THE PRINCE OF ALBANIA.
IF Machiavelli could look upon the spectacle of Essad Toptani, the ex-commander of Scutari, talking of himself as the Prince of Albania and offering to Turkey the continued services of some forty thousand men, he would long to add a few chapters to his " Principe " and provide rules for the perfect—that is, perfectly efficient— conduct of this audacious adventurer. Our modern age, which some people profess to regard as being on distant terms with romance and wonder, somehow goes on pro- viding the strangest facts in history. What could be more wonderful than this very fact that after Europe has tried for some generations to reduce the affairs of the Balkans to an unmenacing and commonplace regularity, a freebooter, a modern condottiere of whom mediaeval Italy would have been proud, should be roaming about with an army at his back, ignoring the existence of the Powers and causing such contradictory reports as that he is " working in " with King Nicholas of Montenegro and is about to revictual his troops and start fighting again for Turkey in a new part of the theatre of war ? Italy of the Renaissance showed many such figures. With the excep- tion perhaps of Cesare Borgia—and he, as the son of the Pope, had an advantage over mere condottieri—she showed none more daring in overcoming the odds of circumstance. Machiavelli would perhaps want to produce a wholly new book showing how the art of scelleratezze gloriose could be practised in the Balkans as easily as in Italy ; how murder does not really matter ; and how politics in the twentieth century have still nothing what- ever to say to ethics. It is not at all impossible that Essad will go much further than an Italian condottiere, whose power, after all, generally came to an end when he could no longer lead in person the mercenaries whose services he farmed in the interests of some royal employer. If the Albanians wish Essad to be their prince, he may be a figure for a long time to come—the legally established ruler rather than the active leader, dependent on prestige, of a nation of fighting adventurers. Europe says that Albania is to be independent ; independence certainly postulates some say on the part of the Albanians as to who their prince shall be. Europe might well prefer a prince related to the royal families and nicely respon- sible to the Powers ; still the mere disagreement of the Powers as to who the prince should be might give Essad his opportunity to step in and remain in possession. The different histories of an Otto and a Maximilian are enough to prevent the Powers from feeling that their nominee would really be worth backing against much opposition. Suppose that Essad founded an enduring dynasty—even that would not be so wonderful as the founding of the present Swedish dynasty by the private soldier of the Revolution, Bernadotte.
Everyone has read in the newspapers that the first commander of Scutari was mysteriously done to death during the siege, and that Essad suddenly announced himself as his successor. But the vast majority of Englishmen could probably state no other fact about Essad, except, of course, that he surrendered Scutari to the Montenegrins the other day and was allowed to march out with all the honours of war. The Daily News and Leader of Tuesday published a biography of Essad which is very enlightening. Essad is an Albanian of the purest water. His family, the Toptanis of Tirana, near Durazzo, is one of the richest and most powerful in the country. It is a family derived from feudal robber chiefs. Essad served in the Turkish army in Macedonia and Anatolia, and then became commander of the gendarmerie in Constantinople. He fought against Greece in 1897 and received the title of Pasha. While Essad was at Con- stantinople an extraordinary act of audacity showed his temper and his indifference to the anger of the Sultan. One day Abdul Hamid's favourite, a young Albanian, Gani Toptani, Essad's brother, insulted his royal master. Abdul Hamid gave orders to the Grand Vizier for the removal of Gani Toptani. Gani Toptani was shot dead by an agent of the Grand Vizier. A few days later the agent himself was shot dead on the Galata bridge in broad daylight by Essad, who pinned on the body a paper bearing the words " Done by Essad Toptani." The deed was the typical vengeance of an Albanian Gheg—the dutiful accomplishment of the blood feud enjoined by Albanian custom. The writer in the Daily News and Leader says :— " Essad has from his youth been an ardent Albanian patriot, proud of his race and its history, and an early advocate of the Pan-Albanian national idea, and even of the Latin script, for the sake of which ho quarrelled with the Young Turks, and became their deadly enemy. For with these men of primitive instincts everything assumes an exaggerated character. What Renan once remarked of the Semitic genius applies also to the Albanian ; he, too, thinks and acts in antitheses. He does not say, love Isaac better than Esau.' Ho says, I love Isaac; I hate Esau.' Both their hatred and love are great, and just as they will not spare their enemy, so they will not spare themselves for the man or the idea they love."
The behaviour of Abdul Hamid in the face of the insult offered to his authority by Essad was characteristic of his cautious and timid dealings with the Albanians, who were always the spoiled children of his Empire. Ho transferred Essad to Janina to command the gendarmerie there, but promoted him to the rank of general.
This promotion in rank did not, however, placate Essad's anger against the Sultan, and before the Young Turk revolution came to a head he overtly sympathized with the Young Turks, less out of liking for constitu- tional ideas, which ho probably did not in the least understand, than out of hatred of the Sultan, the real author of his brother's death. When the revolution of 1908 succeeded, Essad was elected deputy of Durazzo in the first chamber, and continued to represent Durazzo till the dissolution of 1912. He was a violent member of the Albanian group, which naturally soon found itself in furious opposition to the Ottomanizing policy of the Committee. Some of the Albanian group were provoked into political reaction by the Committee, but Essad him- self, much as he had reason to dislike the Committee, was prevented by his undying hatred of the Sultan from returning into the arms of the old regime. At the time of the counter-revolution of 1909 Essad marched into Constantinople with the Committee's Salonica army in support of the Constitution. He was present at the meeting of the Committee in Constantinople at which it was decided that the Sultan, Abdul Hamid, must be deposed.
" Who was to take the fateful message to the Caliph at Yildiz Kiosk ? Slowly and grimly Essad rose before the Committee and
said, will go to Abdul Hamid.' Everyone realized the com- pelling logic of this offer, and Essad, accompanied by three other members of the Committee, went to Yildiz Kiosk. As the Sultan, trembling from head to foot, presented himself to the visitors Essad spoke : 'In accordance with the fetwa and by the decision of the National Assembly thou art deposed from the throne, Abdul Hamid.' What feelings must have agitated at that moment the wild heart of Essad ! But never afterwards did he like to dilate upon this most dramatic incident in his life, and speaking a few months ago to a French friend he admitted that whenever he thought of thatbrief dialogue with Abdul Hamid 'something like the taste of lemon would rise to his tongue.' " In the days that followed the deposition Essad continued to resist the Committee's treatment of Albania with all his might. At the next general election the Committee tried to draw this thorn out of their flesh by preventing his re-election for Durazzo. But Essad's local influence was much too strong for the Committee. The Albanians wanted their squire and no carpet-bagger. Supported by a retinue of five hundred Albanians, Essad returned in feudal state to Constantinople. But the struggle did not continue long ; the Constitutional structure crashed into ruin, and Essad, returning to Albania, found his way to Scutari as the rumours of war thickened. Essad is about fifty years old. He has, according to his biographer, a high forehead and a Roman nose, and a peculiarity of his features is the immobility of his right eye, as though he were always taking aim with his Mauser. Es sad is certainly well worth watching.
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