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without further inquiry, that if German scholars should make a special study of the other provinces of European Turkey, a similar result would be apparent.

For this discrepancy between facts and statistics there are two reasons. In the first place, the Ottoman Government sees with serious apprehension the rapid diminution of the Osmanlis and the steady increase of the Christians, in spite of all attempts, by massacre and otherwise, to keep them down; and it does its best accordingly to conceal the fact from Christian Europe, from the Rayahs themselves, and from the ruling caste, by means of false statistics. The Gypsies, for example, who number, according to Ubicini, about 212,000, are grouped with the Mussulmans in the official statistics of the Porte. So are also the Armenians, of whom there are upwards of 400,000 in Europe, and of these, 200,000 in Constantinople alone, chiefly in the quarters of Eyoub, Psammatia, Koum-Kapou, Galata, and Balad. The politicians of Europe in general do not take the trouble, and have seldom the means, of testing the accuracy of Turkish statistics, and it is thus easy for the Porte to palm off upon Europe a much larger Mussulman and a much smaller Christian population than the facts really warrant. And the Christians themselves, it must be added, help, for reasons of their own, to propagate the deception. Nearly all the Christian communities in European Turkey have a kind of voluntary municipal organization of their own (of which more anon) quite apart from Turkish officialIn the various villages and towns the Christians elect annually from among themselves a certain number of headmen, who are charged with the duty of administering the affairs of the community, including

ism.

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1 Lejean and Petermann, p. 37.

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justice in the case of disputes of Christians with each other; for it is a rare thing for a Christian to appeal to a Turkish tribunal against one of his own faith. In the villages these headmen are generally called Primates. In the towns they are usually called Ephori. Their functions are entirely voluntary, and their services gratuitous. One of their number is generally chosen to preside over the rest, and he acts as intermediary between the community and the authority, whether that of the bishop or of the governor of the district. The ecclesiastical head of the Greeks is the Patriarch of Constantinople, who is always appointed by the Porte on payment of a large simoniacal bribe. It follows, of course, that fitness for his post is the last qualification to be looked for in the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Porte selects the man who offers the largest bribe, and who is likely at the same time to prove a pliant creature of Ottoman policy. If the accepted candidate has not means enough, as he seldom has, to pay the bribe, he borrows at exorbitant interest from a money-lender. Once installed in his office, he wields supreme power over the Christian community committed by the Vicar of Mahomet to his trust, and the myrmidons of Turkish tyranny are henceforth at his beck to fleece his flock. His first thought is to reimburse himself to the full amount of his bribe; a large sum, for in addition to the baksheesh which the Sultan receives, the Grand Vizier has to be bribed, and all the persons by whom the Grand Vizier can be influenced. The Patriarch's next consideration is how to squeeze as large a revenue as possible for himself out of the hard earnings of his Christian subjects. This he does through the bishops who, in order to meet the exactions of their chief, are compelled to act the part of leeches towards their priests; and the

latter are thus forced to prey upon their flocks. Yet speakers and writers innumerable cite the rapacity and degradation of the Eastern bishops and clergy as a convincing proof that Slaves and Greeks are alike unfit for self-government; the corollary being that the paternal rule of the Porte is necessary to keep the Christians from devouring each other! In other words, the inevitable results of an atrocious policy are brought forward to prove that the policy is necessary as a check on the results!

The wonder truly is that under such a system the clergy of the Greek Church are no worse than they are. There are many excellent, intelligent, and highly educated men among them, and they all groan under a system which they feel to be as degrading as it is tyrannous, but which, thanks to the supposed necessity of maintaining the integrity and independence of the Turkish Empire,' they are unable to shake off. The Bulgarian clergy and laity have lately (A.D. 1872) shaken it off in part by repudiating the authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople, who retaliated by an edict of excommunication. Into the merits of the quarrel I do not intend to enter in this place. Let it suffice to say that the Bulgarians are now governed ecclesiastically by an Exarch elected by the clergy, approved by the Porte, and resident in Constantinople.

The Porte conceded this privilege to the Bulgarians on the principle of divide et impera-a principle which it has applied assiduously to its Christian subjects; and its cloven foot peeped out through the drapery of diplomatic phraseology in which its real intentions were shrouded. In strict harmony with the ordinary rules the Bulgarian clergy elected for their first Exarch Hilarion, the intrepid bishop who, in his church at

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Constantinople, had first proclaimed the independence of the Bulgarian Church. The two last qualities, however, which the Porte admires in a bishop are intrepidity and independence. An intrepid and patriotic Exarch would never do, and so the Bulgarian clergy were told in mellifluous phrases-for it would be imprudent to drive them back into the arms of the Greek Patriarch-that the appointment of Hilarion would make the breach with the Patriarchate irreparablethe very thing which the Porte, but not the Bulgarians, wished. The election of Hilarion was accordingly set aside, and Anthimos, Metropolitan of Vidin, was chosen in his stead. The latter had borne the reputation of a grasping disposition, and the Porte fancied that he would prove a pliant tool. That he has not done so is a proof that the clergy of the Eastern Church will rise to the responsibility and dignity of their position in proportion as they are released from the debasing yoke of Turkish misrule.

This digression was necessary to explain the reason why the Christians, from a very different motive, aid the Porte in propagating a false impression as to their real numbers.

Among the duties of the Kodja-Bachi,1 or president of the Christian council described above, is that of drawing up annually a report of the births and deaths which take place within his jurisdiction. This he sends to the bishop, who forwards it to the Patriarch at Constantinople. On these reports are based the oppressive exactions of both Porte and Patriarch. The more numerous the births in a town or village, the heavier is the contribution which it is obliged to send to Constantinople. A powerful inducement is thus held out

1 I have followed Ubicini in the orthography of this word. It is spelt differently by other writers.

for the concealment, as much as possible, of the growth of the Christian population.

Taking these two facts together the systematic falsification of statistics both by the Porte and by its Christian subjects we are certainly justified in putting the Christians at a much higher, and the Mussulmans especially the Turks-at a much lower figure than the ordinary statistics. On the whole, I believe the following estimate of the relative proportions of the Christian and Mussulman subjects of the Porte in Europe is not far from the truth. With regard to the Slave population of Turkey, I accept the figures of the well-informed Servian politician who has lately contributed two able and interesting articles on the Eastern Question to Macmillan's Magazine. He estimates the Slave population at 9,000,000, of whom, however, 700,000 are Mussulmans, the rest being Christians-that is 8,000,000 belonging to the Eastern Church, and 300,000, at the most, to the Roman Catholics. At present I draw no distinction between Orthodox and Roman Catholics, but reckon together all the Christians on the one hand and all the Mussulmans on the other, as follows:

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