Midhat Pasha and a deputation from "the Society of Posi-
tiviste " have been saying very civil things to each other. The deputation told him that they sympathised with the cause of Turkey and Midhat Pasha's own efforts on its behalf. The exile evidently knew enough about his audience to feel that a side-fling at Christianity would act as a touch of Nature, and his reply seems to have been an argument that the Mussulman's religion was as much adapted as Christianity to the spirit of civilisation and modern institutions. His proofs were reference to the civilised state of the Arabs in Spain,—a rather ancient modern case, hardly in point to show that a Mussulman can put up with the principle of religious and civil equality,—and the new Ottoman Con- stitution, which Midhat Pasha will find, when he returns to Turkey, is valued as little as his master's bonds. Midhat Pasha complained of Mr. Gladstone being led away by his religious sentiments, and he asked what was the use of religion, if it did. not make people just? Precisely so ; what is the use of Midhat Paella's religion, if it has shut his countrymen's eyes for centuries to all notion of rights and duties towards their Christian subjects? Positivists claim Condorcet as one of themselves ; we wonder whether the deputation prepared themselves for the interview by reading his denunciation of Turkish rule, and his praise of Voltaire for never being led by superficial appearances to forget its anti- civilising essence.
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