LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
REFORM IN TURKEY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—In a postscript to a letter from me which you were so good as to publish last Saturday you ask, " But why save the Turkish Empire ?" if or when, as I understand you to mean, such radical changes are necessary to save it. I reply :- 1. Because the Turkish Empire could not be destroyed without a war, not only between the Turks and such Christian Powers as undertook to destroy their Empire, but probably also between some of the Christian Powers themselves.
2. Because if the war for the destruction of the Turkish Empire succeeded, the new State, being the creature of external force, and not of any intelligent internal movement, would be restless, weak, and a focus for the intrigues of foreign Powers. On the other band, if, for ten years or so, prosperity and good government can be secured to the subjects of the Sultan, there is a fair chance of the gradual softening of religious animosities, and of the growth of common material interests, until a native
public opinion has been formed, such as will enable the people to act together for the accomplishment of the constitutional changes best suited to their interests, as understood by themselves.
3. Because if a brand-new State were established in the place of the Sultan's European Empire, it would still, in order to govern well, have to get administrators from Western Europe ; the very thing the Porte itself may now be persuaded to do with- out any war, or any sudden and violent change at all,—and this for the following reason, viz. :— 4. Because the change proposed—a change in a certain class of the civil officers of the Sultan—is so far from being one likely to be refused, if the Powers are united in demanding it, that it is, in fact, closely analogous to the change the Khedive has volun- tarily undertaken to make in the financial administration of his State at the instance of two private gentlemen. It leaves the Sultan full control over his foreign policy and his army, for the control referred to in my letter as needed for the Governors of Bosnia and Bulgaria referred only to such troops as might possibly, from time to time, be required in maintaining public order.
5. Because, finally, such a change is both likely to be effectual, and is a change in the demand of which Russia and England, and probably the other Powers also, can act together to any extremity to which the resistance of the Porte might require action on their part ; and the working of it is less likely to lead to friction be- tween the Porte and the Powers, than the simple appointment of an European Commission to watch and report upon the proceed- ings of native Ottoman Governors.—I am, Sir, &c., A. R.
[" A. R." does not quite understand our question. Why save the Turkish Empire at all, if it cannot save itself ? It is of no good in the world, and why should it not pass away wholly ? The only answer is, there would be European war, and we disbelieve it unless England encourages it.—En. Spectator.]
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