Shall Turkey Live or Die?
BY
THOMAS CARLYLE, Esq.
LONDON:
THOMAS BOSWORTH, 215 REGENT STREET.
MDCCCLIV.
LONDON:
Printed by G. Barclay, Castle St. Leicester Sq.
SHALL TURKEY LIVE OR DIE?
The European war now impending differs from thelast in every important feature,—in its theatre, its origin,and its issues. Never was a contest more mysteriousand unexpected in its rise, more unwelcome tothe majority of those engaged in it, and more pregnantwith grave yet uncertain consequences. There arethree classes of men whose minds it especially occupies.While the religious eschatologist expects a new phaseof predicted fulfilment, and the speculative politician anew distribution of territory and influence, the practicalman seeks a fuller explication and enforcement of existinginterests and obligations. Although they who see inall things the guiding hand of God are warranted to expectthat, in the communion of the faithful, there shallbe a divine presentiment of His holy procedure, yet the4attempt to map out the future is in too many very idle,and in some most presumptuous. On the other hand,those who try every fresh event by the mere letter ofprotocols, fail to apprehend its true moral importance,and would bind the God of Providence by the impotentwill of man. He that would rightly estimate or improvethe present juncture must avoid both of theseerrors. And while he regards it in its highest aspects,he must not be hurried into foregone conclusions asto its issues.
“Destiny” is the watchword of the day. One hornof the Crescent has long rested on Christendom by destiny.A child of destiny now rules for a second timein the West. And scarcely has he, by assuming, inprofessed zeal for divine reminiscences, the protectorateof holy places, excited men’s fears lest he should swellthe number of those places and convert protectorateinto possession, when a new protector of things sacredarises in the North, also pleading the call of destiny.
Why these two protectors have not yet come forthto assert their rights in single combat; and why thePope, whose throne is upheld, and whose claims areasserted by the former, has acted in silence, when hemight have been expected to utter in encyclical lettersthe Jeremiad of insulted authority; are questions yet to5be solved. The religious and political champion of thePapacy is now allied to other powers on grounds withwhich Papal claims, religious or political, have nothingostensibly, at least exclusively, to do. And we now seethe northern protector opposed by all the great powers ofEurope,—by the open protest of those who will andcan withstand him,—by the tacit resistance of those whofear to be his friends, yet dare not be his foes.
Recent disclosures, however, warrant the conclusionthat the Pope has, although covertly, been the primemover in the present troubles. Using France as acat’s-paw, he has revived in a stronger form his almostobsolete claims to such a protectorate of the Latin interestin the Holy Places as shall, at Jerusalem aselsewhere, swallow up every other. And the aggressionof Russia against Turkey derives considerable excusefrom the consideration that the Czar, in aiming a fleshlyblow at the Sultan, is really aiming a spiritual blow atthe Pope. If the Catholic Church