Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1853-10-19
Tbe Power OF the Turks.

The New York Courier in an article reviewing
the present state of affairs between Russia and
Turkey, says-sIt is an-egregious mistake to sup
pose that the race and tribes which make up the
Turkish nation are either degenerate or enemIn-
ate. We have been among them; we nave seen
them; we know them. There is not in all Eu-
rope or Western Asia a people capable OF wag-
ing such desperate warfare. They are strong ana
hardy in body and are skilfnl in the use of weap-
ons. Their religious fanaticism is easily exclt-
ed, and when once fairly aroused, it knows no
bounds. In war they deem sacred, they rush
to bloody death as the surest road to Paradise.
Thus their Koran teaches land with them faith is no
idle word-It is fate. This very Russia at whose
name all Europe trembles, they have before met
alone and single-handed. Through the whole
of the last century the possession OF Turkey was
the constant object of Russian ambition, but yet
in spite of several wars that object was not gain
ed. From 1903 to 1912 the Muscovites, some
times bringing two hundred thousand men into
the field, fought the Turks, but gaiaed little. AT
Roudschouk they sustained one of the worst de-
feats OF modern times, so not without reason dld
the Turkish General write to the Sultan that he
had taken enough infdel heads to make bridge
for the souls of the faithful from Earth to Heaven.
From 1926 to 1928, Turkey held out against the
efforts of all the principal powers in favor of the
Greeks, and in the last year conducted two cam
paigns against the Russians without aid from any
quarter. The very fact that the Turkish race
penetrated from the deserts of Arabia to the
banks of the Loire, and that it established in
Europe an Empire which has endured for four
centuries -four centuries this very year--in
spite of attacks again and again repeated by the
two strongest of the military powers of Europe,
shows an inherent vigor of no ordinary kind
And Turkey now is not in her decline, "I as
sert,'' said Lord Palmerston, not long since, in
the House of Commons, ''without fear of contra
diction, that Turkey, far from having gone back
i i1ifhi fho 1act has do
progress and improvement, in every possible way,
than perhaps was ever made by any other country
during the same PERIOD With the advancing
civilization of the Turks their military resorces
have increased; and yet their temper has not be-
so softened by civilization, that it will not,
when provo ked, exhibit all its original ierceness
True, their religious spirit is not what it once
was; it has lost its proselyting zeal; it wages no
of conquest; but it lives; it feels; it can be
goaded to madness; it fight to the last ex-
tremity. Turkey is yet able to repeat the deeds
of the Oemanleys. And it must be RENE embered
too that she has allies in all the the Mahomme-
dams of Western Asia and Northern Afrca-who
far excel in their aggregate even the mutitudin-
Gus hordes of the Muscovite empire. From Tu-
mis-, Egypt, Syria and Persia-from the sands of
| Lydia to the SHOWS of the Caucasus,-contingen
are already on the march for the scene of strife.
The Four Powers may side with Turkey or they
may desert her-it matters not, the war will
| SpeculIy come huSSld may muster an over
whelming force, may make demonstration which
it would seem madness to resist-it matters not,
the Turks will fight, and fight desperately. The
Sultan, surrounded as he is by the representa-
tives of Western Europe now ''beseeching," and
now "besieging,'' cannot yield if he would. He
could scarcely say yes, before he would find his
brother on his throne. He has not yet given the
least sign of yielding. He has exhibited a spirit
throughout, that will secure the respect of the
whole civilized world He is in the right. Even
those who have even been laboring to move him
from his position would freely admit it. Being
right, he has a claim to the moral support OF
Christendom. True he is a Mahommedan, but
in all Continental Europe there is not one coun-
ty in which all religions SO freely tolerated.
Russia calls itself Christian, but its religion is not
the religion of Christ for it is prosecuting reli-
gion 1t is religion which makes its converts
at the point of the bayonet 1t is religion which
shows mercy to neither Protestant nor Catholics
neither Esthonia nor Poland Russia would
not be in possession of Turkey week, before all
the Protestant mission establishments, which
have accomplished such great benefits, would be
visited by the same exterminating stroke which
fell with such fatal effects upon the missions in
Georgia. Turkey, whether she is aided or not in
the coming struggle by any of the Four Powers,
will have the sympathy of all men of just. liberal
and Christian principle; and if she falls, she will
fall with honor.