The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1876-12-06
Future ereatnes, of Cos.tantlnopIe

Viewed commercially, the site Of Constan-
tino pie is scarcely less than perfect. Even
before the Christian era her commerce was
very considerable. Daring the days of the
great Roman emperors her commercial pros
perity was uurivaled Under the sultans,
all Asia Minor, Syria, Arabia, and even
India, as we'll as Southern Europe, have fed
her commerce. And to day, while her wa
rers are always white with sails AID her har-
Dor lined on every side with the smaller yes
sells of commerce, the capsCious harbor Itself
is filled with steamers bearing every European
flag, which come and 90 almost every hour
of every day, bringing the products of Euro
pean industry, and carrying grain, wool, mo-
hair, fruits, and various products of Turkish
manufacture to European ports.
It may be said that the commerce of sew
eral European cities aud of more than one
American city is greater than that of Con.
stantinople. But it must be remembered
and here is long list of counts most impor-
taut of all to come into our reckoning -that
Turkey is without roads; that the Turks
themselves have not the least commercial en-
terprise that the commerce and trade OF
Turkey are nearly all in the hands of for
eigners and of her own Christian population;
and we can see reason why Constantinople
is actually behind many Western cities, ma
turally far less favored than herself. Tur-
key has almost unrivalled resources, which
still remain bat very partially developed to
commerce. Give her a strong, wise, liberal
government, a government which shall exist
and be administered in the interests of the
people, honestly and economically; give her
roads which shall facilitate the bringing of
her produce of every sort to the sea ; encour-
age her agriculture, work her mines, develop
her manufactures, and there would not be a
city in the world where commerce would en-
brace so many articles and keep alive trade
so vast and various.
Look at any map of the Eastern continent,
and it would be seen that the natural COM
mercial centre not only of almost all Turkey,
but of Persia and Of vast region bordering
on the Caspian Sea, also is CouStantinople
But with matchless commercial facilities
and large undeveloped resources, Turkey
has been, till this day, SO wofully misgoVern-
ed, her resources, instead of being developed,
have been so remorseleasly d aimed; her
rulers, instead of living aud governing for
the people, have SO uniformly grown fat on
their hard-earned gains; the cost and ex-
pense8 of imperial palaces, haremg, ironcads,
ETC., have been so enormous, even while the
people in some of the finest and not distant
provinces have been actually dying of star
walton, that in place of assuming the COM
mercial position which rightly belongs to
her, Constantinople is as regards her Moslem
population, like Rome in the later years of
the decaying empire, the centre of an empire
in which are conspicuous efemiDacy and lux
ury on the one hand, and misery, degrade
ton, and despair on the other. The heart
beats fast with fevered heat, the extremi-
ties are cold or paralyzed, and the govern
ment itself seems on the very eve Of bank
ruptcy. Of Constantinople as commercial
centre, one sadly thinks of "what might have
been"
But her commercial possibilities still re-
main, and she may have future as brilliant
in the twentieth century as her maSchless
situation and natural fitness deserve Should
Gods Providence grant to Turkey worthy
government, the prosperity of Constantine
pie will develop as naturally as her golden