SIR H. LAYARD ON TITRKEY. F OR once, we have laid
down a Report by Sir H. Layard with a sense of pleasure. For years past we have been enforcing, in season and out of season, the doctrine that at the very basis of the Eastern Question lies the certainty that the Sultan's Government neither will nor can reform itself in the European sense. That Government consists of the Sultan himself, now more absolute than any of his predecessors, and a small class of Pashas, selected partly by the Sultan and partly by what is virtually, though informally, co-optation ; and neither of these powers sincerely desires, or will volun- tarily endure, what in the West are considered "reforms." The Sultan wants to remain not only an absolute monarch, but the chief of the orthodox Mahommedan world, which he still believes may be re-collected under his authority ; and he will not voluntarily concede either autonomy to any province, or equality of rights to any class not Mussulman. The Pashas, again, desire, some of them plunder, and all of them that Asiatic form of authority in which the ruler's volition is executive and his will perpetually gratified, which is inconsistent with any civilised administration whatever. All alike dread and detest the substitution of European agency for their own, and from their point of view with good reason. This being the situa- tion, we have contended steadily that if "Turkey," the Eastern half of the old Roman world, is to be restored to civilisation, Europe must either supersede the Sultan—a course we believe to have been at one time very seriously con- sidered—or compel his Government, by a frank exhibition of irresistible physical force, such as would terminate any feeling as to the duty of resistance, to accept its advice and execute its will. That opinion has been denounced on all sides as "extreme," or "violent," or revolutionary ; yet it is now affirmed, after years of experience, by the Ambassador who was sent out by Lord Beaconsfield—that is, by a Premier who prefers Asia to Europe—to "regenerate" the Turkish Government. No opinion could possibly be more emphatic than that of Sir Henry Layard, as given in detail in his long and grave despatch of 27th April, 1880. The British Ambassador, known to be prepossessed in favour of Turks, and expressing even in this despatch his bitter distrust of Bulgarians and Armenians, admits openly that he has no hope of Turkish reform. He declares that the Sultan is absolute, "having concentrated arbitrary power in his own hands ;" that nothing, small or great, can be accomplished without a reference to the Palace, where delays are infinite, and where the Sultan, under the influence of the fanatical party, "is ever ready to give promises which are, unfortunately, not fulfilled, owing to the evil influences always ready to counteract the impression that may have been made upon him by myself or by any other foreign representative." To take only one instance. The Sultan had repeatedly promised Sir Henry Layard that Baker Pasha should be raised to a high command in Armenia, and had authorised the Ambassador to communicate this to the British Government ; but he gave him no command, and when he at last sent Baker Pasha to Mesopotamia to report, he sent with him a man, Suleiman Bey, believed "to be ex- ceedingly anti-English," and in direct communication with his Majesty ; and this man "has done his best to thwart Baker Pasha upon every occasion." "Not one" of the promises under the Anglo-Turkish Convention has been fulfilled. Only three of the English officers engaged to reform the gendarmerie have been employed at all, and all the remainder will in July be sent aback to England, a Power which the Sultan not only distrusts, but dislikes. "The persons about him have succeeded in inspiring him with a profound distrust and sus- picion of England. They have induced him to believe that her occupation of Cyprus, the nomination of English military Consuls in Asia Minor, the interest she shows in the Armenian population, and her peremptory demands for the introduction of reforms into Asiatic Turkey, are so many proofs of a design of annexing his Asiatic territories. The irritation against England now felt by the Sultan, and to some extent by his people, was first excited by her proposing at the Congress of Berlin the Austrian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was greatly increased by the orders given to the Fleet in October last to proceed to Turkish waters. Public rumour attributed it to a resolution, on their part, to compel the Porte, by a hos- tile demonstration, to put into execution the promised reforms in Asia Minor. The Sultan was greatly alarmed."
There is, in fact, nothing to be hoped from the Sultan ex- cept futile promises, and still less from the Pashas, who are worse than they ever were. The most distinguished among these latter have been sent away from Constantinople, where alone power resides into honourable exile, till only three of them remain,—Malmoud Nedim, Saf vet, and Khaireddin. Pashas, being " the only men of note left in the capital." The men who now govern and advise—among whom the prin- cipal is Osman Pasha, the defender of Plevna, and a stubborn Turk of the old school—tell the Sultan to "do without Europe," and they have gradually, by doing without Europe, produced the following state of affairs : —" Never, perhaps," writes Sir Henry Layard, was this empire in so disorganised and critical a state. This is
admitted by every impartial and intelligent Turk. In any other country in the world, the injustice, maladministration, and misery which at the present time prevail in Turkey would have produced a general uprising of the populations. That they should not have done so hitherto may be attributed to the extreme patience, long-suffering, and respect for the Head of the faith which distinguish Mussulmans, and to the difficulty of uniting the people against the Government, in consequence of the dif- ferences of race and of the religious hatreds that exist amongst them. But there are signs that the present state of things cannot long continue. In Syria, detestation of Constantinople rule and a determination to cast it off, appear to form a bond of union between the (Arab) Mussulmans and the Christians. In Asia Minor, for various reasons, there is less prospect for the present of a similar understanding between them. The state of Arabia, according to all accounts, is very critical, and a formidable insurrection against the Turkish Govern- ment may at any moment break out." Well, therefore, may Sir Henry Layard, the friend of Turkey, the willing agent of Lord Beaconsfield's Government conclude that "it is of no use making threats which are not to be put into execution. If we are in earnest in wishing to save this country, but at the same time to reform its Administration, so that its populations may be justly and impartially governed, we must be prepared to go further than mere menaces." No change of Sultan, we may add, will be of the slightest avail. The British Government has tried that, with no other result than to make things very much worse than before.
It is this point which, above all others, we desire to impress upon the English people. They can, if they please, abandon the immense undertaking upon which they have entered, leaving the task practically to Russia ; but if they do not abandon it, they must in the end be prepared, as Lord Granville in his very firm despatch hints that he is pre- pared, to do more than menace. Sir Henry Layard thinks there is still a last resource, the calling again of Midhat's Parliament, and Lord Granville assents to this project ; but this step, even if the Sultan gives way, will, we believe, fail, like the others. The Turkish Parliament showed unexpected vigour, and might have controlled both the Pashas and the Sultan ; but it was religious and patriotic, as well as vigorous, in the Mussulman sense, and would concede even less in the way of autonomy than the Government itself. It accepted with enthusiasm Midhat's proposal of armed resistance, though he believed, and told them plainly, that attack would come from Austria as well as Russia. As the enfranchisement and conse- quent self-government of the Christians in Turkey is the first of necessary reforms, the Parliament could but stave off the ulti- mate crisis, which we believe, with Sir Henry Layard, must be "speedy."
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