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any judge, upon the basis of any action before such judge, would be declared null and void, as though they had never been pronounced. All rights, customs, honours, or dignities, or the opposite, conferred or imposed otherwise than by statute, would be withdrawn. All tithes and charges of all kinds customarily levied for ecclesiastical purposes would be remitted for the future. It would then remain to dispose of the funds in the hands of Ecclesiastical Commissioners. Those endowments which have been given during the present century would naturally revert to the donors or their representatives, if any. Out of other funds, other lay patrons would be reimbursed for the loss of their patronage; and the remains of the money and lands would lapse to Government. The fact that it had been given for religious purposes would seem to point to its being spent on good and charitable works, such as hospitals, bridges, improvement of the dwellings of the poor, especially in large cities, foundation of asylums for ebriates, and the like. As to churches and parsonages it would seem fair (as all the property which, however undesirably, has yet actually for so long a time ministered to the Church would now lapse to the State) that the churches should be left to us; and where the parsonage is of modest dimensions, not unsuited to the limited resources of a parish priest, and near the church, it might reasonably be left also. Those large parsonages with expensive grounds which exist in some parishes should be taken away, and, if possible, a smaller and less costly house, with perhaps a small garden and field, given in exchange. The palaces of the bishops, if large and at a distance from the cathedral, would be out of place, and lapse to the State; but where, as in many instances, the palace is close to the cathedral, and only of such a size as would enable its occupant to offer simple hospitality to his clergy, it might probably remain. All this, however, should be thought of as quite immaterial compared with the great gain to the kingdom not of this world' of being freed from wealth and honours. If every brick and stone be claimed by the State, we shall be the gainers in returning the more closely to that state of things under which Christ founded His Church and sent forth His apostles. Lastly, as the very possession of endowments and of the prestige of establishment is an evil to be escaped, it would be well that, instead of what are called 'vested interests' being respected as regards ecclesiastics, the act should come into force absolutely, say twelve months from the day of its receiving the Royal assent. During this interval it ought to be allowed, to all who wished to do so, to withdraw from the exercise of this ministry, and obtain from the State an annuity in proportion to the value of the benefice they would lose, to be held as long as they should abstain from officiating.

In conclusion, I wish to say that no one but myself is responsible either for my arguments or conclusions. I have endeavoured to

acquaint myself with such writers as I had time and opportunity to consult, but have felt myself free to deal with the information so acquired according to my own judgment. So too with opinions of friends with whom at any time I have conversed on the subject. If any such take the trouble to read this paper, they will find that, while giving the utmost value to their opinions that I could, I have used them or not as seemed most convenient. It is too much to hope that the paper will convert those who are opposed to the conclusions endeavoured to be arrived at; but if anything has been written which shall lead even one person to give the subject a graver consideration than before, it will more than compensate the labour of writing. It is, I think, impossible for any who will look the matter in the face to deny that from the day when the Emperor Constantine —still heathen, though professing Christian opinions-associated himself with the bishops in council, there has been a constant struggle in the world to usurp powers inconsistent with the condition in which rulers have found themselves. Thus the princes of the State have not been contented unless they could possess themselves of the keys of the Church, and the great ecclesiastical authorities have been equally unhappy without the sword of the State; as though the climax of human happiness were to rule all men in soul and body, wielding with one hand the sword of human tyranny, and with the other the terrible keys of divine justice. I venture to hope that be led to see the human as well as divine wisdom of the great maxim, 'Render unto Cæsar the things that be Cæsar's, and unto God the things that be God's.'

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A. H. MACKONOCHIE.

TURKEY.

PART I.

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[TO THE EDITOR OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.'

SIR,―The article which occupies the last leaves in this number of your Review was, of course, known to you beforehand. You were also acquainted with the manner in which it came under my notice after being wholly out of sight and memory little less than fourteen years. It is with pleasure that I accede to your wish of publishing it. Whatever interest it retains may be traced to the essential vitality of the Eastern Question. Your own description of it as a bird's-eye view may best enable the reader to appreciate its character.

Circumstances and personal influences have necessarily had their effect upon the general question, and require some special notice in order to explain what here and there might otherwise seem to be contradictions.

Such statements or remarks as are thus required may find, I think, their most appropriate place at the close of each part of my original paper.

Yours truly,
STRATFORD DE R.]

In this nether world of ours it often happens that what is most talked of is the least known. We like to have the sources of wonder well stirred within us. Life, in a physical point of view, is excitement. Wonder, by exciting our curiosity, quickens the sense of existence, and nothing leads more to wonder than the mysterious and unknown. Was ever country, for instance, more talked of and written about than Turkey? Yet in some respects, and those not the least important, Japan and New Zealand are better known to us than the Sultan's empire. Geographically, we have a fair notion of its outline by sea and by land. Historically, we are not without the means of learning by what succession of events and under what inspiration the Turks obtained so vast an extent of dominion. Commercially, VOL. I.-No. 4. 3 B

we are acquainted with the principal products of Turkey, and the foreign articles which enter most into the consumption of its inhabitants. We possess even a general idea of the religious tenets and national usages which give more or less a peculiar form and colour to that complicated texture of races, creeds, languages, and costumes, which is pictured on our mind's eye whenever we think of the Levant. But when some passing occurrence, some political omen, forces our attention into a closer examination of the actual state of Turkey, of the relations in which the sovereign and his people, the various classes of society, the government and foreign powers stand severally towards one another, we find it no easy matter to obtain a clear insight into these various departments of a most extensive and complicated subject. Have we occasion to appreciate with correctness the causes of weakness, disturbance, and decay, which operate so powerfully on the Ottoman Empire, or the character and extent of those undeveloped resources on which the advocates of Turkish regeneration bottom their hopes, we are sadly at a loss for information calculated to enlighten our judgment and to fix our opinion on solid and practical grounds.

Our marked deficiency in these respects can hardly fail to expose us to serious errors. We are liable to form a mistaken estimate of the great interests which may at any moment be irretrievably compromised by our ignorance, or to neglect the timely adoption of measures which might avert, or, at least, indefinitely postpone, a dangerous and threatening contingency.

The author of these pages would mislead the public if he pretended to supply the amount of knowledge required to meet so vast a demand. He can only hope to bring more prominently and distinctly into view such circumstances in the state of Turkey as are essential to a clear apprehension of the subject, and to place in their proper light those leading considerations which are best calculated to settle our judgment as to the affairs of that country. Should he succeed in carrying out the plan thus limited, and render thereby his own convictions acceptable to others, he would find in that result a full compensation for the trouble and anxiety which are sure to wait on the performance of such a task. His motives for undertaking it are stimulated by recent events, particularly by the death of Sultan Abdul-Mehjid, and his brother's accession to the Ottoman throne. These unexpected changes have directed public attention more than ever towards the seat of power in Turkey, and it is by no means improbable that a crisis of vital importance to ourselves and to all Europe may speedily arise out of their consequences. A residence of some years in the Levant, and personal opportunities of observing much that has occurred there of late, may perhaps entitle him to an impartial hearing.

The Turks are separated from us by so many barriers that, when

we are summoned to give them a thought, our first impression is one of surprise that we should have any interests in common with them, or that we should entertain any wish either to press our advice upon them, or to step forward, at our own cost, in their defence. Why, it may naturally be asked, should a Christian State concern itself about the welfare of a people whose rule of action is the Koran? Why should those who live under a free constitution desire the maintenance of an empire governed on despotic principles? Why should a nation whose Saxon literature embraces the whole circle of knowledge, ally itself with a horde of Tartars--for such the Turks originally were-whose written idiom is almost exclusively confined to tracts and commentaries steeped in bigotry and alien from truth?

Yet, obvious and natural as these impressions may in appearance be, we cannot with prudence or safety adopt them as the grounds of our national policy. Long before we had any territorial footing in the Mediterranean, that spirit of trade and navigation, which belongs so emphatically to the British Isles, had led us into commercial intercourse with the shores of Turkey. Those who embarked in the trade with that country required protection for their persons and properties against the violence of a despotic government, the cupidity of local authorities, and the prejudices of a fanatical population. We are indebted to the same great Princess for the Levant and East India companies, which, in their day, though now consigned to the common resting-place of humanity, rendered service to the State on no common scale of magnitude. It was in connection with the former, and in support of its establishment, that our first ostensible engagements with the Porte were contracted under the name of capitulations. These, and some additional treaties still in vigour, constitute our legal securities for justice and friendly treatment wherever the Sultan's power is practically maintained.

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The charter of the Levant Company, though it originated in the year 1581, dates in its improved shape from the reigns of James the First and Charles the Second. The capitulations, as now existing, date from the year 1675, but refer in several of their preliminary clauses to earlier periods, beginning with the reign of Elizabeth.

The trade which, thus protected, took root and gradually spread through the Levant, has, we all know, of late years taken much larger proportions. It now comprises the transit trade with Persia, and altogether stands at a high figure in our table of imports and exports, as annually presented to the two Houses of Parliament. It also includes our trade in grain and other important articles of produce with the Danubian Provinces, and in other articles with the neighbouring districts of Russia. The shipping employed in conveying such articles of export from that quarter, as well as the corresponding articles of exchange manufactured in Great Britain, must of necessity thread its way

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