The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-11 00:00:00

-4

I

~.

THE FUTURE OF TURKEY.'

Amid the din of war, or in the more awful sus-
pense which precedes its first outburst, it may
seem unseasonable to criticize institutions or re-
commend financial experiments. But, as far as
human knowledge can foresee the future, the hos-
tilities which now threaten the world will have no
common duration, and, even should peace be re-
stored more speedily than a thinking man sari
venture to hope for, still its securitr must de-
pend on the elevation of a moral barrier agains
aggression, and on the enlightenment and ,pres-
perity of those who, after all, must really decide
their own destiny. The material improvement a
this country cannot begin too soon. If the war
were a thing of six months, we might be content to
await its termination ; but in the approaching
struggle of years, with the whole commerce of the
East swept away, with',vast armies to be fed, clothed,
paid, and pensioned, with few of the Ottoman pro-
vinces strongly attached to the Imperial rule, some
notoriously disaffected, and some in actual revolt,
it becomes us to see that what resources remain
are duly developed, and that above all, facilities
are made for the supply of food during the coming
trials, not only to the armies, but also to the po-
pulation, whose attachment or disaffection may
turn the scale at the crisis of the struggle. The
Sultan's rule is virtually limited to Constantinople,
and his counsellors are eliglitened and liberal only
under the eye of Ambassadors and Consuls. Funds
have been squandered and orders disregarded on
this very subject of internal communication, and it
is not likely that a better state of things will follow
except under the authority and through the close
supervision of men more upright and active
con-
figuration than
Pashas and their satellites. The geographical
of the country, indented with inland seas
and possessing capacious harbours, may be in part
the cause of this neglect of land communication ;
but the time is past when these can be considered
sufficient, and the attention of those in authority
must be sternly called to the facilitation of internal
traffic, as the first condition of real improvement.
Closely connected with this subject is one which
has already received some attention at home. We
are every year sending to the extremities of the
globe bands of emigrants, the outcasts of our
crowded shores or the hopeful pioneers of a new
state. But why should they expatriate themselves
to regions so distant that a letter only gives the in-
telligence of what is long past, and to revisit their
country seems an idle dream ? Here, within a mo-
derate distance of their place of birth, is a land
blessed with all that can afford the means of wealth
and happiness. Here the emigrant does not find
the blazing sun and sandy plains of Australia, nor
is he exposed for months to the insufferable cold of
a Canadian winter. He conies to a portion of the
earth the geography and productions of which are
known ; he establishes himself in the neighbourhood
of civilised nations, on the banks of thegreat-sea
which is the historical centre of the earth ; he is on
the highway between East and West ; by his exel-
tions another generation may see the commerce of
the Old World, from Cadiz to Canton, take -the . •
route of the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf ; and
he advances the interests of the mother country by
linking more closely to her these Indian depen.-
dencies with which her greatness is bound up.
Vast tracts of country in the neighbourhood of the
noblest harbours, and watered by navigable streams,
only want the hand of the cultivator to yield an
abundant harvest. The corn of Russia, the wool of
Australia, and the wines of France might be ri-
valled by the productions of Anatolia and Syria,
and the deserted cities of antiquity once more raise
their heads in the centre of a new race and a more
durable civilisation. The only obstacle to the
regeneration of these glorious regions is the
domination of an effete religion and an in-
capable race. The authority of the Mahomedan
ecclesiastics extends over three-fourths of the
land which forms the fairest portion of the
Turkish empire. By the system of vacoufs the
church has gradually drawn to itself all that is
most valuable in the territorial property of the
country. The wealth of medieval Rome in Wes-
tern Europe did not approach the proportions to
which the resources of the Ottoman church have
attained in our own day, yet the last has become
great by the same means, and through the influence
of the same social conditions. On the conquest of
new 'rJtory a part has always been set aside by
the Turks for the service of religion ; but these
lands form but a small part of the ecclesiastical
possessions, which have accumulated for centuries,
chiefly in the following manner :—As the possessor
of land, whether Osmanli or Rayah, was exposed
to the plunder and oppression of his superiors,
while the property of the church was in-
violable, he was willing and was encouraged
by the class who were both ecclesiastics and
lawyers to conclude a fictitious sale, by which
the land was nominally transferred to the church,
while the original possessor received the benefit—
on these conditions, however, that if he died with-
out children the land became altogether the pro-
perty of the church, who thus, in return for her
protection, purchased the reversion, on certain
conditions, of vast tracts of land. By the extinc-
tion of families most of them are now ecclesiastical
property, and this accumulation of wealth in. the
hands of the most bigoted and intolerant priesthood
forms the chief obstacle to any improvement, and
is one of those deep-seated evils which neither
Mahmoud nor Abd-ul-Medjid have until now dared
to touch..---Constantinople Correspondent of the
Times.

RAILWAY TRAFFIC BETURNO.

LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST BAILWA.Y.—
Traffic return for the week ending April 8,
1854 £12,963 1 7
Corresponding week last year 11,492 19 9
Total of the half-year to this date, 1854 139,978 3 0
Total of the half-year to this date, 1853 122,377 3 1

LONDON AND SOUTH-EASTERN RAlLWAY.—Traffic re-
turn for the week ending April 1, 1851 ..... - 216,017 /2 1
Corresponding week last year 13,731 7 7

Increase in 185:4

22,310 4 6

MILITARY CAMP, OR TRAINING GROUND.—The autho-
rities of the War-office, having obtained a grant from
Parliament of 100,000/., fur the purpose .of purchasing
land for occupation by the army, have bought about
4,000 acres of land at Aldershot, Farnham, and Ash, in
the counties of Hampshire and Surrey, about 35 miles
from London. From the bold elevations and undulating
character of the land, it is admirably adapted for that
purpose. The Basingstoke Canal, with some contribu-
tory jakes at Ash, affords opportunities of display in
crossing rivers, and exercise in various other military
tactics. The nearest railway stations from London will
bo the South-Eastern and the South-Western, both at
Ash, and within a mile of the ground. It is intended to
encamp the militia ou the ground in the ensuing month.
Parties are already building and speculating on the im-
proved value of land in that locality.
COMMUNICATION WITH TURKEY.—The communica-
tion with Turkey has further been improved by the es-
tablishment of a supplementary mail service between
Marseilles and Constantinople by packets of the French
Government. French mail packets will hereafter leave
Marseilles for Constantinople six times in each month,
viz. on the Ist, 6th, 11th, 16th, 21st, and 26th of the
month. The packets leaving on the Ist, 11th, and 21st
will call at Malta, Syra, Smyrna, Mytilene, the Darda-
nelles, and Gallipoli, and those leaving on the 6th,
16th, and 26th will call at the Piraeus, at Messina, and
Gallipoli. The latest period for posting in London let-
ters intended to be forwarded by these packets, will be
the evenings of the 3rd, Bth, 13th, 18th, 23rd, and 28th
of each month ; but when the month has 31 days, letters
may be posted on the 29th instead of the 28th. On the
eovethneringhsanwdh, e
nl eat
nt eyr s
of mustte d
abt ee s pa
bo sotveed
poecnisitehde
fparllevoinousi a
Sunday.

ST. PETERSBURG.—The advices from Russia continue
to exhibit a total absence of reaction from the rapid de-
terioration of the Government paper currency. At St.
Petersburg strong evidence is given of the view enter-
tained by the commercial classes as to the value of the
statements attempted to be diffused, that a stock of
bullion remains in the fortress equal to 19,000,0001. or
20,000,0001. sterling, by the fact that the bank-notes for
which this gold is represented to be the security have
fallen to a discount of 12 per cent. The last quotation
of exchange on London was 331 d., and there is every
indication that the Czar can hope for no financial re-
sources to enable him to maintain large armies out of
his own territory for any lengthened period. Mean-
while, mercantile disasters of considerable importance
are taking place. Ilja Stepha,noff, a cotton-dealer at St.
Petersburg, has just failed for about 70,000/., together
with M. Jensen, also a broker at Riga, for about
40,000/., while at Moscow the three firms of S. Alexe-
yeff, T. Mathias, and C. Kyber, the amount of whose
liabilities is not yet known, have likewise suspended
At Riga the weather was mild, and the ice was expected
to break up about the 7th of this month.
ves-
sels had arrived, and some of them wouldSab:evelxirkeeleytet;
take away cargoes. At Revel, also,
it
taswes of tallow,
hemp, exports would yet be made.
hseenmtpt,o&rci.,,uswsieareanidn
sphirio)pgeredszsi:tmeSil:t.:Pr.cetersburg, to be
tlfil)shr d story of the
oAuTra Evßi
Village,"
,eby s 11. aAr y
genuine
old school, has become very rare ; but Miss Mitford,
the most truly English of our popular authors, has
provedby
that the style has lost none of its
charm, and the inci-
dents and character none of their interest. Such a
heroine as "Katy" would make the fortune of any un-
known writer ; and the various adventures of the tenants
of "The Hall," and "The Great Farm," afford materials
for novel-writing which even an inexperienced constructor
of stories must have rendered effective. In the hands
of the authoress of " Our Village," the narrative be-
comes one of the most attractive that has been pub-
lished for some years ; and its literary merit, in con-
junction with its purely national character, must recom-
mend " Atherton" to every reader of taste iu the
kingdom.