Burlington tri-weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1852-1855, 1855-01-27
coxplrIoN OR ruRKEY,

to very great extent, by free trade, but
there is annie cause for the decay of the
Turkish Empire, other than this. Aside from
the fact that her population is made up Of
different people speaking different languages
and having different religious creeds, there is
cause enough to account for her decay even
in the collection of her taxes. Ali the land
in the Ottoman Empire pays the laad tax in
kind, and it never amounts to less than one
tenth Of the gross produce of the soil besides
all the labor of gathering ,threshing and win
moving the government share. The whole
grain crops, in consequence Of oppressive
government regulations, frequently remain
two months exposed to the open air in the
threshing floors, merely to prevent the cult
vator from extracting some portion for the
use of his family, without paying the govern
ment the tenth on this trlae. From this ex-
pcsure loss acrucs estimated to amount 10
five per cent. upon the whole crop. And the
farming population is thus kept idle around
the threshng floors for two months every
year.
1t may be remarked, says an article in
Blackwood for November, that at an earlier
period of the Ottoman government, when
numerous population existed which is now
destroyed, when many, vineyards, orchards,
and mulberry plantations, and olive groves
fourished, which have long been annihilatcd,
when many Mahomedon merchants and capi-
talists, made fortunes by transporting the
produce of the interiors; the nearest depots,
no appa ent inconvenience arose from pay
ing the land tax in kind. The evil common
ced when the central government seized the
local revenues, destined for the maintain
ance of roads, and bridges, and allowed both
of them to fall to ruin. The increased ex-
pense of transportation then, enabled few
capitalists to .monopolize the whole trade
in all articles of export. The ruin of the
landed proprietors and asr:culturalists soon
commenced. The profits of these trades,
were first shared in and monopolized by the
Pashas, and their Bankers and dependents.
Their oppressive re: ulations ruined the land
ed proprietors, and exterminated the peas
antry. Families were impoverished-villa
ges disappeared, and in many extensive dis
tricts the whole rural population abandoned
the cultivation Of their native soil to emil
crate into the nearest commercial cities.
There is no doubt that the military admin
istration is far superior at present to the civ
| il. Yet even in the conduct Of the war, par
ticularly on the Asatic frontier, the public
attention has been drawn to the venality and
corruption Of several officials holding high
rank in the army. The alarming extent to
which venalty, corruption, and fraud are en-
grated in the whole administrative system
of the Ottoman Empire, cannot BE- denied
| by any person who has ever transacted bus
mess with the finance department in Turkey.
The Seljouk aga may be a disinterested gen
tleman, but the Ottoman official is generally
an incarnation of avarlce and rapacity. Since
the time of Rustem Pasha, the celebrated
grand vizier of Suleiman the magnificent,
every pashalc. and in eed every government
Office in the Sultan's dominions, has been an
nually put up to sale. The best ministers
of the sultans have been satisfied to sell the
public charges at a fix price, but far the
greater number have ha )itually put them up
to auction. The evil consequences Of this
system have bee2 lamented by every eminent
historian since the time of the great Sulei-
man. and they are considerably them to have
been the principal cause of the decline of the
Ottoman Empire. On the other hand, tie
enemies Of the Sultan and the Christi IN SUBJ
jects of the Porte appeal to this deep-seated
corruption as proof that the regeneration
of Othomon society is hopeless, and that any
addition to the resources of the empire
would only increase the fortunes of indivvid-
ual ministers, without au gmenting the strength
Of the government. There can be no doubt
that, unless the verality which now prevails
among the officials of the central adnin;stra-
ton be extirpateJ, all endcavors 70 improve
equitable tribunals, would be Intellectual.
Some of the warmest friends Of Turkey
assert that the condition Of the Christian
subjects Of the Porte is already 50 favorable
that Turkish oppression has no existence,
and no further reforms are required. The
Greeks and their friends, nevertheless, de-
clare that the insupportable tyranny OF the
Sultan's admin,str ton is the sole cause of
the revolutionary spirit which prevails a
mong the Greek population, and generally
among the orthodox clergy. Both assertions
are incorrect. The weil-attested diminuton
of the productions of the soil and of the pop
ulation, both in European and Asiatic Tur-
key, for the last six generations, proves that
the oppression Of the central government has
destroyed the capital vested IN land by a
slow but sure process Of consumption. The
Ottoman Empire presents us with living
example of the governmental policy by which |
mnprial Rome deporulated and inpoyer-
ished her provinces, and rendered them thin
ly peopled and heavily taxed countries before
they were invaded BY the Goths and Van