Page:The promises of Turkey.djvu/18

14 solemn farce was played. The Grand Vizier addressed himself, viâ Murad, in phrases adapted from the failure of 1868.

"'All our subjects,' thus ran the Hatt of June 1st, 1876, 'without exception, shall enjoy full and complete liberty &hellip; and in order to carry out this project &hellip; and with a view to this most essential result, it is both important and necessary that the Council of State should be re-organised.'"

When the turn of the present Sultan came, he, in September of last year, employed much the same language. "To remedy evils," which were specified. His Majesty Abd-ul-Ahmed pledged himself that—

"'A Special Council would be charged to guarantee the exact execution of existing laws.'"

Last of all, and most pretentious, we have the Constitution of Midhat, who has fallen under the weight of that newest bundle of promises. There is nothing in the past history or the present circumstances of the Turkish Empire which could lead us to suppose that the Constitution would have fair play. But the Turks themselves have left us in no doubt whatever upon that point. There is a journal published in Constantinople, printed in the Turkish language, which is called Truth. It is generally considered to be under the immediate patronage and direction of the Ministry of War. It became necessary to reconcile the interests of Truth with the acceptance of Midhat's Constitution in the eyes of the Mussulman soldiery, and this was done by an article in that journal entitled, "The Partisans of the Constitution and their Opponents." The readers of Truth were assured that the National Assembly, or the Turkish House of Commons,

"'Will be especially careful to avoid everything which may seem opposed to the sacred prescriptions of the Cheri.' 'But it may be objected,' continued Truth, 'that Mussulmans only are concerned with this, while in the National Assembly there will be non-Mussulmans. To those who raise such an objection, we reply that they ought to take into consideration—(1.) That"