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THE EAST AND THE WEST OUR DEALINGS WITH NEIGHBOURS. iwflkmt EMTED BY M(8B HON. HENRT STANLEY February, 1865. LONDON : HATCHAKD AND CO. 187 PICCADILLY, t0 1.8J. % iJ o/ Translation reserved.] LONDON: STBANGEWAYS AND "WALDEN, PRINTERS, 28 Castle St. Leicester Sq, mi ||je f CONTENTS. ESSAY PAGE I. OUR CONSULAR SYSTEM FOREIGN JURISDICTION IN COUNTRIES HAVING REGULAR GOVERNMENTS . 1 II. MODERN CHRISTENDOM IN THE LEVANT . 55 III. THE EFFECTS OF CONTEMPT FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW Ill IV. ISLAM AS A POLITICAL SYSTEM .... 139 V. THE GREEK AND THE RUSSIAN CHURCHES . 209 VI. ON THE PROTECTION AFFORDED TO BRITISH SUB- JECTS AND THEIR INTERESTS ABROAD . 265 INTRODUCTION. TEE perversion of ideas through the use of and false such as vague terms, policy, expe- diency, civilisation, military operations, &c., is the chief cause of the to inability distinguish between right and wrong which leads to the rapidly increasing number of little wars in which the cdunfty is involved. These are so and are so Becoming ^frequent, lightly entered upon, th,at disasters have occurred before the country even knew that its troops were engaged. We have forced our presence upon the Japanese, and have compelled them to admit our consular jurisdiction, though its inefficacy to maintain order had been proved by experience : though Sir Rutherford Alcock has exposed its defects in the first chapter of his second volume on Japan, which is pro- bably only a transcript of his official corre- spondence, no steps appear to be in contem- plation for their remedy. In 1829 M. Abel Remusat inveighed against the practice of Europeans in adopting a different standard of right and wrong out of Europe, following only their own will and VI INTRODUCTION. pleasure; but since he wrote the following passage the evil he complained of has im- " measurably increased : A singular race is this European race* The opinions with which it is armed, the reasonings upon which it rests, could astonish an impartial judge, if such an one could be at present found on earth. They walk the globe, showing them- selves to the humiliated nations as the type the of beauty in their figures, as basis of reason in their ideas, the perfection of under- standing in their imaginations. That is their only measure. They judge all things by that rule. In their own quarrels they are agreed upon certain principles by which to assassi- nate one another with method and regularity. But right of nations is superfluous in dealing with Orientals." The necessity of again calling attention to these ills, is the excuse or the justification for the publication of this series of Essays. The fifth of the series does not refer to the above-mentioned subjects; but since the recent startling announcement that Convo- cation has already taken steps to effect intercommunion between the Church of England and the Eussian Church, its publi- cation is not less opportune. I. OUR CONSULAR SYSTEM FOREIGN- JURISDICTION IN COUNTRIES HAVING- REGULAR GOVERNMENTS. " " FOREIGN jurisdiction, or extraterritoriality as it is now sometimes called, is the right ceded by one State to another State of judging by its own officers causes arising amongst its subjects residing in the territories of the State which thus ceded part of its sovereign rights. This subject may be examined under three viz. its its aspects ; justice, expediency, and its practicability. is not an Foreign jurisdiction abstract right which can be claimed, or which is founded upon any other grounds than the good pleasure of the makes this concession State which or delegation of its rights. Neither has this system any antiquity in its favour. The Civis Romanus, whose memory has been invoked in support of the widest demands B 2 OUR CONSULAR SYSTEM. that could be made in behalf of British, residents in foreign states, enjoyed no such privileges or immunities. His privileges were enjoyed only within the limits of the Eoman Empire, and his position was like that held by the Englishman in India; though, in all probability, it did not quite amount to that, since Englishmen in India claim to be free from the jurisdiction of native magistrates, although appointed under British authority. The custom of foreign jurisdiction arose from the grant of this privilege made by the Ottoman Sultans. These grants, or delegations of the right of jurisdiction, were made by the Ottoman Govern- ment of its free will and pleasure, at a period of the plenitude of its power, when its greatest neigh- bour, the German Empire, was its tributary, and before the existence of that of Eussia. This dele- gation of authority was in accordance with the principles of the Ottoman Government, which had already delegated civil jurisdiction amongst its Christian subjects to the Bishops at the head of the respective Churches. It is often erroneously imagined that these privileges were obtained, nay, even forced from the Ottoman Government, under treaty stipulations, on account of the name by which " these are the privileges known ; namely, capita- THE TURKISH CAPITULATIONS. 3 lations." This word, however, lias no connexion the with verb "to capitulate;" but is derived from the " Italian capitulazione" having the mean- ing of headings or sections. At the time that the Ottoman Porte confided to the Christian em- bassies the power of administering the law to their this concession not subjects, was fraught with injury to the Porte. At that time the number of Euro- who came to was small pean subjects Turkey very ; those who came were much more under the authority of their Ambassadors and Consuls than can be the case at the present time: the capitulations con- tained, and still contain, provisions which have been since eluded, which prevented injury accruing to the State from the privileges which it granted. The Christian Kings, also, were more careful that these privileges should not be abused. The cele- brated traveller Tavernier mentions that he had de- as a for his posited a sum of money, security good behaviour, in the hands of the King's Intendant at Marseilles, before leaving France for Turkey. When the number of foreigners was very small, and was limited to men of worth and respectability, the injury caused by their immunity from subjection to the law of the land was also limited, but the introduc- tion of steam communication and the increase of altered the circumstances travelling has entirely 4 OUR CONSULAR SYSTEM. to the The treaties, moreover, up present time, only of sanctioned the establishment in Turkey wholesale of retail dealers for merchants, and did not allow ; it is known that a clause in a late treaty concluded between Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire, retail dealers, does not containing words sanctioning inserted in the trans- exist in the original, but was a would bear lation by an interpreter. Such practice an ugly name if it came under the cognisance* of an English court of law. The consequences have been two-fold; the foreign shopkeepers pay no taxes to the State in which they live, and are thus in a more favoured condition than the shopkeepers of the are also in the con- subjects country ; they dition of privileged creditors and privileged debtors : secondly, the following of certain trades by foreigners, under the of present system foreign jurisdiction, ren- of ders the administration justice impossible : all the wine-shops and coffee-houses kept by lonians, Maltese, Greeks, and others, are closed to the police. These wine-shops are the rendezvous of robbers, murderers, and other criminals, who are more secure there than criminals were formerly in the sanc- tuaries of Alsatia and the Savoy. These abuses have been swept away throughout Christendom; why should Christian Governments wish to main- tain them in Turkey in behalf of criminals who EUROPEAN CRIMINAL POPULATION OF PERA. 5 their own are not even subjects ? for a very large of the scum of proportion Pera and Gralata are only that protected subjects ; is, persons abusively enjoy- of the ing the immunities capitulations. It must be observed here, that when the Porte granted these were not privileges they intended to be applied to but a of her own subjects ; very large proportion the subjects of the European Consuls, in all the the countries in which principle of foreign juris- diction has obtained, are denationalised subjects of the State which has been deluded into making this fatal concession. The consequences to Turkey of the existence of the European community of Pera and Galata are a large accession of criminal popula- tion, a source of demoralisation, deprivation of the power of pursuing the criminals to their haunts, and absence of contribution by this community of their share of the taxes for defraying police expenses caused by themselves. The Europeans in Turkey not being amenable to the local tribunals construe this immunity into impunity, and claim to do that which none of the inhabitants may do, and also that which is disallowed in all countries. It is but since the last treaty with Great Britain that the Porte has succeeded in ex- cluding gunpowder from amongst those articles which may be freely traded in. Yet in all countries 6 OXJR CONSULAR SYSTEM. the trade in gunpowder must be subject to govern- ment restrictions, whether with reference to the the from possibility of insurrections or to danger fire to life and limb. "Wine and spirits in a strictly Mussulman country, such as Arabia, or in countries such as Siam and Japan, are in the same category, and cannot become lawful objects of importation for the use of the inhabitants. Tet, when compensa- tion was exacted for the sufferers by the Jiddah massacre, one of the claims brought against the Porte was put in by a Greek, not a British subject, for fifty thousand dollars for a wine-and-spirit shop.