Thus we find this empire only advancing in progress, the more wonderful since there has been comparatively so little reform in the actual government. Even the Sultan has abrogated his absolute and despotic sway; the once powerful viceroy still sits at his right hand, but no longer unfettered; and the various religious and civil functionaries, although the same as the creatures of yesterday, are themselves amenable to the tribunal of justice and reform, where the spirit of Mahmoud seems to linger as a reproving and condemning monitor.
The opposing influences to all innovations were strong; the very soil rank with bigotry, conceit, and prejudice, and the powers in actual possession of the commonwealth self-willed and cunning. Hitherto a comparative isolation had created natural walls, within which despotism had its unmitigated sway. But as distance became annihilated throughout the world’s dominions, as oceans dwindled into lakes, rivers into little rills, and broad acres into mere pleasure gardens, before the mighty achievements of modern invention, all natural barriers disappeared.
As in ancient times the walls of the great city of Jericho fell at the blast of the trumpets of Joshua, no sooner did the echoes of the shrill whistle of the mighty steamship reverberate along the shores and among the seven hills of Stamboul, than were annihilated the frontiers of a barbarous and spiritual despotism, in the stronghold of the Mussulmans. Civilization from Europe was no longer stayed, but boldly stepped into this natural garden of the world. To stem the current would be to perish in an overwhelming vortex; and the very government was obliged to conform, to compromise, and to make treaties of peace with this new element, social and political progress.
Not only in Turkey, but universally, the spirit of domination has been pre-eminent, until the march of human improvement awakened the community to a sense of their own power and individual rights. Thus the elements of democracy have been arrayed in opposition to the oppressions of despotism, threatening its utter annihilation, and forcing the ruling powers to terms of capitulation. The Reformation checked the authority of the Pope, a charter was granted to the English, and their colonies in America soon grew to a great and independent state.
Though the European states cannot boast of that degree of independence they have ofttimes struggled for, yet their rulers and potentates have ever been, and are still, forced to don the mantle of Liberty, and maintain the guise of Justice in their various administrations; thus proving the supremacy of the spirit of democracy.
But despotism, fostered in the bosom of the little dukedom of Moscow, has maintained its unbroken sway, and spread over the vast territories now known as the Russian dominions.
It has engulphed Finland, Crimea, Poland, Bessarabia, Circassia, Georgia and many other provinces, and by its continued and systematic encroachments upon Turkey, even threatened to overwhelm Europe itself. Local circumstances have combined to favor her designs, and render her aggressions successful.
The remarkable spirit of Mohammedan fanaticism led the Turks on to conquest. The neighboring countries were all subjugated, until the thirst for war enticed them into Europe, where victory still followed their banner. But the very nations that they conquered, many of whom were induced, by force or otherwise, to make their abode in the Turkish dominions, tended by degrees to undermine their power. With them came various religions and creeds, conflicting with each other, and creating the bitterest animosities. Apart from this, the vast extent of their territories, without any of the modern facilities of intercourse, rendered the empire unmanageable by an unenlightened and barbarous government. The army was numerous and powerful, but turbulent and refractory, usurping the power of governing to themselves, as attests the well known history of the Janissaries, who could only be subdued by the bold daring of the illustrious Mahmoud. A new army was organized, on European principles, and various civil reforms attempted, but without any beneficial result; for the neighboring nations, especially the formidable power of Russia, the inveterate enemy of Turkey, were anxiously regarding the waning decline of Ottoman supremacy.
Russia, who never missed an opportunity to expedite the rain of this rival empire, has at various times waged war upon the most trifling pretexts. Upon the termination of the Greek insurrection, and immediately after the destruction of the Janissaries, a most aggressive and iniquitous war was commenced, in which the European powers acted as sleeping partners. The Albanian, Servian, Egyptian and Kürdish rebellions were each successively instigated by Russian and Austrian emissaries, or secret agents, until the whole country became the arena of party intrigue, and the direst confusion, thus realizing the plans of its enemy, and rendering it an easy prey to Moscovite cunning.
To Europe, now awakened to a sense of her own impending danger, the division of Turkey seemed the only alternative, since that empire showed evident symptoms of decay and inability to resist so powerful an enemy as Russia.