CHAPTER XL.
THE FUTURE OF TURKEY.
The survey that has been taken of the Turkish empire, political and social, will furnish the component parts of this wonderful structure of human power and religious fanaticism. Owing to the remarkable sway attained by the sword of the Prophet, the various ingredients mingled by the power of conquest, have all been brought together, like so many antagonistic elements, to be wrought into some degree of unity of spirit and purpose, and to be rendered subservient to one great potentate, absolute and despotic.
The dread power of the Turk, ravaging and blood-thirsty, has only of late years ceased to inspire terror to the world in general, and to hold in trembling awe the subjects over which it domineered. Suddenly the dark cloud of barbarism began to disperse from this vast clime of the Orient, as Mahmoud, seizing the torch of civilization, scattered the light of science and reform over the land.
Ever since his day, the struggling beams of knowledge and truth have been casting a mistlike glow over these dominions, sometimes almost bursting into a blaze of brightness, and again subsiding into the obscurity of olden times and religions bigotry.
The principles of progress, and the maintenance of ancient and long established usages were now at war; the former supported by the semi-enlighted portion of the people, and the latter by the formidable body of the ulema or the Mohammedan clergy.
The Rayas, or Christian subjects, hitherto quiescent and despairing, now saw the star of hope and comparative liberty in their horizon, and were ready to grasp at any straw of deliverance from the storms of oppression and tyranny. The mass is in commotion—Mussulman power trembles at the vision of the emancipation of its victims. Oppressed and suffering humanity even dares to utter one vast groan, and to raise a furtive glance towards the glorious temple of liberty, and the equality of man with man.
Mahmoud, the bold champion of his country, is surrounded by intrigues, both foreign and domestic, and becomes entangled in the web of turbulence and opposition, until his soul can endure no longer, and wings its flight from the terrible field of battle.
But the iron gates of barbarism had been unlocked; and even the extreme youth of the succeeding Sultan, Abd-ul-Medjid, bringing with him a sort of regency, could not refasten the heavy bolts.