The Sun.
London, England, 1822-09-07 00:00:00

THE GREEKS.

We gave, some time ago au extract from 'an in-
teresting Work of MILLS, who seems to hare'paid
great' attention to his subject ; and, we-make no
doubt, is very accurate in this account which he
gives of the savage hostility and impllcable ran-
cour 'of the Turks, to all that bear the name of.
Christ. 'Far are we from approving of persecu-
tion in any form, on account of religious opinion
—for that would he to imitate the very people
of whom we complain ; but yet we cannot help
congratulating the present age on the fair pros.
pect of mitigating the despotism which has been
so long suffered to domineer over 'Christians ;
merely, because the other powers have been
'too much engaged in defending themselves
from the inordinate ambition of one, whom.at
length, by a spirited confederacy, in which the
people's voice was heard, they have vanquished,
and sent down to an untimely grave. Of wars,
it is true, and- rumous of wars, we have already
had a surfeit—and a general peace is the com-
mon interest of us all, which in every age has been
too much sacrificed to private interest: but who
that reads this passage will not rejoice at the
thought,that by a combination of secondary causes,
and under the control of a superior power, an in-
tolerant and abominable government is now on
the verge of ruin ; and that there will soon be
one country less, in which to be called a Christian,
is itself a sufficient cause for violence, insult, and
oppression ; and this, too, in a region which
was famed of old as the first capital of establish-
ed Christianity. How should we raise our voices
as one man with a Noble Lord, though in oppo-
sition on other points, to congratulate the coun-
try on so glorious a crisis ; whether it is to be
" achieved by Russians or by Greeks, orby both
combined." .When their energies urge them to
the commencement of a war, may they be per-
mitted to continue it without the interference of
England : with us, such a degraded people as
the Turks can have no bond of sympathy—their
depression must be a general blessing ; not only'
in points of commerce or of policy, but of huma-
nity and religion ; for to restrain a nation that
restrains others, and even its own subjects, is
not to invade, but to avenge the rights of hntna-
.nity ; and after what has been said,of their per-
seCution of Christians,- we need not say how
greatly such a crisis is to be desired for the inte-
rests of Religion.
" In every part of Turkey Christianity is tolerated on certain
pecuniary conditions, and the insatiable avarice of the Turks is'
the potent preserVative of such Christians and'JeWs as dwell`
among them. These infidels are an inexhaustible treasure to
the Government 'and to powerful individuals, and protection is
dearly purchased. Indeed it is a principle of Moslem law, that
infidels must pay double taxes to the State. The first effort of
Mahommedan education is to root in the minds of children an
abhorrence of Christians and Jews;_ and infants are taught to
distinguish them by the name of Ghiaour (a Persian word, sig-
' nifying worshipper of fire.) The Christians are treated by the
Maaommedans with a cruelty which varies itself in a' thousand
forms. They are interdicted from the pomp of precessions,
the sound of bells or of psalmody, and every public demonstra-
tion of worship. In the cities of Islamism, the Christian must
erect no new churches, and heavy fines to the Government in-
crease the expence of repairing the old. The' public and pri-
vate buildings of the Christians are measured by a diminutive
standard; in the streets and baths they must give way to the
meanest of the people ; their very dress is commanded to be dif-
ferent from that of the Moslems, and in but few cities dare they
violate the law by appearing on horseback. According to the
Mahommedan jurisprudence, a Moslem may be put to death
for the murder of a tributary infidel; but it would be difficult
for the friends of a murdered Christian to obtain legal justice.
The wives of the Musselmans must not associate with the wives
of Jews and Christians ; and a mark must be:seton the dwel-
lings of the infidels, in order that beggars, who come to their
doors may not pray for them. In the greetings of these dif-
ferent people, the word &darn is carefully avoided by the Turks,
on account of its affinity to the sacred words Eslam and Mos-
lem, and happy is the Christian if to the most. courteous salu-
tation of his Mahommedan Lord is not added the epithet of in-
fidel or dog." • " . -
It would 'be endless to explain," says Sheridan, " the
mutual relations of the Turks and Greeks,; but some idea may
be formed from the-fact that a Turk was never capitally pun-
ished for the murder of a Greek ; and that the Turks; who al.
ways go armed, did not suffer this impunity to be a brutum ful-
men, but frequently shot Greeks on very slight *Vocation:
This gentleman-like nonchalance ort-the subjectof Greek lives,
was imitated by the Government ; and a bill, which beats the
most sanguinary of our game-laws, has, ere now, ISeerti in the
Divan 'read a first . time," (though not ordered to be print-
ed,') for the effectual extirpation of the Greeks,' Many of
the annoyances to which the Greeks were subject appear trivial,
hut they were grievous from their every-day, occurrence, as the'
most exquisite torture is said to be a succession• of _mere drops
of water falling on the head. Among these Tttrkish drOPs of
water may be classed the prohibition of wearing a turban, or red
slippers, or bright colours. Travellers laugh at the anxiety of
the Greeks to escape these privations, by purchase or office ; but
suppose a case of analogy ; that on the Conquest the Saxons of
England were for ever forbidden, on pain of 'death, to wear long
coats; and that to this day, the distinction of the two races
having been carefully kept up, their descendants walked about
in short jackets. We at first suppose, that only a boy on his
adthission at a public school could pine after long skirts and a
falling collar ; and this infliction of jackets would seem an in-
adequate reason for three quarters of the inhabitants of Eng-
' land hating the other fourth ; but if each jacket was an order
payable at sight to the bearer' for cuffs and kicks ad kfinitum,
we should cease to wonder at the wearers being irritated."
"God forbid that I should become the apologist of such
enormities as have disgraced the Grecian arms. If they had
not occurred, I should be now imploring attention, not to their
sufferings, but to their unshaded heroism. I shall not imitate
those who asserted that a British army—a disciplined British
army, would have done as much ; I shall only contend that the
Greeks were stimulated by wrongs unprecedented. in intensity
and duration ; that the mode of warfare at first precluded all
influence of the enlightened few over the brutal multitude ; that
the cruelties which they inflicted, horrid as they are, were not
eqUal to those which they endured; and, lastly, that they have
made some atonement for the irrevocable past by subsequent
deeds of mercy : it is this alone which now induces me to advo.
cate their cause. Six months since I would not have employed
even this feeble pen in their behalf, not even after the massacre
►itt'Sdib had-so depressed the seek of Turkish