THE- CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM DANIEL SEELYE GREGORY X' s^ f.'i fj-. ^' Oo. .0^ , . „ '^- * » 1 ':'h/^: .^"v •.V -5^. > I fl . '-^ • " '■• V ^ \^ •-^' Oo. .6^ vv s^V'. •^c*., ^:'^^\* .C.V .xX^ ^^' A^^' ,^^ ^.S' •4 ''^>. V^^ \^ j^ o *-> ^^\^jr?y^ ' .v^ .j^ 0~ % „^^ * ., ^ ^ -V^ <^^ V 1 « i, -<, -^ ,.n\^ >.. v^' '*c>0^ .X^ \^ %^fcS^.* .^^ ■^ ■-^ -; 'fi ^\ ^\ ^,. v^ ^^ / .^r^S-^^^ ', •- .s^"^. -,\' ^j ■0' .H v; .V '^^ .'\ THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM OR THE EASTERN QUESTION From Its Origin to the Present Time Bv DANIEL SEELYE GREGORY, d.d.,ll.d. Ex-President Lake Forest University; Late Managing Editor ^'Standard Dictionary" ; Editor "Homiletic Review"; A uthor of ''^Christian Ethics "/ ''''Key to the Gospels ",■ etc., etc. THE Hbbcy press PUBLISHERS 114 FIFTH AVENUE NEW YORK 84445 Library of Conpreae Two Copies Received DEC 5 1900 Copyright (fltrv No.Ci..$.9./.^.i^. SECOND COPY UeKvored to ORDER DIVISION DEC 22 190Q "^ 31 \ Copyright, igoo, by THE Bbbeg iPre06 in the United States and Great Britain All Rights Reserved. To the memory of that uncrowned king but most royal soul, PEINCE ALBEET OF ENGLAND, Who did his best to prevent the iniquity of the Crimean War, and of "ALEXANDER THE LIBERATOR," that noblest monarch of his age, who once at immense cost liberated the Christians of Turkey, and to England's "GRAND OLD MAN," Needing no earthly crown, who has so often championed the cause of the Christian against the Turk ; To the innumerable Christians of the Ottoman Empire who have won the martyr's crown because the beneficent purposes of these men and their helpers have been balked by shameful and unrighteous diplomacy; To the sacred cause of the millions of enslaved and terrorized Christians that are helplessly awaiting their fate at the hands of the "Great Assassin"; To the hosts in Christian America, in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe that are or ought to be de- voted to the high task of their deliverance; This essay is respectfully dedicated. DANIEL SEELYE GREGORY D.D., L.L.D. PUBLISHERS' NOTE. TJiis book is an outgrowth from an article written by Dr. Gregory for the " Princeton Review " {^January, iSyS), wJdcJi the Margins of Salisbury {now Premier of Great Britain) pronounced the ablest discussion of that side of the Eastern Question published in Europe or America ; and which probably brought a Jiigher price than zuas ever before given for such an article. The publishers feel confident that the present volume will more than fulfil the reputation of the article. It is luminous, many-sided aitd masterly in its marshal- ing of the facts in the case, and will become the final authority on this S7ibject. Some of the facts in connec- tion zuith Dr. Gregory' s biography are summarized as follows from the " Schajf-Hersog Encyclopedia " and else- where : Born at Car me I, N. Y., August 21st, 1 8j 2 ; grad- uated State Normal College, Albany, N. Y., October jd, 18^0 ; Princeton University in iS^y ; Theological Seminary, Princeton, i860 ; licensed April, i860, by the Presbytery of Bedford, N. Y. ; ordained at Galena, III., February 2jd, 1861 ; pastor of South Presbyterian Church, Galena, 1 860-6 j ; Second Presbyterian Church, Troy, N. Y., i86j-66 ; Third Congregational Church, New Haven, Connecticut, i866-6g ; Presbyterian Church, South Salem, N. Y., i86g-'/i. Dr. Gregory has won his chief success in liter attire and as an educator ; par^ ticularly as a teacher of the philosophical aiid mental y Vi PUBLISHEES' NOTE. sciences, in which he has often been named, with the late Dr. McCosh and the late Dr. Hopkifis, in the first rank. His " Christian Ethics'' is a text-book in many of the universities and was used in Yale and Princeton. He was instructor in English and Rhetoric in Princeton University, 18^8-60 ; Professor of Logic, Metaphysics and English in the University of Wooster, Ohio, iSyi- yS ; President of tlie Lake Forest University, iSj8-86 ; L. P. Stone Lecturer in Princeton Theological Seminary, 1884.-8^ ; Managing Editor of ^'' Standard Dictionary,'' i8^o-g^, doing all the final work of definition and re- vision ; Editor of ^'- The Homiletic Review," the most widely circulated homiletic periodical, from i8g^ to the present time. We subjoin a number of Dr. Gregory's most important books: ^^ Christian Ethics," 18^^; " Why Four Gospels ? " 1876 ; " Practical Logic," 1881 ; " The Church in America a7id its Baptism of Fire " {in conjunction with The Rev. S. B. Halliday), i8g6 ; " Christ's Trumpet Call to the Ministry" i8g6 ; " TJie Crime -of Christendom" {the present work), igoo. Dr. Gregory received his A. B. from Princeton University in i8s7 ; A. M. in i860 ; D. D. in 1873 ; and LL. D. in i8p6. THE ABBEY PRESS. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. PAOK I. Constantinople and the Eastern Question. .4 1 (I.) The City and its History 1 (II.) The Eastern Question— "What Is It ? 7 II. The Peoples Involved 13 (I.) The Turk: His Character and Rights 13 (II.) The Russian : His Character and Purposes 24 (III.) Great Britain — Her Character and Course 40 (IV.) Other Races and Complications 44 CHAPTER II. The Greek Revolution 48 I. The Greek Race ani Fate 49 II. The Greek Rising and Independence 53 CHAPTER III. The Crimean War— Its Aims and Results '. 58 I. Continued Turkish Barbarities 58 II. Russia the Only Obstacle 60 III. The Rousing of Russia, and the Course of Diplo- macy 67 IV. The Crimean War and its Immediate Results 71 V. Remoter Results of the Crimean War 76 CHAPTER IV. The Slavic Crisis and the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. 79 I. Twenty Years of the Hatt-i-Humayoun 80 (I.) The Turkish Principles in Full Operation 82 (II.) Some Specimen Butcheries of this Period 85 iii IV CONTEISTTS. PAGB II. The Crisis that Led to Russian Intervention 98 (I.) The Diplomatic Struggle between Christian Europe and " Commercial England " 99 (II.) European Turkey at the Opening of the War 117 III. The Eussian Intervention and theResults of the War. . 124 (I.) The Way for Intervention Opened 125 (II.) The Russian Advance and Victory, and British Jin- goism : 131 CHAPTER V. The Armenians in the Eastern Question 139 I. The Armenians Themselves 141 II. The Armenian Church 148 III. The Present Situation and Condition of the Armen- ians , 153 CHAPTER VI. The Armenian Crisis and Massacres 179 I. First Year of Butchery, 1894 179 (I.) Events Leading to it 180 (II.) Massacre at Sassun 189 II. Second Year of Butchery, 1895 '. .199 (I.) The Bloody October of 1895 202 (II.) The Bloody November of 1895 209 (III.) The Slaughter of December, 1895 217 III. The Third Year of Butchery, 1896 220 Massacre at Constantinople 222 IV. Summary of Results and Responsibilities 229 CHAPTER VII. The Latest Phase of the Eastern Question 239 I. The Cretan Uprising, and the History that Led to it 240 II. The Intervention of Greece, and the Conduct of the Powers 246 CHAPTER VIII. Conclusions, Possibilities, and Responsibilities 256 I. Some Established Conclusions 256 (I.) The Failure of Diplomacy 256 (II.) The Hopelessness from the Concert of Europe 260 CONTENTS. V PAGE (III.) Demonstrated Impossibility of Reform by the Turk 269 CIV.) Things Essential to a Righteous Solution 277 (V.) A Question of Morals rather than of Politics 288 II. The Present Situation and Some Possibilities 290 (I. ) The Elements Involved in the Struggle 290 (II.) The Ultimate Outcome 295 (III.) Suggestions of Responsibility 306 MAPS. I. Ethnographic Map of Turkey in Europe before the Russo-Turkish War 117 II. Map of the Armenian Plateau 143 III. The Region of the Recent Massacres 166 PREFACE. The Eastern Question has within the last half decade reached the extreme stage of complication and seriousness. The present deadlock of European diplomacy has resulted in securing for the Sultan of Turkey a free hand in carry- ing out the settled policy of Mohammedanism, in the exter- mination of his Christian subjects from Mt. Ararat to the Balkans, — a policy in which the butcheries of the Armen- ians, the harrying of Crete and Macedonia, and the Grseco- Turkish War are but incidents. Abd-ul-Hamid has been made practically master of the situation, and is astutely working for the Eenaissance of Islam. And the Christian world has shown, by failing to attempt to put a stop to the dreadful condition of affairs in the Orient, that up to date it has not grasped the situation, and has adequately felt y neither the grip of responsibility nor the impulse of duty in the matter. Christendom sorely needs to be made acquainted with the actual state of things in the Orient. There is the fact that, in the course of recent years, the Turk has butchered in cold blood and with all the accompaniments of incon- ceivable savagery well nigh 100,000 Christian men, women and children, and has subjected several times that num- ber of the living to unspeakable demonstrations of brutality, torture, lust and degradation, often worse than death it- self. There is the further fact that, by the grace of so- called Christian Powers, with his trained and mobilized PEEFACE. ai*my of more than half a million men, Abd-nl-Hamid has the power to repeat at any time the same diabolical work on the scale of his Empire. The apathy of the Christian world demonstrates that these facts need to he brought home to its consciousness and its conscience. But it is true that if the Christians of Christendom were fully aware of the awful realities and of their own obligations, the political obstacles in the way of applying the proper remedies would seem to be well nigh insurmount- able. Twenty years ago that distinguished Orientalist and scholar, Mr. F. W. !N"ewman, clearly showed * that the British Ministry had by slow degrees usurped the place of the nation, and did not hesitate even to declare war in secret Cabinet without consulting Privy Council or people. The intervening years have crystallized and intrenched that policy of despotism in all the European nations under shelter of militarism, and the Governments have, through the " Concert of Europe,^^ bound their Christian subjects hand and foot. It is clear then that two things must be done before any adequate and permanent relief can be assured to the en- slaved and suffering Christian subjects of the Ottoman ruler : (1) the facts must be brought home to the con- science of Christendom, and (2) the Christian peoples of the world must be roused to reassert and enforce that basal principle of modern civilization, the right of the people to rule. These requirements set the twofold aim of the present discussion. It seeks to present a clear and comprehensive view of the facts in the history and policy of Turkey and the European Powers in connection with the Eastern Ques- tion, and to fix the responsibility for the ever-recurring * See The Contemporary Eeview, November, 1877, p. 97, " On the War Power." See also a discussion of this subject, by the present writer, in The Princeton Eeview, January, 1878, " The Eastern Problem." PREFACE. horrors. It seeks also to do something, if may be, towards leading to cooperation in the " Forward Movement" — the new Moral Crusade — inaugurated by the grandest men in Great Britain for the purpose of taking the Eastern Ques- tion out of politics and forcing the Governments to carry out the will of their Christian subjects in emancipating the Christians of Turkey. They appeal to all Christendom to join in the movement ; the ground of the appeal is that all Christendom is measurably responsible for this greatest Crime of the Ages. In the narrow limits set for the treatment of so vast a subject, it is barely possible to point out the sources from which more complete information may be drawn, to out- line the historic movement, and to give hints and sugges- tions touching the responsible parties and the grounds for holding them responsible. If some of the utterances shall at first blush appear to be too strong, the apology must be that they have had their origin in profound feeling and conviction, and that no possible words are adequate to the full expression of the horrors and the guilt involved. Acknowledgements are due — in addition to those made in the pages of the work — to the many distinguished men that have treated the various phases of the Eastern Ques- tion, especially to Canon Malcolm MacColl, William Ewart Gladstone, Justin McCarthy, and the Duke of Argyll, and to the numerous authoritative writers in " The Contem- porary Review " that have treated that Question in every phase and aspect of it. D. S. Gregory. New Yokk City, THE CEIIE OF CHEISTENDOM. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. I. CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE EASTERN QUESTION. Constantinople (that is. City of Constantine) of the Christian age — the Byzantium of the earlier time, and the Stamboul of the Turk — is a natural center of power and influence. Philip Smith, the his- ^Epochs "^^"^ torian of the world, has suggested that much may be said in favor of the founding of the new city Con- stantinople in place of the old Byzantium, by Constantine in 324, its capture by the Turks in 1453, and its rescue from the Russian attack in 1853, as three signal epochs by which the history of the world may be divided:^ (I.) The City akd its History. Its founding, at the beginning of the sole reign of Con- stantine and his open acknowledgment of Christianity as the religion of the Roman em-jj^^^^j^^^^ °jg pire, was significant of the overthrow of the old pagan world. Dr. Philip Schaff truthfully portrayed its relation to Christianity when he said : I Philip Smith, Ancient History, vol. 3, p. 687, 2 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. " Constantinople, the city of the first Christian emperor (New Rome), though now in the hands of the Turk, is still the natural centre of the whole Greek Church, and may become for the East- ern world, at some future day, in Christian hands, what Gregory Nazianzen eloquently described it to be in the fourth century, ' tlie eye of the world, the strongest by sea and land, the bond of union between East and West, to which the most distant extremes from all sides come together, and to which they look up as to a common centre and emporium of the faith.' " While its fonnding identified it with universal Chris- tianity, its position on the Bosporus where it enters the Sea of Marmora — upon seven hills on a triangular penin- sula, with the magnificent harbor formed by the Golden Horn on the north, separating it from its large suburbs, Galata and Pera, and with only the mile-wide Bosporus between it and Scutari on the Asiatic side — makes it one of the great natural commercial centers of the world and gives it command of the trade of a vast extent of territory that has always been rich in its productions and promises to grow greatly richer with the passing years. The capture of Constantinople by the Turk in 1453 proved, as seen in the light of history, an equally mo- mentous event. Christendom of that day was C suntinople ^^^^ ^^P ^^ ^^'^^ Eastern or Greek Church with its center at Constantinople, and the Western or Latin or Roman Church with its center at Eome. The schism that had occurred only three centuries before, but the doctrinal ground of which dated back to the adoption of the fiUoque doctrine (the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as well as from the Father) by the Latins at the council of Toledo in 589, had brought the East and the West into pronounced antag- onism. Eor seven centuries and more the Mohammedans had been seeking to conquer Christian Europe. The Moors had attacked Western Christendom by way of Gib- raltar and had forced the passage of the Pyrenees. Beaten back by the Prankish king Charles at the battle of Tours INTRODUCTORY. 3 in 732 — from which that king was surnamed Martel (i. e. the " Hammer") — they established the renowned Moorish Empire in Spain, facing Roman Christendom with a threat- ening front. The Mohammedans had early crossed into Europe on the East and, aided by the enmity or apathy of Western Christendom, had established the capital of the Ottoman Empire at Adrianople in 1366. At the open- ing of the jfif teen th century, what with the military prestige of the Turk and the showy civilization of the Moor, it seemed an unsettled question whether Christianity or Mo- hammedanism would win the victory in Europe, with the chances apparently in favor of the latter. A half century more of pressure on the Ottoman side apparently settled that question in favor of the Moslem. The Turkish Sul- tan, Mahomet II., besieged Constantinople. The heart- rending appeals to the West for succor were unheeded. The animosity of the Western Church was too great, where the apathy was not too profound. Mahomet took the city by storm in May, 1453, and sacked and desolated it. Con- stantino Paleologus, the last of the Constantines, died bravely fighting at the head of his army. It seemed the great disaster of all time. It is well to dwell for a little upon the Fall of Constanti- nople, for it furnishes the key to modern history, and especially to that history as related to the so- called Eastern Question. The taking of Con- ^I'^^^tS^s!^ stantinople by the Turk brought down the iron heel of Islam upon the Eastern Christians, Greek, Syriac, Nestorian and Armenian, with the Greek at the point of heaviest pressure. It was for them all the beginning of centuries of oppression and robbery and persecution and butchery, or, as Mr. Gladstone has put it, of " plunder, murder, rape and torture.'' Dr. Philip Schaff briefly re- hearses the story of the Greek Church in memorable words : ^ 1 Johnsojj's Universal Encyclopedia, vol, 8, p, 671. 4 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. " The Greek church has no continuous history like the Latin or the Protestant. She has long periods of monotony and stagna- tion ; she is isolated from the main current of progressive Chris- tendom ; her languages and literature are little known among Western scholars ; she has more interest for the antiquarian and traveller than for the historian and philosopher. Yet this Church is the oldest in Christendom, and for several centuries she was the chief bearer of our religion. She still occupies the sacred territory of primitive Christianity, and claims most of the apos- tolic sees, as Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, and the churches founded by Paul and John in Asia Minor and Greece. All the apostles, with the exception of Peter and Paul, labored and died in the East. From the old Greek she inherited the language and certain national traits of character, while she incorporated into herself also much of Jewish and Oriental piety. She produced the first Christian literature, apologies of the Christian faith, refutation of heretics, commentaries of the Bible, sermons, homilies, and ascetic treatises. The great majority of the early Fathers, like the apostles themselves, used the Greek language. Even Clement of Rome, Hermas, Iren^us, Hippolytus, and others who belong to the Western church, wrote in Greek. The early popes were Greeks. The very name of pope is Greek, and belongs to every pastor in the East. The Roman congregation itself was originally a colony of Greek Christians, Hellenes and Jewish Hellenists. In this sense, too, the maxim of Horace holds good : ' Grgecia capta ferum victorem cepit.' Polycarp, Ignatius, Clem- ent of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Cyril of Alexandria, the first Christian emperors from Con- stantine the Great, together with a host of martyrs and con- fessors, belong to the Greek communion. She elaborated the oecumenical dogmas of the Trinity and Christology , and ruled the first seven oecumenical councils, which were all held in Constan- tinople or its immediate neighborhood (Nicsea, Chalcedon, Ephe- sus) . Her palmy period during the firfet five centuries will ever claim the grateful respect of the whole Christian world, and her great teachers still live in their writings far beyond the confines — nay, even more outside of her communion, as the books of Moses and the prophets are more studied and better understood among Christians than among the Jews for whom* they wrote. But she never materially progressed beyond the standpoint occupied in the fifth and sixth centuries. She has no proper middle age, and ijp RefQrmation, like AVesterii Christe:iidom," I INTEODXJCTOEY. 5 Mohammedanism early spread over the Eastern Church — Greeks Syriac and Armenian — as a deadening, blighting influence. The stagnation and slavery reached their height under the tyranny of the Turks ^^sJam"^ after the downfall of Constantinople, though the church maintained great tenacity of purpose in all its internal affairs. The first three centuries after the Otto- man conquest were a time of benumbing suffering and stupid hopelessness, while the present century in particular has been a time of prayer and struggle on the part of the millions of Christians in Southeastern Europe and Western Asia for independence from Turkish rule, — prayer and struggle inspired, in Greek and Slav and Armenian, by the sympathy and growing power of Eussia, and by some slight . evidences of the sympathy of Protestant Christendom. The progress in the work of deliverance of the Christian peoples will appear in the course of the present discussion. The necessity for that deliverance and the progress toward it, with the struggle of the Powers of Europe to prevent or stay it, have made the Eastern Question, and brought it at the close of the nineteenth century to its acutest crisis. But the Fall of Constantinople had other and wider re- sults. The Turk in getting possession of that city sat down across the gateways to India, the place whence riches came, and the lines of com- Re^uit^ .merce were in his control and the riches of the world at his feet. Europe was thus shut out, and Christendom shut out, from all the wealth of the world. But the fall of the Eastern Empire spurred the Eoman Christendom in the West to new and redoubled effort, and Spain, under Ferdinand and Isabella, aided by the military genius of Gonzalo de Cordova, conquered Granada and expelled the Moor from Western Europe only forty years after the fall of Constantinople, and so became the fore- most power in Europe. A great nation, trained and dis- ciplined into strength and enterprise and chivalrous spirit 6 THE CBIME OF CHRISTEKDOM. by seven hundred years of warfare with the Moors^ was thus compelled to seek new channels of adventure and a broader field of action. It was these two great events, the one in the Orient and the other in the Occident, that changed the destiny of the world. There followed in the train of these events — within seventy years after the fall of Constantinople and thirty after the conquest of Granada — as one of their results, the three notable voyages — of Columbus, De Gama, and Magel- lan — that opened the wealth of the New Indies and the Old India to Christendom. As another result the Greek learning and literature and especially the Greek Scriptures, that had been so long shut up in Constantinople, were scat- tered abroad over Europe and in half a century brought to its height the Eevival of Learning and brought in the Keformation that was to change the face of Christendom for all the future. All that wheeled the front of the world from the Orient to the Occident, gave to England in due time command of the commerce of all the seas, and put her in the place of the advance guard of Protestant Chris- tendom among the Teutonic peoples in shaping modern civilization. It would be hard to find in all history an event more revolutionary than the Fall of Constantinople. Both these events — the founding and the fall of Con- stantinople — are certainly notable epochs ; but for the rescue of Constantinople from the Eussian, Eescue of j^^^ig j;]-^a,t is favorable can be said. Outside Constantinople. _, . , ~ . , ,. ■,•,•• of a small circle oi aristocratic politicians m Great Britain, it is an event contemplated with mingled feelings of regret and shame, save as the hand of Provi- dence is seen in it. But even if the historian of compre- hensive views rejects it as unworthy of a place by the side of the other and signal epochs, he can not fail to see in the Greek Eevolution and the Crimean War the begin- ning of the leveling of the military pretensions of Great Britain and of the old European diplomacy, of the regen- INTRODUCTORY. 7 eration of Eussia and of the final experiment of Europe with tlie Turk, and therefore, of the removal of the prin- cipal obstacles in the way of the settlement of the Eastern Question. There are, however, indications in the present aspect of affairs, that a third great pivotal event, altogether worthy, in connection with the City of Constantine, may lie in the very near future, and that it is again to be an event that will revolutionize the world as did the founding and the fall of that city. As twice before during the Christian era, so now the third time, the eyes of all intel- ligent and right-thinking men in Christendom are turned intently toward the great historical city of the Bosporus, with which the destinies of Christianity and the world have been so long and strangely liuked. Perhaps it is not too much to say that anticipation and hope are predominant in the Christian world as the vexed Eastern Question is thus apparently approaching a solution, not through the iniquitous diplomacy of the great nations, but through the irresistible moral trend of divine Providence. May not the signs of the times indicate an early and sweeping movement of victorious Christianity eastward from the old center on the Golden Horn, across the ancient world ? It will be seen that the third great pivotal event is not the rescue of Constantinople from the Eussian, upon which the most of Christendom look back with unmingled regret ; but the rescue of Constantinople from the Turk, to which they look forward with anxious longing and hope. (II.) The Easterist Question" — What Is It ? Out of the later results of the conquest of Constanti- nople by the Turks — including the oppression and slavery of the many millions of Christians under the Turkish barbarian and butcher ; the development of the empire of Great Britain in India and the East ; the rise, astonish- 8 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. ing growth and colossal magnitude of tlie Russian Empire, the natural champion and protector of Greek Christianity ; and the slow and partial rousing of the sympathy and conscience of the western world — the so-called Eastern Question in its present form took rise. In its strict and narrow sense it is the question what is to be done with the southeast of Europe and the con- tiguous portions of Asia. Early in the pres- Moral Point ^^^^ century, it became apparent that the condition of affairs in Southeastern Europe was such that it could not much longer continue. As Justin McCarthy has said : ^ " It was certain that things could not remain as they then were, and nothing else was certain. The Ottoman Power had been settled during many centuries in the south-east of Europe. It had come in there as a conqueror, and had remained there only as a conqueror occupies the ground his tents are covering. The Turk had many of the strong qualities and even the virtues of a great warlike conqueror, but he had no capacity or care for the arts of peace. He never thought of assimilating himself to those whom he had conquered, or them to him. He disdained to learn anything from them ; he did not care whether or no they learned anything from him. It has been well remarked, that of all the races who conquered Greece, the Turks alone learned nothing from their gifted captives. Captive Greece conquered all the world ex- cept the Turks. They defied her. She could not teach them letters or arts, commerce or science. The Turks were not, as a rule, oppressive to the races that lived under them. They were not habitual persecutors of the faiths they deemed heretical. In this respect they often contrasted favorably with states that ought to have been able to show them a better example. In truth, the Turk for the most part was disposed to look with disdainful com- posure on what he considered the religious follies of the heretical races who did not believe in the Prophet. They wei'e objects of his scornful pity rather than of his anger. Every now and then, indeed, some sudden fierce outburst of fanatical cruelty toward some of the subject sects horrified Europe, and reminded her that the conqueror who had settled himself down in her south-eastern 1 A History of Our Own Times, vol. 2, pp. 174-5. INTRODUCTOKY. 9 corner was still a barbarian who had no right or place in civil- ized life." Judged by the facts of liis career this is, to say the least, a somewhat roseate view of the Turk as he is. It has been during the present century that he has carried on the great series of butcheries of his Christian subjects that have shown his true character and have four times brought a crisis in European politics. Had it not been for the political complications he would long since have been swept back into Western Asia — if not to the steppes of Central Asia from which he originally came down upon Europe. He has long been recognized as " the sick man," on the verge of dissolution ; but the balance of power in Europe has led the great nations to uphold him on his throne in spite of the cry of the millions of oppressed and suffering Christians. Taking into account the character of the Turk, from the point of view of religion, of moral- ity, and of humanity, the Eastern Question is one of the simplest and plainest ever raised. The most solemn duty of Christendom, the most imperative obligation of human- ity, is to set free the oppressed and to put an end to Turkish rule over Christians. From the point of view of European politics the East- ern Question has come to include the complications arising out of the possession by the Turks of the east of Europe and the possibility of Eussian pre- ^"of'view '"* dominance in the ^gean Sea. In its earlier stages it seemed to center in the Greek race, and there came the Greek Eevolution as the first great crisis. Then it came for a time to center in the Greek Church at large and Russia's relation to it, and there came the Crimean War as the second great crisis. Later it became connected with the Panslavic movement, and there resulted the Eusso-Turkish War growing out of the horrors of Turkish butchery in the Slavic belt of Turkey, as the third great crisis. In its present phase it was at first bound up with 10 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. the Armenian cliurcli and race, in consequence of the at- tempted extermination of that race, which brought the present or fourth great crisis, but is now extending so as to embrace all the Christian peoples — Armenian, G-reek, Macedonian, etc. — still under the rule of the Turk. "While therefore the problem is so very simple from the religious, moral and humanitarian points of yiew, from the so-called political point of view the elements entering into it are seen to be very various, and the question a com- plicated one, the aspects of which vary with the different elements involved. The non-Turkish people, the Turks, the Eussians, Christian Europe at large, and notably Great Britain, are all more or less interested, and all have their modes of putting the question. The Turk asserts his right to continue to play the Turk in Europe. The cardinal thing with him is. How may the TurhisliruU ie maintained over the non-Turhish peoples 9 The non-Turkish peoples, who have been driven to desperation by ages of the most terrible oppression, assert their right to freedom, or, at least, to so much of freedom as is comprehended in autonomy. The one thing with them is, How canine reach the deliverance and freedom luhich are oitr just right 9 The Eussian has asserted above- breath his right, based upon race and religion, to protect and deliver the oppressed ; the suspicious say that under- breath he has asserted his own right to play the despot in the place of the Turk. The cardinal thing with him has been. How shall the Russians free these oppressed and struggling brethren loho appecd to them for help f Or, Hoio shall the final step toivard the completion of the. Pan- Slavic Empire lest he tahen 9 The Government of Great Britain openly asserts its right to deal with the entire matter in accordance with its very peculiar views of " British in- terests," and it regards the interests of Turk and Christian as alike subordinate to its own commercial ends ; while under-breath it claims the right by " manifest destiny " to INTRODUCTOEY. 11 Egypt and the Suez Canal, to Stamboul as its great Eastern commercial capital and center, and to the Euphrates Val- ley Eailway Route. Apparently the only question that most of the Premiers of Great Britain have put to themselves is, Ilotv sliall the jjrogress of Russia l)e prevented and " British interests " he advanced, or the ivay he prepared for permanent British control in the Orient and in India f The advanced thought of Christendom led by Christian England, and at the present time expressing itself in the " Forward Movement " which aims to take the Eastern Question out of politics, boldly asserts pohi/of v^w *^ the right of the oppressed peoples of European Turkey to the freedom to which they aspire, and demands that the Machiaveldian policy of Europe and of the British Government be brought to an end, and his just deserts be meted out to the " unspeakable Turk." The question with the true Christendom is. How shall the Eastern problem he solved in accordance tuith the principles of humanity, morality and Christianity 9 It is self-evident that if all the selfish claims of the nations are to be persisted in, and their selfish interests to be kept at the front, the solution of the Eastern Question must take its place among the impossibles, and the sooner all thought of its solution is given up the better. If the Turk be right, then the nou-Turkish people are wrong and the Christians of Turkey must be wrong ; and vice versa. If the Powers be right, then Christendom must be wrong. No adjustment is possible so long as these antagonisms prevail. It may further be taken for granted, by all who are not blinded by "polities'^ or " diplomacy,'^ that the only possible permanent settlement of the Oriental Question will have to be made on the basis of absolute right and justice. The unrighteous claims put forward in behalf of the vari- ous interests involved have alone stood in the way of a right- eous conclusion of the whole matter. The moment the principal parties concerned are brought to just views and 12 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. jnst policy J, the hitherto insoluble problem will be solved. A consideration of the character and claims of these parties, and of the progress of events in bringing them to righteous- ness or in exposing the baselessness of their unrighteous pretensions will give a comprehensive view of the matter and make clear the recent marvelous progress toward a permanent adjustment. Such a consideration will make it abundantly plain, that although the problem may appear insoluble to the diplomatists who think they have it well in hand. Divine Providence — in these later years mani- festly so independent of the diplomatists — is pushing the matter inevitably to the right conclusion. The real question is. How shall the work of the Turk fully inaugurated in 1453 be undone and the long enslaved Christians be set free ? II. THE PEOPLES INVOLVED. It becomes evident from the very statement of the Eastern Question that, in order to understand -it in its various progressive phases, one must first understand the character and aims of the great races chiefly interested in it, their rights, and their relations to its settlement. (I.) The Tuek : His Ohaeacter aistd Eights. The Turk asserts his right to continue to play the Turk in Europe. If he be justly entitled to this, then it follows that the changes for the better in Southeastern Europe, which philanthropists and Christians supremely desire, must bide the will of the Sublime Porte, and be reached in that manner alone. The hoped for rescue of Constanti- nople will not come. It will be found by careful examination that the Turk has not won a permanent place in Europe by heroic char- acter or superior civilization. Certain writers Eight m -^ ^YxQ present age have made the Turk and the Mohammedan civilization their fetich. INTRODUCTORY. 13 They would have men believe the Turk every way superior to the Greek race which he conquered, and his civilization every way in advance of the Greek culture which it supplanted. Mr. Buckle writes " Mo- cii^acter. hammed, the greatest man Asia has ever pro- duced/' and assures us in the same breath that " every one acquainted with the progress of civilization will allow that no small share of it is due to those gleams of light which, in the midst of surrounding darkness, shot from the great centers of Cordova and Bagdad." Mr. Draper goes even further and calls the rise of Islam the " Southern Eefor- mation," and claims for it the preservation of the truth of the one God which Christendom had lost, and the leader- ship in scientific progress. Even a moderate knowledge of history would have taught any one of ordinary discern- ment that, in the language of Professor Flint of Edinburgh, " although the Mohammedan was a powerful and in many respects admirable movement, it yet involved no great original idea, the religion which it contained and diffused being drawn from Jewish, and the scientific truth from Greek, sources.''^ Whewell and Eenan agree that the contributions of even the Arabian schools to science were insignificant, while to philosophy they added nothing. But whatever may be true of Mohammedanism in gen- eral or of the Arab in particular, the unquestionable verdict of all history must still be, that the Ottoman Turk, with whom we have to do in the East- character ern Question, has been from the beginning the enemy not only of Christianity but of all true civiliza- tion as well. To quote a common Arabic opinion that has passed into a proverb : '' Though the Turk should compass the whole circle of the sciences, he would still remain barbarian." History stamps the original Turk as brutal, sensual, savage, deceitful at the core of his nature, reckless in 1 Theism. 14 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. physical courage, a born robber and tyrant. The Arab will tell you : " Avoid the Tartar, if you can ; he will either eat you in his love or hack you to pieces in his hate/^ His religion has not improved him ; rather it has developed the worst parts of his nature. Mohammedan- ism at the best, as ISTeander has shown, suppresses wholly the sense of relationship and communion with God, and so prevents the developments that are the glory of a Christian civilization. The marvelous pictures, given in these days, of the devout communion of the Mussulman with God are the merest fancy sketches. He has no sense whatever of the presence of God. Major Osborn, who confirms this fact, shows that there is no possible element of progress in Islam. Add to this the fact of the divine sanction it gives to the darker and lower passions of man's nature, and its degrading character, even at the best, becomes manifest. It must brutalize man. Concerning the inseparable evils of Islam, Sir W. Muir, one of the acknowledged authorities, says ^ : " Setting aside considerations of minor import, three ^ radical . , ^. evils flow from the faith (of Islam) in all ages and in every country, and must continue to flow so long as the Koran is the standard of belief. First, polygamy, divorce, and slavery are maintained and perpetuated ; striking at the roots of public morals, poisoning domestic life, and disor- ganizing society. Second, freedom of thought and private judg- ment are crushed and annihilated. The sword still is and must remain the inevitable penalty for the renunciation of Islam. Toleration is unknown. Third, a barrier has been interposed against the reception of Christianity. They labor under a miser- able delusion who suppose that Mahometanism paves the way for a purer faith. No system could have been devised with more consummate skill for shutting out the nations over which it has sway from the light of truth. . . . The sword of Mahomet and the Koran are the most stubborn enemies of civilization, liberty, and truth, which the world has yet known. To the combination, or rather the unity, of the spiritual and political elements in the ' Life of Mahomet, pp. 534-5 and 575. INTRODUCTORY. 15 unvarying type of Mahometan government must be attributed that utter absence of candid and free investigation into tlie origin and trutli of Islam wliich so painfully characterizes the Moslem mind even to the present day. The faculty of criticism has been annihilated by the sword." But the Turk has not had Mohammedanism at its best. He has always followed the system at Abou Hanifa^ the second of the four great orthodox Imams or founders of schools of doctrine. It is the Mohammedan Jesuitism. Hanifa's system was reached by deduction from the Koran, and was intended to meet the exigencies arising from the lax morality of Kouf a, a commercial city. It assumes that whatever can be deduced from the Koran is true. There is a verse in the second Sura of the Koran which says : " God has created the whole earth for you." That text, say the Hanifite jurists, is a deed which annuls all other rights of property. The " you " means, of course, the true believers. He then classifies the whole earth under three heads : (1) Land which never had an owner. (3) Land which had an owner, and has been abandoned. (3) The persons and the property of the Infidels. From this third division the same legist deduces the legitimacy of slavery, piracy, and a state of perpetual war between the Faithful and the unbeliveing world. These are all methods whereby the Moslem enters into the possession of his God- given inheritance. It must be remembered that it is this doctrine — the further legitimate developments of which it is easy to anticipate — and not the Koran, pure and simple, nor even the higher teachings of the Imams, Malek, As Shafi,.and Abu Hanbal — that has molded the Ottoman in his fanati- cism, sensuality and despotic and heartless cruelty. Mr. Gladstone, accordingly, called attention over twenty years ago to the fact that the present difficulty in the East is not a question of Molwmme- damsm, pure and simple, but of Mohamme- view, danism compounded with the peculiar char- 16 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. acter of the race. He might have gone further, and pro- nounced it a question of the worst form of Moliamme- danism compounded with the peculiar character of a very had race. The Turk of the present day is a strangely mixed being, — in blood, Turanian ; in religion, Semitic ; in surround- ings, Indo-European ; immovable amidst changes, un- civilized in the midst of civilization ; feared and disliked by all men ; forced, in his official capacity, and in his ex- terior, now to Gallicize, now to Anglicize, and now even to Eussianize, himself — in short, the Jesuit of Islam. Said Professor Goldwin Smith of the Turks : ^ ' ' Considering that they have been four centuries settled in Europe and in contact with European civilization, their history may safely be said to be without a parallel as a pro- s w" longed and unchanging exhibition of the vices of View barbarism, and above all of barbarian cruelty. A fiend, the Turk, when his fanatical and tyrannical passions were excited, has always been, and he has always been a valiant fiend. The Ottomans, who added some of the most hideous pages to the sickening annals of massacre and torture, were just as conspicuous for physical courage as those for whom our respect is now claimed on that account." It requires not only a most sublime independence of his- torical records, but also a most peculiar definition of "the fittest," to enable one to see in the success of the Turk an illustration of "the survival of the fittest." There were other and better reasons for the fall of the Eastern Empire. The Greek was a civilized man, and not a barbarian, find- ing his ideal of manhood in Christ, and Constantine, and Chrysostom, and the martyrs for the faith, rather than in Mohammed, and Bajazet, and the Janizaries. Although he had heroically defended himself for almost a thousand years against the hordes of Islam, he had never taken naturally to war and conquest. When the fall of Con- stantinople drew near, his military power had been weak- ' Contemporary Review, November, 1877, p. 1065. ■ INTRODUCTORY. 17 ened by ages of struggle against adverse circumstances and liostile influences. The capture and sack of the city by the Crusaders, in 1204, was a terrible blow. For two centuries the Turks had harried all Southeastern Europe, carrying fire and sword to the very gates of the city ; and when the hour of extremity came, political and religious jealousy led the West to decline to aid the Greeks and to look upon their downfall with satisfaction. ''Had it not been," says Dr. Pichler, the learned historian of the schism, ''for the religious division of East and West, the Turks never could have established their dominion in Europe." In the light of these facts, it does not require even the imaginary Turkish quality of a sublime religious enthus- iasm and devotion to account for the career of Islam in the Orient. His religion, a blind fanaticism based upon fatalism and selfishness ; a bloody spirit of conquest, growing out of the belief that the world was made for his exclusive use and benefit ; a sublime impudence and intolerance, or, as some one by euphemism has called it, a " magnificent in- solence," arising out of the teaching of the Hanifites, that he alone was the man of Allah, who hates all other men, and commands the true believer to hate them ; an insati- able lust, finding its motive and development in the sen- suality which the Koran makes a chief element of earth and heaven — these, added to the natural Turk, made him a fiend whenever his passions were roused. All this has been true of him from the day when Orkhan established his throne in Brusa, early in the fourteenth century, named the gate of his palace the Sublime Porte, and founded the Janizaries, down to the last of the recent outrages, the echo of which is still in the ears of all the world. Nor need so much admiration be wasted upon the power of the Turk in keeping his hold upon the empire he con- quered. The " miserable Byzantines," as their detractors have been pleased to call them, . 1;. ^. J^ ' Acmevemeiits. held Constantinople against all the warlike 18 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. forces of barbarism for a thousand years ; what marvel if the warlike barbarian holds it against his unwarlike neigh- bors — thoroughly cowed by the horrors of Ottoman tyranny, robbery, butchery and sensuality — for almost half as long ? But history warrants the absolute denial of the state- ment that the Turk has, by his military prowess, maintained his old place in Europe for these four centuries. Even with all the advantages of his impregnable position, of the finest commercial capital on the globe, and with all the prestige of military success, he maintained his military su- premacy in Europe for only about two centuries. It ended with the disastrous defeat by the heroic Polish leader, John Sobieski, before the walls of Vienna, in 1683. Concerning it, Schlosser writes : ^ "A comparatively new relation between the Christian Powers and the empire of the Osmans resulted from the last Tictories of the Austrians, and from the complete exclusion of the Turks' from Hungary and Transylvania. After the last siege of Vienna, the Turks had completely lost the military importance which they previously possessed ; for that reason they became, what they have since remained, a political machine, which may be used against Austria or the waxing power of the Russians." So that Turkey has held the anomalous place it now holds as a broken and dependent power for almost two centuries.^ The Turkish power, from its very nature, went into decline when its extended conquests and butch- eries were brought to a standstill. To use Viscount Strat- ford de Eedcliffe's phrase, " Turkey has been on an inclined plane moving downward from that day to the present." Everybody knows that Islam has kept its place in Stam- boul for the last fifty years, not because the followers of the prophet have been so heroic and noble, but because 1 History of the Eighteenth Century, vol. 3, p. 6. 2 Canon McColl has said : " It is interesting to note how early the Mohammedan rulers of Constantinople recognized that their rule in Europe was but temporary. They have always buried their dead on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus." INTRODUCTORY. 19 the principles and policy of the European governments have been so utterly cowardly and base. History ruthlessly puts this elusive conception of the ''noble Turk" along with that of the " noble savage," Nor did the Turk win a right to a permanent place in European Turkey by any event in his career for the first four centuries, or till the Crimean War. While history reveals the defects of the Eastern Empire, it gives it a unique place in the world, — the place of the only Christian nation worth the saving when the Old AVorld went down before barbarian invasion in the fifth century. The advantages of the position of Byzantium, which had attracted the attention of Polybius long before Constantine, mark it as " the one spot of the Old World best fitted to be the capital of a universal empire." But when the dream of universal empire had passed away be- fore the barbarian, there was still needed such a convenient and impregnable center for the preservation of the treasures of learning and Christianity ^^g'^o^id^ through the long and stormy period of the Dark Ages. Constantine himself began the work of gather- ing in the treasures which, for the world's sake, needed to be saved,and when the power and tradition of the Papacy had reached their height, Constantinople remained, with its Greek Scriptures and learning, the forlorn hope of the world, — the one spot from which light might possibly irradiate the thick darkness fast becoming universal. Says Gib- bon : ^ " The ecclesiastics presided over the education of the youth; the schools of philosophy and eloquence were perpetuated till the fall of the emjiire ; and it may be affirmed that more books and more knowledge were included within the walls of Constan- tinople than could be dispersed over the extensive countries of the West." 1 See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, etc., vol. 6, passim, and Philip Smith, Ancient History, vol. 3. 20 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. To the careless eye, the fall of Constantinople seemed what the Turk meant it to be, the death of Christian hope. It seemed the fall of Christendom before Islam, It "vvas in reality one of those wonderful providences by which all human purposes and diplomacy are set at naught and the grandest results attained in spite of rulers and nations. As has been seen, it scattered the Greek Scriptures and Greek learning over all Western Europe. When the Turk sat down in the gateway to the East, India, the old soarce of wealth, was no longer accessible to the Western nations by the way of the Bosporus and the caravan route across the desert and down the valley of the Euphrates. The search for a new route at once began. The ship took the place of the caravan — the ocean of the desert route. In a half century, more or less, the great voyagers, Columbus, Vasco de Gama, and Magellan, had done, in spite of the Turk, their task of opening all the globe with its wealth, wheeling Western Europe to the front of the world, and bringing in the modern era of enterprise and commerce. The cause of the great revolution, therefore, let it be distinctly understood, was not " the light that shot from Cordova and Bagdad," but the light scattered from the burning city of the Constantines, at no less a price than the untold sufferings of a noble race conquered and enslaved after the most heroic struggle of history, continued through a thousand years. These vast changes can be set down to the score of the Turk only as redemption can be put to the credit of Luci- 3 p te ded ^^^ ' ^° ^^® Turk must rather be credited Right For- the system of slavery, robbery and butchery felted. ^j^g^^ j^g introduced and has perpetuated in Southeastern Europe. The past history of Turkish oppression, with its full horrors, will never be written out. Slavs, Eoumanians, Armenians, Hellenes have all alike felt these horrors ; the last and most sensitive perhaps most deeply. A few facts INTRODUCTORY. 21 fi'om tlic story of tlic enslaving of this race, and from the general history of the Turkish rule, will be sufficient to give some faint conception of the boundless range of such facts that cannot be told, and to suggest some lines of Turkish barbarity to which attention must be called later in this discussion. There is a saying reported of the prophet, that " if God valued the world at the wing of a fly. He would not allow an unbeliever to obtain so much as a drink of water from it." Even this contempt, as differ- ^"^arism*''" ent as possible from what we understand by toleration, has sometimes given the races subject to Islam, in times of peace, some of the advantages of toleration ; but it has always, when ]\Ioslem greed and lust have been excited, made the non-Mohammedan races liable to be savagely slaughtered. The Christians in Turkey have seen chiefly the latter aspect of this contempt. Mohammed II. began with apparent toleration, but Gibbon tells us that " the scene was soon changed ; and be- fore his departure the hippodrome streamed with the blood of his noblest ca|)tives." With what Mr. Gladstone calls '' far-sighted cruelty," the leaders, the aristocracy of the Greek lands, were completely swept away. To the so-called taxation, amounting to robbery, there was added the still more terrible exaction of the " children-tribute," the debas- ing effects of which are not yet effaced. Eobbery and pir- acy were pushed everywhere by land and by sea, property and life were everywhere insecure, and at times the coasts of Greece became uninhabitable. The chastity of woman, from the princess to the peasant, was often the forfeit paid for life. The creation of the Phanariots and the career of the Janizaries give hints of what was done to degrade and destroy. The absolute master and tyrant made him- self felt everywhere, down through the four centuries, in every form of oppression that Turkish cruelty could invent. It would be impossible to enumerate the brutal butcheries 22 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. with which the Moslems have visited, and are at all times liable to visit, the Christians over the Empire. Going back of the more recent transactions in Bosnia and Bulgaria, the deliberate attempt to assassinate every leading Servian in the efEorts to suppress the insurrections under Black George and Milosch, and the depopulation of beautiful Scio, are but specimens of what the Turk has always been finding occasion to do, and of what Christian Europe under the old diplomacy permitted him to do almost without protest down to the time of the Treaty of Paris. But it would be an injustice to two men who rose above the Turkish ideas, if not above the Turkish character, to pass unnoticed the attempts made by Selim ''^Refomf ^^^' ^^^ Mahmood II. to introduce military, social and civil reforms into the empire. The alliance between Solyman the Magnificent and Francis the First of France was the first in a series of concessions which Viscount de Eedcliffe well says " may fitly be called extra- Koranic, and which were gradually made to the necessity more and more felt by the Porte of obtaining a less insu- lated position as to the States of Christendom.^' Toward the close of the last century, Selim III. commenced, in the same spirit, the work of internal reform. The attempt roused the fanaticism of the Moslems, and cost Selim his throne and his life, Mahmood II., at a later period, took up the work of Selim. It was a struggle of the prince of Turkish butch- ers, almost single-handed, with the fiercest and wildest outbursts of fanaticism. It really shattered and dismem- bered the empire, which was only prevented from fall- ing to pieces immediately by the interference of Eussia. Mahmood strangled or threw into the Bosporus the family of his predecessor, butchered the Janizaries, opened dip- lomatic intercourse with the Christian nations, attempted the reorganization of the army and the courts, and other improvements. The proclamation of Gulhane and the INTRODUCTORY. 23 introdnction of extensive reforms under tlie name of Tan- zimat kairieh in 1839, the year of his death, gave earnest of his determined purpose. But it was all contrary to the spirit of the Turk and the Koran, and the old Turk in his fanaticism proved too strong for the young Turk in his ambition. Something was accomplished, with the aid of a salutary fear of foreign powers, in and around Con- stantinople, but its cost was the disintegration of the Otto- man Empire, and the experiment demonstrated for that time the im|)ossibility of the co-existence of modern prog- ress and Turkish rule, — at least without some more powerful influence from without. History thus leads inevitably to the verdict that the Turk brought little of value with him into Southeastern Europe ; that he did his best to destroy whatever of value was already there ; and that in more than four centuries of oppression he has not been the source of any appreciable good to the millions of his non-Turkish slaves ! His career up to the Crimean War did nothing toward winning him a just title to sovereignty. In short, the present cent- ury has witnessed the culmination of the Turkish policy, as the outcome of the Turkish character, in a long series of the most horrible crimes against humanity ever per- petrated on the face of the globe — crimes at which the world stands aghast — and the years 1894, 1895, 1896 and 1897 witnessed the worst of them all ! As the scenes of the awful drama are further unfolded, it will be seen how the course of diplomacy and the in- creasing financial pressure upon the Turk have resulted in his increased barbarity and atrocity, and it will also ap- pear who are principally responsible for it all. It will be seen, moreover, that nothing less than a revolution in Christendom, and in Turkey through the agency of Chris- tendom, can save the remaining Christian subjects of the Sultan from still more terrible oppression and butchery, or from annihilation. 24 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. (II.) The Eussian" : His Character and Purposes. Eussia^ long the prominent factor in the Eastern Ques- tion, has claimed to act the part of deliverer of the enslaved Christians. When Europe, largely through the influence of the British Grovernment, has decided to leave them to the tender mercies of the Turk, Eussia single-handed has taken up their cause and, aiming at the maximum of in- ternational obligation, has freely poured out her treasure and her blood in their behalf. Has the cardinal thing with her been, '^How shall the Eussians free these op- pressed and suffering brethren who appeal to them for help ? " or, " How shall this great step toward the com- pletion of the Pan-Slavic empire best be taken '^" Or, are the two indissolubly linked together ? What, in short, are the purposes and rights of Eussia ? These questions can only be answered in the light of Eussian character, ideas and conduct. The Eussian has been described as a dual character — half European and half Asiatic. The representative Eussians, the Slavs— about 65,000,000 of the 78,000,- Character ^^^ ™ European Eussia, by the recent census, are Slavs — belong to the Indo-European family, and came from the wilds of Scythia. The name Euss (Hebrew Eosch), unfortunately mistranslated in the Eng- lish version "the chief Prince," first appears in Ezekiel xxxviii. 2, 3, and xxxix. 1, and is the only name of a modern nation found in the old Testament.-' The Slavs first made their appearance in European history in the neighborhood of the Carpathian Mountains, in the fourth century, and from that point spread northward to the Bal- tic and southward to the Adriatic.^ Western notions of the Eussian people are^chiefly derived from pen-pictures of the fierce Cossack, and are as repre- 1 Dean Stanley, The History of the Eastern Church, p. 397. 2 Max Miiller, Science of Language, First Series, p. 196. INTRODUCTOKT. 25 sentative of Russian character as the Texan cut-throat of American. Mr. M. E. Grant Duff asserts that '^he inhabitants of Great Eussia, the nucleus of the empire, are the most naturally pacific of mankind. '' In this all authorities agree. Some are inclined to add to the Eussia of the new regime the despotic ideas of the old ; but Eussia has been renewing her youth. Herzen, the Eussian wit, brought out the striking change and contrast when he asked the English why, because they were hostile to the old bear, the Eussia of Nicholas, they should be hostile to the young bear, the new Eussia, which Nicholas hated more heartily than he hated the English. There is no comprehension of the Eastern Question nor of the national iniquities linked with it, without an un- derstanding of the real character and condition of Eussia. Such understanding is all the more important from the fact, that pretty much everything from Eussia and South- eastern Europe that reaches the average man of the outside world, passes through the hands and is colored by the agents of British diplomacy at Constantinople. Hence, in the great crises the facts have almost always been sup- pressed or garbled, while the acts and motives of the Eus- sian have as commonly been misrepresented. Consider then the Eussia of the last forty years. The Crimean War proved to be the regeneration of Eussia under Alexander II. It is true that none of the diplom- atists or sovereigns understood it in that light. It was one of the independent moves of Prov--^* '^^^^5^5^*^^ idence without the advice or consent of man. Czar Nicholas entered into the war by making demand upon tlie Turk for the extradition of refugees, and his misfortunes brought him to his grave a year before its close. Alexander II. ascended the throne March 2, 1855, only six months before the fall of Sebastopol, which com- pleted the shattering of his army and the annihilation of his navy in the Black Sea. A year brought the Treaty of 26 THE CEIME OF CHEISTENDOM. Paris, which left himself and his country humiliated and bound by most unjust and oppressive restrictions. He seems to have taken in the situation with the eye of a great statesman, and he began at once the series of radical and comprehensive changes that have transformed the old Eussia into the new. On the day of his corona- tion he ordered four translations of the Bible, by the four Universities, into modern Euss, for his people, to be com- bined into one by the Holy Synod ; just six years later, in 1861, he emanci]3ated the serfs ; in 1864, he reconstructed the entire judicial system of all the Eussias ; in 1870, he threw off the chains with which the Treaty of Paris had unjustly fettered his people, and began the reconstruction of the army and navy ; in 1877, in response to their ap- peal and the generous uprising of the Eussian people, he began the war for the deliverance of the Christians of Southeastern Europe. It will be seen at a glance that his watchword was progress. It is obvious that Eussia had been in the past the repre- sentative despotism, the soul of the Holy Alliance, in the reactionary movement against European free- The Liberal f^^^ Alexander the Liberator undertook to Movement. bring his country into a new position by a great liberal movement. He took advantage of the re- markable fact, confirmed for us by Mr. Wallace and other authorities, that the Eussian people are the most democratic people in the world, — and established upon it a govern- ment. An administrator of the new leveling school in Eussia is said to have declared that his wish was to build '' a tower upon a steppe," — that is, he desired to see the Imperial Power rising out of a vast democracy. The Czar made serf-emancipation the basis of his new movement. On the morning of the 3d of March, 1861 — the day preceding the inauguration of Presi- ^of thfserfs'' ^^^^ Lincoln and a year and a half before his famous '^^Emancipation Proclamation -•'•'— INTKODUCTORY. 27 there were in Russia, chiefly in European Eussia, twenty- two and a half millions of ordinary serfs. At evening of that day, to be forever memorable in the annals of free- dom, the whole of that vast population had ceased to be serfs, and had become free, Not only were they free, but the government had clothed the old mir, or communal or- ganization, with administrative functions, had provided for the pecuniary indemnity of the boyar, or master, and had opened the way for each moujik, or freed serf, to be- come at once a landed proprietor of from five to twenty- five acres, by furnishing him the money, to be returned in forty-nine annual payments. According to Mr. Wallace, who has given the best account of this whole transaction, the work made good progress, — 5,300,000 male peasants having in twenty years availed themselves of this method of securing lands upward of 50,000,000 acres having passed into their hands, and the government advances hav- ing in that time aggregated more than $500,000,000. It must be remembered, too, before the full grandeur of the movement can be understood, that there were 20,000,000 more living upon the government lands, in very much the same condition as the serf ; so that it was an effort to lift up more than 40,000,000 of the population to a higher plane of freedom and manhood. In 18C4 an entirely new judicial system was set in opera- tion, formed partly on English but chiefly on French models, and even introducing trial by jury in criminal cases. It was the chief co-operative agency in securing the ultimate full benefits of serf-emancipation. Of course, no one who has studied history and read human nature — especially in connection with emancipation in our own country — will for one moment suppose that this great movement — the most enlightened and liberal as well as the grandest ever attempted by any monarch — has at once transformed Russia into a paradise ; but eye-wit- nesses such as Mr. Wallace, Mr. Duff and gentlemen like 2§ THE CKIME OF CHRISTENDOM. Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Freeman, and Mr. G-oldwin Smitli, who look upon it with the eye of the statesman and his- torian, agree in representing the results, even after this short lapse of time, as very great and beneficent, and the prospect for the future as most encouraging. One of the grandest results was that a new national spirit took possession of the people. Mr. Freeman saw in the war of 1877-8 " emphatically the war of the people." There are those who saw in it only the outcome of the Pan- Slavic idea, the expression of the consciousness of Eussia of her mission to unite all the Slavonian peoples into one mighty empire. This was one of the bugbears made use of in prejudicing Western Europe against Russia at the time of the Russo-Turkish war. So few, however, were the radical Slavophils at that time, that Mr. Duff thought that it might be said of them, as was said of themselves by one of the ablest of the English positivists, that they were a stage army, which, marching round and round, ap- peared in consequence to be much more numerous than it really was. Co-operating with the national idea in Eussia is the re- ligious idea. No other great nation is so united in any form of religion as Eussia has been in the Greek ^^611^0^*'^ Church, almost from the day when Queen Olga made Christianity the religion of her realm. The authorities already referred to agree in repre- senting .it as a source of national strength and unity in various ways : that it has had something to do with the gentleness and docility which are so characteristic of a large portion of the Eussian people ; that the connection of Church and State enormously strengthens the latter for all internal purposes ; that the old ecclesiastical connec- tion with Constantinople, and the instinctive hostility to those who now hold that city, have been a powerful sup- port of the State in its wars against the Turk. But trav- elers generally agree in representing the "vast majority INTKODUCTOEY. 29 of the Eussian clergy as very little above the peasantry amongst wliich they live," and give a very somber view of the state of religion and education. But turning from the ordinary travelers, often them- selves irreligious and seldom seeing beyond the merest sur- face of things, we find great regenerating forces at work transforming the people of Eussia. Passing over the re- forms by Nicon, including the revival of preaching, and the transfer of the supreme control of spiritual and ecclesi- astical affairs to the Holy Synod by Peter the Great, with , the resulting modifications, we are assured ' by most excellent authority. Dr. Kurtz, for- merly Professor of Church History in the University of Dorpat,^ that : *' The orthodox Church in modern times has elevated itself more and more, especially since Alexander I, Theological learn- ing was not rare among the higher clergy, and the government also provided for the better intellectual culture of the lower clergy."' Dean Stanley, referring to those ''^who look on the Oriental Church merely as the dead trunk, from which all sap and life have departed, fit only to be cut down," calls attention to the fact that " it is ^^^^ Stanley's ' Opinion, also the aged tree, beneath whose shade the rest of Christendom has sprung up, whose roots have struck too widely and deeply in its native soil " to give place to any other form of religion. He adds : ^ " We may reflect with satisfaction that should ever the hour come for the reawakening of the churches of the East, there is no infallible pontiff at Constantinople, no hierarchy separated from the domestic charities of life, to prevent the religious and social elements from amalgamating into one harmonious whole. We may gratefully remember that there is a theology in the world of which the free, genial mind of Chrysostom is still the golden 1 Church History, vol. 2, p. 403, 2 History of the Eastern Church, pp. 137-9. 30 THE CRIME OE* CHRISTENDOM. mouthpiece ; a theology in which scholastic philosophy has had absolutely no part. . . . But there is a future also for the Church of the East. . . . The Eastern Christian has the rare gift of an ancient orthodox belief without intolerance and without prosely- tism. . . . The Greek race may yet hand back from Europe to Asia the light which, in former days, it handed from Asia to Europe. The Slavonic race may yet impart by the Volga or the Caspian the civilization which it has itself received by the Neva and the Baltic." He also calls attention to the admirable elements in the very structure of the Greek Church that prepare it for a wonderful development ; that the nation was converted not through the work of the missionary but by the agency of its own Prince, and that the clergy have always lived in com- parative poverty, dependent on the free offerings, of their flocks ; that the Kussian establishment is a combination — difficult for the Western mind to understand — of the strict- est form of State religion with the widest application of the voluntary principle ; and tliat the Scriptures in the vernacular have always been accessible.-^ Mr. Gladstone has pointed out the connection of the popular services of the Eastern Church, rich in Scripture, with the preserva- tion of what life remained in the Greek Church in Turkey, and the awakening of the Greeks to new life. The same influences are at work in Eussia. The charge has been repeatedly brought against the Greek Church, that, like Rome, it is an intolerant and persecuting Church. It is not well grounded, but Nationif ^^^^ Stanley emphasizes its tolerance. Mr. Duff partly admits it but directs attention to the so-called persecutions in Poland proper and in the "Western provinces of Russia, and narrates a case, whicl^ occurred in 18G5, in which a Russian lady of high char- acter " asked, and asked in vain, to be allowed to return to St. Petersburg for the purpose of assisting, in her 1 History of the Eastern Church, p. 419. INTEODUCTOET. 31 capacity of sister of charity, to nnrse tlie sick during the outburst of cholera which took place in that jeav." It is undoubtedly true, as Mr. Wallace has shown, that the Kussian religion is intensely national, that it expects every Eussian to be orthodox ; but it is true also that Moham- medans, Protestants, and other dissidents from the ortho- dox faith, live in the country without molestation, and serve in the armies of the Czar. The so-called propagand- ism in the Baltic provinces and the persecutions in Poland were — as the present Eussian policy in Armenia also is — for the purpose of political assimilation rather than of spir- itual conversion. The hostility to the Eomisli Church has been, like that in Germany, hostility to Jesuitism for self-preservation. So the Duke of Argyll shows. Con- cerning the insurrection in Poland in 1863-4, and the Eussian cruelties in connection with it, it may be said in mitigation, if not in defense, that the vast majority of the Poles were, by the concession of Karl Blind, entirely op- posed to the insurrection, and the Democratic Warsaw Committee who managed it consisted of twelve members, mostly very young men. While we sympathize deeply with the wrongs of Poland, may not the protection of the people of Poland have required severe measures against the ram- pant radicalism of such Polish patriots ? But the chief hope of the Greek Church is in the great Bible movement inaugurated on the coronation day of the Liberator. It received its inspiration from that honored American to whom Europe owes ^ ^^^^® so much, — Dr. Eobert Baird. Of the origin of the work of introducing the Bible among the people, during the reign of Nicholas, and of the subsequent closing of the Bible house by Nicholas, in consequence largely of his shattered faith in England, the story is a sad one. Of the progress of the later movements under Alexander, the late Eev. W. H. Bidwell, so long editor of the Eclectic Magazine, gave, some time since, an interesting account. 32 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. The first edition of 20,000 copies of the Gospels and the Acts was speedily exhausted. The noble empress entered into the work ; while ladies of high character established depositories and superintended the work. A general of rank ordered a thousand copies for the men under his com- mand. The work of translation and revision was com- pleted under the auspices of the Holy Synod, and the Bible was scattered throughout the Russias, superseding the old Slavic or Bulgarian version, by Cyril and Methodius. As illustrating the progress of the work, Mr. Bidwell wrote, that in 1876 the circulation in Northern Russia amounted to 264,227 copies, while for 1877 it amounted to 247,656 copies, and that in Southern Russia for three years the cir- culation averaged 80,000 copies annually. He likewise called attention to the efforts of the Czar in educating his people, including the establishment of from eight to ten thousand schools.^ The late Dr. Schaff', writing of this Bible movement,^ quotes a recent writer (Mr. Hepworth Dixon) as saying : "Except in New England and in Scotland, no people in the world, so far as they can read at all, are greater Bible-readers than the Russians." Taking all the facts into account, we think that the anticipations of Dean Stanley for the future of Russia bid fair to be realized. The seeds of intelligence and religion are being sown broadcast, and who can doubt that there will be a mighty and beneficent harvest ? Their religion has led the Russians to look upon them- selves as the divinely called protectors and defenders of Defender of ^^^ Christians of the Greek Church in Tur- Greek Chris- key. This is the key to much of the conduct tians. ^£ Russia as seen in the history of the modern centuries. Clemens Petersen, writing on this point, says : ^ 1 The Bible and Alexander II. 2 Johnson's Universal Cyclopedia, vol. 2, p. 673. 3 Ibid, vol. 3, p. 1751. INTRODUCTOEY. 33 "Ivan III., the Great (1462-1505) . . . married a princess of the imperial house of Constantinople, now in exile, adopted the double eagle in his escutcheon, and assumed the title of lord of all the Russians, and under him became visible that line of policy which subsequently has run like a thread througli the whole history of the Russian empire. To the Russian people and their princes Constantinople was the sole representative of civilized life, the model after which they shaped themselves — the source whence thej^ drew their religious creed and their military organ- ization, their civil institutions and the comforts and ornaments of private life, their dishes and wines, their silks and fasliions, their architecture and literary tastes ; and when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turks (in 1453), the prince of Moscow, the Czar of all the Russians, felt himself an heir and the avenger of the Byzantine empire. This idea fills to this very daj^ the hearts of the Russian princes and the Russian people as a duty and as an ambition ; and there is only one means of keeping them away from Constantinople, the Dardanelles, and Asia Minor — namely, to make the king of Greece emperor of Byzantium. " Writing recently on " The Eastern Question/^ Madame Novikoff sets forth clearly the Eussian idea : " ^ " Russians are nothing if they are not patriotic, but before they are Russians they are Christians. As my brother. General Alexander Kireeff , recently wrote in an article of the Nouvelle Revue (September, 1895) : ' I am the -y^gta vie ^' son of my church before I am the son of my coun- try. I am first of all A Greek Orthodox, afterwards I am a Russian.' This is the outcome of all our history. " The first conception which a Russian has of the human beings in the midst of whom he is born is that they are brothers. He does not call theni fellow-citizens. He does not address them as fellow-coimtrymen. Neither does he call them ' Russians ' in his everyday plain speech, which embodies his simple sense of things as they are ; he calls them ' Brother ' (' Brat,' ' Bratzi '), He did this long before the French Revolution popularized the doctrine of fraternity. He learnt it in the Church. But it was not ' the brotherhood of men ' ; it was the brotherhood of Christians. ' The brotlierhood of all men ' is a phrase ; the brotherhood of Chris- tians is a fact. That is a somewhat important distinction. No doubt many Christians are unbrotherly ; but all Christians, at 1 Nineteenth Century, December, 1895, p. 1001. 34 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. least of the Greek Orthodox rite, recognize the reality of their brotherhood both in their religion and in their politics. . . . The Russian, therefore, never regards himself as primarily a citizen of the Russian State. He is always, and first and foremost, a Greek Orthodox, and as such he is a member of a much wider and greater, more ideal, realm than any merely secular com- munity. . . . " The Greek Orthodox world, that is our Fatherland, and all Greek Orthodox are our brethren. The Greek Orthodox Churches of Bulgaria, of Greece, of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, etc., may be united by ties hardly perceptible, but you cannot help seeing and feeling them in times of united dangers or trials ; and among all the Greek Orthodox Churches there is the most absolute recognition of this fact, that it is from Russia alone that some effectual help can come to deliver them from their tribulations. ' ' If this fact be borne in mind you will perhaps be able to realize the reason why Russians never could acquiesce, except under protest, in the presence of a Roman Catholic prince on the throne of Bulgaria. Remember Bulgaria is a Greek Orthodox community ; she has been liberated by the sacrifices in blood and money by Russian Orthodox armies. To see on the throne of Bulgaria a man who by his creed may be the deadly enemy of the Greek Orthodox Church cannot be otherwise than distasteful to Russia." Eussia therefore naturally claimed to be the protector and patron of the Greek Christians in the Turkish em- pire. For centuries she regarded it as her duty and mis- sion to deliver Constantinople from the oppression of the Turk. There seemed to he every reason for hoping that a large development along the line of freedom and en- lightenment would result from the germs of progress every- where bursting into life. But it is necessary to consider reactionary Eussia, since Alexander II., and her ambitions. In the nature of things, something of reaction, where there ^ "^Eussia"^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^® outset so much of promise and hope and accomplishment, was inevitable. Various causes operated in producing it. Indeed, the reaction was INTKODXJCTOBT, 35 already on before tlie death of Alexander II, It was a herculean task to lift uj) a hundred million people, — a task too great for even so great a ruler as Alexander. The emancipation of the serfs brought the Czar into antag- onism with the aristocratic classes in Russia, and had to be carried out in spite of them. The system of democratic local government introduced was a disappointment — in- deed could not have been otherwise — since it had to deal with so dense a mass of ignorance. Out of depraved human nature came Nihilism as the product of the freedom and privileges granted the people, and proposed a death-grapple with all government human and divine. A strong hand was required in dealing with these things. In pushing the vast and complicated administrative affairs a great bureau- cracy grew up and extended itself over the empire. So the death of Alexander at the hands of the Nihilists was one of the saddest events in history ; for he alone of all men seemed capable of dealing satisfactorily with the grave questions of Russian progress and diplomacy. It was reported that at the very time of his assassination he had prepared and was about to issue a liberal constitution. He might have carried out such a difficult enterprise ; but the deathblow brought that and everything of its kind to an end for the time being, and increased tenfold the tide of reaction. Moreover, Russian ambition had apparently received a new impulse. Napoleon had long before |)re- pared the way for it, when he forged the so-called " Will of Peter the Great." It was " ^f Vrelf"'' the fourteenth injunction of this will, that may well have roused Russian ambition. It is as follows : " Approach as near as possible to Constantinople and towards the Indies. He who reigns at Constantinople will be the real sov- ereign of the world, and, with that object in view, provoke con- tinual wars with Turkey and with Persia ; establish dockyards* in the Black Sea ; get possession of the shores of that Sea as well as those of the Baltic, those two things being necessary for the ulti- 36 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. mate success of the project ; hasten the decadency of Persia, penetrate as far as the Persian gulf, re-establish the former trade of the Levant by appropriating Syria, and, if possible, extend the power of Russia to the Indies, which are the Emporium of the World." So runs the fourteenth injunction contained in the so- called "Will/' a famous document described in the " Memoire sur la Chevaliere d'Eon,'' as a copy of the plan for compassing European supremacy, left by Peter the Great for the successors on the throne of Russia, and alleged to have been deposited in the archives of the Palace of Peterhoff, jiear St. Petersburg. It was Napoleon I. who first made public this instrument, when on the point of embarking on his Eussian campaign, and it has been very generally denounced as a forgery of his own, and its existence in the Eussian archives has been positively denied by the Emperor Alexander. Eorgery as it doubtless is, it was no inappropriate introduction to the history of an eventful year, and it may have had much to do with making place for larger ambitions in the hearts of the later Czars. Moreover it has become abundantly manifest in the pass- ing of the years, that some of these very things that Napoleon craftily suggested in order to preju- E^^sir^** dice Europe against Eussia, are indeed neces- sities to the progress, if not to the continued existence, of that Empire. It has become obvious that the free passage of the Bosporus is absolutely essential to future Eussian development. Still further, a nation that within a century advanced its frontiers almost five hundred miles toward Stamboul, almost nine hundred toward Berlin and Vienna, and more than a thousand toward India, may perhaps well arouse something of fear" in the neighboring naffcions. Those who have dwelt almost exclusively on these traditional ideas are suspicious of the Czar, and accuse him of always having in view territorial aggrandize- INTEODUCTOKY. 37 ment and selfish ends rather than the interests of Chris- tianity and hnmanity. Nor can it be denied that there are facts that seem to justify their suspicions. The breaking of the shackles imposed by the Treaty of Paris, and the reorganization of the army and navy, can here only be adverted to as steps in the progress of Russia in asserting her place in the European world of the future. When the measures of 1870 were completed, the army, as shown by the London Times of December 4, 1876, reached a total of 1,945,000 men. The removal of the great naval arsenal of the south from the indefensible Sebastopol to Nikolaieif on the river Bug, at a point some distance from its mouth, and easily made inaccessible to the navies of all the world, while giving to Russia every advantage for defense by her land forces, pre- pared for the work, by the Grand Duke Constantino at the head of the naval authorities, of reconstructing the" navy with the aid of the newest lights. What did all this mean, if not an aggressive future ? It is also constantly alleged that the course of Russia has always shown that she is not to be trusted. When the Franco-Prussian war broke out, she gave notice to the Powers of Europe that imposed the Treaty of Paris upon her, that she felt compelled to deviate from its stipulations, and keep a fleet of sufficient capacity in the Black Sea. That was pronounced in many quarters a high-handed and defiant act, making revelation of ambitious plans for terri- torial aggrandizement. But it cannot be denied that the Turk had violated every pledge made in connection with that treaty ; so that Russia was already morally released from obligation to regard it longer. She simply took an opportune moment for making the announcement. This brings forward another question : What are the just rights of Russia in Southeastern Europe ? Or has she none as against the Powers that placed restrictions ujoon her ? . Even if Turkey had not broken the Treaty of 38 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. Paris, on what grounds was Eussia bound to keep it ? She regarded her exclusion from the Black Sea as a high- handed outrage. It was such in the light of correct moral principles. Ostensibly it was done to protect Turkey ; really it was done by two great naval powers to annihilate practically the naval power of Eussia, who was feared as a rival. Great Britain already held almost every great stra- tegic point on the globe — the great passing and crossing places of commerce — and was then reaching out after Egypt, and the Bosporus and the Euphrates valley. But the Eussian navy must be excluded from the Black Sea, and a power unfriendly to her and friendly to Great Britain must be sustained in Constantinople, and 12,000,000 or 15,000,000 of Christians must be held in slavery ^ View^^'^ to keep Eussia helpless. Beautiful morality, certainly ! The case was justly and forcibly ' put by General George B. McClellan : ^ " Cut off from the open highway of the ocean by the rigorous winter of the north, and to the south by a closing of the Bosporus, almost as effectual as when, in prehistoric times, no Bosporus existed, she has been suspected of the design of forcing her way to the sea, and thus gaining a free and untrammeled outlet for the productions of the vast regions she controls. Could we for a moment imagine our Atlantic ports hermetically sealed by ice during the greater part of the year, and the lower Missis- sippi under foreign rule, we might, perhaps, be able to answer the question as to how long we would permit the control of New Orleans by another Power ? " Morally speaking, Eussia was Just as much bound by that Treaty as the man waylaid and robbed is bound to the robber. It was proper that when the announcement of the abrogation of the treaty had been made, Alexander should begin his preparation to vindicate the national honor against his adversaries of the robber morality. Nor is it any wonder that a great nation should feel deeply, and remember long, I JTorth American Review, July and August, 1877, p. 38. INTKODUCTOEY. 39 and resent strongly sncli a humiliation, and take measures to prevent its recurrence. That was doubtless the meaning of the new Eussian military system. That too was doubt- less the meaning of the fact that the impregnable NikolaiefE so rapidly replaced the indefensible Sebastopol as the great arsenal of the south. These things were dictated by the law of self-preservation. These questions of right have got to be settled sooner or later. By the plainest principles of interna- tional law, Eussia rather than Great Britain ^^^sias ' Rights, has a right to the Black Sea and to a friendly power — a Christian Turkey or Greece — if not a capital, on the Bosporus. She will undoubtedly assert that right in time, and there can be no settlement of the Eastern Ques- tion by any scheme that either ignores or denies her just claims in this regard. The most astute diplomacy of the European nations will assuredly prove powerless in the struggle against destiny in this matter. And Eussia's ambi- tion for a great outlet for commerce and a center of power on the distant Pacific coast is just as certainly to be real- ized, for this too is a necessity to the life and progress of what is in many respects the greatest nation on the globe. And her ambition too for a great commercial outlet by way of the Persian Gulf. But whatever may be said of the ambitions of Eussia, it is certain that in the legitimacy of their origin and the right- eousness of their prosecution they will compare not unfav- orably with those of Great Britain, her chief accuser. And if Eussia — contrary to the protestations of her greatest Emperors, to which we elsewhere call attention — has all along had designs on Constantinople, coveting it as her future capital, she has certainly exercised a very remarkable self-restraint in prosecuting her purpose. When she made the Peace of Adrianople, in 1829, there was nothing to hinder her from occupying Constantinople. When she made the armistice of San Stef ano, in 1878, she was in similar posi- 40 THE CEIME OP CHRISTENDOM. tion ; and yet she was content to stop in lier victorions career with making provision for the freedom and safety of the Greek and Armenian Christians of Turkey. But were the ambitions of Eussia as great, the selfishness of her ends as pronounced, and the treachery of her diplo- , macy as consummate, as her enemies assume ' or assert that they are, still history challenges the world to show any great positive betterment in the condition of the Christian subjects of the Sublime Porte that is not due directly or indirectly to Russia. This will be made abundantly clear by the facts that are to be brought out in the course of this discussion. But what is still more to the point is the indisj^utable fact, that what she has done has been done in response to the appeal of the oppressed and helpless Christians to save them from the Turkish butcher, and done too at an immense sacrifice of money and life. Let it also be further noted that the course of Russia from the time of Nicholas down has been in accordance with the most frank and outspoken views and purposes, — in striking contrast with the sinuous and treach- erous diplomacy of the Great Powers that have always been forward to accuse her of insincerity and double-dealing. In short, history proves that among the governments of Europe, the Russian is the only one that, up to date, has ever shown any genuine sympathy with the Christians of the Turkish Empire, or afforded them any real succor. (III.) Great BRiTAi]sr — Her Character and Course. It is not necessary to dwell upon this theme at any great length. Much of what might be said here will naturally be brought out in the progress of this discussion. We can here only characterize the English nature and aim in a most general way. The Two Englands — Commercial and Christian. From the days of the Norman Conquest, England has INTRODUCTORY. 41 had two phases of character and of thought and two sets of desires and purposes — the Saxon and the Norman — perpetually struggling for suprem- tiands "' acy. She has had her Wickliffs and Wilber- forces, her Lollards and Puritans and Evangelicals, and her Bonners and Lauds, her men of apostolic earnestness and zeal, and her roysterers and ritualists, and her would- be inquisitors. There has been the frank, free, generous, missionary. Christian, Liberal England, ever foremost in the work of evangelizing all the world ; and the scheming, despotic, selfish, commercial, Jesuitical, Tory England, always pushing on in the search for wealth and self-aggran- dizement at the expense of all the world. The two to- gether — Commercial England and Christian England — have made the English the colonizing, cosmopolitan race of the modern ages, — what the Greek was to the ancient world, and vastly more than that. These two elements have wrought together in extending the dominion of English thought round the globe, — the one, always in the van in bearing the Bible and Christian civilization, has given Christian England the first place in the hearts of men ; the other, always leading in the Ma- chiavellian policy which has so largely controlled the course of the empire, pushing the wars of conquest, the opium wars, the selfish and heartless intrigues, as in our Civil War and in the Eusso-Turkish War, has made the Govern- ment of Great Britain an offense to the world, and, as her own great Journals recently averred, left her without a friend among the nations. The one is represented by the Livingstones and Shaftesburys and Brights and Gladstones and Argylls ; the other by the Palmerstons and Derbys and Beaconsfields and Salisburys. The one is the England of Christianity, the other the England of Diplomacy. They have in common the one idea of making conquest of the world ; they differ in other things toto ccelo, for the one desires it for God and the other for greed. 42 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. The eyes of both Englands have long been steadfastly fixed on the Orient. AVith what different motives can be better understood in the light of the sketch just given. In the capture of Constantinople by the Turk, in 1453, is to be found, as already suggested, the historic reason for the commercial supremacy of the English race in the modern world. That event, in wheeling Christendom about, brought England to the front in just the position to command the carrying trade of the world — made it, as Herschel phrases it, " the terrene centre of the globe.'' The race, as it at present exists — with its six great con- tinental centers ; with its grasp upon all the chief strategic points over the globe, the passages and transits, the en- trances and exits, of the nations ; with its commerce pene- trating and its navy claiming control over all seas — dates the beginning of its wonderful develoijment from the establishment of the Ottoman in Europe. Its past career has led the England of the diplomatists to think the rights of all men subordinate to " British interests," i. e. to the extension of British control and commerce.' Eegardless of the rights of humanity, England must control the Bos- porus, and the Euphrates valley, and the Suez Canal ; for upon these things the Eastern commerce of England is conceived to depend. Such is the present view of these men, boldly proclaimed and advocated by Ministers of State and able writers in the Reviews. In the pursuit of '^British interests," economical and political, the diplo- matist has shown a disregard for the law of God and the rights of man, an absolute moral darkness, difficult to parallel in the annals of the pagan world. John Euskin's Years ago, we were struck with John Ruskin's Estimate. ^ ' • • « -n ■ i estimate of the morals and religion of English economists and politicians, presented in his incisive style : ^ "The entire naivete and undisturbed imbecility with which I found them declare that the laws of the devil were the only 1 Modern Painters, vol. 5, p. 363. INTRODUCTOET. 43 practicable ones, and that the laws of God were merely a form of poetical language, passed all that I had ever heard or read of mortal infidelity." Perhaps in no previous English history did this prac- tical infidelity ever take such entire possession of the government as it has taken in the period since the begin- ning of the Greek struggle for independence ; certainly in no other quarter has it had such full sweep and awful illustration as in connection with the Eastern Question. This will appear from the sketches of the successive crises. There is space here barely ^"^^^^ ^^^' to indicate some instances of the special dis- regard of God and righteousness in connection with these crises. When the Greeks, aided by the accident of ISTavarino, had struggled on till their hour of triumph. Great Britain was the leader in establishing the narrow boundaries that have kept Greece from meaning anything on the map of Europe, and in remanding to Turkish slavery the Greek population all across Turkey, and that to prevent the weakening of the Ottoman Empire. When Eussia claimed her treaty-right to protect the Christian subjects of the Turk, Great Britain precipitated the Crimean War, which left the Christians helpless and friendless in their slavery, while making Turkey one of the acknowledged Powers in Europe. When twenty years and more later Eussia under- took the championship of the Christians in Turkey, in the great Slavic crisis, and in the Treaty of San Stef ano wrote a charter of freedom that took in Greek and Armenian Christians alike. Great Britain stepped in with her objec- tions, and succeeded in substituting the Treaty of Berlin, remanding Macedonians and Armenians to Turkish des- potism, and, by her iniquitous secret treaties with the Czar and the Sultan, secured control of Cyprus, shut out the other Powers from interfering in Armenia, bound herself to protect the Turk from interference and coercion by taking Cyprus as a pledge, and prepared the way for steal- 44 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. ing Egypt and gaining a footing in the Euphrates ronte to India. And now once more, after less than another score of years, she has effectually carried oat the Beacons- field policy, and compelled Christendom to look on and let the Turk alone in his work of robbing and butchering a noble race ! All this to the infinite shame of treacher- ous, conscienceless, godless, commercial, Jesuitical, Nor- man, Tory England which is now temporarily "official England ! " And vastly worse than all this it would have been — as will be shown — but for the successive moral move- ments in which conscienced. Christian, Anglo-Saxon, Liberal England has from time to time partially made its protests heard ! (IV.) Other Eaces ai^d Complicatiojsts. It is not necessary to consider in detail the character and aims of the other Powers of Europe, as they have only a secondary place and a subordinate interest in the Eastern Question. Germany and Italy are not directly concerned in the partition of the Turkish Empire. The part played by Erance in deciding the treatment accorded to the Chris- tians by the Turk will appear incidentally in the progress of the discussion. That republic can scarcely be said to have any far-reaching governmental aims, such as are at- tributed to Great Britain and Eussia, in connection with the Sultan's domain. Austria-Hungary is perhaps the most directly interested, as she is doubtless exceedingly desirous of securing Salonica as an outlet for her com- merce to the great world from which she has always been practically shut out ; but her power and infiuence in the councils of Europe will probably be somewhat limited in the final solution of the problems involved, unless in case of a crisis her armies should sweep down across the Balkan region to secure the coveted prize. Neverthfeless it may not be too much to say that she has a natural right to this INTRODUCTOEY. 45 open doorway to the South, a right that must ultimately be accorded her, as must also the right of way out by the Danube, if she continues to exist. The Greek and Armenian races will receive special con- sideration in connection with the successive providential movements towards the final solution of the problems in- volved in the Eastern Question. The jealousies and ambitions of all the Powers and races have entered as a constant factor into the always intricate and usually iniquitous diplomacy that has had as its chief aim the prevention of the only right ^j^^ „y^ solution of the problems involved in the East- ern Question. Some of the phases of that diplomacy have taken shape in well-known phrases behind which the so- called Powers of Europe have carried on their diplomatic juggling in betraying and cursing the Christians of the Turkish Empire all through the century. The mutual jealousies of the nations have led them to insist that the " Balance of Power " must be preserved. For this end Turkey has been kept in existence, and the Christians often remanded to slavery even after they had been freed. The "Balance of Power ^^ led to the emphasizing of the "in- tegrity of the Ottoman Empire, ^^ and out of that has come the struggle of the Powers against righteousness and Providence to keep the Empire intact. The increasing wickedness of the struggle has appeared in the oppression and agony to which it has subjected the Christians of Tur- key, and its increasing futility in the perpetual paring down of the Empire until it is only a fragment of what it once was. All this has made prominent the recent so-called " Concert of Europe,^' a phrase that corruption has changed to the worst, so that it has come to mean, as Mr. Gladstone has said, ^'^the concealment of dissents, the lapse into generalities, and the settling down upon negations at junc- tures when duty loudly called for positive action. ^^ And so in this '^Concert "of disagreement the Powers have 46 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. stood by and seen the Turk carry on his wholesale bntch- eries for several years, without so much as lifting a fingei to protect the helpless Christians. And through all this juggling with the " balance of power '^ and the " integrity of the Ottoman Empire" and the ''^Concert of Europe/^ the immense difference between " Christian Europe" and " Official Europe," and especially in the recent crisis be- tween " Christian England " and " Official England," has been coming out more and more clearly, while the absolute powerlessness thus far of the Christian peoples and senti- ment of Europe in the struggle with the Governments has seemed well-nigh demonstrated. It is easy to see that the only hope of " Christian Europe " in connection with the Eastern Question, in this death-grapple with " Official Europe " with its potent engine of militarism, lies in the direction of the " Forward Movement" lately inaugurated, but is attainable only through some interposition of Prov- idence such as those from which the only relief has come in the past. It will be seen that there is no depth of vil- lainy, no abyss of crime, no extreme of inhumanity, from which " Official Europe " or even " Official England " has ever shrunk back. It is natural therefore that, starting with the Greek conflict, the past seventy-five years should have brought ever-increasing complications and ever-deep- Stages m the gj^i^^ crime, until at present the extermina- Movement. » ' , .-"^ . tion of an entire Christian race, in fact of all the Christians in the Turkish Empire, seems to be immi- nent. It is necessary for the present purpose to consider somewhat in detail the principal stages in the diplomatic and providential movement. These stages have been : (1) The Greek Eevolution, inaugurating the movement toward freedom. (2) The Crimean "War, wresting from Eussia her treaty- right as protector of the Christians and making Turkey one of the Powers, but incidentally regenerating Eussia. INTRODUCTOKY. ' 47 (3) The Slavic Crisis of 1877-78, and The Ensso-Turkish War, resulting from the spontaneous uprising of a great race in defense of the Christians, but having its work of emancipation balked and partially undone by British diplomacy. (4) The present Crisis, beginning with the Armenians, reaching the Greeks, and promising to become general, having as its aim on the part of the Turk the extinction of the Christians in European and Asiatic Turkey, and the absolute independence of the Sublime Porte in the oppres- sion of its Christian subjects. Something of the horrid details of the crimes that have accompanied these great movements needs to be brought out, in order to show that this continuance of oppression and the periodical recurrence of ^^ails* ^' massacres are in consequence of the settled policy of the Turk, due partly to his consciousness that he is dying out, and that these are the only means of retain- ing his hold a little longer in the Orient, partly to the ever- increasing pressure for revenue to enable him to continue to play the part of the idle and shiftless Turk, living upon the work of his Christian subjects, and an ever-decreasing area from which to exact that revenue. It needs to be brought out as well in order to rouse the Christian world, if possible, to some sense of its responsibility for the pres- ent state of things. CHAPTER 11. THE GREEK RE\^OLUTION. More closely identified with the whole Eastern Question, and more profoundly interested in it, than any of the great European Powers, is the Greek race. In the subjection and enslaving of that race the Eastern Question had its origin. In the opening struggle for its solution, the Greek, with his patriotism and heroism and love of freedom, was the chief agent, evoking the sympathy of the civilized world, though baffled and balked by the '^'^most Christian ^^ of the so-called Christian Powers. It looks very much as though the unquenchable spirit of Greek freedom and heroism- — in spite of the so-called Christian Powers that have been and are still enacting " The Crime of Christendom," supported by tens of mil- lions of so-called Christian soldiers — were yet to open the way to hope and deliverance for the suiJering and unspeak- ably wretched millions of Christians in the Empire of the " Great Assassin." The Greek, with his glorious past, his heroic struggles, his grievous sufferings and wrongs, and his noble aspirations, deserves a brief consideration in connection with the Eastern Question, to helj) to the better understanding of the later phases of the struggle of the Christians of Turkey with the Turk and the Powers. The Greek Revolution gave occasion for the first moral blunder of the Great Powers of Europe, in sustaining Tur- 48 THE GREEK EEVOLUTION. 49 key as against Greece, for wliicli the responsibility belonged largely to England. I. The Geeek Race ajstd Fate. The past glories of the Greek race invest its modern his- tory with an interest that attaches to no other people. It is one of the saddest facts of history that it pgrMy of was Western Christendom that began the work "Western of the dismemberment and destruction of the Cliristendom. Eastern Empire and had much to do with the continuance of that work. ^'^That great buccaneering expedition which is commonly called the Fourth Crusade (1204)," says Eev. H. F. Tozer/ '' is certainly one of the most dis- graceful transactions of history ; . . . that a Christian force assembled for the purpose of fighting the infidels should turn its arms against the most important Christian city of the time is an act of unparalleled baseness ; nor can anything be conceived more deliberately mean than the treaty by which the spoil of the empire was partitioned be- forehand between the nations who took part in the attack." From the capture and sack of Constantinople by this cru- sade the Eastern Empire never recovered. '' It was then broken into a number of separate fragments, and though some of these recovered their cohesion, and the end did not arrive for two centuries and a half, yet the strength of the system was gone, and paralysis crept more and more over the enfeebled frame," The parts became separate Latin kingdoms. Even when Michael Palseologus founded the last dynasty that ruled the Greek empire from Constanti- nople (1261), the power of the empire was feeble and its extent limited, and its fall before the Turk became only a question of time. In the centuries that followed the capture of Constan- 1 Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 11, Article Greece, p. 109, 4 60 THE CEIME OF CHEISTENDOM. tinople in 1453 the Greek people were largely exiled or exterminated from that city, and their affairs ' were mixed up with those of Ottomans, Ven- etians, the Knights of St. John, Austrians, Russians, and others. During that time they appear on the pages of his- tory only as it is related of them that they were butchered and exterminated or sold into slavery. Dr. Donaldson gives a graphic general summary of their dreadful suffer- ings from all quarters and nationalities, in those dreary centuries when even hope almost died out of the Greek heart : ^ "The notable fact in Greek history during these ages is the disappearance and apparent destruction of the nation. Whoever might hold the supreme power in Greece the Greeks were sure to be the sufferers. When the Turks spread their conquests from Constantinople on to the rest of the empire, every capture of a city was followed by the slaughter of the able-bodied men and the carrying off of the women and children to the harem or slave market. And the Western Christians were not a whit more ten- der than the Ottomans. The Venetians were wroth with the Greeks, because they did not acknowledge the Pope, and in the island of Crete perpetrated the most abominable barbarities on the innocent population. The Turks punished the Greeks because they submitted to the Venetians, and the Venetians punished them because they submitted to the Turks. Moreover, in these times the ^gean was infested by pirates who, whether Turks or Italians or Greeks, had no mercy on the peaceful inhabitants of the mainland. Human life was disregarded, and men and women were of value only in so far as they were saleable articles in the slave market. If one were to enumerate all the instances in which historians tell us of the utter destruction or transference of the Greek population, a vivid idea might be presented of how terribly hard were the sufferings of the Greek people. We have to add to this record of destruction that vast masses of the people removed to Italy or Sicily or some other place of refuge. Almost all the famous families that ruled the islands of the -^gean es- caped from them when they were attacked by the Turks. The Knights of St. John, for instance, left Rhodes to find a final set- I Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 11, p. 109t THE GEEEK KEVOLUTION. 61 tlement in Malta. Among the number who thus left their native land were nearly all the learned men, who sought in the West a refuge from Turkish rule, and opportunities for the pursuit of learning." It seems a marvel that the Greek people survived notwith- standing all these destructive agencies ; a still greater marvel that they should ever again have dreamed of attaining to freedom. That they ^^"'""^•^"^ ^'^''" did so was doubtless due to many causes, at which we can barely hint. The Turks early saw that the differences between themselves and the Greeks were ir- reconcilable. Only a summary statement can be given drawn from the Encyclopedia Britannica^ and other sources. " There was no hope of amalgamating the two races. The Turks could only convert or exterminate the Christians. They did not venture to dream that they could convert all the Greeks by persuasion, and forcible conversion after the age of twelve was forbidden by the Koran. The only other alternative was extermination, and one of the sultans came to the resolution to destroy every Christian. But the Turks saw that such a policy was ruinous to themselves. Every Christian paid a poll-tax from which every Turk was exempt. The Christians cultivated the lands for the benefit of the Turks. The Christians were the drudges of the Turks. The next best thing to extermination then was to get as much out of the Christians as possible while coming as little as possible into personal contact with them. This was the plan adopted." The rulers took advantage of the Greek devotion to their Church and established the Patriarch at Constantinople with special honors and privileges. The Greek had always a genius for self-government. The Turk soon restored to him the old communal system. The Greeks had been the great colonizing race of the world, were born to the sea and to trade and commerce. The Turk gave them a free hand in commercial combinations, schemes and activities, J Encyclopedia Britannjca, vpl, 11, p. HO, 62 THE CKIME OF CHEISTENDOM. in order that lie might get the larger revenue from them. The vast wealth of the Greek merchants meant unlimited luxury to their Turkish rulers. Certain other elements must be taken into the account. The Greeks were on the western confines of the Turkish dominions. Some of the Greek tribes had never been com- pletely subjected by the Ottomans, especially the Mainotes of the Peloponnesus and the Sphakiots of Crete. Many of the people had led an independent life as pirates or as JcUpMs. The klephts or brigands remained free in their hill fastnesses, living by plundering Greek and Turk alike. In Albania, Thessaly and Greece proper, the armatoli or bodies of Christian warriors acted as armed police. The great awakening in Europe at the end of the eighteenth cent- ury and the beginning of the nineteenth roused the masses of the Greeks from the dull apathy that had resulted from their slavery. The French Eevolution roused their minds to activity, and made them " ashamed that a nation that had played such a grand part in the early civilization of mankind should be the slaves of an illiterate and barbar- ous horde of aliens." II. The Geeek Eisi^stg an^d I^stdepeistdence. At length the weakness of the Turkish Empire, as de- monstrated by the rebellion of Ali Pasha, the tyrant of Janina, showed the times to be propitious for rising, and in 1821 the Greek war for independence was begun in the month of March, in the north by Prince Alexander Hyp- silantes, a Phanariot in the service of Eussia, who crossed the Pruth with a few followers, and in the south in the Peloponnesus with Germanos, archbishop of Patros, among its prime movers. It is not the purpose here to give even a sketch of the heroic struggle that finally resulted in the recognition of Greece as an independent kingdom in 1832, Wc confine THE GREEK EE VOLUTION. 53 the view to the evidences that the Turk was true to his nature from beginning to end ; that the so-called Protes- tant Christian nations in Europe in their political caj)acity did nothing voluntarily except in the furtherance of their own selfish aims, apparently indifferent alike to God and humanity ; and that Providence was the only genuine helper of the people. It must not be supposed for one moment, from what has been said, that the Greeks were exempt from the op- pressive exactions and outrages that have always charac- terized the rule of the Turk — to be presented in connec- tion with the consideration of a later crisis in the Eastern Question ^ — that Mr. Gladstone sums up in ** four awful words — plunder, murder, rape and torture." But beyond all this we have records of butcheries on a large scale, pre- cisely similar to those enacted later in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Bulgaria. The massacre of the Suliotes is here in point. The an- cestors of this brave Grseco-Albanian people fled in the sefventeenth century from Turkish oppression, and established themselves in the almost inac- „ t 5*^^ Suuotes. cessible mountains of the Epirus, where they maintained a free democratic government for more than a century. The Turks, under Ali Pasha, undertook to exterminate them. In 1803 they were nearly all butchered in cold blood, only 4,000 retiring to Parga, behind the ocean walls and impregnable citadel of which they bravely maintained their independence until in 1819 Great Britain, whose protection they had sought on the fall of Napoleon in 1815, and who had garrisoned the city, treacherously delivered over the place to Ali Pasha. The Pargiotes then " dug up the bones of their ancestors and burnt them, left the city, and went into exile" in the Toman Islands. Thence they issued later under their renowned chief — Marco Bozzaris — immortalized by Byron — to strike the 1 See The Slavic Crisis. 54 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. sturdiest blows for Greek freedom. The butchery of this heroic people on the Suliote mountains, the horrible de- tails of which can not be given here, occurred eighteen years before the breaking out of the G-reek Eevolution. It was typical, and the natural outcome of the Turk na- ture. Any one can study the details for himself. They are matters of history. The fate that befell Scio, or Chios, is another typical in- stance, precisely of a pattern with the latest Turkish treat- ment of the Armenians. This island paradise, as the pri- vate property of the Sultana, " had long been ^^^°Scio°^ °^ mildly governed, the people had become wealthy, refined and unwarlike." The in- habitants were generally unarmed, and most of them had taken no part in the war of independence. The Turk in April, 1822, visited upon them his fearful vengeance for the ravages of the Greek fleet. The story of that murder and desolation — never surpassed in all the annals of sav- agery — sent a thrill of horror through Christendom. In February of that year there was in Scio a population of over 100,000 ; the Turkish butchers made their descent upon it, and in August there were not more than 30,000 — some say not more than 16,000 — remaining. Thirty or forty thousand Christians were massacred — with all the beastly and brutal accompaniments of Turkish massacres ; many other thousands were sold into slavery, and vast numbers of the most beautiful and helpless deported to be the perpetual victims of the lust and cruelty of the harem. The Sultan, moreover, ''^ordered the Chios hostages to be executed as an expiation for the insurrection. Four host- ages and several merchants were hung at Constantinople, and the Archbishop and seventy-five persons were executed at Chios by order of the Porte." ^ 1 From Finlay's History of the Greek Rev., pp. 231, 314 ; cited in "England's Responsibility towards Armenia," by Malcom MacCoU, THE GEBEK KEVOLUTION. 55 Two years later the same fiendish vengeance was wreaked upon Kasos and Psara. And yet the governments of Europe turned a deaf ear to the Greek cry of anguish that went up to heaven. Though some in- Europr terest was roused later by Lord Byron and other English Philhellenes, and a few volunteers from France and Germany and from England and An^erica joined the patriots, yet the nations as such did nothing voluntarily except to hinder the cause of freedom. Dr. Donaldson says : ^ " Most of the European governments had remained indifferent or had actually discouraged the outbreak of the Greeks. Eussia had disowned Hypsilantes. The monarchs of Europe were afraid that the rising of the Greeks was only another eruption of democratic feeling fostered by the French Revolution, and thought that it ought to be suppressed. But the vast masses of the people were now in- terested, and demanded from their Governments a more liberal treatment of Greece. Canning inaugurated in 1823, and now carried out, this new policy in England. An accident came to the aid of the Greek. The fleets of England, France and Russia were cruising about the coasts of the Peloponnesus, to prevent the Turkish fleet ravag- ing the Greek islands or mainland. Winter coming on, the ad- mirals thought it more prudent to anchor in the bay of ISTavarino, where the Turkish fleet lay. The Turks regarded their approach as prompted by hostile feelings and commenced firing on them, where- upon a general engagement ensued, in which the Turkish fleet was annihilated, 20th October, 1827." To a providence — an accident, men call it — Greece in part owed her independence. But even after that " acci- dent " the Powers showed the same indiiference. For years the brave struggle still went on with no helping hand voluntarily lifted by the nations — each selfishly fearing lest by the weakening of Turkey some other power might win an advantage — until in 1833, the so-called " protect- ing Powers " recognized the independence of Greece — al- ready achieved by the Greeks themselves — and set the pres- 1 Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 11, p. Ill, article Greece. 56 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. ent narrow limits to Greece, handing over the rest of the great Greek belt of Turkey, almost wholly Christian in its population, to Moslem rule and rapine, lest the Turk should be too much weakened for the " interests " of the various Powers ! That struggle of the Greeks for freedom was the hour when the Turk ought to have been driven out of Europe by the nations of Western Christendom, and the races of the old Eastern Christendom set free. That was a fatal failure for which the great Powers were responsible. When the Kussians, in 1829, were in position to complete at once the rescue of Southeastern Europe, they were stopped in their victorious career by the treaty of ^O^iSSr'^ Adrianople. It was immediately after that treaty that no less a man than " the statesman- warrior," the Duke of Wellington, said : " There is no doubt it would have been more fortunate and better for the world if tlie treaty of Adrianople had not been signed, and if the Russians had entered Constantinople, and if the Turkish Empire had been dissolved." And all this would have occurred then had it not been for Christian Europe, in its official capacity, and notably for Great Britain ! They prevented the just solution of the Eastern Question, for which iniquity a righteous Prov- idence has not ceased to scourge them and to deliver them over to judicial blindness till the present time. The evils resulting from the action of the Powers, to Greece and to the Greeks scattered over the Ottoman Em- pire, have been unspeakable. Indeed, so far as the Greeks in Turkey and in the islands of the Archipelago have suffered, their sufferings have been due primarily to the doom to limitations and disabilities then pronounced upon the kingdom of Greece by Christian Europe. It was then for the first time officially made manifest to all the world by the conduct of the Powers that, in the eyes of the diplomats, Turkey was of more value than Greece, and THE GEEEK EE VOLUTION. 57 the Balance of Power of greater moment than the wel- fare of the Christians of Southeastern Europe. That em- boldened the Sultan in his bloody work from that time forward, by leading him to expect the protection of Europe in case of any extremity in which he might find himself. CHAPTER III. THE CRIMEAN WAR— ITS AIMS AND RESULTS. TuEKET was primarily responsible for making the Cri- mean War possible. She wilily made some slight troubles over the control of the Holy Places at Jerusalem the occa- sion for fomenting a war between Russia on the one side and Roman Catholic France and Sardinia in conjunction with Protestant Great Britain on the other, in order thereby to escape, in dealing with her Christian subjects, from the restraining hand of the Czar. On the part of the Western Powers it was an attempt, originating in political jealousies and ambitions, to throttle and perma- nently cripple Russia, the only friend of the Christians in Turkey that had a treaty-right to intervene for their pro- tection, and the only Power in Europe that had ever shown any disposition to protect them. I. Continued Turkish Baebaeities. Turkish oppression and extortion had continued, after the unrighteous arrangement of the Powers with Greece, very much as they had gone on before. The subject races connected with the Greeks suffered from time to time. The general oppression and rapine continued and extended over the Empire in Europe and in Asia. The Greeks, who had been a main source of Turkish revenue, having been released from, the grasp of the oppressor, other sources of revenue had to be sought, and the region of butcheries had to be extended. Perhaps the experience of 58 ^.. THE CRIMEAN WAR — ITS AIMS AKD RESULTS. 59 the Turk with Greece rendered him at times a little -more cautious in his procedure, leading him to carry on the work of oppression among those Christians farthest re- moved from European observation and interference. One instance as typical — that of the Nestorians — must suffice. It is to be regretted that there is not space to outline the history of these Chaldean Christians who have maintained in the mountains of Kurdistan, against fire and sword, their faith in the cross of Christ for fifteen centuries and more. They are only less interesting than the Armen- ians whose experience they have to a large extent paralleled. In 1843 the Turks undertook, with the aid of the Kurds, to blot out these ancient Christians, The horrible work was renewed in 1846, It reached its culmination in 1850. The massacre of the latter year was graphically described, by Sir Henry Layard, ^^politically an ardent Philo-Turk," in his " Nineveh and Its Eemains.^' It is the record of his own personal observation and investigation on the field of slaughter, to which he went with his Oriental guide. His first account is of the massacre of the ISTestorians of the Tyari district by Beder Khan Bey, near Lizan on the river Zab.^ It is a story that once read is never to be forgotten. In that Turkish holiday in 1850, Layard says that the number of Nestorians slain was 10,000, all '^^ massacred in cold blood,^' besides " a large number of women and chil- dren carried away as slaves." At a later day the same Beder Khan Bey visited the same atrocities upon the ISTestorians of Tkhoma. Mr. Layard thus describes the massacre : ^ "A few days after my return to Mosul, notwithstanding the at- tempts of Tahyar Paslia to avert the calamity, Beder Khan Bey marched through the Tiyari mountains, levying contributions on the tribes, and plundering the villages, on his Avay to the unfortunate district. The inhabitants of Tkhoma, headed by their Meleks, made 1 Nineveh and Its Remains, vol, 1, pp, 164-7. 2 Ibid, vol. 1, p, 201. 60 THE CRIME OE CHRISTENDOM. some 1-esistance, but were soon overpowered by numbers. An in- discriminate massacre took place. The women were brouglit before the chief, and murdered in cold blood. Those who attempted to escape were cut off. Three hundred women and children who were flying into Baz were killed in the pass I have described. The princi- pal villages with their gardens were destroyed, and the churches pulled down. Nearly half the pop^^lation fell victims to the fanatical fury of the Kurdish chief ; amongst these were one of the Meleks, and Kasha Bobaca. With this good priest and Kasha Auraham perished the most learned of the Nestorian clergy ; and Kasha Kana is the last one who has inherited any part of the knowledge and zeal which once so eminently distinguished the Chaldsean priesthood." The Sultan hastened to show his appreciation of the faithful service rendered, by promoting Beder Khan Bey to the dignity of a Pasha ! Pressure was brought to bear upon the Turk by the civilized world to punish these atrocious massacres con- tinued through seven long years. He sent an expedition under Osnian Pasha, who defeated the Kurds and captured Beder Khan Bey and merely sentenced him to banish- ment to Candia, where he lived in state, retaining all his retinue and possessions ! What better proof could be had that the Turk had been simply using the Kurd as his agent in butchering the Nestorian Christians ? Were anything further needed, the fact that the son of that Kurdish butcher has been but recently one of the honored butchers of the Armenian Christians would be sufficient ! This one example is enough to show the character of the Turk of the period and his method in his characteristic work. He has been the same essentially everywhere and always. II. EussiA THE Only Obstacle. There was only one thing that stood in the way of Turk- ish barbarities, namely, fear of Kussia, the acknowledged Treaty of ^^^^ legal protector of the Greek Christians Kutchuk- in the Turkish Empire. That right Eussia Kamardji. ]^qI^ ^0 be guaranteed her by the Treaty of THE CRIMEAN WAR — ITS AIMS AND EESULTS. 61 Kutcliuk-Kainardji, made in 1774 between the Ottoman Porte and Catherine II. of Eussia. That great Empress had beaten and humbled Turkey, forced her to cede Azov and other territory to Russia, and to set free the Crimea. In the seventh clause of this treaty which gave peace to the Turk, the Sublime Porte promised — • " To protect constantly the Christian religion and its churches, and also to allow the minister of the Imperial Court of Russia to make on all occasions representations as well in favor of the new church in Constantinople, of which mention will be made in the fourteenth article, as in favor of those who officiate therein, promising to take such representations into due consideration as being made by a confidential functionary of a neighboring and sincerely friendly power." Eussia interpreted this clause as meaning what it says, and on that ground claimed the right of protecting the ■ Christians in Turkey. Mr. Gladstone always advocated the interpretation of Eussia as the only ad- . .,-, T 1 X 1 -r. n T^ • Russia's Claim, missible one. Lord John Eussell, as Prime Minister, clearly admitted, in the early stages of the con- troversy that came about, that the claims of Eussia to a protectorate over the Greek Christians ^^were prescribed by duty and sanctioned by treaty." This case was a clear one. Turkey had no acknowledged place among the Powers of Europe — no place in Europe. The office claimed by Eussia was a plain requirement of the situa- tion, and Eussia was naturally the Power to fill that office. Diplomatists and politicians talk of interference, but with cut-throats and robbers it is a prime necessity, as well as a thing to which nations are morally bound. But with the passing years political affairs had taken a remarkable turn. Eussia and Great Britain were now Asiatic as well as European powers, and " British inter- ests " had come to require, in the view of " commercial England," the upholding of the Turkish Empire in Europe as an obstacle in the way of Eussian aggression. British 62 THE CEIME OP CHRISTENDOM. diplomatists, in common witli those of other European powers, took np the Turkish interpretation of the Treaty of Kainardji, and a great diplomatic controversy was brought on, the aim of which was to bar the Czar from the fulfil- ment of his office of protector. The wily Turk, who had always been astute enough to hoodwink the rest of Europe, was intent upon bringing the question to issue. The Eastern Question was thus given a narrow and definite form : Shall Russia he per- mitted to exercise a protectorate over the Greek Christians in the Turkish Empire 9 That was the issue tried in the Crimean War. The ambition of Napoleon III. served the Turk in good stead. Louis Napoleon, who had just succeeded in pro- curing the installing of himself as Emperor under that title, was anxious for a policy of adventure ■ that would distract the attention of the French people from domestic politics until he should be firmly seated on the throne. Already one French army was oc- cupying Eome, and the Emperor posed as the patron of the Papacy. " Another army occupying Jerusalem," sa3^s Justin McCarthy, ''would have left the world in no doubt as to the supremacy of France." ISTor was the occasion wanting for the new move. Tlie Latin Church claimed the protectorate over the Holy Places in Palestine — the " great Church in Bethlehem ; the Sanctuary of the Nativity ; the Tomb of the Virgin ; the Stone of Anointing ; the Seven Arches of the Virgin in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher." The Sultan of Turkey had by treaty acknowledged Francis the First of France the protector of these Holy Places and of the monks who had charge of them. The Greek Church had obtained similar concessions and rights from the Sultans. It was in connection with disputes stirred up over these Holy Places that France deliberately set to work to provoke a quarrel with Eussia. Into which she wililj drew Great Brit- THE CRIMEAN WAR — ITS AIMS AND RESULTS. 63 ain, at the same time tlireateniug the intervention of a French fleet and the occupation of Jerusalem. That was all that was needed to rouse Kussia. The Czar Nicholas, who was reigning at that time, was a remarkable character, one of the greatest of the many great Eomanoffs and one of the greatest of ^ . T •• -\/r n 1.1 Czar Nicholas, modern sovereigns. Justin McCarthy says of him : ^ "He had many of the ways of an Asiatic despot. He had a strong ambition, a fierce and fitful temper, a daring but some- times too vacillating will. He had many magnanimous and noble qualities, and moods of sweetness and gentleness. He reminded people sometimes of an Alexander the Great ; sometimes of the ' Arabian Nights ' version of Haroun Alraschid. A certain ex- citability ran through the temperament of all his house which, in some of its members, broke into actual madness, in others prevailed no farther than to lead to wild outbreaks of temper such as those that often convulsed the frame and distorted the character of a Charles the Bold or of a Coeur de Lion. We can not date the ways and characters of Nicholas's family from the years of Peter the Great. We must, for tolerably obvious reasons, be content to deduce their origin from the reign of Cath- erine II. The extraordinary and almost unparalleled conditions of the early married life of that much-injured, much-injuring woman would easily account for any aberrations of intellect and will among her immediate descendants. Her son was a madman ; there was madness or something very like it among the brothers of the Emperor Nicholas. " The Emperor at one time was very popular in England. He had visited the Queen, and he had impressed every one by his noble presence, his lofty stature, his singular personal beauty, his blended dignity and familiarity of manner. He talked as if he had no higher ambition than to be in friendly alliance with England. When he wished to convey his impression of the high- est degree of personal loyalty and honor, he always spoke of the word of an English gentleman. There can, indeed, be little doubt that the Emperor was sincerely anxious to keep on terms of cordial friendship with England ; and, what is more, had no idea until the very last that the way he was walking was one 1 History of Our Own Times, vol. 3, pp. 181, 183. 64 THE CKIME OP CHRISTENDOM. which England could not consent to tread. His brother and predecessor had been in close alliance with England ; his own ideal hero was the Duke of Wellington ; he had made up his mind that when the division of the spoils of Turkey came about, England and he could best consult for their own interests and the peace of the world by making the appropriations a matter of joint arrangement." Nicholas had clearly understood the situation in Tur- key from the early years of his reign. He felt — and felt justly — that the right time for making an end of the Turk in Europe had come. When he visited England the second time, in 1844, he had several free conversations with the Duke of Wellington and the Foreign Secretary, Lord Aber- deen, '^ about Turkey and her prospects, and what would be likely to happen in the case of her dissolution, which he believed to be imminent.^^ On his return to Eussia he had his Chancellor, Nes- selrode, draw up a memorandum, in which were embodied the views which Nicholas supposed himself to Tlie ' ' Memo- . randum " hold in common with the British statesman and the with whom he had discussed the then pres- " Sick Man " . ent aspects of the Eastern Question. It ap- parently took the form of a '^'^ formal reminder or record of a general and oral engagement," as he understood it. It jjroposed that a joint pressure be exercised upon the Turk to maintain the existence and independence of the Ottoman Empire as essential to both England and Eussia ; and emphasized *'the imperative necessity of Tur- key being led to treat her Christian subjects with tolera- tion and mildness." It took into account the undeniable fact that the Ottoman Empire contained within itself many elements of dissolution, and in view of them made the fol- lowing suggestions : ^ " In the uncertainty which hovers over the future a single fund- amental idea seems to admit of a really practical application ; 1 McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, vol. 2, p. 184. THE CEIMEAK WAR — ITS AIMS AND EESULTS. 65 that is, that the danger which may result from a catastrophe in Turkey will be much diminished if in the event of its occurring Russia and England have come to an understanding as to the course to be taken by them in common. That understanding will be the more beneficial inasmuch as it will have the full assent of Austria, between whom and Russia there already exists an en- tire accord." This memorandnm was sent to London, where its recep- tion and retention in the British Foreign Oflice gave color to the claim of Nicholas that there was a tacit understand- ing on these matters between Great Britain and Russia. When Lord Aberdeen, with whom as Foreign Secretary Nicholas had held his principal conversations in 1844, be- came Prime Minister in 1853, the Emperor seemed to think that the hour for final action had struck. At a party given by the Archduchess Helen, at her palace in St. Petersburg, he drew aside the British minister. Sir G. Ham- ilton Seymour, and " began to talk with him in the most outspoken manner about the future of Turkey and the ar- rangements it might be necessary for England and Eussia to make regarding it.^^ Many conversations equally frank followed. In one of them the Emperor said : " We have on our hands a sick man — a very sick man ; it will be a great misfortune if one of these days he should slip away from us before the arrangements necessary have been made." From that day the appellation '^'^the sick man" has clung to Turkey. The Emjoeror urged decisive joint action in view of the inevitable day of the sick man's d'eath. But the British views had changed ; new " British in- terests " had come in play. Her Indian possessions had come into prominence, and fear of Russian interference and aggression was already taking ^action ^ possession of England. " Commercial Eng- land " was in control. She drew out of the agreement and repudiated the implied understanding. Constantinople must not be permitted to fall into the hands of Eussia. It 5 6Q THE CRIME OP CHEISTENDOM. was in vain that the Emperor protested that he did not de- sire Constantinople. Tlie facts all favor the sincerity of his protest. ISTicholas might have occupied Constantinople without protest or hindrance in 1829. Well- ciaimer^^' i^^^S^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ wonld have been better if he had done so. The barbarities of the Greek Eevolution had prepared the world for that event ; but he made the peace of Adrianople instead. Count Nesselrode explained the reasons for making j)eace^ in a letter to the Grand Duke Constantino within three months after the peace had been made. The reasons were consistent with the reasons of the Czar. In the summer of 1853 Count Nesselrode made a similar disclaimer in behalf of the Em- peror. The Emperor himself explained his own views fully in his conversations with Sir Hamilton Seymour about the Sick Man. He said : ^ " With regard to Constantinople, I am not under the same illu- sions as Catherine II. On the contrary, I regard the immense extent of Russia as her real danger. I should like to see Turkey strong enough to be able to make herself respected by the other Powers. But if she is doomed to perish, Eussia and England should come to an agreement as to what should be put in her place. I propose to form the Danubian Principalities, with Ser- via and Bulgaria into one independent State, placed under the protection of Russia ; and I declare that Russia has no ambition to extend her sovereignty over the territories of Turkey. ' ' England might take Egypt and Crete ; but I could not allow her to establish herself at Constantinople, and this I say frankly. On the other hand, I would undertake to promise, on my part, never to take Constantinople, if the arrangement which I pro- pose should be concluded between Russia and England. If, in- deed, Turkey were to go suddenly to pieces before the conclu- sion of that convention, and I should find it necessary to occupy Constantinople, I would not of course promise not to do so." On a subsequent occasion the Emperor said : " I would not permit any power so strong as England to occupy the Bosporus, by which the Dnieper and the Don find their way ' Canon MacColl, The Eastern Question, pp. 309-311. THE CRIMEAN" WAR — ITS AIMS AND RESULTS. 67 into the Mediterranean. While the Black Sea is between the Don, the Dnieper and the Bosporus, the command of that strait would destroy the commerce of Russia, and close to her fleet the road to the Mediterranean. If an Emperor of Russia should one day chance to conquer Constantinople, or should find himself forced to occupy it permanently, and fortify it with a view to making it impregnable, from that day would date the decline of Russia. If I did not transfer my residence to the Bosporus, my son, or at least my grandson, would. The change would certainly be made sooner or later ; for the Bosporus is warmer, more agree- able, more beautiful than Petersburg or Moscow ; and if once the Czar were to take up his abode at Constantinople, Russia would cease to be Russia. There is not a Russian who would not like to see a Christian crusade for the delivery of the Mosque of Saint Sophia ; I should like it as much as any one. But nobody would like to see the Kremlin transported to the Seven Towers." Alexander II. ^ at a later date, held and reiterated the same views. Both Alexander and Nicholas were wise and far-seeing men, and were doubtless sincere in these views and expressions. They did not -^^^^f^^^^'s -■■ . . '' Disclaimer, purpose to ruin their Empire. But Great Britain drew off and followed '' British interests/" unmoved by the appeals in behalf of the enslaved Eastern Chris- tians. She attempted to draw back from her acknowledg- ment of the Russian right of protection of the Christians. That was the beginning of a breach between England and Eussia that has never been healed. It brought the former power into line to co-operate with France when the ambi- tious scheme of Louis Napoleon — already adverted to — was formed and ready for execution. Back of the petty quarrel over the Holy Places there were innumerable greater things. III. The Eol'sij^g of Eussia and the Couese oe Diplomacy. The Eussian Emperor was now fully roused by the action of Great Britain and France, and the insolence of the Turk 68 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. now assured of their backing ; and the Russian nation was roused in sympathy with him. Call the tide of feeling by whatever name — race enthusiasm, religious fanaticism — it existed, and no ruler of Russia could have withstood it then, still less when it took more potent form and swept before it the Greek Church and the Slavic race twenty years later. l^icholas sent Prince Mentschikoff to Constantinople with a convention concerning the Russian right of protec- tion, of which he demanded the Turk's immediate accept- ance. Turkey refused ; Prince Mentschikoff withdrew in a rage ; and the Emperor despatched two divisions of his army to take possession of the Danubian principalities with a view of obtaining material guarantees for the concessions already demanded of Turkey. But European diplomacy had not yet reached its limit. The Vienna Note, concocted in Paris, completed in Vienna, the four great Powers were agreed '^^f>"J^f^^ upon, and Russia at once offered to accept it. But Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the Brit- ish ambassador at Constantinople, interposed and showed them that it virtually conceded everything that Russia had sought, namely, an acknowledgment of her protectorate over the Christians of the Greek Church in the Sultan's dominions. That would have been the recognition of her right by all the rest of Europe. The Powers that had before been charmed with the Note now rejected it. The Turk felt assured that the great Western Powers were back of him, and he was therefore incorrigible. For the words of the Vienna Note which declared that The Turk ^-^q Government of his Maiesty the Sultan Encotiragea. , . j j would remain "faithful to the letter and the spirit of the stipulations of the Treaties of Kainardji and of Adrianople, relative to the protection of the Christian religion," he proposed to substitute the following : " To the Stipulation of the Treaty of Kainardji, confirmed by THE CRIMEAN WAR — ITS AIMS ANd RESULTS. 69 that of Adriunoi^le, relative to the protection hy the Sublime Porte of the Cliristian religion." Tliat was to remand the Christians to the tender mercies of the great robber and butcher of the ages. It was an insult to Russia and an affront to Christendom. It put an end to all hopes of peace from the side of Russia. " Christian England " Against the Crimean War. — Prince Albert's Memorandum. The best Christian element in the British nation was undoubtedly very largely averse to the war. When it was imminent, but not yet declared, 'Hwo ,,«. . .. divergent policies had already manifested England" op- themselves in the Cabinet ; the one headed Posed. by Lord Aberdeen, and the other by Lord Palmerston. On Lord Aberdeen's side was the late Prince Consort." It was at that time that Prince Albert expressed his broad, statesmanlike, patriotic and Christian views in his " Mem- orandum for the Consideration of the Cabi- net," since published in Theodore Martin's " Life of the Prince Consort." The following is his state- ment of the j)oint at issue : ^ ' ' In acting as auxiliaries to the Turks we ought to be quite sure that they have no object in view foreign to our duty and in- terests ; that they do not drive at war whilst we aim at peace ; that they do not, instead of merely resisting the attempt of Russia to obtain a protectorate over the Greek population incompatible with our own independence, seek to obtain themselves the power of imposing a more oppressive rule of two millions of fanatic Mussulmans over twelve millions of Christians ; that they do not try to turn the tables upon the weaker power now that, backed by England and France, they have themselves become the stronger. "There can be little doubt, and it is very natural, that the fanatical party at Constantinople should have such views ; but to I Ca»on MacCoU, The Eastern (^uestioiij pp. 416, 417, 70 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. engage our fleet as an auxiliary force for such purposes would be fighting against our own interests, policy and feelings. " From this it would result that, if our forces are to be employed for any purpose, however defensive, as an auxiliary to Turkey, we must insist upon keeping not only the conduct of the negotia- tion, but also the peace and war, in our own hands, and that, Turkey refusing this, we can no longer take part for her. ' ' It will be said that England and Europe have a strong inter- est, setting all Turkish considerations aside, that Constantinople and the Turkish territory should not fall into the hands of Russia, and that they should in the last extremity even go to war to prevent such an overthrow of the balance of power. This must be admitted, and such a war may be right and wise. But this would be a war not for the maintenance of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, but merely for the interests of the European powers of civilization. It ought to be carried on unshackled by obligations to the Porte, and will probably lead, in the peace which must be the object of the war, to the obtaining of arrangements more consonant with the well-understood interests of Europe, of Christianity, liberty and civilization, than the re-imposition of the ignorant, barbarian and despotic yoke of the Mussulman over the most fertile and favored portion of Europe." But "Commercial England" was bent on the war. The Memorandum was sent to Lord Aberdeen, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and on examination en- ' Engl^nT"''^ dorsed by him and by Lord Clarendon, Sir James Graham and Lord John Eussell. But Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, to whom it was then sent, yiolently attacked it, scouted its ideas of Christian philanthropy, and declared his belief that the stories about Mussulman fanaticism were " fables invented at Vienna and St. Petersburg,-" The " massacre of Sinope," as it was then sensationally styled, which, as later British historians show, was simply a battle brought on by the Turks them- selves in the harbor of Sinope, and in which their fleet was annihilated, as had before been the case in the battle of Navarino, Lord Palmerston made the occasion of push- ing the nation into the war, for which long years of peace had made foolish men eager. Palmerstoi; was a diploma-' THE CKIMEAISr WAR — ITS AIMS AND BESULTS. 71 tist SO consumed by diplomacy as apparently to be inca- pable of appreciating any moral or Christian issue. More- over lie was supported, as already said, by the urgent pressure of the French Emperor. Eussia was warned out of the Black Sea, and advised that the Great Powers would enforce its neutrality. The Czar withdrew his representatives from London and Paris, and, on February 21, 1854, his diplomatic relations with Great Britain and France came to an end. Great Brit- ain, acting independently, despatched her insolent ulti- matum to Russia, in a letter from Lord Clarendon to Count JNTesselrode, February 27, 1854, demanding Russia's with- drawal from the Danubian Principalities by April 30, and the restriction of her action, to purely diplomatic limits. It was of course indignantly but silently rejected. Russian patriotism was at stake, as well as Christianity in South- eastern Europe. IV. The Crimean" War and its Immediate Results. England and France entered upon the war as allies, Prussia and Austria withdrawing from the alliance. The allied fleet entered the Black Sea, and with the army in- vested Sebastopol, the great arsenal of Russia in the Crimea, where the war was mainly fought out. During its prog- ress the Emperor Nicholas died suddenly of pulmonary apoplexy, March 2, 1855 — some said that he died of a broken heart — and was succeeded by his son Alexander II. Although not inclined to war it was impossible for Alexander to draw back from it. The long and bloody struggle continued. On September 8, 1855, the allies at- tempted to storm the defenses of Sebastopol but failed. When they proceeded to renew the attack on the next day they found the enemy gone. Prince Gortschakoif had withdrawn his army by a bridge of boats across the bay, fq,nd was beyond their reach. When the explosions ol 72 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. powder magazines and arsenals and the cessation of tlie rag- ing flames permitted them to enter, they found it a second Moscow. The fleet had been scuttled and sunk in the harbor, Sebastopol was no longer of any use to Russia, and the Allies — England, France, Sardinia and Turkey — had nothing to show to the world but a series of blunders and of heavy losses, and were practically still outside of the Russian dominions. In Europe it was the Crimean War. In Asia Russia won great military successes beyond the Caucasus in spite of the Allied Powers, and prepared the way for her later conquest of Transcaucasia to the summit of the Armenian Plateau. It is remarkable that the war made only one great mili- tary reputation, that of the Russian Todleben, whom Providence thus prepared for the deliverance of the Chris- tians in Turkey, in the Russo-Turkish War, more than twenty years later. It is not, however, the purpose to trace the course of that war, but merely to make clear the issues involved, as marking one of the stages in the progress toward the solu- tion of the Eastern Question. The Russian power after the fall of Sebastopol seemed broken, and all parties were anxious — France especially so — for the war to close. An armistice was ''^pS°^ concluded February 26, 1856, and the bel- ligerents having met and conferred in the Congress of Paris, signed the Treaty of Paris, March 30, 1856. Lord Palmerston had accomplished only part of what he desired — in what had been his one aim — in the putting down of Russia. He had further work in hand. An ad- ditional Tripartite Treaty, between England, France and Austria, in which these powers guaranteed jointly and severally the independence and territorial integrity of Turkey, was drawn up and signed in Paris, April 15, 1856. And as if this were not enough a Treaty was also drawn up THE CEIMEAN WAE — ITS AIMS AND KESULTS. 73 between England, France and Sweden, in which the latter bound herself not to cede to Russia any part of her ter- ritories or any rights of fishery, and England and France agreed to maintain Sweden by force against Russian ag- gression. When the general provisions of the Treaty of Paris are taken into account, it becomes evident that the wise dip- lomatists were undertaking to settle matters permanently. That Treaty restored the territorial status quo of the ante- bellum time, but it shut in the Russian from the world and was clearly calculated to cripple him for all the future. It bound the giant hand and foot. How could he possibly break the thrice triple chains ? But the responsibility of Palmerston and England for all these things was of little moment compared with their responsibility for the more import- ;^^^^*^-yj'-+ ant issues of the Crimean War that have l>een the bane of Europe from that day to this. These were as follows : First, the War brought about the forcible abrogation of the claim and treaty-right of Russia to be the protector of the suffering millions of Christians in the Turkish Em- pire. On that issue Russia had fought out the Crimean War. In the settling of that issue Russia was undoubt- edly on the side of right and humanity and Christianity, and the Allied Powers as undoubtedly on the side of wrong and inhumanity and Islam. Had British success stopped there it would have been bad enough ; but that was only the beginning. Secondly, the Treaty admitted the Sublime Porte to a place among the Powers of Europe and secured to it all the privileges and advantages of that position. Until that time Europe had denied any such recognition to the ac- knowledged robber and butcher of the world, on the ground that he was unfit for it. It would have been bad enough if British success had reached its limit here ; but it did not. 74 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. Thirdly, tlie Treaty bound all the Powers of Europe by a strict engagement to respect and maintain the independ- ence and territorial integrity of Turkey, and warned off all would-be violators of these. Provision was thus attempted to be made for maintaining the " Sick Man " permanently in Southeastern Europe by the united power of Western Christendom, and that in the face of the moral conviction of all the decent elements of mankind to the contrary. But even that was not the worst part of the outcome of British diplomacy. Fourthly, the work of the War and of the Treaty cul- minated in the declaration by the Sultan, of the absolute independence of Turkey of interference, by any outside parties whatsoever, in behalf of the suffering and enslaved Christians in his dominions. That was the crowning iniquity of all. And in this, as in so many other instances, the wily Turk was too cunning for the Western diplomats. Antici- pating the action of the Powers at Paris, ^Firman^^^ Turkey issued a Hatt-i-Sheriff, or imperial decree, February 21, 1856, five days before the signing of the Treaty of Paris, promising to grant perfect religious toleration to all her subjects. That was intended to forestall any adverse action of the Powers. The Firman was immediately communicated to the Congress at Paris, and furnished the subject of Article IX. of the Treaty of Paris. The Congress expressed itself as satisfied with this solemn pledge of Turkey, and they declared that they did not understand it as " giving them the right to mix them- selves up in the relations of the Sultan with his people." The Powers at first insisted on exacting from the Sultan a strict engagement " to carry out an extensive system of reforms on behalf of his Christian subjects," but when the Sultan appealed to them to trust to his ^'^ honor" and accept his "'Imperial Word," as the Moslem ruler, that he would fulfill his engagement, they relented, and made THE CEIMEAK WAR — ITS AIMS AND EEStJLTS. 75 the fatal mistake of not incorporating these reforms in the Treaty. So they remained only the promises of the always promiseful Turk, and were never a part of the Treaty ! That seemed the death-knell of Christian hope I The Christians were thus turned over by Europe to the tender mercies of this brute of brutes, and in such condition of dis- ability that they conld only be helped by warlike interfer- ence, against which the Powers had bound themselves to defend the Turk. Probably no nation will ever incur graver moral responsibility or a heavier guilt. And yet the Prime Minister of England plumed himself on these achievements, and twenty years later Lord Beaconsfield discovered the political doctrine of the awful sanctity of the Treaty of Paris ! And these men, and such as they, thought the Eastern Question was to be settled in that way ! Infidel and Jew in these two men conspired against Christendom and in favor of Islam ! All this was done in spite of the scathing expositions of its folly and the indignant protests against its inquity by the noblest men in the British nation — of pj-^^ggt ^f such men as John Bright and Gladstone and "Christian Lord Robert Cecil and Lord Aberdeen. Lord England." Aberdeen had suggested that it might possibly secure peace in Southeastern Europe for twenty-five years. He was a prophet, only war came again between Russia and Turkey three years too soon for his prediction. Lord Aber- deen's outlook toward the future, before the Crimean War, as given in his reply to Lord Palmerston's criticism of the Prince Consort's Memorandum, was one of remark- able character. Pie said : ^ " Notwithstanding the favorable opinion entertained by many, it is difficult to believe in the improvement of the Turks. It is true that under the pressure of the moment benevolent decrees may be issued ; but these, except under the eye of some Foreign 1 Life of the Prince Consort, vol. 3, p. 528. 76 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. Minister, are entirely neglected. Their whole system is radically vicious and inhuman. I do not refer to fables which may be in- vented at St. Petersburg or Vienna, but to numerous despatches of Lord Stratford himself, and of our own consuls, who describe a frightful picture of lawless oppression and cruelty. This is so true that if the war should continue, and the Turkish armies meet with disaster, we may expect to see the Christian popula- tions of the Empire rise against their oppressors ; and in such a case, it would scarcely be proposed to employ the British force in the Levant to assist in compelling their return under a Mahom- medan yoke." This was in 1853, Twenty-three years later the very policy which he thought impossible was adopted ! " The British force in the Levant was employed to assist in com- pelling the suppression of the insurrection of the Christian population of Turkey !" Twenty-one years later the same thing was re-enacted in Crete ! V. Eemoter Eesults of the Crimeajst War. The immediate results of the Crimean War were but the beginnings of a dark future, to follow from the letting loose of the murderous Turk — unhindered by Atf t de ^^^ ^^^ restraints — upon his helpless Christian subjects. Before the War Turkey had nat- urally been somewhat careful in her choice of subjects for her oppression and extortion. She had sought out those in whom Russia was least interested, and had left the Slavic race and the adherents of the Greek Church com- paratively unmolested. That was the prudent course. But the Turkish diplomacy in bringing about the Crimean War had been astutely directed to putting an end to that state of things. With the Treaty of Paris once enacted the entire policy of the Sublime Porte in dealing with the subject Christians was revolutionized. It began dealing with a free hand, not only with the foreign Christians, but with the native as well ; not only with the Nestorians, but THE CRIMEAN WAR — ITS AIMS AND RESULTS. 77 with the adherents of the Greek Church, and that right up to the borders of the Eussian Empire. The change was marked in the case of the American missions, which had at that time been in successful opera- tion for about thirty years, and whose outlook was regarded as exceedingly cheering. The native Christians under the shadow of the Eussian tegis were in the enjoyment of a large measure of freedom — especially in the remote Arme- nian provinces. But when Turkey was made one of the Powers of Europe, and given a free hand, her methods of dealing with her Christian subjects changed at once. In place of the old, forced toleration. The New- there was substituted a policy of repression, persecution, and destruction, — the natural outcome of the Turkish religion and Turkish nature. A startling sum- mary of the results, as shown in the changed condition of the Christians, is given in a recent paper by a Turkish Christian, writing from Syria : ^ " During the forty years which have elapsed since the Crimean War, the Turks have, by wicked, wily policy, filched away almost every right the Christians possessed. The orders emanating from Constantinople during the past five years are a veritable Jihad against Christianity. The treaties gave Christians the right to bviild churches, open schools, print and circulate books. But to-day no church can be built, no little day-school opened, with- out express permission from the Sultan. Years ago we learned, to our sorrow, that it was the setttled policy of the Government to refuse all such applications, and we gave all time and strength to keep what we then possessed. But restriction after restriction has been laid down, annoyance and outrage perpetrated, until even the Moslems themselves are ashamed of the policy of their own Government. No Christian book can now be printed with- out being first sent to Constantinople for examination and muti- lation, and the stupidity and maliciousness of the Moslem ex- aminers goes almost beyond belief, as shown in an article in The 1 Tiu-ks and Christians — ^Why they cannot Live Peaceably Together. By a Turkish Christian. The Independent, August 23, 1895. 78 THE CRIME OP CHRISTENDOM. Independent of May 16th, Years ago all preaching in the open air or public places was forbidden. Then all controversy even between Christians was stifled. Within three years the opening of law courts and all Government offices on Sunday was mooted as a possibility — all in tlie line of harassing and repressing Chris- tianity. Ten thousand times a day in every city of the Empire Christianity is openly cursed and maligned ; but woe to the Christian who does resent by cursing the Sultan, the Prophet of Islam ! So horrible are the consequences and so easy is it to ob- tain false witness against a Christian that this charge is now the favorite weapon against any one who may fall under the dis- pleasure of his Moslem neighbors. Nothing is harder to meet, notliing so hard to refute. As a prominent Government official, a Christian, recently said to the writer : ' God saves us by bribery ; were that door closed there would be no place for Christians in the Empire ! ' " Some of the later results, in the outward horrors that have affected both foreign and native Christians, in the per- sistent effort to destroy Christianity, will be found stated in the subseqiient pages of this volume. The attempt at an iniquitous settlement had in fact merely complicated matters in the East, and the greatest criminal in it all had been " Commercial England " under lead of the conscienceless Palmerston ! She was chiefly responsible for the new phase in " The Crime of Christen- dom." Henceforth Turkey was to be reckoned with as an independent Power with the pledged support of the other Powers that had, at the cost of a great war, exalted her to that position. CHAPTER rV. THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND THE RUSSO-TURKISH WAR OF 1877-78. The Russo-Turkish War furnished the occasion for the iniquitous diplomacy of '' Commercial England" in re- manding to Turkish slavery and butchery several millions of the Christians liberated by Russia at vast cost of men and means, and doing it in spite of Christian England and Christian Europe, while preparing the way for gratify- ing her own greed in securing large portions of Turkish territory and insuring the Turk against coercion by the other Powers. The new outbreak of the Eastern Question in 1877-78 was the legacy of Lord Palmerston and the diplomacy of the time of the Crimean War to a new genera- tion, or, rather, to a later period in the career P^l'^^^'ston s of the same generation. The hypocrisy of the actors of the earlier period was consummate and supreme. Their real aim was to crush Russia, while their pretended purpose was to secure reforms in Turkey, — reforms that they never made an effort either to inaugurate or to carry through. Great Britain before all the other Powers had bound herself, by her whole course from the beginning of the Crimean War, to bring about the needed reforms, and her responsibility for their utter failure was therefore foremost. To understand the great movement of 1877-78 several things need to be considered : 79 80 THE CRIME OF CHEISTEN'DOM. 1st. The Practical Outcome of the Hatt-i-Humayonn of 1856. 2d. The Crisis that called for Eussian Intervention, 3d. The Eussian Intervention in behalf of the Greek Christians, and the Eesults of the War. I. Twenty Yeaes op the IlATT-i-HuMATOuisr. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the Crimean War, organized a new experiment with the Turk in Europe. That Treaty was an attempt to take the Pa ^ ° Ottoman Empire into the society of Chris- tian nations, and to uphold its government in order to block the Westward advance of Eussia. The Hatt-i-Humayoun of February 8, 1856, was to settle the Eastern Question ! President Woolsey summarizes the provisions of the Treaty of Paris in connection with it, as follows : ^ ' ' By the Treaty of Paris the Sultan is invited to participate in the European advantages of public law and concerted action and is secured in the independence and integrity of his empire. The Firman of February 18, 1856, placing all Christian sects in Turkey on a level with Mohammedans, in respect to life, property, religion, etc., is acknowledged by the other powers, who, however, disclaim all right to interfere between the Sultan and liig subjects, or in the internal administration of his kingdom. (Art. vii.-lx.)" Tliat was the installation of Turkey as one of the inde- pendent Powers of Europe. It was plainly the betrayal of the Christians of Turkey by the other Powers. Iniquitous rp|^g provisions for reform had been drawn up by the Allied Powers and indorsed by a Proto- col of all the European Powers. The Turkish minister objected to its embodiment in the Treaty, on the plea of sparing the dignity of the Porte, and Lord Palmerston, with the aid of his usual " diplomacy," succeeded in securing 1 Woolsey, International Law, p. 420. THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND RUSSO-TUEKISH WAE. 81 its exclusion from, the body of the Treaty. The Sultan bound himself by the most " solemn engagements upon his honor " to carry out its provisions ! Palmerston had ap- parently succeeded in removing the last obstacle in the way of the destruction of the already long oppressed and tortured Christian subjects of Turkey. Mr. J. Milliken Napier Brodhead has recently summed up in graphic phrase the hideous iniquity of the Crimean War. He says in connection with the opening of the Russo-Turkish War : ^ " Paissia, meanwhile, had thrown an army into theDannbian Prin- cipalities, and was exacting tlie strict fulfilment of the treaties, at the sword's point — the only rational way to expostulate witli Turks. "The Powers all recognized the justice of Russia's action when they urged the Porte to accept the "Vienna Note" which embodied them. While negotiations were still pending, Louis Napoleon formed a special alliance with England, and the Crimean War was declared. "If the allies had given heed to Lord Eaglan's pathetic appeal, and devoted themselves to redressing the wrongs of these unfor- tunate Christians, instead of crushing their champions, millions of lives would have been spared, and the hideous massacres of Crete in 1866, of Bulgaria ten years later, might have been averted, to say nothing of more recent atrocities. " All reverence is due to the heroes of the Light Brigade, and to millions of others who, at the voice of duty, allowed themselves to be slaughtered for an unholy cause, and i^erished by thousands, of hunger and cold and disease, on the bleak shores of the Crimea. Nevertheless, when time shall have laid the dust of glory raised by crumbling fortresses on the bloody days of Alma and Sebastopol, humanity will judge more sanely of the brutal facts of the Crimean War. Future generations will stand aghast at the hideous spectacle of three civilized nations fighting, side by side, with and for semi- barbarous Moslems to crush the noble champions of their fellow- Slaves and fellow-Christians, compelled to languish for four centuries beneath the yoke of those savage aliens. Posterity will cry shame to the victors and glory to the vanquished. Nay, we may say that the judgment of posterity has been anticipated, and that the post- humous reprobation of the Crimean War has already begun. During this war nearly four million lives were sacrificed, not in the cause gf 1 The Independent, February 27, 1896, p. 271* 82 THE CEIME OP CHRISTEinDOM. freedom, not to redress the wrong of the oppressed, but to pave the way for the bloody atrocities which in 1876 called forth one long cry of horror throughout Christendom." In the yiew of the diplomatic optimists the Ottoman was to win for himself a place in Europe by this last experi- ment. Let him. be tried by the results. (I.) The Tukkish Principles in Full Operation". Tested by the fruits of its first twenty years and more, the Hatt-i-Humayoun proved an absolute failure. The butcheries of the Turkish subjects of the Sultan went on as of old. It was in fact the signal for giving full sway to Turkish principles in dealing with Christians. The fear of Russia had heretofore restrained the Turk from the full and free application of the principles of his religion to his Christian subjects. Theoretically that fear The Turkish ^as now removed from before his eyes ; prac- rmcip es. ^-^g^-^iy j^ required a little time for him to adjust himself to the conditions of the new paradise into which the so-called Christian nations had introduced him. It is necessary to inquire what those principles are, as we shall soon find them ruthlessly applied. " The Koran, tribute, or the sword " — this was the Turk's ultimatum to the Christians that he conquered. It is the glory of the Christians that they so generally held fast their faith in Christ. It meant for them all that is embraced in the Turkish concept of " tribute,"' and when they could not longer furnish " tribute " it meant " the sword." It is necessary to understand what tribute to the Turk means. Its meaning is outside of and beyond all the ordi- nary conceptions of those accustomed to Chris- What Trihute ^:^^^ civilization. The '' tribute " of the Christian to Islam involves a threefold system of taxes : the ordinary taxes ; extraordinary taxes ; and the hospitality tax. Jst, The Christians are required to begin with the pay- THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND KUSSO-TUKKISH "WAR. 83 ment of the same taxes as are exacted from all other subjects of the Turkish Government. These are often oppressive and exorbitant as assessed upon the Moslem even. 2d. The Christians are further subject to the following extraordinary taxes : ^ " a. A capitation tax, called ' the Humiliation Tax,' for the right to live from year to year. "6. A tax in lieu of military service (from which Christians are rigidly excluded), assessed on all males from three months old and upwards. The blind, lame and decrepit are made to pay, though not legally liable. "c. Extraordinary taxes for temporary purposes, which, however, are never removed. Thus an extraordinary tax was laid on the Chris- tians in 1867 to pay the cost of the Sultan's visit to England. It was promised that the tax would be levied only for that year ; but the wretched Christians are obliged to pay it still. " d. Sometimes the Christians are made to pay their taxes a year or two in advance on promise of exemption from taxation in the in- terval. But the promise is never kept. For instance, the Christians throughout Turkey were compelled to pay two years' taxation in 18*77 as a contribution towards the war against Russia ; but the taxes were exacted as usual without the smallest remission during those two years. "Any failure to pay any of these taxes is legally rebellion, involv- ing forfeiture of property and life." 3d. In addition to this practical system of robbery is the Hospitality Tax^ of which Canon MacColl says : ^ " Another requirement of the Sacred Law, rigorously enforced under every Mussulman government ever since the capture of Jerusalem by Khalif Omar in A. D. 637. is the Gazdalik, or Hospitality Tax. Every Christian householder who is a subject of the Sultan is bound by law to provide three days' gratuitous hospitality for every Moham- medan traveler or official who may choose to ask for it, from the Pasha to the beggar. The wretched Christian is thus hardly ever free from these unwelcome guests, who invariably choose the best houses in town or village, and the best room and food in the house, treating the householder and his family the while as their slaves, 1 England's Responsibility to Armenia, pp, 6^ 7, 84 THE CKIME OF CHRISTENDOM. The Sacred Law does not sanction violence to the women of the house, but neither does it forbid it. And human nature being what it is, and the Mussulman regarding,- as he does, the hated Giaour as his natural prey, the women of the family are usually included among the luxuries required by this rite of compulsory hospitality. At nightfall the men are ordered out of the house, and the women are left at the mercy of the Mussulman guests — policemen, soldiers, rov- ing dervishes, and the like." Let it be noted also that the Sacred Law of the Koran makes the Christian utterly helpless in the hands of the Turkish tax-gatherer, by a twofold provision : 1. Christian evidence is not admissible against a Moham- medan. Says Canon MacColl, substantiating his state- ment by ample citation of authorities : ^ "This is another provision of the Sacred Law which is abso- lutely unchangeable. It has prevailed in every Mohammedan State from Mohammed's time to our own, and is in full force at this mo- ment throughout the dominions of the Sultan." 2. Christians are not allowed to possess arms. Says Canon MacCoU on this point : ^ " Another provision of the Sacred Law of Islam forbids the Chris- tians to possess arms. This is so well known that it is not necessary to dwell upon it. The Sultan engaged in the Treaty of Paris in 1856 to put the Christians, in this as in all other respects, on a footing of perfect equality with his Mussulman subjects. But that promise, like all the Sultan's promises to ameliorate the condition of his Chris- tian subjects, has remained a dead letter. In the Berlin Memorandum, Germany, France, Austria, Russia, and Italy proposed to demand the fulfillment of the Sultan's treaty engagement to permit the Chris- tians to possess arms. Lord Derby strenuously opposed this most reasonable suggestion on the ground that if the Christians were armed ' a collision would be inevitable ! ' So he avoided the collision by leaving the Christians unarmed and helpless at the mercy of the armed Mussulmans." Wherever and whenever the Turk appears with his demand for ^' tribute ^^ the Christian is therefore at his mercy. To protest or to attempt to resist is death. What- 1 England's Responsibility to Armenia, p. 15, ?Jbid, pp. 18, 13, THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND EUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 85 ever course he takes his certain fate in the end may be summed up in Mr. Gladstone's '' four awful words — plunder, murder, raj^e and torture." The ruthless and unchecked application of these princi- ples from the time of the Treaty of Paris till the present day — an application for which '''Commercial England" is chiefly responsible — has made the Turkish Empire a veritable hell upon earth to the millions of its Christian subjects. (II.) Some Specimen Butcheries of this Period. It is here possible to give only specimens of the free appli- ' cation of the principles of the Koran to which the way had thus been opened for the Turk, through a bloody war, by the most Christian Powers of Christian Europe. In this connection may appropriately be summarized some facts recently stated by Dr. William Wright 1 concerning Syria, where in 1860 ^'-^^ssal^s^ a series of massacres occurred that for extent and brutality were second only to the latest Turkish atroci- ties. Since 1517, when Selim I. conquered Syria, it has, with one short interval, formed a part of the Ottoman Empire. This comparatively happy interval extended from 1832 to 1840. In the former year Ibrahim Pasha conquered the country for his father, Mohammed Ali, the Albanian JPasha of Egypt ; in the latter, through the power of England, allied with Austria and Turkey, Syria was again restored to Ottoman rule, and the doom of the Christians once more signed and sealed. The conquest of the country by Ibrahim was achieved with the encouragement of Erance, aside from the Concert of Europe ; but in 1840, when the English bombarded Akka and were led through a few " brilliant skirmishes " under Sir Charles Napier, aided by 1 The Syrian Massacres : A Parallel and a Contrast. By William Wright, D. D. Contemporary Review, January, 1897. 86 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. an insurrection fomented among the Maronites " by Turk- ish agents, some of whom were Englishmen,^' according to Colonel Churchill, the French, unable to cope with the allies, were compelled to abandon Ibrahim and the Chris- tians to the Concert of Europe. As soon as Ibrahim began to rule he undertook the re- moval of disabilities from the Christians, whom he found loaded with contumely. If the Christian had wealth he was plundered ; if he concealed his wealth he was basti- nadoed until he revealed it. He was not permitted to ride on a horse, or even on a donkey. He had to give any Turk the right of way in the street by stepping aside in the slush. He was compelled to wear black clothes and black headgear, while the Turk dressed in gay apparel. He was obliged to speak to a Turk with bated breath, or be struck on the mouth. He could not live in a house as high as the Turk's, or wear arms, and when he died his corpse was not j^ermitted to be carried past a mosque. Fierce resistance was offered by the Mussulmans to Ibra- him's benign rule, but he prevailed. Christians were allowed to dress as they pleased ; they were elected to act as councilors, and were eligible to serve in all depart- ments of the State, civil and military. Absolute equality between Mussulman and Christian was established. It is related that a deputation of Mohammedans one day waited on his Excellency to urge a return to ^^the^ood old ways." They complained, among other things, that Christians had taken to riding on horses in the streets of Damascus. Ibrahim suggested that the deputation should ride on camels, and then they would be still higher than the Chris- tians. The deputation sullenly withdrew. " The Chris- tians, thus encouraged, entered eagerly into commercial pursuits. A brisk trade with European merchants was quickly opened, and the harbor of Beirut, in particular, soon became thronged with the shipping of London and Marseilles." THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND KUSSO-TURKISH "WAR. 87 Tliis auspicious state of affairs ended with the downfall of the Egyptian ruler. What followed this event is told in the words of " an illustrious Englishman " who was an eye-witness : " The Turks returned like screecliing vultures to their baffled prey. Every kind of appointment was openly put up to auction. All places of trust were filled up with men notorious for their cupidity and fan- aticism. Justice, which during the Egyptian rule had been purified of her defilements, became again contaminated with the offal of cor- ruption. The Christians were everywhere reviled and insulted : in many places were assaulted in the bazaars ; had their turbans torn off their heads, and were compelled to assume their old distinctive garb of degradation. ... A general panic seized the rayahs, and all commercial transactions were temporarily paralyzed." The English Grovernment, says Dr. Wright/ were pledged to see just government established in Syria, in the place of that which they had overthrown, and for a time earnest efforts were made to protect ^ ^^ ^^^pf j the Christians, " but," he significantly adds, '^the more the English interfered on this behalf the more bitter did their lot become, and with the departure of Lord Stratford de Eedcliffe from Constantinople, matters were allowed to drift as before." The Syrian Massacres of 1860 occurred while Lord Palmerston was still Prime Minister. Lord John Eussell, then British Foreign Secretary, sent Mr. Cyril Graham, an English gentleman of dis- ^^- GJ^almm's tinction, to report upon the facts. He found that the Druses had been set on by the Turks to slaughter the Maronite Christians in the villages about Beirut, and the Turkish soldiers had then completed the work the Druses had not done with satisfactory thoroughness. In his Eeports to the Foreign Office he says of the massacre at Hasbeia : " Many Christians whom. I have examined have sworn to me that they saw the soldiers taking part in the slaughter, and the subsequent behavior of these brutal troops to the women was 88 THE CEIME OF CHEISTEKDOM. savage in the extreme. From the wounds I have seen both on the living and the dead, it would appear that they went to work with the most systematic cruelty. . . . Women the Druses did not slaughter, nor, for the most part, I believe, ill use ; that was left for the Turks and Moslems to do, and they did it. Little boys of four and five years old were not safe ; these would be seized from their mother and dashed on the ground, or torn to pieces before her face ; or, if her grasp was too tight, they would kill it on her lap ; and in some cases, to save further trouble, mother and child were cut down together. Many women have assured me that the Turkish soldiers have taken their children one leg in each hand, and torn them in two." Quite of a piece witli this is Mr. Graliam^s description of what he learned of the butchery at Deir-el-Kamr. There the Governor had first disarmed the Christian in- habitants, and then turned loose upon them his savage soldiery. In his report to Lord John Russell Mr. Graham says : " I have had a vivid description of the whole scene from some dozen women who were there. They have told me how, before their very face, they have seen husband, father, brothers, and children cut to pieces, and the pieces thrown in their face ; how they have been insulted by the Turkish soldiery. ... I have good reason to believe, after a careful comparison of all the accounts, that from 1,100 to 1,200 males actually perished in that one day. . . . Almost every house was burnt and the streets crowded with dead bodies, most of them stripped and mutilated in every possi- ble way. My road lay through the town, and through some of the streets my horse could not even pass, for the bodies were liter- ally piled up. . . . I saw little children, of not more than three or four years old, stretched on the ground, and old men with grey beards. In some places you could see the expression of agony, in others of last despair. One poor creature, on his knees, had been cut down as he appealed to the mercy of his murderers. I saw bodies without heads, and heads lying alone about the place ; all, all, lying unburied, to be devoured by the wild beasts." The testimony of Justin McCarthy,^ writing as a his- torian at a later date, is in substantial accord with that of 1 History of Our Own Times, vol. 3, p. 225. THE SLAVIC CKISIS AND RUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 89 the other witnesses. He confirms tlio complicity, or rather agency, of the Turkish Government in the massacres, and shows that the Turkish deeds were revolting to the nobler Mussulmans. He says : ' ' Tlif Tuvki::;h soldiers did not make any attempt to protect them, but even, it was stated, in some cases helped the work of biitcheiy. In July the fanatical spirit spread to Damascus. A mob of Tui'kish fanatics made a general attack upon the Cliris- tian qviarter, and burned the greater part of it down. Tlie con- sulates of France, Russia, Austria, Holland, Belgium, and Greece were destroyed. Nearly two thousand Christians were juassacred in that one day's work. Many of the respectable Mussulman inhabitants of Damascus were most generous and brave in their attempts to save and shelter the unfortunate Christians ; but the Turkish Governor of Damascus, although lie liad a strong mili- tary force at his disposal, made no serious effort to interfere with the work of massacre ; and, as might be expected, his supineness was construed by the mob as an official approval of their doings, and they murdered with all the more vigor and zest. The fa- mous Algerian chief, Abd-el-Kader, was then living in Damascus, and he exerted himself nobly in the defence and protection of the Christians." Lord Dufferin as special Commissioner confirmed the Reports of Mr. Graham. He further relates his visit to Deir-el-Kamr, a few days after the massacre : "Almost every house is burned, and tlie street crowded with dead bodies, some of them stripped and mutilated in every possi- ble way. My road led through some of the streets ; my liorse could not even pass, for tlie bodies were literally piled up. Most of those I examined had many wounds, and in each case tlie right hand was either entirely or nearly cut off, the poor wretch, in default of weapons, having instinctively raised his arm toimrry the blow aimed at him. I saw little children of not more than fovir years old stretched on the ground, and old men with gray beards." When the massacres reached the Consulate of the Great Powers, the nations represented were naturally aroused. The Great Powers drew up a Convention which they forced Turkey to accept;, and they delegated to England and 90 THE CEIME OP CHRISTENDOM. France the duty of restoring order in the Lebanon region. When brought to face with the fact that the French soldiery were in Lebanon to restore order, the Sultan hypocriti- cally ordered the Governor of Damascus and the commander of the Turkish troops to be put to death, and executed about sixty others, many belonging to the police force, in Damascus. A reorganization of the government of the region resulted, which improved matters somewhat for a time. The massacres had clearly been conducted officially. Turkey was already becoming conscious of her independ- ence and vantage-ground as ^'^one of the Powers ^^ of Europe. We pass over the insurrection of Crete, in 1866, and the long horrors until it was put down in Turkish fashion, with English responsibility, in 1869, and pro- ^th^^B ^^^^ ^° ^^^^ ^^ consider the condition of things that preceded the outbreaks in Bosnia and Herze- govina and in Bulgaria, in 1875-6. The brief array of general facts, which is all that can be here presented to demonstrate the failure of the Hatt and to show the con- dition of affairs at that time, is drawn chiefly from the statements of Rev. Malcolm MacColl,^ based partly upon his own observation in Turkey while traveling there with Canon Liddon, and partly upon British Consular and Par- liamentary documents. The main statements were con- firmed by Right Honorable W. E. Forster, the dis- tinguished statesman and orator, and by Viscount Strat- ford de Redcliffe, both of whom spent many years in Turkey ; in fact, they received confirmation from every source. They warrant the conclusion that the reforms had not been carried out. The taxation had not been equalized. With the Christians, it often amounted to con- fiscation. 1 The Eastern Question : its Facts and Fallacies. London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1877. THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND RUSSO-TURKlSIl WAE. 91 The so-called tithe was levied on all the produce of the ground. It was no longer a tithe ; for when Sultan Abd-ul- Aziz traveled in state over Europe, an ex- traordinary tax was laid to hear the cost of ^^^^axes *^^ his journey, and so the tithe became and still continued to be an eighth. With the extortion, it was oftener a sixth or a seventh. The tithes were sold by the government to the highest bidder, and the competition was so keen in ordinary times that the successful bidder often paid more than the entire amount of the tax. This, of course, meant extortion of the worst form for the poor rayahs. The '^spahi,^^ or tithe-farmers, instead of making a careful estimate of the produce, assessed it, without examination, far beyond its value. If the rayah sought redress, he could only appeal to the government officials who were in league with the tithe-farmer, who was ^'frequently nothing but a dummy behind which some in- fluential member of the government robbed and harassed the Christian peasant. •'■' The peasant was compelled to pay the tithe not in iind but in money, and ready money must be paid down. The case of the poor man, who had not money at hand to meet these exactions, was pathet- ically described in the paper of the Herzegovinian in-' surgents to the Great Powers : -^ " His house may be occupied at his expense until he has paid the whole. He is bound to maintain and serve those who are quartered with him at their imperious pleasure, and his expenses in so doing go for nothing in the account. By way of example : if a person owes twenty f)iastres, and spends one hundred in the m.aintenance of these people, it is not taken into consideration. At last an arrangement is made ; the peasant acknowledges his debt, with double interest ; or an animal is taken for fifty piastres, though it may be worth one hundred or more. Many cause the poor people of the villages to be put in prison where they suffer from hunger, cold, flogging, and other ill-treatments. Some- 1 Parliamentary Papers, No. 3. 92 THE CRIME OE CHRISTENDOM. times false receipts are given, and the amount of the debt has to be paid again." This system had been extended to everything the peas- ant could call his own. Besides, there was the compulsory service for the military; the road tax; the "rad" or labor tax of the fortieth piastre on the imaginary earnings of the ray ah ; the poll-tax of 30 piastres laid upon every male Christian, from babe to beggar and from birth to death, and collected from the villages for those who can not pay for themselves. In this way, the rayah of average means paid in taxation somewhat less than 3,000 piastres annually. ISTor was this all, for in Herzegovina and Bosnia he rented his land from the aga, or Turkish proprietor, who extorted from him a fourth part of the produce obtained from the ground, besides gifts in produce and labor, which swelled the amount to three times what he produced for himself. All this, it must be remembered, came after the rayah had passed through the hands of the government and the tithe- farmer. The rights of property and person had not been se- cured. A Christian peasant could hold no property in Turkey. The few who had been foolish M ker ^ ©nougli to make the attempt, in reliance upon the promised reforms, had found themselves stripped of it, and helpless in the Turkish courts. Even the life of the rayah was held at the discretion of his Mos- lem neighbor. Resistance to a Turk was then, and had for generations been, so certain to end in assassination, that thought of resistance htid .-ilmost died out of the Christian mind. But the most cruel torture of all to which the rayah was exposed was doubtless, as Mr. MacColl wrote, '^'^ the peril to which the chastity of his female relations was daily exposed.^' The Ottoman system, which uses sensuality as one of its most powerful motives, put a premium upon THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND EUSSO-TUEKISH WAR. 93 outrages upon Christian "women. All authorities agree concerning the helplessness of the Christians against such outrages to which every rayah's family was liable. Not to refer to the evidence in the consular reports on the condition of the Christians in Turkey, the then recent case at Batak is sufficient for present purposes. Concerning it, Mr. Baring despatched from Philip-popolis, November 24:, 1876 :i " I suggested that the act of carrying off the girls (from Batak) was in itself an illegal one ; but I was told that, by Turkish law, a man could not be punished for carrying off a woman, provided he married her." To the Christians in Turkey, the so-called courts of justice were simply " legalized instruments of oppression and torture." Theoretically, the evidence of a Christian was admissible, except before the religious tribunals ; practically, it was inadmissible in any court. If he insisted on presenting it, the judge easily got rid of it by making him repeat, and then rejecting it for the most trifling variation ; or if this did not succeed, the court adjourned, and the Christian witness was followed home and denounced on some trumpery charge, and when the court met again, he was set aside as a notoriously bad character, or he was imprisoned for an hour, .and then excluded from testify- ing ; or, anywhere outside of Constantinople, his testimony was summarily set aside without even such pretexts as these ; or, worse than all, the vindictive Moslem pursued him for bringing a false accusation against a true believer, and he perhaps got the bastinado or the dagger. This was all admitted to be true, even by such advocates of the Turk as Mr. Grifford Pa qnive." In short, assurance came from all quarters that the Christians had not been accorded the rights promised them 1 See Argyll on Morality in Politics, Contemporary Review, July, 1887, p. 327, note. 2 Essays on Eastern Questions, p. 85. 94 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. and that tlie Hatt-i-Humayonn of the Snltaii;, published at the close of the Crimean War, had been of little more avail than so much blank paper. Just in and The Hatt a g^j.Q^^j^(;[ Constantinople, under the pressure of foreign power, some few of its provisions had sometimes been forcibly carried out, but in the prov- inces it was a dead letter. Indeed, according to the best authorities, it had never to that day been proclaimed throughout the Turkish Empire ! The Turk had continued to play the Turk in Europe for more than twenty years, under the shadow of the Treaty of Paris, by the aid of the fiction of the Hatt-i-Humayoun. He had been relieved from the fear of insurrections from within and of interference from without ; and so released from those checks necessary to even good governments, and without which the peculiar vices of the Turks must inevitably reach a rank and terrible luxuriance. Arffvll*s VIgw The Duke of Argyll very strongly presented the influence of this condition — for which Grreat Britain was so largely responsible — upon the Turk. Writing on this subject he said : ^ " And such, accordingly, we know by overwhelming evidence to have been the actual results. Twenty years of peace and of protec- tion from external violence have seen no reform, but only a descent from one low level to another depth still lower, of personal corrup- tion, and of corresponding administrative oppression. There has been the confessed violation of every promise solemnly given in tlie face of Europe, that the Christian subjects of the Porte should be admitted to some of the commonest rights of humanity ; and this violation has gone on in the face of remonstrances, of exhortation, and of warnings perpetually renewed by one, or other, or by all of the guaranteeing and protecting powers." Utterly bankrupt in character, the Sublime Porte had made use of the Hatt as an aid in securing from the capi- talists of Western Europe vast loans, which Turkish Loans, t -, ^ t ^ • n £i , j had been squandered on armies and fleets, and. 1 Contemporary Eeview, July, 1877, p. 324. THE SLAVIC CKISIS AXD EUSSO-TXJKKISH WAR. 95 in luxury and vice, instead of being used to carry out tlie promised, reforms. Even with the addition of an extortion and cruelty in its taxation, such as no land under the sun ever before witnessed, the government at the opening of the Russo-Turkish War had already reached financial bankruptcy, and the practical repudiation of its debt of more than 11,000,000,000. The story of massacre for those twenty years, does not indicate that the ghost of the Hatt had brought the Turk to the reign of humanity. He was essentially the same as of old. In 1875 the Christian peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina found their condition beyond endurance, and rose against the Turk. Mr. Disraeli, then Prime Minis- ter, with his " Semitic instincts,^' had no '^lif ^''Jf^ ^ ' . . ' the Balkans, sympathy with these Christians. He ridiculed the reports concerning their sufferings and stood by the Turk. The story of robbery, impalement, rape and butchery was almost beyond belief. In 1876 occurred the ^^ Bulgarian atrocities." Mr. Disraeli was in the same mood still. Investigation showed the hideous folly of the levity of the prime Minister. Says Justin McCarthy : ^ "Mr. Baring, the English Consul, sent out specially to Bulgaria to make enquiries, and who was stipposed to be in general sympathy with Turkey, reported that no fewer than twelve thousand persons had been killed in the district of Philippopolis. He confirmed substan- tially some of the most shocking details of the massacre of women and children, which had been given by Mr. MacGahan, a correspondent whom the Daily News had sent out to the spot, to see with his own eyes, and report what he saw. There was no disputing the signifi- cance of some of that testimony. The defenders of the Turks in- sisted that the only deaths were those which took place in fight ; insurgents on one side, Turkish soldiers on the other. But Mr. Baring, as well as the Daily Neivs correspondent, saw whole masses of the dead bodies of women and children piled up in places where the bodies of no combatants were to be seen. The women and 1 History of Our Own Times, vol. 4, p. 371. 96 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. children were simply massacred. The Turkish Government may not have known at first of the deeds that were done by their soldiers. But it is certain that, after the facts had been forced upon their attention, they conferred new honors on the chief perpetrators of the crimes which shocked the moral sense of all Europe." Lord Derby writing to Sir H. Elliot, British Ambassa- dor to the Porte, on September 21, 1876, acknowledged the truth of reports announcing the outrages committed on the Christian population of Bulgaria in these terms : -^ "Her Majesty's Government were prepared by the preliminary Reports from Mr. Baring forwarded by your Excellency, to hear that the crimes perpetrated by the Turkish Bashi-Bazouks and the Cir- cassians had been of the gravest character, and they regret to find from the present complete Report that these apprehensions are con- firmed to the fullest extent. . . . Although some of the stories which have been published have proved to be unfounded, there can be no doubt that the conduct of the Yali of Adrianople, in ordering the general arming of the Mussulmans, led to the assemblage of bands of murderers and robbers, who, under the pretext of suppressing in- surrection, were guilty of crimes which Mr. Baring justly describes as the most heinous that have stained the history of the present century. "Moreover, it is conclusively shown that not only was the most culpable apathy displayed by the great majority of the Provincial authorities in allowing or conniving at such excesses, but that little or nothing effectual has been done in the way of reparation. While 1,956 Bulgarians were arrested for complicity in an insurrectionary movement which was at no time of a dan- gerous character, only a score or so of the inurderers of unarmed men, women and children have been punished. "It would indeed appear that the authority of the Porte has been set at defiance, and the Turkish Government at Constanti- noi)le kept in ignorance of the truth. Under no circumstances can Her Majesty's Government suppose it j)ossible that the Porte could have been led to promote and decorate officials whose acts have been at once a disgrace and an injury to the Turkish Empire. ' ' The massacre at Batak is reported to have taken place on the 9tli of May last, but on the 21st of July it still appears to have been unknown to or overlooked by the Porte, nor were the cir- cumstances brought to light until discovered by Mr. Baring. By 1 Annual Register, 1876, pt. 2, pp. 211, 212. THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND KUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 97 liis statement it appears that eighty women and girls were taken to Mussulman villages, of which he gives the names, and that they remain still there ; that the bodies of the murdered victims were still, at the time of his visit, lying unburied ; and that nothing had been done to discover or punish the perpetrators of tliese crimes. " It is unnecessary for me to refer in detail to the several pas- sages in Mr. Baring's Report which show how effectually fanati- cism and rapine have done their work on the population of this unhappy province. " Even now no serious effort has been made to redress the in- juries of the people, and to provide effectually for their future safety. The cattle tliat have been carried off and the goods that have been plundered have not been restored ; the houses and churches are left in ruins ; the people ai'e starving ; industry and agriculture are suspended ; and those Christian villages which have hitherto escaped feel no security that their turn may not come. " Acts of violence, as the Mudir at Avrat-Alan acknowledged, still continue, and the Porte is powerless or supine. " I have already informed your Excellency of the just indig- nation which the statements published of these atrocities have aroused in the people of Great Britain ; nor can I doubt that a similar feeling prevails throughout Europe. ..." The remainder of the dispatch consists of a remonstrance to the Porte. Tlie truly noble and Christian element in England was stirred at last. John Bright described the great uprising among the Eng- a ake lisli people. Mr. Gladstone came forward and voiced the moral sentiment and set " Christian England " aflame with his eloquence. In his pamphlet, "^Bulga- rian Horrors, and the Question of the East," ,he set forth the only way to permanent peace to the Christian Prov- inces, i. e. to turn the Turkish officials " bag and bag- gage " out of them. But the crafty Jew in the Prime Min- ister's place misrepresented and checkmated the work of the Christian philanthropists, and kept " Commercial Eng- land " true to her policy of infamy to the end. There is only space to give the utterances of two of the 7 98 THE CRIME OP CHRISTENDOM. leading advocates of a Christian policy, before passing on ,, „ to trace briefly the course of events. Said Mr. Freeman. , ^ t^ ■ ,-, ■, ,-, Mr. I'reeman, concerning the massacres by the Turk in Bulgaria : "His doings there were nothing new, nothing wonderful. They were simply what the Turk always does whenever he has a chance. They were what the Turk did fifty years ago in Chios and Cyprus ; they were what he did in much later times at Da- mascus. They are what he is doing always on a smaller scale in Bulgaria, and in every other land subject to his yoke. The only real difference between the Turkish doings of 1876 and the Turk- ish doings of any other year, was that the doings of 1876 were done on a greater scale than any doings of the same kind that have happened for some years. There was indeed another dif- ference, namely, that the facts were bi'ought home to the minds of the mass of the English in a way that earlier facts of the same kind had never been brought home. The mass of Englishmen learned, for the first time, what the Turk really was." Mr. Gladstone brought out with great clearness and force the peculiar features of the " Bulgarian Horrors, " which were indicative of the contempt of the Sultan for the requirements of the Hatt-i- Humayonn : "The essence of the case of 1876 lies, not in the massacres themselves, but in the conduct of the Porte about the massacres ; the falsehood, the chicane, the mockery and perversion of justice, the denial of redress, the neglect and punishment of the good Mohammedans, and, finally, the rewards and promotions of the bad in pretty close proportion to their badness." These facts and statements show that twenty years of ex- periment had demonstrated the Hatt to be a dismal failure. Christian Europe began to be roused to some sense of the state of things and of the responsibility of Christendom for it. II. The Crisis that Led to Eussiaist Interventiois". Eussian intervention in the Slavic Crisis will best be understood in the light of two things : THE SLAVIC CEISIS AND KUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 99 1st. The Diplomatic Struggle of which it was the outcome and culmination. 2d. A survey of European Turkey and its Peoples at the time of that intervention. (I.) The Diplomatic Struggle BETVi^EEisr CHEisTiA]sr Europe and " Commercial En^glan"d." The course of events up to 1875 demonstrated suffici- ently for all time, that in the Crimea with the aid of France ''Commercial England^' had halked the efforts of Eussia in hehalf of the Christians in the Turkish Empire, de- posed the Czar from his place as their protector, and placed the " unspeakable Turk " in a position to carry on his butcheries without let or hinderance. England had joined France in sowing the wind and was reaping the whirlwind. The Turk was making the most of the privileges con- ferred upon him by these representatives of Christendom through the Crimean War and the Treaty of Paris. The debt of 11,000,000,000 that the Turk had rolled up during this period, under the protecting ^gis of Great Britain, now began to be an increasingly important factor in the Eastern Question. So much of it was owed to subjects of Great Britain that "British interests ^^ henceforth had "British interest^' added to it as a new element. That interest must be interests and Interest, collected by the Turk, and this gave new im- pulse to his work of robbery and butchery. The most strenuous efforts of the tax-gatherer were at this time largely directed to the Slavic belt of European Turkey, in which the Turk thought he could operate freely, since Eussia had been warned off by the Treaty of Paris. As the bankruptcy of the Turk tended to the lapse of the interest due to British bondholders, or to its payment by the issue of more and worthless bonds, the pressure of the British Shylock was naturally increased and the pressure of the Turkish tax-gatherer still more increased. As the Slavic Christians LofC. 100 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. became impoverished, the robbery and butchery, the tor- ture and rape, became unendurable, and driven to despera- tion they attempted resistance and appealed to Christian Europe. For the first time in the long history of Turkish atroci- ties Christian Europe seemed to rouse itself to the task of delivering the much- suffering millions of Christians. The history of the years from 1875 to the ratification of the Treaty of Berlin is the story of the hideous and all but successful struggle of " Commercial England, ^^ under the baleful leadership of Beaconsfield, to thwart the efforts of all the rest of Christian Europe to deliver the Christians from slavery to the Turkish monster. It is one of the blackest pages God ever permitted to be written in the history of any nation. The stages in the course of that struggle are marked by the Appeal of the Slavs to the Great Powers of Europe, the Consular Delegation, the Andrassy Note, the th^*st^^ °^le ^®^li^ Memorandum, the proposed Collective Note of Austria, Russians proposal of coercion, the Conference at Constantinople and the Protocol, and the final and hopeless deadlock of diplomacy. These were at the same time successive stages in the progress of the European Powers in reaching the official verdict that the Hatt-i-Humayoun was a dead-letter and the Turk incorri- gible. The utmost limit of endurance was reached in the seven- ties. Realizing that they owed their continued slavery and suffering to the interference of the outside Powers, the Christians of Southeastern Europe plead to be let alone. It was in September, 1875, that the insurgents of Bosnia and Herzegovina presented their Document of Grievances to the representatives of the Great Powers, closing with a pathetic appeal to Christian Europe. " In order to get out of of this misery," they asked to be let alone by outside powers, in their struggle for freedom, or that some Chris- THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND EUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 101 tiaii Power sliould give tliem some corner of land for a home, or that the Powers should intercede with the Sultan to secure them autonomy, or that the Powers should at once occupy the principalities with a strong body of troops and secure their just rights.-^ They gained the ear of Europe. So serious had matters become, in the view of several of the Great Powers, that a Consular Delegation of repre- sentatives of the signatories .of the Treaty of Paris was proi^osed, to visit the insurgents 1- The Consular and inquire into their grievances. '' Com- ^ ^^^ ^°"* mercial England " planted herself in the way of the other Powers. Lord Derby, the British Foreign Secretary, as represent- ing Beaconsfield, strenuously objected to the Delegation, but at last consented to it at the urgent request of the Porte, who felt that the safety of Turkey depended upon England's active connection with such an inquiry. Lord Derby put the arguments against the Christian Powers into the mouth of the Turk. In a second despatch to the Grand Vizier, referring to a first, he said : ^ " I therefore informed your Excellency, in nfiy despatch of the 24th of August, that her Majesty's Government consented to this step with reluctance, as they doubted the expediency of intervention of foreign Consuls. Such an intervention, I remarked, was scarcely compatible with the independent authority of the Porte ; it offered an inducement to insurrection as a means of appealing to foreign sym- pathy against Turkish rule; audit might not improbably open the way to further diplomatic interference in the intei-national affairs of the Empire." He did more, he sent British Consul Holmes — a Philo- Turk equal to a Turk in prejudice and mendacity — ham- pered with instructions that necessarily made his mission abortive, and then, on the ground of his mendacious report — proved mendacious beyond question — stood by the Turk 1 Parliamentary Papers, No. 2, pp. 30-40. 2 Eastern Question, Rev, MalcQlra MaeCoU, p. 449-50, 102 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. and opposed the proposed action to remedy the dreadful condition of affairs. The Grand Vizier had for this very purpose entreated him to appoint Consul Holmes to stay action that seemed otherwise inevitable ! Consul Holmes was sent as the British Delegate to meet the insurgents and bring them into negotiation with the Turkish Com- mission, in accordance Avith instructions formally approved by Lord Derby, on September 15, 1875. Two Turkish battalions took advantage of this meeting to massacre these insurgents who had been promised protection ! The in- famous Chefket Pasha described the massacre as " clever strategy." It was what the Turk had in view when he urged upon England her approval of the Consular Delega- tion. If the leaders could be got hold of the insurrection would collapse. Canon MacColl puts the Turkish scheme on this wise : ^ " But the difficulty was how to catch the leaders. In this dil- emma the Consular Delegation offered the very trap for which the Porte was searching. Both for this reason, and also because the Porte saw In the Consular Delegation a device by which it might ' re- lieve itself of all responsibility,' it urged Lord Derby to allow Consul Holmes to join the other Consuls.' For all which perfidy and treachery the Turk was duly grateful. Indeed, the Turkish Foreign Minister, in a letter to the British Minister under date of March 15, 1876, conveyed to him the thanks of the Sublime Porte for " the friendly disposition evinced by Mr. Holmes on this occasion, and the perfect tact with which he has discharged his deli- cate duties ! " And Lord Derby, in a despatch of March 28, wrote to Sir. H. Elliot, the British Minister at Constantinople : "I have to request that your Excellency will communicate the con- tents of this letter to Mr. Holmes, and express to the Porte the satis- faction with which Her Majesty's Government have received this testimony to Mr. Holmes's abilities ! " 1 MacColl, The Eastern Question, p. 453, THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND EUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 103 In the meantime the Anstro-Hungarian Cabinet had come to an altogether different view of the state of affairs in Turkey. Closer relations and racial sym- pathies with the Bosnians had led them to ?" ^^^■»^' ^ 4? 1 • X- .• 1 . -, drassyNote. a more careiul investigation, and convinced them that the insurrection must with the opening of spring spread so as to take in all JSTorthern Turkey down to the Macedonian belt, and that a general European war might thus be brought on. The result was the sending out to the Foreign Ministers of the various Powers — by Count An- drassy of the Austro-Hungarian Cabinet, with the sanc- tion of Germany and Eussia — of the Andrassy ISTote, for the purpose of bringing about concerted action to remedy the existing evil condition and to avert the dangers that seemed imminent. The Andrassy ISTote was a most luminous presentation of the general condition of Bosnia and those regions under Turkish rule of which it was fairly representative.^ It recounted the action of the Powers up to date ; declared the impotence and failure of the Sultan's Irade of October 2, and the Firman of December 12 ; called attention to the menace to the peace of Europe from the anarchy in the !N"orthwestern Provinces of Turkey ; and insisted that the " remedial measures must be sought for in a double di- rection ; primarily on moral, secondarily on material, grounds." It recounted the fundamental causes of the difficulties and disintegration : in the bitter antagonism be- tween the Cross and Crescent which the Hatt-i-sheriff of 1839, the Hatt-i-Humayoun of 1856, and firmans and irad^s, had failed to remove or lessen ; in the system of farm- ing taxes, which, even under pretense of reform, had been made manyf old worse in all its features of extortion and robbery ; and in the practical absorption of all the land by the Government, the mosques, and the Moslem, resulting ^ For an account of the Note and its terms, see Annual Regis- ter, 1876, pp. 202-207, 104 THE CRIME OP CHRISTENDOM. ' in a condition worse than tlie serfdom which the Turk had professed to abolish after the suppression of the insur- rection in Bosnia in 1850-51. The N"ote adds : " If we reflect on how little belief the promises of the Sublime Porte are accorded by the Christian population, we can not shut our eyes to the fact that the promulgated reforms can inspire the necessary confidence only on the condition that a proper institution to guaran- tee their bona-fide application be created. If their execution was in- trusted to the governments of the province the mistrust to which I refer could not be overcome. Therefore, it would be necessary to establish a commission of the state deputies of the country, composed of one half Mussulmans and the other half Christians, to be elected by the inhabitants of the Province according to a method to be deter- mined upon by the Sublime Porte. " I have thus laid bare the concessions that it would be necessary to grant to the revolted provinces before we could yield to any well- formed hopes of pacification. These concessions are as follows : " Full and complete religious liberty. " The abolition of the system of farming-out tlie revenues. A law that would guarantee that the direct taxes of Bosnia and Herzegovina be applied to the interests of the respective provinces under the con- trol of a medium constituted in accordance with the terms of the fir- man of December the 12th. " The formation of a special commission, composed of equal num- bers of Mussulmans and Christians to control the administration of the reforms proposed by the Powers as well as those proclaimed in the irade of October tlie second and in the firman of December the twelfth, "Lastly, the amelioration of the agrarian condition of the rural population." The purpose was to bring to bear upon the Sultan a pres- sure from the Powers that he could not resist. The Note proposes^ in conclusion, the method to be pursued : "If, as I hope, the views of the . . . Government concur with ours, we would suggest to it, out of regard for the dignity and independence of the Porte, not to address our counsels to it in a collective note, but simply to instruct our representatives at Constantinople to act conjointly and in an identical manner with the Government of the Sultan in the ideas that we have developed. " Your Excellency will please read this despatch to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and leave a copy of the same with himj and I shall THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND RtrSSO-flJEKISH WAR. 10.5 feel obliged to you if you "will let me know as soon as possible what impression it made on his Excellency." The Note was despatched on December 30, 1875. The other Powers were in favor of the course proposed in the Note. Great Britain as usual objected, and stood in the way of united action. Writing OBBosition irom Constantinople to Lord Derby, of the Note, on January 17, 1876, Sir H. Elliot informed him, that " the proposals with which it concludes, if put into an identic instruction to the representatives here (which is understood to be what is intended) would, in my opinion, be accepted by the Porte without much difficulty." ^ That was just what Lord Derby did not want ; he protested against it, and so the hopes of the Christians were again dashed by British diplomacy. As Count Beust said, the Andrassy Note " was not regarded by the Austrian govern- ment as merely good advice addressed to the Porte. They wanted a substantial pledge for the carrying out of the reforms. Lord Derby objected, and applied to the Note his usual destructive criticism. Its proposed reforms would interfere with the Turk and with the collection of the rev- enue necessary to pay the interest on the Turkish bonds held in England. In short, after giving the Turk a full supply of arguments against the Note, he declined to have anything to do with a written note of the Powers, and '^ instructed her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople to confine his rej)resentations to giving a general support to Count Andrassy's proposals to oral communications." ^ Thus assured of British support the Porte accepted the Andrassy Note in a general way, and issued an Irade of reforms that it never attempted nor intended to carry out. But the Christian Powers of Europe were now thoroughly 1 Parliamentary Papers of 1876, No. 2, p. 101. 2 See Parliamentary Papers, of 1876, No. 3, p. 95 ; Annual Register, 1876. 106 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. aroused and in earnest, and were not yet willing to be thns thwarted in carrying out the great moral idea Me^o^randum. ^^^^^ "'^^^ taken possession of them. They pre- pared and sent out to the Cabinets, at the opening of May, 1876, the Berlin Memorandum. The center of the movement had been changed, probably for the sake of greater effectiveness, from Austro-Hungary to Germany. The ncAV developments of Turkish fanaticism, shown in the recent outbreak at Salonica, and the murder of the European consuls in broad daylight, furnished abundant reason for their action. The Memorandum was characterized by wise statesmanship and high moral tone. "We give the main features : ^ " The three Imperial Courts believe themselves called upon to act in concert so as to ward off the dangers of the situation, the other Great Christian Powers concurring. To their minds tlie present state of things in Turkey calls for a double series of measures. "1. It appears to them urgent beyond all things for Europe to in- tervene in such a manner as to prevent the recurrence of such events as have recently occurred at Salonica, and which threaten to repro- duce themselves at Smyrna and at Constantinople. To effect this the Great Powers should mutually agree to take steps wherever necessary to protect their countrymen and the Christian inhabitants of the Otto- man Empire. " This purpose can be attained by a general understanding concern- ing the despatch of sliips-of-war to the menaced ports, and by the issue of combined instructions to the commandants of these vessels, to be followed up in the event of circumstances compelling them to re- sort to an armed operation for the maintenance of order and tran- quillity. " 2. However, this purpose will be only imperfectly accomplished if the original cause of these disturbances is not diverted by the prompt pacification of Bosnia and Herzegovina." The Memorandum recounted the failure of the past efforts of the Powers in these directions ; the impossibility of any faith in Turkey on the part of the Christian subjects ; the hypocrisy of the Porte in all its ^professions and procla- 1 See Parliamentary Papers, 1S7G, No. 2, p. 90 ; Annual Eegister, 1876. THE SLAVIC CllISlS AND E,USSO-TUE,K:iSH WAR. 107 mations of reform and amelioration. It affirmed and emphasized tlie moral rights of the Powers to protect the Christians and to watch over the carrying out of the Turkish promises of reform, and proposed to call for a suspension of hostilities for the adjustment of the claims of the in- surgents and their oppressors. It proposed the urging of conferences between the Porte and the delegates of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the basis of the demands that had been formulated by the latter, and which were considered suitable to serve as a starting point in the discussion. These points were as follows : " 1. The material for tlie rebuilding of houses and churches shall be furnished to the returning refugees ; their livelihood shall be assured luitil they can exist on the fruits of their labors. "2. Inasmuch as the distribution of relief depends upon a Turkish Commissioner, he shall be in perfect accord with the measures to be taken by the Mixed Commission, mentioned in the Note of December 30th, in order to guarantee the proper administration of the reforms and to control their execution. This Commission will be presided over by a Christian of ITerzegovlna, and be composed of natives rep- resenting faitlifully both the religions of the country ; they shall be elected immediately that the armistice has caused the suspension of hostilities. " 3. For the purpose of avoiding all collisions counsel shall be given at Constantinople to concentrate all the Turkish troops, at least until the pacification of the public, at certain convenient points. " 4. The Christians shall retain their arms just as the Mussulmans. "5. The Consuls or delegates of the Powers shall exercise super- vision over the administration of the reforms, in general, and over questions relative to repatriation, in particular." In conclusion, the Memorandum, for the purpose of making its provisions efficacious, read as follows : "If, however, the armistice were to expire without the efforts of the Powers having succeeded in attaining the end they have in view, the three Imperial Courts believe that it would become necessary to add to their diplomatic action the sanction of an agreement in view of the opposition to efficacious measures taken in the interest of general peace, to check the evil and to prevent its development." Lord Derby rejected the Memorandum without even 108 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. consulting his Cabinet, and as usual supplied the Turk with arguments against the course proposed ^""oSion^' ^y *^^® Powers. As British Secretary of For- eign Affairs he received the document on May 15, and hastened to formulate and forward the objections of " Commercial England" to the Memorandum. To the first proposal, that of giving heljD to the return- ing refugees, he objected on three grounds : (1) " It would cost a large sum of money, which the Porte did not possess and could not borrow." (2) "It would be unjust to make the Porte responsible for repairing destruction which had been, in the main, the work of the insurgents themselves." (3) " It would be little better than a system of indis- criminate almsgiving, which would prove utterly demoral- izing to any country." To the second proposal, that for a Mixed Commission, he objected that it would infringe the authority of the Sultan. To the third proposal, that of an Armistice, he objected that it "might interfere with the military plans of the Porte." To the fourth proposal, that the Christians should be allowed to possess or to retain arms, he objected that *'^if the insurgents were to return armed to meet the Mussul- mans, also retaining their arms, a collision would be inevit- able." Such is the substance of Lord Derby's famous reply to the Berlin Memorandum, a reply which " Commercial Eng- land" "greeted with acclamations for its courage and wisdom." Canon MacColl wrote soon after : ^ " Its courage, I admit, can not easily be overrated. Its wisdom may be read in the light of the conflagrations which followed in Bosnia, Jn Bulgaria, and inServia, and which England's rejection of the Berlin Memorandum had no small share in kindling." It mattered little that the Powers that sent out the Mem- 1 The Eastern Question, p. 462. I THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND RUSSO-TUEKISH WAE. 109 orandum annihilated the special pleadings of England's Foreign Secretary. He cared nothing for the Christians of Southeastern Europe, but was deeply interested in carry- ing Turkey safely through her diplomatic troubles. He was doing this for " British interests " and "'British inter- est." He regarded his success in thwarting the purposes of all Europe in a great humanitarian, moral and Christian movement, as one of the most noteworthy of British tri- umphs. Canon MacColl in 1877 wrote of the reception of the Memorandum in England, and of Lord Derby's connection with it, in the following terms : ^ ' ' The reception given to tliat document in England is one of tlie most liumilating cliapters in this controversy. Lord Derby had at last exalted tlie horn of John Bull, and we were all singing 'Rule Britannia ' at the top of our voices. The British lion, after years of humilation, had at length whisked up his drooping tail, bearded the Russian bear, and sent him grunting back to his snows and forests. The alliance of the three Emperors was dissolved, and Austria, France, and Italy were delivered, by an unwonted display of British pluck and diplomatic wisdom, from the bondage of the two imperious and imperial chancellors." The Great European Powers except England — Prus- sia, Germany, Austria, France and Italy — were now y thoroughly in earnest in their desire to save ^ conference the Christians in Turkey from destruction, of Constan- and in cordial agreement on three points : nnopie. First, that the true origin of the disturbances in Turkey was the atrocious misgovernment of the Porte ; Secondly, that some measure of self-government for the disturbed provinces was a sine qua non of peace ; Thirdly, that the promises of the Turkish Government were absolutely valueless, and that consequently coercion, in one shaj)e or another, was essential. This appears from the English Blue Books. In August, 1876, Austria proposed that the Powers should 1 The Eastern Question, p. 458. 110 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. formulate tlieir demands and present tliem in a Collective Note to Turkey. England considered tlie ^™^J^°" proposal "highly objectionable." Late in September Eussia proposed coercion, in the following terms : An Austrian force should occupy Bosnia, and a Eussian force Bulgaria, while the united fleets of the Powers should enter the Bosporus. Prince Gortchakoff expressed his belief that, if the Powers were agreed and in earnest, the mere " threat of these measures would be sufficient to bring the Turks to their senses." He also advised Lord Derby that if England thought the first two propositions objectionable, Eussia would propose only the third. The other Powers were ready to agree to the proposal of Eussia, but Lord Derby again objected. Balked in their efforts at every turn by this iniquitous, heathen British diplomacy, the Great Powers called a Conference upon Turkish affairs to meet in Constantinople. The Conference met December 20, 1876, inviting Tur- key to sit with them, and after a month of deliberation, all except England were agreed upon the neces- British Op- g-|.y Q^ ^ Protocol presenting substantially the same terms as the Andrassy Note and the Berlin Memorandum. Lord Derby had sent Lord Salisbury to represent Eng- land in that Conference, and set to work himself, in con- junction with the wily and execrable Midhat Pasha, to prevent its success. The dujDlicity and treachery of Derby's proceedings under the inspiration of Beaconsfield are almost beyond belief. On the day after the Conference met, he wrote a dispatch to the British delegate (that would not reach Constantinople until the opening of January), ad- vising him " that her Majesty's Government had decided that England will not assent to, or assist in, coercive mea- sures, military or naval, against the Porte." -^ This same information, which would not reach Lord Salisbury until 1 Blue Book Xo. 2, p. 62. THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND RUSSO-TUEKISH WAR. Ill ten or twelve days after the Conference opened, Lord Derby, according to his own subsequent confession, had communicated to Musurus Paslia, the Turkish Minister to England, on December 19th, the day before the Confer- ence opened, assuring him that "England did not medi- tate coercion in the event of the Porte refusing the pro- posals of the Conference ! " On December 24th the follow- ing telegram reached Lord Derby from Safvet Pasha, giving effusive expression of the gratitude of Midhat Pasha for the assurance of British aid given to the Turkish Minis- ter and communicated by him to the Porte. That tele- gram is as follows : "I have read it to the Grand Vizier. His Higliness received tliis communication witli deep gratitude, and begs you to express to Ilis Excellency, Lord Derby, his aclcnowledgments. You will ex- plain to his Lordship, in tlie name of the Grand Vizier, that the Sub- lime Porte reckons more than ever on the kind support of tlie Govern- ment of Her Britannic Majesty, under the difficult circumstances we are passing through. The great wisdom and spirit of justice which distinguish the eminent Minister who directs with such loy- alty the foreign relations of England form a sure guarantee for us, that he will gladly give us a new proof of his kindness and valued friendship." Informed thus beforehand that Turkey had nothing to fear from England, she chose to reject the proposals of the Conference. Midhat Pasha was naturally averse to agreeing to any terms proposed. Meanwhile Rgass red Lord Salisbury, a man naturally of quite differ- ent stamp and principles from Derby and Beaconsfield, was laboring earnestly for the success of the Conference. Lest Lord Salisbury should succeed, in spite of the secret dispatch to the Porte, Lord Derby wrote him January 13 : "But having reference to the Conference breaking up without re- sult, it will be necessary to avoid all appearance of menace, and to hold no language that can be construed as pledging her Majesty's Government to enforce those proposals at a later date." ^ 1 Blue Book No. 2, p. 26L 112 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENBOM. Lord Derby had already warned France against expect- ing any British aid in a policy of coercion. Moreover, he steadily refused to unite with the other Powers in pre- senting any effective Note or Protocol to the Porte. He thus succeeded in balking the Conference and rendering its work abortive. The proposals of the Conference, not being backed by united action of the Powers, were rejected on the 20th of January, 1877, two days after they had been Eeiecte/ presented to the Porte, who , however lavish of promises, declined all performances and all guarantees. The Turk would do nothing unless forced by foreign armies, and Lord Derby had practically secured him against that. The Conference — apparently too much under the influence of the old "diplomacy," and distracted by too many jealousies to agree upon an effective armed in- tervention, but really balked in its purpose by the intrigues of treacherous Albion — adjourned, leaving the helpless Christians to their fate, and the "incorrigible Turk "to his own will. The Conference of Constantinople adjourned early in 1877, leaving the Turk, by the grace of Great Britain, master of the situation. Through the perversity of " Com- mercial England," under the lead of Beaconsfield and Derby, he had been permitted to declare himself absolutely independent, and had been practically absolved from all liability to European interference. He could make j^ro- clamation of reforms, if he chose and when he chose, and disregard these proclamations at his pleasure. Indeed, the wily Turk had made good use of his proc- lamation and reform-on-paper business, from the ojaening of the Conference, issuing a complete scheme ^s'^h'^^^^^ of reforms and giving Turkey a Constitutional Government — all on paper ! Justin McCarthy thus describes the scheme and its outcome : ^ 1 A History of Our Own Times, vol. 4, pp. 378, 379. THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND EUSSO-TURKISH WAE,. 113 "The Turkish statesmen at first attempted to put off the diplo- matists of the West by the announcement that tlie Sultan had granted a constitution to Turkey, and that there was to be a parlia- ment at which representatives of all the provinces were to speak up for themselves. There was in fact a Turkish Parlianient called to- gether. The first meeting of the conference was disturbed by the sound of salvos of cannon to celebrate the opening of the first Con- stitutional Assembly of Turkey. Of course the Western statesmen could not be put off by an announcement of this kind. They knew well enough what a Turkish Parliament must mean. A parliament is not made by the decree of an autocrat calling a numl5fer of men into a room and bidding them debate and divide. To have a parlia- ment there must, first of all, be something like a free people. Europe had seen a brand-new Egyptian Parliament created not long before, and had felt at first a sort of languid curiosity about it ; and then after a while learned that it had sunk into the ground or faded away somehow without leaving any trace of its constitutional existence. It seems almost superfluous to say that the Turkish Parliament was ordered to disapj)ear very soon after the occasion passed away for trying to deceive the great European Powers. Evidently Turkey had got it into her head that the English Government would at the last moment stand by her, and would not permit her to be coerced." To say the least, that adjournment was the solemn judg- ment of the Christian Powers, that the Porte ought no longer to be upheld in his course in Europe, and their sol- emn verdict that the experiment of the Hatt-i-Humayoun was an absolute failure. In the eyes of Europe and the world , the mission of the Turk, as a ruler over Christians, had come to an end. The lapse of the half century had made that the judgment of Europe, and removed one great obstacle to the settlement of the Eastern Question. The Ottoman^s claims to the sovereignty over the twelve or fifteen million Christians of Europe had no just basis in his character, in his past career, or in his present performances or promises. The Powers seemed at last disheartened and Eussia was left, at the opening of 1877, practically alone as a friend of the oppressed Christians. On the 19th of January of that year, Prince Gortschakoff, ad- "march 3X ° dressing Count Schpuvaloff, Russian AmbaS' ^j 114 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. sador at the British Court, from St. Petersburg, made the following inquiry : ^ "His Majesty (the Czar of Russia) is desirous of knowing the lim- its within which the Cabinets with whom we (Russians) liave till now endeavored, and still desire, so far as may be possible, to proceed in common, are willing to act. . . . The refusal of the Turkish Gov- ernment (to accede to the wishes of Europe as expressed in the Prot- ocol) threatens both the dignity and the tranquillity of Europe. It is necessary for us to know what the Cabinet, with whom we have hitherto acted in common, propose to do with a view of meeting this refusal, and insuring the execution of their wishes." The Earl of Derby wrote to Lord Augustus Loftus, British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, on February 15, that the (jovernment had '^ determined that ^''iSa^''* it would be better to defer their reply to it until events should have developed them- selves." On March 3, 1877, Prince Gortschakoff through Lord Loftus requested the British Government to delay their reply to his note of January 19, until they received certain explanations which the Eussian Government had to offer. On March 13th the Earl of Derby wrote to Lord Loftus informing him that Count Schouvaloff had called upon him with a draft Protocol which his Government proposed for signature by the six Powers. Derby presented it to the British Cabinet council in the afternoon, and then again saw Count Schouvaloff, whom he informed "that Her Majesty's Government were ready to agree in princi- ple to such a Protocol, providing he could come to an un- derstanding as to its terms."' On the same day was sent the following important dis- patch, which casts much light on the situation and the views of Eussia : " The Eakl of Dekby to Lokd A. Loftus. " FoBEiGN Office, March 13, 1877. "MyLobd, — The Russian Ambassador, when handing to me the draft Protocol inclosed in my dispatch of this day's date, accompanied iPor "Substance of Despatches, etc., on the Protocol of 1877," se© Annual Register, 1877, pt. 2, pp. 207-215, THE SLAVIC CRISIS AND EUSSO-TURKISH WAR. 115 it by a statement of the views and wishes of his Government to the following effect: — "The object of General Ignatieff's journey, Count Schouvaloff stated, had been to furnish explanations as to the real views of the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, and to facilitate a pacific solu- tion. " After the sacrifices which Eussia had imposed upon herself, the stagnation of her industry and of her commerce and the enormous expenditure incurred by the mobilisation of 500,000 men, she could not retire nor send back her troops without having obtained some tangible result as regards the improvement of the condition of the Christian population of Turkey. The Emperor was sincerely desirous of peace, but not of peace at any price. " The Governments of the other Powers were at this moment pre- paring their answers to the Russian Circular. The Russian Govern- ment would not express any opinion by anticipation on these replies, but they foresaw in them the possibility of a great danger. For if the replies were not identical, what would be the position of the Imperial Cabinet ? The agreement of the Powers, so fortunately established at the Conference, might be broken up in consequence of the shades of opinion manifested in the replies of the several cabinets ; w^ould not that be a determining cause to induce Russia to seek for a solution, either by means of a direct understanding with the Porte, or by force of arms ? "Under these circumstances it appears to the Russian Govern- ment that the most practical solution, and the one best fitted to secure the maintenance of general peace, would be the signature by the Powers of a Protocol which should, so to speak, terminate the in- cident. "This Protocol might be signed in London by the representatives of the Great Powers and under the direct inspiration of the Cabinet of St. James. " The Protocol would contain no more than the principles upon which the several Governments would have based their reply to the Russian Circular. It would be desirable that it should affirm that the present state of affairs was one which concerned the whole of Europe, and should place on record that the improvement of the con- dition of the Christian population of Turkey will continue to be an object of interest to all the Powers, " The Porte having repeatedly declared that it engaged to introduce reforms, it would be desirable to enumerate them on the basis of Saf vet Pasha' s Circular. In this way there could be no subsequent misunderstanding as to the promises made by Turkey. 116 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. "As a period of some montlis would not be sufficient to accom- plish, these reforms, it would be preferable not to fix any precise limit of time. It would rest with all the Powers to determine by general agreement whether Turkey was progressing in a satisfactory manner in her work of regeneration. "The Protocol should mention that Europe will continue to watch the progressive execution of the reforms by means of their diplo- matic representatives. "If the liopes of the Powers should once more be disappointed, and the condition of the Christian subjects of the Sultan should not be improved, the Powers would reserve to themselves to consider in common the action which they would deem indispensable to secure the well-being of the Christian population of Turkey, and in the interests of the general peace. " Count Schouval off hoped that I should appreciate the moderate and conciliatory spirit which actuated his Government in this ex- pression of their views. They seemed to him to contain nothing in- compatible with the principles on which the policy of England was based, and their application would secure the maintenance of the general peace. "I made a suitable acknowledgment of his Excellency's com- munication, reserving any expression of opinion until I had an op- portmiity of consulting my colleagues. " I am, etc., (Signed) "Derby. ,^ " There is not space to give here the full text of this last effort to bring the Turk to his senses and to preserve the peace of Europe. The Protocol opened as follows : " The Powers who have undertaken in common the pacification of the East, and have with that view taken part in the Conference of Constantinople, recognise that the surest means of attaining the object, which they have proposed to themselves, as before all to maintain the agreement so liappily established between them, and jointly to affirm afresh the common interest which they take in the improvement of the condition of the Christian populations of Turkey and in the re- forms to be introduced in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria, which the Porte has accepted on condition of itself carrying them into execution." Having recognized the professed " good intentions of the Porte/' and set forth what tlie Powers deemed '^ in- I Enpnivtd by Kdw^ V/ullcr LonffTXums, G7-een.& Co,Lortdon/,2!reM'Ybr'h,d 4.1 1 J? The Armenian environment and history oi the race, and irom crisis the futilities and iniquities of European and especially English diplomacy that have been considered. In order to understand the present Armenian Crisis it is manifestly necessary to understand, first of all, the Eastern Question in general, of which it is merely a special phase and outcome. Hence the discussion already entered into, of the earlier and successive phases of that Question. But it is quite as necessary to understand — 1st. The Armenians themselves in their history, religion and peculiar situation. 2d. The Armenian massacres of the past three years with their aims, organization and execution. I. The Armenians Themselves. The origin, character and history of the Armenians arfe matters of much general interest, even apart from their bearing upon the present discussion, but in that bearing of intense and peculiar interest. Their Christian history and faith are of prime importance, as these furnish the only key to their continued existence and prominence in spite of all the centuries of adversity, slavery and butchery. The Armenians are physically one of the finest types of the Indo-European race. Whoever has looked upon the 142 THE CRIME OP CHRISTENDOM. picture or tlie face of the present Catliolicos of Etch- miadzin, the religious head of the Armenian Church, has remarked the wonderful physical beauty and dignity of this representative man. Those who have familiarized them- selves with the life and history of this Catliolicos are quick to commend his lofty character and aims. The race he so well rei^resents claim to be descendants of Haikh, a son of Togarmah, the grandson of Japheth, who fled from the tyranny of Belus of Assyria and settled in the country which we call Armenia. In their own language that country is still Haik, or Haikh, and the people Haiks or Haikans. Indeed the Turk has placed his ban upon the name Armenia, not permitting its use in his dominion, but seeking to substitute for it that of Kurdistan ; his one aim seeming to be to blot out alike the race, name and religion. This unique Christian people and equally unique Church, both in their original home and as scattered abroad among the nations, have held peculiar relations to and History, ^^e rest of Christendom and to Islam. Next to their Christianity, their environment may be regarded as furnishing a key to their past and present position and relations. Where they have been and where they are have had much to do with deciding what they have been, what they are, and what they have suffered. The record of the scattering abroad of the descendants of Noah after the Deluge has been shown by Rawlinson to possess absolute and easily verifiable histor- eir rigm. ^^^j accuracy. From this record the sons of Japheth appear, on the one hand, to have occupied Armenia, the Caucasus and Asia Minor, the children of Gomer reaching out around the Black Sea and leaving their mark in Crimea and all across Europe in the Cimmerii (or Gomerians) and the Cymry, and the children of Javan pressing across into Greece and southern Europe in gen- eral ; and, on the other hand, spreading over the northern parts of Asia and India, and possibly into America. THE AEMENIANS IN THE EASTERN" QUESTION. 143 The Haiks or Haikan — called by foreigners Armenians, from the great conqueror, King Aram, a descendant of Togarmah, one of the sons of Gomer — retained their old home in what was the birthplace of all the races, the great plateau of Armenia, — being apparently a choice race among the original races. Armenia may be regarded roughly as covering 100,000 square miles more or less ; although the application of the name has varied greatly in the course of history. The Armenian plateau, elevated a The Great ■ -tint Jrl3'uG3/ll, mde or more above the level of the sea, centers in Mt. Ararat, Avhich rises to the height of 16,930 ft. The Plateau is broken through near the center by a great de- pression running east and west along the Araxes Eiver. It breaks down in various directions toward the lower levels : to the north and west, by terrace lands, sloping with the Anti-Taurus range toward the Black Sea at Trebizond, and with the Bimbogia Dagh and the Alma Dagh toward the Mediterranean at Bayas and the mouth of the Orontes, — and paralleling the coasts ; to the north- east, by a terrace land toward Tiflis, and paralleling the Russian Railway from Batum on the Black Sea to Baku on the Caspian ; to the south, by the Taurus range toward the upper courses of the Euphrates and Tigris. On this highland, bridging the way between the four great seas (Black, Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, Caspian), by which all the commerce of the Old World has in all ages had its outlets. Providence placed the Armenian race, and for forty centuries it has held its place there as the advance guard of Western Aryan civilization.^ Across this Plateau the caravans bearing '''the wealth of Indus and of Orm^^ have passed, and at the foot of its slopes or within easy reach of them were built Palmyra and Baalbek and Babylon and Bagdad and all the great trade-cities of Western Asia. It has also been the outlet 1 See Map of the Armenian Plateau. 144 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. from age to age through and across which the countless hordes of migrating barbarians have found their way from that cradle of the race^ the arid plains of Central Asia^ to new and better homes, — now surging in vast masses as Groths or Scythians or Slavs or Tartars, now following great leaders such as G-enghis Khan and Timur. This same Plateau has naturally been regarded in past ages as the key to universal empire, and so has been the crossing- place and the meeting-place of the armies of the great nations in their strife for the empire of the world. Especially has it been the battle-ground between the West as representing the ideas and forces of freedom and the East as dominated by the ideas and forces of despotism. Naturally, having been placed in such a position, "as an advance-guard to Western civilization on the bridge which leads through Asia to the West," the most varied fortune — ought we not to say, misfortune ? — has fallen to the lot of Armenians. Says one of their historians in the tenth century, in concluding his work : "We are like a wheat-field reaped by bad husbandmen ; it is sur- rounded on all sides by clouds and thick mist. I cannot foresee what will happen to us in the future. We shall bow to the decrees of Providence." The j)eriods of Armenian freedom and nationality have naturally been alternated with periods of subjection to foreign rule, the regaining and maintenance tudes. 0^ their liberties and nationality gradually becoming more difficult, if not impossible. Under the Haikian dynasty the national capital for many centuries was at Armavir, to the north of the Araxes, but toward the first century it was changed to Artaxata (Ar- dasbad). As far back as 538 B. C, Tigranes I. appears as the ally of Cyrus the Great in the overthrow of Babylon, thus pre- paring for the release of the Jews after the seventy years of captivity. Twenty-four years later, according to Herod- THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 145 otus, Darius absorbed Armenia in his empire and ex- acted from the Armenians a tribute of four hundred talents. About 500 B. C. began the great military duel between the East and the AVest, — first between Greek and Persian^ — that continued for a thousand years, or till the fall of the Western Empire. It originated in a revolt among the Asiatic Greeks, against Darius the Great, in which Athens and Eretria assisted the rebels with troops. Across Ar- menia passed the successive expeditions to carry out the purpose formed by Darius to invade Greece : the first under Mardonius, to be scattered at sea by storms and on land by the wild tribes of Thrace ; the second under Datis and Artaphernes, to suffer a crushing defeat at Marathon (490 B. 0.) ; the third under Xerxes I., with an army of a million men and a vast fleet, to win a victory at Thermopylae (480 B. C), and to suffer crushing defeats at Salamis (480 B. C), and at Platsea (479 B. C), — Europe being thus saved from the blight of Oriental despotism, and the independence of the Asiatic Greeks being acknowledged fifty years after the revolt. Greece did not forget the invasion of the Persians. One hundred years after the revolt of the Asiatic Greeks, Proxenus, the friend of Xenophon, led up his ten thousand Greeks to aid Cyrus in his at- . "^^! „ tempt to win the Persian throne which was his birthright from his brother, Darius II., to whom it had been given. In " The Anabasis " Xenophon gives a fas- cinating account of this expedition, and of his own task, after the battle of Cunaxa, in leading back the Ten Thou- sand across Armenia to the Black Sea (401, 400 B. 0.) at Trapezus (now Trebizond). The Ancient Armenians and Kurds, as Xenophon describes them, have their almost exact counterparts in the same races of to-day. Three quarters of a century later Alexander of Mace- don swept over Armenia in his conc^uest of Persia and 10 146 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. it became subject to the Greek sway, passing at Alex« aiider^s death under control of the Seleucidse. At the opening of the second century B. C, when Scipio defeated Antiochus the Great (190 B. C), Artaxias led Armenia in a successful revolt. Forty years later Mithra- dates I., the Great, Parthian king, the sixth Arsacid, placed his brother Yalarsaces on the throne of Armenia, and the Arsacid dynasty thus established held the throne of Arme- nia until Artabanus the last of the Parthian Arsacids (Arsaces XXIX.) was defeated and put to death by the Persian Sassanids 226 A. D., when the Armenian Arsa- cids also came to an end. In these almost four hundred years one Armenian mon- arch stands out prominently, Tigranes II., surnamed the Great (96-55 B. C.). He pushed his conquests to the Med- iterranean and Black Seas, but becoming involved in a war with Eome, he was defeated, first by Lucullus, who took and sacked his capital, Tigranocerta, and later by Pom- pey, to whom he paid a vast sum to be permitted to retain possession of Armenia proper, after giving up lesser Ar- menia and all his recent conquests. From that date for three centuries was, with the Armenians, according to Tacitus, a period of almost incessant war, either with Rome through hatred or with the Parthians through jealousy. When the Armenians embraced Christianity, 276 A. D., another element of discord was added, both the heathen Eoman and the Zoroastrian Persian hating the Christian (disciples of Christ ; and the strife thus became intensified, until in 390 A. D. Armenia was divided between the Persian Sassanids and the Eomans un- der Theodosius the Great. Soon it entered upon a new era in which religious persecution was added to political harrying. The Sassanid dynasty went down before the Saracens in the seventh century and xirmenia was divided between ih^ THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 147 Greek Empire and the Saracens, and entered upon her long period of Moslem control, which has continued with a single interruption until the present time. That inter- ruption was from 859 A. J)., under the Pagratidae, who for a time restored something of the old glories. After the beginning of the Christian Era the capital of Armenia was established successively in various cities. Ardasbad was forsaken, after it had been the capital for a century, when Erovant II. (58-78 A. D.) "built Erovan- tasbad and Pakaran, and adorned them with the spoils of the earlier cities." From the second to the fourth century the royal residence was at Valarsabad, which no longer exists, and, under the Pagratid dynasty, the chief town was first Shiragavan and afterwards Ani, the remains of which still testify to its magnificence. In short, since the opening of the Christian Era the history of Armenia may be summed up in the statement that the country has been the scene of a long series of bloody contests between Eomans, Successive >'. ' Devastations. Persians, Byzantines, Greeks, Saracens, Tar- tars, Turks and Kurds. There have been, however, ex- ceptional periods even in so great general misfortune. Soon after the close of the twelfth century Genghis Khan overran the Plateau with his savage Mongolian hordes. A century later his successor Timur the Lame swept the Plateau with his Tartar hordes. In 1605, when Abbas I. of Persia, surnamed the Great, defeated the Turks in a great battle, and recovered the Persian provinces which they had occupied, he vented his wrath in a special manner on the Armenians, laying waste their whole country and forcibly transplanting about 40,000 of the people to Persia where they settled principally in Ispahan and in New Julfa, "as they fondly called the city which they founded." That may be regarded as the blotting out of Armenia as a nation. The Armenians are now widely scattered abroad over the world, and the Armenian Plateaii has been divided 148 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. between Turkey^ Persia and Eussia, the three Empires cen- tering in Mount Ararat. II. The Armenian Church. The amazing fact to be taken to heart is, that, in the midst of such convulsions, harrowings, persecutions and butcheries, the Armenian Christians have made such a development and record in their church and civilization. There is only one fact more amazing, and that is that Christendom has looked calmly on for these three years, while the Turk has been crowning his long record of butch- eries by the greatest of them all, and that Christian Europe, and especially Christian England, have given him their moral and political support in his hideous task ! Their historical setting and fate have made the story of the Armenian Christians more fascinating than any possible romantic fiction. The Armenian Church is one of the oldest Eastern Christian Churches not in com- munion with the Grreek or Latin Churches. It even claims — on legendary grounds — pre-apostolic foundation, our Lord, as they say, having corresponded by letter Avith Akbar, prince of Ur or Orfa, Their tradition has it that the Apostle Thaddeus, accompanied by Bartholomew and Jude, preached the Gospel and founded a church in Ar- menia as early as 34 A. D. The historical founder of the Church of Armenia, as the church of the race, was, however, St. Gregory, called the "Illuminator,^' a prince of the reigning „ ^^^. family of the Arsacids, who, having been Founding. -^ ^-.^ . . . himself converted to Christianity, eagerly sought the conversion of his people. Persecution and condemnation to death followed ; but King Tiridates, being miraculously cured, as he believed, of a dangerous malady by the saint, thereupon became a Christian, as did also many of his subjects, and sent Gregory to Caesare or Sis, where he wa§ consecrated firgt bishop of Armenia^ A, D, THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 149 302. It is on this ground that the Armenian Church has claimed to be the oldest of established Churches, its estab- lishment antedating Constantine's acknowledgment of Christianity as the religion of the Eoman Empire, by more than a score of years. G-regory's successors afterwards assumed the title of Patriarch, and later that of Catholicos. Under their rule the Church, in spite of the opposition of the heathen Armenians and of their Persian conquerors, succeeded in gaining a permanent hold on the hearts of the people. The Bible was translated in 400 A. D. into the Old Armenian — belonging to the Iranic class of the southern division of Indo-European or Aryan languages — which language, now dead, has been superseded by the modern Haikh dialects. The doctrines of the Armenian Church are in the main identical with those of the Greek Church. They accept the decisions of the first, second and third (Ecumenical Councils. Having been pre- ^ ^*? , -, -, r, ,- ^ f. Doctrines. vented by a nerce persecution from attending the fourth Council, that of Chalcedon, in 451 A. D. — which condemned Eutyches and his followers, the extreme opponents of Nestorius — they refused to accept its decis- ions, and in 491 A. D., the Patriarch in full synod formally annulled them, and this led to the separation of the Armenian Church from the Orthodox Greek Church. As a matter of fact, the Armenian Church holds the or- thodox faith on the questions raised by the Council of ■ Chalcedon, having been led to annul the decisions of that council by false reports concerning what had been done. "We draw from the Encyclopedia Britannica a brief account of the separation. ^ "However occasioned, the separation was gradual; Armenian bishops attended tlie 5tli, 6th and 7th oecumenical councils (2d of Con- stantinople, 553 , 3d of Constantinople, 680 ; 2d of Nicsea, YSS), and 1 Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 2, p. 481. 150' THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. the churcli acknowledges the decrees of these councils as binding. Cut off from the Eastern Church, the Armenian bishops became all tlie more closely identified with tlieir native country, and kept alive patriotic feeling in times of great national distress. In spite of many national calamities, foreign domination, internal dissensions, and even banishment, the Armenian Church preserved its character, doctrine and discipline until the middle of the fifteentli century, when great dissensions arose which resulted in a schism. These quarrels were occasioned by Jesuit missionaries, wlio endeavored to make the Armenians adopt the doctrine, liturgy, and ceremonies of the Eoman Church. They succeeded in prevailing upon a great number of the adherents of the Armenian Church to separate from the community and join tlie communion of Rome. The Catholic Armenians, as they are called, first became a separate community towards the end of the sixteenth century ; their existence has proved a source of great weak- ness to the orthodox church, and through their exertions the old persecutions were revived. This state of matters went on until the middle of the eighteenth century, when the patriarch sought and ob- tained the intervention of Peter the Great of Russia. Since then the Armenian Church has found slielter under the protection of Russia. There is a reformation now going on in the Armenian Church, and a Reformed Church has arisen, whicli seeks to ally itself with the Calvinist Churches of Europe and America." Of the doctrinal features, developed later, they reject the filioque doctrine added to the Nicene Creed by the Western Church, and deny the distinctive doctrines of that Church. The Catholicos, the head of the Armenian Church, resides at Etchmiadzin, near Erivan, the capital of Eussian Armenia, to which every Armenian is expected ^ ^ ^^' to make a pilgrimage at least once in his life. Eour Patriarchs have their seats at Etchmiadzin, Con- stantinople, Jerusalem and Sis. Under these are the bishops, and the vartabad or doctor of theology frequently charged with episcopal functions. Under these are the clergy proper — divided into the black clergy, who are monks and who are alone eligible for the higher clerical offices, and the white clergy including the parish priests and lower clergy. They reject the Romish doctrine of THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTEEN QUESTION. 151 celibacy, and loermit the clergy to marry before or- dination, though not after. The clergy of all ranks are supported entirely by the free-will offerings of the people. The Armenians are confessedly an intensely religious people. In no church have the people ever been called to stand severer tests. Successively they have won the martyr's crown from Persian and Mongolian and Kurd and Ottoman. The marvel is that they still exist and still hold fast the faith. Something of their steadfastness has doubtless been due to their Christian literature. Among the Armenians, as in the case of so many other races since the Christian era began, the translation of the ^ ^ ^^* "^^" Bible into the language of the people resulted in the production of an extensive literature that had a vast educa- tive and elevating influence upon both clergy and laity. Many great works were translated from the Syriac and the Greek. As a result many writings that have perished in the language in which they were originally written are still preserved in their Armenian translations. Such are some of the works of Philo, Faustus of Byzantium, Lerubna of Edessa, etc., and in particular the Chronicle of Eusebius. A long line of writers of note extends down to the present time, except a break in the sixth century when the Persian monarchs cut off all connection between the Armenians and the Greek centers of culture. In the eighteenth century a literary revival took place, since which " Armenian literature has acquired a develop- ment which is remarkable in the absence of national unity. Printing presses have been established in most of the cities where Armenians are numerous, the ancient writers have been published and studied, the vernacular literature has been enriched both by original productions and transla- tions, and magazines and newspapers have been established in many of the centers of Armenian activity." 152 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. In 1830 a Protestant mission was established in Turkish Armenia by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, mainly for the purpose of lifting up and spiritualizing the Armenian Church, in which much has been accomplished. The Board has made many of the principal cities great centers of educational and missionary activity, and has doubtless incidentally intensified the Moslem hatred and fanaticism that have shown them- selves in the recent massacres, during which the mission stations at Marash and Kharput, including the schools and colleges, were burned. Assuredly a Christian people so ancient in lineage, so noble in character, and so worthy in achievement, deserves the consideration and sympathy, and, in this day of their extremity, the help and deliverance for which they appeal to the Christian world. III. The Pkesent Situatio^st and CoiTDiTioisr of the Armenians. The Armenians are now widely scattered abroad. They hold a place in the modern world of the Orient somewhat analagous to that of the Jews of the Dispersion in Western Asia from the Babylonian Captivity to the Advent. Their natural aptitudes have fitted them to become the traders and bankers, the men of business enterprise and energy, in their modern world, as the Jews Avere in their ancient world. Of a once numerous race only 4,000,000 now re- main. These have scattered away across Asia to the Malay- sian peninsula, where there is now a settlement of several thousands, across Europe into all great centers, and across the Atlantic, especially to our own country. Eoughly speaking, about 2,000,000 are subjects of the Sultan, 1,500,000 of the Czar of Russia, and 200,000 of the Shah of Persia. The remainder are scattered here and there among the nations. It thus appears that the great Ar- menian Plateau is still the chief center of the race, and THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 153 that their destinies are bound up with those of three Empires. Mt. Ararat is the central point at which the three Empires, Persia, Russia and Turkey, meet, and from which they stretch away across and beyond the Plateau to the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, and to the Mediter- ranean and Black Seas. The Plateau rises to its maximum of 7,000 feet, to the north of Mush, toward Erzrum, dividing the Eastern from the Western Euphrates, and these from the upper Araxes, and forming the roof of the great threefold water- shed of the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Persian Gulf. " You are here at the heart of the whole geographi- cal system, at the culminating point from which the waters gather to start on their long and strenuous journey to dif- ferent and distant seas.''' This is the center of the Turkish part of the Armenian Plateau. The condition of the Armenians in the other two em- pires has a bearing on their condition in Turkish Armenia, and will help to understand it. In Persia — where most of them live in the region beyond the Plateau — the comparatively small number of resident Armenians combines with other features, as of history and religion, to keep the race ignorant, ^•. ■^^^^if^.ns powerless and helpless. Most of them are probably descendants of the 40,000 violently transported from their old home and enslaved by Shah Abbas. The bitter hatred of Zoroastrianism and Islam to Christianity has always led to oppression and persecution of these scat- tered and enslaved people. They have no Persian Patri- archate, no centralizing and unifying influence or effective bond. Their resulting ignorance has done much, under stress of persecuting bigotry, to transform their religion into a superstition. The American Presbyterian Church, which has made Persia one of its mission centers, working out from Teheran and Tabriz, has accordingly found it a difficult task to reach the Armenians, although they have 154 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. accomplished great good among the Nestorians in their work from Urumiah — near the great Lake of that name, which lies at the center of the Persian quarter of the Armenian Plateau — where a mission station was first estab- lished in 1835. That the Persians with whom the Armenians have to do are not the civilized and soft-mannered people that many, influenced by poetry and novels, imagine them to be, will appear from the martyr record of the Annual Eeport of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions for 1895. During that year ^'two noblemen, one a converted Armenian, in circumstances of the most barbarous cruelty, sealed their testimony for Jesus with their blood. The first, Mirza Ibrahim, was brought to Christ two or three years since at Khoi, one of the out-stations, and immediately after his public baptism became the victim of bitter persecu- tion," ending in a death by violence and torture. ^'^The Converted Armenian was Baron Aghajan, a shop-keeper in Urumiah." He was seized on a groundless charge by a howling mob of dervishes, young mullahs, students and others, and most inhumanly beaten, " and finally, on refusing to pronounce the Kalema Shahadat or Moslem creed, he was instantly thrust through with daggers, a rope was tied around his neck, his body was dragged through the streets and then thrown into a filthy pond near the city gates." Even the American missionaries have not escaped personal violence, one of them having been brutally assaulted while asleep in her tent, which was pitched on the roof of a house, and another having been robbed and stripped, and threatened with instant death. This will serve to show that while the condition of the Armenians in Persia is almost infinitely superior to what it is in Turkey — where the butcheries number thousands at a time — it is yet not at all an enviable one, rather one for which Christendom should find some speedy and permanent relief. Perhaps it may also serve to show what Moham- THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 155 medanism is when, if not at its best, it is far from being at its worst. The Armenians on the Eussian side of the Plateau and in the regions beyond are much more numerous than in Persia. The boundary of the Russian portion of the Plateau comes down to within fifty ^i Armenians ■^ m Enssia. miles of Erzrum, the gateway to Asia Minor, takes in the Upper Araxes with its deep trough, which at Erivan, the capital of the province of that name, sinks to a level of only 2,500 feet above the sea, and thence from Mt. Ararat follows the course of the Lower Araxes till it reaches the terrace lands, where it stretches away to the south, taking in the valley of the Araxes and the Kur to the shores of the Caspian. , At the foot of the terrace lands by which the Plateau breaks down to the north flows the river Kur, from its sources a few miles from the Black Sea to its mouth in the Caspian a hundred miles below Baku, the great center of the Caspian oil trade. Along the valley of the Kur runs the railway from Batum to Baku, being at its highest elevation more than a mile below the height at- tained by the great Plateau. Beyond the Kur is the coun- try stretching north to the Caucasus range. All across this region — Plateau, terrace and river valley — to the mountains, constituting Transcaucasia, Russian Armeni- ans are scattered. According to Mr. H. F. B. Lynch, the total po23ulation of Transcaucasia is about 5,000,000 souls, of which about 1,000,000 are Armenians. However, as Mr. Lynch re- marks,^ "The importance of the Armenian element must be measured, not by its numerical strength, but by the solidarity of the Armenian people as compared with the peoples among whom they live. In the Eussian provinces they are little divided by religious differences ; 1 See Contemporary Review, June, July and September, 1894, for the able and comprehensive articles from which many of the facts here given are drawn. 156 THE CEIME OP CHEISTENDOM. the Eoman Catholics are a mere handful among the solid ranks of the Gregorians, and the Gregorian Church is not only the symbol of national existence, but the stronghold of national hopes. Two other races in Transcaucasia exceed the Armenians in number : the Tatars with 1,139,000, and the different divisions of the Georgian family, who number over a million souls. But the bitter religious antipathies of Sunni and Shiah divide the Tatars, and the Georgians are in a period of transition from their old feudal system to a new and more settled social order, while the union of their Church with the Orthodox Church of Russia has deprived them of the natural rally-point for that community of sentiment which is based on a con- sciousness of race pride." Mr. Lyncli's statement concerning the Transcaucasian provinces outside of the Armenian Plateau gives his esti- mate of the numbers of Armenians : " The distribution of the Armenians in Transcaucasia outside the area which I am treating is as follows : In the Government of Eliza- betpol, which includes Karabagh, they number 258,000 ; but only in the governmental division of Shusha and Zangezxir, that is to say in the tract of country between the Araxes on the east and the south- eastern shore of Lake Sevanga on the west, do they constitute the numerically preponderating race, while in the other divisions, and in the whole government, they are largely outnumbered by the Tatars, who are nearly twice as numerous as they. The government of Tiflis contains nearly 212,000 Armenians, of which I have included 99,000 in my estimate for the Plateau itself : the remainder are dis- tributed over the other divisions of the government, and in the town of Tiflis, where they attain the imposing number of 55,000 in a total population of 145,000. In the Government of Baku, out of a total Armenian population of 55,000 there are over 24,000 in the town of Baku itself, where they are engaged in commerce and in the oil works : they are also numerous in the town and district of Sheam- akha, which lies to the west of Baku. In the Government of Kutais they are only 16,000, and most of these reside in the towns." The Russian portion of the Plateau proper, taking in the governments of Kars and Erivan, and parts of that of Tiflis, and reaching the terrace to the north of the great central lake Sevanga, has an area of about 22,000 square miles. The population of this part of the original home of the Armenians is according to Mr. Lynch as follows : THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QtTESTION. 157 Armenians 519,238 Georgians 31,102 Tatars 306,310 Russians 28,844 Kurds 68,864 Karapapachs 27,247 Greeks 47,763 Others 19,357 Turks 46,985 1,095,710 It will be seen by this that the Armenians are the pre- ponderating element in this region. The Tatar element, next in importance, is largely made up of settled people of industrious habits. Under the Eussian rule the Armenians have had what they have found neither in Persia nor in Turkey, protection of life and property and freedom of commerce and religion. As a result the population of pr^^^^^ftv the Russian provinces has been greatly aug- mented by immigration from Turkey. Says Mr. Lynch : " It is computed that not less than 10,000 families from the district of Erzrum followed the Eussian army out of Turkey in 1829, and I am informed that, during the past year (1894), 3,500 passports have been registered for emigrants from Turkey by the Russian Consulate in Erzrum. A constant stream flows across the border, which would be much longer were it not for the disabilities placed upon the Armenians in Turkey by the government, that prevent the most of them from emigrating." It is almost twenty years since the now Russian portion of what was then Turkish Armenia was turned over by the Treaty of Berlin to the Czar. Mr. Lynch thus records the changed conditions of the Armenians in the region : " An experienced traveller, who visited the Armenian provinces in 1868, and passed through the more fertile regions of the country be- tween Kars and Kagisman, has left on record a striking picture of the misery of those times. He was crossing the district of Shuragel, the ancient Shirac of the Armenians, and he speaks of deserted towns and villages, of Armenian peasants who clung to their ruined homes with a pertinacity of affection which neither poverty nor oppression could subdue, of the dispossession of the Christians by the Turkish Beys, and of the exactions and forays of the Kurds, which had cur- tailed agriculture and stifled industry, and had reduced both to the 158 THE CRIME OF CHEISTEKDOM. extreme limit on which human Ufe is able to subsist. If, at the present time, the Armenian peasant gathers for himself the crops which he has sown, and the restless Kurd consults his safety by a sober respect for the law, it is to Eussia that the people owe this deliverance from the license and anarchy of former years." There is not space to dwell at this point upon the draw- backs to be found in the present Armenian situation under Russian rule. The most that can be done is barely to indicate some of their causes. Russia, as a great despotic autocracy, twenty years ago showed marked signs of a great liberal movement along all lines. But the difficulties in the way of such Eussian ^ movement have been immense. The op- Eeaction. . . i i « position of the aristocracy, the outbreak of I^ihilism, the aversion to progress, all combined, as already noted, to bring about a reaction that was accelerated by the taking oif of Alexander the Liberator. His death brought a quick revulsion of feeling and an emphasizing of despotic methods. It is at the same time extremely doubtful whether any of the peoples of the Russian Empire are at all prepared for a larger measure of civil freedom, and whether the fulfillment of the mission of the empire would be at all possible without a strong despotic hand — such as that of Nicholas II. or of Alexander II. — in control. The wild tribes that constitute so large a portion of her more than 100,000,000 of inhabitants are to be tamed and controlled and brought into unity and civilized, and that requires a hand always strong and sometimes rough and irresistible. The marvels that have already been accomplished with Cossack and Georgian and Kurd and Tatar, show what can be done in this way. Russia feels most profoundly that her work is to unify, weld together, and Russianize all the elements that make up the population of the empire. Her one aim is to make every one in the realm Russian. That has been her aim in dealing with Poles and Finns THE ARMENIAN'S IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 159 and Jews, and that is lier aim in dealing with the Armenians of Transcaucasia. But the Armenians are an exception to the rest of the races. They have a long and distinguished history, large intelligence and intellectual activity, a noble Christian faith and record. They cherish -A-^^enmn "^ Enterprise, aspirations and hopes and ambitions of their own. Their education and trade have brought them in contact with and into sympathy with the progressive spirit of the West. In Transcaucasia they stand apart as representatives of the modern and progressive spirit. The results of their energy and enterprise are everywhere seen. Says Mr. Lynch : ^ " In every trade and in every profession, in business and in the Government services, the Armenian sees himself without a rival and in full possession of the field. He equips the postal service by which you travel, and if you ai-e so fortunate as to find an inn the landlord will be an Armenian. If the local governor attaches to your service the head of the local police, it will be a stalwart Armenian in Russian uniform, who will either find you a lodging or a shady garden in which to erect your tents. If you remark on the way some well-built edifice which aspires to architectural design, it will be the work of an Armenian builder from Alexandropol. In that town itself, where the Armenians are most numerous, the love of building, which was so marked a characteristic of their forefathers, has blossomed again among kinder circumstances ; a spacious cathedral and several large churches stand among new stone houses fronted with ambitious facades. In Erivan each richer merchant has lodged himself in an agreeable villa, whose Italian architecture will rise from the shade of poplars and willows and fruit trees laden with fruit. The excellent wine which is found in Erivan is made according to the newest methods by an Armenian who has studied for two years in Germany the most modern appliances of the industry in Europe. The monetary transactions of the country are in the hands of Armenian bankers. The skilled workmen, jewellers, watchmakers, carpenters, are Ar- menians. Even the ill-miened officer of mounted frontier police, whose long association with the wilder elements, Kurds and robbers of small and large degree, has lent him the appeai-ance of a chief of brigands will bear, not much to its honour, an Armenian name. The 1 Contemporary Review, July, 1894, p. 97. 160 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. large majority of the people do not speak Russian, or speak it very imperfectly. Indeed, were it not that the governors and chief police officials of large districts were Russians, and that Cossacks and Rus- sian regular soldiers may here and there be seen, the traveller would not suspect that he was in a Russian province and would go the way he listed with the most serene composure until he was rudely awakened by some abrupt collision with the Russian system and brought to his proper mind. As it is, the Armenian has edged out the Russian, and if peace were allowed its conquests unhindered he would ulti- mately rule the land." It is now nearly twenty years since Eussia won from the Turk her portion of the great Armenian Plateau^ and the Armenians have so far ^^ shown no signs of natural inclination to adopt Russian ways of thought." Rather they have made use of their advantages to improve the knowledge of their own history and literature and, like the modern Greek, to restore their language to its original purity, and to revive their national traditions. In all the resulting political movements the church has been a powerful factor, as being the one stable, unifying insti- tution of the Armenian people and as furnishing their leaders. One half or more of the Armenians on the Plateau are, as has been seen, on the Russian slope. On this resides at Etchmiadzin, near Erivan, the supreme ruler The Religious ^f ^^le Armenian Church— Catholicos Meger- ditch Khrimian. This noble Christian man '' has for many years been in the forefront of the Ar- menian movement, and has more than any man inspired the Armenians with a sense of their own dignity and of the worthiness of their past. . . . Through a long life he has exercised a magnetic influence upon his countrymen, and, while he has been loved and esteemed by all, he is the object of an almost suiDerstitious veneration on the part of the humble and poor." At Etchmiadzin also reside the four archbishops and four archimandrites constituting the Synod, of which the THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 161 Catliolicos is the presiding officer. From this center the affairs of the Armenian Church — over the three Empires centering in Ararat — are administered. When the Cath- olicos dies, to Etchmiadzin come by invitation two dele- gates, one clerical and the other lay — from each of the two dioceses in Eussia, of the fifty-two in Turkey, and of the two (Tabriz and New Julfa) in Persia — to elect his suc- cessor. The seat of the Catliolicos at Etchmiadzin is also the center and the source of inspiration of the Armenian educational system — recently somewhat inter- fered with by the Russian Government — which _^J^^^}^^ i . . Education. IS entirely distmct from the Eussian and main- tained by the Church, It consists of seminaries, one of which is attached to each diocese, that provide for a higher education ; and of the parochial schools attached to many of the local churches, that furnish a high standard of ele- mentary education extending quite beyond the range of re- ligious and theological instruction. Five distinct grades were often maintained. Provision was often thus made in these schools of the Church for everything but the highest university education. The quality of the instruction will be better understood when we consider the fact that many of the teachers in them have been educated in the G-erman and other European universities. The result of all these influences, ecclesiastical and educa- tional, has been what may be called an Armenian Eenais- sance among the Armenians in the dominion of the Czar, that has resulted again in a general awakening of the Armenian spirit in the other Empires that center in Ararat, and in the people scattered abroad over the world. This movement, in connection with the constitution under which the Armenians of Eussia live, has brought about in recent years a state of things that has greatly com- plicated the Armenian problem, especially in Eussia. This will be better understood, in its nature and causes, II 162 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. by considering the document that forms the Constitution regulating the relations of the Armenian Constitution J-~^^ ■, in.- J. XI T> • /-I of Nicholas Church and education to the Kussian Gov- ernment, which was signed by the Emperor Nicholas on March 23, 1836, It outlines the internal con- stitution of the Church, lays down the rules that are to gov- ern it in the administration of its own affairs, and defines its duties and privileges in connection with the Eussian Government. It recognizes the Armenian Church as the equal of the other religious bodies that exist under the rule of the Czar, and accords it freedom of worship. While holding the clergy subject to the Eussian civil law in all purely civil affairs it exempts them from all civil burdens. It recognizes the spiritual supremacy of the Catholicos, but develops and emphasizes the constitutional position of the Synod — constituted as already stated — in the administra- tion of the affairs of the Church, and frames -the regula- tions that define its relations of subordination and amena- bility to the State. In purely spiritual affairs, such as matters of doctrine and ritual, the Catholicos may act of his own motion ; but the general administration of the affairs of the Church must be conducted through the Synod, ac- cording to the Eussian laws that govern colleges, and under the supervision of the Minister of the Interior. A Pro- cureur or Controller, who speaks both Eussian and Ar- menian, is appointed by the Emperor to reside at Etchmi- adzin, supervises all the decrees of the Synod and pro- nounces upon their legality and constitutionality, and sends out the decrees headed, " By the order of the Em- peror of Eussia,^^ the titular head of the Synod. The Em- peror also appoints every bishop of a diocese, although the Catholicos presents the names of the candidates. When the Catholicos dies, the Synod at the expiration of a year sends invitations to all Armenian dioceses to send two dele- gates each to Etchmiadzin, which delegates with the Synod and seven of the oldest archimandrites in Etchmiadzin^ THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 163 constitute the elective body. This body, assembled in the Church of the Illuminator, first chooses four candidates, from which it then selects two names which it submits to the Emperor through the governor of the Caucasus. The Emperor having made his choice among these, confirms the new Catholicos and receives his oath of allegiance through a representative sent to Etchmiadzin for that purpose. The Catholicos is then consecrated according to the cus- toms of the Armenian Church. This is the merest outline of the pretty complete and detailed statement made by the Constitution of Nicholas of the relations of the Armenian Church to the State. The same document defines the relations of the Ar- menian system of education to the Eussian Government, and states the regulations governing it. It describes the education to be given as moral and religious, and empha- sizes the importance, for the clerical body, of a knowledge of the language, the history, and the geography of Russia. The revival and extension of the Armenian national spirit has naturally brought them into conflict with these consti- tutional provisions. The tendency was well- nigh all-powerful to Armenianize, rather than Ambitions Russianize, everything. The Russian lan- guage, and instruction in Russian history, customs and in- stitutions, were practically excluded from many Armenian communities. The problem resulting was the same as that with the solution of which some of our communities and commonwealths in this country have had to struggle in consequence of the introduction of purely foreign com- munities, ignorant of our language, history and institu- tions, and declining to become Americanized. The unwise use of the Church and the schools, at the same time, for the furtherance of semi-political or quasi- political ends naturally roused the Russian Government to action for its own self-preservation. In 1884 a Ukase was promulgated, after the death of the late Catholicos and be- 164 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. fore the election of his successor, placing every Church school having more than two grades or classes on the same basis as a private school, or in other words requiring that all its instruction be given in the Russian language. '' In the case of a school of two classes only, the lessons may be given in the Armenian language, but it is obligatory to teach the Russian language, and, where general geography and history are included, the history and geography of Russia must be taught in Russian. The curriculum of a school must be submitted to, and approved by, the. Russian edu- cational authorities, who are also invested with the right to apply to the Armenian spiritual government for the dis- missal of a teacher of whom they do not approve, and, fail- ing redress in this quarter, they can place the matter be- fore the governor of the Caucasus, who can order as he thinks fit. The seminaries, one of which is attached to each diocese and which provide a higher education, are ex- empted from the provisions of this decree, but their object is defined to be the preparation of clergymen to meet the requirements of the Armenian Church.^' The Synod deferred action upon the Ukase until a new Catholicos should be elected. The Government accord- ingly closed the schools, which were not again opened until Catholicos Makar in 1886 agreed to its provisions with some slight modifications. The higher schools have not been reopened. An old provision of the law, long a dead- letter, has been again brought out and enforced, requiring that " every teacher in an Armenian school shall be fur- nished with a certificate from the Russian pedagogic semi- nary, and shall have passed in the Russian language the necessary examination which entitles him to receive his award." In the mean time the Russian school system, largely furnished with Armenian teachers trained in the Russian pedagogic seminary at Erivan, but using the Rus- sian language, is being rapidly extended to supply the place of the Church schools. THE AKMENIANS TN THE EASTERN QUESTIEN. 165 The strained relations with Russia that have been brought about mainly by the unwise action of the Ar- menians, have seriously interfered with the old cordial regard that naturally grew out of their Strained Rela- deliverance and protection by the Czar. The attitude of the Armenians in Turkey toward Russia has also been considerably modified, and new complications have thus been introduced into the Armenian problem in its wider sense. But the present interest in the Eastern Question centers in the Armenians in Turkey, and especially in those on the Turkish portion of the Great Plateau. The condition of the Armenians in this region 3._ Armenians in Tiirkfiv can be better understood by the contrast with their condition and accomplishments in the Russian prov- inces where they constitute so large and power- ful an element in the population. They have (!•) Onthe naturally desired to emigrate to the Russian provinces, and a great tide at one time set in that direc- tion, but the physical and ethnical features of Armenian Turkey have combined with the Turkish Government to prevent this. The physical features of this part of Armenia are of great importance. It is within the Turkish limits that the Armenian Plateau reaches its greatest height, rising as it does at the central watershed — on which the waters of the Araxes separate from those of the Eastern and Western Euphrates — to the height of 7,000 feet. The Ararat range, known in the country as the Agliri Dagh, runs along the boundary between Russia and Turkey, separating the valley of the middle Araxes from those of the Eastern and Western Euphrates. Beyond this extend the moun- tains of Azubaijan. This is a great natural barrier crossed only by passes that often attain a height of more than 8,000 k feet, covered with almost perpetual snow, and making the i escape of • the Armenians into Russia practically impos- L 166 THE CIiI]ME OF CHRISTENDOM. sible, except by the barred gateway of Erzrum, thereby placing them from that side absolutely at the mercy of Kurd and Turk. Equally hoj)eless for the Armenian Christian is escape over the Persian boundaries. The way over a wild and mountainous country is almost impassable. It leads through a barren region infested by lawless hordes of sav- age robbers, such as those inhabiting the Sandjak of Hakkiari. Escape in that direction would carry them through robbery and rape to certain persecution and pos- sible death at the hands of the implacable Persian who has not once for fifteen centuries forgotten his hate. To the southward there is no escape from the Plateau except through the wilds of the Taurus range infested by the most savage of the Kurdish clans, across the terrace-lands, or what is properly Kurdistan, into the arid plains of the Euphrates valley, where all pressure from outside civili- zation is removed and the barbarous Moslem are at their worst. Escape to the westward, if possible, would only end in falling into the clutches of the Turkish legions and the most fanatical of all the Moslem. So the Ar- menians are shut up by natural barriers in this prison- house of death, this dungeon of hell. And yet this Turkish Plateau is one of the most beau- tiful and picturesque regions of Western Asia, celebrated in Armenian song and history, containing in "^the EaS^ °^ ^^^ 40,000 to 50,000 square miles— about equal to New York or Pennsylvania — a great extent of fertile country and possessing attractions that might well have led to its selection twice as the cradle of the human race. It contains all the richest portions of the Armenian Plateau. Says Mr. Lynch : ^ " The Sultan still holds the greater portion of the plateau, and some of its richest districts are subject to his rule. If Russia is supreme in the valley of the Middle Araxes, the fertile country about J- Clontemporary Review, September, 1894, p. 436, ( BZ.ACK r,6<'' V...i^' s b: j\. y, TlFui' V'-^'^y ■^A s T A 1^ U N I -^ ^M/iKsovMii-^.^ '? ■i-^-.. Tvu.'""!/ \ Alexandfopol K i« I ^ ETCHMtnOZIN \ °Y0ZGnr i.,?' \ •^"■— . r'*'.^^ ...Nt ■\- ,T'! \ ' C£i .V |K A R "S V KQN/EH A M A^^ !,'u'llW|W f%i\-iii;\- '!:?">///. ^ eii^' ', 1 % V 7 ^%'>. °Hunis ,f^'' S \,-^ I A N '"-._/' S E R T Red— District Where Massacres Occurred. THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 167 Lake Van belongs to Turkey ; tlie plains of Mush and Bulanik and, further west, the populous plain of Kharput, are all within the Turkish border, and compose an area of grain-growing country which is capable of supporting a population far more numerous than that which it at present maintains." These features indicate some of the possibihties of a region that but for "man's inhumanity to man" might still be a paradise. An added feature, especially note- worthy, is that the head-waters of navigation of both the Euphrates and Tigris rivers — at Samsat and Diarbekr — bring it within easy reach of the commerce of the world. Still more important is the present condition of the race elements of the Turkish plateau of Armenia. Certain features of it will be seen to make the Armenian Problem altogether peculiar in its factors. The question of population is always a difficult one in such regions. The most that can be done is to make an approximate estimate on the basis of the official lists, published in the almanacs of the governments of the prov- inces, and the records in the books of the diocesan author- ities of the Armenian Church. The official list of the Mohammedan population is estimated from the military enrollment which, as it subjects him to military service, each man does his best to evade. The enrollment of births of Christians in the diocesan records obliges the payment of an annual tax, which exempts from military service and which begins with the birth, thus furnishing a powerful incentive to under-estimating the Christian male population. In large districts on the southern bor- der of the Plateau there has never been a count of the practically independent Kurdish tribes. The female popu- lation, owing to the Oriental habits of seclusion, is never counted and never enters into any of these records. Mr. Lynch first marks out the limits of the Plateau, and then gives his estimate, of the number of its peoples. He says ; ^ J Contemporary Eeview, September, 1894, p. 439, 168 THE CRIME OP CHRISTENDOM. " I have found it convenient to follow the method which was adopted in the case of the Russian territory, and to select those existing gov- ernmental divisions which correspond in a general manner to the area of the plateau. The area of these governmental divisions composes the political area with which we shall deal. For this purpose I have taken the following Governments, or divisions of Governments : the whole of the Government of Erzrum, that portion of the Gov- ernment of Van which constitutes the Sandjak or governmental div- ision of Yan, the whole Government of Bitlis with the exception of the Sandjak of Sert, which belongs to the terrace land. On the west I have included that small portion of the Government of Diar- bekr which is formed by the Caza or governmental subdivision of Palu, and the whole of the Government of Kharput, which includes the Deyrsim, with the exception of the Sandjak of Malatia. The super- ficial measurement of the area obtained in this manner amounts to about 42,000 square miles." Mr. Lynch's estimate, wliicli agrees in the main with that made several years earlier by Mr. Taylor, for a long time the British consul at Erzrum, is in round numbers as follows : ' Turks Sunni Mohammedans 450,000 ^ Sunni Mohammedans 300,000 ^ ^ Kizzilbashes 110,000 { Gregorians 364,000 Armenians. < Roman Catholic 20,000 ' Protestant 16,000 Greeks 5,000' Others 7,000 Moslem. Christian. Total 1,272,000 Possibly it may be necessary to add from 10 to 20 per cent, to the Armenian element in order to reach the real number. A special complication in the Armenian Problem, already hinted at, arises from the distribution on the Mingling Plateau and the manner of life of the three of Races. main racial elements — Turks, Kurds and Armenians — each numbering about the same. While the three elements are to some extent scattered over the Plateau, still each has its particul^-r belt in which it largely THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 169 predominates, A north and south line drawn from the southern terrace hinds through Mush and Erzrum to the Eussian boundary, Avill furnish a convenient starting-place for a description of the three peoples and the three belts. The belt to the north of Erzrum, chiefly to the east of this line of departure, is that of the Turkish peoples, loosely so-called. They predominate No^t^eJ"!! in the region reaching out to the Eussian boundary on the north, to the Deyrsim, or country of the Kizzilbashes, on the west, and to the Persian boundary at the base of Mt. Ararat on the east. "We say Turks, loosely so-called, for they embrace, besides peoples of Tatar origin, many descendants of G-eorgians and Armenians, who have become fanatical adherents of Islam. Those Turkish peoples are largely engaged in agricultural and other in- dustrial pursuits and in the civil service of the Grovern- ment, and have the settled and industrious habits to which the full-blooded Turk has been seen to be especially averse. The central belt, to the south of Erzrum, reaching both east and west of the line of departure, is that of the Armenians. They are the powerful ele- ment from Lake Van westward through all the rich valleys to the terrace lands beyond Kharput. Of their distribution in this region, Mr. Lynch writes : ^ " Compared with the ntimber of the Mussulman inhabitants they are in greater strength in the Government of Van than in any other Government : taking that Government as a whole, but of course ex- cluding the Hakkiari, they exceed by about one-third the total of the Mussulman population. In the town of Yan the proportion of Armenians to Mussulmans is about as two to one. In the Govern- ment of Bitlis they are in a majority in the neighborhood of Mush, and in the fertile district of Bulanik, northwest of the Lake of Van. On the other hand, they are outnumbered by the Mussulmans in the populous Sandjak of Kharput, and in the Caza or governmental sub- division of Palu. In the Government of Erzrum there is scarcely a district in which they are not less numerous than their Mussulman neighbors." 1 Contemporary Review, September, 1894, p. 449. 170 THE CRIME OP CHRISTENDOM. Their relative importance is, however, mncli greater than ■would be indicated by their numbers. In the first place, the Gregorian Church on this Plateau has resisted more effectively than anywhere else all attacks upon the political, social and religious solidarity of the Armenian race. Not more than 20,000 perverts to Eomanism have resulted from the centuries of effort on the part of Rome. Probably less than that number have been brought under the influ- ence of the recent Protestant missionaries from America, and these have not broken with their original Church and race, but remain as a purifying and elevating influence in the midst of these. In the second place, the fact that they occupy the richest portion of the Plateau greatly in- creases their wealth and influence. The third belt, that to the south of Mush, is the Kurd- ish. It reaches east aud west to the limits of the Pla- teau, and south to the Taurus range, and its ^°^*^®^" people by migrations and wanderings make themselves felt across the Taurus range and the terrace lands beyond, to the valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris. These peojsle of what may be called Kurdistan need to be specially considered, for the reason that aut of their peculiar composition and characteristics have arisen some special complications of the Armenian Problem that have sometimes been almost mistaken for the whole of it. The Kurds in this region arc found in every stage and form of social development, from the nomadic to the settled state, from the wandering and predatory band, through the tribal and communal organizations, up to the stricter govern- mental control from Stamboul. But essential differences of language and creed separate the Kurds of the Plateau into two great and somewhat antagonistic elements. Kizziibashes, u,eachin2: across the three belts, to the west of Kurds. ° Erzrum, is the region of the Kizzilbashes. Mr. Lynch gives the following account of them : ^ 1 Contemporary Review, September, 1894, p. 444. THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QtTEsTlON. 171 " From the neigliborliood of the town of Sivas in Asia Minor to be- yond Malatia on tlie south, and between the two branches of the Eu^ plirates to the vicinity of Musli, the Kurds, althougli classed in the official lists as Mussulmans, neither practise the orthodox religion nor speak the same dialect as their neighbors of kindred race. Branded throughout the nearer East luider the opprobrious name of Kizzilbash they harbor a sullen hatred of the Turkish Government, whose attempts to convert them to orthodoxy they resent ; while towards the Christians they are drawn by the impulse of a common antagonism to the existing order, and by the respect in which they hold the Chi'istian religion, in the person of whose Founder they rec- ognize an incarnation of God. Their religion, so far as we know it, bears the impress of the Aryan mind, which seeks for a human em- bodiment of the Deity : they invest with divine attributes Moses and Jesus, Mohammed and Ali. Their language, although a branch of the Kurdish, contains an admixture botli of Persian and Armenian words, and is said to differ so greatly from the prevailing dialect of tlie Kurdisli tongue that those who are familiar with the one are un- able to understand the other. Wliile they practise the rite of cir- cumcision and have adopted certain of the observances of Islam, the contempt in which their religion is held by their Mussulman neighbors of the Suuni sect disposes them against the dominant creed in which they recognize the most dangerous enemy of their own peculiar faith. In brief, tliey constitute a separate element in the Kurdisli popula- tion of the plateau, and the numerical value of this element may be placed at a third of the total figure which I have given for the Turk- ish Kurds. Their geographical position between and about tlie two branches of the Euphrates invests them with some contemporary im- portance from a military point of view : and they hold the wild and mountainous country on the south of the headquarters of the Turkish Army Corps at the town of Erzingan. In this district, wliich is known under tlie name of the Deyrsim, they have long resisted and continue to resist the imposition of the Turkish yoke. They are here in the tribal and pastoral state, but they have been obliged, by the rigor of the climate, to build houses, and they cultivate small strips of land. In the country on the west and east of the Deyrsim the Kizzilbashes are peaceful and industrious peasants, of whom most travellers have spoken with respect." In the third belt, to the eastward of Mush and reach- ing to the Persian boundary, are found the genuine Kurds, the Sunni Mohammedans, who profess the or- _ . ^ , Genniue Kurds, thodox faith and speak the proper dialect of 172 THE CKIME OP CHRISTENDOM. Kurdistan. They are a people of Aryan stock and their " original home and natural habitation " are the mountains of the terrace-land south of the Plateau — the Taurus and Zagros ranges and along the Euphrates to the Persian Gulf. Their common characteristic everywhere and always has been inveterate aversion to the yoke of law and to settled life. Their habitat has determined their character and manner of life in accordance with their nature. For ages the Kurds of this terrace-land have kept up their annual migratory movements. With the approach of winter "a continuous throng of sheep and goats and horses and weather-worn people of either sex and of every age flows slowly down the blighted country, filing by tor- tuous tracks between the boulders or pausing, about the noonday hour, by the bed of a shaded stream/' to the vast alluvial plains of the Tigris where tents are pitched for the winter months. When summer comes and vegetation is withered by the summer heat, they find their way up the mountain sides, advancing with the drought until they reach and spread out over the southern portion of the Armenian Plateau. Gradually remnants of these hordes have been left behind on the Plateau, being unable to keep up their migration to the distant valley of the Tigris. Huts of more or less substantial character, as a necessary protection against the rigors of a northern winter, have taken the place of their tents, as they have gathered in villages, and some of them have mingled with the Turks and settled down to an industrious peasant life, while a larger number have retained their independence and tribal character and nomadic habits. They occupy the southern border of the Plateau. A wilder and more intractable Kurdish element was brought to the Plateau by a definite act of public policy on the part of the Turkish Government. Mr. Lynch relates how this was done : ^ 1 Contemporary Review, September, 1894, p. 446. THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 173 "After the defeat of the Persians in tlie plain of Chalderan in 1514 it became necessary to arrive at a permanent settlement of the Kurdish provinces ; and it formed part of a plan pursued by Edrlsi, the dis- tinguished Minister of Selim the First, and himself a Kurd of Bitlis, to remove a portion of this turbulent people from the country of their home and to settle them along the new frontier of Turkey in the districts bordering upon Persia and Georgia which had been acquired from the Shah. It is said that they were granted a perpetual im- munity from taxation on the condition that they would act as a per- manent militia upon the border which had been given them to guard." These Kurds have thus been made the predominant ele- ment in tlie region to the north and east of Lake Van, where they have proved to be a perpetual curse to Moslem and Christian alike in peace midieh and in war. The reigning Sultan has sought to organize them in a military way and bring them into con- nection with the regular Turkish army, as a kind of irregular cavalry under the name of Hamidieh (from his own name), now becoming so familiar as a name of horror. He has es- tablished the headquarters at Melazgerd, north of Lake Van, and over thirty regiments, nominally of about 600 men each, have been — not organized, for organization is an impracticable thing with this people under present conditions — registered, liberally furnished with arms and uniforms from the Turkish magazines, and turned loose upon the helpless Armenians who are not allowed to possess arms of any kind. The Eusso-Turkish War demon- strated two things concerning them : their worthlessness as soldiers, and their atrocious cruelty to those who from wounds or other causes were unable to defend themselves. Especially have these Kurds proved a scourge and a terror to the Armenian Christians, making protection of life and property an impossibility. The difficulties of the situation and the way in which it has been brought about are well described by Mr. Lynch : ^ 1 Contemporary Keview, September, 1894, pp. 448-9. 174 THE CRIME OP CHRISTENDOM. " Transplanted from their natural camping grounds and obliged through the long months of an Arctic winter to provide themselves and their animals with shelter and with food, this pastoral people were quartered on the Armenian villages, but were required by Government to pay an annual tax in i-eturn for the accommodation which during winter they received. But an arrangement which was based on the just principle of insuring to the Armenian a fair remuneration for the lodging which he furnished, and the fodder which he supi^lied, was put into practice by the local authorities in a characteristic manner : the proceeds of the tax were committed to their own coffers and their proper destination was ignored. In 1842, after the promulgation of the celebrated charter of reforms which is known under the name of the Hatti-Sherif of Gulkhane, a beginning was made toward the abolition of the system ; the Kurds in the neighborhood of Mush were allotted certain villages which had been vacated by the Armenian emigrants, and the Armenians of the district were relieved of the heavy burden which they had previously been obliged to bear. At the present day, the pastoi-al Kurds of the plateau have all their ovvn villages, and the old system, except in isolated instances, may be said to have disappeared. Yet even now they justify their raids upon the Armenians on the ingenious plea of the ancient right of quarter which they consider they are entitled to enforce. Policy also dictates a course which their tender con- science has approved. The Armenians are at once the most immediate and the least redoubtable among their neighbors. The courageous Kurd equips himself for the foray with a rifle of modern EvTSsian pattern and belts bristling with cartridges ; his victims, by a cruel and cynical provision, have been deprived by Government of all arms. If the Kurd is caught red-handed and is arraigned before the civil authority, he will scornfully defy the civil jurisdiction and claim to be tried by his military superiors as a trooper in the Hami- dich Corps. When the civil branch has been successfully thwarted, the military authorities are cajoled, while the injured party is rewarded by the visitation of a fresh injury, which he endures without com- plaint." Mr. Lynch places the difficulties that arise from the pres- ence of the Kurdish population on the Plateau at the ... kernel of the Armenian Question in Turkey, menian Ques- It has doubtless made that Question much tion. more complicated than it is elsewhere in the Turkish dominion ; for here the Turkish civil and military THE ATIMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 175 authorities have needed sinply to let loose upon the help- less Christians these Hamidieh^ already more than eager for blood and plunder, and clothed with the authortiy of the Sultan, the representative of Mohammed and God. While therefore it seems clear that the root of the East- ern Question, in Armenia as well as elsewhere, is found in the very nature of the " unspeakable Turk " himself as de- veloped and controlled by the religion of Islam, it must no doubt be conceded that on the Armenian Plateau of Turkey its difficulties have been immensely aggravated by the presence of the Kurdish hordes that furnish the Turk so facile an instrument of persecution and torture. Just such butcheries as those that have recently occurred, and on a scale so tremendous, would have been impossible without the Turk and the Kurd combined and both fired with the spirit of the False Prophet of Mecca. To take the Biblical figure, the Armenians in the belt between the Turk and the Kurd have been crushed between the upper and the nether millstones. But the Armenian Question in Turkey has another aspect, in which it extends far beyond the Armenian Plateau of Turkey. By the Berlin Treaty the Sublime Porte engaged to introduce reforms ^^^ Scattered ° . . over Turkey, in the '^ Provinces inhabited by the Arme- nians." That gave a vague and uncertain extension to the sphere of proposed Turkish effort at reform. In the other portions of the Empire there are probably six times as many Armenians as there are dwelling on the Turkish Plateau, the number of Armenians in all Turkey, as given at the Berlin Congress, being 3,000,000. It has been held by some that the number was exaggerated for political effect. However that may be, the 2,000,000 more or less, outside the limits of the Plateau, are chiefly scattered over the provinces of Asia Minor or gathered in C£)nstanti- nople and the larger centers of trade and commerce. These people are not cursed — as are those of the Plateau — with 176 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. the presence of tlie Knrdisli hordes. Then* situation in other respects is in general very much the same as that of other Christians during all the century under Moham- medan rule. They have all along been subject to the same disabilities. Exorbitant and extortionate taxation to the extent of ruin has been their constant lot. They have been helplessly exposed to every possible form of injust- ice and violence from the Moslems, as Christian evidence is not admissible against a Mohammedan while every man's lie has passed for truth against a Christian. The Ar- menians, with all other Christians, are forbidden by the Sacred Law of Islam to possess arms. In the Treaty of Paris in 1856 the Sultan engaged to put the Christians in the Empire on the same footing in this and all other respects as his Mohammedan subjects. This, however, re- mained a dead letter. When the Great Powers, in the Berlin Memorandum in 1876, proposed to demand the ful- fillment of this provision of the Treaty, Lord Derby set himself against and defeated it, on the ground, as we have seen, that if the Christians were permitted to have arms it mip-ht bring about a collision with the Turks ! And so they were turned over to the tender mercies of the armed butcher by a British Premier! Encouraged by British aid, "the Sultan appealed to Sheik-ul-Islam (the supreme arbiter without whom the Sultan cannot alter an atom of the Sacred Law)," and having summoned the hierarchy of the XJlema in consultation, he impudently and defiantly issued his peremptory fetwah — in 1877 during the very sessions of the Conference at Constantinople — against the possession of arms by Christians, on the ground that the unchange- able Sacred Law forbade it ! ^ The thrift of the Armenians and the beauty of their women have subjected them, in an unusual degree, from the beginning, to the horrors of the Gazdalik, or Hospi- tality Tax. In addition to these things there have been iSee Parliamentary Papers of 1S11-S, pp. 176, 177. THE ARMENIANS IN THE EASTERN QUESTION. 177 special features in the woe of the Armenian Christians all over Turkey, especially in these later times. To begin with, their independent ecclesiastical standing has left them outside the sympathies of the rest of Christendom. Tlie Greek Christian in Turkey could appeal to Eussia ; the Eoman Catholic to France, Italy and Austria ; the Protestant, to Germany, Great Britain and the United States, — all these could be sure of sympathy if not of help ; but the Armenian had been outside the ordinary Chris- tendom and friendless. Moreover, the great mass of Armenian Christians have met their fate beyond the reach of any helpful arm ; in- deed, it has too often been the case that their cry of distress could not break through the strong barriers of Turkish rule so as to reach the ears of Christendom. Especially has the position on the great Plateau — between the upper and nether millstones of Turkish fanaticism and Kurdish atrocity — been to them the silent gate of death. Still further, the setting free of so large a portion of European Turkey by the Treaty of Berlin brought to the Armenian people a crisis of extortion and oppression many- fold more acute than any that had previously been known to them or to any of the other Christian peoples of the Turkish Empire. From the date of that Treaty it has practically been necessary for the Sultan to support his Government by what means could be wrung from the peoples of the Macedonian belt of European Turkey and from the Armenians over the Empire. The Macedonian belt had already been harried and robbed into utter poverty ; besides it was under the eye of Europe and so under partial protection ; and still further the Turk has been in special terror of uprisings in the Balkans. The thrifty and rich Armenians were thus brought to the point Avhere the robber Turk demanded of them — what had formerly been furnished by Greek and Slav and Macedonian and Arme- iz 178 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. nian — to furnisli the means for supporting the Turkish Empire and the great harem at the Yildiz Kiosk. It is thus easy to see why in their case such an acute stage has been reached. But worst and most aggravating of all is the fact that Commercial England^ by her long course of iniquity in sus- taining Turkey^ has forced and encouraged that Empire to roll up a vast debt — originally somewhere between one thousand millions and two thousand millions of dollars, since scaled down but still many hundred millions, held in England, France and Germany — largely by Englishmen — on which the Turk must pay the interest. It is thus the hideous spectacle of the Christian Shylocks of Lombard Street, Paris and Berlin, calling upon the Turk for the pound of flesh, which the Turk takes from the Armenian with his heart's blood ! It is thus that in the last analysis the cry of the Christian bondholder for gold is respon- sible for the Armenian Christian's cry of agony, on the plains of Armenia, in the provinces of Asia Minor, and in the streets and suburbs of Constantinople. CHAPTER VI. THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. The view given of the Armenians themselves, in their history, religion and environment, has prepared for taking up and understanding the facts concerning the massacres of 1894, 1895 and 1896, with their aim, organization and execution. Three successive years of butchery have al- ready been recorded that have gone far toward blotting out the Armenian religion and race. I. FiKST Ybae of Butchery, 1894. The horrors of the Armenian story during these three years have been too many and too intense to be detailed or depicted. One shrinks from the story, but justice and mercy demand that a summary of it be here given, — nay, the fact that the governments of Christendom have heard it without heeding demands that it be reiterated by every one who has in him a spark of awakened humanity, until all the Christian nations shall be roused from the moral stupor that now rests upon them like the pall of death, and shall hasten to strike down the red-handed murderers ; until the protest of William "Watson, in " The Purple East " and " The Year of Shame, ^' shall become the passionate oiitcry of Christendom against the acquiescence not only of England but of all the so-called Christian Powers in that f' Yicegerency of Hell," the Ottoman Empire I 180 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. (I.) Events Leading to It. The increased pressure of Commercial Christendom, under the lead of Commercial England, upon the Arme- nians through the Turk, beffan, as already cial Pressure' suggested, with the Treaty of Berlin. Ten years or more passed before it reached its acute stage. The Armenians had from the beginning been a thrifty people— largely, as has been seen, the traders, merchants and bankers of the Turkish Empire — and it took years to impoverish them utterly. Fear of another uprising of the Slavic races led to greater pressure of tax- ation in distant Armenia. About 1890 it began to be ap- parent that they were nearing the hour of their extremity. Eor ten years the Turk, urged on by Christian greed, took his pound of flesh from the helpless and patient Armenian, without restraint of justice or mercy, until the life-blood was reached and no more could be furnished without taking the life with it. The course of the Turk from that to the final butcheries and threatened extermi- nation has been easy and natural. The following brief sketch of the facts is drawn from sources that are unquestionable. There are three j)oints that can readily be made plain : (1) The slow work of impoverishing the Armenians reached a crisis about 1890, from which time and on- ward robbery, rape and murder began to reign on the Plateau. (2) Erom the opening of 1894 the chief Armenian centers on the Plateau, and elsewhere, whenever beyond Christian protection, have been deluged with blood. (3) The butchery was organized by the Turkish Govern- ment and directed from Stamboul. The extreme pressure of Turkish taxation was reached about 1890, and the masses of the Armenians, Ji^ving been drained of their wealth and be- jieacheft, THE ARMENIAN CllISIS AND MASSACRES. 181 ing unable to furnish anything more, began to be sub- jected to all the horrors of the Turkish system in its worst form. The Turk in his conquests of Christian lands gave the Christians choice of three things, and put the choice with an emphatic climax : " Ye Christian dogs, the Koran, tribute, or the sword ! " Not to choose the Koran required that a man should be true and brave in an unusual degree. It was to choose to remain a ^^dog," an object of perpetual contempt and abuse to even the meanest Mohammedan beggar. In case of failure in paying the tribute it meant the sword — death ! The tribute or the taxation imposed by the Turkish system, has proved at its best almost as bad as death, at its worst worse than death, and has ordinarily been the sure road to ultimate death to great numbers of all the races that made choice of it. That at its best it is almost as bad as death is shown by a consideration of what Christian tax- ation, in its narrowest sense, under Turkish rule includes. Canon MacColl has given a summarized account of it in " England's Eesponsibility towards Armenia. ^^ It must be borne in mind that Christians must, to begin with, pay the same taxes as all other citizens pay, that is, the ordinary taxes, and that these under corrupt Mohammedan rule often bear heavily upon even the Moslem subjects of the Sultan, while they leave the Christian peasant not more than one- third of his crop. But, as has been shown elsewhere, this is but a small part of his burdens. That at its worst the Turkish tribute system is worse than death, becomes apparent when we take it in its widest sense as inckiding the Hospitality Tax. That the Moslem tribute system has ordinarily been the sure road to ultimate death to great numbers of all the races that made choice of it is demonstrated by the massacres of Christians that occurred periodically from Mohammed down to the present at- tempted extermination of the Armenians. 182 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. But never has tlie system in all its horrid details and its dreadful accompaniments been carried out with, any people so thoroughly as with the Armenians. Tribute System . t j -j •^.x^ ±t • j; xi Applied -^^ already said, with the opening of the present decade, they have been brought by the taxes in the strict sense to the pinch of poverty. On the Armenian Plateau the Kurds were let loose upon them by the Turk to help him in his work of extortion. The state of things resulting was described by Mr. Clifford Lloyd, Consul at Erzrum, in a report dated October 2, 1890 : "'The Armenian peasantry are unable at present to pay their taxes, owing to the ravages of the Kurds. . . . But the Christians, having been reduced to a state of poverty by the action of the neighboring Kurds in plundering and burning tlieir harvest with impunity, were unable to pay their taxes, or to provide for the following season's agricultural implements.' " This condition prevailed over the entire Turkish portion of the Plateau, and was approximated in many of the Ar- menian communities outside the Plateau. The failure of the Christian to pay his taxes was taken by the Government as a refusal to pay them, and that according to the Sacred Law of Islam was the forfeiture of all his property and his life as well. Matters naturally went from bad to worse. The most revolting features of the tribute system were brought in by the armed robbers who settled themselves on the Chris- tians, and claimed the Hospitality Tax, as an aid in collect- ing the other taxes. Everything brutal — robbery, rape, murder — came then in turn, in the first three Bmtality. o^ ^^^^^ years of the decade. This was a time of transition from what Dr. Dillon calls the period of " shameful misgovernment " — from 1847, when Osman Pasha reduced to subjection the Kurdish Derebeks in the five southeastern provinces (Van, Bitlis, Mush, Bayazed and Diarbekr) — to the period of " frank exter- THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 183 minatlon^' (1891-1894). Only instances can be given of the earlier work of oppression and dishonor. Take one instance from tlie region near Bitlis, as related officially by Mr. Hampson, the British Con- sul at Erzruni, under date of January 30, 1891, and recorded in the Blue Book.^ " A band of thirty mounted police wliicli were on the march were billeted for the night in a small Armenian village of ten houses, a few hours distant from Bitlis. Four of them were quartered in the house of a young married Armenian. Overhearing them discussing plans against his wife's honour, he secretly sent her to the house of a neighbour. When the zaptiehs learnt this they ordered him to send for her, and, on refusing to do so, beat him most cruelly. lie fled to a neighbour's house, but, two days later, died from the effects of the ill-treatment which he had received. Four doctors, three of them Turks, and the other a Christian, examined the body, and the latter had the courage, in the face of the opinions given by the others, to certify to the real cause of the death. In the houses where the other zaptiehs were quartered their designs against the female members of the family were carried out without resistance." Take another from the Blue Book, in which figures Hus- sein Agha, Mudir (or district governor) of Patmoss. The British Consul at Erzrum ^^^^^^ ^ *• writes under date of March 7, 1891.^ *' Fifteen days ago Hussein, with his nephew, entered by night the house of an Armenian, named Caspar, in Patmoss, with the in- tention of carrying off Caspar's daughter-in-law, a very beautiful young woman. The inhabitants of the house cried out for help, on which Hussein drew his revolver and fired, killing the woman on the spot." These are but mild illustrations of the reign of terror that took on a worse form in the Armenian Plateau about the opening of the j^resent decade. Most of the recorded instances are too horrible to be presented here, and the 1 Turkey, No. 1 (1S92), p. 9. 2 Turkey, No. 1 (1892), p. 25. 184 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. worst have neyer found record save in the book of God's judgments. And let it be remembered, says Dr. Dillon, "that these statements are neither rumors nor exaggera- tion concerning which we are justified in suspending our judgment." They are the mild and restrained statements of British and other officials, who are required by their position not to overstate things, and inclined from their relations to the Turkish Government and people to under- state them. And let it be remembered too that these are not exceptional and rare cases ; they have been for years matters of common everyday occurrence over a region of the Plateau as large as the State of New York, and at a later date extending widely over the other Turkish prov- inces. And these are the cases in which the Christian's choice of the Cross before the Koran, his preference of Turkish tribute to the Koran, has brought him to results worse than even death itself ! Some of the readers of this account will perhaps recall a pathetic and heart-rending appeal, made by an Armenian lady educated by the Protestant Christians, to segh. ' ^6^ Christian sisters in England. Dr. Dillon thus recalls the appeal and the events that led to it : 1 " One of the abducted young women who having been outraged by the son of the Deputy-Governor of Khnouss, Hussni Bey, re- turned, a pariah, and is now alone in the world, lately appealed to her English sisters for such aid as a heathen would give to a brute, and she besought it in the name of our common God. Lucine Mus- segh — this is the name of that outraged young woman whose Protes- tant education gave her, as she thought, a special claim to act as the spokeswoman of Armenian mothers and daughters — Lucine Mussegh besought, last March, the women of England to obtain for the Avonien of Armenia the privilege of living a pure and chaste life ! This Avas the boon which she craved — but did not, could not, obtain. The in- terests of ' higher politics,' the civilising mission of the Christian Powers are, it seems, incompatible with it ! ' For the love of the 1 Contemporary Review, January, 1896, p. 11. THE ARMENIAN- CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 185 God whom we worship in common,' wrote this outraged, but still hopeful, Armenian lady, ' help us. Christian sisters ! Help us before it is too late, and take the thanks of the mothers, the wives, the sisters, and the daughters of my people, and with them the gratitude of one for whom, in spite of her youth, death would come as a happy release.' " ^Nothing has ever been done to answer Lucine Mns- segh^s 'prayer ! And yet England bound herself by the Treaty of Berlin to protect the Armenian Christians, and shut out all others from doing it ! Dr. Dillon touches upon the story of the plan of exter- mination — in its spontaneous stage — during the seventeen " long years of Turkish vigor and English sluggishness \" First, came the period when.„^P°"*^"®°l^® Y° . , • Extermination. '' all those Armenians who possessed money or money's worth were for a time allowed to purchase im- munity from prison, and from all that prison life in Asia Minor implies." Then, when this method had been ex- hausted, " terror and summary confiscation took the place of slow and elaborate extortion, the gloomy dungeons of Erzrum, Erzingan, Marsovan, Hassankaleh, and Van were filled, till there was no place to sit down, and scarcely sufficient standing room." In these prisons the very worst class of Tatar and Kurdish criminals were turned loose upon the Christians to torture them. It was almost the renewal of the Black Hole of Calcutta with loathsome diseases, still more loathsome vices, horrible blasphemies, revolting obscenities and ribald jests, " alternated with cries of pain, songs of vice, and prayers to the unseen God," all added. Dr. Dillon's account of one of the instances of the application of torture to a Christian by the Turkish officials will illustrate the entire Turkish policy : ^ " Into these prisons venerable old ministers of religion were dragged from their churches, teachers from their schools, missionaries from 1" Armenia: An Appeal." Contemporary Review, January, 1S96, pp. 9-10. 186 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. their meeting-houses, merchants, physicians, and peasants from their firesides. Those among them who refused to denounce their friends, or consent to some atrocious crime, were subjected to horrible agonies. Many a one, for instance, was put into a sentry-box bristling with sharp spikes, and forced to stand there motionless, without food or drink, for twenty-four and even thirty-six hours, was revived with stripes whenever he fell fainting to the prickly floor, and was carried out unconscious at the end. It was thus that Imndreds of Armenian Christians, whose names and histories are on record, suffered for refusing to sign addresses to the Sultan accusing their neighbors and relatives of high treason. It was thus that Azo was treated by his judges, the Turkish officials, Talib Effendi, Captain The Torture of Reshid, and Captain Hadji Fehim Agha, for declin- Azo. ing to swear away the lives of the best men of his vi^llage. A whole night was spent in torturing him. He was first bastinadoed in a room close to which his female rela- tives and friends were shut up so that they could hear his cries. Then he was stripped naked, and two poles, extending from his armpits to his feet, were placed on each side of his body and tied tightly. His arms were next stretched out horizontally and poles arranged to support his hands. This living cross was then bound to a pillar, and the flogging began. The whips left livid traces behind. The wretched man was unable to make the slightest movement to ease his pain. His features alone, hideously distorted, revealed the anguish he endured. The louder he cried, the more heavily fell the whip. Over and over again he entreated his tormentors to put him out of pain, saying : ' If you want my death, kill me with a bullet, but for God's sake don't torture me like this ! ' His head alone being free he, at last, maddened by excruciating pain, endeavored to dash out his brains against the pillar, hoping in this way to end his agony. But this consummation was hindered by the police. They questioned him again ; but in spite of his condition, Azo replied as before : ' I cannot defile my soul with the blood of innocent people. I am a Christian.' Enraged at this obstinacy, Talib Effendi, the Turkish official, ordered the application of other and more eifective tortures. Pincers were fetched to pull out his teeth ; but, Azo remaining firm, this method was not long persisted in. Then Talib commanded his servants to pluck out the prisoner's moustachios by the roots, one hair at a time. This order the gendarmes executed with roars of In- fernal laughter. But, this treatment proving equally ineffectual, Talib instructed his men to cauterize the unfortunate victim's body. A spit was heated in the fire. Azo's arms were freed from their supports, and two brawny policemen approached, one on each side, THE AllMENIAN CllISIS AND MASSACr.ES. 187 and seized him. Meanwhile another gendarme held to the middle of the wretched man's hands the glowing spit. While his flesh was thus burning, the victim shouted out in agony, ' For the love of God kill me at once ! ' " Then the executioners, removing the red-hot spit from his hands, applied it to his breast, then to his back, his face, his feet, and other parts. After this, they forced open his mouth, and burned his tongue with red-hot pincers. During these inhuman operations, Azo fainted three several times, but on I'ecovering consciousness maintained the same inflexibility of purpose. Meanwhile, in the adjoining apart- ment, a heai-trending scene was being enacted. The women and the children, terrified by the groans and cries of the tortured man, fainted. When they revived, they endeavored to rush out to call for help, but the gendarmes, stationed at the door, barred their passage, and brutally pushed them back." This description by Dr. Dillon is taken literally from the report of the Vice-Consul of Erzrum, copies of which are open to public insi:)ection. The scene occurred in the village of Semal before the massacres, during the normal condition of things ! What must have been the case when the abnormal was reached ? By the year 1894 the transition from the policy of '^shameful misgovernment ^' to that of "frank extermina- tion " had been completed. That was the Turk's coming to complete consciousness of himself and his mission as a Power in Europe ! The regime of extortion and persecu- tion, in the attempt of the Turkish Grovernment to wring the last farthing from the Armenian, could only lead in the end to wholesale massacre. Barred by Islam from witnessing against a Mohammedan there was no redress to be had for the Christians. Deprived of the right to the possession of any weapons for self-defense, resistance with any poor weapons he might extemporize meant certain death. As the pressure of the tribute became greater the inability to pay increased. The property of the Armenians was thus, by the Sacred Law, forfeited, and the next step was its practical confiscation. When, driven to desperation, they ventured to resist the robbery and dishonor they were 188 THE CRIME OP CHEISTBNDOM. struck or shot down like dogs. Tliey had forfeited the right to live. When four or five years of this Turkish tribute system had made wreck of all Christian prosperity and wealth on the Turkish Plateau the regime of cold- blooded massacre began. By the Sacred Law of the Koran — a state of things almost inconceivable to Western minds — massacre of the Christians was legal ! " And for three years the Turk has held high carnival, not only on the Plateau, but in the provinces on the coast, and in the very face of Christendom ! It was for a long time difficult to learn just the truth about the reported atrocities of the Turk and Kurd. Prom 1892 for three years no Consular Reports from Ar- menia were published by the British Government, which thus drew an official veil over the misdeeds of the Porte in that region. The missionary or other resi- Official Con- dents of the region could report the facts only cealment. at the peril of his life. Vigorous censorship shut out all reports through the press and the other usual channels of communication. The stories were too horrible to seem credible to the outside world. Slowly at length the veil began to be lifted and some of the facts were verified and reported ; but even now the only consciousness that Christendom has of it seems to be like that of a man in some horrid nightmare. The facts need to be pressed upon the attention again and again before the Christian world can be morally roused. Can they — being so incredible — ever be made to appear real? The facts of the period of "frank extermination" may be briefly outlined : First came the awful outbreak of Turkish butchery about Sassun in 189-J: ; then an ominous pause of a year or more ; then the more extended outbreak spread across the Plateau, taking in the centers of govern- ment and missionary effort, and reaching beyond to the coast at Trebizond and crossing to Constantinople ; then, after another pause of a year, the latest outbreak, sweep- THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 189 ing Constantinople itself, the center of Turkish rule, as with the besom of destruction. (II.) Massacre at Sassun. Serious disturbances occurred in various parts of the country early in the year 1893. Turkish injustice and oppression drove the people to acts of revolt, and the Armenian Christian College at Marso- _ ^t^^^^v van was held by the authorities to be the great instigator of the disturbances. The truth of the matter was merely that, owing to evangelistic work conducted in Armenia, of which the college was the center, the people had naturally aspired to a higher degree of religious and educational freedom, and the uprisings of the oppressed people were made the excuse for throwing scores of inno- cent Christians into prison, and for closing the college, and burning a part of it. A number of those arrested were brought to trial at Angora in June, and seventeen, in- cluding two Protestant ministers and professors in the college, were sentenced to death upon false and forged evi- dence. Eepresentations were made to the Sultan by sev- eral of the Powers on behalf of the condemned men, and an agitation towards the same end was started in England. This had its effect on the 19th of July in the pardon of the two professors, who were sent into perpetual exile, and the reprieve of ten others, who were condemned to eight years' imprisonment. Five of the prisoners however were executed on August 1st. This is merely one illustration of the state of things ex- isting here and there over the Empire. A feature of the situation was the conflict carried on with the patriarch Monsignor Khrimian, leading to his resignation and at- tempted assassination, — all in the effort to make the Church subservient to the Porte. Disturbances occurred at vari- ous points and the condition of the country was evidently getting worse. On April 13th Mgr. Achikian, the patriarch, 190 THE CEIME OF CHBISTENDOM. resigned his office, stating that the duties were too onerous for him. Monsignor Himayak, despite his unwillingness, was appointed as the locum tenens of the patriarchate on the 2d of September. It was just at this point that the Sassun horrors came in. After Dr. Dillon has shown that matters Climax Q^ ^]^g Armenian Plateau had long been xi63>CJ16(l advancing to a climax, he proceeds to say : ^ "The Turks, encouraged by the seventeen years' connivance of the only Power which possessed any formal right to intervene in favor of the Armenians, and confident that the British nation was a con- senting party to the policy of sheer extermination which was openly proclaimed again and again, organised a wholesale massacre of the Christians of Sassun. Tlie particular reason for this sweeping measure lay in the circumstance that the Armenian population in that part of the country consisted of the hardiest, bravest, and most resolute representatives of the race, and that their proportion to the Mohammedans there was more than twice greater than elsewhere. Tlie systematic Turkeries which had impoverished and depopulated the other less favoiu-ed districts were consequently of little avail in Sassun ; therefore, a purgative measure on a grandiose scale was carefully prepared for, a whole year before, by Imperial officials, whose service the Sultan has since nobly requited. " The preparations were elaborate and open. The project was known to and canvassed by all. A long report was addressed by the Abbot of Mush, Kharakhanian, to the British representative at Erz- rum, informing him of this inhuman plan, proving its real exist- ence and appealing to the people of England to save their Cliristian brethren. But international comity forbade us to meddle with the ' domestic affairs of a friendly Power,' and the massacre took place as advertised. Momentary glimpses of the blood-curdling scenes, as de- scribed by Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian eye-witnesses, have since been vouchsafed us ; not by the Government, which pigeon-holed the report of its consuls, but by tlie Press. And in these dissolving views we behold long processions of misery-stricken men and women, bear- ing witness to the light invisible to them as they move onward to mid- night martyrdom amid the howls of their frantic torturers. The rivulets were choked up with corpses ; the streams ran red with 1 Contemporary Eeview, January, 1896, pp. 12, 13. THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 191 human blood ; the forest glades and rocky caves were peopled with the dead and dying ; among the black ruins of once prosperous vil- lages lay roasted infants by their mangled mothers' corpses ; pits were dug at night by the wretches destined to fill them, many of whom, flung in while but slightly wounded, awoke undei'neath a moun- tain of clammy corjises, and vainly wrestled with death and with the dead, who shut them out from light and life forever." Eev. Frederick Davis Greene, for several years a mis- sionary in Armenia, has given, in his valuable book, much detailed testimony regarding the mas- sacres of 1894. In his Explanantory Note statements' Mr. Greene summarizes his conclusions : " The evidence is cumulative and overwhelming. There is absolute unanimity to this extent : that a gigantic and indescribably horrible massacre of Armenian men, women and children did actually take place in the Sassun and neighboring regions about September 1, 1894, and that, too, at the hands of Kurdish troops armed by the Sultan of Turkey, as well as of regular soldiers sent imder orders from the same source. What those orders were will probably never transpire. That they were executed under the personal direction of high Turkish mili- tary officers is clear. There can also be no doubt — for the official notice from the palace was printed in the Constantinople papers in N^ovember last — that Zekki Pasha, Commander of the Fourth Army Corps, who led the regular troops in the work of extermination, has since been specially honored by a decoration from the Sultan, who was also pleased to send silk banners to the four leading Kurdish chiefs, by a special messenger." It seems that by the spring of 1894 the situation of the Christians had become intolerable, and the feeling was spreading among them that their hour was at hand. Everything seemed to foreshadow the hour of coming doom to the Christians of the Plateau. As the summer came on the pressure of exaction and extortion increased. Rumors of insurrection were raised and sent abroad by the Turkish authorities and every effort made to goad on 1 The Armenian Crisis in Turkey, p. 7. Attention is called to the book as containing an important collection of facts and evidence bearing upon the massacre and upon the Armenian Question and its solutloo. 192 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. the Christians to resistance and rebellion. Troops were massed in the vicinity, the Kurdish Hamidieh were brought in, and a military cordon formed around the hilly region, so that no helper or observer should enter from the out- side, and no cry of agony from this natural dungeon, made tenfold darker by Turkish art, reach the world beyond. In August the Turk gave the word, and one of the most dreadful of even Turkish butcheries followed, covering a period of several weeks. It was weeks before the rumors of the massacre began to find their way through the military cordon. More than a month had elapsed before the English Vice- The Slow Consul at Van received the information that Transpiring. led him to hasten to Sassun to ascertain the exact facts. In the meantime the Government had done everything possible to cover up the facts, and had prepared and forced the Armenians to sign, and had then sent out, documents disclaiming any sympathy with those who had been slain and expressing " regret that it had been thought best to send consuls to investigate, and stating that there was no need of their coming ! " It became evident to Mr. Hallward that probably nearly ten thousand of the Ar- menians had been slaughtered ; although he was subjected to the most exasperating espionage, and prevented from penetrating into the region that had been laid waste. It was more than a month later before definite state- ment compiled secretly by representative men found its way out to the Armenian centers on the Plateau and to the outside world. It seems that 20,000 Kurds and many of the Hamidieh had been massed at Mush. The Turkish authorities set these to attack the Christians in the villages around Sassun, keeping the regular troops out of sight. The villagers repulsed these attacks. The regular troops then assumed the Kurdish dress and led them to successful attack. Some of them quartered themselves in certain THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 193 villages professedly to '• protect" the Christians;, and then arose in the night and exterminated the sleeping inhab- itants. In desperation the Armenians attempted to save themselves from extermination. We quote the following paragraphs from this early state- ■^- ^^^^^^ ^ ment^ as given by Mr. Greene.-^ " Arnl then began a 'campaign of butchery that lasted some twenty- three clays, or, roughly, from the middle of August to the middle of September. The Ferik Pasha (Marshal Zekki Pasha), who came post-haste from Erzingan, read the Sultan's firman for extermination, and then, hanging the document on his breast, exhorted the soldiers not to be found wanting in their duty. On the last day of August, the anniversary of the Sultan's accession, the soldiers were especially urged to distinguish themselves, and they made it the day of the greatest slaughter. Another marked day occurred a few days earlier, being marked by the occurrence of a wonderful meteor. "No distinctions were made between persons or villages, as to whether they were loyal and had paid their taxes or not. The orders were to make a clean sweep. A priest and some leading men from one village went out to meet an officer, taking in their hands their tax receipts, declaring their loyalty and begging for mercy ; but the village was surrounded, and all human beings put to the bayonet. A large and strong man, the chief of one village, was captured by the Kurds, who tied him, threw him on the ground, and, squatting around him, stabbed him to pieces. "At Galogozan many young men were tied hand and foot, laid in a row, covered with brushwood and burned alive. Others were seized and hacked to death piecemeal. At another village a priest and several leading men were captured, and promised release if they would tell where others had fled, but, after telling, all but the priest were killed. A chain was put around the priest's neck, and pulled from opposite sides till he was several times choked and revived, after which several bayonets were planted upright, and he raised in the air and let fall upon them. "The men of one village, when fleeing, took the women and chil- dren, some five hundred in number, and placed them in a sort of grotto ijl a ravine. After several days the soldiers found them, and butchered those who had not died of hunger. " Sixty young women and girls were selected from one village and iThe Armenian Crisis in Turkey, pp. 21-23. ^3 194 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. ' placed in a clmrcli, when the soldiers were ordered to do with them as they liked, after which they were butchered. "In another village fifty choice women were set aside and urged to change their faith and become hanums in Turkish harems, but they indignantly refused to deny Christ, preferring the fate of then- fathers and husbands. People were crowded into houses which were then set on fire. In one instance a little boy ran out of the flames, but was caught on a bayonet and thrown back. " Children were frequently held up by the hair and cut in two, or had their jaws torn apart. Women with child were ripped open ; older children were pulled apart by tlieir legs. A handsome, newly married couple fled to a hilltop ; soldiers followed, and told them they were pretty and would be spared if they would accept Islam, but the thought of the horrible death they knew would follow did not prevent them from confessing Christ. " The last stand took place in Mount Andoke (south of Mush), where some thousand persons had sought refuge. The Kurds were sent in relays to attack them, but for ten or fifteen days were unable to get at them. The soldiers also directed the fire of their mountain guns on them, doing some execution. Finally, after the besieged had been without food for several days, and their ammunition was exhausted, the troops succeeded in reaching the summit, without any loss, and let scarcely a man escape. " Now all turned their attention to those who had been driven into the Talvoregg district. Three or four thousand of the besieged were left in this small plain. When they saw themselves thickly sur- rounded on all sides by Turks and Kurds, they raised their hands to heaven with an agonizing moan for deliverance. They were thinned out by rifle shots, and the remainder were slaughtered with bayonets and swords, till a veritable river of blood flowed from the heaps of the slain." So ended tlie Sassun massacre. How many perished only tlie judgment day can reveal. Whether 10,000 or 25,000 — the lowest and highest estimates — matters com- paratively little. Great Britain had made herself chiefly responsible for it ! But that does not lift the immense weight of guilt and condemnation from the other PoAvers that looked on and did nothing to hinder the butchery. Nor does it exonerate the Great Assassin ; although his guilt may well seem less black when matched with the un- speakable guilt of so-called Christian Europe ! THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 195 (III.) Subsequent Events and the Game of Eefoem. Early in December (1894) the London Times published an important article confirming the rumors as to the mas- sacres in the Sassun district. It reported that the un- happy sufferers were peasants who paid tribute to the local Kurdish Beys in return for their protection. Ottoman officials tried to levy further taxes upon them, but were repulsed by the Armenians and their Kurdish protectors combined. The authorities represented this at Constanti- nople as a serious insurrection, and accordingly Zekki Pasha, the Mushir commanding at Erzingan, went to Sas- sun with a force of regulars and committed barbarities and atrocities of a revolting character. The Porte consented to the presence of the British and Kussian consuls at Erzrum on the Commission of Inquiry into the alleged outrages, December 14, 1894. Mr. H. S. Shipley and Count Proievalsky C°^™i°^ °f . J Inquiry, were afterwards appointed as the delegates. On December 19, Mgr. Izmirlian was elected patriarch of Armenia. Chefik Bey and Djelaled Din Bey were substi- tuted for Abdullah Pasha on the Commission on December 23, 1894. Mgr. Izmirlian was enthroned in the cathedral at Koum Kapu, Constantinople, January 10, 1895, before an enormous congregation of Armenians. He announced his intention to send a special delegate to investigate the Sassun affair, January 23. The London Times tried to adopt the same plan, but the Turkish authorities withheld the necessary permit January 25. At a preliminary sitting of the Commission at Mush, January 27, Thasin Pasha, the Vali of Bitlis, was suspended pending the course of the inquiry. During February and March, from various sources, includiug special correspondents, who had suc- ceeded in making their way to the scenes of the outrages, confirmatory evidence of the truth of the charges was ac- cumulated. The release of several Armenian ecclesiastics 196 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. imprisoned for political offences was ordered by tlie Sultan, March 21. On March 20 a conflict between Mohammedans and Armenian Christians took place at Tokat — recently, in 1897, the scene of the massacre of 2,000 Christians — and five persons were killed and fifty wounded. After exhaustive inquiries, the European members of the Commission of Inquiry were convinced of the awful nature of the atrocities that had been corn- Scheme of jQi^;^ed ; and on their report having been made, a Memorandum with a Scheme of Ee- forms was presented to the Sultan jointly by the British, French and Eussian Ambassadors, May 11. The Memorandum indicated certain measures, the adop- tion of which was urged upon the Porte as of primary importance. The measures were as follows : 1. The eventual reduction of the number of Vilayets. 2. The guarantees for the selection of such Valis as the Powers should approve. 3. Amnesty for Armenians sentenced or in prison on political charges. 4. The return of the Armenian emigrants or exiles and the restora- tion of their property. 5. The settlement without delay of pending legal proceedings for common-law crimes and offences. 6. The inspection of the prisons and an inquiry into the condition of the prisoners. 7. The appointment of a High Commissioner of Surveillance for the application of tlie Scheme of Reforms in the Provinces. 8. The creation of a permanent Committee of control at Constan- tinople, three being Christians, and three Mohammedans, charged with the superintendence of the reforms. 9. Reparation for the loss suffered by the Armenians who were victims of the events at Sassun, Talori, etc. 10. The regulation of matters connected with religious conversions. 11. The maintenance and strict application of the rights and privi- leges conceded to the Armenians. 12. The position of the Armenians in the other Vilayets of Asiatic Turkey. The Scheme of Eeforms insisted that the Valis, or goy- THE ARMENIAN CllISIS AND MASSACRES. 197 ernors, should be chosen from uniong the high dignitaries of the >Sttite and be aj)pointed for live years, witli Moavins, or deputies, to assist tliem, also appointed by the Sultan. When the Vali was a Christian the Moavin should be a Mohammedan, and vice versa. A provincial Council Cen- eral should be elected to assist each Vali, The mutessarifs administering the sandjaks, and the kaimakams adminis- tering the cazas, should also be appointed by the Sultan, with similar provisions for ensuring religious justice, and each should be assisted by councils, the council of the caza being elected by the council of the nahies, or communal circles composing it, and the council of the sandjak by the councils of its constituent cazas. The councils of the sandjaks should in turn elect the provincial Council Gen- eral. The regulation for the nahies, or communal circles (that is, groups of villages of not less than 200 nor more than 10,000 inhabitants, so arranged as to group villages of one religion together), were that they should be adminis- tered by paid mudirs and an elected council of from four to eight members, the council choosing the mudir for the term of two years. It was provided that no imam priest, school professor, or person in the Government service could be mudir ; the police of each nahie should be recruited from its own population, and be governed by the mudir. Two-thirds of the gendarmerie should be taken from these police, half Mohammedans and half non-Mohammedans, and the remaining third from the regular army. Other points in the scheme were the provisions for im- mediate trial of arrested persons, for the proper control of nomad Kurds by an official apjDointed by the Vali for that purpose, and for the levying of taxes, including tithes, under the authority of the mudirs. The farming of the tithes and the corvee was abolished. Strict provisions as to the administration of justice were drawn up, and it Avas laid down that one-third of the justices in each caza should be Christians. Appeals frorn the ju§- 198 THE CRIME OF CHKISTENDOM. tices in otlier than minor cases should be taken before the courts of the sandjaks. Criminal cases should be tried by courts of assize on circuit, consisting of a presiding magistrate and a Christian and a Mohammedan justice of the peace. Above all should be the Superior Court of the Vilayet, acting in civil matters as a Court of Appeal and in criminal matters as an Assize Court. It was a perfect Utopia — on paper ! The Memorandum and Scheme were dubiously received by the Porte, and though they were accepted in principle the acceptance was very vague, and the dis- Conduct of tlie g^^ggion of many points was demanded. Ef- forts to discover what these points were proved fruitless ; but the determined attitude of the Powers had the eifect of securing the appointment on June 27 of Shakir Pasha, first aide-de-camp to the Sultan, as Imperial Commissioner for carrying out reforms in Armenia. A Commission was also appointed by the Sultan to prepare an independent scheme of reforms. This was intended, of course, to render abortive the Scheme of the Powers, already outlined. The amnesty of all Armenian political prisoners in Con- stantinople and the other provinces was also granted, July 24. The dismissal of the Valis of Van and Mosul was obtained on August 6. On the 21st the Powers through their ambassadors presented a Collective Note urging the acceptance of the proposals made by them. The Sultan then appealed to France and Russia against the pressing attitude of Great Britain, but in vain. Shakir Pasha left Constantinople on August 27 to assume his new duties in Armenia, and on September 7 the Porte announced the various concessions it was willing to make to the demands of the Powers ; but as the appointment of Christian valis and mutessarifs was refused, the concessions were of little value. Had not the Crimean "War made the Turk one of the acknowledged and accredited Powers of THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 199 Europe ? Had not the Treaty of Berlin confirmed him in that position ? Had not Great Britain promised for the bribe of Cyprus to defend him in it ? It was because of their own iniquity that the Turk had been able to balk the Christian Powers in all their efforts. II. Second Year of Butchery, 1895. The atrocities of 1894 were but preliminary to the greater horrors that were to follow. The futility of the efforts of the Powers had confirmed the contempt of the Sultan for them and for their proposals, and his sense of freedom and impunity in his diabolical work. The oppression and extortion were continued with redoubled energy, and as the financial pressure reached its climax the condition of the Armenians was made more desperate than ever. While negotiations Avere in progress the Armenians in Constantinople had met at the Koum Kapu Cathedral and presented a petition to the Patriarch, declaring that the position of Armenia under Turkish rule was intolerable. Against the Patriarch's advice an attempt to march in pro- cession to the Porte was made, September 30, and fatal con- flicts ensued in which about 200 Armenians were slain. Hundreds were imprisoned, and panic prevailed in the city of Constantinople for several days. The Armenians took refuge in the churches, but on the interposition of the ambassadors of the Powers returned home. But the re- volting massacre that occurred at Trebizond, October 8, in which the number killed was 800, helped to pre- cipitate the crisis that the Powers vainly thought they had averted. This desperate condition of affairs — with the prospect of such outbreaks over the whole Empire — led the Great Powers to devote themselves more earnestly to their old dip- lomatic game of blind man's buff. The ambassadors of Great Britain, France, and Russia sent Identical Com- mmiicatioias to their governments specifying the points in 200 THE CRIME OF CHKISTENDOM. the Scheme of Eef orm which they considered as absolutely essential. Meanwhile, in view of the gravity of the situa- tion the British fleet arrived at Lemnos, and remained there in spite of repeated requests from the Sultan for its withdrawal. In a fit of feigned alarm on October 17 the Sultan issued an Imperial Irade declaring his acceptance of the revised Scheme of Reform presented by the three Powers. This Scheme ordained that in each Vilayet a non- Imperial Mohammedan Moavin should be appointed. A non-Mohammedan Moavin should also be attached to every Mohammedan mutessarif and kaimakam in those sandjaks and cazas where the importance of the Christian population Justified such a measure. It- was provided that the proportion of the Mohammedan and non-Mohammedan inhabitants of each Vilayet should reg- ulate the number of Christians and Mohammedans ap- pointed to public offices. Provision was also made for re- forming the councils of the sandjaks, cazas and nahies, for the inspection of the prisons by judicial inspectors, for a mixed police and gendarmerie recruited from the Moham- medan and Christian subjects in proportion to the re- ligions of the inhabitants of each Vilayet, for the control and settlement of the Kurds, the regulation of the Hami- dieh cavalry, and for the collection of taxes by the sole agency of the mukhtars and tax-gatherers elected by the inhabitants. It was further ordained that a Permanent Commission of Control should be established at Constanti- nople, consisting of an equal number of Mohammedans and Christians, and the Embassies were given access to this Commission. Shefik Effendi was appointed President of the Commission, November 3, the other members being Djemal Bey, Manager of the Bank of Agriculture ; Karath- eodory Efiendi and Abdullah Bey, Councilors of State ; Johannes Effendi, Procureur of the Imperial Court of Accounts ; Djelal Bey, President of the Offences Court THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 201 in the Court of Appeal ; and Dilber Eifendi, legal Coun- cilor to the Ministry of Finance. And so the work of reforming was all done — on paper — once more and satisfactorily, for the twentieth time, and the Powers of Christendom congratulated themselves as usual, and the Turk laughed in his sleeve as usual ! The Trade seemed to be merely an expedient to distract the attention of Christendom while the Turk should carry on his work of rapine and butchery un- hindered under its shadow. When the Turk The Shadow- has cried, "^ Peace! Peace !^' it has always meant a sword for the defenseless and helpless. No reform came of the pretense and profession in this case. The exigencies of the Sublime Porte were extraordinary. A year had passed since the levying of the last " taxes." The government was practically bankrupt. Its soldiers and servants, its agents and hired butchers, had long been unpaid. The Christian bondholders were clamoring for the interest upon their bonds. The fear of coercion had passed away. And so under cover of the Irade the orders went out from the palace in Constantinople to let loose the wild Kurds and the Hamidieh and the regular Turkish soldiery, upon the Armenians over the Turkish belt of the Armenian Plateau, with the purpose of confiscating the property still in their hands, and of exterminating them if necessary to raise the requisite money and to crush out the spirit of freedom. . It will be seen on examination that the butcheries covered the entire region, from Lake Van and Ararat to Asia Minor. It will appear that this time little effort was made to conceal the horrible work, such as had been made in 1894. As already said, the Imperial Irade accepting the schedule of reforms proposed by the three Powers was promul- gated October 17. Previously to that there had been several sporadic outbreaks besides those at Constantinople and Trebizond, that tended to increase the excitement and 202 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. hasten the action of the Porte. Among these was that at Ak Hissar^ to the JSTortheast of Smyrna in Asia Minor, in which 45 Armenians are reported to have perished, and that at Baibnrt in which 1,000 perished. But it was not till the promulgation of the Irade that the orders were sent out from Stamboul and the reign of terror at the centers of Armenian population began. It is only possible to give some typical instances of what took place wherever the Armenians were an important factor in the community, and wherever the region was practically beyond the reach of foreign interference. (I.) The Bloody October of 1895. ■ Four days after the Irade was issued there burst upon Armenia the cyclone of robbery and rapine that in the last ten days of October swept across the Plateau, from Erzin- gan in Erzrum to Urfa on the borders of Aleppo, and from Kara Hissar in Sivas to Bitlis and Lake Van. The starting-point seems to have been Erzingan, a city of from 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants, the center of Turk- ish military power just over the borders of Massacre Trebizond, on the Western Euphrates. From Organized. ' ^ such a military stronghold of Turkish despot- ism it was not easy for the facts to reach the outside world ; but, on that opening day, October 21, not less than 1,000 of the Armenian Christians were butchered like so many helpless sheep in the shambles. The rapidity and regularity with which the tide of massacre swept over the Plateau from this center seem to indicate that the official order was sent out and the work superintended from Erzingan. On October 25, four days after the beginning there made, blows fell simultaneously at Kara Hissar, in the terrace-land northwest of Erzingan tov/ard the Black Sea, and at three points across Kurdisdan, — at Bitlis, near Lake Van ; at Diarbekr, in the center, at the head-waters of the Tigris ; and at Albistan, on the west, toward the Bimbogia Dagh range. THE ARMENIAN CHISIS AND MASSACRES. 203 At Kara Hissar, in the vilayet of Sivas, 500 Armenians perished, with tlie usual accompaniments of Turkish butch- eries. For this the Turk alone was responsible, as it was far beyond the range of Kurdish influence, and within easy reach of both Trebizond and Erzingan. On the same date 900 are reported as having perished at Bitlis, a city of from 13,000 to 15,000 inhabitants. This was within easy reach of the Kurds and the Ilamidieh, and had been in the very center of the operations Across the Plateau against Sassun in 1894. It was almost as easy to suppress the details of the brutal work as it had been in the case of Sassun. At Diarbekr, a city of 50,000 inhabitants, the tale of the butchery reached 2,500. It was renewed in the opening days of November, by the Moslems, who issued from a mosque and burned the market- place. The Christians attempted to defend themselves, but were practically helpless with the mass of Turks and Kurds wielded by the government against them. The details were largely kept from the ears of far-off Europeans. At Albistan, in Western Kurdistan, in the outbreak of the same day, 300 Armenians perished. On the same fateful October 25, there fell 450 Armenians at Palu, east of Khar- put, in the beginning of the massacres that culminated in ISTovember. The closing days of October were signalized by the opening of the work of massacre in various other quarters, some of them far beyond the bounds of the Plateau. The destruction of the Christians at TJrfa and Birijik, in Aleppo, beyond the range of the Hamidieh, illustrates the method of the Turkish soldiery in protecting ( ?) the Arme- nians. The work was begun on October 27, and the Turkish strategy culminated in full destruction more than two months later, on the last days of December and on New Year's day, 1896. The following authentic accounts were sent out early in 189G ; or as soon as detailed informa- tion could be obtained. 204 THE Crime oe Christendom. The work of massacre at Urfa in the province of Aleppo was begun October 27. Urfa, the modern city, is on the site of the ancient Ur of the days of Abraham, and, of the later days, of Edessa in which the Apostle Thaddeus is said to have preached the Gospel to King Abgar and to have laid the foundation of the Armenian Church. It has a notable place in the history of the Church. There in the fourth century lived in a cave the celebrated ecclesiastic and scholar, Ephraim the Syrian, and wrote his hymns and commentaries, of which six volumes are extant. For many years it was the center of Oriental learning. Baldwin, the crusader, afterward king of Jerusalem, became Count of Edessa in 109G, and made it the capital of a Latin principality. About 1144 it was captured by the Saracen chief Noor-ed-Din, who mas- sacred its Christian inhabitants. Afterward it was succes- sively harried by Byzantines, Mongols, Persians and Turks, The modern town of Urfa, with its 30,000 inhabitants, is in the main fanatically Moslem. It is one of the centers of the Jacobite Christians, who hold the Monophysite doctrine of the unity of the divine and human natures in Christ. The American missionaries had made Urfa a point of effort. Miss Shattuck, the only American tnissionary on the ground, remained at her post, in spite of the attempts of the missionaries at Anital to induce her to flee to that city. It will be seen that in the dreadful butchery of the closing days of December her presence, and the regard for the American Government under whose protection she was, were all that stood between the Protestant Com- munity and annihilation. On October 27 the Moslem population entered upon their work of destruction. They plundered 6'00 shops and 289 houses of the Armenians, secured about $000,000 worth of goods, and butchered about 40 Christians at this time. The Turkish Government made this the signal for completely disarming all the Christians, and for arresting THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 205 and imprisoning about 80 of the principal Armenians. For two months there was a reign of terror^ the Mos- lems being eager for blood and plunder and the Christians in hourly expectation of a renewed outbreak. The occasion of that outbreak came in December when the Armenians of Zeitun, not far away^, began their heroic defense in that mountain fortress. Some of the particulars of the dreadful tragedy were sent out from Urfa, by Miss Shattuck, the American missionary, January 7, 1896. The massacre at Urfa on October 27 was made the pre- text for preparing for that at Birijik, a town but a short distance from Urfa. The following account, sent from Constantinople to the Armenian Kelief Association, some time after the opening of 1896, gives a clear view of the Turkish policy and methods : " Birijik, which is situated on the Euphrates, in the province of Aleppo, had about three hundred Christian houses, or about one thousand souls, in the midst of a Mussulman population of about nine thousand. After the massacre at Urfa, on October 27, 1895, the authorities at Birijik told the Armenians that the Moslems were afraid of them, and that therefore they (the Armenians) must surrender to the Government any arms that they possessed. This was done, the most rigid search being instituted to assure the authorities that nothing whatever in the way of arms remained in the hands of the Armenians. "Troops were called out by the Government to 'protect' the people. Since the soldiers had come to ' protect ' the Christians, the Christians were required to furnish animals for them to carry their goods. Then they were required to furnish them beds and carpets to make them more comfortable. Finally they were required to furnish the soldiers with food, and they were reduced to a state bordering on destitution by these increasing demands. " The end came on January 1, 1896, when the news of the massacre of several thousands of Christians at Urfa by the soldiers appointed to guard them incited the troops at Birijik to imitate this crime. The assault on the Christian houses began at about 9 o'clock in the morning, and continued until nightfall. The soldiers were aided by the Moslems of the city in the terrible work. The object at first seemed to be mainly plunder, but after the plunder had been secured the soldiers seemed to make a systematic search for men, to kill those 206 THE CEIME OP CHIIISTEKDOM. who were unwilling to accept Maliometanism. The cruelty used to force men to become Moslems was terrible. In one case the soldiers found some twenty people — men, women and children — who had taken refuge in a sort of cave. They dragged them out and killed all the men and boys. After cutting down one old man, they put live coals upon his body, and as he was writhing in torture they held a Bible before him and asked him mockingly to read them some of the promises in which he had trusted. Others were thrown into the river while still alive, after having been cruelly wounded. The women and children of this party wore loaded up like goods upon the backs of porters, and carried off to the houses of the Moslems. " Every Christian house except two, alleged to be owned by Turks, was plundered. Ninety-six men are known to have been killed, or about half of the adult Christian men. The others have become Mussulmans to save their lives, so that there is not a single avowed Christian left in Birijik to-day. The Armenian Church has been made into a mosque, and the Protestant Church into a Medresse seminary." The month of October closed with the massacre at Erz- rum, about eighty miles southeast of Baiburt. This city with its 40,000 inhabitants, three-fourths of whom are Moslem, stands at the point on the great Plateau at which the head-waters of the "West Euphra- tes, the Araxes and the Cheruk rivers part to make their way, the first to the Persian Gulf, the second to the Caspian, and the third to the Black Sea. At an elevation of 6,000 feet above the sea, it is the gateway to Transcaucasia, Eastern Turkey, Asia Minor, and the Levant, or to the four seas that are watered by the streams that take their rise in the Armenian Plateau. Being so situated, and the seat of the governor-general of the province of the same name, it has been for centuries the leading city of Eastern Turkey, Its extensive trade had made the Armenian fourth of the population wealthy and influential, while the fact that Erzingan had been the military center had given the Armenians an unusual measure of freedom and a feeling of security. The presence of the Consuls of the Great Powers added to the sense of security. It would be considered a natural center for the operations of the THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 207 Huntcliakists, tlie league laboring for Armenian freedom, although, they seem really to have been able to exert only the slightest influence. But the ferocity rekindled among the Turkish soldiers by their successful atrocities in Tre- bizond overswept all bounds as they moved southward to Erzrum. According to the Rev. E. M. Bliss, from whose account of this reign of horror ^ a few facts are here grouped, the Armenian community in Erzrum regarded the city as a place peculiarly their own, and, but for the general conservatism of the Armenian character, might have pre- cipitated a conflict with the Moslems. For some days before the arrival of the massacreing host from Trebizond, the Turks had been threatening to kill the Christians, but such threats had become so frequent, and the police patrol was so strong, every means being apparently used to pre- serve peace, that the Armenians gave little heed to them. From this feeling of security some of them were suddenly aroused while wholly unprejaared on the afternoon of October 30, when a mob of resident Turks, including many soldiers, began firing right and left into houses near the market. The attack was simultaneous in different parts of the city inhabited by Armenians. Wherever an Arme- nian appeared, he was shot at or cut down. Doors were broken open and the contents of houses carried off, all that could not be carried off being destroyed. Thus pepper and pickles were mixed with flour that could not be removed and bread was trampled in the dust. Turkish women aided the soldiers in this work of pillage. Commanding officers themselves looted houses. The violence continued on Thursday. In one house Mr. Chambers, the resident American missionary, saw two young brides brutally mur- dered lying disfigured and almost naked. In nearly every case where Armenians fled to the guard-houses for pro- tection, they were first robbed and then shot down ; sometimes they were shot dovt^n in groups. Wounds were 1 Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities. Philadelphia-, Pa., lS96i 208 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. inflicted on the Armenians with fiendish cruelty. One man had three gashes on his head, two dagger wounds in his back, a bullet through his left hand, and coal-oil had been poured on him preparatory to burning. One Turkish soldier was heard to declare that in four hours he had used ten packages of ammunition, each package containing twelve rounds, making in all 120 rounds shot away by one man in that short time. The scenes on Friday, the Moslem Sunday, are described as most horrible. Some estimates have put the number of killed in this onslaught at 2,000. It is notable that not a single dead Turk was reported or seen. The following extract from a letter written at Erzrum, early in November, to Eev. Frederick D. Greene, shows how completely the Armenians were surprised, and how dreadful was the catastrophe : ^ " The entire Erzruin province has been deluged in Christian blood, and the bulk of Christian property plundered or destroyed. The Scheme of Reform has now become an impossibility. The only hope of this land is foreign occupation. Appeal for relief funds. The remnant of the people are left in utter destitution. They can not get out of the country. Two cents a day will give a man about a pound and a half of bread. For the love of God do all you can to get relief for these wretched people ! "The scene in the cemetery was awful. The remains are simply the wrecks of human bodies. Awful cruelty was practised. . . . Some were skinned, some burned with kerosene. A great many women are missing. Yery many of the dead have been disposed of by the Turks themselves. There must have been a thousand killed. About seven hundred houses and fifteen hundred shops were plundered of all that was in them. . . . "The Armenians had shown a great amount of patience. lam perfectly sure that they had no thought of attack, much less any prep- aration for it. The attack was made by Moslems after leaving the mosques, after the noon hour of prayer. . . . The Armenians were in their places of business, which were simply death-traps. For Instance, the silversmith's row was cut off at either end and not a 1 The Rule of the Turk, and the Armenian Crisis. By Frederick T). Greene, M. A. Putnam Brothers, New York. THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 209 man escaped, and the shops were not only plundered but wrecked. In fact, the most violent Armenians, i. e., the Huntchakists, had de- termined to keep perfectly quiet till the Scheme of Reform was well tried. The soldiers declare that they had been instructed beforehand. The Turks were expecting it for a long time, and evidently the orders were given from Constantinople. The massacre was almost entirely in the hands of the military. It began aiid ended with the bugle." And so the month of October, 1895, closed, with from five thousand to ten tliousand dead added to the long list of Christian martyrs in Armenia ! Mr. Bliss remarks of the Erzrum massacres : " That in such a city, in the very presence of English, French and Eussian consuls, with high dignitaries of the Turkish Government in command, such scenes _ *^ ' Suppressed. should occur was in itself a matter of great moment." In its issue of December 7, 1895, the London Spectator called attention to the fact that the Powers officially kept the facts from Christendom, in order to pre- vent the tide of moral indignation that must have resulted in Europe from their disclosure : " It should be carefully noted by all who are studying the Turkish question, that from first to last no Government has published any Consular statement about the massacres, yet consuls of several nations must have watched them. There is grave reason to believe that these reports are kept back because those who receive them are aware that if published the boiling indignation of Europe would force the hands of statesmen who wish to wait. The Consul at Erzrum, for example, was in the very middle of the massacre, risk- ing his life over and over again in the discharge of his duty, and his report must be in the hands of the foreign office." (II.) The Bloody November oe 1895. Terrible as were the preceding acts of violence, the Sultan, now feeling assured of immunity from restraint by any authority whatsoever, planned and incited still more cruel devastation, and the ^.^ssacres ' Si^aled, very flood-gates of crime were raised. All the circumstantial evidence goes to prove clearly that thes§ 14 210 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. outbreaks, wliile apparently sudden, were carefully directed in every particular. Take, for example, the outbreak at At Siva Sivas, a city of 27,000 inhabitants and capitol of the eyalet of Sivas. According to a trust- worthy letter,^ it appears that suddenly at noon, on No- vember 12th, as if at a given signal, the Turkish laborers seized their tools, clubs or whatever was at hand ; that the soldiers, the Circassians, and the police simultaneously armed themselves — all under the command of officers — and rushed to the market, where the work of killing, stripping the dead, and robbing houses, which was permitted to con- tinue for seven days, was begun. During this week about 1,200 Armenians were slain, only ten Turks being killed. Thus at one blow the Armenian element was eliminated from the trade of Sivas. As usual, no resistance was made by the Armenians, the remnant of whom slowly gathered the mangled bodies of their kinsmen to their cemetery, where a great trench had been dug for garnering the harvest of death. Due regard for the feelings of the reader is kept in view in presenting this and other chapters of horror. Indeed eye-witnesses of the scenes have found it necessary to omit the most cruel details — stories of the inhuman lust of which hundreds of helpless Christian women were made victims. In this November storm of crime, the district of Khar- put was the vortex. Here 15,000 Christians were slaught- ered. The city of Kharput stands on an Kharput the elevation in a plain east of the Euphrates. V OjtXvX. • • i ■ 1 • At this time it had 30,000 inhabitants, some- thing less than one half being Armenians. The plain about the city of Kharput is fertile, and the villages that dotted this plain were noted for their prosperity. The city has for a long time been the center of mission work, and here are situated quite widely-known educational insti- 1 The Rule of the Turk, and the jirmenijiii Crisis. By Fredencl? J), Greene, M. A, THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 211 tutions, tliat have been liberally patronized by the better Armenian element throughout that part of the Empire. The missionaries had always been on terms of peace and courtesy with the Turkish officials, and it was felt that in this place there was little or no danger of disturbance. But the eye of the great vulture had marked the city for prey, and on the 11th of November it was approached by an attack on Husenik, a near-by village, where 200 Chris- tians were killed and several hundred wounded. When the city of Kharput was reached about 100 were killed, the chief devastation being by fire, that was savagely applied to schools and churches as well as to private houses, and such were the menaces that the frantic stampede of Chris- tians followed. The cordon of towns and villages about Kharput then began to blaze and run with blood. In only two places, Arabkir and Malatia, did the Armenians try to defend themselves, and for this they suffered accordingly. Those killed in Arabkir, according to estimates made soon after the massacre, numbered 2,000 ; at Malatia, 5,000 ; about 500 Turks fell. In Malatia, the Armenians, Crego- rians, Eoman Catholics and Protestants took refuge in two churches and defended themselves until compelled to surrender, which they did on condition of being pro- tected ; but after the surrender many of them were killed. The following brief statement in regard to the mas- sacres in the Kharput region were furnished by the New York Independent of January 23, 1896, the facts being claimed to come from a trustworthy source. Only a part of the summary is here reproduced : ' ' At Adisli, a village from whicli tlie greater part of the men had gone away to earn a living, many females were carried off ; 244 men and 13 women were killed. Aivose was ' wiped out ' ; women and girls were carried off. A priest was forced to sound the ' call to prayer', then shot. He blessed the man who shot him, and said ' Shoot me again.' At Bizmishan all who did not flee were killed. • The Protestant Church, school, and parsonage of Chunkush were^ 212 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. burned, also 83 houses ; Christians were talcen to the mosque, deprived of weapons, and forced to accept Islam. The chiefs of the village of Garmuri took the Christians to their houses while the Kurds plun- dered. The Christians were forced to accept Islam at the edge of the sword, and were then brutally circumcised. The Protestant chapel and parsonage were burned : and the Armenian Church was turned into a mosque. The Armenian Church and the Protestant chapel and parsonage of Hokh were burned. Those killed had kneeled to receive circumcision. Fifty-five women and children were taken to harems, and many girls were outraged. All but thirty-seven houses were burned in Huelu, many of the houses destroyed being kindled with kerosene sent by the government. Survivors were required to accept Islam. Under the lead of a Christian woman, men, women and children drowned themselves in a stream near Ozunonah. At Peri 450 Christians were found to have become Moslems. About 2,000 perished at Palu ; from Khoshmat about thirty women came to the barracks stark naked ; many outraged." Such are samples of the deeds done. Throughout this period especially the Moslem purpose of breaking down the Cross was plainly manifest. "While Ottoman hatred of Christians could not at all times spare the latter from deaths even when Islam had been embraced, it did so in hiindreds of cases, and many Christians who had not martyr courage were thus saved, with what real augmentation of the fol- lowers of Mohammed may be imagined. The Armenians have sometimes been blamed for sub- mitting so uniformly to the impositions of the Turk, but it must be remembered that in most cases Zeitun circumstances have been such that resistance by a people wholly destitute of arms would, except from a sentimental point of view, have availed nothing, and would only have incensed their oppressors to the commission of more fiendish cruelties. But there stands out at least one instance of Armenian resistance to Turkish diabolism that commands the admiration and sym- pathy of the civilized world. And it is a lasting shame to the " Great Powers," especially to England, that, after theil" true heroism aii4 nobl^ cpnduct, the Arnienian§ jji THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 213 this instance were at last induced to yield to the designs of the despicable "Asiatic Key nard." Among the crests of the Taurus Mountains to the north of Armenian Cilicia are high upland valleys, and in one of these valleys is hidden the town of Zeitun, — a place dear to the Armenians because of its tradition of indejDcndence ; because for centuries it held aloft their national flag. There, up to 1393, existed the Armenian kingdom that fell at that date under the Seljukides. There the last house of Armenian kings, the Eouvinian, reigned for four centuries, establishing there their throne after the devas- tation of Great Armenia by Tartars and Persians, while the greater part of Lesser Armenia was in the hands of the Greeks. Until 1872 the Zeitunlis were able, by their courage and by favor of their mountain site, to keep them- selves in a state of semi-independence. What occurred then is related by Avetis Nazarbek (editor of the Hunt- cJiah),'^ a noted Armenian patriot. His story is in substance that at this date the Zeitunlis, who had been driven to in- surrection, " had the misfortune to believe in the fair words of the foxes of the Turkish Government,^" and fell into a snare by which they were overpowered. For the first time they were forced to see Turkish ofl&cials set foot and remain in their beloved city. But this humiliation was not all. Turkey saddled the town of Zeitun with a great fortress on the European model. This fortress it placed at the only entrance, just opposite the town. In the autumn of 1895, immediately after the signing of the Keform Scheme, Abd-ul-Hamid, " rubbing out with one hand what he had signed with the other,"' by the mouth of a minister declared, in language not to be mistaken, that " he could not openly promise reforms to the Armenians and consent to carry them out, without the risk, by that very act, of provoking discontent among the Mussulmans, who, in order to escape reform, might go so far as to mas- 1 Contemporary Review, April, 1896. 214 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. sacre all the Christians in Armenia. . . . And what Abd-nl- Hamid predicted was not only prophetic, rather it was a direct suggestion and marching order, meaning this : ' To have done with the Armenian question, let us have done with the Armenians/" Orders went forth in October, 1895, to make a thorough search in all Armenian houses, and to seize, not only arms, but " any common knife larger than a pen- Cause"^ knife/' In the carrying out of orders the work of slaughter began and swept over the Plateau. A Circassian of&cer, Hadji Asian, was sent by the local governor of Marash, in the vilayet of Aleppo, with an escort of zaptiehs, to make a " perquisition," or house-to- house search, in Zeitun. To such requirements the Zeitun- lis refused to submit. The Circassian retired to Bertous, got together over a hundred Bashi-bazouks, and attacked the village of Alabash, where the Armenians fense ^" ^^*^ ^^® courage to defend themselves. More Bashi-bazouks having been raised, the village was again attacked, and again unsuccessfully. A third attack being prepared for, the Zeitunlis organized a relief party, two hundred strong, which marched to Alabash. The Zeitunlis met the Ottoman troops and the Bashi- bazouks, and firing soon began. Towards the end of the battle, while yet neither side prevailed, a messenger came into the Zeitunli camp with information that a large body of Turks and Bashi-bazouks were preparing to attack Zeitun. Leaving one hundred of their comrades, the remainder of the Zeitunlis hastened back at nightfall. The other hundred that same night attacked the Mussul- man encampment and put the enemy to flight, after which they also returned to Zeitun, where the fight was already begun. Zeitun was beset by more than ten thousand men of the regular Ottoman troops and of Bashi-bazouks. The Zeitunlis took the offensive, and detached bands to besiege on all sides the formidable fortress from which at intervals THE ARMENIAN CEISIS AND MASSACKES. 215 the cannon roared upon them. After fierce fighting for moro than fifty hourS;, the Zeitunlis succeeded in driving back the Mussuhnans and constraining the garrison in the fort, numbering six hundred, to submit. These six hun- dred Turks became prisoners to the Zeitunlis, as also did the Turkish officials in Zeitun. The fortress, with all its provisions of war, including two Krupp guns, was taken possession of by the Armenians. The prisoners were assigned to the school building and other houses of the town, where they were treated "as brothers.''^ The na- tional flag of the Armenians was floated over the fortress. There is not space to follow the heroic struggle of the Zeitunlis, extended through many weeks. Sufficient has been given to show that the Armenian is brave enough when he has a " fighting chance,^^ and to exhibit his humanity as a conqueror, in contrast with the inhumanity of the Turk. The sad finale was that the Zeitunlis, under the persuasion of fair promises from the Porte and from the Consuls of the European Powers, ^ ?f^® were at last prevailed upon to give up the possession of their city with its fortress to the Turkish Government, and to deliver the 30,000 refugees who were sheltered there to what proved to be the tender mercies of the Bashi-bazouks under the orders of the Sultan. Mr. Nazarbek digresses in the course of his article to defend the Huntchak party from the charge of vicious revolutionary and anarchistic principles. It can hardly be denied that the Huntchakists ^^,® Hunt- chakists. are agitators and " schemers for the libera- tion of Armenia from Turkish despotism. Whether they are always wise in their plans is another question. He re- marks that the adversaries of the Huntchak party, and principally the agents of the Turkish Government, have so distorted the tendencies, principles and character of the organization, that English opinion has been led to re- gard that party, " which is patriotic in the best sense, ■'' as 216 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. the enemy of the people. To quote from his own de- fense : " Our adversaries try to sliow that we, the Huntchakists, are anarchists ; tliat we are opposed to law, fomenters of trouble, dis- order, and massacre — in short, that we are criminals. To prove this myth they dig in the dust of the Russian Embassy at Constantinople to find there ' authentic documents.' I know pei'fectly well that to find this sort of document, calling itself authentic, against the Huntchakists there is no place so good as the artificial archives of Hamid's Government, and again those of the Embassy above named. But as for me, who have not the privilege of visiting those archives, I would prefer to consult all the volumes of the Huntchak, the central organ of the Armenian revolutionary party . . . and ask to have pointed out to me one single line which is of an anarchist nature. I can, however, find for myself whole pages written against Anarchism." Driven to the Avail as they had been by the Turk;, living in daily expectation that the butchery that was already drenching Armenia in blood would reach them, and indeed having their hour announced to them by the coming of the Circassian Hadji Asian, the Huntchaks would have been less than human and would have deserved the execra- tion of mankind had they not stood by their flag. In reference to the order sent forth and its results Mr. IsTazarbek says : "Our cry, uttered in such a case, such a desperate case, came back to us echoed from Zeitun. Huntchakist comrades who were there and had their Committee, by the means and under the direc- tion of the Huntchak party, took the decisive resolution to defend themselves to the last ! With this cry those comrades (heroes that they are!) coming to the head of the movement — they, the Hunt- chakists, took fortress and town of Zeitun." When negotiations were going on for the capitulation of Zeitun by the Armenian victors, the Huntchakists put no faith in the promises of reform made by Turkish Abd-ul-Hamid, who, "while signing with one Perfidy o o hand, Avitli the other rubbed out," and sub- sequent events justified their distrust. The Porte openly violated one of the express stipulations of the Eeform bill THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 217 by appointing a Moslem governor of Zeitun, instead of a Christian. The Embassies at once '^ protested/' and the Porto replied that it was only a temporary measure, and that the provisions of the Reform bill would later be com- plied with. The Embassies meekly accepted the explana- tion, and so a Moslem governor of Zeitun was fixed in place, and the heroes of Zeitun — including all its principal citi- zens — were deported and confined in Turkish dungeons to be tortured and to rot, as a consequence of accepting the kindly advice of the Powers ! (III.) The Slaughter of December, 1895. The tide of slaughter that was stemmed for a few days by the capture of Zeitun by the Armenians soon began to flow afresh, and by the middle of December . the city of Urf a had been marked for renewed massacre and plunder. This city, a center of Moslem fanaticism, was for a long time identified with Ur of the Chaldees by Christian as well as Moslem tradition ; it was also the seat of Abgar, the Armenian king, to whom, according to Armenian historians, Thaddeus preached. Here, in 1895, lived an American missionary. Miss Shat- tuck, who witnessed a part of the ordeal through which the city passed when the blow fell. Her account of the onslaught is given in Mr. Bliss's ^''^c^^ou^''^'' Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities, from which the following is quoted : " On Saturday, December 28tli, the firing of a few guns in the Moslem quarter south of us proved the signal. Immediately an im- mense multitude gathered on the hill back of our house. The guards in the street east of us went to meet the people, fired a few shots over their heads, and then allowed the mass of wild humanity, thirsty for blood, to pass into the city and begin their work. The Syrians and Roman Catholics were spared. All other Christians suffered complete loss of all home furnishings, and some houses were burned. The number of killed cannot be less than.3,.500, and may reach 4,000. Of these it is estimated that 1,500 perished in the great Gregorian Church. 218 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. On Saturday that portion of the city was hardly touched, and great numbers of the Armenians flocked to the cliurch for safety that night. Sunday morning the work began again at daybreak, and wlien the people reached the church the soldiers broke open the doors. Then entering, they began a brutality which became a great holocaust. It was participated in by many classes of Moslems. For two days the air of the city was unendurable ; then began the clearing up. During two days we saw constantly men lugging sacks filled with bones and ashes. The dragging off of 1,500 bodies for burial in the trenches was more quickly completed, some being taken on animals. The last work of all has been the clearing of the wells. From one very large well it is said that sixty bodies were taken. It is well authen- ticated that twenty bodies were taken from another well. . . . Our loss of life, 105, all but nine being men. These nine include two women and seven children, who were in the Gregorian Church when it was sacked. Our wounded are many. I have eighteen under my immediate care. Most of these have several severe wounds. One has eleven ; one has eighteen ; ghastly sword and axe cuts on head and neck." A correspondent of the London Speaker, writing from Constantinople under date of December 28, wonders what would happen if the sovereigns of Europe and their Minis- ters, who have humbled themselves before the Sultan, could have suddenly revealed to them at their JSTew Year's feast the scenes of murder, pillage, torture and martyrdoms of their fellow- Christians which they have so lightly condoned. What if a living picture of it all should sud- denly rise before them ? Could the words of Macbeth rise to their lips ? " Thou canst not say I did it !" This correspondent, who had exceptional sources of information in the very region of the massacres, graph- ically summarizes the facts obtained from Correspondent's ^|-^ggg sources concerning the reign of Moliam- medan savagery and lust, and Mohammedan methods of converting Christians to the faith of Islam : " Such a picture appears before me now, as I have just been reading some private letters, from three different towns, from ladies who were THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 219 eyewitnesses of what they describe. Tliey liave been sliut up for weeks in tlie midst of it, in constant danger of deatli tlieniselves — their own windows riddled with bullets and their rooms darlc with the smoke of burning houses. They saw the soldiers shoot down helpless men and women, and then hack them to pieces with knives and swords ; lieads cut off and fixed on bayonets, little children disem- bowelled, women carried off to satisfy tlie lust of the soldiers, churches burned which were filled witli men, women and children ; shops and houses stripped of everything, and tlie clothing taken from the backs of those not killed. They find themselves in tlie midst of thousands of people who are dying from day to day from terror, wounds, and starvation, and hear of the fate of their friends — this man flayed alive in the presence of his wife, this man brought with his wife before the officials, and bothof them shot because they refused to become Moslems ; most of their friends among the young women carried off by force, declared Moslem and given over to the harems of Turks ; in one case all the women of a neighboring village throwing themselves into the river to escape this fate. There is notliing sen- sational in the tone of these letters, as miglit be supposed from my grouping together of those facts. They tell the simple story of what they saw and heard eacli day. In all of them it is made clear that there will be very few Christians left in the spring. The Turks are doing tlieir work with diabolical thoroughness. The Christian families are broken up, even wlien all of them accept Mohammedanism, the wife and cliildren separated and given to Turks — the husband forced to take a Moslem wife. Women and cliildren are taken by tlie thousand and simply made Moslems, without any question of choice. Those who became Moslems in tprror in the midst of the massacres, and saved themselves by putting on white turbans or putting white flags over their doors, are given no chance of repentance; their families are broken up, and they have to find Moslem bondsmen to guarantee their remaining faithful. Those who have refused to become Moslems and have not been killed are persecuted in every way, and most of them will die before spring of cold and hunger." He then relates the fate of an old servant of his, whose village, like more than two thousand other villages, had been destroyed. This man^s village was raided twice and the cattle carried off, then the houses were plundered. Finally came a crowd of lazes and Turks from the surround- ing country and destroyed everything, killing thirty-three men and boys, among them the mother, four brothers and 220 THE CKIME OF CHEISTENDOM. five cousins of the old servant. One of liis brothers tried to buy his life for £150. They demanded £300^ and first cut ofE his hands^ then his arms, then his legs, to force him to confess that he had this amount hidden somewhere. They gashed the women with their swords to make them confess. The survivors of the family afterward lived in the ruins of their houses in utter destitution. These statements give fair samples of what occurred all through the closing months of 1895 and over much of the Armenian Plateau. The imagination must multiply them by scores and hundreds, and add nameless and unspeakable horrors, in order even to approximate the truth. As usual, the year ended with a climax of cruelty and butchery. The Christians' anniversary of the birth of their Saviour is uniformly chosen by the Turks as a season in which to wreak bloodiest vengeance. III. The Third Year of Butchery, 1896. As if gorged with murder and rapine, the " Great Assassin " for a time gave respite to his Armenian subjects, who were, nevertheless, destined but to wait until his periodical thirst for blood should demand more victims, and the pressure of the foreign Shylocks, and his own finan- cial needs, should again urge him on. The Christian world raised sympathetic but impotent hands in contemplation of the horrors of the late past in Turkey, hoping that the Christian Powers would now soon effectively act in concert to prevent a repetition of carnage. They remem- bered that every promise of reform which the Turk had made had been broken, and felt that, in the language of the editor of the New York Christian Advocate, "\\e must be dealt with as a convicted liar." In the United States the anti-Turkish feeling was rapidly and largely American augmented, and England especially was looked Sentiment. ° ° ^ "^ . to for that intervention which America ardent- ly advocated but could not practically give. Eesolutions THE ARMENIAN" CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 221 expressing abhorrence of the outrages perpetrated npon inoffensive Christians in Turkey, rehearsing the terms of the Berlin Treaty, calling the attention of the Powers to their violation, and offering support to the President in any vigorous action that he might take to protect American citizens and property in Turkey, were passed by the United States Congress, late in January, 1896. In reviewing the spirit of these resolutions an expert writer on the East- ern Question, writing in the New York Observer (February 6), was moved to say, in view of possible American inter- vention : "There is no doubt in the minds of those best informed that the Armenian outrages were deliberately planned to decimate an ancient Christian race because it is Christian, and to destroy the work of American missionaries among them. The United States is in duty bound to resist such action, and to maintain the treaty rights and privileges of its citizens, and the declaration of its unalterable deter- mination to do so is much less likely to provoke war than to prevent it. There is a vast deal of nonsense talked about the bearing of the Monroe doctrine on this question, as if it were a hard and fast rule of conduct precluding the United States under all conditions from participation in the international concert of the European race. That doctrine only announces the resolve of this nation to resist any at- tempt of European powers to forcibly extend their dominion on this continent, and its abstention from interference in the dynastic quar- rels of Europe has. never been more than a self-imposed ordinance, to be modified at any time. It does not deprive the United States of the right to intervene in such questions as the Armenian and others which involve the perpetration of crimes against civilization and humanity." The American press at this time anticipated the " For- ward Movement " later developed in England, for the libera- tion of Armenia, and inculcated the principle of taking the Eastern Question out of the secret chambers of diplomacy — a principle afterward favored by Mr, Gladstone, in a speech which will be noticed further on. The American Churches heartily joined in the movement. All cis- Atlan- tic eyes were then, as they are now, turned on Great Britain. 222 THE CEIME OF CHEISTENDOM. Centuries of cruelty liad warned her that Christians could not live in political subjection to the Turk without being subject periodically to persecution and massacre. Great Britain had guaranteed protection to the Armenians and Christendom held her morally bound to afford it ; but she did not afford it^ and her jealousy of Eussia stood in the way of allowing the Czar to do it. She would not let the Eastern Question be taken out of politics. More than the first half of 1896 was marked by com- parative peace in Turkey. Butchery and rapine continued all this time, but the crimes perpetrated were so over- shadowed by former enormities, and were so carefully con- cealed for the time, that the world was not freshly shocked. But the bloody appetite of the " Crimson Crested Vulture " was being whetted. He bided his time, and the time came — by appointment. It fell in the last week of August, and a more shocking story has not been told since the days of the French Revolution. Massacre at Coiststawtin-ople. On Wednesday, August 26, a massacre originated in Constantinople, in an attack on the Ottoman Bank by about thirty men who were officially reported ^Itt k^^ to be Armenians. As so reported, this attack was one of a very peculiar character, to say the least. While dynamite explosives were used, they were very carefully thrown where none of the bank officials would be hurt, and no attempt was made to pillage the bank. The officials are said to have rushed upstairs, leaving some £10,000 at the mercy of the invaders, who touched not a farthing of it, and subsequently helped the cashier to pack it up safely ! The attacking party re- mained in the bank quietly until the premises were recap- tured by the Turkish troops. There is no evidence that they offered any resistance to these troops. It is impor- tant to note that when arrested they were forthwith THE AEMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 223 placed on a ship (Sir Edgar Vincent's yacht, " Gulnare ") and expelled from the Ottoman dominions, no other pun- ishment being imposed npon them ! The British guardship " Imogene " and two Turkish despatch-boats kept watch over the yacht until it sailed. The Turkish Goyernment admitted that not one of these men was a subject of the Sultan. They escaped scot-free. .While dynamite was being exploded in the vestibule of the Ottoman Bank, similar explosions took place in differ- ent parts of the city, and the streets quickly filled with armed Turkish rabble. Armenian blood flowed like water. Whether the assailants of the Bank were robbers, fanatics or (most likely) tools of the Sultan, they gave a signal for which Abd-ul-IIamid had waited. fi^P"^^*^* ® Slaughter. It is clear that preparations had been made for quickly arming the worst class of Turks, and immedi- ately after the "^attack" upon the Bank these began the work of slaughter, which they were permitted to carry on for forty-eight hours under the eyes of the police and the regular soldiers without any attempt at restraint. Women and girls were outraged by hundreds before being mur- dered, and the boys captured were subjected to indescrib- able atrocities. Says the London Speaker of September 5th: " All the worst passions of hell were, in fact, let loose by the monster of Tildiz Kiosk ; and the unoffending Armenians of Con- stantinople had to submit to horrors to which even the Middle Ages can scarcely furnish a parallel." The Constantinople correspondent of the London Daily Neios reported that on Wednesday evening, towards sunset, systematic looting and murdering were carried on ; that on Thursday the mob took possession of the Stamboul side, and every person suspected of being an Armenian was killed. The Berlin correspondent of the London The Berlin ' Daily News forwarded to that paper the nar- Account, 224 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. rative of the Constantinople correspondence of the Ber- liner Tagellatt, who thus described the awful scenes : " With my own eyes I saw the most savage barbarity. The Turk- ish people, which in my heart I always believed to be good, I saw savage, barbarous, fanatic, bloodtliirsty. Thousands of Turkish hamals I saw running through the streets bent on murder. Thirty, forty at a time I saw crouching at street corners armed with clubs and cudgels in order to catch one single Armenian and to fell him down with cruelty such as one would not kill a mad dog with. Be- fore my eyes an Armenian priest was hacked into a shapeless mass with wooden sticks by a horde of these savages. " I saw the policemen stand close by and smile. I saw a patrol of cavalry keep guard near the place to make sure that no help should be rendered the unfortunate man. Afterwards I saw such scenes more than twenty times over, but not one single case have I seen where the police or the soldiers disturbed the work of the Turkish assassins. " In Galata I saw dozens of corpses in the streets. In the Heudek street, where I live, three Armenians who passed through it were killed by Turkish club-bearers within one hour. Going through the streets late in the afternoon I met six manure wagons filled with corpses. It is stated that during the day alone at least 2,000 persons were killed. From all that I saw myself this number does not appear to me to be exaggerated. During my walk I hardly anywhere saw an officer of rank with the police or the military. In the afternoon the patrols gradually disappeared. Through the whole night the military was to be seen nowhere. " The arming of the Turkisli lower classes with clubs, which was not only allowed, but assisted, by the police, has wrought the great- est evil. If any one had stopped their work the bloodshed would have been very small. " Many strangers as well as permanent residents left by train. Many people fled on board the ships in the harbor. The pillaging continued even on Thursday morning. I saw from my window the miserable premises of an Armenian dealer in old clothes being broken into by six policemen, while the club-bearers were constantly beside them, so as to despatch the owner, who had hidden himself within. On the quay in Galata forty-six Armenians were killed in one heap inside a coal depot. Fourteen Armenians who came off or were dragged off an English merchant ship were flung into the water. In the new house of the Oriental Railways, ' Sirkedshi,' all Armenians were caught and massacred with clubs, spades, and iron bars. Even THE ARMENIAN ClllSTS AND MASSACEBS. 225 on the platform of the station an Armenian stoker was dragged off the engine. In the street, before the guard-room of the Galata police, stood an open box with cartridges and revolvers, which were distributed to the Turks. As far as known, no Armenian offered resistance. On the bridge an Armenian was flung into the water, Turks threw stones at him each time he rose to the surface. Over a hundred Armenians fled to Greek ships, and are being blockaded by Turkish hordes. " There is no doubt that, for the most part, innocent persons have fallen victims to this new demonstration, because for a few hours the fury of the whole Turkish population was directed against all Arme- nians. From all reports and my own observations, moreover, it is also beyond doubt that during the fighting the Turkish authorities did not do their duty. At the Porte, where the Ministerial Council was about to begin, terrible confusion prevailed. Among the cruellest persecutors of the Armenians were the ' Tulumbajis,' the so-called Fire Brigade men. I particularly noticed the men who form the guard of Galata Tower searching the neighboring streets with knives and spears for defenceless Armenians. Whenever they found a dead man they vented their rage upon him by stabbing or kicking him. Except before the Ottoman Bank, I have not seen any Turks murdered. " General indignation is felt at the apathy of the Embassies. The absence of the guardships is criticised all the more bitterly because signs of uneasiness had been noticed for days before, and secret warnings were addressed to the Embassies by the committee. Yet at the decisive moment not one single war-vessel was in the harbor. They are all at Therapia or Bujukdere, where the Ambassadors have their summer outings. Amongst the Europeans justifiable indignation prevails on this account. In Pera several Europeans have been killed." The London Standard's correspondent stated that young Turkish boys were about Constantinople savagely plung- ing their knives into the bodies of the dead. The Spectator (September 5)^ remarking that jj' °+ these massacres were probably the greatest of modern times^ added : " It is stated that the massacres were deliberately planned, and many facts seem to point that way. In any case they were tolerated, and freely tolerated. No doubt there was some provocation in the shape of bomb-throwing, but the bulk of the people killed were 15 226 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. perfectly harmless and innocent. They were killed simply and solely because they were Armenians, and because, rightly or wrongly, it was believed to be the will of the Sultan that there should be a general massacre of the accursed race. One incident deserves special mention. Forty-five women and children took refuge on the roof of a house. They were all slaughtered, and their bodies thrown into the street." On Wednesday and during the night from Thursday to Friday an observer counted from a window in Constanti- nople 145 refuse carts and 14 large vans full of corpses. A correspondent of the Westminster Gazette (September 28) wrote : "After visiting the principal parts of Constantinople, where the worst massacres and looting had taken place, a German lady and I decided to go to Halidjioglon, the Armenian quarter of Hasskeni, the scene, perhaps, of the worst butchery, where it is estimated some 600 to 700 poor wretches lost their lives. . . . The sight that met our eyes is indescribable. House after house had been attacked by the mob, and stood there in deathless silence ; windows, doors and the very sides of buildings actually torn to pieces. Whole rows of houses, once full of life, were entirely deserted, and not a soul to be seen anywhere. The sight was terrible, and one which we cannot forget. The men killed, houses looted, and women gone. We found out afterwards that the poor women were now all living togetlier in houses near the church. If we saw one house in ruins and empty we saw a thousand, street after street in the same condition. The massacre commenced at dusk, and just after the Turkish priests (imams) had called the ' Faithful to prayers.' The first intimation the Armenians had of any attack was large stones being hurled at the windows, literally knocking windows and frames right into the rooms. The doors were next smashed down, and then the men butchered before the women and children's eyes. We entered a number of houses to find them all in the same state — empty, and besmeared with blood. By this time we had seen more than enough, and got away from the haunted place as soon as possible. The sight still remains fixed in our memory ; but those frightful deserted streets — when can we forget them ? " A conservative estimate has placed the number of Armenian dead in this massacre at 7,000. The representa- tive of a Berlin journal said : " The victims are beyond all estimate." THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES: 227 A Constantinople correspondent of the London Sjjeaher closes his letter with words that go to fix the responsi- bility : " If we go to the real source of responsibility for this massacre we shall find it in the treatment of the Eastern Question by the Great Powers during the last two years. I do not think the blame rests upon the Ambassadors ; they are not free agents. But the Powers have made it clear to the Sultan that he can deal with his Christian subjects in this way without any fear of intervention on their part. Tlie latest estimate of the number of Armenians killed in the prov- inces within a year is 100,000. What are 10,000 more in the streets of Constantinople, or another 100,000 who are likely to be massacred in the interior within the next few weeks, in comparison with the peace of Europe, which cannot be maintained unless the Sultan is given a free hand to do what he pleases within the limits of his Empire ? This is the doctrine which has been proclaimed to the world. It is essential to the peace of Europe that there be no inter- ference with the Sultan. And yet there is no one to disturb the peace of Europe except the very men who make this excuse. Why not say outright what they mean : We do not care a penny for humanity or civilization or the Christians of Turkey, and we care for the peace of Europe only so long as it suits our interests. Each one of us is waiting for the time when he can settle the Eastern Question in his own interest. Till that time comes we will not allow it to be settled, no matter what happens. There has not been a day within the last two years when the Great Powers could not have brought the Sultan to terms, without disturbing the peace of Europe. There has not been a massacre that they might not have prevented. They could have stopped this one in an hour. They have simply chosen to do nothing. It is an awful responsibility which they have as- sumed. How it is to be distributed among them history will decide." Emboldened by the successful massacre in Constanti- nople, and by the non-intervention of the Embassies, similar outrages were committed by the Turks in various provinces, especially in the Kharput Eghin. region. The city of Eghin suffered greatly. In that place at least 1,000 Armenians were slain on the charge of being disloyal. For three days the killing was continued. "The most hopeless features in the massacre were that the Armenians never struck a stroke, even with 228 . THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. sticks, in their own defense — they had no arms — and that the Government immediately reported to Europe that the Armenians of Eghin had burned their own houses and fled to Persia."' The London Spectator of December 13, 1896, has a graphic account of the opening hours of the massacre, showing the preparation for it and the participation of the Turkish Government and soldiery in it. Of the subsequent and resulting horrors an American missionary, Eev. J. K. Brown, gave an account a year after the massacres took place. He arrived at Account. Kharput September 26, on his return from America, and shortly after undertook to visit some of the principal cities in which he had labored in previous years, especially Arabkir, Eghin and Malatia. In the Missionary Herald, the official organ of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, he gives a graphic picture of the desolation of these cities in contrast with their past beauty and prosperity. His ac- count of the sad fate and condition of Eghin, written under date of October 24, 1896, gives the secret of its escape from the earlier massacres that swept across the Plateau : " Arrived here a week ago by a road winding along the Euphrates, reminding us at every turn of the scenery of Switzerland. Beautiful for situation, the pride of all Armenians, was this city. Her citizens held positions of commanding influence at Constantinople and in most of the cities of the empire. It was certainly the most remark- able city in this land, in its origin, which was like that of New England, in the character, intelligence, public spirit, wealth, refine- ment, and influence of its people. "It had long since become a residential city of those Armenians who amassed their property elsewhere, and the houses, not to say homes, were like those of the capital. About a year ago, when that terrible wave of destruction overwhelmed oiu- fields, this city pur- chased exemption by the payment of some 1,600 Turkish pounds. " During all this past year they have lived in constant fear of im- pending slaughter, and unable to escape their doom. At last the THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 229 command went forth, and a month ago, for two days and nights, the fearful work of pkmder, blood, and lust went on. As far as knoM^n, only one old man was spared of all the men, youth, and larger boys who could be found, all the bridges and roads being carefully guarded. But the sickening story has long ago been read by Christendom and with silence. Would it be so if with my eyes they could look out upon this waste of ruins in place of the fair city I once knew, and hear the heartbreaking stories told with streaming eyes and pallid lips?" And this condition of things is to he found over a large part of the Plateau, and the so-called Christian Powers are still defying a righteous Grod by turning a deaf ear to the cry of " Bleeding Armenia " and perpetuating " The Crime of Christendom ! " The events that have been detailed are the first-fruits of that policy — the First Scene in the closing Act of the tragedy of the century ! IV. Summary of Eestjlts ais'd Eespon-sibilities. A startling estimate of the loss of Armenian life in Turkey has been made by one who cites the facts. There are no fewer than eight cities in Turkey, in -, p ^ • ^ -, The Last Death each one oi which more persons were massacred j{,ou than fell on the Union side in the terrible seven days' battle of the Wilderness. At Gettysburg, the fiercest battle of our Civil War, 3,070 fell on the Union side. Twice that number were killed in the two massacres at Urfa. During our entire Civil War 110,070 Union soldiers were slain in battle. During two and a half years not far from that number — probably more — of Armenians were killed by the Turks, with accompaniments of inhuman barbarity. The results in a single center of butchery, Kharput, will give a fair view of what occurred in these many centers. The following statistics are from a letter from a well-knoAvn American missionary in Khar- l";^K^arput "^ Eegion. put to his son, a student in Amherst College, dated March 11, They are eminently conservative, qs haye 230 THE CKIME OF CHRISTENDOM. necessarily been all the statements from American mission- aries. The figures were gathered at the Gregorian Epis- copate, including Kharput city and its seventy-three villages : " Needy persons 26,990 Houses plundered 6,020 Houses burned 1,861 Churches badly injured and defiled 29 Churches burned , 15 Protestant chapels destroyed 5 Protestant chapels badly damaged 18 Monasteries burned 2 Monasteries damaged 4 Forced marriages to Turks 166 Eape 2,300 Forced conversions, priests 12 Forced conversions, men and women 7,664 Wounded 1,315 Miscarriages 829 Killed in fields and highways 280 Persons burned , 56 Died from hunger and cold 1,014 Suicides 23 Martyrs, bishop 1 Martyr^, priests 11 Martyrs, Protestants 3 Martyrs, teachers 7 Martyrs, men, women and children 1,903 Total deaths 4,127 Loss of property $7,268,605 " These figures do not include reports from the Malatia, Arabkir, Eghin, Charsanjak, Geglii, Palu, Chunkush and Diarbekr districts." Professor Lepsius, of Berlin University, one of the most distinguished scholars of the age, went to Armenia and traveled over the accessible parts of it to in- Estimate by yggtigate the facts for himself. He recently Lepsms. ° published a book entitled, Armenia and Europe : an Indictment, in which he records what he was able to learn on the ground where the events occurred, B;is record in verified statistics is as f ollpw^ ; THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 231 " Killed in the massacres, about 35,000. " Towns and villages laid waste, about 2,500. " Churches and convents destroyed, 668. " Forced to adopt the Mohammedan faith, 559 villages, with all their surviving inhabitants and hundreds of families in the towns. " Churches turned into mosques, 282. " Number of those without means of subsistence, about 500,000." This is simply a record of the registered facts in cold statistical form. There must be added to these the multi- tudes in the unregistered villages who were murdered, or who died of their wounds, or who succumbed to hunger or disease, or who perished in trying to escape and were buried in the mountains under the ice and snow, — so that 100,000 would probably be an understatement of the victims of the Armenian massacres. Professor Lepsius states clearly the real cause of the massacres, his statement agreeing with the view elsewhere presented in the course of this discussion. He says : " The Armenian massacres . . . were an administrative measure of the Sublime Porte, whose one motive and object was to make the reforms enforced by the Great Powers finally impossible by the annihilation of the Armenian people." Such a record of horrors seems incredible as Christen- dom is j)assing into the twentieth century. The three years of massacre in Turkey and all the cir- cumstances connected show that the merciless slaughter was the result of the deliberate revival by the Sultan of the long-dormant holy law of the divine right of the Moslem to slay all dissidents. The scheme for carrying out this law was planned with consummate cunning and cruelty. Bugles signaled the moment for the beginning of blood- shed, and bugles called off the butchers at a signaled time ! More painful perhaps than the contemplation of the awful death-roll is the condition of the more than half a million helpless beings spared by the sword , , . i i • 1 T 1 1 Destitute Mul- to starve m a poverty-stricken land, where titudes, their own kith and kin could not help them 232 THE CRIME OF CHEISTENDOM. and their enemies would not if tliey could. Over a vast territory vineyards have been torn up, all the Armenian sources of production destroyed, leaving them in every way unable to help themselves. The authentic stories of naked destitution and crying hunger are heartrending. Yet upon even these starving wretches the Sultan has imposed " taxes ^' for the repletion of the purse which was drained to shed their blood and make them home- less ! It is noticeable that massacres uniformly occurred in provinces for which the Sultan had promised reforms. The outrages in Trebizond, for example. By Order of the i • , i , ,-, ,■ ,-,, i i • Stdtan. occurred ]ust about the time that he gave his assent to the scheme of reforms. An incident often repeated was the ordering of apprehensive Armenians to open their shops with the assurance that those who did so would be in no danger and then a sudden attack would be made and the defenseless places of business looted. In only a few places, as at Diarbekr, Gurun, Malatia and Arabkir, did the Armenians attempt to defend themselves, and in such places their slaughter was proportionately great and the plunder complete. It is reported that the shops were absolutely gutted, even the doors and windows of the houses being carried away, and in the market-places not a single article of merchandise could be found. Even the clothing of men, women and children was stripped from them, and they had to flee naked. It may be asked. Why did the Turk thus attack the best tax-paying element in his Empire, where tax-incomes are so greedily planned and so rigidly demanded, as Reasons. ^^^^ ^^ SO badly needed ? The answer is that besides religious hatred and contempt, there is grave jealousy of the Armenian' as a political factor. Mohammedan supremacy in all things was at stake, and it was feared that if the Armenians were not suppressed they would in time, with the countenance and support of Ohris' THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 233 tian Europe, become dangerous to the existence of the Moslems. The natural method on the part of the Turk, to make secure his own religious and political supremacy, was to kill as many Armenians as possible and render the sur- vivors powerless. It is idle to argue that Abd-ul-Hamid is not personally to blame for the Armenian bloodshed. The order for each and every massacre came directly from him, and at his signal each butchery ceased. We must remember, now that the idea that he may not be the responsible one seems to be spreading, what kind of a man he is. He is the brain and the power of "the Palace '^ and his so-called Ministers, who make up "the Porte '^ — the Turkish Cabinet — are no more to him than so many clerks. They dare not assume the smallest responsibility. Everything is submitted to the Sultan personally. He is supreme. It is so well under- stood among the Ambassadors that "the Palace '' is all in all, that some of them have broken through old forms of etiquette and have addressed remonstrances and counsel direct to the Sultan. The Eussian Ambassador nearly always does so. It is well understood in Constantinople that unless the Sultan himself can be reached, any effort to influence the Turkish Government is futile. During his rule he has repeatedly changed all his underlings, even the whole Court ; but his policy has never swerved. This policy has always been directed toward three things : 1st. The maintenance of his perfect autocracy. 2d. The accumulation of a mighty fortune (the Sultan pays no taxes). 3d. The nullification of European influence, which he detests and dreads. What a commentary on " European influence,^' that this creature is permitted to run his chosen course unchecked here at the closing of a century famous for the general advancement of the world ! Three continuous years of butchery had thus been per- 234 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. mitted to pass uncliecked by any vigorous interferences on the part of the European powers, and the of England. Sultan could afford to laugh at a Concert which, for various reasons, could not act. The Sultan laughed, while the civilized world, or that part of it un- bound by diplomatic chicanery, wondered and wept. It is not even to be supposed that the better element of the Sultan's Mohammedan subjects laughed with him, for, wading in the innocent blood that he has caused to flow about their feet, they have awakened to the fact that their sovereign has forever blemished them by associating them, before the world, with his hired assassins — the Kurds, the Lazes, and the lowest of classes of Mussulmans — and that his heavy collections of revenue or " contributions " from them in the name of Islam are not for the professed purjDoses of religion, but for the continuance of butcheries solely for the sake of his own preservation. Many of them are doubt- less weary of replenishing the ever-depleted purse of the Palace ; yet of course they are anti- Christian in feeling, and may be counted upon to continue practically their allegiance and support to the Sultan. For the Armenian blood that flowed in Turkey so copi- ously during the three years just reviewed, England must be held responsible, because of her action in connection with the Treaty of Berlin and the Anglo-Turkish Conven- tion, by. the first of which slie roused active hope among the Armenians, thus giving the Sultan precisely the excuse for attack that he wanted, and by the Judgment second of which she brought about a deadlock between the other Powers and herself. Says Mr. James Bryce : "If there had been no Treaty of Berlin and no Anglo-Turkish Convention, the Armenians would doubtless have continued to be oppressed as they had been oppressed for centuries. But they vi^ould have been spared the storm of fire, famine, and slaughter which descended upon them in 1895 ; their women woidd not have been outraged, their priests martyred, their children led into captivity, THE ARMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 235 their religion, over large districts, utterly blotted out. This is what European protection has brought in its train ; this is what England and Russia between them have accomplished. Better it would have been for the Christians of the East if no diplomatist had ever signed a protocol or written a despatch on their behalf." There is no evidence that England would at any time have been hindered materially by all or any of the other Powers if she had attempted separate action. There is no evidence that Eussia would have attempted to stay her course. Prince Lobanoff and Count Goluchoffski had agreed, in Vienna, that it was possible to maintain the "territorial " status quo in Turkey for some time and had pledged their respective Governments to that end. This pledge, as has been noted by Canon MacColl, obliged the two Powers, Russia and Austria, to resist any separate action aimed at the destruction of the " territorial " status quo, but did not pledge them to oppose any other kind of separate action. But what of the " Concert of Europe'' at this juncture ? It was certainly thought and hoped that now at least and at last it would act, in view of the fact that TliG Concsrl; the Sultan had plainly shown that nothing of Europe, but coercion could impede his course of Chris- tian oppression. It acted — as usual ! The ambassadors met on the 30th of August to draw up a Collective Note, to be sent to the Porte, directing his attention, among other things, to strong evi- . Collective dence that the Constantinople m_assacre of the uo^e, Armenians had been carefully organized, and that the authorities had connived at it ; that orders were known to have been given to the Bashi-bazouks to cease the slaughter on Thursday two hours after sunset ; that this massacre lasted thirty hours, during which time the troops and the police remained completely passive ; also that hundreds of men were brought over to the city from the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, evidently to take part in 236 THE CRIME OF CHRISTEKDOM. the massacres, and were afterward sent back to their homes. Another meeting was held by the Ambassadors on the next day, to dehberate on the wording of the Collective Note to be sent to the Porte. The evening of the same day witnessed an Ottoman illumination in Constantinople in honor of the nineteenth anniversary of Abd-ul-Hamid's accession to the throne. During the day he was officially complimented by the Embassies, in the manner usual on such occasions ; but he is reported to have been greatly moved when he learned that the Embassies would not illuminate in his honor, and he even dispatched his Minis- ter of Foreign Affairs to represent to them that the omis- sion to illuminate might have a bad effect on his troops. But the Embassies drew a line at this display of congratu- lation, and ^^ officially" notified the Sultan that after the events of the past few days the representatives of the Powers could do no more than " observe mourning," and that illuminations which, according to European ideas, sig- nified rejoicing, would be " out of place." The Collective Note having been completed, it was sent to the Porte on the 4th of September. The note laid stress on the organized character of the mob that led the Constantinople massacre, and cited several cases bearing out its charge. It quoted the declaration of two Moham- medans in the service of a European — that they were re- quisitioned by the police, who gave them weapons and ordered then to kill Armenians. It adduced the testimony of a Mohammedan who, being armed with a bludgeon, was being taken to Yildiz Kiosk by Embassy dragomans, when he assured the latter that nothing would be done to him ; and that on arriving at the Palace this individual was recognized by the servants there. The Note also alluded to the distribution of bludgeons to the mob by the munici- pality, and declared that the Embassies were prepared to produce the evidence in their possession. Finally the THE ABMENIAN CRISIS AND MASSACRES. 237 Ambassadors demanded that " an inquiry should be made and the guilty parties severely punished/^ The accommodating Sultan promptly replied to the ISTote, throwing all the blame for the massacre on the Ar- menians, and announcing the trial by an ex- traordinary tribunal, of leaders and abettors of The Porte's the outrages. Meantime he was silently and expeditiously deporting the floating Armenian population from Constantinople, Steamers were daily loaded with Armenians being sent to Trebizond and other parts. The Embassies protested against this wholesale deportation, but, as Avas reported to the London Times, " with little effect." An irade was issued authorizing a special Com- mission, comprising delegates from the Embassies, to in- quire into the Armenian deportations ; but when the Com- mission met it found almost nothing to do, since all the Anatolian Armenians had been sent away, and the Porte had limited the action of the Commission to Armenians in the employ of the foreigners ! It was a characteristic piece of the old style of Turkish trickery and duplicity. In the last week of September the Embassies reiterated to the Porte the charges in their first Collective Note. Early in October the Porte announced his , willingness to grant a general amnesty, to in- jP^^'^Pf stitute reforms in all the Asiatic provinces, and to allow a new Patriarch to be elected if the Armenian Revolutionary Committee would undertake to stop any further dynamite-throwing. About the same time an Armenian Circular was issued to the Embassies declaring that Armenian patience was exhausted, and pointing out that while arrest of innocent Armenians continued, the real culprits, the Kurds, were constituted guardians of the public safety. So the Armenian question was once more, in Turkey as elsewhere, lost in labyrinthine diplomacy, and the Turk again shook hands with himself and laughed. 238 THE CRIME OE CHRISTENDOM. The Constantinople massacres were so astounding and absorbing that the similar outrages in the city of Eghin, in Kharput villayet, on the 15th and 30th of (Hadstone September, in which nearly 2,000 Armenians were slaughtered, passed almost unnoticed. But this echo of the butchery at the capital aroused Mr. Gladstone's just indignation. In view of the whole situa- tion, he took occasion to express himself forcefully to a French gentleman connected Avith the Paris Figaro that had appealed to him, in the course of his letter saying : " The question whether practical effect can be given to the general indignation is now trembling in the balance, and will probably soon be determined." Eeferring to Austria's opposition to separate action he cited the case of Russia in delivering Bulgaria in 1878 and in liberating the other Balkan States, and of France in 1840 in espousing the cause of Egypt. Then he summed up the facts in the present situation as only he could have done : " To-day, emboldened by impunity, the Great Assassin seated on the throne of Constantinople has accumulated massacres on massa- cres, and, by patronizing these and shifting the responsibility of bloodshed on his unhappy subjects, has identified himself in the most manifest way with the enormous mass of crimes perpetrated by his tools. For more than twelve mortal months he has managed to triumph over the diplomacy of the six Powers. The truth is that the six Powers have been led into prostrating themselves at his feet, and nothing in history is comparable to the humiliations which they have so patiently endured. The Sultan has consequently had every en- couragement to continue in a path crowned by such success, and the imminent question seems to be, not whether he will persevere in it, but when and where he will proceed to the next of his murderous ex- ploits. The ulterior effects of this conduct will probably deprive him of the very last chance of maintaining the integrity of his most miserable and most miserably governed Empire." It is the humiliating spectacle of the Christian Powers of Europe bound hand and foot by their own iniquity in turning loose the Turkish butcher upon his Christian subjects ! CHAPTER VII. LATEST PHASE OF THE EASTERIST QUESTIOK. The Second Scene in the Third Act of the Eastern Tragedy has proved to be the nnexpected that always hap- pens. The three successive seasons of Arme- nian massacre ought to have been enough to B- Second Scene ^ . , .° in the Act. rouse the world. But Armenia itself is too remote from Europe and European interests. The sense of the physical remoteness in the English mind was long ago well brought out by a saying of Lord Palmerston : " Those who desire to send the British fleet to Ararat had better arrange to reproduce the Flood." Almost equally great, in a figurative sense, is the separation of the Greek, Roman and Protestant churches from the Armenian Church, — a separation that began, as has been seen, in the early Chris- tian centuries. In order to arouse Christendom it was necessary that the center of Turkish pressure and oppres- sion should be shifted to that part of the Empire most vitally connected with the great nations of Europe and the Churches represented in them. With the massacre of the Armenians in Constantinople it became necessary for the Turk to shift the financial pressure with its diabolical methods of tax- gathering from the Armenians to the Greeks. Sliifting o ° . Pressure. The Armenians of the Plateau had been im- poverished and their property largely confiscated or de- 239 240 THE CRIME OF CHEISTEKBOM. stroyed by the close of 1896 ; and the same work had been done so far as practicable with those of Anatolia. The Greek subjects of the Porte — in the islands of the Archi- pelago, the Macedonian belt, and the region up to the Balkans — were now practically the only Christian people left worth the Turkish taxing. The application to them of the tax-gatherer^s methods was only a question of time and opportunity. The extension of the pressure to all the Greeks of the Empire was sure to come sooner or later, and the connection of these by race and religion with Greece itself could not fail to rouse all the Greeks in due time. Several things have united to bring about the latest Greek Christian uprising. Among these may be enume- rated : the ever-recurring demands of Commercial Europe for the interest on the Turkish bonds, and the exigencies of the Sultan's government, with its soldiery and officials unpaid, and of the Sultan's harem" and household ; the deadlock of diplomacy that has transformed the Powers of Europe into '^the Weaknesses" — as some one has phrased it — and made them objects of contempt to the Turk ; the consciousness of security on the part of the Sultan, result- ing from his secret treaty with Great Britain and from his long continued immunity in butchery ; the peculiar situ- ation on the Island of Crete where the Turk had balked reform and defied the Powers. The events of the opening months of 1897 lead to the consideration of the Cretan uprising and the Greek inter- vention. Immediate results were never more entirely hidden from mortal vision ; ultimate results for righteousness and Christian freedom were never more certain. I. The Cretaist Uprisustg, aistd the History that Led to it. For nearly two thousand years the island of Crete has LATEST PHASE OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 241 been the scene of bloody tragedy, and for mncli of that time the history of the Cretans is one of ruthless oppression, in turn by the Komans, the Moors, the Venetians, the Turks, the Egyptians, and the Turks again, backed by the European Powers, and of heroic struggle for liberty. In view of the history of Crete from 66 B. C, Avhen, the last of the states of ancient Greece to maintain independ- ence, it was subjugated by the Romans, down to the present time, when the Turks have been aided and abetted in their corrupt and murderous misrule of the island by the great Christian Powers, it is amazing that there should have been preserved among the Cretans enough of the ancient faith and valor to afford to the onlooking world such a splendid exhibition of courage as has recently been given. It can only be accounted for by the fact, as Mr. Gladstone has put it, that " in respect of everything that makes a man to be a man, every Cretan is a Greek,"' and Greece has lately given to the world elevating and inspir- ing evidence that the true Hellenic spirit still lives. That little power, ^Hiardly counted in the midst' of European states, is,"' exclaims Mr. Gladstone with admiration, "a, David facing six Goliaths ! " The history of Crete has recently been rehearsed by M. J. Gennadius,'^ whose array of facts is here summarized in part. The most serious of the oppressions of the Cretans began in the ninth century of h"^^*^^ our era, when the Andalusian Moors, ravaging the eastern Mediterranean, landed in Crete. The Moors soon mastered the entire island, and forcibly converted to Mohammedanism almost the whole population, slaying recalcitrants and transforming all churches into mosques. Only one town was allowed certain immunities as to the exercise of ancient usages and the practice of the Chris- tian faith. In 960 Crete was reconquered by the Byzantines, and it 1 Contemporary Beview, April, 1897f j6 242 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. remained a part of the empire until 1204, when that band of Frankish buccaneers, known as the " Fourth c^°^ad^ Crusade," took Constantinople and parcelled out among themselves the spoils, thus prepar- ing the way for the establishment of the Turks in Europe by the weakening of the Greek Empire. Crete falling to the lot of Boniface, Marquis of Montserrat, who ceded it to the Venetians for 10,000 marks, four and a half centuries were marked by cruel Venetian domination, against which insurrections were frequent but ineffectual. The Venetian rule is said to have been " an oppression diabolical in its refinements ! " It is historically estab- lished that the Venetian proveditori extended protection *' only to such Cretans as would qualify for the privilege by assassinating some relative of the first degree ! " Peasants were not even permitted to complain of any in- justice. By order of the proveditori on one occasion, the pregnant wives of four Cretan chiefs were disemboweled and their unborn offspring publicly exposed, as a warning to insurgents. Nevertheless, between 1207 and 1365 the Cretans rose no less than twenty-seven times against their Venetian rulers, '^some of these insurrections being actual wars of ten years' duration, signalized by deeds of heroism that remain unf orgetable to this day in the songs of the Greek people." As early as 1475 Turkey contemplated the invasion of Crete, but it was not till 1645 that the enterprise was carried out. After a resistance of fifty-seven Turkish ^q,^^ Canea fell, and for the two following Conquest. -' -^ . . ° years war was carried on in other parts of the island. The investment of Candia commenced in 1648, and lasted twenty years — "the most memorable siege of modern times." Ultimately, in 1669, a treaty was signed whereby Venice ceded the island, but retained three coast fortresses, which were afterwards ceded to the Turks. Then began a period of Cretan history ''so dark and dismal that LATEST PHASE OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 243 no words can picture it." Dapper, Tournefort, Olivier, Savary, Pocock, Pasliley, Pouqueville, Hammer, and other travelers and historians tell of the fanatical ferocity of the Moslems in Crete. The only crime for which a Turk ran the risk of punishment was indulgence toward the Chris- tians. Moslem ferocity in Crete was given such license that it developed into insubordination against the Porte, who in 1813 sent Hadji- Osman Pacha to the island with orders to decimate disloyal Mussulmans. For the purpose of decimation, Christians were employed, who thus brought upon themselves indescribable retaliation. This ''hellish condition " of affairs continued so long, and into such apathy had the oversuffering Cretans fallen that they were not at once stirred by the uprising of the rest of the Greeks in 1821. But the necessary impulse was given by the Turks themselves, who hanged the Creek Patriarch and massacred Grreeks at Constantinople, while Mussulmans in Crete began an indiscriminate slaughter, hanging priests and desecrating churches. Then the Cretans rose from their stupor, " Phoenix-like, with all the fire of their tra- ditional valor, "^ and at the close of the first year's campaign the Turks held only the three or four fortified coast towns. The Cretans were reinforced by certain noble families of Cretan Mussulmans, and Cretan J-" Greek Revolution, refugees in Asia Minor hastened home. In 1822 a French officer. Captain Baleste, came to the island with a number of Philhellenes, and defeated the Turks by sea and land, when an Egyptian fleet of 140 ships landed in the Bay of Suda an army of 10,000 Albanians, in 023- position to whom Baleste fell. The Pacha of Egypt then poured into Crete overwhelming reinforcements, and the island was devastated from shore to shore. The land re- mained untilled for four years, disease and famine ensued, and the population was reduced by one half. But the marvellous recuperative power of the Cretans was soon afterwards brilliantly demonstrated, The island wa§ gud- 244 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. denly wrested from foreign usurpation. Crete then claimed union with the common Fatherland. "But/' says M. Gennadius, " by one of the most iniquitous acts which mark the proceedings of modern policy, in spite of the earnest and indignant protests of Lords Holland, Russell, and Palmerston, the London Protocol ^^Turk^^^ of February 2, 1830, decreed that Crete should again be forced, not, indeed, under the Sul- tan's government, but under the Pacha of Egypt, who was thus recompensed for the atrocious acts of savagery with which his African troops had desolated the island." The forces of the Allied Powers, aided by Turkish ships, blockaded Crete, while 3,000 Africans, with the represen- tatives of the Christian Powers at their head, marched into the interior, broke up the Cretan cordon established by the armistice, and proclaimed that by the will of Europe Crete became the property of the Pacha of Egypt. The Great Powers of course guaranteed certain "reforms." When these reforms were demanded by an assembly, the only answer received was the appearance of a body of Albanians, who fell upon the unarmed assembly. Some they dis- patched on the spot, and afterward hanged the rest in a neighboring olive grove. In 1840, when Mehemet Ali was compelled by the Triple Alliance to evacuate Syria, Crete was retroceded to Turkey. In 1841 the Cretans again took up arms and proclaimed their union to the mother country, delegates from all parts of the island having assembled for that purpose. But Europe remained inexorable ; and for the third time the Cretans were re-enslaved to Turkey, with profuse promises of "reforms." So matters went on, leading to the insurrection of 1866- 69 — " the most redoubtable and most destructive which the island experienced in recent times, and in Successive ^^jch the attitude of the Powers towards Crete 9-11(1 Greece w;^s pitilessly unjust ^-nd LATEST PHASE OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 245 most impolitic." The whole island took up arms, and the moral effect was immense. The Sultan, '^''on the advice of some of the Powers," sent to Crete as leader of his forces Mustapha Pacha, a bloodthirsty Albanian chief who pos- sessed an exceptional experience of Cretan warfare. After considerable slaughter, Mustapha marched against the ancient convent of Arkadi, where a large number of women and children had taken refuge under the pro- tection of 250 armed Cretans. For two days ^^a*^ °f , . '' Heroes. Mustapha s twelve regiments were held m check by that handful of heroes. M. Gennadius tells the story : "When, ultimately, field artillery was brought to bear upon the great convent, and its walls were breached, the besieged were sum- moned to surrender. One of the most heroic episodes in Cretan his- tory then ensued. The Cretans knew what awaited their women and children at the hands of Mustapha' s savages, and they deemed death preferable. At nightfall the Abbot Gabriel celebrated mass, and, having administered the Holy Sacrament, he set a torch to some barrels of powder and led his devoted flock to eternity as he had led them in the fight. It was eleven o'clock at night when the Turks, pouring through the breach, despatched the few unhappy survivors of this Cretan Missolonghi. It was a holocaust to liberty which lent more vigor to the insurrection than a hundred victories." Mustapha was ultimately compelled to retreat to Canea, his army of 30,000 having been reduced to 18,000. Suc- ceeding campaigns having proved equally dis- astrous to the Turkish arms, " it became mani- ^ismarck's Judgment. fest that the determination and valor of the Cretans had rendered the Turkish Grovernment more amen- able to some arrangement calculated to rid her of an untenable and ruinous possession." Lord Loftus, the British Ambassador at Berlin, heard Count Bismarck say that " if England would assist in obtaining the cession of Crete to Greece, all difficulties in the East would be at once arranged." But it was England that then objected as she had done in 1830. In the end, Crete was again forced under the heel of Turkey for another generation. 246 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. To a decision so iniquitous the Cretans could not long submit. They rose again in 1878, again proclaimed union to Greece, and again defeated the Turks. But some of the Powers intervened and brought about an armistice favorable to the hard-pressed Turks, who availed them- selves of the opportunity thus furnished them to land more troops in the island and to violate the truce by attacking the insurgents. A fresh insurrection broke out in 1889, when union to Greece was again proclaimed, but unavailingly. The recent Cretan revolt is the eighth since 1821. It is plain that nothing short of union with Greece will satisfy the Cretans. M. Gennadius, in closing his article, expresses what is the prevailing and undying sentiment of the Cretan people, so often voiced by themselves. " Nothing short of union will or can satisfy a people who for seven centuries battled for liberty undaunted, who for three generations bled for union unexhausted ; but who, standing in a land bathed in rivers of blood, soaked in ceaseless tears, black with fire, hacked by the sword, re-echoing with wailing and woe, witness how these same footprints of tyranny have fast disappeared with the Turk from the mainland opposite." II. The Ikteryen'tion' of Geeece, ai^d the Coistduct OF THE POWEES. For so many years and in such great numbers have refu- gees from Turkish compressions in the island of Crete crowded to the protecting arms of Greece, her- ..^^^^°^ ^^^„ self hospitable but poor, that the latest arri- " the Powers." ^ ^ ' vals decided that power to take some step toward the liberation of the valorous island from the sway of the Turk. Emboldened by immunity from j)unishment for his successive Armenian massacres, culminating in the uninterrupted slaughter at Constantinople, immedi- ately under the eyes of the six Powers who were there represented by their Ambassadors, the Sultan concluded LATEST PHASE OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 247 to fall upon the Cretan Christians with fire and sword in order to keep flowing into his cormorant-surrounded treasury the money needful to sustain his throne. Against this atrocity Greece protested, in the name of civilization and of common humanity, but her practical intervention was crippled and stayed by that " Concert " whose uniform promotion of the Sultan's diabolical schemes of slaughter and robbery will stand for all time as a sample of ignominy. No sooner had Greece declared her intention of protecting the Cretans from massacre than the Great Powers flocked to her waters and jointly protested against interference with the Sultan's movements. If the Powers had not neglected or refused to execute in Crete the ^^ reforms" that had been promised, the Sultan would not have dared to fall upon Crete as he did upon Armenia. Their selfishness, cowardice, perfidy, indecision — or however their action may be characterized — invited the Sultan to the step which he boldly took. The Cretans appealed to Greece, and Hellenic blood courageously responded to their cry. Greece proposed to restore and maintain order in the island, since no other power would do so, and that the Cre- .■^p^*^^°^^„ tans should be permitted to choose a Prince who should rule in Crete under suzerainty of the Porte. The Powers put their heads together and objected. Then Greece sent an army of occupation into Crete, to restore order and pave the way for Cretan annexation to Greece — a consummation desired by nearly all the Cretans. The Powers again objected, and demanded the withdrawal of the Greek forces, which demand not being complied with, and the offer of the Greeks to withdraw simultaneously with the Turks being ignored, the assembled Powers pro- ceeded to give aid and comfort to the Turk, and to assist in the persecution of the Christians. Crete was blockaded. The ships of the Powers fired upon Christians, and re- frained from firing upon Turks, even when the latter were 248 THE CEIME OF CHEIGTENDOM. violating flags of truce. Tlie blockade of Crete was against all nations but the Turks, who were permitted to maneuver their own war-ships and troops at will. The Powers even threatened to blockade Greece herself, and then menaced the Greek troops on the border. When the Greeks agreed to let some Moslems besieged at Kandamos go free if they would give up their arms, the Powers treacherously con- nived at letting the Moslems keep their arms for further Christian butchery. The Powers, in Justification of this blockade, prated about " the integrity of the Turkish Empire." Mr. Glad- stone, in his impassioned letter to the Duke "Integrity of ^f AVcstminster, written at Cannes, March 13, the Empire. , . . • ,, had something to say about this " nitegrity. These are a part of his Avords : " It shows an amazing courage or an amazing infatuation tliat after a mass of experience, alike deplorable and conclusive, the rent and ragged catchword of ' integrity of tlie Ottoman Empire ' should still he flaunted in our eyes. Has it then a meaning ? Yes, and it had a different meaning in almost every decade of tlie century now expir- ing. In the first quarter of that century it meant that Turkey, though her system was poisoned and effete, still occupied in right of actual sovereignty the whole southeastern corner of Europe, ap- pointed by the Almighty to be one of its choicest portions. In 1830 it meant that this baleful sovereignty had been abridged by the ex- cision of Greece from Turkish territory, In 18G0 it meant that the Danubian principalities, now forming the Kingdom of Eoumania, had obtained an emancipation virtually, as it is now formally, com- plete. In 1878 it meant that Bosnia, with Herzegovina, had bid fare- well to all active concern with Turkey ; tliat Servia was enlarged and that northern Bulgaria was free. In 1880 it meant that Montenegro had crowned its glorious battle of 400 years by achieving acknowledg- ment of its independence and obtaining great accession of territory, and tliat Thessaly was added to free Greece. In 1886 it meant that southern Bulgaria had been permitted to associate itself with its northern sisters. " What is the upshot of all this ? That 18,000,000 of human beings Avho a century ago, peopling a large part of the Turkish empire, were subject to its at once paralyzing and degrading yoke are now as free from it as if they were inhabitants of these islands, and that Greece, LATEST PHASE OP THE EASTERN QtTESTION. 249 Eoumania, Servia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria stand before us as five living witnesses that, even in this world, reign of wrong is not eter- nal. But still it is dinned in our ears from the presses, and indeed from the thrones, of a continent, that we must not allow our regard for justice, humanity, and freedom of life and honor to bring into question or put to hazard the ' integrity of the Ottoman Empire !'" There is much in this letter of Mr. Gladstone that might pertinently be quoted here, as for example where he objects to the sight of England ^''pinned ^' to the '' aprons " of "two young men" — the Emperor of Germany and the Czar of Enssia. On this point he says : "At this moment two great States, with a European population of one hundred and forty or perhaps one hundred and fifty millions, are under the Government of two young men, each bearing the high title of Emperor, but in one case wholly without knowledge or experience : in the other, having only such knowledge and experience, in truth limited enough, as have excited much astonishment and some con- sternation when an inkling of them has been given to the world. In one case the Government is a pure and perfect despotism, and in the other equivalent to it in matters of foreign policy, so far as it can be understood in a land where freedom is indigenous, familiar, and full grown. These powers, so far as their sentiments are known, have been using their power in the concert to fight steadily against free- dom. But why are we to have our Government pinned to their aprons?" Mr. Gladstone's tribute to the courage of Greece is one of the most notable parts of this historic letter. Referring to Greece as " a power representing the race that fought the battles of Thermopylge and Salamis and hurled back the hordes of Asia from European shores," he goes on to say: "Nor is Greece so easily disposed of as might have been antici- pated ; and what the world needs to understand is this : that there is life in the Cretan matter, that this life has been infused into it exclu- sively by Grecian action, and that if, under the merciful providence of God and by paths which it is hard as yet to trace, the island is to find her liberation, that inestimable boon will be owing, not to any of the great Governments of Europe, for they are paralyzed by dissen- sion, nor even to any of the great peoples of Europe, for the door is 250 THE CKIME OF CHRISTENDOM. shut in their faces by the ' concert of Europe,' but to the small and physically insignificant race known as the Greeks. Whatever good shall be permitted to emerge from the existing chaos will lie to their credit and to theirs alone. "Is it to be wondered at that Greece should have endeavored to give aid to the Cretans ? As often as they rise in rebellion and their efforts, due to Turkish blindness and bad faith, are encountered by lawless cruelty, they fly in crowds to Greece, which is their only refuge ; and that poor country has to stand and stand alone between them and starvation. As to their Turkish masters, it is not to be ex- pected that they should find any cause for uneasiness in such a state of things, for ever since that evil day, the darkest perhaps in the whole known history of liumanity, when their star reeking with gore rose above the liorizon, has it not been their policy and constant aim to depopulate the regions which they ruled ? The title of Turkey de jure is, in truth, given up on all hands. In the meagre catalogue of things which the six united powers have done, there is this, at least, included, that they have taken out of the hands of the Sultan the care and administration of the island." In closing liis remarkable utterance Mr. Gladstone ob- serves that Greece has by her bold action conferred a great service upon Europe. "She has," he says, "made it im- possible to palter with this question as we paltered with the bloodstained question of Armenia. She has extricated it from the meshes of diplomacy and placed it on the order of the day for definitive solution." It is not possible here to give the details of the Grseco- Turkish War, but a glance at the historical movement of the past bwenty years will help to understand --, . the present situation and to appreciate the responsibilities of the Powers chiefly interested. At the close of the Eusso-Turkish War in 1878 the Russian Army, at immense cost of blood and treasure, was at the gates of Constantinople, having arranged in the Treaty of San Stefano to give freedom and protection to all the Christians under Turkish rule. The British Govern- ment under lead of Lord Beaconsfield ordered its navy to Constantinople to save the Turkish Empire. Russia and England reached a compromise, by which the latter agreed LATEST PHASE OF THE EASTERN QUESTION". 251 not to i)ass the Dardanelles if tlie former would not enter Constantinople. Then Beaconsfield proceeded with the help of Bismarck to force Russia into the Congress of Berlin in order to overturn the beneficent arrangements of San StefanO;, making in the meantime his iniquitous secret compacts with Eussia and Turkey. Great Britain, Turkey (as one of the Powers), Germany, France, Austria, Italy and Russia met at Berlin, and under lead of Beacons- field set to the work of undoing so much as might be of what had been done at such immense cost. It was not possible to undo all the good work. Rou- mania, Servia and Montenegro were made independent. To Bulgaria was granted autonomy, but with straitened limits. Administrative autonomy was promised to Eastern Roumelia which Russia had proposed to add to Bulgaria. To Austro-Hungary were handed over Bosnia and Herze- govina where the insurrections and movement for freedom had originated. In spite of the sacred doctrine of " the in- tegrity of the Ottoman Empire " all the Slavic provinces were thus taken from under the Turkish robber and butcher, and entered at once upon a remarkable career of progress and prosperity. Ardahan, Kars and Batum with other portions of the northern slope of the Great Armenian Plateau in Asiatic Turkey were ceded to Russia and have since been most wonderfully transformed. So much of permanent advance in the condition and freedom of the Christians was secured in these broad regions where the Turks had formed but a handful of the peoples. But much of the beneficent work of Russia was rendered nugatory. The Armenians outside of Transcaucasia were remanded to slavery. Russia in the Treaty of San Stefano had made the only effective provision for their protection, that of a military police to inaugurate and carry out an adequate S3^stem of administrative reforms. Beaconsfield and Salisbury secured the abrogation of this feature and the substitution for it of the mere promise of the Turh — en- 252 THE CRIME OP CHRISTENDOM:. tirely apart from the Treaty — to institute reforms, for the carrying out of which they as the representatives of Great Britain became sole surety. "With Cyprus in hand as a pledge for the maintenance of ^''the integrity of the Otto- man Empire/^ and with the pledge on record in the Treaty of Berlin for the institution of reforms and the protection of the Armenians, the British Government did absolutely nothing for fifteen long years except to anger Turkey by the stealing of Egypt and the Soudan ! Tlie Armenian pliase of the Eastern Question was the first logical outcome of such a policy, the responsibility for which it is easy to fix. Three years of butcheries the most horrible — taking their accessories and concomitants into the account — in the annals of the race. Great Britain permitted Abd-ul-Hamid to perpetrate without so much as an honest attempt to re- deem her pledge of protection to the Armenian Christians ! The other European Powers, which for British interests had been brushed out of the way of Great Britain by Beaconsfield's masterpiece of diplomacy at Berlin, of course looked helplessly on or uttered ineffectual mutterings while the extermination of a noble Christian people was ]3ushed with fanatical and relentless hate. Abd-ul-Hamid — single-handed against the world — seems to have come very near to settling the Armenian Question, and Lord Salisbury has been left to exult — in his recent speech at the Primrose League in Albert Hall — in "the peaceful ascendency of England in the councils of the world,^^ as the outcome of the "Peace with Honor ^^ business!^ Hideous boast in view of the Armenian massacres ! But the destruction of the Armenians was only the be- ginning of Lord Beaconsfield^s deft work of diplomacy in nullifying the beneficent results of the Eussian rescue of the Christians from Turkish oppression. The Hellenic peoples of Turkey were handed back to the tender mercies of the Moslem butcher, and the way thus prepared for the 1 See The Spectator, May 8, 1897, p. 646. LATEST PHASE OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 253 latest Greek phase of the Eastern Question, the one here under consideration. By the terms of San Stefano, to the Hellenic belt of Turkey was practically to be given auton- omy, while reforms were to be insured for Crete and the other islands of the ^gean, and protection for the numer- ous Greek Christians elsewhere over the Empire, especially in the seaports of Asia Minor. All this was overturned or rendered nugatory by the Treaty of Berlin. The Hellenic belt was turned over to the Turk with the under- standing that the Commission having on hand the settle- ment of the Balkan affairs should afterward consider its needs ; but the Commission dissolved without so much as a thought on the subject, and the Turkish tithe-farmer still plies his vocation and terrorizes all this fair and historic region. The Greeks of the coasts have received nothing except through Turkish dread of the Greek and European navies. The reforms promised by the Turk and assured by Great Britain and the other Powers, to the Greek islands, and particularly to Crete, have been granted — as already seen — only on paper, and the Sultan has been allowed, even under the shadow of his own Trades, to op- press and rob and butcher as of old. The present Greeh phase of the Eastern Question — which, it is well to understand, has barely entered upon its be- ginning, and the final magnitude of the results of which it is not easy to imagine or forecast — is the logical outcome of this state of things. It is not the fate of Crete only that the Greek saw to be involved, but the fate of the Greeh Fate of race, of which Greece is but a part. And Greeks. what that fate would be the Greek learned from the lurid light from blackened and perishing Armenia. In the oppression in Crete and elsewhere the Turk had broken the Treaty of Berlin and forfeited all rights under it, including that to "the integrity" of his Em^Dire. The Powers muttered at his violations of the Treaty, but did not enforce its terms. Greece saw the disaster to the 254 THE CRIME OE CHKISTEKDOM. Greek race coming, and in her despairing hope ventured to aid the Christians in Crete in securing the terms of the Treaty. The Powers allowed the Turkish army free ac- cess to Crete and defended the Cretan Mohammedans in their work of butchering the Christians, while they shut out the Greek army and navy. Their navies fired on the Cretan Christians wantonly and without provocation. They urged on Turkey to fight Greece, and then, leaving Turkey to free action under leadership of their own army and naval experts and officers, they put Greece in a strait- jacket by hampering her navy and threatening to blockade her ports. The Concert of Europe thereby made full pro- vision for overwhelming and crushing Greece through the superior numbers and discipline of the Turkish Army. It was its purpose to humble Greece and to check the ad- vancing spirit of freedom in Southeastern Europe. The British Government might have interfered — ought to have interfered — in behalf of the Cretan and Greek Christians ; but so far as it took part at all it was mainly on the wrong side. As Dr. Albert Shaw has said : ^ " The British Government could not afford to make any honest ex- ertion in behalf of the true solution of the question between Greece and Turkey, because there was ' nothing in it for England.' Nothing was involved for England, indeed, except honor and international morality and good faith." Unfortunately, in the Beaconsfield-Salisbury diplomacy, such purely sentimental factors count for nothing against substantial "British interests," and the appeals of the noblest Christians of the British Empire again went unheeded ! But slight direct outcome from the war could be ex- pected under such conditions, especially when the fact is noted that the vast military forces of Turkey had been equipped with the aid of the money, and organized and trained by the best military skill, of Christian Europe. The possible indirect outcome — from the moral influence 1 The Review of Eeviews, June, 1897, p. 654. LATEST PHASE OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 255 as an uprising in the interests of freedom and a protest against the climax of iniquity in European diplomacy, and from the political influence in breaking what had seemed a hopeless deadlock — is hardly to be grasped by the im- agination. In the circumstances it is impossible not to forecast as one of the possibilities the extension of this uprising, not only to all the Greek Christians of Turkey, but to the Slavic and others as well, later, if not sooner. Meanwhile, however, if the present policy of the Powers is to be con- tinued in spite of the protests of Christendom, the only outlook, apart from Providence, is toward an extermination or conversion of the Greek peoples, that shall duplicate the experience of Armenia, and in which the revolt in Crete and the war in Greece are but opening incidents. That, almost in spite of the Powers, Crete has been redeemed by Prince George, in one year, after twenty centuries of war and misrule, is one more practical proof that the out- look of the suffering Christians of Turkey is not to be " apart from Providence." CHAPTER VIII. CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, AND EESPONSIBILITIES. In drawing this discussion to a close, the present situa- tion and outlook may be summarized by the statement of some conclusions that have been reached and established, and of some of the possibilities that are fairly before the mind of Christendom. I. Some Established Conclusions. Although the forecasting of the immediate outcome of the present crisis must baffle human ingenuity, there are certain conclusions that have been irreversibly established by the logic of events. Some of these need to be briefly stated. (I.) The Eailuee of Diplomacy. The futility and iniquity of diplomacy as a means of solving the Eastern Question have been established beyond dispute. The spectacle of the European political game of the century has been one of such hideous immorality and inhumanity that it would be difficult if not impossible to parallel it among heathen or barbarous nations of this or any past century. It is natural, therefore, that the ignominious failure of the diplomacy of the so-called Christian nations — that have usually misrepresented the sentiment of the peoples and oftener defied and balked them in their desire to deliver the Christians in Turkey — 256 CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, RESPONSIBILITIES. 257 should have led unofficial Christendom to agreement in the conclusion that it is time to have done with it. Nothing could be clearer than that the Machiavelian spirit has controlled the game of European diplomacy. Not to go further back^, all through the present century it constitutes an inexplicable tangle due to treacheries in- numerable, jealousies interminable, and selfishness incom- prehensible. The interests of the millions of oppressed Christians have always been subordinated to the self-interest of the political tricksters in all the deft and long-drawn-out movements of the game. Th^^^^e of ° . '=' Diplomacy. England's jealousy of Russia has repeatedly blocked the way to Christian deliverance and freedom, as in the settlement of the boundaries of Greece, in the Crimean war, in the Congress of Berlin, and in the uprising of the Cretans. She must intrigue and intrigue for her double route to India and for British interests in general and for British interest in particular. Germany and Austria want Turkey in Europe for their own selfish ends, and so are always ready to help block the way of Russia who has thus far been the only helper and deliverer of these oppressed Christians. France wants to checkmate the moves of Great Britain, and to extend her own sphere of influence and her domain. Russia, having come to the rescue repeatedly at immense cost of blood and treasure, hesitates to hazard the same fate again, secure in the fore- sight of the ultimate accomplishment of her plans in the Orient. And so the game has continued one succession of blocks and draws, until Christendom is weary with it and of it. No language can express adequately the horror and moral aversion with which she regards the iniquities and crimes of her rulers perpetrated in her name, or her moral loathing of the methods by which they have compassed their ends. She shudders as if the blood-guilt were her own, brought about by her rulers, though brought about almost in spite of her. 17 258 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. Moreover the point has now been reached where the game — if kept up — must become still more complicated. The Powers must continue to guarantee the ^"rSer* Bonds held by the European Shylocks, in Lon- don, Paris, and Berlin ; for has not their action led to the contracting of the debt secured by the Bonds ? Though already scaled down further scaling threatens to become necessary. The Shylocks are going to press the Powers, and the Powers to increase the pressure upon Tur- key, The massacres and confiscations of the last three years have practically exhausted the Christian sources of Turkish revenue in the remoter provinces, and brought the Empire to the verge of bankruptcy. That will make greater pres- sure for revenue necessary, and that will lead if possible to greater atrocities in securing so-called '' taxes ^' from the poorer Christian subjects of Turkey still left alive. That is what has brought down the pressure upon the people of Crete. That must extend the work of the Turkish tax-gatherer — with all its diabolical features, cul- minating in the hospitality tax — to the Macedonian belt and to every other portion of Turkey in which there are Chris- tians, especially Greek Christians, residing. All that will inevitably lead to more protests, and a long line of succes- sive Hatts — each more impotent and iniquitous than its pre- decessors — until the Christians of the Turkish Empire shall cease to have a name. That is the outlook for diplomacy. The Irades — issued late in October, 1896 — ordering a " poll-tax of five piastres (twenty cents) per head upon the Mohammedan population of Turkey," and " an in- crease in the tithes upon sheep and in certain taxes " — are a clear indication of the conviction of the Porte that the Christian sources of revenue have neared the point of ex- haustion, and that henceforth its Mussulman subjects must be drawn upon as well, for the support of the harem in the palace of Yildiz Kiosk, where the Great Butcher holds his carnival of lust, and whence he issues his orders for CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, RESPONSIBILITIES. 259 keeping wp the carnival of crime over liis Empire. It thus becomes apparent that, compared with the complica- tions of the present and the future;, those of the diplo- macy of the past have been as nothing ; so that the out- look for future relief from this source is absolutely hopeless. Diplomacy has exhausted itself and is at a deadlock. It cannot be denied that England is primarily respon- sible for the present deadlock. As her own leading jour- nals have freely acknowledged, her dujolicity and treachery have left her Avithout a friend among the European Powers. France hates her because she will not honestly settle the Egyptian difficulty. All the other nations distrust her because, while repudiating the obligation of the Conven- tion of Cyprus to protect the Armenians, she still retains Cyprus, instead of giving it up to be governed by the Powers. Russia has special reason to mistrust her, for the Czar is well aware that her sole aim in delaying the Sick Man's dying has been to shut out the Russians from the Mediterranean Sea, by establishing an independent prin- cipality between that and the Black Sea. The Armenians distrust her, for she has pitilessly betrayed them and re- manded more than a million of them to Turkish slavery, half of whom are dying in prison or from terror and starv- ation. In recounting the experiences of his people an Armenian writer, M. H. Gulesian, despairing of aid from England, turns to Russia, which he rightly declares to be " the only country that will help us without first thinking ' What shall we get out of the transaction ? ' " He adds : ^ "We remember Russia's noble act eighteen years ago, when our Patriarch Nerses with other Armenians went to the camp of the Grand Duke and begged him to do something in the name of God and humanity. The Russians then and there had pity and compas- sion, and inserted the following clause in the Treaty of San Stefano: ' Russia will keep her armies in Armenia imtil the reforms are car- ried out.' That was the only practical way of giving the Armenians 1 England's Hand in Turkish Massacres. The Arena, January, 1897. 260 THE CEIME OF CHEISTENDOM. any aid, and Russia knew it, and England knew it ; yet it was this very Lord Salisbury who insisted that this clause he erased. On the other hand, in spite of England's solemn responsibility and in spite of the hundreds of petitions and prayers we have sent to her, she has turned a deaf ear, even when Mr. Gladstone was in power." The Christian people of Grreat Britain herself have no faith in her principles, nay, rather, they utterly repudiate them as base and inhuman. Says Canon MacColl ^ — agree- ing in this with the Duke of Argyll : "We have insensibly slipped into the atrocious doctrine that it is for our own individual interests, as a nation, to maintain the exe- crable government of Turkey over its subject millions, at whatever cost of misery to them. , . . The proved incorrigibility of the Turkish government is to be no bar to our continued political sup- port, and that the massacres from time to time of thousands of men, women and children are, in comparison with our own political in- terests, as nothing in the balance. This, and nothing else than this, is the wicked and really infamous doctrine into which we have lapsed." All this demonstration of the dominancy of the robber morality has made it impossible that there should be any Concert of Europe in delivering the Christians from the oppression of the Sultan. What is more, it must continue to bar any effective unity of action on the part of the Powers or of the Christian peoples. The deadlock is a hopeless one. (II.) HOPELESSliJ"ESS FEOM THE Ooiq-CEET OE EuEOPE. '' The Concert of Europe " has for a time been promi- nently before the world as the latest phase of diplomacy and best illustrates its futility. It has been Nature and (described in caricature by an English news- paper as " Three Despots, two Vassals, and a Coward. ^^ It not inaptly expresses the relation of the " Six Great Powers^' of Europe "to the Eastern Question. That question, from the point of view of righteousness, is the 1 Our Eesponsibility for Armenia. CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, RESPONSIBILITIES. 261 question of the dissolution of the Turkish Empire. They have been pretending to make it the question of " the in- tegrity of Turkey.^' A recent writer has attempted to set forth the nature and aims of tliis agency.^ He asks and answers a question : "What is the Concert of Europe ? It is not a treaty, still less a federation. If it is anything, it is a tacit understanding between the 'Six Powers' that they will take common action, or abstain from ' isolated action,' in the Eastern Question. Whether it is even that, in any rational sense of the word ' understanding,' is more than doubtful. For there has been much and very grave ' isolated action,' even in pending troubles." Tliis writer proceeds to show how the constantly re- peated '' isolated action ^^ practically negatives the theory that the Concert is an "understanding " in any real sense : in the Avar between Turkey and Greece the Kaiser has of his OAvn motion supplied one of the two belligerents — the Turks — with ' ' first-class strategists ; " before the opening of the war Germany and Russia independently " pressed the Sultan to mass 200,000 men in the Balkan provinces ; " England took "isolated action" regarding Cyprus and Egypt ; France and Italy act independently regarding the other African provinces of Turkey ; Russia on her own responsibility tore up the Treaty of Paris that placed a veto on her naval power, and engaged in and carried through the war of 1877-78 ; England acted against Europe in vetoing the Treaty of San Stefano and substituting the Treaty of Berlin. Practically the Concert has held mainly in inaction, while " action " as a rule has been " isolated." But the helplessness of the Concert has not been by any means its worst defect. It has been used — is being used — as the agency of despotism buttressed by militarism, in preventing justice and freedom. Failure. Says another able writer, ^ writing from Con- 1 Contemporary Eeview, The Concert of Europe, May, 1897, p. 610. 2 Contemporary Review^ The Sultan and 1;he Powers, May, 1897, p. 2'62 THE CRIME OP CHRISTENDOM. stantinople in the midst of exciting events (April 16, 1897) : "Nothing could be more ideally perfect than a federation of the Great Powers of Europe to secure peace, harmony, and justice in the world. The Holy Alliance was an attempt to realize this ideal. The Pope has suggested that he would be the proper head of such a fed- eration, and Mr. Stead suggests the Kaiser. Perhaps the Sultan would be willing to accept the place ! The fact is that no such ideal can be realized in the present state of Europe, and to speak of the ex- isting Concert of Europe as such an ideal is to play with words. It is very far from it. Still it is not to be condemned on that account. If it were an honest attempt to secure peace in Europe and the East and good government — if it attained these ends — it would matter little that it was a rough, imperfect instrument. If it did this Avork, all the world would be content. Those who condemn it do so on the ground that either it is not honest, or that it is too cumbrous a machine to work any good to any one, or that thus far it has helped nobody but the Sultan. It has stood between him and the outraged public sentiment of Europe and America, has prevented any active interference with his plans, and has used its mighty power only against Greece and the Christian people of Crete." These are heavy counts, but they are readily established. The Concert in its more recent form "was born of the Sassun massacres, and in its embryo state was Phase ^^^ understandmg between England, France, and Russia that they would investigate these massacres and prepare a scheme of reforms which would protect the rights of the Armenians as provided in the Treaty of Berlin, the otlier three Powers agreeing to main- tain an attitude of benevolent neutrality." The investiga- tion of the Sassun massacres by the Turkish Commission was such a farce, and the work of the Commission of the Powers such a farce, that Italy withdrew with an indignant protest, and the entire scheme of the Concert collapsed, and the work of butchery was allowed to go on. When the Cretans, oppressed beyond endurance, rose in rebellion for the eighth time during the present century, the Concert supported the Turkish oppressors with their united navies, and carefully guarded against injuring a hair of their CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, RESPONSIBILITIES. 263 Moslem heads, but opened fire upon tlie insurgent Chris- tians, and, contrary to all humanity and all international law, undertook to hinder Greece from helping her kins- men in their struggle for liberty, and threatened her with blockade, and prevented the union of Crete with Greece. The iniquitous action in the case of Crete was ostensibly taken lest "the opening of the Macedonian question would set Europe by the ears " ; but, lo, the result of it is a Macedonian AVar, and possible, nay prob- able, consequences of untold evil. The present dreadful situation is all the legitimate out- come of the policy formulated and inaugurated by Beacons- field at Berlin, adopted and hallowed by Lord Salisbury, and defended and advocated by their followers in the English Government. The writer in The Contemporary Eeview puts the case strongly and truly, uncovering the sinister motives, the bald heartlessness, and the moral per- versity that characterize it : " For at Berlin there was consolidated — ' consecrated ' is the Minis- terial word — the startling theory that all the Great Powers Avere en- titled to safeguard their imaginary shares in the ' bankrupt stock ' of the Sultanate. To that end, they had a common interest in preserv- ing its ' integrity.' If it could be reformed without prejudice to that high purpose, the Christian Powers had no objection. But however urgent any particular case might be, no mere interest of a Christian population, and no doctrinaire idea that a just rebellion entitles such a population to sympathy and support was to be allowed to diminish the area of divisible goods, against the time when the heritage might come to be apportioned. The one ray of light which Mr. Curzon has thrown upon the present situation is his pithy enunciation of this principle ; and for that service he may be forgiven much that is de- plorable." But that is not all. At all times during these past years. Great Britain with her powerful navy has held the key to the situation, and by a word might have brought the Turk to terms, as Gladstone did years ago. Despotism, and not one of the European Powers would have made an objection. But instead of doing this Lord 264 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. Salisbury has insisted that she should "adhere to the Concert " in its inaction. She had bound herself by solemn treaty to utter that word and to make it eifective, but the man of " lath painted to resemble iron " stood in the way, and the result is a complete change in her position in Europe and before the world. She finds herself bound helplessly and ignominiously by the policy she herself formulated and " consecrated " for them, to the Drei- Kaiser-Bund, the Triple Alliance of the Kaisers, the most powerful alliance in the interests of despotism that Europe has ever witnessed. It looks like a case of speedy nemesis, although its results for the suffering Christians of Turkey must make " death and hell rejoice." But all these are only the less important matters. The worst results are the practical rehabilitation of Turkey and the Renaissance of Islam. The Sultan feels Results for the -, t p i i • Sultan. assured — and freely expresses his assurance — that his "policy" has been a triumjihant success. From the outset that policy has been to strengthen the Mohammedan element in Turkey and to revive the power and influence of the Caliphat. Thanks to British diplomacy, he has accomplished several tasks that, at the Treaty of San Stefano, would have seemed im- possible. Posing as the Caliph of Islam — although then regarded as a pretender — " the events of the past four years have stirred the hearts of Moslems all over the world and roused a new interest in the Caliphat of the Sultan." In Turkey things are at fever heat. They have " tasted blood and filled their houses with plunder," and they have "taken heart from the success of the Sultan." One writing from Constantinople shows how this has been brought about : " They had lost all faith in the ability of Turkey to resist the prog- ress of European civilization, and had no doubt that any attack upon the Christians would bring down upon them instant and terrible pun- ishment, But they have seen 10,000 Christians butchered in Constant CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, EESPONSIBILITIES. 265 tinople under the very eyes of the Ambassadors without any unpleasant results. Not a man has been punished for it. To what can they at- tribute this amazing fact but to the power and wisdom of the Sultan? They believe that all Europe is trembling before him; they realise, as the Sultan himself does, that he is braving all Christendom; and that he has done it with impunity is enough to rouse the old spirit of Islam. This new born fanaticism meets us every day whenever we come in contact with the common people." The Sultan has rid himself of the two most dangerous Mohammedan elements of disaffection that he found in his Empire, — the old Pashas who objected to the rapid ac- cumulation of enormous fortunes by the favorites of the ]3alace and to the alienation of Christian Europe, as de- structive to the Empire ; and the new school of young Turks who, with more or less of European education, were dreaming of Constitutional and Parliamentary government for Turkey. " The Sultan, feeling that both these classes were disaffected and dangerous, established a secret police and a system of espionage unequaled by anything in Europe, which has been so far successful in its work that the old Pashas are mostly in exile, and the younger mal- contents have mostly disappeared.''^ The Sultan has destroyed the power of the Christians in Armenia and in Asia Minor. A hundred thousand of them have been massacred. Many more than that number have died of exposure and starvation. A million and a half have been stripped of their property and means of livelihood, and "^what was, a few years ago, the most prosperous, progressive and influential community in Asiatic Turkey has been reduced to hopeless poverty and impotence." The millions of Christians all over Turkey have, as elsewhere stated, been terrorized. The Sultan has, with the aid of Christian money and Christian brains and Christian armament, rehabilitated Turkey as a military power, so that the Empire is organ- ized and equipped and trained for war as never before in its history, from the Golden Horn to Epirus and to Mt. Ararat. 266 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. In sliort, Abd-nl-Hamid lias apparently come very near to bringing about the Renaissance of Islam. For more than half a century England coddled the Sick Man, in order to use him in preventing Russia, the largest empire in Europe, from ever obtaining a free port. She gave him respectability and prestige as one of the Powers. That was thought to be rational politics ; but it has turned the tables and made the Turk feel that he is the arbiter of Europe. As one phrases it : " Europe is now a very magazine of terrors, and Abd-ul-Hamid holds the torch over the mine, and at the same time brains Greece." There are evidences that he has planned the extermina- tion of the Christians of his Empire, that he anticipates the re-awakening of the old spirit of Islam, and that he meditates the proclamation of a new jihad, or Holy War,- that shall embrace in its sweep the entire Mohammedan world. It looks very much as if the diplomatists that have brought all these things to pass through the Concert of Europe, might at an early day be called to witness the gathering of the hosts at Armageddon, and to see Europe and the world drenched in Christian blood in beating back the reinspirited hosts of Islam. There are just three hopeful features to the present out- look. The first is that everything depends HopeM upon Abd-ul-Hamid himself. Says the writer Features. r~i • -, from Constantmople : " The weakest point in the Sultan's position is that he has built up a structure which rests exclusively upon his own personality. If he were to die to-morrow it would fall to the ground. It is impossible that any successor should take up his work. When he dies there will be a tremendous reaction against this system, while all the ele- ments of confusion which he has introduced will remain active. The fanaticism which he has stirred up will not die with him. The Kurds and other wild tribes whom he has armed and patronized will be more lawless than ever. The administration which he has disorganized to concentrate it in the Palace will be left in confusion. It would not CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, RESPONSIBILITIES. 267 be strange if a period of anarchy sliould follow, which would neces- sitate foreign intervention. Tlie Sultan is personally stronger than ever to-day, but it is not to the advantage of his Empire." The second is that Great Britain may still hold the power to break the deadlock, by undertaking " isolated action/^ If she can only rid herself of the weak man at the helm, and bestir herself, she may yet escape in part the in- evitable retribution that would be all the sadder because it would be the scourge not only of England but of the world. TV ith the opening of the last two centuries England girded herself and asserted her military supremacy under Marlborough and Wellington for law and order. With the opening of the twentieth century may she- not rouse herself again to like task for Christendom and humanity ? In such an uprising she would doubtless have France and Italy with her in the end ; and she has the navy with which to sweep all seas. It may be true — as Lord Salisbury recently said — that " England with her fleet could only reach a little portion of the vast Turkish dominion ; " but the London Spectator appropriately replied : ^ " Very true, and a man with a bayonet can only reach a little portion of his foe, — only if that portion happens to be the heart, the thrust is usually sufficient ! " And the English navy could easily strike the heart of Turkey, Constantinople, and its heart of hearts, the person of the Sultan in his central palace there, and that, as elsewhere shown, would mean wreck to the Otto- man Empire.^ 1 The Spectator, May 8, 1897, p. 646. 2 The vulnerable character of the Turkish Empire is apparent from its absolute dependence upon the personality of Abd-ul-Hamid him- self. See p. 266. It is also well brought out in the latest work of Canon MacColl, " The Sultan and the Powers," in which (p. 304) the Canon says, referring to Armenia : "The troubles in Armenia have their root and cause in Tildiz Kiosk, and no great military force, or any military force at all, is needed to reach the author of the mischief. Any fleet in the world 268 THE CEIME OP CHRISTENDOM. The third hopeful feature is found in the possibilities of awakening public opinion. The Concert of Europe has stood dead against public opinion and shielded the Sultan from it. Abd-ul-Haniid appreciates this. A resident of Constantinople, already quoted, writes : -^ " Public opinion in Christendom condemns his policy as that of a madman or a bloodthirsty tyrant. It resents his treatment of his Christian subjects, and honestly sympathises with his Turkish victims. It believes that he is hastening the inevitable destruction of his Empire, and it demands that he be deposed or put under restraint. No one knows this better than the Sultan himself. He talks about it with every European whom he sees. It is the one thing which he fears and finds beyond his direct control, but he has spared no pains to influence it in his favor. But public opinion is powerless unless it finds expression in the acts of governments. Be- tween public opinion and the Sultan stands what is known as the Concert of Europe, and it has been to the maniijulation of this that his matchless diplomatic cleverness has been chiefly directed." The Powers taking refuge in the Concert have disregarded public opinion, and have thwarted all the efforts of the Ambassadors at Constantinople who have been more or less amenable to it. Christian England alone has the power to break the spell, which can be done by making the senti- ment for right and humanity, in connection with the Eastern Question, so overwhelming as to sweep the Gov- ernment before it. That would sweep America and France, and ultimately all Christendom before it, and bring the dawn of freedom for the millions of enslaved Christians that are now so wretched and hopeless. One thing is certain, and that is that the time is already fully come for Christendom to have done with such diplo- macy and with such Concert of Europe. Every hour of can do it, even the smallest ; for it may be done even without passing the Dardanelles. There is no Government in the world so vulnerable by sea as the Ottoman Porte. It is exposed in scores of places to a naval occupation without any power of resistance, for the Sultan has no navy." 1 The Contemporary Eeview, May, 1897, p. 625. CONCLtTSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, BESPONSIBILITIES. 269 delay deepens the peril and increases the risk of being too late. (III.) Demonstrated Impossibility of Eeform by the Turk. There is at the present time an established consensus of intelligent Christendom that there is no possibility of reforming Turkey through the Turk. Two illustrious examples of failure in Turkish reform, undertaken by two Turks of genius — a genius inherited doubtless from Christian mothers — have already been cited, those of Selim III. at the close of last century, and of Mahmood II. at the opening of the present century.-^ The continued failure in attempted — or rather professed at- tempts at — reform has been noted by the way. A summary statement of the results of the three most marked of recent attempts will serve to emphasize the hopelessness of any helpful outcome from such The Three efforts. Three recent failures — each greater, Hatts. and in its results more terrible, than the last — have shown the impossibility of Turkish reform from within, even when accompanied by substantial pressure from without. On N"ovember 3, 1839, Abd-ul-Medjid, through the in- fluence of his minister, Redjid Pasha, in order to strengthen his empire that then seemed on the verge of dissolution, issued the Hatt-i-Sheriff of Gul- k'^^l^.^*oo ' ^ . . Sheriff, 1839. hane, ostensibly granting on paper full and entire liberty and religious and social equality to the Christian subjects of the Sultan. It was really a specious device to bring the Empire into connection with the so- called liberal Powers of Europe and thereby to strengthen it against Russia. The Old Turks fought it to the death, and it accomplished nothing for freedom, however much it did toward carrying Great Britain and France into the ' See p. 22. 270 THE CRIME OE CHRISTENDOM. Crimean "War and rendering certain all the butclieries that have since occurred, for which those two Powers thus became chiefly and guiltily responsible. The absolute failure of the Turk to carry out the prom- ises of the Hatt-i- Sheriff led the European Powers, after the Crimean war, to bring renewed pressure ^of 1856 * ^^ ^®^^ npon Turkey — now by the consum- mated iniquity of that War one of themselves — to institute such reforms as would make existence toler- able for her Christian sabjects. That pressure resulted in the Hatt-i-Humayoun of February 18, 1856, which " con- firmed and consolidated " the promises of the older docu- ment of 1839. In order to make the Great Powers doubly sure that reform had come at last, Fuad Pasha addressed a document to them, in which in high-sounding phrase he says : ^ " The Imperial Firman of February 18, 1856, is only the confirma- tion and development of the Act of Gulhane, which solemnly decreed the regime of equality and opened the era of reform in the Ottoman Empire. . . . But the Act of Gulhane was by itself merely the acknowledgment of a right and the promise of a reform which might remain barren. The time has come for converting promises into facts — in other words, for introducing them into the institutions of the country." That would seem to have insured the fulfillment of the pledge of the Hatt-i-Sheriif, in words at least ; but it did not do so in fact. The promise of religious liberty is so craftily worded in the document as absolutely to nullify itself. Here is the most important clause of concession regarding building, etc., for religious purposes : " In the towns, small boroughs, and villages where the whole popu- lation is of the same religion^ no obstacles may be offered to repair, according to their original plan, of buildings set apart for religious worship, for schools, for hospitals, and for cemeteries." The italicized clauses contain the practical nullification 1 MacColl, The Eastern Question, p. 99. CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, KESPONSIBILITIES. 271 of the concessions, for, in the first place, there are really no such exclusively Christian communities in Turkey ; and, in the second place, if there Self-Nulli- were, the conditions involved in rebuilding, enlarging or changing of sites are such as to render the work impracticable. Here is the core of the concession of freedom of religion and worship, depending upon the same never-existing condition of things : "Each community in a locality ivhere there is no other denomina- tion shall be free from every species of restraint as regards the public exercise of its religion." It follows, of course, that in all communities composed partly of Mussulmans and partly of Christians — that is, in all communities in Turkey — the ordinary re- strictions of the Koran are in full force, ^^f^^, ^^^ of Islam. Among these restrictions, taken from the Multeka, are the following, which are quoted from Canon MacColl, in order to make clear the quality of religious liberty in Turkey under this most famous Hatt : ^ " It is not lawful for Christians or Jews to build churches or con- vents in our land, nor for the Magii to build temples for fire-worship. They are also forbidden to trade in wine or swine. They are allowed to repair old churches which are in ruins, but they must do this with the old material, in the same place, and without any additions. It is not lawful for them to sound bells, except inside of their churches, and so gently that they shall not be heard outside. They are not allowed to dwell among Moslems in the same city ; but they must live in a special quarter by themselves, where no Moslems reside. Should any of them imrchase a house in the Moslem quarter, he can not be permitted to occupy it, but must sell it. Moreover, the Christian must be distinguished from the Moslem by his dress, the animal he rides, and its saddle. He is not allowed to ride upon horses or camels, bnt he may ride upon donkeys and mules. lie is not permitted to use arms or to wear them. In public he must always wear the kosteef (a narrow strip outside his dress) to distinguish him from the Moslems. He is not allowed even to ride on a donkey ex- 1 See MacColl, The Eastern Question, pp. 101-3. 272 THE CRIME OE CSBlSTENDOM. cept in case of necessity, and then he must use a coarse cushion in place of a saddle, and he must dismount whenever he meets Moslems. . . . His dress must not be of rich cloth, such as silk or fine wool. His turban must be large, and of coarse black cotton. His shoes also must be of tlie coarsest quality to mark his degradation. His garments must be short, with the pockets on the breast, like those of a woman. He is forbidden to sit down in the presence of a Moslem who is standing. ... A Christian woman or female child must keep away from Moslems in the street and in the bath. They must walk on the side of tlie way to give room for the Moslem woman in the middle. The Christian must have a sign on his gate, so that beggars may not say, ' God bless you.' He must walk in the nar- rowest part of the way when he meets a Moslem. He must pay the tribute standing while the collector sits. When the collector takes the tribute from him he should treat him very harshly, as by shaking him, beating him on the breast , or even dragging him on the ground ; and should say to him at the same time , ' Give the tribute , O Dsimm i ; O enemy of Allah,' and this he shall do in order to degrade and dis- grace him. And if he should refuse to pay tribute, some say that he should be imprisoned and forced to pay ; but the majority of law authorities agree that he must be put to the sword or made a slave. Should he curse the Prophet (on whom be peace) , he is to be pun- ished according to his crime ; but should he do it openly and often, he must be burnt alive." . This is simply an accurate epitome of the provisions of Mohammedan law^ as governing the Turk in his dealings with the Christians in all the conditions that ever actually exist in the Turkish Empire. The following citation from Canon MacColl's book, pub- lished twenty years ago,^ makes abundantly clear the way the Turk has always had of evading the lying promises of the Hatt-i-Humayoun : " In a Blue Book on Religious Persecution in Turkey, published in 1815, I find the following facts stated on the authority of Her Majesty's Ambassador and Consuls in Turkey, that tlie Porte 'definitely refused ' to permit the establishment of Christian schools; that it prohibited the publication of the Bible in the Turkish lan- guage; and that, in direct violation of the Hatt-i-Humayoun, the children not only of Mussulmans, but even of heathen parents, can 1 The Eastern Question, pp. 97, 98, published in 1877. CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, BESPONSIBILITIES. 273 never be recognized as Christians, even if they have been baptized in infancy : ' The law did not recognize such men at all, but as Moham- medans ' — such is the answer made by the Grand Vizier to the British charge d'affaires on the 18th of May, 1874, and the latter found, on in- quiry, that the Grand Vizier was quite right.^ Does not this demon- strate the folly of trusting to any promises made by the Turkish Government in Hatts, or Firmans, or Trades ? Over them all is the Sacred Law of Islam, which ' altereth not,' and which, in every case of collision, must inevitably prevail. ' No one shall be constrained to change his religion,' says the Hatt-i-Humayoun. ' You are violating thellatt-i-Humayoun,' remonstrates Her BritannicMajesty's represen- tative at the Porte, ' for you are forcing Christians, by means of cruel tortures and threats of death, to conform to the Koran and attend the mosques.' 'Quite a mistake,' blandly replies the Grand Vizier; .' the persons you speak of are not Christians at all; they are Mussul- mans.' ' That proves nothing at all,' rejoins his Highness, 'for by the law of Turkey the children of non-Christian parents can never become Christians.' ' That is an evasion of the Hatt-i-Humayoun,' retorts the charge d'affaires,' for it promises complete religious liberty to all the Sultan's subjects.' The Grand Vizier shrugs his shoulders at the obtuseness of the Britisli intellect, and explains that any in- terpretation of the Hatt-i-Humayoun which would bring it in collision with the law of the Empire must of course be a wrong interpretation." This, as an accurate government summary made up from dispatches, extending over several months, shows what was meant by '^'^ religious toleration" in Turkey, after theHatt of 1856 had been on paper for twenty years ! Still greater pressure was brought to bear in securing the third promise of reform, after the Eusso-Turkish War of 1877-78. Profuse promises were made by the representatives of Turkey at the Congress of iRys'^ Berlin, The Sultan afterward solemnly agreed to carry out the engagements of the Hatt-i-Humayoun of 1856, and even to enlarge the measure of freedom therein promised and professedly guaranteed. But — as already seen — Turkey, having come to understand what she was to be one of the Powers and to use a free hand within her own borders, and relying upon the pledges of Great Britain 1 Eeligious Persecution in Turkey, pp, 87, 40, 49, 54, j8 274 THE CEIME OF CHRISTENDOM. in connection with her secret treaty, declined to pledge anything more than her *^ word of honor ^' for carrying out the Hatt. Every one knows the value of the " word of honor" of the " unspeakable Turk" ! The inevitable result in fearful wholesale butchery has come in due time, and not a hand has been lifted to stay the bloodthirsty work of the Great Assassin. Meanwhile the power of Islam has been working secretly and cease- lessly from the palace at Yildiz Kiosk, to make the whole Empire intolerable as an abode for Christians, and in fact to annihilate or convert all the Christians. Every possible hindrance has been thrown in the way of mission work. The censorship of the press has been made use of to pre- vent the introduction and distribution of Christian litera- ture and the Bible by the missionaries. Evidence is not wanting that the decree for the destruction of all Christians has gone forth from the palace of the Sultan, and that the Kurds and soldiery have been organized, and for several years directed to that end. It ought to be clear by this time to the obtusest mind that Hatts and Imperial Firmans are worthless as a means of reforming the Turk and ameliorating the ^^Sl^"^' condition of his Christian subjects. Turkey is a theocratic despotism, based upon the Koran, to which religious toleration means suicide. The text-book of Turkish law is the Multeka-ul-Abhur (The Meeting of the Two Seas). It is hard for Western minds to conceive of its absolute authority to the Turkish Courts. Canon MacColl has said of it — buttressing his statement by citing the French author Ubicini : ^ "It belongs to the class of books, and stands next in authority to the Koran ; or rather, it is the authorized interpreter of the Koran, so that in all disputed passages the Multeka must be consulted; and then causa jinita est. ' All points respecting dogmas, divine worship, morals, civil and political law, etc., are so immutably settled iu thig 1 Eastern Question, pp. 104-5t CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, RESPONSIBILITIES. 275 work as to dispense with all future glosses and interpretation.' It is, in fact, ' regarded as an autliority without appeal.' It is a compila- tion in two folio volumes, written originally in Arabic, and trans- lated into Turkish under Sultans Ibrahim I. and Mohammed II. It was revised in 1824 by order of the Porte, and a new edition, bearing the official government stamp, was published in 1856, soon after the promulgation of the Hatt-i-Humayoun. It is the sole authority of the Turkish judges and Turkish lawyers. Their minds are saturated with its principles and precepts. In its atmosphere they may be said to live and move and have their being." The restrictions placed npon Christians by this organic law of the Turkish Empire, and necessarily resulting from the teachings of the Koran, show that " relig- ious toleration " in Turkey may be described eration as " the most ferocious display of bigotry that has ever disgraced the judicial system of any government calling itself civilized." In short, it is only another name for a savage intolerance beside which the worst features that were ever devised by the Spanish Inquisition were tender mercies. The Spirit of Islam is expressed in the Official Prayer used constantly throughout the Turkish Empire, and daily repeated by thousands of Mohammedan students. It ex- presses the same toleration as does the Muezzin, who always goes up to the worship of the altar with drawn sword in hand. The Prayer runs thus : " I seek refuge with Allah from Satan (the rejeem), the accursed. In the name of Allah the Compassionate, the Merciful ! O Lord of all creatures ! O Allah ! Destroy the infidels and polytheists, thine enemies, the enemies of the religion ! O Allah ! Make their children orphans, and defile their abodes! Cause their feet to slip; give them and their families, their households and their women, their children and their relations by marriage, their brothers and their friends, their possessions and their race, their wealth and their lands, as booty to the Moslems, O Lord of all Creatures!" All but Moslems are " infidels " and under the Turkish law. Concerning this diabolical system of Turkish law, and the skill of the Turk, after the training of more than 276 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. a half century by the great diplomats of Europe, in dealing with it. Canon Mac Coll has further to say : ^ "The Multeka, then, is the universal code of Turkish law, to -which every Mussulman must bow from the Sultan downwards, and from whose decrees there can be no appeal. And the skill of Turkish diplomacy consists in reconciling the largest measures of reform with the doctrines and precepts of the Multeka. This it does by such am- bidextrous use of language as shall enable a Turkish official to drive the proverbial ' coach-and-six ' through the finest Hatt that ever issued from the Sublime Porte," The Turkish skill in this regard has already been shown, in connection with the provisions of the Hatt of 1856. The three successive failures thus sketched — J^nine ®^^^ succeeding one greater and more horrible in its results than the last — show the utter and everlasting hopelessness of all attempts at reform in Turkey through the agency of the Turk. The organic law of the Empire — forever prohibiting Christian equality — renders it impossible, and makes all schemes having it in view utterly Utopian. The Sultan knows that reform would mean revolution and dissolution, and knowing this he has proclaimed every so-called reform hypocritically — follow- ing each reform Irade, or preceding it, by a secret order for oppression and butchery. These orders during the last few years have evidently kept steadily in view the gradual extermination of the Christian subjects of the Porte, beginning with the Armenians as the wealthiest and most influential, and as least intimately connected re- ligiously and racially with the Powers of Europe. In the meantime he has exerted himself to set these Powers at loggerheads, and so to prevent anything from being accom- plished, while he has applied himself to making the most of the provisions of the Anglo-Turkish Convention for fur- nishing him protection and immunity in carrying out his gcheme of extermination. J The Eastern Question, pp. 105-6, CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, RESPONSIBILITIES. 277 In view of all this course of history could anything dem- onstrate more clearly the political lunacy and the moral idiocy of the so-called Christian nations, than their recent conduct ? That, after all this experience of criminal fail- ure, they should, at the close of three, years of the blood- iest butcheries that have ever occurred in the history of the Christian centuries, propose as "^"tu^ a remedy another Halt, is an insult to the in- telligence of Christendom and an unpardonable crime against humanity ! That after six months of elaborate fooling they should propose that when the new Hatt has gone through the long-drawn-out process of negotiation with the Sultan — extending possibly till 1898 — the Great Assassin shall be given plenty of time and left practically to his own sweet will in carrying out the proposed re- forms, caps the climax of diplomatic imbecility and in- iquity ! (IV.) Things Essential to a Eighteous Solution. It has already been insisted that there can be no perma- nent solution of the Eastern Question, either in its en- tirety, or in any of its parts, except along the lines of humanity and righteousness. But under this principle there are some things that may be regarded as practically settled. The fundamental necessity is that Turkish rule shall be absolutely abolished. Eecent events show that Mr. Glad- stone's policy, pushing the Turk ^' bag and baggage " out of Europe, must be amended and i;- ■^^"i^*^"^ °^ enlarged so as to include the pushing of him as ruler out of Asia and Africa as well. He should be placed beyond any possible opportunity of ruling over Christians anywhere. The Turkish Empire should be abolished. The Turk has cursed the fairest portions of the globe for now many centuries, and is acknowledged to 278 THE CRIIVIE OF CHRISTENDOM. have forfeited all possible right to continue his blighting influence. But would not such a course on the part of the Powers as is necessary to make an end of Turkish rule involve great bloodshed ? That is the question that startles and balks the diplomats. Well, suppose it should. The sustaining of the Turk in power has already cost a vast amount of bloodshed, in the wars that have been waged by the so-called Christian* Powers, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of Chris- tians that have been butchered in cold blood ; and if the same policy is continued the wars and the butcheries will in the near future, as in the past, be continued. That policy has already rolled up the immense bonded debt of Turkey, and if continued must add to it even more rapidly. But there are abundant reasons for doubting the blood- shed, if the Powers should vigorously take the Turk in hand. The Sultan is not yet acknowledged as the DoubtM Commander of the Faithful by the other Mo- Bloodshed. . "^ hammedan peoples. He is not the Sheikh-ul- Islam, but a usurper. The Mussulmans even in Arabia do not recognize him. Those of other nations do not pray for him but for their own rulers — those in Morocco pray- ing for their own Sultan, those in India for Queen Vic- toria, the Empress of India. The possibility — in the event of the Powers taking the Turk in hand — of a rising of the Mohammedans in India against the British Government, out of sym- Y^f:* °^ pathy with their co-religionists, has been made much of by some Philo-Turks. In the Con- temporary Revieio for February, 1897, Canon MacColl dis- cusses that subject, in view of an exaggerated statement in the London Times of the feeling in India at the assailing of the "Commander of the Faithful ^' with the foulest abuse as '^a butcher and a murderer.'' Concerning this the Canon says, in outlining his discussion : CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, RESPONSIBILITIES. 279 " It would be unwise to disregard the state of mind liere described; but equally unwise to exaggerate its importance. Does it, in truth, accurately represent the feelings of Her Majesty's Mussulman subjects in India in the mass ? Next, is there any reasonable ground for it ? Lastly, would it be prudent, in any case, to let it influence British policy and senthnent in regard to the Sultan ? To these questions I propose in the following pages to return such answers as appear to me to be ratified by reason, justice, and the facts." In the course of his discussion he brings out the fact that the Sunni Mohammedans of Turkey and the Shiah Mohammedans who occupy Persia and portions of India treat each other as schismatics and heretics, and the latter ** regard the Sultan with peculiar abhorrence.'^ The mis- representations and agitation in India originate mainly with the Mutazilites, now a small and insignificant sect of Indian Mohammedan freethinkers, and who are not a rep- resentative class ; and with the impoverished and decaying aristocracy of Islam, It was this small but noisily inclined element that, in 1877, instigated by the British Jingoes, sent addresses to the British Government, '^'^ protesting against any interference with the Sultan." The late Mr. Forster, while declaring his belief in the enor- mous exaggeration of the extent of the sympathy of Indian Mussulmans for the Sultan, insisted that it would in any case be at her peril if England ^^' ^P^'^^^^'s listened to it. Of the subject-races in India, he said, ''An enormous majority are Hindus, and what would they think of that country which governed its re- lations to Christian Europe upon a regard to Mohamme- dan prejudices "i" Three points instanced by the Canon indicate the wide separation of the Turkish and Indian Mussulmans : First, the Khutbah, or Friday prayer for the Sovereign, is never said for the Sultan in any mosque out of Turkey. When there was a universally acknowledged Khalif, or Commander of the Faithful, he was prayed for in every mosque in the world. 280 THE CKIME OF CHRISTENDOM. Second, the appeal of the Mussulmans of India has been made, not to the Sultan, but to the Ulema of Mecca. Third, the office of the Sheikh-ul-Islam in Turkey itself is a public official recognition that the Sultan is not ac- knowledged even in Turkey as Khalif and Commander of the Faithful. Since the extinction of the Khalifat with the Omeyyad dynasty in the year 750, says Sir W. Muir, there has never been a successor of the Prophet acknowl- edged as such over all Islam. The mass of Mohammedans in India would not be in- clined to sympathize Avith the Sultan in the event of the Powers of Europe breaking with him ; and even if so in- clined would be practically helpless. The Sultan could expect no sympathy from the millions of Moslems under the rule of the Czar. On the contrary, "they have repeatedly and loyally fought EkewhSe against him,"' under the Russian flag ; and when in 1877 the Czar declared war against Turkey his Moslem subjects " hastened to assure him of their loyalty and satisfaction, and of their horror at the massacres of Christians of which the Sultan had been guilty." The Sultan could not even depend, in the event of de- cisive action on the part of the Powers, upon the Moslem subjects of his own Empire. Arabia re|)ueliates his head- ship and has long been in a state of chronic revolt verging upon practical independence. The Mohammedans in Eu- rope who are not of the Turkish race, but descended from converts to Islam by the sword, and who in addition to their present experiences of Turkish oppression are still influenced by traditions of unspeakable past horrors, hate the Turk, and have exhibited their chronic hatred by con- stant rebellions, especially in Central and Upper Turkey, and by their present readiness to rebel. It is therefore the reasoned conviction of many of the best judges that powerful combined pressure brought to CONCLUSIONS, POSSIBILITIES, RESPONSIBILITIES. 281 boar by tlie Powers promptly and efficiently;, would prob- ably finish the rule of the Turk without any great blood- shed, — possibly with less than would result from another iniquitous experiment in sustaining him in his present position. The dismemberment of the Empire is not only a physical and racial requisite, but also a governmental necessity. With the passing of the Turk the very serious problem of governing his vast domain will be^. ^- ^^^^^ ^ r a o DismemDerment. on. No government can be at all satisfactory that does not secure the four primary conditions of civiliza- tion : security for life, honor, religious liberty, and property. The obstacles in the way of bringing about these condi- tions are simply insuperable. The immense extent of the Empire and the physical conformation of the various subiect lands constitute a first diffi- Incongruous '' . . Elements, culty. The Turkish possessions, immediate and tributary, in Europe, Asia and Africa, are equal in extent to half of Europe, or of the United States. They are widely scattered, traversed in every direction by prac- tically impassable mountains and deserts, frozen at one extremity and with the hottest places on the globe at the other, and having over almost all their vast regions no facilities for civilized intercommunication and intercourse. This vast and scattered region is inhabited by races almost innumerable", representing the most diverse religious faiths, being chiefly in a condition of barbarism or semi-barbarism, and having no conception whatever of just and settled law and government. Ottomans, Slavs, G-reeks, Albanians, Eoumanians, Armenians, Druses, Jews, Tatars, Kurds, Gjrpsies, furnish representatives of Mohammedanism with its scores of sects, of the ancient Greek and Armenian churches, of Komanism and Protestantism, of the old Maronite and Nestorian Christianity, of the anti-Moham- medan faith of the Kizzilbash Kurds, and of many heathenish religions, — and none of them have anything in 282 THE CRIME OF CHRISTENDOM. common except that each, of the races and religions hates the others. The task of governing 30^,000,000 or more of such peoples in such circumstances and with such environment through one central government manifestly is an im- No Central .-, ■, -^y n 12; Its Failure, 13 Mohammedanism, Entrance into Europe, 3 ; Spread over Eastern Church, 5 ; Its Degrading Influence, 14 ; Form akin to Jesuitism, 15 ; Latest Propaganda of, 306 Mohammedan Official Prayer, 275 Montenegro, 121 Moors driven from Western Europe, 127 Mount Ararat, Center of Plateau, 143 ; Center of Three Empires, 153 Moslems, in Russia loyal to the Czar, 280 Muir, Sir W., View of Islam, 14 Multeka, The, 271 ; Supremacy of, 273 Mustapha Pasha, in Crete, 245 MutaziUtes, or Indian Freethinkers, 279 N Napier, Sir Charles, 85 Napoleon I., His Forgery, 36, 53 Napoleon III., and the Crimean War, 62 Navarino, Battle of, 55, 70 Nazarbek, Story of Zeitun, 213 ; On the Huntchak Party, 215 Neander, View of Mohammedanism, 14 Nelidoff, M. de. Note to the Porte, 303 Nesselrode, Chancellor, 64 Nestorians, Massacre of, 59 ; Missions among, 154 New Julfa, Armenians in, 147 " Xew York Observer," View of American Duty, 221 Nicholas of Russia, 31 ; His Character and Greatness, 63 ; Popularity in England, 63 : Diagnosis of the " Sick Man," 64 ; ' Understanding with Lord Aberdeen, 65 ; The Memorandum, 65 ; His Sudden Death, 71 Nihilism, its Origin, 35 Non-Party Movement, 297 Noor-ed-Din, 204 North Danube Belt, 118 ; Peoples of, 118 Northern Belt of Turkish Armenia, 169 ; Peoples of, i6g NovikofE, Madame, on Russia, 33 o Official England, 46 Official Europe, 46, 292 " Old Russia," 12 ''Old Turk," and Fanaticism, 23 ; Predomi- nant in the Empire, 284 Olga, Queen, 28 Orkhan, 17 Orthodox, Russian Idea of, 33 Osborn, Major, 14 Osman Pasha, 60, 182 Ottoman Empire, Disintegration of, 23; Sovereignty over Christians, 113; Char- acterized by William Watson, 179 Ottoman Bank, Pretended Attack on, 222 ; Escape of Robbers, 223 ; Signal for Mas- sacre, 223 Ottoman Parliament, 283 Palgrave, Mr. Gifford, 93 Palmerston, Lord, 6g, 70 : His diplomacy, 70, 72, 75 ; Legacy to England, 79, 87 ; on Situation of Armenia, 239 Palu, Massacre at, 203 Pan-Islam, Dream revived by Turco-Greek War, 306 Pan-Slavism, 28 Pargiotes, Heroic, 53 Parliamentary Papers, loi, 105, 106 Patriarchs, Armenian, i4g ; Seats of, 150 Peace of Adrianople, 3g " Peace with Honor," 138 ; With Infamy, Peoples involved in the Eastern Question, 12 Perils to Chastity, g2 Persians, their Character, 154 Peterson, Clemens, on Key to Russian Conduct, 32 Phanariots, 21 Philhellenes, English, 55 Pichler, Dr., 17 Plateau of Armenia, 143 ; Its Divisions, 153 Poland, Russian Policy in, 31 INDEX. S27 Powers, Pressure on the Porte, 109 ; Dis- heartened, 113; Responsibility for Zeitun 217; Treatment of Crete, 247 Preliminary Questions to Russo-Turkish War, 125 Prince Albert, on the Crimean War, 126 Professor Papparrhigopoulos, on the Slavic Rising, 123 Proposals, of the Powers, 109; of Confer- ence of Constantinople, 112 Protestant Missions in Armenia, 152 Protocol, of Russia, 100 ; of Constantinople, 100; of March 31, 113; of Count Schou- valoff, 114; Terms of Russian, 116; Signers of, 117 Providential Change in Europe, 125 Providential Resources, 301 ; Shown by Proposal of New Bonds, 303 Public Opinion, Hope from, 268; Abd-ul, Hamid's Dread of, 268; Disregarded by the Powers, 268 R. Raglan, Lord, His Pathetic Appeal, Si Rawlinson, on Origin of Races, 142 Rayah, 91 ; Taxes upon, 92 Reformation and Fall of Constantinople, 6 Reign of Terror on Armenian Plateau, 183 Religious Center of Armenia, 160 Renaissance of Islam, 264 Renan, Ernest, 13 Responsibility, Suggestions of, 306 ; of the Turk, 306; of the Real Christendom, 308; of Europe, 309; of England, 310; of America, 311 Results and Responsibilities, 229 " Review of Reviews," quoted, 254 Revival of Learning, 6 Riddle, Mr., American Charge d' Affaires, 313 Romanoffs, Greatness of, 63 Rosch, the Original Russ, 24 Roumania, in Treaty of Berlin, 135 Ruling Purpose of Sultan, 306 Russia, View of the Eastern Question, 10 ; In the Eastern Question, 24 ; Regenerat- ed, 25 ; Its Religious Idea, 28 ; Defender of Greek Christians, the Key to her Con- duct, 32 ; Reactionary, 34 ; Expansion of, 36; Rights of, McClellan's view, 38; Ambitions of, 39 ; Judged by Deeds, 40 ; the only Obstacle to Turkey, 60 ; Warned out of Black Sea, 71 ; Proposed Terms of Coercion, no; and Results of Russo- Turkish War, 136 ; Need of Strong Hand, 1 58; Taming Cossack and Kurd, 158! Right to Commercial Outlets, 2S6 Russian Atrocities, Stories of, 128 Russian Disclaimer of Desire for Constan- tinople, 66; Enthusiasm for Crimean War, 68; Circular, 115; Intervention, Way opened to, 125 ; Advance and Victory, 131 ; Reaction, 158 Russian Religion, Kurtz's view of, 29 ; Stanley's view of, 29 ; Gladstone's view of, 30 ; Duff's view of, 30 ; Wallace's view of, 31 ; Argyll's view of, 31 ; Idea, of Brotherhood, 33 ; Language in Arme- nian Schools, 163 ; Unwise Revolt against, 163 ; School-system in Armenia, 164 Russian, His Character and Purposes, 24 ; His Origin, 24 ; Western Notions of, 24 ; Duff's View of, 25 Russo-Turkish War, 9 ; a War of the People, 28, 47, 79 ; Beginning of, 131 Sacred Law of Islam, Forbids Arms to Christians, 176 ; Applied to Armenians, 187 ; in the Multeka, 271 Safvet Pasha III., Circular of, 115 Salonica, Outbreak at, 106 ; Peoples of, 122 San Stefano, 39, 43 ; See Treaty of. Sassanid Dynasty, 146 Sassun, Outbreak at, 188 ; Massacre at, 189 Schaff, Dr. Philip, quoted, i, 3, 32 Scheme of Reforms, ig6 ; Features of, 196 • Rendered Abortive by the Porte, 198 ; Collective Note on, 198 ; Imperial Iride concerning, 200 Schlosser, the Historian, 18 Schuyler, Eugene, on Bulgarian Atrocities i 120, 129 Scio, Desolation of, 54 Sebastopol, 25 ; Invested by the Allies, 71 ; Evacuated, 72 Secret Treaties, 137 Selim I., 85, 173 Selim III., 22, 269 Serf-Emancipation, Anticipating Lincoln's " Emancipation Proclamation," 26 ; Vast- ness of its Reach, 27 Seymour, Sir. G. Hamilton, 65 828 INDEX. Shadow of the Irade, Butchery under, 201 Shakir Pasha, igS " Shameful Misgovernment " in Armenia, 182 Shattuck, Miss, Missionary, 204 ; Account, of Urfa, 217 Shaw, Dr. Albert, 254 Shefik Effendi, President of Commission, 200 Sheik-ul-Islam, Appeal of Sultan to, 176 Shylock, the British, gg ; the European; 178, 305 i Renewed Call of, 220 ; Fearing Loss of the Bonds, 305 " Sick Man," Turkey as the, 9 ; Turkey so named by Czar Nicholas, 64, 65 ; Sustained by Crimean War, 74 ; Partition of his Estate, 285 Sinope, so-called Massacre of, 70 Sivas, Massacre at, 210 Slaughter of December, 1895, 217 ; Account by Miss Shattuck, 217 ; in London " Speaker," 218 Slavic Crisis, 47 ; and Russo-Turkish War, 79 ; Help to its Understanding, 98 Slavic Belt of Turkey, 99, 118 ; Its Peoples, 120 Slavic or Bulgarian Version of Scriptures, 32 Slavonic Converts to Mohammedanism, 1 ig Slavophils, 28' Slavic Peoples, 118; in the Insurrection, 121 Slavs, 24 ; Behind the Czar, 130 Smith, Philip, i, 19 Smith, Prof. Goldwin, 16, 28 ; on Turkish Loans from Europe, 94 ; on Russo- Turkish War, 124 ; on Alexander II., 130 Sobieski, John, Check of Ottoman Power, 18 Solution of Eastern Question, Things Es- sential to, 277 Solyman, The Magnificent, 22 Southern Belt of Turkish Armenia, and its Peoples, 170 Spahi, Si. See Tithe-Farmer Sphakiots, of Crete, 52 Spontaneous Extermination in Armenia, i8s Stages, in Emancipation of Christians, 46 ; in the Crime of Christendom, 140 Stanley, Dean, 24, 29, 32 Stead, Mr., on the Concert of Europe, 262 Strained Relations in Transcaucasia, 165 Stratford de Redcliffe, 18, 22, 68, 87, 90 Sublime Porte, 17, 47, 68 ; Proposed Re- forms, 104 ; Reliance on Great Britain, igo ; Indifference to Scheme of Reforms, igS Suliots, Massacre of, 53 Sultan, Pressure upon, 104 ; His Agents, 234 ; Reply to Collective Note, 237 ; Advantages from the Concert, 264 ; Deal- ing with Disaffected Elements, 265 ; Destroying the Power of the Christians, 265 ; Regeneration of Islam, 266 ; not the Sheikh-ul-Islam, 278; Rehabilitated, 2go ; Ready for renewed Slaughter, 305 ; Pri- marily Responsible for all Massacres, 307 Synod of Armenian Church, 160 ; Action in Education, 164 Syria, Delivered and Enslaved, 85 Syrian Massacres, 85 T. Tahyar Pasha, 59 Talib Effendi, 186 Talvoregg District, Massacre in, 194 Tanzimat Kairieh, or Reforms of 1839, 23 Taxes, and the Greek Uprising, 239 ; Re- quirements of Increased, 258 Thaddeus, in Armenia, 148, 204 "The Arena," quoted, 259 " The Contemporary Review," quoted, 16, 8S) 93. 94. 124, 130, 159, 166, 167, 169, 170, 172. 173, 184, 185, 190, 213, 241, 261, 263, 264, 268, 278, 285, 297, 298, 309 The Crime of Christendom, Acts in, 140 " The Eastern Question," by Canon Mac- Coll, quoted, 66, 69, go, loi, 102, 108, 270, 271, 272, 274 " The Independent," 77, 78, 81 ; Account of Armenian Massacres, 211 "The New York Sun," on the Present Propaganda, 307 " The Outlook," on Turkish Policy toward Missions, 312 "The Purple East," i7g " The Rule of the Turk and the Armenian Crisis," by Rev. Frederick D. Greene, quoted, igi, ig3, 205, 208, 210 " The Sultan and the Powers," 267, 28S Tigranes I., 144 Tigranes II., The Great, 146 Timur the Lame, 147 INDEX. 329 Tiridates, His Miraculous Cure, 148 Tithe- Farmer, gi Tkhoma, Massacre at, 59 Tocat, Massacre at, ig6 Torture of Azo, 186 Tozer, Rev. H. F., on FourthCrusade, 490 Transcaucasia, 72 ; Population of, 155 Treaty of Berlin, 100, 134 ; Features of, 134 ; Releasing the Porte for Butchery, 139 ; Its Additions to Russia, 157 ; Con- cerning Armenians, 175 ; Change in Pres- sure of Taxation, 177 ; England's Re- sponsability in, 185 Treaty of Paris, 26, 37, 72 ; Installation of Turkey as a Power and the Results, 80 ; Scheme of Constitutional Government, 112; Parliament, 113; Prohibition of Arms to Christians, 176 Treaty-Right of Russia to Protect Chris- tians, 140 Treaty of San Stefano, its Main Features, 133 ; Provision for Armenian Christians, 133; Overturning of, 136; Benefits of, 250 ; How far Reversed, 250 Trebizond, the Ancient Trapezus, 145, 199 Tribute-System in Armenia, 182 Tripartite Treaties, 72 Turk, Conquest of Greek Empire by, 3 ; Condition at the Opening of the Century, 8 ; Butcher and Oppressor, 9 ; View of Eastern Question, 10 ; Character and Rights, 12 ; Right in Europe, 12 ; True Character, 13 ; Mixed Character, 16 ; Pre- tended Right in Europe Forfeited, 20 ; ' History's Condemnation of, 23 ; Encour- aged by the Powers, 68 ; Outwitting the Diplomats, 74 ; Attitude after Crimean War, in Free Butcheries, 76 ; Ultimatum to Christians, 82 ; Reassured by England, III ; as Ruler over Christians, 113 ; Giv- ing Choice to Christians, 181 "Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities," by Rev. Edwin Munsell Bliss, quoted, 207, 217 Turkey, Intriguing for Crimean War, 58 ; not one of the Powers, 61 ; made one of the Powers, 73 ; Independence by the Crimean War, 74 ; Christian Rising against, 124 ; Integrity Guaranteed, for Cyprus, 137 ; Consciousness of being a Power, 187 ; Vulnerability of, 267 Turkish, Oppression and Barbarism, 20 ; so-called Toleration, 21 ; Massacres, need of Details, 47 ; Continued Bar- barities, 58 ; Principles in full Opera- tion, and what they are, 82 ; Tribute, meaning and scope, 82 ; Taxes Extra- ordinary, 83 ; Loans, how secured, 95 ; Debt as a Factor in the Eastern Ques- tion, 99 ; Atrocities, Europe roused by, 100; Commission, a Scheme for Mas- sacre, 102 ; Promises worthless, 109 ; Tribute, its horrible Features, 181 ; Worst Form in Armenia, 182 ; Regular Troops leading at Sassun, 192 ; " Protection," 203 ; Cunning, 276 ; Bonds Endangered, 304 Turkish Armenia, Peoples of, 168 Turkish Debt, 99 ; in Armenian Massacres, 178, 201 ; Bonds to be provided for, 283 Turkish Empire, Dismemberment of, 281 ; Incongruous Elements in, 281 ; Modes of Dealing with, 282 Turkish Government, Responsibility for Massacres, 89, 180 ; Signals the Mas- sacres, 204 ; Arms the Rabble, 224 Turkish Plateau, Cradle of the Race, 166 ; Starting-Point of Commerce, 167; Race Elements in, 167 Turkish Reform, Attempts at, 22, 269 ; Impossible by the Turk, 269 ; by the Three Hatts, 269 ; Successive Failures in, 269 ; Self-nullifying, 271 ; Prevented by the Multeka, 274 Turkish Toleration, Character shown,- 275 u. Ultimate Outcome of Present Struggle, 295 Urfa, Massacre at, 204 ; Massacre renewed, 217 Ur, the Ancient, 204 V. Vali of Adrianople, arming Mussulmans, 96 Vartabad, or Doctor of Theology, 150 Vienna Note, 68, 81 Vincent, Sir Edgar, 223 Voyages, Three Notable, 6, 20 w. Wallace, Mr., His View of Russia, 27 Watson, William, 179 Wellington, Duke of, 56, 64, 66 330 INDEX. Western Christendom, Perfidy of, 49 "Westminster Gazette," quoted, 226 Whewell, Prof., 13 " Will of Peter the Great," 35 Wilson, Sir Roland, Proposed Dismember- ment, 284 Women Martyrs, 194 Woolsey, T. D., on Treaty of Paris, 80 Wright, William, D.D., on the Syrian Mas- sacres, 85, 87 X. Xerxes I., 145 Y. Yildiz Kiosk, 178, 305 " Young Turk," and Ambition, 23 ; Power- less, 284 Z. Zeitun, 205 ; History of, 213 ; Revolt and Heroic Defense, 213 ; Betrayal of, 215 ; the Huntchakists in, 216 ; Turkish Per- fidy at, 216 Zekki Pasha, 191, 195. Some llftracflue Books, DANGER S1GNAI.S For New Century Manhood. By Edward A. Tabor. A vivid thrilling description of the dangers which menace the youth of both sexes, but especially young men, in the social, political, business and moral relations of the day; together with certain suggested remedies. Cloth, i2mo, 318 pages, with frontispiece, fi.oo. FROM CLOUOS TO SUNSHINE ; or, The Evolution of the Soul. By E. Thomas Kaven, author of " A Duel of Wits." Those who enjoy a luminous discussion of current questions relating to the origin and age of man, etc., conducted in a most finished manner, will find a trial in this volume. It is full of snap, vim and good humor. Cloth, izmo, |i.oo. THE DOCTRINES OF THE BOOK OF ACTS. By G. L. VouNG. This is a work sure to instruct and benefit. The author considers the Acts an interesting and important part of the Word of God. Yet he does jiot deal with that book histori- cally or critically, but rather in a practical and doctrinal manner. Scattered throughout the Acts he finds many Gospel doctrines. He has. therefore, in an agreeable and systematic way, taken up a number of those doctrines, and has given them his candid con- sideration. Cloth, i2mo, |i.oo. WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THE CHURCH ? By Frederick Stanley Root. During the past ten years a large amount of space in magazine and newspaper has been sur- rendered to the discussion of the problem of the Modern Church. That problem, briefly stated, is how to overcome the incubus of fashion and formality which afflicts so disastrously many churches with a palsy of spiritual power and efficiency and renders the position of many clergymen increasingly precarious. The author of this book, in a series of brief chapters, endeavors to answer the question, " What is the Matter with the Church ?" with fearless- ness and perfect candor Cloth, i2mo, $1.00. riAY BE ORDERED THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER OR EROI^I THE Bbbcy press PUBLISHERS 14 FIFTH AVENUE Condon JSEW YORK montreal f)tC 5 1900 ■^' ^'^ ,^'f^% V' '^' ,^' ^^^fC^^ xV ,0 ' * . -3^^ .0 o. \ \ •\- ~K'^'^.'^-<^r^^ ■;: ^\V ^^ «* s*" \'^ "^/ « '^NKr?? •V c- ^^# A^'" "^'. ^4"^ %■, .^•- ^>V-^^ ■•'^ ,/',r a\ o\ > _ ( •0' ,^ ,0 o s:: ' ,0^ 'V vV aO.^"^- ^^^^;-^^^. ..> ./ ,;v^ .0*^ '.%, .^-^ y^i':':'^'' ■Q' <^'' -v ,0 A-' 'V. %^^ -\\'^ c5 -n.. >:,^' , V 'A * .-> -i \v ^r- aV \' - >3> "^ci- „, "V^-.-, --„*«;...,, >^.'-.'^,*;..„ x-N ■ ,c\^ ' ^. -^"'V ,.^' ^" A >\'-,«*.,V"^^\o^>-^,;*.'V'^'".#'..-"*>< ^^ v^ ^A V'^ <- •?='. S' P, .- -\^^ .-.^^ %. .i ,^^ '''ct \^ * ^ * " , > •■■'/" . .,v^^ >/^^- - >% S » » / . '^, \> >■ \\'