The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-27 00:00:00

Religious Crisis in Turkey,

DEPUTATION TO LORD RUSSELL.
Yesterday afternoon, a deputation consisting of Lord Cal-
thorpe (President) and other members of the British
Organisation waited, by appointment, upon Lord Russell,
her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, for the
purpose of bringing under his notice, by memorial, the cir-
cumstances connected with the religious crisis in Turkey.
The memorialists stated that they desired, with great re-
spect and equal earnestness, to fix his lordship's attention
upon certain recent proceedings of the Turkish Government
at Constantinople which constituted a serious violation of
religious liberty, and were in direct contradiction both of the
spirit and letter of the famous Hatti Humayoun, published
by the Sultan in 1856. These proceedings,they were aware,
had been brought under his lordship's notice, as well by her
Majesty's Ambassador to the Sublime Porte as by different
religious and missionary bodies in London. They were,
consequently, as well known to his Lordship as to render
it necessary for them to detail them at any length, They
might be briefly described as consisting in the shutting up
of looms hired by missionaries and by agents of the Bible
Society, in which they peaceably conducted their Christian
labours ; in the seizure and carrying away of Christian
books ; and in the imprisonment of converts to Christianity
from the Mahoramedan faith, and their threatened banish-
ment from their native land. These arbitrary and unjust
acts the memorialists submitted were not only inconsistent
with the principles of toleration professed by the Turkish
Governs ent, but an express infringement of that clause of
the Hatti Humayoun in which his Majesty the Sultan em-
ployed these distinct and emphatic words—" As all religions
are freely professed in my dominions, none of my subjects
shall be injured in the exercise of the religion he professes,
nor shall ho be molested in the exercise of it." This con-
cession to religious liberty, as was well known, was made by
tha Sultan at the earnest and conjoint importunity of nations
professing Christianity, and was more especially duo to the
enlightened and long-continued efforts of her Majesty's late
Ambassador at Constantinople, Lord Stratford do Red
chile.

The memorial which was presented contained the following
passages:—'' Your memorialists would respectfully repre-
sent to your lordship how incumbent it is on the British
Government, to whom Turkey owes so much, to look to the
tu:filment of the pledges she has given, and still to main-
tain by British diplomacy that freedom from persecu ion
fur Turkish subjects becoming Christians, and that liberty
for missionaries to propagate the Christian faith, which it
is the distinguished honeur of British aiplomacy to have
achieved. Your memorialists aro not ignorant that the
recent intolerance is attempted to bo justified by th 3 Tur-
kish Government on the plea that the missionaries and
some of their converts have acted with great indiscretion in
promoting the spread of the Christian religion, and have
preached in places and among persons whi re they were
likely to excite public disturbance, and it is even alleged
that the converts were imprisoned fur their own protection
against the violence of the populace, which they either had
excited or were in danger of exciting. Your memorialists
are perfectly assured that this allegation has no satisfactory
foundation in the facts of the case, and that the appro
hended popular disturbance was little less than a gratuitous
and exaggerated surmise. Besides that, it will be apparent
to every one that it is as dangerous to admit such a plea as
it is always easy to frame it. It is particularly objected by
tho Ottoman Government that missionary operations have
been carried on in the khans, or, as they were sometimes
called, the inns of the city, places to which mixed multitudes
resort, so that the public peace is endangered, and in which
in former times it was said nothing of the kind was attempted.
But your memorialists are able to state, on the contrary,
that for more than a quarter of a century the missionaries
have been accustomed to rent rooms in the khans in con-
venient places for meeting those persons who wished to
come to them for religious inquiry ; and as some misappre-
hension exists on the nature of the places thus designated
they submit the following remarks :—The khans in Con-
stantinople, while they are sometimes described as if for the
purpose cf a clearer definition, by the explanatory word
inns, are inns not in the sense of the European hotel, but
rather in the sense in which Sergeant's-inn or the other
Inns of Court in London arc so denominated. They are
large buildings, having an open court in the centre, and are
divided into a great number of rooms, for the most part
small, which aro rented and occupied by individuals or
companies, and used by them in storing merchandise, for
workahips, or to dwell in, or in short for any purpose at
the occupier's pleasure. The khan is a public place, but
these rooms are no more public than aro the chambers of a
barrister in Lincoln's-inn. No person enters them but at
the invitation of the occupiers, or with his consent. By no
fair use of language could any canvassing of the claims of
Mahomedanism, or any exhibition of the superior evidence
of Christianity into which a missionary might be drawn in
answering the inquiries of those who resort to him in these
rooms, be represented as a public attack upon the religion of
the country, for the roams are private. Into a church any
one may enter, for it is open to all, but the doors of a room
in the khan are closed, and the public are not admitted, but
only individual persons whom the missionary pleases to
receive. In these private rooms religious meetings hate
been accustomed to be held for years, expositions of the
sacred scriptures have been given in them, and the doctrines
of the Bible discussed with Greeks, Armenians, and Turks,
and without disturbance given or received. Missionaries,
it may be added, have never attempted to preach in the
open court of the khan, any more than in the streets of the
city. To prohibit them therefore from thus resorting to
and using the khans in the way explained—the only way in
which they have used them, is not only an act of intoler-
ance, but an uncalled-for abridgment of the liberty which
has long been enjoyed and never hitherto abused. Your
memorialists are constrained in conclusion to observe that
those proceedings of the Ottoman Government upon which
they have animalverted are conceived in the spirit of that
ancient exclusiveness which characterised the policy of
Turkey in former days, but which they hoped had become
obsolete under the guidance of Christian statesmen. They
are a practical repeal of some of the most precious provi-
sions of the Hatti llumayoun, and the first steps at least
of a retrograde movement which, if it be not stopped, will
conduct the rulers of that country back again to the time
when a Mussulman could embrace Christianity only at the
peril of his life. The limits of religious liberty, as now de-
fined by the Turkish rulers, aro narrowed down to a prac-
tical negation of it almost altogether. "The Ottoman Go-
vernment," it is said in Sir Henry Bulwer's letter to the
Secretary of the Committee of the Evangelical Alliance at
Constantinople, dated August 1, " is willing to allow Pro-
testants and all Christians to exercise their own religion
in the Ottoman dominions, in churches or quietly at home,
but it will not allow any attempts, public or private, to
assail the Mussulman religion. It will allow Mussulmen
to become Christians, but it will not allow them, any
more than it will other Christina to go about speak-
ing publicly ogainat Mahoinedanisw. Your memo-
rialists feel certain that they need enter into no argu-
ment to satisfy your lordship that the enforcement of these
views will inevitably put a stop to all missionary efforts and
prove utterly subversive of all religious liberty in Turkey ;
nor can they refrain from expressing their sui prise and deep
sorrow that such views should be sanctioned in express terms
and be sustained by the influence of a British Ambassador,
the immediate successor of that eminent statesman to whom
Turkey is indebted for the Hatti Humayoun of 1559, which
has been justly extolled as the charter of her liberties, and
as ono of the noblest monuments of modern European legis-
lation. These are not the views, as they a6rioopetyrisisouuat_deedm,
which the British nation supposes aro to obtain in a coun-
try for the defence and preservation of which it has expo,' -
so much blood and treasure, and they appeal aa-
.e •
t
them
with the greater confidence to your lordp2,;ip
n
spout a long and laouourablo life t,rozotina. civil
and:

On Tuesday Mr Ward, C. 8., the charge d'affaires at
Hamburg, attended a meeting of the directors of the Man-
chester Chamber of Commerce, to ascertain the views of
the chamber as to any modifications of the Z)llverein tariff
whenever opportunity may arise for carrying those modifi-
cations into effect. The rnemliors present were--Messrs H.
Ashworth (chairman), H. J. Leppoc, 0. Heywood, J. Ho!.
liday, A. Cassels, the Mayor of Salford (Mr W. Pearson),
and H. Fleming (secretary).

The CHAIRMAN read Mr Ward's letter of introduction
from the Foreign-office, wherein it was stated that Earl
Russell desired to give the board the opportunity of person-
ally communicating with Mr Ward, and explaining to him
their views as to any modifications in favour of British in-
dustry which the Governments of the German Customs
Union, if any opening for doing so should arise, might be
urged to adopt in their tariff. He (the chairman) said that
the appearance of a Government representative at that
chamber was of good omen. He trusted that Mr Ward
might be followed by others, so that there might be an in-
dication that diplomacy abroad was animated by the same
skirit as mercantile affairs at home.
Mr WARD said it gave him great satisfaction to be able,
in accordance with the desire of her Majesty's Government, .
to appear before the representatives of the commerce of so
great and important a city as Manchester. The object of
his presence was twofold : first, to state the real position in
which this country stood towards the newly-constituted
Z Alverein and the tariff which would immediately come
into force; :and, secondly, to ask the chamber for its
opinion, and also for suggestions, in regard to the improve-
ment of that tariff. The chamber was probably aware
that the German Zollverein was instituted between 30
and 40 years ago, that it was very popular in Ger-
many, that it had tended very much to increase the
material wealth and resources of that country, and that
it had also added something to the political influence
which Prussia exercised over the smaller States. Being
bound by the Governments of other States, Prussia had not
been able to realise all its wishes respecting the German
tariff, and in the course of time alterations and reductions
of that tariff had been made. But none of those alterations
was of more importance than those proposed on the occasion
of the negotiation of the commercial treaty with France,
which began three or four years ago. On the occasions of
those negotiations he,with theßritish ambassador atßerlin,
endeavoured to obtain a reduction in the duties upon British
commerce. On presenting themselves at Berlin, the first
question they were asked was as to what equivalent they
would offer for the reduction they wanted. They were ob-
liged to answer that they had not any, because the British
Parliament had lately made a liberal tariff for all nations;
and that as Germany was enjoying the benefit of that libe-
ralised tariff, Prussia would act under the same principles as
had been adopted with such good effect in England. In
the end, the Prussian authorities promised to concede to
England all that was given to France, which was, in fact,
placing England on the same fcoting as the moat favoured
nation. Effrrts were then made with the Berlin Board of
Trade to induce the Zollverein to adopt the tariff upon the
ad valorem principle, instead of the metrical system by
weight; but it was considered that the latter system was so
universally adopted by the Gernat.n merchants and manu-
facturers that they weald not be pleased with a change, and
the suggestion was net carried out. lie (Mr Ward) did not
think that any proposal to alter that system would be sue
cessful. The treaty with France was signed on the 2d of
August, 1863; and in consequence of the promises made by
Prussia, this country became entitled to the hem fit of the
tariff. Prussia then commenced getting the consent of
other States, which was a teak she had the utmost difficulty
in accomplishinet. It was only on the vet y day before the
end of the term fixed— viz., the Ist instant—that she got
the consent of the hair States that most elj ctrd to the
measure, viz , Nassau, liesee Darmstadt. Bavaria, and Wur-
temburg. These States gave their adhesion on the 30th
of September; on the let October the treaty was cerupleted,
and the Zollverein was reconstituted un the basis of the
new tariff. That tariff would come into operation on the Ist
July, 1865, and would continue fur 12 years, The principle
of the Z Alverein was unanimity as regarded all its delibera-
tions and considerations; and, therefore, the voice of any
one State, however small, was of the same weight as that of
Prussia. It had been much discussed whether an alteration
in that respect would not be an improvement, but unfortu-
nately, things remained as they were. The tariff contained
many reductions of duties, and many of them were not
without importance to trade in general, and to the cotton
districts. Tho duty upon cotton yarn, for instance, was re-
duced from 3 dols. to 2 dols; that was from 9s. to 6s. per
centner (1121 b). There was a reduction in the duty upon
cotton twist from 8 to 6 dols. per centner; and in cotton
manufactured stuffs from 50 dols,, which had been the usual
rate, to various rates of 30, 16, and 10 dols. per centner.
There were also important reductions with regard to iron ;
in the case of pig iron it was 25 per cent. Duties were also
reduced on woollen stuffs, mixed goods, and chemicals used
in manufactures. The export duty on rags was reduced
nearly one-half, being from 9s, to ss. per centner, which
was a matter of some importance to papermakers. All non-
enumerated goods which were formerly charged Is. 61. per
centner were now free. Considering all these reductions,
ho thought that, though the new tariff did not go the
length of a really good free trade tariff, it was a very
important progress in the right direction. They might
fairly entertain hopes that in the course of years the Zoll.
verein would go still further and appreciate the true prin-
ciples of trade, and see thegreat benefits which the adoption
of them had conferred on the commerce, finance, and gene.
ral welfare of this country. The British authorities had not
omitted to furnish the Prussian and other German Govern-
ments with those valuable statistics which the Board of
Trade had lately published, showing the progress which
England had made in consequence of the adoption of the
free trade system, The strong arguments afforded by those
statistics would not be without weight, for the Free Trade
Association at Berlin was highly appreciated, and it worked
by its branches very actively throughout Germany. Free
trade had many friends in the Prussian House of Deputies,
and the Upper House was entirely composed of free traders.
The landed proprietors and nobility wore to a man free
traders, which was the very reverse of what had been the
state of things in England. They saw that they had
no interest in maintaining the protective principle. The
difficulty of carrying out free-trade measures with the
Zollverein was not with Prussia, but with the smaller
States, such as Bavaria, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau, and
others, where the manufacturing interests were too strong
consequently
for carrying out any sugges-
for the Government. The rule hitherto adopted in
the Zollverein for triennial conferences would con-
tinuethere would be an
opportunityt
ions witht o bo r
emaintained;regard
t o
every three
the years
redaction of duties which it might
be expedient to make. It was also possible that political and
other ghtaffordother Opportunities for effecting
the same end sooner than they expected. At the expire•
tiort
of
fthe
questions might
over which
12 years
ea
r
the treaty was to extend it
was competent for any State to retire upon giving two
years' notice. Whilst the Franco-Itusaian negotiations were
going on, a separate negotiation was pending with Austria.
Austria tried very hard to persuade the Southern German
States to leave the union, and form a separate union with
her. Austria was also desirous that the treaty which
existed between her and the Zollverein since 1853 should
be renewed. That treaty secured a preferential admission
of Austrian manufacturers into the Zollverein. Without
the permission of France, which was to be on the footing
of the most favoured nation, Prussia would not make the
concession which Austria desired, and the probability was
that Austria would now lose the benefit of the nub erein
treaty, and that Austrian manufactures would be admitted
into the States of the Zollverein on the same footing as those

of England and other nations. It was considered. in Ger-
many that tho reconstitution of the Zollverein was a great
triumph of Prussian commercial policy,andAustrla felt very
sure that her commercial relations with Prussia had for the
moment been cut away, He understood that the Austrian
Ministers had expressed great readiness to treat with other
nations, and make their arrangements, if possible, inde-
dendent of Prussia, He was not very sanguine that any-
thing important would follow from that. The Austrian Go-
vernment had many difficulties to deal
kith in the repug-
nance of her commercial boy
da -
to any alterations; and
again, Austria had
tariff of the 7 ...over gone down to the level of
.the
cults ; if she had, it would have been &fa-
..ior Prussia to have prevented her and some of the
other German States from forming another Zollverein. Her
tariff was also higher than the revised tariff of the Zollve-
rein. Austria was still strongly in favour of a treaty with
England, a4d her produce Aede it important that ouch ar-

•-
rutted in 1861 to represent English interests at Berlin on
he occasion of the conference between Prussia and France.
Mr LErroc said they were all indebted for the very
ucid and valuable information which had been given by
Mr Ward ; and they were glad that, the Foreign-office was
beginning to take more notice of them as a Chamber of
Commerce. He regretted that at the conference between
Prussia and France in 1861, Prussia forgot that she had a
quid pro quo for all she could offer us in the repeal of the
corn laws (for we had few duties beyond the excise) ; and
that on the occasion of that repeal England did not avail
herself of the opportunity of obtaining a promise of a cor-
responding boon from other countries. With regard to
Austria, he was quite of Mr Ward's opinion. A short
time ago, when it was proposed that ho, as a member
of that chamber, should go to Austria to set forth the
advantages of free trade, he expressed his objec-
tions to such a course, because ho wes convinced that at
present it would be useless. He could not believe that
Austria would give up her protective system. In the case
of Russia Mr Ward had made a passing remark about the
smuggling on the frontier. That smuggling was carried on
to an enormous extent. In fact, he did not believe that the
Government got one-twentieth of the duties that were due
to it, In 99 oases out of 100 English goods were passed
through the Russian ports by means of false declarations,
which wore connived at by corrupt officials, who received a
pro rata share of plunder, something after the manner that
prize money was distributed to a ship's officers and crew.
He concluded by moving a vote of thanks to Mr Ward.
The motion was seconded by Mr HOLLIDAY and adopted.
On the motion of Mr 0. HEYWooD, seconded by Mr.
CASSELS, the following resolution was passed :—" That
the best thanks of the directors of this chamber are due
and are hereby given to Earl Russell for the opportunity
afforded of conferring with Mr Ward, C. 8., her Majesty's
charge d' afaires at Hamburg. The directors have learned
with great gratification the important concession, especially
as regards the staple manufactures of this district, which
has been made by the Zlllverein. They also contemplate
with pleasure fut thor reduction, and a bolder adoption of
free trade policy."
Tho meeting then separated,