CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE CRIMEAN WAR
Russia and Turkey—A protectorate over the Greek Christians—The question of the “Holy Places”—The Greek Church—Sultan Mahmud II. and the Tsar Nicholas I.—Jurisdiction in Turkey—Prince Menschikoff—The Alliance between France, Great Britain and Turkey—Sardinia—Alexander II.—The fall of Sebastopol—The conclusion of peace in Paris—The question of reforms—The Jewish point of view—The Crimean War and Palestine—Dr. Benisch in the Jewish Chronicle—The Christian Zionist propaganda—Rev. W. H. Johnstone—Mr. Robert Young.
In 1853 a great struggle broke out between Russia and Turkey, the immediate cause of which was the desire of Russia to force a protectorate upon the Greek Christians in the Turkish dominions. This was accompanied by a dispute between Russia and other European powers, especially France, which had arisen over the guardianship of the “Holy Places.” The fate of Palestine was involved in the issue of this struggle.
The pretension of the Greek Church to exercise the right of possession of the “Holy Places” dates back to the early days of Christianity. The Greek Church has always posed as the genuine representative of the Eastern Church, professing to have inherited its claim to the allegiance of the orthodox when the cleavage came, in the second century, concerning the proper season for the celebration of Easter, and divided its community into two distinct sections.
The alleged and proved purpose of the Church was to obtain complete and undisturbed possession of the “Holy Places,” where the Greek Church deems it of vital importance that certain religious ceremonies shall be observed, to which pilgrimages are to be made by its devout members. Some of these members furnished the Russian Government with reasons for its claims, presumably based on facts. At that period the greater part of the Christian Communities in the whole of Syria and Palestine adhered to the Greek Orthodox faith. In the whole Ottoman Empire their number was very considerable; the estimate in 1852–53 reached as high a total as 11,000,000 members of the Greek Church. In Greece it was the established religion, while throughout the Greek islands its members outnumbered those of any other Christian denomination. North of the Danube, Wallachia and Moldavia were under its sway and were considered to be under the protection of Russia.
The Greek monasteries of the Holy Land were not only under the protection and control of Russia, but were chiefly supported by loans from that country. Under this influence these communities continued to make the greatest progress possible, and put forth every effort to advance themselves step by step, leaving no stone unturned in their endeavour to raise themselves above the other Churches.
Rumours gained currency that a strong Russian propaganda was on foot. It was even said that the late Sultan Mahmud II. gave an assurance to the effect, that at the death of Mehemet Ali, the Holy Land should be given up to Russian dominion on certain stipulated conditions. Imagination had, of course, free scope in inventing myths of this kind. But at any rate there was a general impression abroad that Russia was anxious to conquer and annex the Holy Land.
The unhappy empire for which England and France had shed so much blood and made so many sacrifices continued to give anxiety and trouble to Europe. Turkey had gained much by the war in the way of security from invasion and extension of the central authority to provinces which previously had been partly independent. The Western Powers, and particularly England, waited anxiously for the reforms and progress which were promised by the sanguine friends of the Turkish cause. But Turkey did nothing. Her finances were in confusion. The schemes which English enterprise had kept going were delayed. While the Porte was borrowing at enormous interest the money required for current expenditure, it could hardly be expected to guarantee dividends on many millions sterling, and it would have inspired little confidence if it had done so. This, then, was the time for statesmen to study the question and to elaborate their plans.
Of all the evils with which the Turkish State was afflicted, corruption—in the sense of the denial of justice—seems to have been the worst. Each of the non-Mohammedan nations was permitted to appear before tribunals of its own bishops in matters of litigation in which only its members were concerned. The civil law was administered in the Greek courts; the Armenians were subject to many regulations brought from the interior of Asia. The Turkish courts were presided over by functionaries who had much of the character of priests, and the law founded on the Koran was what might have been expected from a text-book interpreted by such commentators. The literal sense meant one thing, the metaphorical sense another, and the best chance of getting justice was when the judge could find nothing to fit the case and decided according to his own common sense. Both his Scriptural authorities and his private opinions were, however, continually influenced by arguments more persuasive than any pleadings. The corruption of this sort of court was notorious, and the Christian bishops were not considered much better than the believers. As for the Frank[¹] jurisdiction, it was chaos, being void of all system. Each man came under the representative of his own nation; through this official or his deputy he had to be sued, and by him he had to be tried for any offence. If a French officer and a German shoemaker had differences concerning a pair of boots, one had to make his application through the Austrian Internunciate, the other had to respond through the French Embassy. The matter was in the first instance referred to the Consuls, who knew little of law, and the appeal came before the Ambassadors, who knew less. Commercial courts existed in some of the chief cities, and exercised a good influence; but as the country was opened more and more to commercial enterprise, and this increased with the progress of the non-Mohammedan populations, these courts became inadequate.