New-York daily tribune., 1858-12-11

venson. the English President of the English Com
psny-quite different Turkish Compmy, ~ the
way. from the old one of that name-the ehief guest
and chief spokesman being Lord SIra'iord de hed-
cfe, so long the English ambassador at Cons1'hu'
nope, the services being opened with prayer p' al
English clergyman, and the health Of the Queen oil
England preceding that Of the Sultan. "na'
would Soymanthe Magnificent, or even Nohammed
", have said to such extraordinary proceedings
How plainly they mark the degree to which the
Crescent crescent no longer-wanes daily before
that Chris,endon Of which for so many centuries
it was the terror snd the dread
For the last twenty y.fvc years. the turkish
Empire has, in fact existed only through the sup
port extended to il by the Powers OF Western
Europe-those Powers having repeatedly inter-
fered 10 save IT, now from being broken into frag-
uents b. intestine connections, aud now from
being swallowed whole BY Russis. To effect this
object. the Ottoman Porte, BY the concurrence OF
the reigning Sultan and Of the protecting Powers,
has been made to renounce the whole OF Its orlgl-
nal and traditiopary poicy-the policy namely, oil
treating its Christian subjects D. no better than
dogs, and Of holding them in a subsection to their
Turkish masters. hardly less serve and complete
than that exercised over our Southern negroes.
Turkey hes acknowledge least, in words-the
great principle Of modern ciy,lizaton-the equality
before the law Of all men. whatever their creed or
their race; and in spite Of the bitter opposition OF
the Nohanl medsn fanatics-especlally IN the Asatlc
provinces, where they are most numerous. and
l. tha
Of Turkey-these new ideas have notwi,hstand-
ing all obstacles and all delays, made SEN
sibe progress. To extend that progress and
TO carry these ideas into the Interior the
building of railroads b. English capital VIII GER
tain'y be powerful instrument. Though tue
Company, the engineers and the contractors are
English, the twenty-five hundred men employed in
building this first road are Of nationalites even
more various than those included under the Turk
ish rule..-a whether Mohammedans or Christians,
Turks or Greeks, under the impulse of good wages
and prompt pay, eager for employment and work
ing together with the best good will. The rail-
road when in operation, may be fairly expected to
be attended by similar results in a still greater de-
gree; while the revival Of the industrial energy of
Turkey, so long suppressed by tue barbarous max
inns Of the Mohammedan conquest according to
which Christians were destined by God to be the
slaves of the Turks. is the main thing needed to
enable the Ottoman Empire to maintain its place
among the nations. and to undergo, as it were
new birth.
There is, indeed, that in the geographical posi-
ton of Constantinople which gives to its posses
sors wonderful teuacity of power. The matured
judgment Of Constantine clearly perceived its supe.
rioriiy in this respect, not only over Rome, bat
over Milan and Nicomeda, which Aurelian and
Msxmin had made the seat of empire. Firmly
fixed on this mpregnable spot, the Roman Empire
survived without losing its identity or continuity,
changes far more thorough and complete than that
which it is now attempted TO superinduce upon its
Ottoman SUCCESSOR. 1t became from Pagan,
Christian; from Catholic, schismatic; from Latin,
Creek withstanding, for more than a thousand
years, successive shocks from the North, the East
and the West; reyiying, after long eclipse, with
new glory III der Justinian; repusiDg Muscoyite in-
va.ion, which threatened Constantinople not less
aarrningly, nine hundred years ago, than during
the late war recOnquering more or less of lost ter
ritory from the Mohammedans, and Sclavonians and
falling at last, after struggle of eight hundred
years, only because the nations of the West lack.
ing both the foresight and the means of their sue.
cessors failed to continue that aid and protection
upon which, after the time of the first Crusade, the
lettering Grecan Empire had mainly relied The
ease of the Ottoman Empire seems after all that
can be said, by no means so hopeless as was, over
and over agaiD, that Of the ROman Empire of Con-
stantinope. Who can tell, with such hackers as
it has, how long its existence may be protracted,
or what renoystions it may yet undergo!