5. The Vakuf system must be abolished, and the accumulated wealth devoted to internal improvements, thus depriving the Ulema of their great arm of power. It is true, the government has in some measure controlled these revenues, and established a Bureau of all the Vakufs, called Evkaf, but it has never dared to appropriate, or to touch any portion of this income for its own purposes.
6. Equal taxation should be levied on property, and the tariff equitably regulated.
7. A limited free press must be established as the only means of bringing into publicity the corruptions and abuses to which the officials have hitherto been addicted.
These are the most apparent means of the preservation and regeneration of Turkey.
Broad principles may be laid as the foundation, but the edifice is to be raised and the master builders must not desert their work. For, unless these salutary reforms are accomplished by the aid and influence of the European Powers, there is no hope of the preservation of Turkey, nor is there any security for the peace of all Europe and the world in general.
The only question is, Can these reformations be effected in Turkey?
The nature of the Mohammedan religion is not essentially in opposition to reform. Modern times have proved the Koran of a more elastic nature than was once supposed, as was exemplified in the establishment of quarantine regulations; when it was pretended, that it was blasphemous to interfere with the decrees of Allah to protect human life; but as it was proved that the Koran allowed self-protection, the measure was sanctioned by the expounders of that sacred book, and accepted by the Mussulmans.
Apostasy from Islamism was formerly punished with death; but when Lord Stratford de Redcliffe interfered in behalf of humanity in the case of poor Ovagim, who was beheaded in 1843, the Koran was found to be on his side. The same lenity was manifested by the Mohammedans of Hindoostan, only a few months ago, towards an apostate, on the plea that the country was now under British jurisdiction. The reason is, that the principles of Islamism are so very simple that they can be adapted to any degree of modification and reform, especially under the pressure of circumstances—besides, necessity knows no law, not even the Koran itself.
But it may be said that the government thus remodelled will no longer be Turkish or Mohammedan.
Surely the aim of the friends of this falling empire is not to re-instate a decaying faith, but to enable the Turks and all the inhabitants of the land, to gird up their strength and stand before the world a united and powerful people, freed from bigotry and superstition, a great Ottoman nation.