The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-16
AUGMENTATION OF TURKEY.

q Reforms are Not Impossible--If the
 European Governments Would Only
 Help Them Along.
 When first mixed with Turkish socl- ety, in 1857. just after the end of the Crimean war, found the government and the people beset with all the de- fects and drawbacks of Asiatic super stltlon, ignorance and fanaticism. Schools hardly existed, Christian man was the object of aversion and horror, only because he was giaour and our European light and learning was either ridiculed or detested. To- day great deal has changed in that direction. While 40 years ago there was hardly one Turk out of 100 who could read and write French or English there is hardly to-day young man of the better class who is not conyersant with one or several European tongues, and who has not studied history, ge- ography and many other branches of modern science cultivated in Europe.
 Forty years ago Turkish language and literature were grooming under the heavy letters of Asiatic bombast and unWieldness and quite unintelligible to the plain Turk; whereas to-day the Os- manli dialect of the Turkish is simpli- fled and purified from the incumbering Arabic and Persian clements. The lit erature has acquired quite modern shape and tendency, our novels, our po- etical productions, our books of science and art find eager translators; and while formerly there were only one or two daily papers, to-day there is re- Snlnta hlo lf,oh of doi1u IVpa1klv and monthly papers, which find their read CTS in spite of the oppressive censure
 of a peevish and despotic government.
 Even the female portion of the popula- tion has awakened from it's lethargy and is giving unmistakable signs of progress. Schools for girls are daily in
 creasng, Turkish women are taking to literary pursuits, and a Turkish pa per for ladies, called Khanimlara makhsus Gazeta (Journal for Ladies) enjoys a particular favor in the harem. could easily multiply the proofs that the mueh-censured Turk is not ayerse to western civilization, and if he never | theless is illlagging in the aarkreceas ofAsiatic life and certainly much behind his Christian neighbor, 1t is only the 1 system of government and his incor- rigible, despotic rulers who are the | main cause of all his misfortunes and of all his retrogression. The sultan, al- | though acting apparently as ruler as- sisted by ministers and councillors, is undoubtedly one of the most autocratic and absolutistic princes that ever sat on the throne in Europe and in Asia. l While his predecessors contented them- l selves with the supreme power and used to acquiesce in the decisions of the l sublime porte, Sultan Abdul Hamid has | totally divested his ministers of all ruling power; the grand vizier and ministers are mere puppets in his | hands; nobody has any right of opin- I ion; and when invited to the councils held at Yildiz, they have constantly to nod to the will of their master; they have to admire his sagacity and shrewdness even iii cases where they
 are convinced of the detrimental issue
 of the matter in question. Considering,
 however, that one man alone, however l gifted he be, can hardly carry the man. l fold and varied state burden upon his
 shoulders, the sultan, while refusing to seek the advice of qualified statesmen, has surrounded himself with coadju-
 tors taken from the lower and most ig- norant class of his people, men without
 knowledge and character and who,
 actuated by mean personal interests. care little about the welfare of the na- tion and have mostly contributed to-
 ward the horrible ctate of things and the utter confusion under which Tur- key is actually suffering.
 The main feature in the character of Sultan Abdul Mamid being diffidence and jealousy, he does not even trust to
 the aforesaid class of his servants. He uses a a host of spies to satisfy his
 avidity about the private doings of his subjects; for he suspects everywhere
 treason and believes everybody bent | upon trains and plots against his own life and power. The result of this de- testable system manifested itself in the
 collapse of order; for palace creatures
 sent abroad as civil officers in the prov-
 inces were backed by the clique even in
 their most nefarious doings; and as the
 money extorted from the poor and op-
 pressed population hardly suffices to
 pay the mercenaries of the palace, the
 army and the civil officers are left for
 10 or 15 months without pay and ex- | pOSeu lO tlle ulTeSI pElVdtioiiS'
 Il Such state of things cannot last for
 any length of time; and it is evident
 that the only remedy left, namely, the introduction of reforms, has become
 more imperative than ever Unfortun-
 ately, however, the absoltistic tenden-
 cies of the present sultan, and not the
 religious fanaticism of the Turks, as
 generally asserted, are the chief hin
 drance in that direction. Abdul Hamid
 abhors every measure by which his
 boundless autocracy would be curtailed
 and his absolute will controlled. Wher
 pressed by the representatives of the
 foreign powers he takes refuge in false
 and misleading steps in appointing
 muavins-that is, Christian assistants
 to his own creatures in the provinces
 who have not the slightest power tt
 act, or by getting up some sham coun.
 cil of Mohammedan and Christian
 members who have neither the courage
 nor the will to bring order into the rot
 ten administration. AS long as the
 valis, that is governor-generals of tht
 provinces, depend upon the palace, ant
 as long as the sublime porte Is not re
 instated in the power it enjoyed during l the reign of the last three sultans there can be no hope for an ameliora tion, and all meetings of the European ambassadors in Pera will be barren O. | rac,1It The rrotayf of tho nqlacp oIinI1i