Note 36 — Chapter VI · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS IN EUROPE UNDER THE TURKS.
Reading edition
“The hard lot of the Christian subjects of the Sultan has at all times arisen from the fact that the central authority at Constantinople has but little real authority throughout the Empire of Turkey. It is the petty tyranny of the village officials, sharpened by personal hatred, which has instigated those acts of atrocity to which, both in former times, and still more at the present day, the Christians in Turkey are subjected. In the days of a nation’s greatness justice and even magnanimity towards a subject race are possible; these, however, are rarely found to exist in the time of a nation’s decay.” (Rev. W. Denton: Servia and the Servians, p. 15. London, 1862.) Gerlach, pp. 49, 52. ↑