The Hawaiian gazette., 1873-01-08

ser current which, in spite Of the upper
current, will really give the direction to politics
in Turkey for the future They tLiI
compliance on this point wheh k u
so long in power, and which was ks,
to hs intimacy with General IT,
are convinced that it viii be IL
any future Grand vizier will Je ape
himself They see in the sudden d,,m-,,r,
Niidhat this under current, which exeEl Uni
-a4er and produced q reaction in iavor.of tie
disgraced Mahmoud OF, at any rate, some OLD
who will be equally paut on the question of the
succession. Rashdi, an honest but rather indo-
lent man, is considered a stop gap, which will be
removed as soon as the man is ready who is to
carry out this idea which many pretend to have
become a fixed one with the present Sultan.
Well may foreign Minister be seized with
CONSERVATION when he hears of this idea. for the
introduction of lineal succession to the Throne
would go to the root OF social Institutions in the
East, and could scarcely be carried through with
out the danger Of great commotion but these
dangers will scarcely be avoided by killing the
question by silence" as the German saying is.
1t will crop up do what We like, for it is in the
nature of things that it should reappear as it has
done all through the history of the Ottoman
Empire. So long as by the systematic removal
of coaterals the lineal succession from father to
son was practically secured, the question was in
allegiance and troubled no one, and, strange to
say, the power of the Ottoman Empire reached
its climax but when, in the latter half of the
18th century, the old house rule Of the dynasty
of 0sman was broken through, the history of
Turkey becomes the history of struggle among
coateraIs, until Mahmoud, the father of the
present Sultan, was left the only scion of the
house. If the question did not arise under the
late Sultan, it was that from Incidence he could
not muster energy for resolution. The wish
existed, and cid Reschid was not a little stag
gered when one day Sultan Abdul Medjid said
to him, Now we have changed everything, we
have abandoned our old ways and adopted the
institutions of European countries /; but it seems
to me we forgot the basis which gives stability
to these institutions, and that is the order Of
succession by primogeniture How can there be
stability where a number of relatives are in con-
slant competition for the Throne, and how can
the Sovereign feel much interest in the welfare
of his country if it is not his son, but stranger
who succeeds him 81
1t is not surprising that what an indoent man
only thought and dreamt another more energetic
should attempt to make a reality. As regards
Europe in this matter, 1t has only the choice of
two evils-namely to encourage de6utive set
Element of the question now, even at the risk Of
some commotioH or else to prevent, if it can, all
action as long as possible, and then see the qaes
ton arise in much more angry shape. The late |
Sultan has, if ! remember right, left seven or
eight sons all, or most Of them, older than the |
eldest son of the present Sultan. They are all |
of different mothers, each of whom having az
interest in pushing the fortunes of her own child,
considers the others as strangers and rivals.
They are near enough in age to become rivals,
aud what prospect this opens you may imagine
from what occurred a few years ago The present
Sultan was iIl-it was whispered far more go
than-peopIe knew; and there came tempter to
one Of the sons of the late Sultan, and said to
him, "The Pahishah is i'll and dying il it we're
not for your brother you would, Tomorrow, per
haps, be Sultan" and the same evening there
,ame friend to warn the heir presumptive not
10 accept the invitation to dinner which he had
received from his haIfbrother. And this hap
,ened in the year 1867. shortly after the sultans
'eturn from his European journey. Does this
lot open vista Of Aighanistan on the shores Of
he Bosphorus?