Page:The promises of Turkey.djvu/17

13 progress observed in the rest of Europe was reversed. The Empire retrograded. But the manufacture of promises continued; and Napoleon III having restored the idea of Imperial democracy, the pattern of these promises became more and more that of the Tuileries—in the neighbourhood of which, about the arcades of the Palais Royal, the ruling pashas have been wont to graduate in what they believe to be civilisation. Had I been blind I could have fancied myself at the Tuileries on the 10th of May, 1868, when Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz announced the establishment of the Council of State and the High Court of Justice. He confessed that there was something wrong, something rotten in his State, "for," said he,

"'If the principles and laws already established had answered to the exigencies of our country and our people, we ought to have found ourselves to-day in the same rank as the most civilised and best administered States of Europe.' 'With a view to promote the rights of our subjects,' Abd-ul-Aziz proclaimed the establishment of the Council of State, 'whose members are taken from all classes of our subjects without exception.' 'Another body,' he continued, 'has been charged to assure justice to our subjects in that which concerns the security of their persons, their honour, and their property.'"

What happened? The Council of State was nominated, three-fourths of the members being Mussulmans. It has been a scandal, an extravagance, a laughing-stock, and is nick-named the "Yes-if-you-please Council." Were the Courts of Justice reformed? Not in any way. No one has said, or can say with truth, that Mr. Yorke's description of Turkish Courts in the House of Commons was unfair, and he described them as—

"'Markets, not open markets, but dirty back-door shops, closets for fraud, corners for chicane, and dens where professional brokers meet the judicial staff to job causes and rob suitors.'"

When Murad was put on the throne of Abd-ul-Aziz the same