WHEN DID MAHOMETAN INDEPENDENCE IN CONSTANTINOPLE DEPART?

In order to answer this question understandingly, it will be necessary to review briefly the history of that power for a few years past.SSTR 60.4

For several years the Sultan has been embroiled in war with Mehemet Ali, Pacha of Egypt. In 1838 there was a threatening of war between the Sultan and his Egyptian vassal. Mehemet Ali Pacha, in a note addressed to the foreign consuls, declared that in future he would pay no tribute to the Porte, and that he considered himself independent sovereign of Egypt, Arabia and Syria. The Sultan, naturally incensed at this declaration, would have immediately commenced hostilities, had he not been restrained by the influence of the foreign ambassadors, and persuaded to delay. This war however, was finally averted by the announcement of Mehemet, that he was ready to pay a million of dollars, arrearages of tribute which he owed the Porte, and an actual payment of $750,000, in August of that year.SSTR 60.5

In 1939 hostilities again commenced, and were prosecuted, until, in a general battle between the armies of the Sultan and Mehemet, the Sultan’s army was entirely cut up and destroyed, and his fleet taken by Mehemet and carried into Egypt. So completely had the Sultan’s fleet been reduced, that, when hostilities commenced in August, he had only two first-rates and three frigates, as the sad remains of the once powerful Turkish fleet. This fleet Mehemet positively refused to give up and return to the Sultan, and declared, if the powers attempted to take it from him he would burn it.SSTR 61.1

In this posture affairs stood, when, in 1840, England, Russia, Austria and Prussia interposed, and determined on a settlement of the difficulty, for it was evident, if let alone, Mehemet would soon become master of the Sultan’s throne.SSTR 61.2

The following extract from an official document, which appeared in the Moniteur Ottoman, Aug. 22, 1840, will give an idea of the course of affairs at this juncture. The conference spoken of was composed of the four powers above named, and was held in London, July 15th, 1840:SSTR 61.3

“Subsequent to the occurrence of the disputes alluded to, and after the reverses experienced, as known to all the world, the ambassadors of the great powers at Constantinople, in a collective official note declared that their governments were unanimously agreed upon taking measures to arrange the said differences. The Sublime Porte, with a view of putting a stop to the effusion of Mussulman blood, and to the various evils which would arise from a renewal of hostilities, accepted the intervention of the great powers.”SSTR 62.1

Here was certainly a voluntary surrender of the question into the hands of the great powers. But it proceeds:SSTR 62.2

“His Excellency, Sheikh Effendi, the Bey Likgis, was therefore despatched as plenipotentiary to represent the Sublime Porte at the conference which took place in London, for the purpose in question. It having been felt that all the zealous labors of the conferences of London in the settlement of the Pacha’s pretensions were useless, and that the only public way was to have recourse to coercive measures to reduce him to obedience in case he persisted in not listening to pacific overtures, and powers have, together with the Ottoman Plenipotentiary, drawn up and signed a treaty, whereby the Sultan offers the Pacha the hereditary government of Egypt, and all that part of Syria extending from the gulf of Suez to the lake of Tiberias, together with the province of Acre, for life: the Pacha, on his part, evacuating all other parts of the Sultan’s dominions now occupied by him, and returning the Ottoman fleet. A certain space of time has been granted him to accede to these terms; and, as the proposals of the Sultan and his allies, the four powers, do not admit of any change or qualification, if the Pacha refuse to accede to them, it is evident that the evil consequences to fall upon him will be attributable solely to his own fault.SSTR 62.3

“His Excellency, Rifat Bey, Musleshar for foreign affairs, has been despatched in a government steamer to Alexandria, to communicate the ultimatum to the Pacha.”SSTR 63.1

From these extracts it appears,SSTR 63.2

1. That the Sultan, conscious of his own weakness, did voluntarily accept the intervention of the great Christian powers of Europe to settle his difficulties, which he could not settle himself.SSTR 63.3

2. That they (the great powers) were agreed on taking measures to settle the difficulties.SSTR 63.4

3. That the ultimatum of the London conference left it with the Sultan to arrange the affair with Mehemet, if he could. The Sultan was to offer to him the terms of settlement. So that if Mehemet accepted the terms, there would still be no actual intervention of the powers between the Sultan and Pacha.SSTR 63.5

4. That if Mehemet rejected the Sultan’s offer, the ultimatum admitted of no change or qualification; the great powers stood pledged to coerce him into submission. So long, therefore, as the Sultan held the ultimatum in his own hands, he still maintained the independence of his throne. But that document once submitted to Mehemet, and it would be forever beyond his reach to control the question. It would be for Mehemet to say whether the powers should interpose or not.SSTR 63.6

5. The Sultan did despatch Rifat Bey in a government steamer (which left Constantinople Aug. 5) to Alexandria, to communicate to Mehemet the ultimatum.SSTR 63.7

This was a voluntary governmental act of the Sultan.SSTR 64.1

The question now comes up, when was that document put officially under the control of Mehemet Ali?SSTR 64.2

The following extract from a letter of a correspondent of the London Morning Chronicle, of Sep. 18, 1840, dated, Constantinople, Aug. 27th, 1840, will answer the question:SSTR 64.3

“By the French steamer of the 24th, we have advice from Egypt to the 16th. They show no alteration in the resolution of the Pacha. Confiding in the valor of his Arab army, and in the strength of the fortifications which defend his capital, he seems determined to abide by the last alternative; and as recourse to this, therefore, is not inevitable, all hope may be considered as at an end of a termination of the affair without bloodshed. Immediately on the arrival of the Cyclops steamer with the news of the convention of the four powers, Mehemet Ali, it is stated, had quitted Alexandria, to make a short tour through Lower Egypt. The object of his absenting himself at such a moment being partly to avoid conferences with the European consuls, but principally to endeavor, by his own presence, to arouse the fanaticism of the Bedouin tribes, and facilitate the raising of his new levies. During the interval of his absence, the Turkish government steamer, which had reached Alexandria on the 11th, with the envoy Rifat Bey on board, had been by his orders placed in quarantine, and she was not released from it till the 16th. Previous, however, to the Porte’s leaving, and on the very day on which he had been admitted to pratique, the above named functionary had had an audience of the Pacha, and had communicated to him the command of the Sultan, with respect to the evacuation of the Syrian provinces, appointing another audience for the next day, when, in the presence of the consuls of the European powers, he would receive from him his definite answer, and inform him of the alternative of his refusing to obey; giving him the ten days which have been allotted him by the convention to decide on the course he should think fit to adopt.”SSTR 64.4

According to the foregoing statement, the ultimatum was officially put into the power of Mehemet Ali, and was disposed of by his orders, viz., sent to quarantine, on the ELEVENTH DAY OF AUGUST, 1840.SSTR 65.1

But have we any evidence, besides the fact of the arrival of Rifat Bey at Alexandria with the ultimatum on the 11th of August, that Ottoman supremacy died, or was dead, that day?SSTR 65.2

Read the following, from the same writer quoted above, dated, “Constantinople, August 12th, 1840:”SSTR 65.3

“I can add but little to my last letter, on the subject of the plans of the four powers; and I believe the details I then gave you comprise everything that is yet decided on. The portion of the Pacha, as I then stated, is not to extend beyond the line of Acre, and does not include either Arabia or Candia. Egypt alone is to be hereditary in his family, and the province of Acre to be considered as a pachalic, to be governed by his son during his lifetime, but afterward to depend on the will of the Porte; and even this latter is only to be granted him on the condition of his accepting these terms, and delivering up the Ottoman fleet within ten days. In the event of his not doing so, this pachalic is to be cut off. Egypt is then to be offered him, with another ten days to delivered on it, before actual force is employed against him.SSTR 65.4

“The manner, however, of applying the force, should he refuse to comply with these terms—whether a simple blockade is to be established on the coast, or whether his capital is to be bombarded, and his armies attacked in the Syrian provinces—is the point which still remains to be learned; nor does a note delivered yesterday by the four ambassadors, in answer to a question put to them by the Porte, as to the plan to be adopted in such an event, throw the least light on this subject. It simply states that provision has been made, and there is no necessity for the Divan alarming itself about any contingency that might afterwards arise.”SSTR 66.1

Let us now analyze this testimony.SSTR 66.2

1. The letter is dated “Constantinople, August 12.”SSTR 66.3

2. “Yesterday,” the 11th of August, the Sultan applied in his own capital, to the ambassadors of four Christian nations, to know the measures which were to be taken in reference to a circumstance vitally affecting his empire, and was only told that “provision had been made,” but he could not know what it was; and that he need give himself no alarm about any contingency that might afterwards arise!” From that time, then, they, not he, would manage that.SSTR 66.4

Where was the Sultan’s independence that day? GONE! Who had the supremacy of the Ottoman empire in their hands? The great powers.SSTR 67.1

According to previous calculation, therefore, Ottoman Supremacy did depart on the eleventh of August, into the hands of the great Christian powers of Europe.SSTR 67.2

Then the second wo is past, and the sixth trumpet has ceased its sounding; and the conclusion is now inevitable, because the word of God affirms the fact in so many words, “Behold the third wo cometh quickly.”SSTR 67.3

In the foregoing, Josiah Litch has brought us down through the prophecy of the trumpets, and the woes, to the last. We now wish to briefly notice some of the events to occur under the sounding of the seventh angel. A full exposition of the subject may be given in a Tract by itself.SSTR 67.4