army of the Sultan, well-dressed and well-fed on the savings of the Bulgarians and on English money — this creature, led by regular officers, has mutilated every Eussian soldier that fell into his hands, dead or aUve. . . . " Eeturning towards the other, or eastern flank of the position, we pass a group of Turkish wounded — some fifty or so — ^whoso wounds are being dressed and cared for as if that group of heads had never been seen. The men look afraid — as well they may, for they cannot believe that the Eussians are less barbarous than themselves. They are most distinctly men of the Eegular Army, well fed, well clad, driven by no pangs of hunger to commit crime, cleaner and finer men than the little tirailleurs. But like most of T;heir race whom one meets here, a retreating forehead and small -cranium, with wandering eyes, give the impression of ferocity and cunning. A few paces further on is a circle of Eussians — officers and men — gazing, fascinated, at a spectacle vrithin. There, at last, are the bodies collected together for examination ; all head- less, some cut limb from limb, some treated in a manner which is universally regarded as the deepest insult that can be paid to the body of a man aUve or dead. But were these men aUve or dead ~i,s'lien they were thus treated 1 With regard to some there may be -;i doubt, but with regard to others no doubt. Here was to be seen ;i body with wounded finger dressed and the rest cut off ruthlesslj', perhaps in struggling with the knife. There lay what was a man, in an attitude showing plainly that he had striven to save ]iis throat; near him was another with the red cross on his arm, having, perhaps, dressed the wounded finger of the first-named ; tine in the terrible exhibition lay with bared belly, slashed across M'ith knives, and showing that blood had run from the wounds ; iinother had been cut limb from limb. A young and well-shaped form, with clearer skin than the rest, had been beheaded and ■otherwise shamefully mutilated — but there was not a single wound of any description on his body produced by regular warfare A FEW EEMAEKS ON THE AlLEflED EUSSIAN iTEOdTIES. 93 Tliese are only instances. The proof was all too plain. There lay men who had been wounded or unwounded prisoners in the hands of the Turkish 'gentlemen,' who had foully murdered and mutilated them, showing thus that they are savages as cruel as any in Africa or India. And but a few paces distant the Russian medical men were dressing the wounds of these savages, and soldiers standing round guarded them from all I'vil, even the righteous indignation which fiUed their own breasts. This was not a scene in a theatre. No one knew that a corres- pondent would be there, but the effect was such as no sensational tableau could produce. On the one side civilization, rough if you will, but still civilization based on the precepts of Christianity ; on the other side barbarism and the worse than bestial ferocity of cruel men. What purpose could be served by such diabolical mis- chief 1 They would not hold out a day longer for it or obtain better terms. It was the ferocity with the slyness of the monkey or the idiot. " In the few communications which the obstacles placed in ni}- way have enabled me to make to you, I ask your readers to bear witness that I have at least endeavoured to be impartial. If there had ever been a doubt that my path was to be a thorny one, it was soon removed. The Times having taken an independent line in criticizing the conduct of the evildoers here, was, with another English journal, on the black books of the authorities, and every- thing which a petty and childish system of persecution could devise was done to render the performance of their duties difficult, if not impossible, for the representatives of both newspapers. Telegrams were handed back days after receipt, because a word liad been erased or altered, or because what should have been French was English, because the Turldsh was incorrect, because they had been addressed to a private individual when they were intended as press communications, because they were addressed to editors when only communications to private persons were allowed (the regulations being altered every few days), because they were inexpedient, and because they had been stopped ' by order.' " For a day or t^-o before T left for the front (remember, at the H 2 94 APPEKDIS. Bey's suggestion) there had been a very hrisk business doing in Cossack atrocities. Humane man that he is, Tevfik's soul was moved at the inhuman doings of the Muscovs, and both he and his other self, SeUm Effendi, were indignantly anxious that the English public should immediately have full details of all the butcheries and other foul doings which the different commanders, who were too busy to tell him anything about the fighting, found time to telegraph in harrowing fulness. I was informed that both gentlemen were grieved that I did not avail myself of their per- mission to telegraph these sad facts, but for reasons which even now appear to me sufiicient I politely but firmly refused to do so. More than that, my last words on leaving to my deputy were, ' Remember, no Cossack atrocities unless you see and talk with the victims.' This was well known in Shumla, some of my col- leagues having commented upon my scepticism in the matter. Now, will it be credited that, my back being turned, and my educated substitute being forcibly got out of the way, the tele- gram which I enclose was given to the elderly gentleman who had been so strongly approved as an agent for me by the Bey, with injunctions to attach my name to it and send it off to you im- mediately. They put their official seal on it, as you will see, and the good-natured old soul ran towards the telegraph office for fear it would be late. On the way, however, he felt a little nervous about forging my name, and called in upon a friend of mine to ask if he thought I should like it. The result of the interview was that he, to please the authorities, pretended to send it, but to please me did not, and here it is : — " TO AUDITOR, ' TIMES,' LONDON. " Bulgais in BalkaDS risen and murdered Jatva and Dobnitcha population. At Tchaily, near Easgrad, 200 refugees from Sistova, Mussulmen, murdered by Russians and Bulgarians. At Ostrancba and Costova all Mussulmen killed, including women and children, refugees from Armoutton, all massacred. In town itself eleven women and tea children, "Whole population of Utch Destin massacred by Bulgara. Eussians took whole population of Becbpinar prisoners yiolating the women. " Conikqsby. When I wished to telegraph to you the fact that my deputy had A TEW EEITAEKS O::^ THE ALLEGED EUSSIjUJ ATROCITIES. 95 been arrested and my telegrams from the front liad not reached you, the political agents blankly refused to allow me to communicate by telegraph at all ; I might write. I did write a long letter — sixteen closely-worded pages, equal to two columns and a half; handed it in open, according to regulations, to be ' glanced at.' The same evening I received the following letter from Mr. Prior, special artist of the Illustrated London News : — " Shumla, July 17, 1877. " Dear Mr. , — I have not the slightest objection to give you in writing the information that I aair this evening reading and striking out passages from your letter to the Times at the house of Tevfik Bey. If you open that letter, which is now sealed with Tovfit's Bey's seal, you will find that very long passages have been struck out. As I tell you, I was asked ' to be dis- creet,' and consider that I am so in being loyal to you, as we have travelled together. " I am, dear Mr. , yours faithfully, "Melton Pbiok. " Upon opening my letter upon its return to me officially sealed for the post, I found more than a fifth abstracted, cut away, and what was left had such extensive and thorough erasures that you would have thought I had taken leave of my wits to have sent you such an epistle. Every impartial criticism — in fact, every- thing which gave the letter any value — was so effectually inked out that it was impossible to read a word. "Next I was credibly informed that my name had been attached to a sort of round robin or memorial to the world at large on the subject of the atrocities by Cossacks and Bulgarians, of which I had never even heard, the authorities well knowing that I was very dubious about such atrocities altogether, although I regret to say that since then I have had good evidence that some women and children have been wounded with lance thrusts ; hii the victims who have come under my immediate notice admitted, under very sharp cross-examination, that the hurts were all got during the fight. I hear of other cases at Rasgrad and elsewhere, but cannot speak for any but those at Shumla," and Truth tells us that " this official whittling was performed by no less a personage 96 jiPPENDIX. than the Hon. W. Drummond, censor of war correspondence in the Turkish service, and correspondent of more than one Englkli, journal III" It is evident from the foregoing evidence from English, Ger- man, French, and other correspondents, that the humanity of the Eussians is equal to their valour, and that no army of any nationality has ever conducted itself better; and few would have acted with the same noble and generous self-restraint under the provocation of the dastardly and ferocious cruelty of those human hysenas, the Turks. Even if the accusations against the Eussians were true, we should recollect that in the Peninsula, and especially at Badajoz, the conduct of our own troops was not always irreproachable, and we should not lose sight of our conduct in suppressing the Jamaica rebellion and the Indian Mutiny, as well as to the Pyaks of Borneo. With reference to the French, who have always claimed to be at the head of civilized nations, the late Colonel Sir John Oowell Stepney, M.P., who was in the Gold- stream Guards, says in his published Diary: — "Were it not disgusting by its irreverence, it would have been amusing to see the tricks they (the French) played with their own dead, stowing them away in all conceivable places, enclosing them in large chests, placing them upright, in full uniform, in the recesses of houses and convents, tying them on to the top of windmills with their arms in their hands, pointed as if levelled at those who advanced, and worse than all, throwing them down wells. . . While halting near the banks of the Alva, I found in a roofless house, which had been destroyed by the flames (by the French), a poor old man lying on his own threshold, shot through the body; a young woman, apparently enceinte, suspended by the neck to a beam, and a child of tender age lying at her feet with its throat cut. . . . Lord Wellington about this date wrote to Lord Liverpool as follows : — ' I am concerned to be obliged to add to this account, that their conduct (that of the French) throughout this retreat has been marked by a barbarity seldom equalled, and never surpassed.' . . . The provost marshal A FEW BEMAEKS ON THE AILBGED EUSSIAH- ATBOOITIES. 'J7 did his duty by hanging two British soldiers detected in the act of robbery." The correspondent of the Turcophile Cologne Gasdte writes from Kazanlik on the 21st July : — " Eussian officers have related to me the acts of cruelty and atrocity committed by the Turks on the defenceless wounded. I must say that these deeds arc perfectly true, since impartial correspondents, who have seen the corpses, have entirely coniirmed to me the assertions of the Eussian officers." The patriotic eagerness with which the Turks are ardently rushing to enlist in the Ottoman army is shown by the following letter in the Times, from " B.," dated from Ingatestone, Essex : — " I was in Jaffa on the 14th of July, and saw there 1,500 new recruits — the last reserve — who had been collected from the neighbouring towns and villages. Tliese men loere driven to Jaffa manacled together in files of ten to twenty men. They daily curse the Sultan and his government. A number of recruits escaped from their guards, but were recovered after a sharp fight, in whicli some were killed. . . ." The Turcomaniacs, I may say on concluding this chapter, appear to say of the Turk what Montroud said of Talleyrand, " 11 est impossible de ne pas aimer cet homme : il a tons les vices." SS APPENDIX. SOME EEMARKS ON BARON HENRY DE WORMS' BOOK ON "ENGLAND'S POLICY IN THE EAST." (Fourth Edition.) The Frencli have a proverb that " in the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed are kings ; " and in the Cimmerian ignorance which prevails in Western Europe on the Eastern Question I suppose one must not give way too much to a feeling of astonishment that so flimsy and prejudiced a book as that of Baron de Worms should have been actually translated into French and German, should have reached a fourth • edition in English of, I believe, about 1,500 copies in all, and should ^have been lauded by the Turcophile critics to the skies. Baron de Worms, the rejected Tory candidate for a con- stituency which apparently has made a " Sandwich " permanently distasteful to him, since he did not solicit it again (though he told the constituency, joking on his own name, that trodden Worms would turn again), is, I suppose, an Englishman as well as a Jew, for he speaks of " a free country like ours," " our fleet," &c. ; but if so, he is precluded, I believe, by law, or at least by custom, from calling himself a baron without the permission of the Queen, which is seldom, if ever, given ; and one is curious to learn what right he can have to the particle. " de " before liis name, unless indeed he is the hereditary feudal superior of the town of Worms, which pos- sesses nearly 15,000 inhabitants. Truth tells us that the price of a Roman dukedom is about £2,500, but I suppose baronies are quoted low, especially in these hard times ; and one wonders that Hebrew barons do not become as common as Frenchmen SOME EBMAEKS ON EARON DE -WOEMS' BOOK. 99 decorated Tvitli the Legion of Honour. The eccentric Mr. Walrond, whose will was recently disputed, was a Spanish marquis, and I know of many other Englishmen who have foreign titles, but who content themselves with a simple Mr., and these mushroom financial barons without baronies should remember the lines which were current last season in London : — Kings may grant title?, Honour tiey can't ; A title without honour la a Baron Grant. His book is merely a dull pamphlet (for, to quote an old pun, he is not a /«w d'esprit) of 9 1 pages, of one single chapter, which, if it was printed in the same type as my work, would occupy about GO pages. The remainder of the book, other 94 pages, is mere padding, consisting of the following undigested materials, pitch- forked into the appendix apparently at random : — 1. The Treaty of Paris. 2. The Andrassy Note. 3. The Berlin Memorandum. 4. Lord Derby's Despatches. 5. Colonel Sir H. Havelock on the Importance of Constantinople, with the latter half against Turkey omitted. 6. Table of the Population, Trade, &c., of each of the Powers Concerned in the Eastern Question. 7. Table showing the Religious Creed and Population of each of the Nationalities of the Ottoman Empire. There is, besides, a notice to this fourth edition of eleven lines, a coloured map, and what the author calls an index, but which is, in fact, a repetition of the marginal titles, whereas an index should be alphabetical. In short, the book is a device for making the pubHe pay a con- siderable sum for what in reality would be a Jew's bargain at the smallest coin in the realm ; and this Jew's harp does not give forth one single melodious note. It would require the same number of pages which Mr. Worms has taken to expose the numerous errors in fact and statistics of this volume, and the utter fallacy of his borrowed and often-refated arguments, and I have only time, space, and inclina- tion to remark upon the more prominent ; indeed, to quote a well- 100 APPENDIX. known saying, he seems to " have drawn upon his imagination for his facts, and upon his memory for his arguments." Tliis veracious and accurate author tells us that " our exports to the former country (Turkey) amounted last year to nearly £13,000,000, while to Eussia they were only £3,100,000." Now the fact is, as appears by the " Annual Statement of tlii^ Trade of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries for tlic Year 1876," which now lies before me, thai; the entire value of the exports of British, foreign, and colonial produce not only to Turkey properly so called, but to Wallachia and Moldavia. Egypt, Serbia, Tripoli, and Tunis also, was only £9,933,204, and to those parts of Turkey which are not tributary, but directly governed, only £6,379,962, or less than half what Mr. Wonns pretends. Again, our exports of British, foreign, and colonial products ti > Russia in the same year were no less than £8,635,655, being £2,255,693, or upwards of 35 per cent, more than to the directly- governed portion of Turkey, and nearly three times as much as this author, with astounding recklessness, in his blind, iguorant, and foolish hatred of Russia, pretends. In a succeeding passage our author tells us that MontenegTo was " encouraged to make war upon their Suzerain j " but as appears by the Blue-books on the Turkish Question, Austria and most of the Great Powers have never recognized the suzerainty of the Porte over the chivalrous Montenegrins, who have for centuries resisted this preposterous claim., Our author next favours us with his advice, not gratis, but for the small sum of five shillings, which is the price of his work, and which is also the usual fee of similar quack doctors, but not of the Jew chiropodists, who, when you have only one com, pretend to extract several, which they conceal in their hand, and then charge as many guineas as they can extort ; and he asks us " whether we should not wage a second Crimean War with the same objects as the first, th& Bulgarian atrocities nokviihstanding ? . . That England should quietly look on while Russia is establishing herself in a position from which she may at any moment swoop SOME EEMAEKS OJT BAEON DE "WOEMS' BOOK. 101 down upon our commimications witli India, would simply reduce our country to the position of a vassal of Eussia, depending for its prosperity and comfort on the good pleasure of the Czar." These observations, the reader will observe, do not refer to the annexation of Constantinople, but to the establishment "of a species of police intervention in Turkey ; " and if the Christians of Turkey were thus very inadequately protected from Turkish tyranny, England, it seems, may expect national bankruptcy, and our population will lose their roast beef and plum-pudding and other comforts. He adds, " England should make war against Eussia directly the Eussian troops cross the Danube.'' However, even our bungling Ministry have been wiser than our author, and have not converted the Danube into a Eussian Eubicon at the insti- gation of this second Solomon. Mr. Worms, after a tirade of abuse of the Eussians, a little farther on, in one of his rare lucid moments, admits, "We know that the Eussians as a nation do not yield to any in humane and philanthropic feehngs. We have afterwards an account of the conduct of the Eussians in Poland, taken from the letters of the Times correspondent at Vienna, but these reports were merely from hearsay and chiefly from anonymous Polish sources, and are obviously grossly exaggerated, one illustration of which is that a magistrate rejoicing in the euphonious name of Swiderski says, " The Imperial troops, after killing four insurgents, whom we buried, murdering my daughter, and wounding my son-in-law, killed six servants of the household (their names are given). The above were first castrated, and then twiee stabbed with bayonets." Now, it is not likely that all the six servants were men, and it would therefore seem that the women- servants and the daughter were subjected to the operation which it has been hitherto supposed can only be inflicted on an Abelard, and not on an Heloise. It is a pity that Swiderski, when shoot- ing with this remarkably long bow, did not add that one of the men-servants who was with child was ripped up, which would have given a novel and finishing touch to the picture. Even Bashi-Bazouks usually kill the men first, and if they 102 APPENDIX. have had insufficient sport they then violate and kill the women ; but Swiderski's (should it not be Swill- whisky, as he evidently sees double ?) Russians legan, accordiag to his account, with bayoneting the daughter, and only wounded the son-in-law. In the first clause of this cock-and-buU story Swiderski says, " The soldiers entered, killed my daughter with hvo bayonet stabs, wounded with two shots my son-in-law, and began to plunder." In the second clause he tells a totally different story, for the soldiers, instead of beginning by killing the daughter, first began by killing four insurgents, and at the end they killed six servants, whom he had forgotten in the first account, whUst the plundering is suppressed and the castration is added. It wiU be observed, too, that by a singular coincidence every one of the persons killed was twice stabbed with a bayonet, none of them having been stabbed more or less than twice ; and that whilst in the first clause the son-in- law is said to have been wounded with two shots (Swiderski is evidently partial to that number), the last clause says that he was stalled twice. Again, it is said the Russian soldiery readily oleyed the instruc- tions they had recfeived to bury the prisoners and the wounded with the dead, so that the Baron's authority — at the distance of about 350 miles as the crow flies from Vienna to Warsaw — knew not only everything that was done, but even the feelings and in- cliaations of the individual Russian soldiers. Like the Deity, he could read the heart. The author shows his intimate acquaintance with the opinions and feelings of the Croatians, Bohemians, and Moravians by stating, contrary to the most convincing evidence, that they " have no sympathy with Russia ; " whilst nothing can possibly ■exceed the enthusiasm which they have openly displayed in favour of that country, as appears from the articles quoted by me from the regular Times correspondents, and not from anonymous writers to that or any other journal. He then says, "The suggestion that she (Italy) would take advantage of a war between Russia and Austria to seize the Trientino can only be regarded as a libel on the honesty and SOME llElIAliKS ON BAEOX DE WOEMS' BOOK. 103 sagacity of her statesmen. . . . Such an attempt would be a piece of base treachery that would bring down upon the new Italian kingdom the reprobation of Europe." I hold the very opposite opinion ; and if Austria foolishly and selfishly attempts by force of arms to prevent Eussia from enfranchising the Christian serfs of Turkey, after having nobly emancipated her own, I trust Italy wiU make common cause with Eussia, in which case she would be justly entitled, if victorious, to insist, as a condition of peace, not only on obtaining the Trientino, but aU the Italian-speaking portion of Austria, including 633,000 souls; and Austria would run considerable danger of being deprived of her German provinces by Germany, who would no doubt side with Eussia, especially if that country offered her the whole or a portion of the German-speaking pro- vinces of Eussia. I have now to remark that the author of this precious volume speaks " of the so-caUed atrocities " in Bulgaria. Well, I am not surprised at such a description of these massacres from a Jew, for after all they sink into as utter insignificance in com- parison with the atrocities committed by the children of Israel on their invasion of Palestine as a day's shooting on Salisbury Plain would be in comparison to one on Lord Stamford and Warrington's best preserves ; and as Gibbon informs us, the Jews massacred no less than 460,000 individuals in Cyprus and C3rrene alone, besides, probably a much greater number in Egypt, or in all most likely upwards of a million of persons. This beats the Turks hollow. I come now to Mr. Worms' Table of Population, &c., and I have only had time to undertake the dreary task of verifying his statistics respecting Eussia and Turkey. All of those which I have thought it worth while to cite, with three exceptions, are grossly inaccurate ; and I have no doubt that if any one had leisure to examine the rest they would prove equally apocryphal. I now give Mr. Worms' statistics, for which he cites no authority, with the correct figures, taken from the Almanac de Gotha of this year. 104 appendix. Statisticai Tabix 1- — The Statistics of the Eussian Empire, from the Alnmimc de Cfoiha, are placed above, those of Mr. Worms below.* Papulation. Revenue. Imports. Exports. 86,586,000 £76,688,400 £64,317,500 £59,372,500 86,586,000 £71,347,250 £58,925,000 £53,975,000 Diff. Nil. —£5,341,150 —£5,892,500 —£5,397,500 Public Debt. ^7/pt"r' ^TfWar^'"^ rnvt £244,074,883 565,277 1,358,557 190 £301,197,498 837,853 1,789,571 124 Difif. +£57,122,615 +272,576 +431,014 —72 It will be observed that whilst the revenue, exports, imports, and navy are enormously underrated, the debt and army are prodigiously overrated. It is quite clear that the figures have been got up to injure Russia without any regard to correctness. 2. — Statistics of the Turkish Empire from the same source. Population. Eevenue. Imports. Exports. 24,833,400 £19,106,352 £18,500,000 £10,000,000 28,500,000 £21,494,640 £18,500,000 £10,000,000 DiflF. + 3,666,600 +£2,388,288 , Nil. Nil. T> i-r TV vt. Army in Time Army in Tim6 Total Public Debt. of Peace. of War. Nayy. £197,159,022 167,667 686,100 165 £200,954,420 164,376 629,736 97 Diff. +£3,795,398 —3,291 +43,636 —68 As anyone might have anticipated, the statistics are cooked to favour Turkey, as the others were contrived to injure Russia ; and as there is a balance of no less than £8,000,000 against Turkey on the exports and imports — whilst Turkey does not, like England, * The Rouble is taken at 2/9, whict has been the average for the last ten years, whilst it varies in exchange from 2/ to 3/2 A. SOME REMARKS OIT BAKOU DE -WORMS' BOOK. 105 buy any considerate amount of foreign bonds, &c. — or nearly one- half the whole, it is clear that she is on the road to financial ruin. It would be a waste of my own and my readers' time to analyze the whole or even any considerable portion of these ludicrously inaccurate statistics, but I will select a few as specimens. Mr. Worms estimates the Servians at 3,027,067 (no round numbers here), whilst the fact is, according to the Almanac de Gotha, there are only 1,871,800; he fixes the number of the Bulgarians at 4,800,000, whilst the same authority says 1,860,500 ; and the Greeks at 2,000,000, whilst Mr. Bianconi states that tliere are 6,600,000. Mr. "Worms appends to his book (for I cannot call his specious romance a work), some of the opinions which the press have given resoectins; it. The Morning Post is most enthusiastic, for it calls the book " a I)erfect handbook to the question of the day, which should be in the hands of everybody. ... Its pages contain not onlj- valuable arguments and excellent suggestions, but are a perfect storehouse of information culled from books, diplomatic docu- ments, and newspapers. . . . In a word, all who wish to make themselves masters of the political situation ought to study and keep by them this valuable and ably written compendium." Now I have already shown that the imagination can hardly conceive greater statistical inaccuracy than characterises this book ; but as Jenkins, the oracle of the fashionable world, says that Mr. Worms lias produced a " perfect " handbook in what is equal to 60 pages of my work, whilst with the utmost possible condensation I have been unable to do so in upwards of 500 pages, I may mention that the only individuals and works whose words he very briefly quotes are the following — Mr. Ashworth, Freeman, Lord Derby, Mr. Forster, Mr. Gladstone, the Times, Schuyler, Kauffman, Golovatchef, the Nabat,* Captain Burnaby, Mr. Lowe, Lord Palmer- ston, the Andrassy Note, the Berlin Memorandum, the Treaty of Paris, the Pall Mall Gazette, Mr. Cyrus Hamlin, the Manchester * Qiiory, the father of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, returned to earth in the ahaps of the " ■Wandering JeTr.'' 106 APPENDIX . Guwrdian, General Fadeef, Swiderski, and Sir H. Havelock, being 22 authorities in all, whilst I have quoted about 280 ; and the only additional names which are even mentioned in the text are Mr. Baker, Mr. Bright, Mr. Baring, Sir A. Buchanan, Count Beust, Count Schouvaloff, Sultan Mourad, Napoleon III., Lord Odo Eussell, Lord Beaconsfield, the Pope, Consul Holmes, Dr. Cumming, Sir A. Loftus, and Sir H. Elliott, being 15 in all. The Pall Mall Gazette, after the intense appreciation of the Post, rather damns our author with faint praise ; but the Gluhe, which turned its coat some years ago, says " it is a work which fairly ranks high among the best that have appeared on the Eastern Question;" whilst Lloyd's Paper talks of this pamphlet as " a solid volume ; " the Hwnet, perhaps a descendant of those which drove two kings of the Amorites out of Palestine, calls it " a splendid defence of the policy of the Grovemment, full of new and instructive information ; " and the Whitehall Review calls it " the most convplefe handbook and guide to the Eastern Question." If this is true, the Russians, whatever they may think of their friends, are most fortuaate iu having the feeblest opponent who oould possibly be found, and the blows our author administers are as little injurious to them as those which are administered by clowns at a fair with bladders full of wind. In short, as in a recent song, our author seems to sing, " I'll strike you with a feather ; " indeed, the blows are scarcely so hard as those which a better-selected feather than his goose-quill might inflict. ye descendants of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, if this trumpery book is all you can produce in support of that Anti- Christian cause to which you have always entertained such inveterate and uncompromising hostility, the Pro-Christian and EussophUe party have nothing whatever to fear; and ye already quoted incapable, ignorant, prejudiced, and pretentious critics, go to school and learn geography and statistics before you presume to discuss the Eastern Question again ! As far as I^ am concerned, as you have praised this Worms' England's Policy, I hope you will abuse my Defence of Russia, for I regard " your praise as censure, and your censure praise." I can imagine SOME EEMAEKS ON BAEON DE -WOEMs' BOOK. 107 that when a work so ridiculously puffed as that which I am criticizing appeared in Eussia, the Czar must have trembled, and been inclined to sue for terms, fearing that if he performed so base and immoral an act as freeing the Christians in Turkey, for which no vermifuge would avail, like Herod, he might be eaten with Worms till he died, and that after death he would be sent to that place where their Worms die not, and their fire is not quenched. 108 ArPEXDIX. LOED E. MONTAGU'S " FOEEIGN POLICY AND THE EASTEEN QUESTION." LoED EoBEET MoNTAGU, after teing a considerable time in labour, has been confined of a work called " Eoreign Policy and the Eastern Question." Until bis book appeared the public was not aware tbat " thirty -eigU (jenerations of Christians have quarrelled and hated and rustled off into eternity." Surely a large majority of Cbristians do not quarrel, but agree to differ, and do not bate' eac'b other, especially those of their own creed, though they may look with pity or contempt on those who hold opposite opinions to their own. Hitherto one was under the impression that the majority of Christians die noiselessly, but where Lord Eobert or his fi-iends have been present, it appears that in the great majority of instances there has been a rustling noise which I wish he had more particularly described. We are then told that " Eussia claims to found the great empire of the Slavonic race which spreads from the Elbe almost to the Himalayas and from the gelid sea of the north to the sultry Persian Gulf — a Pan-Slavonic Empire of 550,000,000 souls, with its centre in Constantinople." Now, the fact is that the Eussian Government has never been in favour of Pan-Slavism, nor of conquests towards what Lord Eobert has christened the gelid sea, and which perhaps, on ac- count of the number of a transparent fish he has seen there, he calls jelly-ed. As to figures. Lord Eobert has completely trumped Baron Henry de Worms in portentous ignorance and exaggeration, for iOUD E. MONTAGU ON THE EASTEEN QUESTION. 109 a Pan-Slavonic Empire -would include, as he will find on looking- at Haydn's "Dictionary of Dates," page 663, only 90,365,63;.! Slavonians in Europe, besides some in Asia, whilst this master of the long how estimates them at 550,000,000, or ahout half thu population of the globe ; in fact, if we add the population of the Japan, Siam, Burmah, Chinese Empire, and India to Lord Eobort's imaginary Slavonic Empire, and deduct the total, which is about 1,238,000,000, from the entire population of the globe, which is 1,228,000,000, there will remain for the other races, populations, and nations of Europe, and for the whole of Asia, Africa, America, and Australasia, 10,000,000 lesr, titan, nothing J AVe are next informed that the Pope ought to be the "supreme iuterpretor of the moral law " between nations, and " from his decision there can be no appeal." I should doubt if the Slavonic or Chinese Empires, when they have swallowed up the other nations of the world, would be willing to accept the Pope &% supreme judge, but if they did, after the world had been thus divided, his duties would be comparatively easy. I trust the reader, if he is not already asleep, will lend me his ear.=!, or rather his eyes and understanding, while I quote the following, which I promise him shall be one of the last specimens of Lord Robert's bathos and rhodomontade : — " Events never ha-;7pen, they are done {sic). [The reader who- has paid l-ts. for this unique work will, perhaps, consider him- self done.] Events are the oilects of mind. [The fire of London, for instance, may have been caused by the operation of the mind' u: the reigning Pope brooding over the heretical state of Eng- land.] It is a change of maxims which produces a new course' of conduct. [Tiais seems rather a truism, for if our opinions are c'langed, it is probable our course will be altered ; for instance, when Lord Eobert Montagu became convinced of the errors of Conservatism and Protestantism, he very naturally crossed the floor of the House and became a pervert.] National sympathies^ e.-tpressed though they be in the droniog of platforms and' twaddle of quidnuncs, have nothing to do with that which i* done." I 2 110 APPENDIX. Until tlie world was enlightened by Lord Eot art, we had sup- posed that national sympathies and antipathies had a great deal to do with events. For instance, when Belgium was fighting for its independenco against Holland, France illustrated the truth of this paradoxical statement by sending an army io help the Belgians, and now Russia is incurring a colossal debt and sacri- ficing teas of thousands of lives to liberate the Christians of Tur- key from the intolerable yoke of the Ottomans. I quite admit, however, that if Lord Eobert means himself as one of the indivi- duals alluded to in the " droning of platforms and twaddle of quidnuncs," what he said or wrote would "have nothing to do with what is done ; " on the contrary, what is done would most certainly be the very reverse of what he recommended. Here comes an enigma almost as inexplicable as the Sphinx . " The secret will and the veiled thoughts of a few men unsus- pected in their aims and unknown as to their power, are the causes of every historical movement. There is a multitude throughout all nations, who form a secret band of diplomatists and warriors, and who are strictly united in carrying out the subversive aims which these men in secret devise." This mo- mentous sentence — this Socratic utterance — contains an original discovery made by Lord Eobert, on which tho fate not only of England, but of the world depends. How strange that 653 members sitting on the same benches of the House of Commocs have, in their blindness, not even yet discovered in tho person of Lord Eobert a guide, a prophet, and the sa.viour of society. Lord Eobert can fathom the secret will, and unmask the veiled thoughts of those who are at the same time " a few men," •and "a multitude," and " a secret band " of diplomatists and warriors who are banded together to carry out their subversive schemes. The world has hitherto doubted whether secrets of any kind known to several men can be kept inviolate, and one would like to know whether it is through spiritualism or by what other means that Lord Eobert has obtained exclusive information, so " important, if true." I would fain hope that, in pity towards his countrymen, though (hey are heretics in his opinion, he will reveal LOnD E. MONTAGU ON THE EiSTEEN" QUESTION. Ill the names of some of the "multitude of diplomatists and warriors '^ who are the wire pullers of society. We had thought in our ignorance that such men as Napoleon, Bismarck, Peel, and Glad- stone had some trifling influence on the course of events; but it appears we are mistaken, and it is hard, ungenerous, and un- patriotic to keep us in ignorance of the volcano ou which we are- standing, the pitfall froin which Lord Robert alone can save us. Is it really possible that the author of this ultramontane and' foolish rhapsody can suppose that any sane man will give four- teen shillings for such trash ? If there was in England, as in Prance, a conseil de familh in his case, and I was a member, I have no doubt as to the course I should pursue. His boot reminds me of an amusing passage in a work of the late witty Captain Marryat, called " How to Write a Fashionable Novel." Arthur Ansard is forced to write to pay his tailor, and his friend Barnstaple assists him thus : " The Honourable Augustus Bouverie no sooner perceived himself alone than he felt the dark shades of melancholy ascending and broodirg over his- minil, enveloping his throbbing heart in their — their adamantine- chains. Yielding to this overwhelming force, he thus exclaimed,., ' Such is life ! We require but one flower and we are offered noisome thousands ; refused that we wish, we live in loathing of that not worthy to be received. Mourners from our cradle to our grave, we utter the shrill cry at our birth, and we sink into oblivion with the faint wail of terror. Why then should we ever commit the folly to be happy ? (" Arthur, hang me, that is a poser!") Conviction astonishes and torments; destiny prescribes and falsifies ; attraction drives us awaj', humiliation supports our energies. Thus do we recede into the present and shudder at the elysium of posterity.' ' Arthur, I have written all this down, but I cannot understand, upon my soul, one word of it.' Barnstaple : ' If you had uaderstood one syllable, that syllable I should have erased.' " In the case of Lord Eobert's book there is no fear that frora such a cause any syllable would require to be erased. 112 APPENBIX. 'THE JEY\'S THE IMPLIOABLE EOES OF THE OHEISTIANS." Capefigub tells us that Napoleon complained that the English press did him more harm than all the armies of Europe ; and most unfortunately, by reckless puffing, by unprece'dented men- dacity, an unlimited command of money, and by other uu- scrupulous means, the Jews have contrived (often under changed or assumed names of Christian sound) to monopolise a very large portion of the newspapers, not only of England but of Europe. These Je-ws are wolves in sheep's clothing. Eomfin Catholics, Greeks, and professors of other religions do not degrade thom- selves by owning ami editing newspapers ostensibly not only Christian but Protestant; but the "Wandering Jew" will do any mortal thing for a consideration. As it is quite evident that the nucleus of the Turoophile party and its mostrabid element consists of the race of Shylook, and that it will be no fault of theirs if the British nation is no't hounded on to a dangerous and disgraoefal war, without allies, with our oldest and best alty, Eussia, in aid of the unspeakable Turks, on the pretence, not of justice — for what are justice and mercy to Shy locks ? — but of imaginary British interests, I now proceed, lance in rest and vizor up, to tilt at the irrepressib'la Jews past and present. Now that morally I draw the sword against them I fling away my scabbard ; I pass the "Rubicon, and burn my ships 'Bcstigia nulla retronum ; and, as I shall give them no quarter, I ask and expect none in return. ' THE JEWS THE IMrLACABLE TOES OP THE 0HE.I3TIANS." 113 I have already in another chapter severely criticised Barou Henry De Worms' book on (the Jews' notion of ) "England's Policy in the East," which simply means a war with Russia to avenge the real or fancied injuries of the Jewish race, on the convenient principle that we should find the blood and money — or, rather, borrow the latter from these monopolist usurers, — and that they should reap all the profit on the footing of heads I win, tails you lose. Mr. Worms, in his book, which palms off on the reader mosaic gold instead of the sterling metal, but which is per- haps after all " worth a Jew's eye," tells us that there are three millions of Jews in Eussia ; and he complains that only a very small number are allowed to settle in St. Petersburg — that they are not allowed to own land, and of various other grievances. The baron is apparently fond of round numbers, for he has added nearlj' a quarter of a million, or ten per cent., to the real num- bers of the Jews in the Russian empire ; but to people accus- tomed to usury at 100 to 200 per cent., as appears from the authority I have already quoted to be the case in Turkey, a trifling exaggeration of a quarter of a million is hardly worth mentioning. As the whole number of Jews throughout the world, according to Balbi, is only six millions, I must say I heartily condole with Russia in having nearly half that unsocial and undesirable race in their, in this respect, unfortunate empire, for the fair share with which they might expect to be afflicted, in pioj)ortion to the population of the globe, would be oaly about 400,000, so that they have more than seven times as much as their just Jewish burden; whilst in Turkey in Europe, where, our author tells us, the Jews receive "the contemptuous toleration of the Turk" — like Maw-Worms, they apparently like to be despised — out of a population of 8,477,214, only 75,165 are Jews ; so that it seems that where they say they are oppressed they have increased so as to form one twenty-seventh of the Russian population, and where they are leniently treated they form only 1 in 113; con- sequently either oppression suits them better than toleration, or the story of their oppression is false. 114 APPENDIX. I certainly do not wonder that Russia, seeing that the Jewish flood mounts so high, under present circumstances does not afford that nationality any further encouragement, and that they especially admit but few money-lenders into St. Petersburg to ruin their upper classes, and prevent them from acquiring land, lest, as in the case of England in the time of Roman Catholicism, an enormous proportion of the land falls into their hands, and the poor peasantry are financially bled to death. To enable the reader to judge what sort of a people the Jews really are, I will now give a slight sketch of their career from the earliest period to the present time. In reading Genesis, one is surprised to observe that Abraham, with more discretion than courage, told King Abimelech that Sarah was his sister and not his wife (and Isaac adopted :the same course), the result being that the king took Sarah as his wife, Abraham thus ensuring his own dishonour. Then we have the story of Jacob taking advantage of his brother's hunger to extort from him his birthright, and afterwards, with his mother's assistance, defrauding him of his blessing. Jacob then cheated his father-in- law out of his sheep, and went off with his household gods. He, however, does not seem to have been a connoisseur in the female sex, since when Laban brought Leah, who apparently was ill-favoured and had sore eyes, to Jacob as his wife, he did rot find out that she was not the attractive Eachel till next morn- ing, and Rachel seems to have been very accommodating and free from jealousy, since she handed over Bilhah to Jacob as his concubine, whilst Leah bribed him to be Avith her by a present of her son's mandrakes. We have afterwards an abominable act of cruelty and treachery committed by Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, towards the Hivites. Shechem had seduced Dinah, daughter of Jacob, and though he was willing to marry her, they induced the Hivites to circumcise themselves, and when they were sore, they killed them all ruthlessly and stole all their goods. Reuben seduced his father's concubine, and Judah had two eons by his daughter-in-law. "the je-ws the implacable foes of the cheistians." 11 •> All the sons of Jacob, except Reuben, wished to slay Josepli, but their Israelitisb. avarice prevailing over their blood-thirsti- ness, they sold him into slavei-y in Egypt. As to Joseph, he does not seem to have been remarkable for affection for his old father — who was only distant a four days' journey (I have travelled the distance myself on a camel in that time), and who was evidently devotedly attached to him — since for twenty years he never seat to inquire after him, or even told him that he waa alive, and left his blind father a prey to the most agonizing grief. When the years of famine came in Egypt, Joseph, like a true Shylock, took the whole of the money of the Egyptians, then their cattle, and lastly their lands ; and this is hardly compensated by his conduct in the affair of Potiphar's wife, who very likely was not tempting, and perhaps was even repulsive. We now come to the blessing bestowed on bis sons by Jacob, iu the course of which he compliments Issadiar by telling him that he is " a strong ass," whilst " Dan shall be a serpent in the way, an adder in the path ; " and one cannot resist the evidence' which points to the conclusion that there must have been aa enormous number of marriages between the tribes of Issachar and Dan and the tribe of Judah; and one is at a loss to guess which of these alliances was most frequent, in other words, whether the asinine or serpentine types most prevail among the Jews. The Israelites, who are always complaining of oppression, do- not seem to have been so badly off in Egypt, since at the time of the Exodus they took away "flocks and herds, even very much cattle," and the good-natured Egyptians were silly enough to lend them "jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment," which the Israelites wilfully stole, and we are afterwards told that they wished to return, and regretted not the dry bread and hard fare, but "wept for the flesh-pots of Egypt," and Dathan and Abiram spoke of Egypt as a land flowing with milk and honey. I come now to consider some of the enactments of the cere- 116 APPENDIX. monial law by whicli tiie " Peculiar People " are still bound. If a man is lame, blind, or mutilated in a particular way, from no fault of bis own, he is excluded from the congregation. If money is lent to a poor person, no interest is to be charged. Unless one is much mistaken, the Jews entirely disregard this precept. The Eacrifioes were to be performed by Aaromand his sons, morning and evening, for ever. This is not done by the Jews either in Jerusalem or anywhere else, though neither Turkish or English law prevent it, so I suppose the present century in their opinion is beyond th? period meant as " for ever." Then, the males were to go up to Jerusalem so many times a year, but even the wealthiest and strongest of the Jews seldom if ever go there. The Jews are commanded to eat no fat, and of course no lard, dripping, or gravy, and to carry out this injunction it would be necessary for the rich Jews to dismiss their Prench cooks and have cooks of their own persuasion. Moses, we are told, sprinkled Aaron and his sons with oil and blood, which must have had rather an unpleasant appear- ance, and I propose to visit a synagogue to see if this is still done Aaron, who made a golden calf, and induced the Israelites to dance before it stark naked, seems to our modem ideas rather an unsuitable choice for a High Priest, and certainly if the Archbishop of Canterbury was to act in the same way, he would not only lose his archbishopric, but would be driven for ever with ignominy from the Church. The Israelites are further told that a garment or a house may be infected with leprosy, and if after being closed for seven days the leprous spots had spread they were to destroy the garment or house. Do they observe this regulation ? Then the 10th, 15th, and 23rd days of the seventh month were to be kept for ever as sabbaths, and there was to be a sabbatical year, but this law does not seem to suit the present generation of Jews, nor the regulation that they should not wear' dresses containing a misture of linen and woollen, and to put fringes of blue ribbon on their garments /or ever. THE JE-WS THE IJIPLACABLE POES OF THE CHEISTIAKS." 117 When the Jews plant fruit trees, the fruit for the first three years is to be considered unciroumcised, and shall not be eaten in the fourth year ; and this being so, anj'one might go down to any Jewish country seat, and have an abundant supply of delicious fruit. The Jews are again told to cut boughs from trees, and dwell in booths seven days ; but I have never observed any of them following out this precept. In the seventh year they were not only not to sow or prune the vineyard, but the grapes were to be for the stranger, so that any poor person who requires the grape cure can easily try it gratuitously ; and I hope, unless the grapes are sour, they will send me some in return for my writing this laudatory chapter. The Israelites are farther prohibited from lending money on usury, that is at interest. How then do they justify the fact that they are the most notorious usurers in the world ? The Israelites, however, are allowed to eat locusts, beetles, and grasshoppprs, and John the Baptist seems to have be<3n particularly fond of the first of these. As there seems to be a redundant and miserable population of Jews in Russia, the Czar might humanely export a lai-ge number to America to grow fat on the Colorado beetles, which are inexhaustible, and the farmers there would certainly make them welcome for that pur- pose at any rate. In Numbers viii. we learn that all the gold and silver offered by about two and a-half millions of Israelites to the Lord at the dedication of the altar by Moses, was only £510, or less than one-fifth of a farthing each, so that they can hardlj^ be considered to have been then very liberal or pious. When the Israelites, under Moses, conquered the Midianites — one of whom Moses Lad married — without the loss of one man, he ordered them, after slaughtering all the adults, to kill all the male children and all the women who were not virgins, which was done. It appears that the Israelites in the wilderness did not pay much respect to the Mosaic law, since, from Joshua v. 2, none of the Israelites who were born during the forty years they 118 APPENDIX. ■wandei-ed in the -wilderness were circumcised ; but Joshua caused this painful and dangerous operation to be performed on