Turkey' means the perpetuation of Turkish misrule. It cannot be otherwise; for the assertion is not a mere inference from what has been, but an axiom from the nature of the case. When men can gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles, then, but not before, may we' hope that the Ottoman Government will do justice to its non-Mussulman population. And the reason is plain, though a certain class of minds refuse to see it. The annals of most Christian nations are unfortunately stained with great crimes. But these crimes are violations of the moral and religious code which the nations in question profess, and on which they ordinarily act. They are things which have to be explained, apologised for, and excused on the plea of extenuating circumstances, such as accident, misunderstanding, great provocation, or dire necessity. They are never defended as right in themselves, never acknowledged as other than evil. The very doers of them would admit that they are blots on a system to which they are essentially foreign. Machiavelli does so frankly, as in the following passage; and even the Pall Mall Gazette would hardly accuse that master of state-craft of being too easily carried away by his feelings.

'Cruelty,' says Machiavelli, may be well or ill applied. It may be called well applied (if indeed we may use the term "well" of that which is essentially evil) when it is only exercised once in a way under the necessity of self-preservation, and afterwards converted as much as possible to the benefit of the class who have suffered from it. It is ill applied when it shows a tendency to repeat itself, and to increase rather than diminish with time. Proceedings of the former class are of the nature of a remedy, and have been suffered

S

to prosper both by God and man. A State which practises the latter cannot continue to live.'1

In brief. Christian nations have a code of morals which is always higher than their practice, even when it is at its best, and a Pattern Man whose precepts and example are the perfection of all that is true and pure, unselfish and just. The Turk's practice, on the other hand, is quite abreast of his moral standard, as laid down in his Sacred Law and exemplified in the life of his Pattern Man. What made the case of the Canaanites of old so hopeless was that they did their abominations unto their gods'; so that there was no hope of amendment, morality being corrupt at the fountain-head, without a pure stream anywhere in reserve to draw from. And so it is with the Turks. Their ideal of human perfection was a man who never hesitated to break all laws, human and divine, which barred his way to the gratification of his passions. The laws which regulate the Turk's domestic life are fitly described by Sir W. Muir as a mass of corruption, poisoning the minds and the morals of every Mahometan student.' The laws which govern the Turk's relations with the rest of mankind are emphatically anti-human. And they are all eternal and immutable. In this respect Islam is the most pernicious religion that has ever been professed by any portion of the human race. There may

6

be religions actually more immoral in their precepts and practices, but Islam is the only religion which lies under the doom of being bound for ever in the cerements of its founder. He stereotyped to the end of time the ignorance and barbarism of Arabia in the seventh century of our era, and laid this burden as a dogma of perpetual obligation on the minds and con

Il Principe,' c. viii.

What

sciences of his followers to the end of time. can be expected from a system thus bound and mummified by the immutable mandates of a cruel and licentious Bedouin of the seventh century but that which Islam, when left to itself, has ever exhibited-moral depravity and intellectual stagnation? And this, in a world of progress, means decadence, without possibility of recovery, wherever a Mussulman State attempts to govern a population not similarly handicapped, and which is at the same time too numerous to be exterminated, and too vigorous to be kept permanently in bondage. In every State, therefore, which accepts Islam for its portion there is of necessity what Amari calls the germ of premature decay.'

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It is the little rift within the lute,

That by-and-by will make the music mute,
And ever widening, slowly silence all.

Or little pitted speck in garner'd fruit,
That rotting inward, slowly moulders all.'

'Setting aside considerations of minor import,' says Sir W. Muir, 'three radical evils flow from the faith [of Islam] in all ages and in every country, and must continue to flow so long as the Corân is the standard of belief. First, polygamy, divorce, and slavery are maintained and perpetuated; striking at the roots of public morals, poisoning domestic life, and disorganising society. Second, freedom of thought and private judgment are crushed and annihilated. The sword still is and must remain the inevitable penalty for the renunciation of Islam. Toleration is unknown. Third, a barrier has been interposed against the reception of Christianity. They labour under a miserable delusion. 1 Vivien in 'Idylls of the King.'

who suppose that Mahometanism paves the way for a purer faith. No system could have been devised with more consummate skill for shutting out the nations over which it has sway from the light of truth. . . The sword of Mahomet and the Corân are the most stubborn enemies of civilization, liberty, and truth, which the world has yet known.' 'To the combination, or rather the unity, of the spiritual and political elements in the unvarying type of Mahometan government must be attributed that utter absence of candid and free investigation into the origin and truth of Islam which so painfully characterises the Moslem mind even to the present day. The faculty of criticism has been annihilated by the sword."1

How different from the religion of Him, who, leaving his grave-clothes in the tomb which He had Himself abandoned, gave to His followers, not a code of unchangeable rules, but a few vivifying principles which, planted in the soil of humanity, are capable of indefinite expansion and endless adaptability: Himself, meanwhile, standing before the gaze of all as an Exemplar without spot or flaw; One whom it can never be wrong to imitate and whom it is impossible to imitate without being purified and ennobled by the effort.

''Life of Mahomet,' pp. 534–5, 575, new edition. The italics in the quotation are Sir W. Muir's.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ALTERNATIVE.

BUT what is to be the alternative? Suppose the Turkish Government destroyed; what then? What do you propose to put in its place? It may be owing to my narrowness of vision, or to my ignorance of political science, but this is a question which it really does not seem to me so difficult to answer as it does to some men who are much abler and wiser than myself. One thing at least is certain: The Turkish Government has reached the nadir of the political firmament. Things cannot be worse than they are, and therefore the chances are that any change would be a change for the better. In saying this I am not forgetful of Lord Salisbury's solemn warning, on the first evening of the Session, that any attempt to coerce Turkey would be the signal for confusion and anarchy in every part of the Empire,' resulting in a frightful repetition of those terrible scenes of which we have heard so much.' My opinion of Lord Salisbury is such, that when I find myself at variance with him on a question of this sort, my first impulse is to distrust my own judgment, and to believe that he is right. But on this occasion I find my natural impulse in collision with certain facts to which I shall refer in their proper place. Meanwhile I shall, for the sake of argument, assume the correctness of Lord Salisbury's prognostications, and I say that