Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/421

Rh be said of our journey through Syria and Mesopotamia. The Tanzeemât Khairiyyeh, or Beneficial Ordinances, had already been several years in operation, and I had some opportunity of judging what were the effects of this new chapter of privileges upon the subjects of the Porte in these parts of the Turkish empire. It would be unjust not to allow that the condition of the agriculturists, and indeed of the natives generally, has been improved: less tyranny is openly exercised by the Pashas of the different districts, the laws are more justly administered, the Christians are not so much oppressed as they were formerly, and the taxes and other duties are imposed and levied with greater equity than heretofore. Nor have the people been backward in appreciating the rights thus accorded to them: the Christians are thankful for the boon and the Mohammedans might be equally so were it not for the hateful conscription which has been extended to the Coords, and to other tribes who were formerly exempted from serving in the army. In several instances we found that the villagers in the interior had taken advantage of their new immunities to refuse the traveller's claim to hospitality (a thing almost unheard of before in the East,) and we were imperiously told on more than one occasion that we should not enter their houses, though we had guards with us from the government, and passports from the Pashas of the provinces. To our repeated assurances that we intended to pay for our accommodation, and would fee them besides, they replied: "Tanzeemât! Tanzeemât!" as if the ordinances referred to gave them the right, in their turn, to lord it over strangers. It is just for me to mention that this conduct was manifested chiefly by the Coords between Birejik and Diarbekir, who are a notoriously rude and barbarous race. On mentioning several facts of this kind to Asaad Pasha of Diarbekir, he regretted that the ordinances had been extended at once to all classes of the Sultanas subjects, or that they had not been coupled with some provision to prevent abuse. "As to the Coords," said he, "it was arrant folly to give the Tanzeemât to such barbarians."

There may be some truth in the idea that a portion of the Sultan's subjects are not yet fit for the enjoyment of the liberties now extended to them, and that unless other radical reforms are superadded, these privileges may be so misused as to oblige