DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0168
158 PAST AND PRESENT
of being reduced to order by the stern discipline
of a western government; they can never be con-
trolled by the Turkish officials, feeble in every-
thing except a massacre. Most of us, probably,
will live to see the boundary between European
and Asiatic rule placed near the Euphrates.
We shall wholly misconceive the present state of
things in Asia Minor, unless we bear in mind the
facts which have been stated in the preceding
paragraphs. The situation in Turkey is not simply
an uneasy balance between two opposite forces,
where a little extra strength added to one side by
the European Powers can restore equilibrium.
Orientalism is ebbing and dying in the country.
The tide of western ideas and western thoughts is
flowing and strong ; eight centuries of strict and
stern repression are behind it and drive it onward
irresistibly. The Great Powers of Europe, as they
feebly and nervelessly protest against the move-
ment towards freedom, and officially disown it, and
stand for the constituted authority and rights of
the Sultan, and reprobate the undue haste of
Armenians and Cretans and the Young Turkish
party to free themselves from the incubus that
crushes them, are in the position of Canute when
he set bounds to the flowing tide. The world, the
course of history, and the mind of man, are against
the Powers ; and there is nothing possible for them
of being reduced to order by the stern discipline
of a western government; they can never be con-
trolled by the Turkish officials, feeble in every-
thing except a massacre. Most of us, probably,
will live to see the boundary between European
and Asiatic rule placed near the Euphrates.
We shall wholly misconceive the present state of
things in Asia Minor, unless we bear in mind the
facts which have been stated in the preceding
paragraphs. The situation in Turkey is not simply
an uneasy balance between two opposite forces,
where a little extra strength added to one side by
the European Powers can restore equilibrium.
Orientalism is ebbing and dying in the country.
The tide of western ideas and western thoughts is
flowing and strong ; eight centuries of strict and
stern repression are behind it and drive it onward
irresistibly. The Great Powers of Europe, as they
feebly and nervelessly protest against the move-
ment towards freedom, and officially disown it, and
stand for the constituted authority and rights of
the Sultan, and reprobate the undue haste of
Armenians and Cretans and the Young Turkish
party to free themselves from the incubus that
crushes them, are in the position of Canute when
he set bounds to the flowing tide. The world, the
course of history, and the mind of man, are against
the Powers ; and there is nothing possible for them