LORD STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFEThe paper, my Lords, I now have with me is the Petition of which I gave notice several days ago. It was placed in my hands by persons of high respectability, animated by the best intentions, and having in view a most laudable object. On this account I readily undertook to present it to your Lordships. The gentlemen, with whose request I have thus complied, are the committee of an association formed in the general interest of Christianity, taken in its purest acceptation, with the hope of softening religious asperities and promoting the great ends of Christian benevolence. This Society is known by the name of the Evangelical Alliance. The immediate object of their petition is not so much to bring forward any special complaints as to draw your Lordships' attention to the state of Protestantism in some parts of the Sultan's dominions, and to obtain, with your Lordships' countenance, a more effectual security for those who have exposed themselves to danger by an open profession of its principles.
With your Lordships' permission, I propose to offer a brief statement of some leading circumstances, which relate to the growth and present condition of Protestantism in Turkey. The Protestants in that country may be divided into two principal classes—namely, those who are the subjects of Powers in amity with the Sultan, and those who owe allegiance to the Sultan himself. The former, with few exceptions, are natives of Germany, Sweden, Holland, Switzerland, and Her Majesty's dominions. They reside in Turkey under the acknowledged authority of their respective Sovereigns, represented in most cases by Ministers accredited to the Porte. They are protected by treaties actually in force, and they have no reason to fear molestation on account of their religious faith. The latter are natives of Turkey, subjects of the Porte, converted to Protestantism from other forms of worship, which have the misfortune to be tinctured with error either in whole or in part, It is for this class of Protestants that I have to solicit the attention and sympathy of the House.
If we look, in the first instance, to their origin and progress, we shall not greatly err if we assign a considerable share of both to the circulation of the Holy Scriptures. Some thirty or forty years have elapsed since the Bible Society, as it is 1066 popularly called, succeeded in first introducing into the Sultan's dominions those translations of the sacred volume which have since been diffused through many parts of Turkey, both in Europe and Asia. The light was not offered in vain, and many, no doubt, have found their way, by its aid, to the fountain-head of truth.
In proportion as knowledge was obtained, the superstitious errors and gross abuses which had crept into the established form of worship throughout the East, became apparent, to reflecting and conscientious minds. That smallest of seeds, which is capable of a mighty growth, began to take root and spread; nor has it ceased to work its way through all the obstacles opposed to it by an alarmed priesthood and a fanatic population. The persecution which often attended that progress served only to stimulate the zeal of the converts. Their cry of distress was heard in other countries, and missionaries, summoned by its appeal, hastened from distant lands to their relief. Whatever merit may be due to those devoted auxiliaries, the greater share of it belongs to the United States. Whether we look to the funds, which their religious societies have so liberally supplied, or to the agents by whom those funds have been administered, it is impossible not to recognize in the amount of the former and in the conduct and character of the latter, what is calculated to do the highest honour to our transatlantic descendants. Other nations, and our own in particular, have laboured in the same cause, but the American missionaries stand almost alone in the extent of their personal exertions and the results which they have obtained. In the union of zeal, perseverance, and discretion they are unrivalled.
Your Lordships may possibly listen with interest to some particulars illustrative of their success, and affording a summary view of the present condition of Protestantism in Turkey. I have found them in a printed report, bearing the date of 1859, and published under the sanction of a respectable society. It appears from this statement that 45 churches have been founded; that above 1,500 members are in full communion; that those who attend public worship on the Sabbath may be averaged at more than 4,000; and that the Protestant community, as legally enrolled, comprises from 6,000 to 7,000 souls. Sixty-three ordained American missionaries, 67 female missionaries, 74 native preachers, and 178 native assistants, la- 1067 bour in the same field. Their stations and out-stations, scattered principally through Syria, Asia Minor, Armenia, and Bulgaria, amount to more than 100. The free schools attached to them exceed the number of 150, and 4,000 scholars, 900 of whom are females, avail themselves of the instruction they afford. In addition to these schools, there are seven higher seminaries, having 150 male and female students. The expenditure of the American Board for the collective missions amounted in the year to more than £28,000, and the aid from England to upwards of 2,300. Nearly 70,000 volumes and 20,000 tracts proceeded from the Protestant press at Constantinople in the same year.
It cannot be denied that, considering the shortness of the time, these facts are indications of no small zeal and of no small progress in that good work to which the missionaries have devoted their labours and their lives; but justice requires that, while assigning to them the praise which they have so fully earned, we should not withhold the expression of our gratitude from the Sultan, whose powerful authority has impressed a character of strength and permanency on the results of their exertion. If your Lordships will bear in mind the peculiar circumstances which surround a Turkish Sovereign, and limit the range of his ideas, you cannot fail to admire that soundness of judgment and generosity of feeling which has been so remarkably displayed by the reigning Sultan in all his dealings with the Christians. To him the Protestants, in particular, are indebted for the great Charter which recognizes them as a separate religious community, and gives them the enjoyment of privileges equal to those conceded in earlier times to the Greek, the Latin, the Armenian, and the Jew. From him they derive that free exercise of their religious creed, that security from molestation on the score of religion, which the Imperial Proclamation of 1856, the celebrated Hatti-Humayoun, has solemnly and permanently assured to every class of his subjects, without exception. I was myself a witness of the difficulties which His Majesty had to encounter in yielding to the entreaties of this country; and of all the incidents in my long diplomatic career, there is not one to which I look back with so much pleasure and surprise as to his gracious approval of that concession which, in carrying out the views of our Government, I had so long and so earnestly recommended.
1068 My Lords, I willingly believe that the Turkish ministers have fairly accepted their Sovereign's injunctions to give effect to the great principle of religious freedom. It can hardly, indeed, be otherwise, when we bear in mind that the Sultan's Proclamation was solemnly recorded in the same treaty of peace which guaranteed the independence and integrity of his dominions. But the Forte is not remarkable for the vigour and constancy of its proceedings. Though the Sultan's authority is irresistible, his Government has all the weakness which belongs to the individuals who compose it. The remains of religious prejudice with some, indifference or personal interest with others, impede the course of justice, and, but too often, produce those delays which amount to a denial of it. In the provinces, at more or less distance from Constantinople, seceders, whether from the Greek or the Latin Church, or from any other established form of worship, are exposed to insult and ill-treatment from the populace, and to acts of persecution emanating from ecclesiastical authority. Converts to Protestantism have less to apprehend from the Turkish Governor than from the Christian Bishop, except when the Pasha or the Cadi, acting under the influence of the Prelate, or swayed by some foreign Consul of kindred orthodoxy, neglects the instructions of his Government, and connives at illegalities which he ought to repress and punish. It may also happen, more particularly in the case of any conversion from Islamism, that the fear of local troubles—of a riot or a murder—may induce the magistrate to temporise at the expense of the convert, and deter even the Porte itself from redeeming its pledges in his favour with a prompt and determined hand.
My Lords, it is the more important on this very account that the influence of a Government like that of Great Britain, friendly to the Sultan, and sympathetic with the objects of his enlightened policy, should be steadily and vigorously exerted on behalf of the Protestants in Turkey. The natural tendencies to a lax application of that policy require to be counteracted by a vigilant impulsion of a friendly Power. Every act of persecution left without redress, every infringement of the Sultan's charter allowed to pass with impunity, must necessarily have the effect of encouraging persecution and deterring those, who are awake to the love of truth, from 1069 avowing that purer doctrine which in their consciences they believe.
I do not, my Lords, intend to insinuate any reproach against Her Majesty's Government for remissness in this respect. I have no reason to suppose that the head of the Foreign Office, either under the present or under the late Administration, has shown any want of vigour in supporting the cause of religious freedom in Turkey. The difficulty of supporting it with equal effect at all times is, no doubt, considerable. Individuals who secede from long-established forms of worship and modes of faith are unavoidably exposed to the malice of those whom their new profession condemns, and their own inconsiderate zeal may possibly at times betray them into acts of provocation and offence. Tour Lordships will, however, remember that, while it may be said of these Eastern converts to Protestantism that "suffering is the badge of their tribe," they are legally entitled to the full benefit of the Sultan's charter, and that it is the bounden duty of a Government which has placed them by solemn enactments on a level with other Churches, to enforce on all its subjects, and more particularly on its official agents, the execution of every measure required for their protection. The right and the obligation may both be admitted, nor, indeed, are they open to dispute; but it may still be asked, on what ground we can justly interfere on behalf of converts who are subject to the Sultan's laws, and resident in countries which acknowledge his rule. My Lords, it is not necessary for me to affirm that we have any express right by treaty to interfere on their behalf; but I appeal with confidence to the admitted practice of other Powers, to the solemn obligations incurred by the Sultan in presence of all Europe, and to the vast debt of gratitude which his whole empire has contracted towards this country, whose sympathies operate so powerfully in favour of Protestantism. In calling upon him to carry out his promises, we manifest the sincerity of our friendship and a becoming regard for his honour and authority; we encourage his perseverance in a course of enlightened humanity, which accords with his own interests; and, at the same time, we not only satisfy the requirements of a great moral duty, but strengthen the foundations a policy which virtually ministers to our own advantage, identified, as it is, with the general advantage of Europe.
Such being the case, my Lords, I lay this 1070 Petition on your Lordships' table without further explanation, and confidently hope that its value will not be determined in your Lordships' judgment by the weakness of its advocate, but rather by the intrinsic importance of the object to which its prayer is more immediately addressed. The terms of that prayer are:—"That your Right Honourable House will be pleased to sustain Her Majesty's Government in their efforts to cause Religious Liberty to be maintained, and the Protestant Churches to be really and fully protected in the exercise of their just rights, throughout the whole of the Ottoman Empire."
THE LORD CHANCELLORsaid, he had at first thought that this Petition had emanated from certain subjects of the Sultan in reference to disputes between themselves and the Turkish Government, in which case it would have been a serious question whether their Lordships could receive the document. It now however appeared that it was a Petition from British subjects, praying that the good offices of Her Majesty's Government might be exercised in making representations to the Government of Turkey for the protection of Protestants generally in the Sultan's dominions: and that being so there would be no impropriety in entertaining it.
THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURYexpressed his thanks to the noble Viscount for the great interest he had taken in this question of religious toleration in Turkey, and thought, whether they considered the interests of religion generally or the unexampled triumphs of which they had proof that Christianity had achieved in Turkey, the noble Viscount was entitled to the deep gratitude of every friend of religious liberty throughout the world. It was impossible not to sympathize with the noble Viscount in the high terms with which he had spoken of the liberality of the Sultan, or to over-estimate tire labours of those Societies to which the noble Viscount had alluded. Notwithstanding the immense difficulties that existed in Turkey it was most gratifying to observe the progress which Christianity had made in the dominions of the Sultan. But the noble Viscount had omitted all mention of the most effectual means to which this progress must be attributed—namely, his own unceasing exertions in the cause, which have been crowned by a degree of success which could hardly have been otherwise attained.
LORD WODEHOUSEsaid, that although he had no reason to offer anything on be- 1071 half of Her Majesty's Government with regard to the Petition just presented, because the noble Viscount had been kind enough to state—what was, indeed, perfectly just—that the Foreign Office had never been slack where its exertions could be usefully employed in aid of the Christian subjects of the Sultan, yet he could not refrain from making one or two remarks. Certainly no one was better qualified than the noble Viscount to bring this subject under their Lordships' consideration. Everbody who had paid the least attention to foreign affairs was well aware that during the whole time the noble Viscount represented this country at Constantinople his great influence was continuously and unsparingly used on behalf of all classes of Christians throughout the Turkish dominions. He might also add that everybody knew the exertions of the noble Viscount to that end had been happily attended with considerable success. The noble Viscount had paid a just tribute to the benevolent intentions of the present Sultan. Persons in this country could scarcely understand to what an extent the Sultan had to contend against the prejudices of his people in the measures he had recently taken. Those measures had announced complete religious liberty to Christians all over the Sultan's dominions—a proceeding that was regarded by many of the most highly-placed Turks as inconsistent with their creed and position. Under such circumstances to have proclaimed, and to some extent also carried out, those principles, reflected great honour upon the Sovereign of Turkey. But, unfortunately, in that country, more, perhaps, than any other, the measures that were formally announced were not always put fully into operation or completely carried out. The Christians might, indeed, have been placed almost on a footing of nominal equality with the rest of their fellow subjects; yet, undoubtedly, they were exposed to oppression in various parts of the Sultan's dominions. Some cases of persecution had been brought under the notice of Her Majesty's Government, and the complaints had been accordingly brought to the knowledge of the Ottoman Government. They had received satisfactory assurances that orders would be given by the Porte to its different governors in the Pachalics where these grievances had occurred; and he trusted that those orders would be carried with effect. Indeed they had every reason to 1072 believe that it would be so, since an officer of high rank had been appointed to see that they were carried into effect. But what was most deserving of remark was that these complaints were made in a very great number of cases, not against the Mussulmans, but against other Christian subjects of the Sultan. So great a jealousy existed among the different Christian Churches throughout the East that scenes constantly occurred which did very little credit to the Christian profession of those who took part in them. The most lamentable religious feuds had not only prevailed at Jerusalem, but at present there existed among the Greeks and Latins very great jealousy respecting conversions to Protestantism. In one instance a Greek priest, and also some Armenians who had embraced Protestantism, were persecuted to such a degree that even in spite of the assistance of the authorities they were obliged to leave their native part of the country altogether. Similar cases had occurred in other places. All this exemplified the great difficulties of a very peculiar kind which the Turkish Government had to encounter in enforcing the principles of religious liberty and toleration which they had announced, and which he believed they were honestly desirous of giving effect to. He could, however, assure his noble Friend that Her Majesty's Government, without wishing to interfere with the internal affairs of Turkey—because they ought to make some allowance for the difficult position of the Sultan, and not press hard on that Sovereign, except in cases of absolute necessity—were disposed to give such advice to his Government as they hoped might secure to Protestants as much safety and freedom as were extended to other Christian denominations throughout the East. Her Majesty's Government had been invariably assured of the good intentions of the Turkish Government in respect to the carrying out of internal refrrms, but beset as the Porte was by the frequent representations of all the States of Europe, it had the hardest conceivable task to carry out any efficient plans of reform. They ought to take care that in any course they took they did not trench on the independence of the Sultan, lest while endeavouring to improve the condition of his empire they should add to its weakness, and prevent by the measures they employed the realization of their best wishes for its prosperity.
LORD BROUGHAMhoped he should receive from his noble Friend some satisfactory information as to the steps which had been taken to put down, as far as we had authority to put down, but at all events to make our Consuls aid the Turkish Government in punishing, instead of interfering to protect, the British subjects guilty of those outrages which lately were committed so scandalously in one of the mosques in Egypt, in a spirit of mere wantonness. If these outrages had been committed in consequence of a perverted religious enthusiasm, that would have offered no sort of defence, but it would have been comparatively an extenuation of the offence. But according to the information he had on the subject, the outrage in question arose from the mere wantonness of English travellers in that country he hoped and trusted, therefore, not only that our Consul did not interfere to protect the offenders from the law and the police of the country to which they had rendered themselves amenable, but that he had rather encouraged the authorities in executing the laws against them. Nothing could possibly tend more entirely to frustrate all the good that had been done by religious societies here, and by his noble Friend the noble Viscount when he filled that office, which he filled—and which by common consent he most ably filled—in the East, for the promotion of the Christian religion, and the propagation of the Gospel in those parts—nothing could tend more completely to render inoperative all that had been done, and to make progress, so to speak, retrograde, than such outrages committed, he was sorry and ashamed to say, by British subjects. The only course that should be taken in such cases was to instruct our Consul, not only not to interpose, which he was not likely to do, in favour of those who were guilty of these outrages, but show his zeal to bring them to justice, and encourage the Ottoman Government in executing their own laws against them.
LORD WODEHOUSEsaid, he entirely agreed with his noble and learned Friend that it was the duty of the British Consuls not merely not to give encouragement to those who were guilty of outrages so gross as that to which reference had been made, but that they should do all in their power to bring such persons to condign punishment. The circumstances of that most disgraceful proceeding—for it could be characterised by no other term—were per- 1074 fectly well known; but, in justification of our Consul, he might state that he was entirely ignorant of the transaction until the parties were beyond the reach of justice; and he would say that the conduct of the Viceroy of Egypt and of the Egyptian authorities, did them the highest credit, and it was satisfactory to find that the progress of religious toleration in that country had rendered such an occurrence comparatively harmless. The individuals in question had interrupted in a most unseemly manner religious ceremonies which were proceeding in one of the principal mosques on a solemn occasion; but instead of tearing them to pieces on the spot, which would have been the case a few years ago, the people allowed the officers of police to quietly remove the offenders. Her Majesty's Government had taken measures to discover the perpetrators of this outrage, and they had given directions to the Consuls, that on the future occurrence of any such cases, they should take immediate measures to bring the offenders to justice.
LORD BROUGHAMhoped his noble Friend (Lord Wodehouse) would not be charged, in consequence of adopting such steps, with favouring the Mahomedan religion, as he himself and others had been charged with favouring the Popish religion because they objected in the East London case to decide a question of ecclesiastical discipline by the mob in the streets, which they had protested against, without saying one word as to which party was right or which was wrong.
§ LORD CRANWORTHthought, while pressing on the Porte the protection of our own countrymen, entertaining religious opinions totally at variance with those of the Sultan, it was extremely important his Government should understand that the blame imputed was not attributed so much to the Mahomedan as to the Christian subjects of His Majesty.
§ Petition to lie on the Table.