sympathising foreign representative who would prevail upon the Porte to substitute the conscription for the kharaj, and we do not doubt the reply. At the same time we do not deny that, by being inured to arms, and placed upon the same footing as the Turk, the moral standard of the Christians would be improved and raised, and that, if properly managed, they might prove the source of additional strength to the empire, although it cannot be concealed that they would more probably, in the end, become one of the causes of its destruction.

The very liberty and privileges secured by the Tanzimat to the Christians have in more ways than one contributed to the present weakened condition of Turkey, and to many of those evils and crimes which have been laid to her charge. We might cite a thousand examples, but one will suffice. Mohammed Pasha, who has committed various atrocities against the Christians in a government far removed from the capital, is disgraced by the Sultan, on the representation of the ambassador of a foreign power, his titles are taken away, and he is banished to a remote island in the Ægean. Unfortunately he is indebted to his Armenian banker, who is, at the same time, the banker of the grand vizier, or of some powerful personage about the Court. This usurer, who has been receiving twenty-four per cent., and who has been supplying the Pasha with mouth-pieces for his pipes, arms, snuff-boxes, shawls, and furs, at about ten times the market value, cannot afford to lose his money and so good a customer. He cares about as little for his fellow Christians -their sufferings, the oppression they have endured, or may endure as an ox feels for a fellow-ox who is going to the slaughterhouse. He seeks his powerful creditor, and threatens to exact his debts unless the disgraced governor be replaced in a position which may enable him to raise money and pay his banker. The influence thus brought to bear is too powerful to be resisted. Mohammed Pasha is suddenly restored to his rank, and receives a new government, to which he hastens with the determination to wreak his vengeance upon those who contributed towards his previous disgrace, and to squeeze the Christians to get money to pay his debts.

Any one who has taken the trouble of inquiring for himself into the condition of the Rayahs, and has not been satisfied with the garbled information of Constantinople dragomen, or of designing Greek merchants, will know that their degraded state, of which it is the fashion so loudly to complain, is as frequently the result of the evil passions and dishonesty of the Christians themselves, as of the oppression and injustice of their Mohammedan rulers. Reasons may be found to palliate and explain

this fact: we merely state it. Nothing can be more unfounded than to attribute the present demoralised condition of the Christians entirely to Turkish domination, and to speak of the flourishing state of the Byzantine Empire before the Turkish conquest. History positively contradicts the assertion. The most superficial acquaintance with the state of the Eastern Empire at the time of its fall will suffice to show the utter weakness and degradation to which it was reduced, and the Turks might perhaps with more justice attribute their own demoralization, and consequent decay, to the vices which they acquired by contact with the conquered races.

However this may be, these facts remain, that the Mussulman population, except in Bosnia, where, be it remembered, the Mohammedan landholders are of Slave and not of Tartar origin, are rapidly dying out, and the Christians as rapidly increasing in numbers and prosperity. The result is inevitable. The stronger and more wealthy race must in the end succeed to the weaker and poorer. It is only a question of time and means.

Russia, counting upon the increasing weakness of the Ottoman empire, and upon the inevitable results which have been pointed out, has looked upon herself as its successor in the possession of those fertile provinces and magnificent outlets for commerce, which would render her the richest and most powerful empire of the globe. It has been urged in proof of the disinterestedness of her conduct towards Turkey that she might have extended her conquests long ago to Constantinople, and that that capital has already been within her grasp, had she chosen to seize it. But her policy has been much wiser and more sure. She has worked to render the downfall of the Turkish Government inevitable, and its transfer to any independent power impossible. Had she openly seized the capital she must have braved all Europe: by following a more crafty policy she hopes to frustrate any attempt that might be made to arrest her. She has watched with alarm the increasing prosperity and intelligence of the Christian population, and the spread amongst them of liberal opinions, whether in matters of religion or of politics, which a continually enlarging communication with Europe by commerce and travel has naturally produced. She is now making a final effort to put an end for ever to a state of things so fatal to her views, and to bring the greater part of the Christian subjects of the Porte under her immediate control. Recent events have unmasked her designs even to those who most defended her. It is to be hoped that Europe will no longer remain blind or indifferent to a policy so dangerous to civilization and liberty.

On the other hand, the Greeks, relying upon the same facts

and

and causes, and justly proud of their own intelligence, activity, and wealth, aim at being the successors of the Turks. The Cross is to replace the Crescent on the dome of St. Sophia's, and a Greek Empire is again to rise in the East. In this country these visions have been received and advocated by those who have not had the means, or the opportunity of inquiring into their reasonableness and practicability. But what is the true state of the case? Of course the Turkish dominions in Asia and Africa must be put out of the question in considering this new Empire-the Greek race forming in them far too small a portion of the population to be taken into consideration. With regard to Thessaly, we admit that there would be no practical objection against adding it to the kingdom of Greece. There remain the provinces of Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Thrace, with the capital. Now what proportion do the Greeks bear in them to the Mussulmans and to other Christian sects? According to M. Ubicini's tables of population (Lettres, p. 22), there are in Turkey in Europe only 1,000,000 of Greeks to 2,116,000 Mohammedans and 6,600,000 Slaves and Armenians, and 1,500,000 Albanians, partly Christians and partly Mohammedans.* This includes Thessaly, which contains the greater part of the Greek population; excluding, therefore, that province, we may estimate the Greeks of Turkey in Europe at the very highest at from 500,000 to 600,000, whilst there are about 10,000,000 of other races. Let us turn to the capital, of which an accurate census was taken in 1844. We have 130,000 Greeks to 475,000 Mohammedans, 205,000 orthodox Armenians, and about 60,000 of other sects. Now, in the face of these numbers, and it is important that this question should be met by facts, can any one talk of a Greek empire with its seat at Constantinople? Could any attempt at setting up a Greek dominion, over races so numerically superior, end in anything but confusion even worse than that which now exists, and in the impossibility of establishing a strong independent power in Turkey to act as a check upon the schemes of Russia-the great end of all political combinations in the East of Europe?

It would not be difficult to point out how the Slave races, on the other hand, might eventually furnish the materials for such an empire. But our article has already exceeded our limits. We will confine ourselves to indicating what, under actual circumstances, we believe to be the true policy of England and

We have omitted any mention of the inhabitants of Wallachia and Moldavia, and of the Roumain population of Rumelia, as well as of the Jews and Gipsiesamounting to nearly 4,300,000,

France

France in the present momentous question. We are of opinion then that the only solution is the maintenance of the Ottoman Government for some years to come in the possession of its European provinces, securing at the same time for its Christian subjects that complete tolerance for their religious faith, and enjoyment of their political rights, which the Porte theoretically professes to accord. At the same time England and France must be prepared to assist the Porte in her resistance to the intolerable interference of Russia, which, it could be easily shown, is as hostile to the development of the resources of the empire as it is to the true liberty of the Christians themselves. Such a course would, we believe, be more conducive to the true interests of civilisation and Christianity, as well as to those of Europe, than any other which could be devised. Suppose the restraint which the Porte exercises over the various Christian sects to be withdrawn, the whole of the empire would shortly be the theatre of even more scandalous scenes than those which the sanctity of a spot most holy to the followers of Christ has not been able to check. The Turkish Government, whether from a spirit of toleration or indifference it is scarcely necessary here to inquire, is willing to admit all religious sects to the same privileges-one is not more favoured than the other. Of how many European powers can as much be said? The result is, that a spirit of religious inquiry has sprung up, that the Bible is fast spreading through the land, and that a sincere and pure religion is rapidly taking the place of ancient prejudices and debasing corruptions.

The conclusions are no less important if we regard the political condition and material wealth of the Christians. We have heard much of the extension of Greek commerce; of Greek houses established throughout Europe, and extending their agencies to the remotest quarters of the globe; of the whole carrying trade of the Levant passing into their hands. Few, if any, however, of the heads of these great commercial houses are from the kingdom of Greece proper; they are for the most part Turkishborn subjects, and owe their rise and prosperity to this circumstance. It may be urged that, although born and esta

* Both Russia and Austria have always opposed any schemes for real improvement devised by the Porte. We may cite as an instance the fact that last year, when the Turkish Ministers were about to enter into an agreement with an eminent firm in this country for the construction of a railway through its European provinces, which would have been of the utmost importance to the prosperity of the country, the Austrian Representative announced to them that his Government would view with the greatest displeasure such an undertaking in the hands of Englishmen the Porte knew well what this threat implied. The opposition of Russia to the construction of roads in the East of Asia Minor is well known.

blished

blished in Turkey, they enjoy foreign, generally Russian, protection. This is no doubt the case; but what State in the world, except Turkey, would tolerate such a violation of its legitimate rights? It is an every-day occurrence that an Armenian or Greek banker or merchant goes from Constantinople to Odessa in a steamer, never even leaves the quarantine, returns with a Russian passport, and as a Russian subject repudiates his debts, refuses to pay even the ordinary local taxes, enjoys all the privileges of a foreign resident in Turkey, defies the Government, and encourages the Sultan's subjects to throw off their allegiance in a similar fashion. England, and to a certain extent France, have endeavoured to put an end to these gross abuses of international relations. But still the cities and ports of the Levant are swarming with destitute Ionians and Maltese, who, under the shadow of the British connexion, commit almost with impunity every crime. The rights of protection, conferred by capitulations upon foreign powers, have done as much to embarrass the Turkish Government, to impede the carrying out of its reforms, and to prevent the development of its resources by the employment of foreign capital and industry, as probably any other cause that could be pointed out.

The Christians of Turkey are admitted by all writers upon that country, to be daily increasing in wealth and intelligence. Let them continue as they have commenced-let them be preserved from dissensions amongst themselves, and from those struggles and conflicts which the conferring of political power upon halfbarbarous races, not yet ready to receive it, must inevitably produce—and in a few years, we may hope to see in Turkey in Europe the materials for forming an empire sufficiently civilized and powerful to take its place with the great nations of Europe, and to solve one of the most difficult political problems of modern days.

As we have already observed, we have no fear lest the Porte should not be able to maintain itself for the present. The resources of the empire are so enormous, and so ready at hand, that they can at any time be made available. By encouraging the cultivation and export of grain, Turkey could eventually draw into her own provinces a large share of the corn trade now carried on with the southern ports of Russia; and by opening roads, canals, and railways, and creating other means of communication, of which she is now utterly deficient, the varied and valuable produce of her European and Asiatic provinces would find a ready market. Foreign capital would soon flow into the empire; and when the relations between the Porte and her allies were fully recognised and understood, the objections to the employ

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