Imperial edicts of toleration, and promises of reform on the part of the Sublime Porte, have been very numerous, and have served Turkey well as political expedients. Their value is that of so much dust thrown in the eyes of Europe when her aid or her mercy was needful. As these reforms have all been promised under pressure, they have likewise been abandoned just so fast and so far as the pressure has been removed. In many cases there has been serious retrogression. The sow that is washed is forever returning to wallow in the mire. It is as true of the “Sick Man” as of him out of whom seven devils were cast, that the last state of that man is worse than the first. This is emphatically so in regard to the freedom of the press, the curtailment of religious and educational privileges, and the safety of the lives and property of Christians. The following is a partial list of Turkish promises which have been broken in whole or in part, with the circumstances under which they were made. 1. In 1829, by the Treaty of Adrianople at the close of a war with Russia, Turkey promised to reform in her treatment of Orthodox Christians, and acknowledged Russia’s right to interfere in their behalf.[15] 2. In 1839 Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid, in order to enlist European sympathy and aid—when the victorious Egyptian army under Ibrahim Pasha was threatening Constantinople—issued an Imperial rescript, the Hatti Sherif, in which he promised to protect the life, honor, and property of all his subjects irrespective of race or religion. 3. In 1844 the same Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid gave a solemn pledge that thenceforth no apostate from Mohammedanism _who had formerly been a Christian_ should be put to death. This pledge was extorted from the Sultan by the Ambassador of Great Britain, supported by those of other Powers, after the public execution in Constantinople of a young Armenian, Ovagim, who had declared himself a Mohammedan, but who afterwards bravely maintained his Christian profession in the face of torture and death. Since that time many Moslems even have embraced Christianity, and have been put out of the way, quietly in most cases. 4. In 1850 the same Sultan, on the demand of the same Powers, in view of the continued and fierce persecution of the Protestant subjects of the Porte, granted the latter a charter, guaranteeing them liberty of conscience and all the rights as a distinct civil community, which had been enjoyed by the other Christian communities of the empire. But to this day the numerous Protestants of Stamboul have never been allowed to erect even _one church_, although they have owned a site and had the necessary funds, and been petitioning for a firman to build for fifteen years.[16] The Greek Protestants of Ordoo, who have a church, are not allowed to worship in it. There are many other flagrant violations of this charter.