in this world and rewarded in the next. Those men who defend their religion and are loyal to their Government and support their families and serve their country should act as they are advised. By doing so they will be happy in this world by the favour of God. I speak only to direct you to be very careful in this matter and to follow the advice, as there is no remedy besides the same; you must act as men, otherwise you will be attacked by the enemy. The following are the few lines from the Wakiat Sar-rishtaya Islamiah Rum, which contains this advice :

"THE CONDITIONS OF THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT.

"In the beginning of the month of November, his Imperial Majesty the Sultan of Turkey summoned the local, military, and political officers, Turks and Arabs, before him, and gave a general order as follows:

"O Mahomedian people; ere this, there existed unity among the Powers of the world, and especially among those of Europe. To act in contravention of the terms of a treaty was considered by them to be odious and disgraceful. In case any Power acted in opposition to the terms of the treaty, the other Powers conjointly checked that Power and did not allow her to act contrary to the terms of the treaty. Now such a good habit has disappeared from all the Powers, and policy has become a name for violation of the treaties, and men boast how they carry on their policy in that respect, and friendship is changed into fraud.

Now, I command you to be cautious, for you are surrounded by the infidels, and it is expected war may take place between the Powers. You should, therefore, take thought for your fames and religion, and do not be ignorant; otherwise the Mahomedian religion may disappear.'

"After this speech of his Imperial Majesty the Sultan, all officers, political and military, promised that they would, after reading the same instructions before all the Mahomedian army and Turkish subjects, and with their consent, bring their report to his Imperial Majesty's notice. Then the meeting dispersed and every one wrote about this to his own country, so that on the 18th of December, 1886, all officers of the State were assembled together and petitioned to his Imperial Majesty the Sultan as follows:

"We have brought all this to the notice of all Mahomedans, and all the army and subjects are anxious to accept what his Imperial Majesty and the Counsellors of the State have desired regarding the preservation of the faith of Islam. They consulted for three days in this matter, and determined that military forces about ten lakhs in number, together with equipment, should be sent into the field, and the names of those subjects who are stout enough and young in age should be put down (in the military roll) so as to see how many they are in number, and afterwards they should be appointed in their respective positions with the above-mentioned ten lakhs, so that the number of ten lakhs should be completed by adding the new forces. The remainder of the forces should drill once a week in their own country. The force which is already stationed here will be relieved by other forces which are stationed in their own country. After three years they must come and do their duties here. After some years their turn will come. Those who are respectable and belong to high family should perform their duties in the cavalry in two ways. Firstly, those who are stout enough and young in age may be appointed in the cavalry and be relieved as usual and act according to the military rules; secondly, those who are not strong enough and cannot continuously bear to perform the duties of the military forces, may purchase horses and arms for themselves and keep the same (for their own use) and drill once a week. They should present themselves at the time of a religious war being declared.'

"All Turks and Arabs and all those of the Turkish dominions were agreed in this matter and a written agreement was passed on the subject. In regard to the expenses, the military forces agreed that they would not receive their wages from the commencement of the religious war up to the end of it. With the exception of wages and miscellaneous expenses

the authorities are urged to receive out of the revenues of the State ten per cent. per annum. The revenue, except that which is credited to the Government treasury, is to be applied in defraying the expenses of the arsenals, fleets, commissariat department, and all other matters in connection with the forces."

They are at present engaged in performing these same duties. The alliance and unity between the Turkish and the Russian Empires have thereby been enhanced.

N.B. The last phrase of this singular and important document may be taken to signify that the armaments of Turkey have imposed respect upon Russia. Compare this with the parallel passage in the letter of Woods Pasha as to the present military power of Turkey.-G. C.

THE ROMAN FECIAL COLLEGE AND THE TURKISH FETVA.

THE paper in our last number on the Fecial College of ancient Rome was deficient in that it made no mention of a contemporary institution of a similar kind which exists in the Mussulman Fetva.

In Chambaud's French Dictionary (1805) and in the Dictionary of the French Academy (1814) we find this described as follows:

"Mandement du Muphti, très respecté même du Grand Seigneur." "Decree of the Muphti, much respected even by the Grand Signior." The word " Muphti" ought rather to be "Sheik ul Islam," the head of the College of Ulema. But the decree was that of the College, not of the individual. The following is from Mr. Urquhart's Appeal to the Pope, p. 33:

"The Sultan and Divan of Turkey can, no more than could the Consuls and Senate of Rome, decree or levy war. The Ulema in the one country, as the Fecials in the other, have first to render their sentence (Fetva). Were a Sultan without such warrant to declare war, he would find no one to obey him. The common Mussulman soldier would make no distinction between the individual murder of a fellow-citizen and the aggregate murder of a foreign regiment. Without the Fetva of the Sheik ul Islam, he would hold himself no more bound to obey his officer in firing on such regiment, than an English soldier would do, in firing on a mob without the reading of the Riot Act.

"In the only case of such usurpation presented by the annals of Turkey, the Sultan (Mahmoud IV.) was put to death. He had recommenced war with Austria before the expiration of a truce. Even under the new order commenced in this generation, the most eloquent and popular preacher at Constantinople denounced the surrender of Belgrade (1867) as an act of infidelity, as well as usurpation, no Fetva having been obtained for it.'

The following is from Mr. Urquhart's "The Four Wars of the French Revolution," p. 45.

"Among the Mussulmans a civil war has to be legalised not less than an external war. A rebel is designated Convict' (Firmanli), because sentence has been pronounced against him,

"At the time of the war against the Wahabees, the Fetva (the sentence of the Ulemas, that is to say of the judges) was proclaimed from the Minarets, and read at the head of each battalion by its Imaum on the opening of the campaign. Without this formality no Mussulman would have drawn a sword, any more than a European executioner would have performed his functions without the sentence delivered by the judge,

"For a similar case Ali Pasha of Janina had to have recourse to his Christian mercenaries when the Mussulmans refused to fire on the Christians of Chardiké."

In the House of Commons (11 August, 1848) Mr. Urquhart did obtain from General Sir De Lacy Evans the admission

"I should not act against a crowd unless the Riot Act were read."

But an English General does not seem to understand that what the reading of the Riot Act is at home, the Declaration of War is abroad. In Turkey the common soldier understands this, as Mr. Urquhart showed in the following anecdote which we extract from his work, "Islam as a Political System," p. 18 (Quarto Edition); p. 201 in "The East and the West."

"Sitting with some soldiers at a bivouac fire, one of them was recounting how, at the opening of the campaign of 1828, the perfidious Muscovites had established themselves on the Turkish territory, and were pushing their works up to a small fort where he was in garrison. On which I asked how they could be such fools as not to attack and drive them back. He answered, 'War had not been declared.' I laughed. Upon which he leaped up and ran for his musket. I thought he was going to use it against me, but he kissed the stock and said, 'God puts this in my hand, and I will not use it save with His blessing.""

He referred not merely to the Proclamation of War by the Government, but to the decision of the Ulema, after the consideration of the facts, that the War was just.

TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY THE HUMBLE AND LOYAL PETITION OF THE UNDERSIGNED FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEES, NAMELY, THAT OF ST. PANCRAS (LONDON), AND THAT OF PRESTON (LANCASHIRE).

SHOWETH, AS FOLLOWS

Last spring the Legislative Council and Assembly of Newfoundland passed a Bill entitled :

"An Act to regulate the Exportation and Sale of Herring, Caplin, Squid, and other Bait Fishes.

The object of this Bill is to prevent the French and other Foreigners from purchasing Bait in those parts of the Coasts of Newfoundland where they have not a Treaty right to fish.

This Bill, as dealing with Foreign relations was, as a matter of course, reserved by the Governor of Newfoundland for the signification of Your Majesty's pleasure, on which no decision has as yet been announced.1

The reasons of the people of Newfoundland for wishing to prohibit the sale of Bait to the French are the following:

1. That on the North and West coasts of Newfoundland the French have the almost exclusive enjoyment of the Fisheries.2

2. That the French Government grants a bounty of about Eight Shillings and Sixpence per Quintal on all fish caught by French fishermen on the Coasts or on the Banks of Newfoundland."

1 See Despatch of the Colonial Secretary, 3 February, 1887, page 3. [C-4976].

2 See Appendix No. 9.

* See Despatch above mentioned. This Despatch is a reply to one from the Governor of Newfoundland which has not been published,

3. That fish caught on the Coasts or on the Banks of Newfoundland by English fishermen is prohibited in France, and is subjected to a heavy duty in the United States, although the Americans have the liberty, under the Treaty of 1818, of fishing on a considerable part of the Coasts of Newfoundland.

4. That under these disadvantages the inhabitants of Newfoundland are rendered increasingly unable to sell their fish in the markets of the world, although it commands a rather higher price than does the French-caught fish; this advantage being more than counteracted by the bounty given on French-caught fish.

5. That the Inhabitants of Newfoundland are almost entirely dependent on the fishery; that the introduction of any other mode of subsistence can only be a work of time; and that, if the present system is allowed to continue, the inhabitants must either starve or emigrate; leaving the Island to become a French fishing station instead of a British Colony.

6. That if the French fishermen were not allowed to purchase Bait on the coasts of Newfoundland their competition would be much less intense in regard to the fishery on the Banks.

Your Majesty's Petitioners are informed, and believe, that the Inhabitants of Newfoundland would not object to supply the French with Bait if the French Bounties were abolished, but that they think it unjust that they should be expected to allow their own country to be used for their destruction by a Foreign Competition, thus doubly unfair.

Newfoundland was surrendered to England by France under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, but a concurrent privilege of fishing on certain parts of the coast was at the same time granted to the French.

Instead of taking every opportunity of diminishing the foreign privileges, and of promoting the gradual transmutation of a fishing station into a colony, the French privileges were restored after war by the Treaty of Paris, 1763; the Treaty of Versailles, 1783; the Treaty of Amiens, 1802; and the two Treaties of Paris of 1814 and 1815.5

By none of these Treaties was there any improvement made in the position of the Inhabitants of Newfoundland.

To the Treaty of Versailles, 1783, was appended a Declaration, equivocal and contradictory, under which the Newfoundlanders have been almost entirely excluded from the fishery on what is called the French shore."

The Treaty of 1783 with France, like that of the same date with Spain, was negotiated under the joint mediation of the Emperor Joseph II. and of the Czarina Catharine II.

The King of Great Britain had for both Treaties one Plenipotentiary, the Duke of Manchester.

The King of Spain had one Plenipotentiary, the Count D'Aranda. The King of France had one Plenipotentiary, the Count de Vergennes.

The Emperor had one Plenipotentiary, the Count De Mercy Argenteau.

4 Appendix No. 1.

5 Appendix Nos. 2 to 6. Appendix No. 3.

The Czarina had two Plenipotentiaries, Prince Ivan Bariatinskoy and the Sieur Arcadius de Marcoff."

Newfoundland had no Plenipotentiary; and appears to have had no advocate and no friend, which would certainly not have been the case had Newfoundland been one of the colonies that had separated themselves from Great Britain. As one of the United States the rights of Newfoundland would not have lacked protection. The Declaration of 1783 thus obtained is at this moment a subject of complaint in Newfoundland, and a Committee of the Legislature has reported on the necessity of obtaining a satisfactory definition of its meaning.

In a Despatch (No. 66) to the Colonial Office, dated 23 July, 1856, Governor Darling made the following remarks respecting a negotiation then in progress with France :—

"A glance at the Map shows the position which this Island occupies in the territorial expanse of the British Empire-lying considerably nearer to the Mother Country than any other of her Transatlantic possessions-distant in fact, at the present rate of locomotion, only about 104 hours' steaming from the nearest point of the British Islands. Commanding by its situation the ocean approaches to those splendid Provinces whose resources and spirit of enterprise are rapidly bringing them up to a level with States dignified with the name of Nation.' The effort about to be made-there is just ground for hoping made with success-to place it by means of Electric communication within a few minutes reach of the instructions of the Imperial Government, its shores abounding with fine harbours, and the surrounding seas with the sources of wealth, while its inhabitants are a manly and energetic race, derived for the most part from those portions of the United Kingdom which are nearest to the Colony itself; it may fairly be regarded as being, for all political purposes, in as close connection with the Parent State as Ireland and the Channel Islands were at the close of the last century. Yet the political position of a Dependency thus favoured is such that a Foreign State enjoysand cherishes with a full appreciation of its value and importance-a right to the use of at least one-half its line of coast, and avails itself of the right in such a manner as effectually to close that portion of the coast, for all practical purposes, against the people of the State to which the soil of the Colony belongs.'

The Newfoundland Public Ledger of the 6 July, 1858, which was sent to Your Majesty's Petitioners at that time, contains the whole of the above-mentioned despatch, in which Governor Darling also says:

"I must still very strongly urge my opinion against any further privilege or advantage being conceded to the French beyond those which they now enjoy by Treaties."

In defiance of the advice thus given by a Governor who was thoroughly master of the subject, a Treaty was signed with France on the 14 January, 1857, by which exclusive rights were in some places expressly granted to the French, while they were permitted by Article V. to purchase Bait on the whole of the South (or English) Shore."

By Article XI. a territorial jurisdiction was granted to French officers on the French Shore.

By Article XX. this Treaty was not to come into operation till the Consent of the Colonial Legislature should be obtained.

The Newfoundland Legislative Assembly unanimously refused this Consent.

7 The Full Powers granted by the Five Sovereigns will be found in Martens's Treaties, vol. iii., pp. 534-546 and pp. 551-2.

8 Appendix No.7.