New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-10-21

outprowtb of Christianity, which Is essehtahJ
hostile to the Koran. The doctrine OF equai rlgnIs
under the law cannot live under the horah' Inc
Koran regards all MOslems as equal from inc sultan
down to the beggar. But no Christian DC Nc
prince can be the equal of the most ap]ect nioseIi
After twenty years of so-called progress sii'o VI"
Crimean War. q Christians testimony cannot and
will not be received in Mohammedan court
There is not Furopean ambassador in Turkey, nor
European merchant, nor native Chlls'ian p%ui
arch bishop or priest, nor native Christian lay
man however wealthy, educated, and personally
worthy whose testimony could stand to-day IN any
Noba1nmedan court of justice in the Turkish Ell
nire in opposition to the testimony OF the West anu
most ignorant Mosem dolt who might be plcKed up
in the cutters and hired for plaster TO testIy III
the case And should Europeans OF the mghest
standing actually testify, and the Judge as personal
favor wishes their to succeed lie VIII sonu '.
10 the street for two or three Mosiems 10 coie III az"
substantiate the European testimony oy swearing W
facts of which they are totally ignorant After the
Crimean war the Turks pledged their honor thaI
henceforth Christian testimony should DC IeoeiFo"
as valid But they were promising What WAS .n'-
nossible under MOsem law. 1t is just as hipoSsiole
to-day. Midhat Pasha and his coadJutOrs see 'hS
plainlv They declare the past to be laiiure' anu
nronose radical reform. They would leave the Mos
lam w
Moslems in their relations with MOslems to guide
them in matters of divorce, marriage, and tesla
mentarv wills. &C., but to have nothing to do with
non-Moslems. or with mixed cases between Moslems
and non-Moslems, or with Moslems in their com
mercial. civil and criminal cases. If this reform
can be effected, and the Mosem forced to submit,
there will be some little hope. Without this reform
the case is absolutely hopeless. The whole matter
looks like the expiring struggle of Islam against
light and civilization OF the final result there can
be no doubt.
THE CONDITION OF TIE CHRISTIANS.
The attitude of the Christian populations in the
Turkish Empire at this crisis deserves notice. In
Servia and Montenegro, in Bosnia and Her
zcgovna. they are in open revolt In Bull
garia in the terror of despair In Roume-
liza, Albania. and Thessaly suffering and abld-
ing their time In Asia Minor, Syria, and Mesopota-
mia they are everywhere with the exception of the
small district of Mount Lebanon which is under
Christian Pasha grooming under burdens, eXactions,
and degrading civil disabilities which hnmihate
them and will later lead them either TO re-
bchon or despair To my mind, one Of the most
painful and humiatng spectacles in the East Is the
abiect cringng and demoralized spirit OF the nomi-
nal Christians under Turkish misrule. In secret
they will curse the Turks and everything Turkish,
and vow everlasting hatred TO the oppresSor ana
blame Christian Europe for leaving them to writhe
under Mosem slavery. But when in the presence of
Turkish officials or native Moslems they
will land the Sultan and invoke blessings
on his head The journals in the Turkish
Empire conducted by nominal Christians overflow
with the most nauseating adulation of the Sultan
and the Turkish Pashas, and even Of the vilest
officials whom they and men of all sects hate and
despse but in secret the writers speak of them all
with loathng. Neander says that the people of the
East in ancient times had two characteristics, the
rebelhOus and the servile. II is 80 now. Centuries
of despotism have converted the nominal Christians
into timId suspicious, hattering, crnging slaves.
Most of the Christians live to this day IN mortal ter
ror of the Mosems, who lord II over them' and lose
no opportunity TO threaten them with wholesale
massacre. There is not a city IN the Turkish En-
pire at this hour where the Christian population IS
not in a tremor of anxiety day and night Every cry
in the street makes them start Every item Of news
from the seat of is listened 20 with dread They
long to hear of Servian and Monenegrin victories,
but at the same time they shudder lest the hoslcms
avenge Turkish defeats upon their own defenscess
neighbors. The Christians have come forward and
contributed largely TO the war fund out of absolute
fear. They know that every man who does not give
is marked man. In one Of the great cities a meet
arose and said the Christians reoiced to contribute
to aid the Sultan and he only regretted that they
could not offer their lives also! Every one present
knew that at heart he hated the Sultan and all his
minions.
The Jesuits, on the alert TO improve every oppor-
tunty for their own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, have led the
Pope to give his blessing to the Sultan in warning
upon the Slavic heretics Of the Oriental Church.
The Pope orders all Catholics in the Turkish En-
pire to fight for the Sultan and aid him in the pres
cnt struggle. One cannot help calling to mind the
Pope's blessing on Napoleon III. in 1870, when he
declared war against Prussia and went to his doom.
Only few Catholics practically affected by the
POpe's order as their number small in the reyOlcd
provinces but the Jesuits will demand new cOnces-
sions from the Porte, and have already gained n
point in the ArmenO-Catholic controversy. The
Catholics at large in the Empire, however are SIM
ply more offensive than usual in their hypocrtical
protestatons Of loyalty to the Sultan which deceive
no one and only degrade themselves. What is
needed throughout the Empire to give tone of
manlness to the Christian sects is freedom from the
calling dcspotisrn of the Turk. Fear makes towards
and slaves of them now. The Bible Will gradually
prepare them for that day of disenthralment which
is to come
KARNEsTNEss OF THE MUssULNANs.
On the other hand the better class Of Moslcms
sincerely believing this to be war for the defense
Of their gion and nation, have made many sacri-
fees to promote it. They have gwen their SONS
cheerfuly and some OF them have contributed large
sums of money. When the Rcif Of the Filth Army
Corps came from the interior to the seaport Moslcm
named Molammed Ehendi distributed among them
$500 silver, and wrote to his brother in Damascus
to find the soldiers families and distribute among
them all a supply Of wheat Not satisfied with this
he obtained 5000 small coins, "bshliks worth
% cents, and distributed them 10 the soldiers