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    Untitled Article

    This revolution , they Lave predetermined , is to consist in the downmll of the Turkish Empire . Hence , this is a notion widely disseminated among all those with whom the pulpit is still an educating power . There are , we believe , parts of England , and , at any rate , there are parts of Presbyterian Scotland , where , if a Peter the Hermit were again to appear , telling of the present condition of the Holy JJand , and urging a crusade , he would find followers . With certain facilities thrown in the way , we can fancy a Scottish crusading expedition sailing for

    Beyrout to conquer the Holy Land from the Turks , in the interest of that theological speculation which predicts the return of the Jews . This , we say , is a curious ingredient , more powerful than is perhaps suspected , in the present display of anti-Turkish feeling breaking out amongst us . It is certainly not for such romantic reasons that Mr . Cobden and Mr . Bright contemplate , with that amount of satisfaction which they have professed , the prospect of a disintegration of Turkey . But in their rhetoric on the Eastern Question , they , as well as the Times , gladly avail themselves of these reasons .

    On the other hand , the poor Turks have their friends . In spite of all that has been said against them , they have now , and have always had , a band of apologists . It is said , and apparently without the possibility of contradiction , that personally the Turks are a more honourable , just , and upright race of men , with more of that sturdy quality , which Englishmen admire under the name of hone , than any of tlie supple and chattering races among which they hold rule . It is more than thirty years ago since Lord Byron , who knew the different nations of Europe as well as most people , and whose known sympathy with the Greeks was likely to make him ¦ jud ge severely of their enemies , thus expressed his opinion of the Turks :

    '' In all money transactions with the Moslems I ever found the strictest honour , the highest disinterestedness . In transacting business with them , there are none of those dirty peculations , under the name of interest , difference of exchange , commission , &c . &c , uniformly found in applying to a Greek consul to cash bills , even on the first houses of Pera * * In the capital and at Court the citizens and courtiers are formed in the same school with those of Christianity ; but there does not exist a more honourable , friendly , and highspirited character than the true Turkish provincial Aga , or Moslem country gentleman . It is not meant here

    to designate the governors of towns , but those Agas who , by a kind of feudal tenure , possess lands and houses of more or leas extent in Greece and Asia Minor . The lower orders are in as tolerable discipline as the rabble in countries with greater pretensions to civilization . A Moslem , in walking the streets of our country towns , would be more incommoded in England than a Frank in a similar situation in Turkey . * * The Ottomans , -with all their defects , are not a people to be despised . Equal at least to the Spaniards , they are superior to the Portuguese . If it bo difficult to pronounce what they are , we can at least say what they

    are not . They are not treacherous ; they are not cowardly ; they do not burn heretics ; they are not assassins ; nor lias an enemy advanced to their capital . They are faithful to their Sultan till he becomes unfit to govern , and devout to their God without an inquisition . Were they driven from St . Sophia to-morrow , find the French or Russians enthroned in their stead , it would becomo a question whether Europe would gain by the exchange . England would certainly be tlio loner . * * With regard to that ignorance of which they arc ho generally , and sometimes justly accused , it may bo doubted , always excepting France and

    England , in what useful points of knowledge they are excelled by other nations . Is it in the common arts of life ' (¦ In their manufactures ? Is a Turkish sabro inferior to a Toledo V or is a Turk worse clothed or lodged , or fed and taught , than a Spaniard ? Are their Pachas worm ) educated than a Grandee , or an Kflendi than a Knight of St . Jago : . 1 think not . * * In all the mosquoH there are boIiooIh OHtablwhod , which aro very regularly attended ; and the poor are taught , without the Church of Turkey being put into peril . I believe the HVKttnii if * not yet published ; nor have I

    hoard whether tho Mufti and tho Mollafl have tmb-Hcribed , or the Caimacan and tho Toftonlar taken the alarm , for fear tlio ingenuous youth of tho turban nhould be taught not to pray to God in t / unr way . Tlio Qreeks alwo—a kind of eastern Irish Papists—hayo a oollogo of their own at Maynooth—no , at Tlaivali ; where tlie heterodox receive much the wamo kind of countenance from tho Ottoman aw tho Catholic college from tho English LoRiHlaturo . Who nhall then affirm that tho Turks aro ignorant bigots whon they thiw wince the exact proportion of Christian chanty which in tolerated in tho moat prosperous and orthodox of all possible kingdomH ' {" Thoro uro many woll-informod mon who

    endorse every sentence of this estimate of the Turks by Lord Byron , and who , moreover , point to the fact that since Byron wrote , many reforms have been introduced in Turkey , making the country and its Government even more respectable than they were then . They tell us of enlarged commerce , of increased toleration , of a freedom in travelling unknown in [ France or Germany , of unabated honour and punctuality in all commercial dealings , of noble firmness in protecting exiles and refugees . When the abuses still remaining in the Turkish administration are cited

    to them , they reply , with Byron , that there are worse abuses in many countries that have a better name ; that all careers of reform must have a beginning ; and that the Turks seein to have made their beginning , while certain nations nearer home have stopped short . If the fact that it is only the other day that the Turks admitted Christian testimony in their courts of law is cast in their teeth , they ask whether there was not also a certain moment , not very long ago , when it first came into our own sublime British heads

    to grant Catholic Emancipation . Stop , they say : Turkey may yet have a Parliament and all its concomitant proofs of free government and civilization—a Tory , a Whig , and a Eadical party ; a Turkish Sir Bobert Inglis , defending orthodoxy and the Koran ; a polygamous Cobden preaching free trade in Phrygia ; and a Lord John Russell in very wide trousers , dubious as to the extension of the electoral districts in Mesopotamia , and uncertain whether he ought to go so low as a hundred-piastre franchise . A little while later

    and there may even be sceptical societies , publicly debating the Koran ; and Constantinopolitan congresses , with branch-meetings in Damascus and Bagdad , advocating the suppression of the hareem-system and the cause of female education . In short , without denying that there is at present nxuch exaction and many abuses in Turkish rule in the East , they are hopeful that , without any external and violent attempt to oust the Turks from the factitious empire which they have made for themselves , the motley elements of that

    empire may yet come into a better state of organization . At least they see no good practical mode of external interference . Mr . Urquhart goes so far as to say that " if we had not the Turks in the East we should be obliged to create them . " It is an opinion , too , of Lord Palmerston , recorded in many a page of Hansard , that "it is of extreme importance , with a view to the preservation of the balance of power in Europe , that Turkey should be maintained in a state of independence . " The " Greek Empire" notion , offered

    by many as a means of letting down Turkey easy , and the universal expectation of the advent of the Franks , which travellers in Syria report as prevalent among the tribes there , are , by these apologists of the Turks , traced , in part at least , to the subtle intrigues of Hussia , always preparing by intellectual missionaries for the work she completes by armies . Sympathizing with the opinion of Mr . Cobden that this is not a time for shirking or keeping back any consideration pertinent to tho whole

    question of tho East , we have thus fairly represented the two sides of what may be called the abstract Eastern question . Our own opinions on this head havo been already expressed in these columns . But what we desire emphatically to protest against , and what wo think wo may protest against all tlio moro effectively , after having shown that we do not blink tho abstract question , is tho fallacy of substituting this abstract question , this purely speculative controversy , for tho

    real practical question now flung by stern facts on tho floor of Europe . Thoro may bo two opinions jib to tho likeability and necessity of tho Turks in their present situation ; there ea , n , we think , bo but one opinion among wiso and liberal men in Western Europe as to tho desirability of seeing tlio Russians "where tho Turks now aro . But it is tho trick of Homo orators and newspapers to keep Iho two questions intorblendorl , ana to mako dbprn ' mc of Turkey do tho work of that argument in bolialf of Jlusflia which they do not ovon pro tend to find .

    Untitled Article

    PROGRESS OF THE STRIKES . On n quoBtion of commercial industry it in a groat point , to liavc , wo must not say , tlio admission , but tho distinct Affirmation of Mr . Cobdon , in regard to tlio Lancashire strike ; " that thoro in ignorance , not confined to ono ' party in tho dispute , but ignorance on both sides , and

    deplorable in its results . " This is strictly true . "We believe that both sides are ignorant to a degree even greater than either one supposes . Certainly * neither can taunt the other with its want of knowledge ; least of all can the masters level their taunts at the workmen . Prom their position and from their opportunities , they are bound to know many tilings , which the men must be excused from knowing , and they remain untaught in the most essential principles of their position . For example , they withhold explicit statements from the men ; they regard their workpeople with a haughty distrust ; they insist on treating the io uivci cuiu

    a ll . CB . uMJU eua vj-v » a cov , . jci l / ucy KllK TO tie men about their " misconduct" in resorting to strikes . If the masters knew but half of what any man may know respecting the working , classes , they would be aware that a very little of candour , of rational representation , and of honest , direct language — language not servile , but respectful and manly , would at once draw from the working classes much more than a corresponding spirit of amicable advance . If the matter is to be treated as one of interest , it should be dealt with , exclusively , on that ground ; and when the masters talk 01 the social obligations of the men , they either deal in cant , or they stultify their own profession to consider the question as one purely of self-interest and self-regard .

    We cannot claim for the men any exclusiveness of correct judgment . They fall into" the same error with the masters , — -they treat the matter as one of then * own self-interest , while they reproach the masters with want of consideration , want of humanity , and want of other qualities which have nothing to do with the question of self-interest . If the men pursue their own advantage , which they have a right to do , they must expect the masters to do the same ; if it is to be a matter of good feeling on one side , it must be a matter of good feeling on the other , But good feeling is never a thing that can be extorted : it can only be voluntarily rendered .

    Both sides , indeed , are keenly alive to then own interest—to the great advantages which would be attained simply by their own successstrongly conscious of their own sacrifices , ana very slightly considerate of the interests or sacrifices on the other side . The master feels that his capital , and the welfare of his family , are risked ; and if his books show him that he cannot pay

    higher wages , the conduct of the men on stnke appears wantonly to sacrifice that capital and those family interests . But the men feel , that every abatement of wages is a diminution of comfort , if not of food , for then * dearest dependents ; and when the master , in the exercise of an unexplained pride , stops his mill , the working-man , forcrettinfr his own pride , blames the master for

    the pale looks of his wife and chudren . A urao explanation would make the workman understand , that if the master ' s outlay exceeds his income , not only could lie have no motive to continue his business , but the very means of carrying it on would be taken from him by tho inexorable laws of commerce . ,, But the master is , it appears to us , chargeable with unfair conduct to the hands . It has constantly happened that tho employer has represented to his men tho necessity of yielding w trade

    him willing work when ho saw tho oduk ^ him to give less payment to his labour . Ho tnus made willing labour , which he had purchased before , a matter of good feeling , and than tnot-aiy incurred an obligation to his hands . xot , subsequent occasions of prosperity , it has oi happened that tlio master has not repaid , > v spontaneous riao of wages , tlio loss to wn ., the mon had submitted in adverse times . At wio end of ' 4 , 7 , for oxamplo , tho working pooplo wer giving to their employers tho same labour , a tlio same zeal , aa before tho ten per cent- *"" taken off ; but when the times had soniew at xaitcn on ; one wxien mo wmuo *«•— — . . ^ alllll

    improved—and they havo somewhat , ° fd not to the full extent supposed , —tho n » Mtol £ £ > not stretch a point , as they expected tho menw u . and did not exhibit that zeal in payment wine tlioy had demanded in labour . On these fifouna ^ tho men arc ri g ht in considering their claim being a" debt . " . t - t + ho Thoro is another consideration win " . working man has a perfect right to advancepresent thoro in a tendency for wages ^ decn whilo-food is rieing . While wages arc ton per e loss than they wore in ' 40 , broad ifl forty T" * ° higher than ' it wflB in that year . x ' r ^ . ivijl « r and JEesox , mon , heads of fomihoe , aro rotoivu h

    Untitled Article

    1042 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 29, 1853, page 1042, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2010/page/10/