Imatges de pàgina
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SECTION III.

SECURITY FOR RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

NEXT to security for life and honour stands in importance the enjoyment of security for the free exercise of the various duties of religion; and to no class of men is this boon so precious as to the poor and the oppressed. Others may find, if not solace, at least distraction and oblivion in a thousand different ways. But distraction and oblivion are not possible to the Rayah of Turkey. All those things which make human life bright and pleasant to others are poisoned to him by the uncertain tenure on which he holds them. No better description of his misery can be given than that in which the great Prophet of Israel so vividly foretold the doom of his people when scattered, for their sins, among the nations of the earth. The Lord shall give thee a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.' Such is the lot of the Rayah; not in the land of strangers, however, and not for his own sins, but in the home of his fathers and for the sake of some supposed interests' with which he has no concern. 'Art thou still our Czar?' cried the Rayahs of Servia in an address to the Sultan, when they rose to break the yoke of their oppressors or to perish in the effort. 'Art thou still our Czar? then come and

free us from those evil doers. Or if thou wilt not save us, at least tell us so; that we may decide whether to flee to the mountains and forests, or to seek in the rivers a termination to our miserable existence.' That was the cry seventy-two years ago, and the same cry still ascends from the Rayahs who are yet in bondage; no longer, indeed, addressed to the Sultan, since appeals to him are all in vain, but to the Great Powers by whose grace the Sultan reigns and his minions oppress. Surely,' said the Herzegovina insurgents last year in their pathetic appeal to the Signataries to the Treaty of Paris, the poor people here are entitled to compassion from those who have feelings of humanity, and to some effort to assist them in their deplorable state—in their opprobrious servitude; where the cry is continually heard-"O Lord, send us our death!"' 1

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It is in circumstances like these that the consolations of religion are so soothing and so sustaining, and the sorrow's crown of sorrow' of the Rayah is that his oppressors have turned even the ministers of his religion into instruments of torture against him. In the beginning of the War of Independence in Greece the Greek Patriarch was first made to fulminate an anathema against the insurgents, and then put to death by the Turks. So now the Greek Patriarch has thrown whatever influences he possesses into the scale of the Turk against the Christian; and the Armenian Patriarch has not been slow to follow his example. Seldom has the world witnessed a more cynical display of impudent mendacity than the latter has made in the Address which he lately published with the view of

1 Parl. Papers, No. ii. p. 34,

damaging the efforts made by the Conference at Constantinople to ameliorate the condition of the Christians of Turkey. Here is a specimen :—

'The Bulgarian nation occupies three different territories, subject to three distinct Governments, and the whole world knows that the Armenians of Turkey are by far the happiest, and that if a prayer had to be addressed to the Conference, it should be for the amelioration of the fate of the Armenians of Russia.'1

Let us contrast with this the accounts given by the Armenians themselves in two separate documents which are now lying before me. The first is a ' Memorandum on the actual situation of the Armenians and their future, respectfully addressed to the Chancellors of the Great Powers.' Very different is this picture from the rosy fictions of the Armenian Patriarch. Like the Bulgarians, the Armenians have made wonderful efforts to improve themselves. They have established and maintained churches, convents and hospitals, and above all, that which appears to them especially worthy of solicitude, schools.' The difficulties in their path, however, are enormous. stantly exposed to outrages of every sort. the midst of a savage people who live on rapine, with the connivance of the local authorities.'

'They are con

They are in

'Not a day passes but peaceable and laborious Armenian inhabitants are molested in their religion, their liberty, their honour, or their property. Fields are unlawfully seized; sacrileges are committed in the churches and convents; women and children are converted by force to Islamism; acts of incendiarism, brigandage, violation, assassination are constantly com

See Times of Jan. 18. Correspondent's letter from Pera,

mitted. The Turks, the Kurds, and the Avchars, who have lately been joined by the Circassians, rule in some places as absolute masters. . . . . Under the most futile pretexts their (the Armenians') harvests are destroyed, their villages burned, and the inhabitants driven away by sword and gun. Thus anarchy may be said to exist permanently in Armenia. The local authorities rarely interfere, though complaints are continually addressed to them. The right of bearing arms, moreover, is only allowed to the Mahommedans; and these nomadic hordes, who for the most part pay no tribute and are subjected to no law, carry openly, in presence of the authorities, those weapons which are their principal means of existence. If an Armenian should appeal to the Courts of Law, unless he is provided with Mussulman witnesses, as the Sacred Law ordains, he can never gain his cause. But a Mussulman cannot, without offending against the Koran, be a witness against a coreligionist. So that the result is a total denial of justice.'1

Yet the Armenian Patriarch assures the public of Constantinople and of Europe that the whole world knows that the Armenians of Turkey are by far the happiest, and that if a prayer had to be addressed to the Conference, it should be for the amelioration of the Armenians of Russia.'

I take it that the Armenians of Russia themselves are the best judges as to that, and here is what they say:

'The Armenians of Russia, who were sunk in the deepest ignorance some forty years ago, now exhibit wonderful moral and material progress. The Arme

1 Mémoire sur la Situation actuelle des Arméniens et sur lear Avenir, pp. 5-6.

nian population in Russia, which in 1830, according to a census made in that year, numbered only 350,000, has now reached over 800,000. Agricultural and industrial arts flourish among them; schools are being built and increasing; the country, which in 1840 had no newspapers, now possesses four or five in the Armenian language; the people are daily growing richer, and the numbers of pupils who pass through Russian gymnasiums are rapidly increasing. Although the Armenians in the Caucasus are exempted from conscription, there are many who volunteer into the Russian army, and get quickly promoted to the highest ranks, on account of their intelligence and their courage.1 There are now as many as twenty-six generals of Armenian birth in the Russian army.

'Whilst formerly the darkest ignorance prevailed at Etchmiadzin, now the present. Catholicos has built a spacious school, with rich endowments, and its curriculum of studies promises well. . . . In these districts the Armenians show great energy of character, which exhibits itself in their newspapers. Lately one of these, the Meshag (Agriculturalist), published in Tiflis, invited the Armenians (under Turkish rule) to rebellion, and condemned their inaction in contemptuous terms, drawing a faithful but terrible picture of the oppression of the Armenians of Turkey, and concluded by saying, "If you cannot give your life for your liberty, come over to us." That the material condition of Russian Armenia is incomparably better than that of Turkey is an undeniable fact. Whilst in Turkey there are no roads, in that part of Armenia which belongs to Russia, high-roads, railways, bridges, and

The general in command of the Army of the Caucasus at this moment is, I believe, an Armenian.

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