The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-05-13

liament-and Midhat in exile will have the
opportunity to observe in operation the POI
litical principle in virtue of which good
institution prematurely given to people
who cannot understand or appreciate it is
exposed to the assaults Of its enemies and
perishes for the time, and is secured. ifever,
only ages later than it might have been
under the auspices of more judicious adj
vocacy.
Midhat Pacha and the party OF which he
is the best known leader looked abroad in
the world and saw the glory of England
they looked at home and saw the degrada-
ton and helpless Indebtedness OF their
own country, and they thought that
all that was necessary to make Turkey
like England was TO give her con-
stituhon and a Parliament. For pol
itician to be oblivious to all the other
differences between England and Turkey
and to heed only the single difference that
one has a constitution and the other has
none, and to proceed upon that fact in
sweeping and extensive reforms and revo-
lutionary measures, is only to furnish one
more illustration of the wild unreason with
which States are agitated in nearly all
climates. But the constitution was obtained,
and now it is in full collision with the forces
that it might have been foreseen it could not
escape if the liberal party in Turkey had been
able to distinguish between a constitutional
country and a country with constitution.
In any time, in peace as well as in war, the
parliamentary system must have been set
aside whenever it came into collision with
the essential spirit Of the Ottoman State
that is, whenever it should cease to dawdle
with the superficial facts Of politics and take
hold upon the State in reality, and when
ever it did so collide with the spirit Of Mus
sulman government it must perish. This
happens earlier than it would have hap
pened in n peaceful age simply because war
has precipitated the collision that but for
war would have been deferred till the sleepy
Ottoman tumbled by accident some day
upon the discovery that this Parliament was
nm invention Of the Western intidel which,
if it survived, must destroy the system
founded by his prophet. In the refusal Of
the Sultan's government to admit news
paper correspondent into his army may
be seen an easy illustration of that intol-
Grant spirit that makes a constitution inn
possible.
Constitutionalism, government in its
Western sense; administration Of the State
with IN enlightened regard for the welfare
of the subject; the supremacy, as guides, Of
laws and political principles the concep-
ton of political right--all these are incom-
patible with Islamism. These and Islamism
ore irreconcilable quantities. And land
could no more produce by its own growth
parliamentary and constitutional system
until it had absolutely ceased to be q land
OF Islam than the physiological re-
sources Of an animal could produce
fms and gills unless that animal
had ceased to live on the land
and in the mir. Islamism and constitution
alism are antagonistic not merely because
constitutionalism is inseparably associated
with Christianity, for nearly all the dogmas
of religion as such are capable of moditica-
ton with change of names. Although Mo-
hammedanism and Christianity are opposite
in their nature, as the spirit of one demands
it's propagation by the sword and by
slaughter, and the spirit of the other de-
munds nothing, but pleads for human
ity, justice, gcntleness, pity and peace.
although these are so opposite, yet
there is a sufficient relationship in the
forms and main conceptions Of both religions
not to sunder them utterly, as is proved by
the fact that Mohammedanism has some
times been as gentle rs Christianity, and
Christianity sometimes rs fierce as Moham-
mechanism. But States founded on the Mos
lem idea are an extreme projection Of its
fierce spirit, and States that exist in the
presence Of Christianity are SO far protective
in the other direction that at least their one
fundamental aspiration is for right and
justice TO be secured by institutions and
laws.
Christian States, therefore-that is to say,
constitutional States-cannot exist where
the Moslem spirit prevails; nor Moslem
State in the presence of the antagonistic and
necessarily destructive institutions that are
the product of what is conveniently called
Christian civilization. And this is, politi-
cally. the real secret of the disquiet that has
prevailed for centuries in all the lands where
these two schemes Of social and political
organization have been in contact Islam
ism, in its essential nature, is the primitive
system. These systems stand on force
and authority and set of rules
which some man OF superior talent, half i'm
poster and half lunatic, pretends to have
derived directly from God Almighty. AS
the system of the primitive world this is
still m appropriate government in all those
parts OF the Ottoman Empire where men live
nearly as they did in the early ages Of hu-
man history but to call this government