Some of the necessary reforms will be hateful
to the Turks, and others to the Greeks,
Armenians, and Bulgarians; yet all might
probably be effected provided the absolute
freedom of the press were restored, the inde-
pendence of the House of Representatives
maintained, and provided reasonable time be
conceded.
I will, in conclusion, ask excuse for record-
ing one or two desultory observations on points
I think myself to have perceived or learnt.
206 A PRISONEE OF WiVE IN RUSSIA.
First, as to Turkish fanaticism. I am told
something of this is still apparent during
Ramazan, when the harangues of the Moslem
preachers, acting on the febrile irritability
produced by long fasting, sometimes inflame
the hearers to a somewhat dangerous pitch
of excitement. But at other seasons fana
tical feeling seems to be seldom roused excep
in the single case of Mussulman converts to
Christianity. Even these incur no danger in
the great cities; but elsewhere a Moslem
renegade among a Moslem population would
have a bad time of it. Christians, bom such,
and especially foreigners, have seldom the
shadow of intolerance to complain of.
Next, I would remark on the admirable
sobriety of the Turkish population, and the
entire absence in consequence of the coarse-
ness and brutality which degrade 90 large a
proportion of our own. The poorest Turk is
in many respects a gentleman : perhaps more
so, often, than his countryman of more
exalted station, notwithstanding the latter's
fine manners and courteous forms of speech.
