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CHAPTER IV.

THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM.

Introductory.

LET us now proceed to the consideration of the various Notions with respect to the Eastern Question, which actually made themselves felt as factors of Public Opinion. For this purpose we call in the aid of the table where they are enumerated and arranged in order.

It will be seen that there are a very great number of " Notions"; and that the broader "Views" into which they group themselves are six, which may be distinguished as Anti-Turkism, Order, AntiWar, Legalism, Anti-Russism, and Philo-Turkism. The number will be reduced to five if we regard Philo-Turkism as an aggravated form of the Anti-Russian view. The list of notions so arranged constitutes a kind of natural scale, and the analogy of the solar spectrum presents itself. And indeed this will be a convenient metaphor to make use of, for it will enable us shortly and concisely to speak in general terms of the "red notions" or "the violet notions" by reference to either end of the list.

Let us be allowed, purely arbitrarily, to speak of Anti-Turkism as occupying the violet, and Philo-Turkism the red end of the spectrum. We must remember that no mind was capable of perceiving at once the whole scale of notions; all suffered from a greater or less degree of colour-blindness. The inability, however, was not merely subjective, as some of the notions are logically inconsistent with each other.

In going through the list seriatim and quoting from contemporary writings, both to elucidate and to show that the notions which appear in the list actually existed as elements of the Public Appendix to Part II.

Opinion of the time, we shall sometimes be able to separate a notion from its allies, but more often we shall find several allied notions closely involved together. For some a few words or a reference to the list will suffice. Rather more must be said about others.

ANTI-TURKISM.

SA.-The Crusading Spirit.

History affords many examples of the belief that community of religious faith creates a tie which ought to determine political alliances. The Crusades themselves are the great example of the capacity of this tie to maintain an offensive alliance. Long afterwards, though the Reformation had broken the visible unity of Christendom, the act of Francis I. in allying himself with the Turks against the House of Austria was looked upon as something little short of sacrilege. The relations between England and the Protestants of the Continent in the time of Elizabeth, James I., and Cromwell sufficiently show that community of faith was still regarded as a proper ground for affording political aid and comfort. Men have conceived Christendom as a unity transcending and underlying the separate portions into which it may be split up, and capable, upon occasion, of being welded into one mass for common defence against the infidel. Closely allied, or perhaps the same thing in a modernised form, is the conception of Europe as a congeries of peoples, marked by a common Aryan descent, a common acceptance of juridical notions derived from the Roman law, and a common acceptance, not so much of Christian faith, as of Christian morality. From these points of likeness there has arisen a substantial agreement about conduct, a European civilisation and morality based upon the institution of the family, which forbids polygamy and slavery and which is averse to cruelty and bloodshed. Hence to Europeans there is something shocking in the spectacle of any European people being subjected to people of a lower type of civilisation, if such political subjection means persecution for the European religion, a check to the development of the European civilisation, or outrages on the European morality. All Europeans will feel concerned to bring such subjection to an

Of course quotations which are made for the express purpose of isolating one idea must not be taken as fair representatives of the whole position of their authors. -Mr. Freeman (Contemporary Review, Feb., 1877) distinguishes and describes many of the factors of opinion.

end. It will be observed that the word " European

is no mere

geographical term. Just as it includes the great off-shoots beyond seas so on the other hand it includes much that first became European by adoption. It is a striking fact that Europe's characteristic religion sprang from a Semitic source.

Jurists find the germ of International Law in the fundamental agreement about conduct of the European nations as contrasted

with others.

The European law of nations is mainly founded upon that community of origin, manners, institutions, and religion which distinguished the Christian nations from the Mahometan world. -Wheaton, History of the Law of Nations, p. 555.

Again, we find that the term Christendom is used by modern Statesmen to mark the same conception. Lord Clarendon warned the Sultan that he might render it impossible for England to " overlook the exigencies of Christendom." The "Capitulations" by virtue of which each European Power exercises through its Consuls its own jurisdiction over its subjects sojourning in Turkey are another recognition of the same thing. They show that the European Powers are not content to leave such of their subjects as business or pleasure may take within Turkish territory to be dealt with according to the maxims of a non-European jurisprudence. It is worth observing, too, how often in common usage Turkey is spoken of not as one of, but in contradistinction to, the European Powers.

The notions which we call the "Crusading Spirit" and the "Historic Instinct" are nothing but the application of these general considerations to the facts of the particular case.

In some instances special prominence was given to the expression of the Crusading Spirit. In others we find it alluded to somewhat apologetically.

No one ought to think it strange that the cries of suffering
Christians should touch the hearts of their fellow-Christians.
We may frankly confess, therefore, that, as Christians, we feel
impatient when we see a Christian population trampled upon by
Mussulman rulers.-Rev. J. Llewelyn Davies.2

There is no shame in saying that it is only natural that that duty should be more keenly felt when the victims are Christians, just as any duty is more keenly felt towards a friend, kinsman, or 1 Despatch of Lord Clarendon to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe of 25th Feb., 1853. Kinglake, i. 126. (cab. ed.)

2 Religious Aspects of the Eastern Question. Eastern Question Association Papers, No. 2.

countryman, than a duty which is abstractedly the same can be felt towards a perfect stranger. I can see no shame in allowing a community of religion between ourselves and the sufferers to strengthen a feeling which would be righteous were the sufferers of any other religion. . . . My own feeling would simply come to this while I should feel a call to help Jews, Parsees, or Hindoos, in the same case I feel a still stronger call to help Christians.-E. A. Freeman, Contemp. Rev. Feb. 1877.

The persistent assertion that the body of English Liberals who are on the Russian side, or rather against the Turk, are sympathising with a crusade, is unjust, not to say petulant. They are on the Russian side simply because, all things considered, and without the slightest general bias in favour of Russia, much less of despotism or of bigotry, they happen to be convinced that the cause of humanity, which has sometimes to put up with very questionable quarters, is on the present occasion in the camp of the Czar. . . . We may surely, without fanaticism or any regard for dogma, prefer a monogamic and industrial to a polygamic and predatory. race. Goldwin Smith, Contemp. Rev. Nov. 1877.

SB.-The Historic Instinct.

Closely allied to the Crusading Spirit is what may be called the Historic Instinct. In this notion we get the first glimpse of the special importance of Constantinople, which was with many the last word in the Eastern Question. There is a suggestion of some special unfitness in the fact that the "New Rome" is subjected to barbarian dominion, and this aspect of the notion may be compared with the way in which men of poetic and artistic temperament chafed half a century before at the thought of Greek subjection to Turkey. But this concern about territory, from an historical sentiment, was of very little importance compared with concern about the people of kindred race and civilisation.1

When the men who endure these wrongs are brethren in the Christian faith, trodden down by misbelievers; when they are sharers in the blood, the speech, the historic memories of Europe, trodden down by barbarian invaders; when the lands to be set free are the old historic seats of Greek intellect and Roman rule; when our mission is to free the throne of Constantine from a barbarian intruder, and to cleanse the church of Justinian from the defilement of a false worship-I feel no shame to say that all this makes me feel more keenly a duty which, were all these motives absent, I should still feel to be a duty. This may be sentiment, passion, enthusiasm, or any other name that any adversary chooses. Sentiment, passion, enthusiasm, are parts of the nature of man. -E. A. Freeman, Contemp. Rev. Feb. 1877.

1 The Bulgarians had become European by adoption.

We are not entitled to use in illustration of the Public Opinion of 1876-1878 what was written of nearly half a century before. But the circumstances are so parallel, and the analogy is so close, that it is impossible to refrain from quoting Alison's comments on the battle of Navarino. Indeed it is hardly wrong to say that the sentiment he describes and sympathised with is in a sense the very same as that of 1876-1878. For antiTurkism is a perennial view as long as Turkish dominion lasts over any European people.

Never, save by the taking of Jerusalem in 1199 by the crusading warriors under Godfrey of Bouillon, had so unanimous a feeling of exultation pervaded the Christian world. . . . Opinions in England were somewhat divided, from the obvious increase which it gave to the preponderance of Russia in the East; but on the Continent the rejoicing was universal. . . . The fleets of Asia had been sunk in the deep, and its armies had wasted away in the struggle; a single day had secured the independence of Greece, and restored her to her place in the European family. Such a result was felt by every generous bosom to be the fit subject. of exultation. In vain did political considerations intervene; in vain did the caution of statesmen stigmatise this glorious achievement as 66 an untoward event." The chilling phrase, the unworthy sentiment, was drowned in the universal shout of Christendom. A voice superior to worldly wisdom made itself heard; a feeling deeper than the desire for national advantage was generally experienced. The cause of religion and humanity was felt to have been at stake, and men were thankful that, after so many alliances had been formed for the purposes of ambition and national rivalry, one at last had been found where nations were banded together in defence of the oppressed, and the sword of Christendom had been drawn to rescue one of its families from destruction.— Alison, Hist. of Eur.

We may, indeed, for purposes of analysis, distinguish between the Crusading and the Historical notions, but in the mouth of the Jurist or the Statesman the words "Europe" and "Christendom," if not absolutely synonymous, express but slightly differing aspects of the same fact. Whichever aspect was uppermost in a particular mind, the conception of the Turks as different in religion, and of the Turks as alien in civilisation from the Europe to which the men of the subject provinces belonged, practically always went hand in hand to reinforce one another. The faint boundary line that distinguishes the "Crusading" and "Historical Spirit" from "Humanity" is passed when the desire to liberate fellow Christians and fellow Europeans from Mahometan and Asiatic rule is felt,

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