MR. MACCOLL ON TURKEY.*
THIS is a pamphlet of 500 pages, rather than a book, but it is an invaluable pamphlet. A strong sympathy with the Christians of the East, so oppressed for ages, has induced Mr. MacColl to put together the evidences of their oppression, collected with endless labour from innumerable Blue-books and the letters of recent travellers, and justified in all serious cases by quotations, either from official returns or from the narratives of witnesses friendly to the oppressors. The work, which has been one of great labour and time, has revealed facts so startling and so atro- cious, that the author, in his righteous indignation, writes occa- sionally in the style of an advocate pleading against Turkey ; but his partisanship is one of style only, and he has in no case allowed himself to state facts without the most ample warrant. Indeed, there is no occasion even for an enemy of the Turks to exaggerate. He has only to put to- gether unquestioned and admitted truths, to be satis- fied of three circumstances which are, so far as we know, peculiar to Turkey among the Empires of the world. One is that the Empire is governed by a comparatively minute caste—perhaps a sixth of the whole—irresponsible to any authority except its own ; a second is that this caste wishes the debasement, oppression, and even extinction of the numerous peoples it governs ; and a third is that it has terrorised the popu- lations by years of unpunished savagery to such a degree, that successful resistance from within, unaided by drilled soldiery from without, has become absolutely impossible. Upon the last point Mr. MacColl's evidence is most painful and quite conclusive. He shows by the evidence of officials and travellers, as well as of the victims, that the Christians have in most provinces, and notably in Bulgaria, fallen into the temper of slaves ; that resistance to the gendarmerie is con- sidered impossible, the Government and its soldiery invariably supporting them, until the armed policemen can do absolutely what they please, and in a country where chastity is considered of the highest importance and women are reverenced as in Ireland, the honour of families is absolutely at the mercy of any villain who may be admitted into the ranks of the defenders of order. The people, aware that the slightest complaint will be the signal for massacre or torture, have been degraded below the human point, till when assailed in the way which makes even slaves resist, they only occasionally have the energy to join the brigands, though strange to say, when they have joined them they fight to the death. We do not care to quote the evidence Mr. MacColl has collected on this subject. It is too sickening, now that retribution seems at last to be at hand. It is enough to say that in all rural districts, wherever Turks are annoyed, or resisted, or even affected with a caprice of tyranny, the villages encounter the fats of cities taken by storm in the worst cycles of Middle-Age warfare. The men are murdered, and the women violated at will and with impunity. No redress is even hoped for, the authorities all side with the gendarmerie or soldiers, and the worst offenders are the Pashas sent to maintain order. The Christian who complains is tortured until he leaves off complaining, and the Pasha who tortures him is considered an energetic officer, and rapidly promoted. This is the differentia between the oppression of the Porte and the oppression of any other bad Government, say, the Russian in Poland, or the Chinese in a province of the interior. Either may be oppressive or brutal to any degree, but neither wills the injury of its sub- * The Eastern Question. By Malcolm MacColl. London : Longman& jests. It wants obedience, and will commit any crime, perhaps, to obtain it ; but if they are obedient, it has no hostility to its people. It does not want to hurt them merely because they exist. The Turkish Government does want. It is impossible to read Mr. MacColl's narratives of judicial oppression, of the infamies perpetrated by the tax-gatherers, of the steady refusal to punish the misdoers ; or his chapters on the working of Turkish law, and on the cynically determined manner in which the Government of Midhat associated itself with the Bulgarian atrocities ; or his textual quo- tations of Safvet Pasha's defence of those atrocities, without perceiving that the Ottoman Government regards itself as head of an army encamped amidst a hostile population, which it is its business to terrorise as Alva terrorised the Netherlands, or Tilly terrorised the Protestant cities. There is no more hope of justice from it at any time or under any circumstances, as against the caste, than there was of justice from a leader of Free Companions as against his soldiers when just flushed by victory over severe resistance. It is prepared to maintain the ascendancy of the caste even at the price of extermination. We need only quote two extracts made by Mr. MacColl from English Consular re- ports in 1876, barely a year ago, reports neither of which "pander to the taste for the horrible," but give their atrocious fact in the calmest and most indifferent words :— " From what I can make out, I am really inclined to think that the object at this moment, in the lately disturbed district of Tirnova, it to. diminish the number of Bulgarians as much as possible, for it is said that the Cireassiane seem to be doing all this with the apparent eon- nivance of the authorities.'—Despatch of Consul Reade in correspond- ence respecting the affairs of Turkey in 1876, No. 3, p. 333. have just heard the affair of Chevket-Pasha, at Boyadjik, on law other side of the Balkans, as related by a Prussian engineer in the- Government (Turkish) service here (at Rustchnk), who was close to the spot when it took place, and whose statement almost entirely agrees with that given in the Daily News of the 8th inst. This officer, knowing the real facts of the case says he never was so thunderstruck as when- he heard that Chevket Pasha had been decorated and promoted. He further mays, he saw the Commission sent afterwards by the Porte to investigate the matter, who said to him that the whole of the villagers had not been massacred, but only 700 (out of 1,300). The- Commission said very little else, and appeared extremely passive, which the engineer said he did not wonder at, from what he had found. After this the engineer returned to Shumla in company with a high Ottoman functionary whom he did not wish to name, and who on the way and in- his presence asked the zaptiehs who accompanied them if they had profited by the rising to diminish the number of Bulgarians. They replied not, as in their district everything had been quite quiet. H. then said, "You ought to have done so, and you would have rendered a service to the Government." '—ConsulReade in Part Papers of 1876, No. 5, p. 18. The despatch is dated Rnstchuk, July 19, 1876."
This accusation against the Government is not made by a man blinded either by religious zeal or by hatred to the dominance of a caste. Mr. MacColl detests Mahomrned, and is far too severe on him, but he acknowledges that Mahommedanism in a country where it rules alone is often an endurable system, and he bears most unexpected and noteworthy testimony to the Mahommedan aristocracy of Bosnia. His statements upon this point are so unusual and so worthy of attention, that we quote them at length :—
" There is the widest possible difference between the Slav Massulmans and the Turks, whom, indeed, they regard with feelings of invincible contempt. They are mostly descended, as we have already seen, from Christian forefathers, who apostatised to escape the mournful doom of the Rayab. But they have never forgotten their Christian ancestry ; and in many a Massulman household among the valleys of Bosnia and on the slopes of the Balkans are fondly cherished traditions and memorials of the faith which their forefathers bartered in exchange for the rights
of freemen The Slav Mussulmans are fanatical, no doubt, but it is the fanaticism of caste rather than of religion. Of Islam, in its theological and religious aspect, they know little and care less. As a rule, they do not understand Turkish, and the Koran is a sealed book to them except such knowledge as they pick up of its contents at second-hand. It is but rarely that they practise polygamy, and their women are at liberty, whenever they choose to avail themselves of it, to go abroad without the customary veil. This has given rise to the Turkish proverb, Go to Bosnia, if you would fall in love with your bride.' Let the Slav Mussnlmans of Bosnia and Bulgaria be convinced that the abolition of the Turkish rule does not mean the abolititm their hereditary rights, and they will view the exit of the Ott....L■ana
not with equanimity merely, bat with warm approval The 31ussulman landholders of Bosnia are a fine and generous body of men, bravo, high-spirited, and resentful against wrong ; but truthful, honest, and never, like the Turk, cruel in their vengeance. Such is the character given to them by Bishop Strossmayer, who knows them well, having often been a *elcome guest at their houses. He thinks that if they were only rid of the demoralising influence of the Govern- ment at Constantinople, they would not only soon learn to live in peace with their Christian neighbours, but even gradually—he believes in about fifty years—return to the religion of their forefathers."
Those are not the phrases of a fanatic, and it is only as a fanatic that Mr. MacColl can be attacked, for his facts are verified by evidence which would satisfy a Select Committee of the House of Commons examining into alleged oppree-
ions in an Irish county. He never makes a statement with- out an authority. He quotes nobody who can in any way be suspected of being an enemy of the Turkish Government, unless it be Mr. Schuyler, whose statements are endorsed by Mr. Baring. He attributes no worse motives to his adversaries than the facts prove, and even goes out of his way to say that the Turkish gendarme does not realise the horrors he is committing, and thinks no more of the cruelty of cutting up a Christian than an English huntsman in India thinks of the cruelty of pig-sticking. Mr. MacColl is, in fact, as fair as a man burning with indignation can be, and yet it is impossible to read his book without a sense that the case against the Turks in Europe is proved, and an earnest prayer that the Russian arms may be blessed, to the total and final extinction of the Turkish Empire, even if their own bad rule• be substituted in its place. We can recommend his work most cordially to every one who cares to know why, in the judgment of sound Liberals, distrustful of Russia and hostile to war, England ought to have assisted the Czar in the work of retribution.
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