The Turkish Provinces in Revolt.
It says much for the widening sympathies of the age that the present revolt in European Turkey interests the whole Christian world; for, incredible as it may seem, we have, until lately, known more about the islands of the Pacific, and their pagan inhabitants, than about these lovely, classical lands, with their European race of Christians fighting Asiatic despotism and Mohammedan intolerance, for more than four hundred years. These Slaves have occupied their present seats for at least twelve centuries, and until the end of the fourteenth century were mostly independent, and in respect to civilization stood fairly on a level with the rest of Europe. Then came the Mohammedan invasion, and the whole Slavonian territory south of the Danube fell under the power of the Turk. At this time they were enthusiastic Christians of the Greek church, excepting those who had embraced the doctrines of the Paternes, the earliest protestors against papal power, worship of relics and saints, prayers for the dead, and purgatory; in fact, they were the Protestants of the tenth century, men who, as traders and pilgrims, carried to the extreme west of Europe the doctrines which Huss, Luther, and Calvin, afterward more fully preached. The territories they occupy to-day lie to the west and north of European Turkey; Dalmatia is directly west of Herzegovina, Montenegro directly south, Bosnia and Servia north and east; the territory in revolt is therefore the center of a country in which the Slavic element has an overwhelming preponderance. The Herzegovinian peasantry have always been restless and formidable—splendid horsemen, unrivaled marksmen, hating the Turk as men will hate after four hundred years of oppression. Their hills and valleys have been for two centuries the battle ground between the Christian and Mohammedan. In Bosnia nearly every peasant is a Christian; and the Bosnian peasant is no despicable enemy. He has all the best and the worst traits of the Slavonian character; he is brave as brave can be, and he is as cruel as his master, the Turk. His passion is freedom, his vanity is his horse, his sword, and his firearms. Nowhere are these articles so valued, so sumptuously adorned, or bought at such extravagant prices. He will admit no superior on horseback, and this verse of one of his songs explains his character very well:— “I am a Bosnian! I carry shining arms;
The Bosnians are heroes on horseback!
Hu! There is none like them in the world!”
The Montenegrins, dwelling in inaccessible mountains, have defied the Turk, and preserved their freedom. Like the Scotch Highlanders, they are knit together in families or clans; every man of them is constantly armed with rifle, yataghan and pistols. On the shortest notice they can raise twenty-six thousand men, and, when required, a much larger force. They fire lying prostrate, and rarely indeed miss their mark. Montenegro first attracted European attention by its heroic and effective aid given Russia—the big brother of all the Slaves—against France in 1855; and since then it has kept itself in notice by the number of rebellions it has either inaugurated or aided and abetted against the Turks. That of 1851 was a very dangerous one, as it could scarcely fail to be, under such a bold and terrible leader as the Prince Mirko. When he had been compelled by reverses to burn his villages, in order that the Turks might find no shelter, the Pasha sent to ask him to come and see him and treat personally for terms of peace. The messenger found Mirko lying on the hill-side wrapped in his strockla, and he answered him over his shoulder without rising, “You had better ask my rifle; I will only speak to your Pasha through its mouth.” Both men and women are very strong; the latter do all the trading and agriculture, the men being engaged in war or pillage. But the women, though the domestic drudges of their husbands, are not held as inferiors. In a fight, no one denies them the place they are often eager to take, and when they do not bear arms, they remain to stimulate the men with their war cries, “On for the Holy Cross!” Dalmatia has preserved itself from Turkish oppression by accepting Venetian and Austrian rule. But foreign influence does not extend into the interior, where nearly the whole population are Slaves of the most intense kind, retaining with passionate affection their national costume, customs, and language, and by no means behind their brothers in hatred of the Moslem. But all branches of the Slavic family must give way in importance to Servia, which, about half a century ago, wrung from Turkey its independence after five hundred years of incessant struggle. There is something nobly pathetic in the arms adopted by this new Slavic kingdom—a white cross on a red field, and two dates, 1389-1815, divided by a drawn sword. Since 1815, the Servians have changed the law of the Koran for a European code; they have made good roads, introduced public schools, and put down official corruption in church and state by giving to all clergy, judges, and civil employees fixed and sufficient salaries. They have made life and property safe in Servia, and introduced many other sterling reforms. She has civil, military, and theological schools, two fine schools of commerce, high schools in the chief towns, and primary ones in the villages; and the only tolerably good school in Bosnia (which country is ruled by Turkey) was founded by the aid of a grant from Free Servia. On the contrary, the generally hopeless condition of the Christian rayahs in the Mohammedan provinces cannot be more forcibly expressed than by their common saying, “We are still behind God’s back.” The latest telegraphic reports intimate that the rebellion is quelled, and order (that is, despotism) is restored. These reports come from Constantinople, and the Turk is as unscrupulous a liar as he is relentless as an enemy. It is of the utmost importance that he should prevent European intervention; for that would inevitably lead to the dismemberment of his ill-organized empire. It is something, at all events, to be assured that reforms are promised, and we may be at least permitted to hope that Mohammedan oppression has received a check, even though it be not as yet doomed to be entirely overthrown in these unhappy provinces. It is reasonably certain that the final, if not the immediate, issue of this attempted revolution will be the organization of these provinces into at least a partially independent though still tributary State.—Illustrated Christian Weekly.