New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-01-26
LETTERS OF AN EXILE, No. Xxx.

Correspondence Of The N. V Tribune
ASIA MINOR, Wednesday, Nov. 10, 1851.
If the private and domestic virtues were
always united with the civil ones, we would
content ourselves with the wish for a social re-
volution in the East which should overturn the
present classification Of society, snatch fortune
power and privileges from the unworthy nands
that now hold them, and deliver them 10 lhe
poor but honest part Of the population. bu'
may so rash wish never be satisfied MOI III
Turkey, more than anywhere else, are virtues
and vices the property OF any one class OF So
eiety but nowhere as much as IN the ottoman
Empire, are the private and social virtues so
seldom found together. do not merely say IN
the same individual, but in the same class OF
citizens.
have spoken OF the different ways IN which
The poor and the rich Mussulman consider fam
iy happiness Love, fidelity, seli-respect' con-
stancy on one side hardness and coidn"ss Of
heart, libertlnsge depravity, corruption, forget
fitness of all tender and noble feeling, pursuit
of the grossest and basest pleasures, on the
other. But if from the family circle you pass
70 the civil or social scenes, the lot IS changed.
The poor and uncultiyated have no problty n
their transactions, 10 respect for truth, no ma
tural sincerity, no concern for the .puohc good
no love for their fellow beings. Every stranger
is their enemy and the inhabtant OF the next
province is stranger for them-a every re
lation is a coIgrade in cheating. Not"i.h-
standing their bad name, neither the Greeks
nor the Amenians are worse IN this respect
than the Turks Of the lower classes. The law
OF Nohammed has forgotten to form citizens or
even men, as | said before, it is content with
creating soldiers, fanalical instruments of one
ambitious will Human nature has supplied the
insuffciency of the law, where luxury has not
thrown It's intoxicating influence within the sane
nwn sanotorum of the heart.
But good natural feelings such as love for
one individual, and pity Tor another persons
suffering, are not sufficient to make an honest
man good citizen. You find such social VIZ
tues in Turkey only where Western ciyllza-
ton and he.spnt OF Christian society have
penetrated, that is, IN the higher classes, and
especially among the Turks who inhabt or
have inhabited Constaniinople For them,
ATeachery and dishonesty are a sign of barba-
Iism, OF which they would blush to be suspected
as a fashionable Partisan or Londoner at being
Of wearing clothes Of last years cut. They
have adopted probity aud patriotic feeling, as
they have assumed the irock coat, the tight gar
ments and the lez, and exactly at the same mo-
ment
Tins is not a worthy source for such high
minded virtues, but better have them from fash
ION than no, at all Certainly the social and
even the political morality of more than one
Pacha is still lar from perfection but II Is IN the
way Of progress, and ii is acknowledged as m
dispensable for those who aim at the highest
dignities IN the State. Ii was said long ago
that hypocrisy Is an homage PAID TO virtue.
This homage is generally paid by the puohe
funetionarles OF the Ottoman Empire, aud If we
reflect how long II Is since this has been the
ease in this part OF the world we must feel graf
flied at the amehorston.
IL is but Just TO confess also that honesty In
commercial transactions in particular mus, In
deed be of very difficult observance among the
poorer classes of the Osmanlis and the cause OF
this difficulty is the wretcied condition OF their
fortunes | DO not know single Turk, not only
Of the poorer, but even of what We call the md
die class, or the boWrgeoisie, who has any money
of his own They have. or they take ground
enough to raise their corn and the barley for their
horses, cows, and sheep. Each of them digs
sows, and mows 1t himself, not possessing the
means TO pay a workman. Thus they cannot
get more than is strictly necessary Tor their own
subsistence they have houses to shelter them
the forest is also at hand, and everybody Is au-
thorized 10 cut as much wood rs he requires
Dut still money oanno, be totally dispensed with
There are clothes, or rather rags, to be procured
bed Is an unA~~~n lnxnry IN tha country. but
mat to lie upon, and goat skin TO wrap oneself
M, mus, be obtaned. And such things are no.
where to be got gratis no horse, no COW, no
donkey is blessed with the g,f, OF immortality.
and when one OF those animals pays its debt 10
mother nature, substitute must be found
Money and nothing but money will accomplish
this. What must be done will be done saws
the sage, and SO II is in reality. The Turk fnds
money, but where and how Nowhere but from
the capitalist, or rather the kurer, and only by
borrowing. venture 10 say there is rot Turk
Of the poorer OF middle classes who ever gets
money bu, by such ruinous process Blu, how
does the capitalist lend his money to a man who
viii never repay 1t back 70 him He does not.
the poor borrower will pay the rich lender by
borrowing from another
Borrowing is the only ehsnnel in which money
is won, to visit the ragged poke, of the Turk.
lsh countryman. But if to-day he wants hun.
ered piassres. syesr later he viii wasn't hun.
dred and fifty, as the interest Of the borrowed
money runs at from thirty TO fifty per cea,. He
viii SO on IN that wretehed way TIL he owes IS
much as his bit OF land and his house are worsh.
Then his creditor SEXES them, and happy the poor
debtor whe can save his csw, his donkey, and
part Of his flock from the same disaster Thus
beTsaved Of his property, the peasan, yet does
Aot despair if his field has been taksn from him,
A. L. 4 L..