The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-11 00:00:00

li' LPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

~,:4:, ~ BOITSE OF LORDS—(YESTERDAY.)
• ' fre‘
- 14'11 .. ' '', a LoEI P CHANCTLLOB took his seat on the woolsack
4:.' , f4A
.. S.rOok.,
-. '.l - -, - ~,'. ' ; 114:-Brii 1' Ag HARROWBY preseated a petition in
4,, :.'.. :fainiiiorthe,establishment of reformatory schools.
- ..I't 7:- -! n' ' iatirOis of LANSDOWNE presented, on behalf
-c...,,e ~eft the -Bishop of Durham, a similar petition from the
a - pit, &Durham.
Lord BROUGHAM laid on the table a bill for assi-
milating the bankruptcy and insolvency laws of England
and Scotland, which he stated had obtained the general
approval of the mercantile classes of Scotland, as well as
of the Scotch judges. On the motion of the noble lord,
the bill was read a first time.
COUNTY COURTS.
Lord BROUGHAM, in moving for a return of the
fees received by the County Courts, deprecated the
system of paying the judges and officers of those courts
out of fees paid by suitors, instead of out of the conso-
lidated fund. He stated that no less a sum than 125,0001.
was extorted in one year from the suitors for that pur-
pose. .

CHRISTIANITY IN THE EAST.

The Earl of SHAFTESBURY, in rising to move for
a paper in continuation of those formerly presented on
the state of religious liberty enjoyed by the Christians
under the Turkish Government, said that a few days ago
there appeared in the public papers a document purport-
ing to be a manifesto from the Emperor of Russia which
contained this portentous assertion, that England and
France, siding with the enemies of Christianity, had de-
clared war against Russia, which was combating for the
orthodox faith. It waa not surprising that England and
France should resent such an imputation, and should
require an explanation, and that all Europe should do
so ; be. more particularly those who had been engaged
in administering the affairs of some portions of the reli-
giov.e societies which existed in England and upon the
coedinent, and who were prepared to give and would
asive the most positive contradiction to this assertion of
the Czar. He would undertake to prove that Turkey
had done everything to advance, and Russia everything
to suppress the progress of Protestant Christianity among
millions of mankind. His firm belief was that from first
to last there never was one particle or atom of sincerity
on the part of Russia in the negotiations which had been
carried on—(hear, hear)---and if the Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs had been an angel of light he would
not have brought those negotiations to any other issue
than had been arrived at. (Hear, hear.) There was
but one dominant feeling in the mind of the Czar—which
was, to obtain absolute dominion over the Turkish Em-
pire. (Hear, hear.) This was evident from the haughty
assumption of protection over the rights of Christians
in the East, and the haughty rejection of the me-
diation of the Four Powers. ' It was also evident
after the production of the Menschikoff note, and th e
style and tone of the despatches of the noble lord con-
ferred the greatest honour upon the Government, and
added to the dignity of the country. The Emperor of
Russia was not the first man who had laid to our charge
an unholy alliance with the Mussulmans ; he had taken
it second hand from an accomplished member of the
other house, only adding that he was combating for the
orthodox faith. He did think it surprising that a gen-
tleman of sagacity and knowledge like Mr. Cobden should
have treated this subject as if an alliance with Mussul-
mans was a thing unprecedented with Christian powers.
We had had not only defensive but offensive alliances
with Mussulman princes in India. The hon. gentleman
talked as if Indian history had never been written, and
as if we had never been united with INlusselmans for the
recovery of the power of Egypt. There was a very wide
distinction between an alliance with any power for the
assertion of a great principle and the maintenance of
order, and an alliance with that power for the purpose of
aggrandisement. Law, justice, and order were things so
sacred in the eye of God that they must be respected,
and Turkey happened to be the battle field, and the
Turks happened to be . the immediate object of this
principle. It was not a question whether the Turks
should remain at Constantinople, but whether we
should uphold an empire said to be in its dotage, and
maintain the rights and independence of the weaker
power, and whether we should put a limit to the
encroachments of an ambitious power that seemed dis-
posed to darken all that was light and subject all that
was free. (Hear, hear.) As far as he had heard he
most heartily wished the Russians were well north of
Archangel, whence they never ought to have issued
(Hear, hear.) And the Turks were well on the eastern
side of the Euphrates. But since we were called on to
say which we preferred, he declared that he infinitely
preferred Turkish to Russian dominions, for under the
Turks they possessed facilities for the progress of the
civilisation of mankind which were utterly denied within
the territories of Russia. He would attempt to describe
the growth of civilisation and Christianity, and the de-
velopment of the intellect, and the increase of wealth,
with all the accompanying advantages which had taken
place in the last 20 years in the Oriental provinces sub-
ject to the Turkish empire. He did not deny that in
the Turkish dominions, notwithstanding what he had as-
serted of the greater freedom allowed to the Christian
population and the great progress which they had made,
that there had been occasional outbreaks of violence ;
but they had been local and not general, and had been
caused by some ill-conducted fanatics and never autho-
rised by the Government. The great enemies of Chris-
tianity in those provinces was not the Turk, but the
Christian himself. A large proportion of the spoliation,
torture, and imprisonment to which Christians were
subjected, had been instigated by Christians against
Christians, or else had been the work of the Greek
priesthood, with a view to obtain power over the
laity of their own community. He would detail
the gradual growth and progress of intelligence and
civilisation in Turkey during the last 20 years. It was
stated upon the authority of all those most conversant
with the subject, and could be proved by records, that
the diffusion of the Bible had been almost incredible, and
that had been the precursor of civilisation and free in-
stitutions. Wherever the Scriptures had free course,
and were freely admitted into the minds of men, there
civilisation was sure to exist, and longings and aspira-
tions for liberty. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Layard made a
statement in the House of Commons which had been
confirmed by the American missionaries—namely, that
there were 40 towns and villages in which there were
distinct congregations of protestant seceders from the
Greek church. Twenty-five years ago not a single
seceder was to be found, but now there were 65 regu-
larly appointed protestant teachers ; and in Constanti-
nople alone there were 14 schools belonging to these se.
ceders. The consequence of this had been that men's
minds had been set to work, and there had been an in-
crease of intelligence, accumulation of wealth, and great
aspirations for truth. The efforts of the laity to eman-
cipate itself from the thraldom of the priesthood had
been strenuously opposed, but it had been nevertheless
very successful, and was going on rapidly at this mo-
ment. Now, to what was all this to be attributed ?
Why, to the singular, to the unprecedented liberality of
the Turkish Government. (Hear, hear.) In Turkey
free scope was allowed to every religious movement,
and there had been no hindrances except from the
Greek and Armenian priesthood. Associations,
open and recognised, were permitted for religious
purposes. Printing presses were allowed in Con-
stantinople, Bucharest, and other great towns,
where the scriptures were printed in every Oriental
language, in the Turkish language, and for circulation
among' the Turkish people. There were forty Bible
depots in Turkey, where Bibles were freely sold ; and
colporteurs were allowed to perambulate the country
and citeulate the Scriptures. Now, let him contrast
this with what was done in the Russian dominions, and
from that they might infer what would be done if Tarkey
fell under the sway of Russia. No colporteurs were
allowed to enter Russia—no scope was permitted for re-
ligions movements, and no printing presses were per-
mitted for printing the Bible. There were no versions
of the scriptures allowed to be imported into Russia, ex-
cept those in the English, French, Italian, and German
tongues, not a single copy of the Scriptures in the mo-
dern Russ, the language of the people, was allowed to
pass the frontier. Copies of the Scriptures in that lan-
guage were forbidden to be imported under the severest
penalties ; and since 1823-4 there had not been printed
a Russia a single copy of the Scriptures in the modern
1111188. (Hear, hear.) There were no colporteurs or
„Oln_er persons allowed to perambulate the country as re-
"glcue • teachers • and he might mention another in-
"r...ce of remarkable bigotry. Although the Emperor
°l._,Allesia had 2,000,000 of Hebrew people in his do-
zahlt °u33 he did not allow to pass his frontier for
use, one $
' I copy of the Scriptures in the
Hebrew. t„, ing e •
ngne. If this was the spirit in which
the 11°Peror governed Russia, what might they
not
expect if he obtained possession of the Tur-
.terhlnnol But this great autocrat who coin-
vat ao %roe
ly for " the orthodox faith
not more Uziliraef
ble to missions not missions to
disturb- the
°f the members of the Greek
church, but inissioce
to the heathen in his own domi-
nions—the outcasts or his
own
to the lowest depths of idolatry and ignorance. He be-
provinces who were sunk
lieved that no missiona ba4
the
wal?e?tin sent from the Greek.
Church to the heathen in
and steppes of Russia.
The Moravian brethren, as et Ci
knew, presented
the best specimens of Christ-407ZZ Y
and in 1823
they sent a mission to Russia, butthryaries,
were not allowed
to baptise any of their converts, in consequence of an
old law that no heathen should be converted to Chris-
tianity, except by the Greek priesthood. The London
Missionary Society undertook a mission in Siberia and
on the frontiers of Chinese Tartary, in which undertaking
they received the countenance of the Emperor Alexao,.
der ; but in the year 1841, after 20 years' expense
and
labour, their mission was suppressed by an order of the
Russian Government, that Government conceiving that
no man ought to be converted to Christianity, except
through the medium of their own priesthood. On the
other hand, the Turks not only gave full liberty to mis-
sionaries, but by the promulgation of edicts allowed every
one to follow those religious views which he believed to
be right. He would say a few words upon the manner
in which Russia had exerted its influence in the Greek
Church. The house should bear in mind that the autho-
rity in that Church possessed civil as well as eccleasiasi
tical powers—acting, indeed, to a certain degree as
aagistrates. In relation to this, Mr. Consul Wood,
one of his despatches, spoke of the cruelty and intrigues
of the Greek priests, who, said he, were instigated by
the Russian Consul-General. So again Mr. Welles-
ley wrote in 1846 to the Foreign Minister, complain-
ing of the injuries inflicted upon, and the hardships
endured by Greeks, through the persecution of their own
Church. Yet this was the state of things which the

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