It is, moreover, difficult to satisfy Europeans, especially Englishmen, that they can make safe investments in the Turkish dominions; but it is only requisite to enquire into the tenure of all sorts of property as held by Europeans in every part of Turkey for many years, to shew that their vested rights have never been questioned, and that when any injury or loss was proved to have been sustained to any such property, the official representative of the owner had only to submit his claim, and in every instance full and satisfactory redress
was instantly afforded; and I may refer, in proof of this, to an instance which occurred some years ago of losses sustained by the French Factory, on Mount Lebanon, owing to irregularities and outrages on the part of the petty local authorities, and others, for which ample indemnification was given.
I may state, as an additional confirmation, the case of the Rev. Goodall, the American Missionary, who was plundered by the soldiers during the Greek piratical invasion of Beyrout, to which I have before alluded. As soon as quiet was re-established, the Consul applied to the Pasha for a restitution of the stolen property, or a tantamount value. A list was made out, and so punctilious was the Pasha, that even a fowl, that had been ready trussed for roasting, was included amongst the missing articles, and every farthing was paid down out of the Government treasury. And this is the case in most instances where a European is the aggrieved party; the Governor of the district will be sure to see justice done him and the Treasury is entitled to collect the sum disbursed from the heads of the villages in the immediate neighbourhood where the theft was committed. This answers a double end; it satisfies the injured party, and ensures almost to a certainty the capture of the felon, for all the villagers are on the watch to discover the rogue that has brought on them such a taxation.
Europeans hold property after this manner, viz., they authorise a friend who is a subject of the Sultan, in whom they can place implicit confidence, to buy or purchase such and such a house or landed property in his own name; then he makes a transfer of the titles to such property to the European in lieu of some imaginary debt, usually a sum far exceeding the value of the property itself. This transfer is made in the Cadi’s, or
Chief Judge’s Court; and being registered, becomes valid in Turkish law, and is legally recognised as such. It is thus that the oldest vested European interests in Turkey are secured and possessed, and handed down to the lawful heirs of the European proprietors.
In respect both to the character of the Turks, and their kindly disposition towards strangers, I cannot do better than give a quotation from an interesting work by J. C. Monk, Esq., who has very recently visited the country, in order to illustrate their friendliness and amiability. He says—
“For my own part I look back with unmixed pleasure and gratification to the brief period of my sojourn among the Turks. Their hospitality to strangers, as well as their charity to the poor, and to each other in distress, has never been questioned. From the Pasha in his palace, and from the peasant in his hut, I have received kindness and hospitality. They are not inquisitive in demanding the business or occasion which brings a stranger to their doors, as such he is welcome; as he came, so may he depart; no present is required, and rarely is it expected; no questions are asked; attentive to the wants and comforts of his guests, the Turk seems to forget his natural insouciance until the departure of the stranger, when in return for his salutation he wishes him “God speed.”
Of one thing I am certain, and that is, that the middling and poorer classes would hail the arrival of English emigrants with rapturous delight; and in stating this, I am not without antecedents to prove what I assert. I might instance the case of the late lamented and excellent Mr. John Barker, who, for many years, lived amongst the wildest and most bigoted portion of the natives of Northern Syria (at
least, they were so when he first went amongst them); go now and ask whomsoever you will—the richest or the poorest—their opinion of the English, and, as if with one voice, they will reply—that, taking Mr. Barker as a standard, they consider them the best, most charitable, and most enlightened people that inhabit the earth—the best friends and staunchest supporters of the Sultan—and a people that they would gladly see settled around them.
Let us quietly argue both sides of the question; and perhaps as an objection to start with, the reader may urge, that, in the instance above quoted, the gentleman who thus settled in Syria was a wealthy retired Consul-General, possessing, for that country, an income equal to, if not exceeding, that of the most important Pasha in Syria, and that, therefore, apart from his wealth, the high official position he had occupied in Egypt and Aleppo, was a sufficient reason to command esteem and respect among the natives; also in the cases of Col. Churchill, who possesses large estates in the mountains, and is most active in his exertions for the spiritual enlightenment and temporal improvement of the people, that of Lady Hester Stanhope, and other Europeans. This may be correct to a certain extent, but is false in the main. Of that unfortunate lady, who once ruled with almost absolute power, the wild Arabs of the desert, the only traces that remain, are the few crumbling ruins of her humble abode at Djouni; her very name is almost forgotten, and her sun of life sunk behind the cloud of obscurity. But why was this? Simply because she lavished her money, when she had any, in vain paraphernalia, and gave large sums, as backshish, to unprincipled men, who had no sooner spent the money, than they forgot the patroness. Had she