The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1877-07-21

The Sofia, from a cloistral seclusion
and scholastic obscurity, as far as the
world knew anything about him, has
loomed suddenly, within the past year,
into political Importance and general
fame. He is a queer successor of the
savage and corrupt january. 1t was not
unnatural that, in a barbarous state like
Turkey, "a military caste should arise,
who alternately protected and deposed
Sultans; and, like the corrupted legiOns
of Rome in her decline, should do their
violent King making and upsetting for
money. The wonder is, how the feeble
line of the Osmanlis ever managed to get
rid of those ferocious Janizaries; it was
done, not so much by force as by sub
tlety and intrigue, weapons familiar to
Oriental brains. The Sofia, on the other
hand, is not bred to war; he is student,
and not only that, but student, for the
most part, of theology. He aspires to
belong to the Ulema-the great caste of
priests, lawyers and law professors; he
wishes to be a m0llah or a multi, to be
an aristocrat, to be rid of the bother of
paying taxes, and even to be exempt
from military service. Yet he has de-
throned two Sultans within year, and
threatens a third; he clamors about the
palace, and conspires in the monasteries;
he breaks into the new tangled Turkish
Parliament, and Overawes the Deputies;
he holds himself over Constantinople a
terror and an object of perpetual dread.
Why is it that, in countries not free, the
students of colleges should always be a
political power, formidable to the strong
est governments, and the objects of
peculiar care and suspicion to the gen.
darmerae? 1t may be libel on the Ger
man States; but it is stated, as a reason
why the dUels of the German students
are winked at by authority, that this
diverts their attention from poll
tics. All through the annals of
European struggles we find the stu.
dents playing an important and not sell.
dom decisive part. Calvin and Copp
owed much to the support of the under
graduates of old Paris University; and.
from their time to this, the students Of
the university and the Sorbonne have
not only been always in advance of their
age, but very troublesome youths for
Emperors and Ministers to deal with,
When, on one occasion, they Kissed Ma
poleon Ill, his throne almost rocked.
They nursed the flame of political her
etics like Roger Collard, Laboulave and
Guizot; and of theological heretics like
Ernest Renan. So, too in Germany, the
students have almost always been rad
icals, and are many of them at this mo-
ment republicans, sending very out
spoken professors and doctors to the
Reichstag and Diet. There is some diff
ference, however, between the German
and French students and Sofas. In
Turkey the civil war is founded on the
Koran, and the Koran is the book of a
church militant. The priest, or moLJah,
is the interpreter not only of the Moslem
creed but the Turkish law. He is polit-
ical as well as religious. An Islam be-
ing fighting creed, creed which en-
joins defense to the last and at all
hazards, and the Sofas being its pecul-
lar guardians and protectors, their inter-
ference in State affairs, even to violence,
is accounted for. A Sultan who is weak
is useless to Islam; it is the Softa's duty
to get rid of him So long as he cannot
defend the Church of the Prophet his
person is no longer sacred; and the Sofia
by replacing him by an able " defender
of the faith" becomes a patriot, and is
applauded by the people. -AppIetonS
JOUrndL