The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-23 00:00:00

THE EASTERN QUESTION.

( From the Times. )
Although nothing has yet been made public re-
specting the precise form taken by the objections of
Russia to the substance of the Turkish modifica-

tions, and though the manifesto of the Sultan,
which we yesterday printed, is equally reserved on
this critical point, we cannot be mistaken in assum-
ing that the true question between the two Courts

will turn upon the addition of the words "Ottoman

subjects" Co a certain clause in the original Note.
The Conference had proposed a declaration on the
part of the Sultan to the effect that he would make
the Greek Christians equal participators " in the

advantages conceded to other Christlans by conven-
tions or special ordinances." This clause the Porte
modified by framing it as follows :—" That the
Sultan would make the Greek Christians partici-
pate equitably in the advantages granted, or there-
after to be granted, to other Christian communities,
being Ottoman subjects." The purport of this
limitation will be explained by observing that cer-
tain Christian congregations exist within the
Turkish dominions, which are nevertheless not im-
mediately subject to the Porte. In more than one
place the followers of the Latin Church have ob-
tained privileges by which, in pursuance of ancient
compacts, they are removed from the sphere of
Turkish jurisdiction, and are subject only to supe-
riors of their own. The object, therefore, of the
Porte in introducing this restriction upon the pro-
visions of the Vienna Note might have been to pre-
vent the assimilation of that great mass of its sub-
jects professing the Greek faith to those small com-
munities endowed with exceptional advantages of
civil and religious freedom. It was said, indeed,
that the terms of the unmodified Note would have
conveyed to Russia something like very practical
jurisdiction over three-fourths of the population of
European Turkey, to the prejudice of the Ottoman
Government. This result the Sultan desired to
obviate by excluding these enfranchised congrega-
tions from the question altogether, and limiting the
rights of the Greek Church to an equality with
' those enjoyed by his own Christian subjects.
It must be obvious that the four powers could
never have intended that several millions of Otto-
man subjects should have been invested with the
privilege of an appeal from Turkish authorities to
the representatives of some foreign power. If this
would really have been the effect of the unmodified
clause, its force must have escaped the notice of
the conference, for the result would have been tan-
tamount to a surrender of half the Ottoman sove-
reignty, to the direct advantage of Russia. On the
other hand, it would require to be shown more ex-
plicitly what rights were still conceded by the terms
of the note after the limitations had been affixed,
and how far the Turkish modifications were opera-
tive in neutralising the provision altogether. What
are the advantages enjoyed by Latin or other con-
gregations, being immediate subjects of the Porte f
And are they such as to promise a satisfactory
amount of protection to the congregations of the
Greeks ? As the conference, on the one part, could
not possibly desire to invent the Emperor of Russia
with political authority in the Ottoman dominions,
so, on the other, it must necessarily have been dis-
posed to provide for Christians of all denominations
the utmost practicable security under the rule of a
Mahomedan Government.

The point thus raised conveys an admirable illus-
tration of the difficulties inseparable from the sub-
ject itself. In strict law, one Government has no
title to interfere with another Government, nor
can the situation of any portion of the Sultan's
subjects justify any such interposition of a foreign
potentate between these subjects and their legiti-
mate sovereign. This is the position now taken
up by the uncompromising advocates of Turkey,
and it is involved, indeed, in the theoretical maxim
respecting the " integrity of the Ottoman Empire."
The Sultan is sovereign in his own dominions ; these
dominions are bounded by known frontiers, and
within those frontiers no authority should be re-
cognised but his. This is the theory of " Ottoman
independence ;" but, in practice no less than in
truth, such views are untenable. When a Govern-
ment only half-emerged from barbarism, and re-
pudiating all sympathy with the faith and usages
of Christendom, retains in a state of debasement
and oppression many millions of people for no other
reason than because they are Christians, and this
under the eyes of Christian Europe, it is impos-
sible but that European Governments should
charge themselves with some duties of intervention
on behalf of their fellow-believers. It has been
just reported from Constantinople, as a proof of
liberality on the part of the Ottoman Government,
that in future the evidence of a Christian will be
held admissible against a Mussulman in a court of
law. But what a state of things does this simple
enactment disclose, when, in this year 1853, it has
only at last been conceded, and under the pressure,
no doubt, of existing circumstances, that a Christian
may enjoy the plainest and most indispensable of
all civil rights— a right without which it is man'-

fest that neither life nor property could ever have

been secure ! It is this imnattiral constitution of
the Ottoman State—a State in which 3,000,000 or
4,000,000 misbelievers tyrannize, on Christian
ground, over 10,000,000 Christians—that invests
other States with the privilege and obligation of
interference. Such interference must inevitably
trench upon the " independence of the Ottoman
empire," and the Ottoman empire suffers accord-
ingly. Some years ago the Turkish Government
published a State paper, in which it founded on
these very maxims of integrity and independence a
claim to rule the population of Greece according
to its own discretion. Its claims were set aside,
and Greece, with the approbation of all Europe,
was made free ; but we should like to hear this
liberation justified, or the Ottoman Manifesto
answered, by those who now maintain the " sove-
reignty " of the Sultan against Conference or
Czar.

This is the case against the Turks—a case which
it is impossible either to conceal or deny. On
the other hand, it is equally notorious that the
Government which prefers the most plausible
claim to protect the Christian subjects of tl e
Porte is actuated by motives of political ambi-
tion, and impelled by views of territorial aggran-
dizement. The interests of Europe demand that
Russia should not be permitted to extend her em-
pire at the expense of the Ottomans, whereas the
spiritual protectorate here discussed would provide
her with the most subtle and effective means of
bringing this consummation to pass. It is quite
true that the Christians of the Greek church in
Turkey require and deserve protection from with-
out. It is also true that Russia, as the chief State
professing this faith, and, in some sense, its head,
is the most natural protector of the communities
concerned ; but it is perfectly understood that any
authority conveyed to her for these objects would
be made an instrument of political intrigue, and
turned to purposes eventually destructive of Euro-
pean peace.

- The present offence, however, of Russia consists,
not so much in her demands upon Turkey, as in
her enforcement of those demands by armed aggres-
sion. There could certainly be no great impro-
priety in a requisition by a Christian State, on be-
half of other Christians suffering wrong, nor would
it be easy to impeach such a proceeding by any im-
putation of clandestine motives. But, when the
Emperor Nicholas backed his application by the
seizure of the Danubian Principalities, and pro-
claimed his intention of retaining this territory
until his demands were satisfied, he not only out-
raged public law, but disclosed the true spirit of
his intervention. As a matter of right the British
Government would have an equal, if not a better
title, to bring the Cabinet of Madrid to reason by
similar measures. On this plea, and with the pre-
cedent of Russia before us, we might advance from
Gibraltar and occupy the valley of the Guadal-
quiver until the Spanish Government had con-
sented, in the terms of the modified Note, "to
allow our fellow-Christians the same advanatges as
are granted to all other Christians, being Spanish
subjects." This proceeding would probably be re-
garded by Europe with amazement and indigna-
tion ; but it would really be little more than the
the Czar has already done upon a pretext by no
means stronger.

( From the Morning Chronicle.)

From a telegraphic dispatch which we publish
elsewhere, we gather that a judicious attempt had
been made by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to effect
a pacific solution of the Eastern difficulty. At his
instance, new conferences had taken place, and it
had been decided that the representatives of the
mediating Powers at Constantinople should declare
that the Vienna Note does not contain the dangers
which the Sultan's Government apprehend. Such a
declaration—amounting as it does to an authorata-
tive interpretation of the Note in the sense most
satisfactory to the Porte, and fixing beforehand the
construction to be placed on it by the Powers of
Europe in the event of any future misunderstanding
—is, it will be remembered, the solution which, on
first receiving the intelligence that the Czar ha,d re-
jected the modifications, we indicated as alike fea-
sible and probable. How far such a proceeding is
likely, in the present phase of the dispute, to ac-
complish the object of the mediators, is another
question. The marked moderation which the Porte
has steadily exhibited throughout the controversy
might, indeed, justify a hope that the Sultan's ad-
visers would be satisfied with an assurance which
virtually guarantees Turkeyin the rights which her
emendations of the Note were intended to guard ;
and the fact that the initiative in this proposal was
taken by the British Ambassador at Constantinople
would, unquestionably, facilitate its favourable con-
sideration by the Divan. But it appears impossible
that such a declaration, even if accepted by the