The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1877-05-29

80 Turkey.

ltionaast, lsesrtaihly the most noted preach
Fer 81 the day. His lecturesin Boston last
season, though delivered on. Monday at IL
f0clock, attracted for months overflowing
crowds. He Is already engaged, at the price
OF five thousand, dollars for the course, to
lecture all next winter. In England his
lectures have been published in book-form
without his consent. He is famous man
truly. Last Monday he preiaced his lecture
by the following casual reference to the war
in Europe, and answered question which
has been asked by some Of the readers Of
the Dispatch:
| 1t was we'll for Servla, 1t was well for
Egypt, it was well for Greece, to break or
loosen the Turkish yoke. Will it not be
well for the fat lands on the Danube to
escape from under the light OF the Crescent /?
In four hundred years, beneath that peculiar
radiance, have they grown fatter or leaner?
Where are the great fruits Of Turkish
finance, politics, literature, law, philosophy,
religion, and social life? Our stern world,
up to this miraculous hour, is governed by
the law OF the survival Of the ittest. There
are renowned Mussulman proverbs which
assert that the Turkish hoof always leaves
behind it tarrenness, and these ancient say
ings are not contradicted by the Turkish
bankruptcy OF to-day. Which ought we to
fear the more for the Danube, the tread Of
this blighting Turkish hoof, or that CT the
icy paw OF the Russian bcar?r On which
side ought American sympathies to lie in
the Eastern war? British sympathies are
divided, but American sylnpathies ought to
be cooler al this distance than, the British
can be. Nevertheless, since American mis-
| sionares, whom Lord Salisbury calls the.
most remarkable men in the East, have
planted the Cross on the Bosphorus, we
haye~an interest as Christian citizens OF the
world in the question whether Russia or
Turkey or the great Powers OF Europe
shall rule these fair borders OF the Black Sea.
Perhaps my own personal feeling on this
matter is the more intense because l looked
once five DAYS through Constantinople to find
one fresh face over forty years OF age. and
looked in vain. A missionary who is lit to
be statesman, and who has lived in Turkey
for wears, told me not long since that the
unacceptable vices Of the East not infre-
uuently have to be guarded against in
Roberts College. I conversed In this city
not three months ago with the son or an
English physician who followed Lord Byron
to Greece, and who became one Of the fore
most medical advisers Of the court at Con-
stantinople. That son told me that his
father would never let him go to the public
baths alone You would drive me out Mt
that door il ] were to tell you what more
he said. Now, which is the worse, Russian
absolutsm or AIohammedan pOlvgamy and
its attendant vices? What Carlyle calls the
unspeakabe Turk Is not seen in CONSTANT
NOBLE Is well as he can he in the interior OF
Turkey or Syria. I remember how like
a Corliss engine Russian absolntism is,
and what Russia did in 1916 in driving all
missionaries from her borders. I know,
also, that 1916 is not 1876; and that even il
Russia should have right OF way through
the Bosphorus, It is not altogether certain
that our missions are to be put down there.
One~of the leading statesmen who helped
settle the treaty OF peace after the Crlmean
war told one Of the most honored mcr-
chants Of this city, in the gallery OF the
House Of Commons-I have no right to
mention names on either side-that in the
conference preceding the making Of that
treaty Russia explicitly and uniformly, and
with great detail, promised to give all the
guarantees that the Christian Powers Of the
West should desire il only she could have
the right OF way through the Bosphorus.
We have exaggerated. l fear, the danger to
missionaries IN case Russia should drive the
| Turks out OF Europe. Right Of way through
the BosphoruS is not possession or Constan-
tinople. Entire control Of that city Russia
will not obtain as easily as she burned Mos
COW!
! 1t is affirmed that Turkey is now making
reforms which she cannot carry through
without violating the Koran, and the sub
TEST thing said in favor OF sympathy with
Turkey is, 'sLet Islam be allowed to COM
NIT suicide! Let Turkey stand that Islam
may fall" Her reforms in the past have
been chiefly OH paper. Her promises Of re-
form are worth nothing among bankers or
statesmen. But what il she be driven back
to her deserts? What if she lose Constanti-
nople, as she has practically lost Cairo !?
Will this not be more effective lessenlng
OF the powers and prestige OF Mohanme-
danism in the world than could come from
her reforms, which may never come? But
even if Turkey could gloriiy herself on the
Danube politically and industrially, would
she not aid Accommodation far more by
! her commercial importance and political
weight than she will iniure it by violating
q few tenets OF 1Iohammcdanism In her po-
ltical changes:
1t is my purpose, however, to insist sim
plv on the fact Of experience that it has been
we'll for some portion of the glowing East
to escape from under the Turkish yoke, and
that therefore, il we are to be guided by
tile light OF experience, we must hope that
God means to limit more and more the
power OF Mohammedanisni, and indeed so
to limit il that by and by it shall itself see
its own natural tendencies to decay, and in
its deserts and its wildernesSes be healed OF
! its sickness by a rebound from its own
leprosies. God grant that this may be the
. result OF driving Islam back to her fast
nesses 5..
What has happened in Greece since she
was liberated from Turkey?
Forty years ago not book could be
bought at Athens. To-day one in eighteen
of the whole population OF Greece is in
school. Fifty years Of independence, and
the Hellenic spirit has doubled the popula-
ton OF Greece, increased her revenues five
hundred per cent, extended telegraphic
communication over the kingdom, enlarged
the fleet from 440 to 5000 vessels, opened
eight ports, founded eleven new cities, re-
stored forty ruined towns, changed Athens
from hamlet of novels to a city Of 10000
inhabitants, and planted there royal pal
ace, Legislative chamber, six type foun-
dries, forty printing establishments, TWEEN
tv newspapers, an astronomical observa-
tory, and q university with fifty professors
and twelve hundred students. Applause.
King Otho's German court, when he came
from Nauplia 10 Athens in 1885, lived Mt
first in shed that kept out neither the rain
nor the north wind. On Constitution Peace
in Athens, in 1913. the Hellenic spirit,
without violence, and by the display
4. .t.Ssk ,koI o..