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Leader (1850-1860), 22nd September 1860, Edition 2 of 2, Page 8

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      City Churches. W Ith Great, And With Jus...

      the increased efficiency of the churches—it is the office of our observer to look at tendencies . A vast change has already taken place in the City , and there is eyery probability that this change ¦ will still go on , man increases in ratio . The city becomes less and less , from year to year , a place of residence . Courts and alleys are likely to diminish , counting-houses and warehouses to increase , narrow streets will have to give way , and even should Dr . Cboi , y have a successor , and should that successor be even more eloquent than Dr . Ceoly , which is not likely , he would probably expend his greater eloquence on a smaller congregation . Before very many years are over our heads it is likely that a few housekeepers and warehousemen will be the sole Sabbath tenants of most of the city houses ; the smaller shopkeepers will go into the country

      for the day ; the larger live in the environs . The city congregations , whatever Dr . Cboly may say , for the most part , are miserable now , thev will be more miserable then ; we cannot shut our eyes to this tendency , which is obvious enough . That there are a certain class of clergy who will stick to the churches , that is , their bare walls , as long as they yield a bare or ample living , no one can donbt ; the question is whether this ought to be permitted ; whether , if any better use can be made of them , and of their incomes , ten churches ought to be standing within call of each other , without sufficient congregations to fill one of them , is a question . "We think not ; let useful churches , or those churches which might be useful , if their incumbents were well paid and active , men , those churches round which the poor still lie thick , be lef t , and some better use be

      made of the others . In some Roman Catholic countries , where more respect is felt than in England for the mere consecrated ecclesiastical . structure , these structures are desecrated with apparently little offence to the feelings of thepopulation . Who has visited Tours ; or Angers , orToulouse , and not seen churches empty and tottering churches the storehouses of forage or grain , churches , turned into markets , and the sellers of doves and the money-changers literally installed in the Temple ? We have seen this , and regretted ¦ it , scarcely more than we should do twenty years hence , if we live a * long , to . see the London Church devoted to the curate , the elerk , the sexton , two or three tired old women , and twenty , we fear , mechanical charity children , if ; so many are left \ while the thickly-peopled outskirts

      lie ; in spiritual destitution . Subscribe afresh and ' build ; says the Doctor , but calls are enumerable , and the Church Commission has had already to be summoned to aid . The transference of your old structures will cost you as much as the erection of new ones—probably , le adds . That remains to be seen ; We doubt it , if properly managed and without jobbery . At any rate , let the incomes be transferred- English feeling , Will not allow any ¦ wholesale indecent ; insult tp the dead on a large scale ; what has been done of this kind on a small one has met with abundant execration . Let the open , spaces be lef t intact , at any rate . for the : present , and only used hereafter as the sites for educational or charitable institutions . This would not be desecration ; neither graves nor foundations need to be deeply disturbed for some years to come .

      816 The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [Se...

      816 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Sept . 22 , 1860

      The Future Of The Turkish Empire.* Rp^He...

      THE FUTURE OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE . * rp ^ HE position of Eastern , affairs , and the recent complications JL which have , taken place are once more calling general attention to the probable fate of the Turkish empire . Is it true , as some publicists would lead us to believe , that it . has reached the Jast stage of dissolution , and that it exists now only on sufferance ; or , taking a more favourable view of the case , shall we say , that a moderate amount rot improvement in , the internal administration of

      the Sultan ' s dominions might for some time to come , at least , secure to that monarch and to his successors the undisturbed enjoyment of their territories P M . Poujade is disposed to adopt this latter ' view of the . question , and however cautiously' we may feel . disposed to accept some of his statements , yet it seems quite clear to us that the deorepid Condition of the " Sublime Porte has been very much overdrawn by , other historians , and politicians who were too anxious to make a case for the interference of Russia , Prance , or some other of the leading powers ofEurope .

      The Yplume we are » ow noticing 1 must not bo confounded with the innumerable , broo 7 iu < res or pamphlets which have been produced during 1 the last twelve months , it is the result of long and intimate acquaintance with the variola races of people spread over the surface of the Qttoiijan empire ; it embodies the experience of many years , and the details it contains are derived from personal observation . Some of the chapters of M . Poujado ' s |« Chretiens et Turoa " will bo at once recognised by the reader pf the " Revue defl

      deux MCondea , " although they are now introduced in a very modified shape , having 1 received from the writer a number of important developments suggested b y the progress of political events . Our author beging his work by an introduction , or _ prefaco , in which he explains the respective attitudes of France , England , and Russia , with reference to Turkey j and he lays down as the conclusions which his narrative is destined to prove , the following ; tlweejCold statement ¦?¦ '" En resume , la JVonoo a vpulu Qonojlier l ' existence et lemaintion . de 1 ' empire Ottoman aveqle deyeloppemont morjal , ot materiel dos Chretiens } la Grand . 0 Bretagne ? i eu pom' principal mobjilo l ' e niaintion dti sfaltc quo on Orient , n ' aooepte quo 'lea . modifications deyenus inevitables , pt a ' a vuouo que la satisfftption . do ses ihtorets . & aB , ussjo p , poursuivi deux octets j son , aggrandissement au * de ' pons delaTurquie ,

      et l ' elivation de 1 ' element Chretien sur les ruines de 1 ' element Ottoman . " Without stopping to examine here the accuracy of M . Poujade ' s statement respecting the views entertained by the English , we may just remark that the proposition , he endeavours ; to prove is naturally identified with the system of policy which he ascribes to France , noting at the same time , en passant , that he despairs of ever seeing it accomplished . " I / auteur , " says he in his preface , " a entrepris ce livre avec un desir sincere de tfouver une

      solution favorable aux Turcs dans le question d'Orient : mais les evenements ^ a mosure qu'il avancait dans sa tache ont semble vouloir lui enmontrerTimpossibilite . " It Would be , indeed , carrying optimism very far to suppose that the Turkish empire has any elements of vitality left , although , as we have stated in the beginning of this article , it has not yet reached the state of decrepitude and dissolution , which some diplomatists pretend to notice already , because it agrees with their views and suits admirably their preconceived plans . hitherto t t t

      The chief cause which has kepup he power of he Sultan is , we believe , to be found in the divisions which separate the different Christian populations scattered over the vast extent of his dominions . Amongst the subjects of the " Sublime Porte " we find Greeks , ' Wallachian . s , Albanians , Armenians—a . number of comparatively small tribes , all calling themselves Christians , bu ^ distinguished from , each other by certain forma or ceremonies which , however trifling , when impartially considered , are quite sufficient to prevent anything like amalgamation , between them . The Armenians do not like the

      Turkish rule , but they would dislike still more having to be governed by men whose sole point of disagreement , nevertheless , is a passage in the Greek ritual , or the interpretation of some liturgical trifle , of course it is the interest of the Ottoman government to favor these dissensions ; and we may say with truth , that the successors of Mahomed exist on . the petty quarrels and childish feuds of their Greek subjects . If the Hellenes of the nineteenth centiiry were not that degraded set of men whom M . Edmohd About has so wittily described in his ' Grece

      Contemporaine , " and in the " Koi des Montagnesi" the rule of the crescent would long ago have come to an end . Such , being the state of thing ' s in Turkey , and considering the example given by Montenegro and the Danubian provinces , M . Poujade has come to the very natural conclusion that the transformation of the Mahometan empire might be brought about under the shape of a federation somewhat analogous to the Swiss republic , and which would be less likel y to excite the uneasiness of Russia , France , or England , than the complete union of all the provinces under the authority of a single ruler .

      M . Poujade has remarked , with much truth , that it would have been far better if the religion preached by Mahomed had , like the var ious forms of Polytheism , claimed nothing in common with either Christianity and Judaism . It then would have immediately given way before the progress of the gospel , and the Arab tribes , for instance , snatched by the " Commander of the Faithful" from the errors of idolatry :, would havie become Christians , instead of stopping half way , and settling" down in the professions of a creed which , after all , is decidedly hostile to the doctrines of Jesus Christ . Toquote once more from M . Poujade , " loin d ' etre unbienfait pour rhumanite , comme certains ecrivains protestants , et notammerit un savant traducteur du Koran l ' ont pretendu , cette nouvelle religion iut un obstacle au civilisation universelleet arreta la diffusion du

      developpemeht de la , Christiahisine , e ' est a dire de l ' expressioh lteme la plus pure de la civilisation , suf l'"E ) urope et VAsie . " . The genius of ] M [ anoined , in the first place , and the circumstances amidst which he appeared , favoured to an extraordinary degree the spread of Islamism ? but now that the political , conditions of the World has entirely changed , and that the religion of the Koran has lost so much of the influence it formerly enjoyed , symptoms of decay are manifesting themselves on every side , and the Very acts of arbitrary despotism and wanton brutality which the Turkish rulers indulge in from time to time , only serves to prove that the government does npt feel , conscious of its existence , unless it can manifest a spurious kind of activity at the exnerise of the weak and the iimocent . After relating several

      acts of cruelty which ho witnessed himself , M . Poujade adds , that the local authorities commit them for the very reason that they are ashamed of their own real nullity , and that they want to give to their neighbours signs of political life ; In Epirus , he continues , their dominatiQn is coming to an end . The mosques fall in ruins , and no one thinks of rebuilding them . It is just the same in vawous points of Turkey jn Euyopo . On landing- at Gallipoli , the alhes round several mpsques quite abandoned . At Fera which is one of the suburbs of Constantinople , pne can see minarets from whence the Muezain no longer summons the faithful to iirayers . The houses are tumbling down , the pwners either die , or emigrate to Asia , ana the only livine- being 1 left amidst these ruins is the dove , mourning

      her plaintive somg _ on a lonely cypress tx * ee . At Janissa , the ruinous condition of the Turkish houses struok me at first with astonishment . I explained myself once on the subject with an old Mussulman , who ijsed ; to teach methe ^ urlrish , latifruwge , andlaskca himwwy ho did not repair his own hpu * je . He smilod bitterly as if my mtontum had been to liiugh at him . ' " Why , " said h « tp mo , " do you ask mo » question , tlio answer to whiohj ^ ou know" better than I do mysel fr Do not the powerful natipris of Elurppe iniiend . to divide us botweon themP purfatd is already wtton ; tho strong will resist and po kiUed f the cowards wiW suWit and become faithless . Why would you have mb rebuHd my tpwn for the bepeilt of a Giaour t" 1 JlW > deriving a gleam <> f hope froip the sense of the , inarvellous , he added , " » H the MuesitlmanB are nofc 4 oomed to perish 5 an enemy shaM no

      * Ghretisnt Et Turct, Scone/I «( Souveni...

      * Ghretisnt et Turct , Scone / i «( Souvenirs do Jn via JPolittqut , MdUairc et Riligleutc tn Orient , i ' nr W , JSugQne Poujnap , 8 vo , PajIs , Dirtier ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 22, 1860, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_22091860/page/8/