Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

manner of men these Councils are likely to elect may be gathered from the following telegraphic despatch in the Daily News of the same date:—

'Although no elections have really taken place in Bulgaria, the official Turkish paper published at Rustchuk announces that some persons have been freely elected for that town, Varna, and Tultscha, as members of the Turkish Parliament. Among them are three Beys and a Pasha. Of the Beys one is the same person who sent a congratulatory address to Chefket Pasha after the Bulgarian atrocities. The two others were censured some time since by Midhat Pasha for administrative misdemeanours. One named Schakir Effendi is known as the enemy of the Bulgarians and a staunch friend of the Circassians.'

And this is the outcome of the great fact which,' according to Safvet Pasha, has changed a form of Government that has endured for six hundred years!' Could imposture go further?

[ocr errors]

Yes Midhat's imposture does not stop even here. Docile as his Medjlis-elected deputies are likely to prove, he has taken care that they shall not have the power to thwart his will. The initiative of bringing forward a Bill or altering an existing law,' says Article 53, is with the Ministry. The Senate and Chamber of Deputies may also originate a new law or the modification of existing ones within their province.' But the Article goes on to explain that this origination' consists in suggesting the new law or the modification of the old one to the Grand Vizier, who will report the suggestion to the Sultan; and if these illustrious personages approve, the Council of State is empowered to prepare the Bill.

[ocr errors][merged small]

more than half the number' is necessary to make a House' in either Chamber; which means that the Government can adjourn any inconvenient discussion sine die, for it can always secure the absence of the necessary one' when the Houses meet.

Finally, the President and members of the Senate are nominated directly by his Majesty the Sultan,' and 'the number of Senators cannot exceed a third of the members of the Chamber of Deputies.' (Article 60.) Moreover, though the Senators are nominated for lite,' they lose the capacity of Senator on accepting any other office.' In this way the Grand Vizier can get rid of any Senator who may chance to show signs of independence.

[ocr errors]

The upshot of the whole matter, then, is this. The Grand Vizier appoints the Governors; the Governors of the Districts appoint the members of the Medjlis ;1 the Medjlises appoint the Deputies; the Deputies cannot originate a bill; they cannot discuss any question unless a clear majority of the totality of members be present; and if by any chance they should succeed in introducing into a Ministerial Bill amendments unpalatable to the Grand Vizier, he can get the Senate, consisting of creatures of his own, to throw them out. The whole Parliament is thus the impotent and pliant tool of the ruling Pashas. And this is the fine Constitution for which the friends of Turkey claim forbearance and a fair trial.2

[blocks in formation]

2 Voilà avec quelle audace la Porte leurrait le public européen. Celui-ci, habitué à voir mettre à exécution les projets présentés par les Etats civilisés du Continent, était loin de se douter que le Hatt Impérial et la circulaire vizirielle n'étaient de la première lettre jusqu'à la dernière qu'un tissu de mensonges; et pourtant c'était ainsi. Ils préscrivaient, ces fanatiques et sensuels Musulmans, une masse d'améliorations qu'ils savaient être

That the view which I have taken of the Constitution is the true one is proved not only by its own language, but by the admission of the Turks themselves. Here is the explanation which the official organs of the Porte have given to calm the fears of any who might think that the presence of non-Mussulmans in the new Parliament might bode danger to Islam :

'To these we answer that they ought to bear in mind, first, that the majority of the Chamber will be composed of Mussulmans; secondly, that its decisions can be taken only by the majority of voices; thirdly, that all the decisions of the Chamber of Senators, whose members will be named by the Government and taken exclusively from among the high Mussulman dignitaries, will have to be confirmed by the Sultan. It is clear, then, that the Divine order [i.e. the Sacred Law] will thus be faithfully executed.'

For all these reasons, then, it seems to me utterly vain and foolish to expect any improvement from the official class in Turkey, and I know not where else to look for any reserve of moral force to regenerate the Sick Man. The symptoms of incipient dissolution are visible everywhere; of convalescence nowhere. The gangrene is spreading steadily from the heart to the circumference, from the capital to the provinces and the rural population. The Turkish peasantry are losing the virtues of barbarians without acquiring those of civilised life. Truthful they never were when it served their purpose to lie; but they were temperate, and now

complètement irréalisables. D'ailleurs, les hatts et les circulaires n'étaient même pas envoyés aux gouverneurs ; ils étaient destinés à produire leur effet dans le capitale seulement.-La Question d'Orient dévoilée, p. 136.

all trustworthy evidence goes to show that they are rapidly ceasing to be so. Listen to the testimony of Vice-Consul Maling from Cavalla :—

"The excessively high licensing system on taverns is considered by Christians a grievance peculiar to them; but it is only fair to say that Mussulmans come fairly under its operation, for they are perhaps the greatest consumers. In fact, inordinate drunkenness is fast becoming a decidedly Turkish vice. It spreads to all ranks, renders any intercourse with their public men a very unpleasant duty, and creates a new barrier to the social fusion of the races: for the Christians as a body partake of the characteristic abstemiousness of the Southern races, and disgust and contempt are now added to the other unfavourable feelings with which they regard their oppressors.'1

Mr. Barkley admits that the country Turks display in a capricious sort of way some of the rude virtues of barbarians. "Yonder 'Yonder gang of men,' he says, 'trudging along with their bullock carts are all capable of cutting my throat for the few piastres they may find in my pocket; but at the same time if I take one of them into my service, give him 1007., and send him by road with it to Stamboul, he will do his best to deliver it safely, and at all events will not touch it himself. Then how handy a servant he is! If I only order him to shoot you on your way to visit me, he will do it without the least hesitation, and, what is more, hold his peace when it is done.' True; and he will lie till he is black in the face if he is questioned upon the subjectthat is, if he has taken a fancy to his master. Besides, he regards the matter as a game of skill of which the

1 Consular Reports of 1867, p. 31.

virtue is in the winning. Honesty and truthfulness of this character are obviously very equivocal virtues. They are rather of the nature of inherited habits, and have nothing of that deliberate moral choice (poaíperis), which is, according to Aristotle,' an essential element in the character of a really virtuous man. But in the Turk of the town Mr. Barkley finds nothing at all to praise :

'But what can I say of his brother of the town, he in Government employ, from the yasie (clerk) to the highest in office? They are all dishonest, and only live to increase their wealth, and, as long as they can do this by fair means or foul, care nothing for others or what may come after them. Their word is never to be relied on, and their most sacred promises stand for nothing. They cringe and fawn on all they think above them, and are brutal and overbearing to their inferiors. They are barbarians from highest to lowest. They have failed to adopt any of the virtues of the West, but have welcomed with open arms all the vices. Yes all; for now I dare not except that most pernicious of all civilised evils-drunkenness. It has spread of late

1 Ethics, bk. ii. cap. vi. He insists, with his incomparable power of reasoning, that to do virtuous deeds is not necessarily to be a virtuous man, since virtue is a habit of mind resulting from deliberate moral choice of what is right because it is right. In a previous chapter he illustrates the point by saying that a man is not necessarily a grammarian because he may chance to have 'produced something grammatical.' He alone is, properly speaking, a grammarian who not only produces something grammatical, but does so grammarian-wise, i.e. in virtue of the grammatical knowledge he himself possesses.' Aristotle would certainly refuse to admit that the capricious honesty of Mr. Barkley's Turkish servant was a virtue at all. He would say, and say truly, that it was an accident,' and could not be accepted as an indication of character.

« AnteriorContinua »