Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1877-05-30
Turkish Misrule.

The absolute sovereignty of the
Sultan, who creates and removes Off
GERS at will, ana is master of the lives
and property of all his subjects: the
absolute depotiSm of the Subordinates
for every aga, even, is as deSp0tlc III
his own territory as the Sultan in the
capital; the weakening OF the central
power: the great amount of land held
in mortmain; the crushing burden of
taxation; the false theories of com
merce; the incidence of the ruling race
and the wide spread venality OF Office
holders-all these have produced their
natural effects in the fair lands of the
Ottoman-the very garden of the
world. The most glazing and ruinous
result is the rapid depopulatlon Of the
country. Here, again, figures Will be
found more powerful than words. The
three divisions of the Ottoman Empire
were calculated, in 1856, to comprise
LISP, 04S square miles, with a popula-
ton of 30, $50, 900, or twenty lnhabl-
tants to the square mile. Compare
this with England, which, by the
census Of 1861, held BAT individuals to
the square mile. And yet the lands of
the Turk are the finest on the earth,
where the genial sun and the winds OF
heaven give "a charming climate and
luXuriant soil, yielding to even the
Oriental huSbandman hundred for
one, and capable Of producing four
hundred for one; where the rocky
mountain-sides are not made waste by
the rigOr of the skies, but can nourish
rich crops of grapes and olives; where
the sun. rising beyond the sacred
Euphrates, strikes his first beams on
the crescent flag, and, sinking at night
beyond the Danube, sheds his last glow
on the Observation-Disclosures of Western
Turkey. The Ottoman Nation is the
richest in the world III extent OF coun-
try, variety of climate, and fertility Of
soil; it is the poorest III the world III
population and productive industry.
Nine-tenths of Mesopotamia, the rich
est soil under heaven, and capable of
supporting in itself forty million souls,
is a wild and desert waste. Not one
seventh of the alluvial lands III Wal
lach:a and Moldayia was under culti-
Walton quarter of Il century ago; and
to-day, from the wasting tyranny of
Ottoman rule, the long country inside
the Balkan Range stretches away,
desolate and deserted, to the very
gates of Constantinople, sending up It's
wild, coarse grass to the horses girths.
1t is in the great plains, both in Eu-
rope and Asia, that the most ruinous
waste and saddest decay are seen. The
cavalry of the tyrannouS PaShas has
swept the country as with a broom. 1t
is a Turkish proyerb that "Where the
hoCf of the Turkish horse has trod no
grass will grow" But in the rugged
mountain ranges, where the horseman
breads to enter, and where leaden
death flashes from every rock, the pop
ulation is steadily and rapidly increas-
ing. Unable to escape the oppression
of the Pashas, the jewellers on the
plains have gradually left their rich
and sunny fields and ned to the noun
| tains. One may ride for days over
| the broad levels, meeting with few
people of any sort. and with scarcely
! one Turk. But, if he cares TO turn his
horse into the wild paths OF Servia,
Bosnia, Bulgaria, Lebanon, and the
/ Taurus, he will find the mOuntain-LOl-
lows and the wales laughing with the
iov of harvests, and every nook merry
with the abundant children of free
men.
1t is mainly the Tayahs, however,
who take refuge in the hills. The
Noslems, who can no longer endure
the tyranny of their own rule, tiocE
chiefly To the towns. The country i!