Imatges de pàgina
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within a few-probably a very few-months, and with war the total collapse of the Turkish Empire, and the precipitation of several political problems which are hardly ripe for solution, and which a wise statesmanship should have striven to mature gradually.

For all these conclusions the author believes that he. has furnished sound and stable reasons, based on evidence which hardly admits of refutation. Discarding theories and sentiment, he has appealed throughout to the stern logic of facts-many of them, as he believes, not otherwise accessible to English readers. The present is one of those crises which are sometimes a turning-point in a nation's history. For nations, as for individuals, which choose a wrong course from deliberate selfishness, there is sometimes 'no place of repentance, though sought carefully with tears.'

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.
Some great cause, God's new Messiah, offering each the bloom
or blight,

Parts the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon the right;
And the choice goes by for ever 'twixt that darkness and that light.

A 'great cause' is now, humanly speaking, trembfing in the balance, and on England apparently is laid the responsibility of deciding its issue. How terrible that responsibility is, the facts recorded in the following pages abundantly show. If the men and women. of England could only be brought to realise the true condition, or even an approximation to the true condition, of the millions of human beings who are at this moment writhing in the agony of a bondage more

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cruel and debasing than any that the world has ever seen, they would certainly rise in their might and sweep away into space all the charlatanry of an effete diplomacy, that seeks to hide its impotence under the guise of childish Protocols, at which one might laugh, if the lives and honour of some fourteen millions of people, as noble and virtuous as any in the world, were not in question. The author trusts that the following pages will, with the blessing of a higher Power, help to dissipate a few at least of the dense clouds of ignorance that envelope the true bearings and issues of this great argument.' In his humble judgment it is not a question of religion, but of the elementary rights of humanity and the primary principles of natural justice; and his sympathy with the oppressed, as well as his indignation against a great and an intolerable wrong, would be none the less sincere and energetic if the Mussulmans were the victims and the Christians their tormentros. He has as little sympathy with some of the leading organs of public opinion when they advocate the divine right of Englishmen to tyrannise over Mussulmans in India, as when they advocate the indefeasible and eternal right of the Turk to torture, ravish, and slay defenceless Christians in Europeprovided only that British interests' are subserved by the anguish of the victims. The great nation of England is indeed become degenerate if it do not make short work of this brutal policy when its full iniquity has been brought home to its heart and conscience.

CONTENTS.

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Evidence of British Consuls-Syrian massacres: their cause and
motive-Periodical massacres in Turkey only exhibitions on a
large scale of what goes on all the year round in detail-A men-
dacious book on Bulgaria-Trustworthy witnesses-Examples
of Turkish misrule and abnormal cruelty-Studied indignities
offered to Christians and to their religion

SECTION II. SECURITY FOR HONOUR.

Virtue and beauty of the Bulgarian women-Daily outrages on
their honour in ordinary times-Examples of fiendish torture
on women in ordinary times-Inability of men to protect their

Women-National character of the Slaves-The Lucretia of
Bulgaria: a tragic story of 1841-Consequent insurrection and
frightful atrocities-The Haiduks-Forcible Conversions to
Islam-Violation of female chastity rewarded by Turkish
Government A Fallacy exposed

SECTION ΠΙ. SFCURITY FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.

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A plea on behalf of Turkey-The Turkish Government the Chief
Criminal-Proofs of this indictment-The Porte Glories in its
iniquity-Humanity of Mussulmans to Christians punished as
a crime-Reason why Turkish misrule is incurable-Midhat's
constitution analysed, and shown to be an imposture-Turkish
official account of the constitution-Degeneration of the
Turkish race-Turkish devotions-Mr. Urquhart on Islam-
Condition of women in Turkey-Turkish population gangrened
by the sins of the Cities of the Plain-State of Albania de-
scribed by a British Consul

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Difference between Turk and Moor-Redeeming points in Moorish
Domination-Another side to the picture-Moorish civilisation
an exotic-Condition of Christians in Spain under the Moors-
Unfaithfulness of Spanish Moors-Moorish atrocities in Spain-
Moorish régime characterised by Prescott as a ferocious des
potism'-This opinion confirmed by other Authorities-Mussul-
man rule in Sicily-Intensity of its religious intolerance as
described by Amari-Its inevitable decadence, and why-
Mussulman Rule in India 'a disgrace to civilisation'-Its in-
tolerance

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