No. 320.
Mr. Maynard to Mr. Fish.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople
,
February 10,
1877. (Received March 9.)
No. 130]
Sir: I have the honor to announce a very
important ehange in the ministry during the present week.
On Monday, the 5th, it was rumored that the grand vizier, Midhat Pasha,
had been succeeded by Edhem Pasha, recently Ottoman embassador at
Berlin, and one of the representatives of the Sublime Porte in the late
conference; and toward evening the rumor was confirmed by an “extra”
from one of the daily papers. The next day the change, [Page 557] with many others, was formally announced,
and the reason for it given in a long and carefully-prepared article,
manifestly emanating from the Porte, and is, therefore, the explanation
which the public is asked to accept, t append a copy of the announcement
and of the explanation.
The papers of Thursday, the 8th, confined the imperial hatt (decree) and other paragraphs relating to the same
subject which are also inclosed.
Nothing has happened since the massacre of the consuls at Salonica in May
last which has so completely dumbfounded the class of persons known as
Turcophiles. They are silent with astonishment and mortification. With
them, his highness Midhat Pasha was the ideal of Turkish statesmanship—a
reformer and a true patriot. He had been a prime favorite with the
British embassy, and was relied upon to circumvent and bring to naught
the machinations imputed to Russia. It was he who had compassed the fall
of the late Sultan Abdul-Aziz and the deposition of Mourad V; who had
escaped the assassin when his associates, Hussein Avni Pasha and Rachid
Pasha, were slain; who had marshaled “Young Turkey” and the Softas alike
under the attractive banner of reform; who had supplanted the moderate
and prudent Mehemet Ruchdi Pasha, and, constitution in hand, had assumed
for the second time the high office of grand vizier; and who had spurned
the conditions offered by the conference, bidding defiance to the great
powers of Europe, and asserting loftily the independence of Turkey.
That he should have been set aside by the Sultan was bad enough, hut the
reasons assigned for it were infinitely worse. If they were true, a
gross imposition had been practiced by this honored and trusted
functionary; if they were not true, a depth of turpitude in Turkish
councils had been reached lower than anything yet charged by the
bitterest enemies.
A sketch of Midhat Pasha has just appeared, evidently from one of this
class of admirers, a little rhetorical and sensational perhaps, but
giving biographical facts and incidents, I presume, accurately. He is
represented as violent and vindictive and ambitious. He was grand vizier
from July 31 to October 18, 1872, eighty days, when he was succeeded by
Mehemet Ruchdi Pasha, chiefly, says Mr. Boker, by reason of the Sultan’s
personal dislike. We are told in the sketch just referred to, that he
“then began to conspire with England, with the Ulemas, with the
Sheikh-ul-Islam, and, it is said, even with Russia.” My previous
dispatches have shown how he clambered back to his former post, which he
reached on the 18th of December last, maintained less than fifty days to
be driven out in disgrace and sent an exile to a point which, if his
enemies are wise after their kind, he will never reach.
It is due to him to add that unofficial people discredit wholly the
charges of treason and conspiracy against the Sultan, and ascribe his
overthrow to an intrigue, of which the head is Mahmoud Damad Pasha, a
brother-in-law of the Sultan, following the immemorial usage of the
Sublime Porte. His successor, Edhem Pasha, has not hitherto been
conspicuous in public affairs, and no one has much to say about him. I
called on him with the other members of the diplomatic body and was
favorably impressed with his language and his manner.
I am, &c.,
[Page 558]
[Inclosure 1 in No.
130.]
the change of grand vizier—ministerial and
administrative nominations.
Yesterday afternoon, His Highness Edhem Pasha was formally installed
at the Porte, with the customary state ceremonial, as successor to
His Highness Midhat Pasha in the Grand Vizierate. The imperial hatt,
which raises Edhem Pasha to the dignity of grand Vizier, also
nominates Khourshid Pasha, governor-general of Aleppo, to be musteshar, or under secretary of state of the
Grand Vizierate. The office of minister of the interior, which was
created during the administration of the late A’ali Pasha, but
suppressed after the death of that statesman, has been revived, and
Djevdet Pasha, now minister of justice, has been appointed the new
minister of the interior, Costaki Adossides Pasha, now president of
the Pera municipality, being named musteshar.
Under secretary of state of the ministry of the interior, Kadri Bey,
prefect of Constantinople, succeeds the new Grand Vizier, Edhem
Pasha, as president of the council of state, and is raised on the
occasion to the rank of mushir and vizier, thus becoming Kadri Pasha.
His Excellency Ahmed Vefik Effendi is named president of the new
Ottoman Chamber of Deputies. Ohannes Tchamitch Effendi is raised to
the rank of bala, and appointed minister of
commerce and agriculture in place of Halim Pasha, named a member of
the new Ottoman Senate. Assym Pasha, governor-general of Adrianople,
is appointed minister of justice, as successor to Djevdet Pasha, and
is succeeded as vali of Adrianople by Ali
Pasha, lately governor-general of the Herzegovina, and formerly
ambassador in Paris. Sadyk Pasha, at present ambassador in Paris,
has been named governor-general of the province of the Danube in
place of Rifaat Pasha, who succeeds Hourshid Pasha as vali of Aleppo. Ohannes Effendi (Sakis),
president of the court of appeal, is appointed under secretary of
state (musteshar) of the ministry of public
instruction.
Ahmed Moukhtar Pasha, late in command of the military operations in
the Herzegovina, and recently named governor-general of the Island
of Crete, has been appointed commander-in-chief of the fourth army
corps, in place of Samih Pasha, appointed vali of Crete. Saïd Bey, ex-musteshar of the Grand Vizierate, is named a member of
the council of state.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
130.]
[From the Daily
Levant Herald of February 6, 1877.]
Yesterday added another heavy blow to the battery of shocks by which
this sorely-tried empire has lately been besieged. The minister in
whom all hopes were centered, and whom popular opinion held to be
the very personification of patriotism and the ne
plus ultra of high-mindedness and integrity, has been
detected in a shabby and traitorous plot to overthrow the Sultan and
establish himself as dictator under the nominal rule of one whose
mind is dead. From the hour of Midhat Pasha’s elevation to the Grand
Vizierate it was known that no mutuality of confidence existed
between the sovereign and his minister. The firmness of the Sultan
clashed with the unyielding character of Midhat, who would have
preferred serving a more pliant sovereign, and, in his less-guarded
moments, expressed this preference. Moreover, the Sultan always
doubted the sincerity of Midhat Pasha as the champion of a liberal
policy, and in the many qualifications and reservations which
deteriorate the charter of the constitution, discerned an arriére-pensée, which, by the unveiling of
the present plot, is proved to have existed. The relations between
the sovereign and the late Grand Vizier were, therefore, never
cordial, and the inflexible, high-handed manner of Midhat provoked
more than one remonstrance on the part of the Sultan. The immediate
cause of the actual rupture which awakened suspicion and led to the
discovery of Mid hat’s rash design arose from the Grand Vizier’s
neglect to give effect to a desire frequently and strongly expressed
by His Majesty to strengthen the public service by the introduction
of foreigners, and more especially of Englishmen of experience, in
leading positions in all departments. It seems that last week this
question formed the subject of some remarks on His Majesty’s part,
who took the Grand Vizier to task for not having given any effect to
his wishes. The Grand Vizier replied curtly: the audience
terminated, and, on returning home, Midhat Pasha addressed a letter
to the Sultan in terms which, to say the least, were undeferential,
and which were a sort of paraphrase of a not very happy speech
lately made by Zia Pasha at Smyrna. Summoned to the palace to give
an explanation of his letter, the Grand Vizier imprudently disobeyed
the imperial command, and continued to absent himself from the
palace, although the order to attend was repeated on three
successive days.
This unguarded defiance of his sovereign aroused suspicions, the
police wore set on the alert, and on Sunday a correspondence was
discovered which convicted Midhat of [Page 559] plotting to compel Abdul-Hamid to abdicate.
Yesterday morning, therefore, a peremptory message was sent to
Midhat to present himself at Dolma-Baghtché, which he had no
alternative but to obey. On entering, his highness “was immediately
placed under arrest, and required, by the first chamberlain, to give
up the vizierial seals; He was then shown the letters which brought
home to him his connection with the conspiracy, and, as there was no
denying the evidence of his own letters, Midhat Pasha threw himself
upon the clemency of his sovereign. A council of ministers being
called, the ex-Grand Vizier was declared guilty of high treason and
worthy of death. But the Sultan reminded the ministers that under
the constitution no man could be condemned without a public trial.
Midhat was then asked whether he would prefer being placed on his
trial for high treason, or quitting Ottoman territory. Electing
voluntary exile, his highness was next asked if he would go to
Greece, but this he declined, saying that he would prefer being sent
to Brindisi. Complaining of having no ready money at his disposal, a
sum of five hundred pounds was handed to him, and shortly afterward
he embarked for the destination of his choice on board the imperial
yacht Izzeddin.
Such we believe to be the facts connected with this lamentable
incident. It is in every way deplorable; as an example, it is bad;
as a disturbing influence, it is unwholesome; as a specimen of what
the friends of Turkey have to hope for, it is to the last degree
melancholy. Still the facts before us prove that the Sultan has
acted with prudence, clemency, and firmness, and the display of
these qualities at such a juncture has, no doubt, saved the capital
from disturbances. More than this, however, it has placed the
sovereign before the people in a new light, revealing to them those
qualities of heart and mind which win for a sovereign the confidence
of his people, and gain him a lasting place in their affection.
[Inclosure 3 in No.
130.]
the imperial hatt.
The following is a translation of the imperial hatt relative to the
change of Grand Vizier:
To my illustrious Vizier Edhem
Pasha:
Having taken into consideration the requirements of our epoch, and
the new situation occupied by our empire, we have established the
constitution by our own freewill and initiative, the happy results
of which it is to be hoped may inspire all with respect and
confidence, and assure the future welfare of the country.
The realization of this aim depends greatly on the conduct of public
functionaries of all ranks in the official hierarchy, who are
enjoined to keep strictly within the limits of their several
departments, and in no manner to transgress the laws laid down for
their guidance; while, on the other hand, the loyal execution of all
essential measures for the maintenance of the principle of equality
which we have proclaimed in favor of all our subjects must be
strictly carried out. To do this, it has been found expedient to
make important changes in the ministry, and in the personnel of the same. The retirement and departure of
Midhat Pasha having been rendered necessary in consequence of
certain events which come under the jurisdiction of the
constitution, we, in accordance with the provisions of the charter,
and in full knowledge of your highness capacity, invest you with the
office of Grand Vizier. The constitution having ordained the
administrative decentralization and the reform of the provincial
organization, the salaries of the caïmacams
of the cazas (districts) must be augmented in
a reasonable manner, and the nomination of the functionaries in
question must only take place after the most minute inquiry—the same
rule equally applying to the mutes-sarifs.
These nominations must be submitted to our approval, and projected
laws to this effect will be presented to the Chamber of Deputies for
its consideration.
Interior affairs ought to acquire greater importance and extension,
and for this reason the office of minister of home affairs will be
re-established and will be brought into direct relationship with the
provincial authorities. Djevdet Pasha, minister of justice, is
therefore appointed to fill the post of minister of home affairs,
uniting, as he does, all the qualities necessary for this office by
his well-known knowledge and experience.
Seeing that various projects of law having their origin in the
constitution must be created without delay so that they may be
submitted to the Chamber of Deputies which will speedily meet for
business, the post of president of the council of state acquires
greater importance than formerly. We have named Kadri Bey, prefect
of Constantinople, to this office, raising him at the same time to
the rank of vizier.
Assim Pasha, vali of Adrianople, is appointed minister of
justice.
The vilayets of Adrianople and of the Danube being at the present
moment of special [Page 560]
importance, it is essentially necessary that functionaries of
well-known intelligence should be placed at the head of their
administration. Therefore, Sadik Pasha, our ambassador at Paris, is
named vali of the province of the Danube,, and All Pasha, ex-vali of
the Herzegovina, is appointed to the same office at Adrianople.
We have equally confided to Ohannes Effendi (Tchamitch), member of
the council of state, who possesses special knowledge on the
subject, the post of minister of commerce and agriculture, raising
his excellency to the rank bala.
Ahmet Moukhtar Pasha, at present vali of Crete, is nominated
commander-in-chief of the fourth army corps, replacing Samih Pasha,
who is appointed governor of Candia.
A certain means of assuring good government to the country is the
assistance which our ministers and councilors receive from
functionaries at once capable and intelligent. For this purpose we
have decided to select special agents from Europe, whose advice on
financial matters will be beneficial to the empire at large.
Hourchid Pasha, governor-general of Aleppo, is named councilor of the
grand vizier and president of the commission charged with the choice
of the kaimakamas. This commission will be
composed of members of ministerial departments and of councilors of
state.
Rifaat Pasha, ex-governor-general of the vilayet of the Danube, will
go to Aleppo to fill a similar post there.
Costaki Bey, president of the sixth municipal circle, is created
councilor of the ministry of the interior.
Ohannes Effendi (Sakis), president of the court of appeals of
Constantinople, has been appointed councilor to the ministry of
public instruction.
According to article 77 of the constitution, which deals with the
choice and nomination of the president of the Chamber of Deputies,
the law relating thereto will be put in force and take effect from
the commencement of the ensuing year.
Article 65 of the constitution prescribes the number of deputies to
be elected according to the population.
The provisional president of the Chamber of Deputies for this year,
which is regulated according to the provisional institutions
specified in article 119 of the charter, will be Vefik Effendi, the
uprightness and loyalty of whose character, as well as his capacity
for directing parliamentary debates, are universally
acknowledged.
The ex-minister of commerce, Halim Pasha, is named member of the
Senate, and the ex-councilor of the grand vizier, Said Effendi, will
become a member of the council of state.
We are anxious that our orders should immediately be put in practice,
and that every one should labor without ceasing to fulfill the laws
of the constitution. You are required to put in force all the
reforms which circumstances may render necessary, and you are called
upon to submit to our high approbation all the decisions regarding
the same.
May the Most High condescend to grant success to our efforts.
[Inclosure 4 in No.
130.]
midhat pasha.
We take from the Pall Mall Gazette the following brief summary of the
portrait of Midhat Pasha, given in the Journal des D6bats by
“Ignotus”, a writer who has written several remarkable political
sketches:
“Ignotus” says of the ex-grand vizier: He brings to the Eastern
question a new and unforeseen element—that of the revolution. The
old empire has been reanimated with the aid of arsenic, that
medicament which saves or kills in certain maladies. The work is too
grandiose for the portrait of the workman not to be interesting,
Midhat Pasha was born at Constantinople in 1822; his father was a
high functionary. There is a legend of Midhat in his youth having
been chained to the corpse of a faithless spouse and flung into a
ravine, but this is doubtful. What is true is that Stefanaki Bey,
looking over the papers of his father, found the following note:
“Midhat, secretary of the grand council, will lead Turkey far and go
far himself.” It is said that women are wanting in Turkish history;
but this is an error. The Turkish woman, nothing as wife and sister,
plays a prominent part as mother. The mother and son, until he is
twelve years old, are imprisoned together. The Turk is doubly the
son of his mother. Now, the mother of Midhat was an Albanian, and he
has the defects and the qualities of the mountain race of Albania.
He is energetic and violent. He is vindictive and honest. His
temperament is that of a wild mountaineer and a fine gentleman. His
defects have become almost virtues. His father was a Turk, lulled in
Oriental slumber. His mother was as beautiful and lively as a
Circassian. At eighteen years of age Midhat entered into the
“translating office” of the Sublime Porte, which is the nursery [Page 561] of Turkish statesmen. At
nineteen he went to Syria as secretary to Faïk Effendi. Midhat
afterward became secretary of the grand council, and rose in
position. He was made governor of the vilayet of the Danube, and he
set up as a reformer. Ha is one of the men upon whom “Young Turkey,”
whose views have never been clearly defined, but which are
essentially revolutionary, counts. The principal members of the
“Young Turkey” party were soon condemned to death or exiled. Midhat
was afterward named governor of Bagdad, and increased his
reputation. The grand vizier was alarmed, and recalled him. He was
next appointed governor of Adrianople, and before starting for that
place demanded an audience with the Sultan. There he spoke
respectfully but firmly to Abdul Aziz. The Sultan listened without,
uttering a word, and then said, “You are grand vizier.” This greatly
astonished poor Mahmoud Nedin. Unfortunately, three months afterward
the Sultan rejected the constitution which Midhat presented. Midhat
fell, and then began to conspire with England, with the Ulemas, with
the Sheik-ul-Islam, and, it is said, even with Russia. Midhat
represents a great, patriotic idea. After the abdication of Abdul
Aziz some one said, “Thank God, it is finished”; but Midhat replied,
“It has only commenced.” The grand vizier is the impersonification
of what is most elevated in the Turk, as Count Cavour and Prince
Bismarck of what is most elevated in the Italian and the German. On
December 19, 1876, Abdul Hamid made Midhat Pasha grand vizier. The
“Young Turkey” party already finds him too monarchical. But no one
is better than a conspirator who has succeeded, to stifle
conspiracies. He has given offices to the revolutionary party, which
is the true way of putting them under restraint. And then Midhat
invented the famous adage, which is the résumé of his life and his work, “Religion is the love of
country.” He created a Mussulman-Christian empire. This is the first
word of his constitution, which is a sonorous variation on the
patriotic chord. By means of the constitution Christians vote
against foreign Christians; the cross and the crescent are placed
together on the same banner; Rome forgets her secular quarrel with
her younger sister, Constantinople; Catholics of all countries pray
for Midhat. This man arrested the holy war which would have crushed
his country; he invented a purely national war. The patriarchs are
with him. Turkey, if she triumphs, will sing a Mussulman and
Christian “Te Deum”; and should she expire, a crescent and a cross,
will be placed over her grave. When Midhat prays, what does he pray
for, this grand vizier of the new empire? Midhat is a good
Mussulman, and speaks with the greatest respect of Christianity. He
likes France, but desires to do otherwise than we have done. He
speaks French, like every well-educated Turk at Stamboul. He is a
man of eloquence, but theatrical in manner, and to Oriental imagery
joins the vigor of the West. One might say that the grand vizier has
put out the lights on the stage where he performs. Everything is in
confusion. History has been turned topsy-turvy, as a. table covered
with papers when the wind rushes suddenly in. Midhat Pasha,
responsible as an English minister, represents rather the Turkish
people than the Sultan. Mohammed copied our Gospels; Midhat copies
our Revolution.
[Inclosure 5 in No.
130.]
[Extracts from various journals on the
fall of Midhat Pasha.]
midhat pasha.
The intercourse between His Majesty the Sultan and the ex-grand
vizier, on the occasion of his highness’s dismissal, was not
personal. Midhat Pasha did not see the Sultan, but His Majesty
communicated with him through Saïd Pasha, marshal of the palace. On
the documents which indicated his connection with the plot being
exhibited to him, Midhat Pasha exclaimed, “I am the victim of a
Russian plot.” The police, department is now engaged in a thorough
investigation of the matter. Meanwhile Midhat Pasha travels in
Europe. He is not under sentence of exile, and his temporary
banishment has no penal character. It was adopted as a prudential
measure, justified by the circumstances as well as by the
constitution itself, article 113 of which ordains as follows:
“His Majesty the Sultan has the exclusive power of expelling from the
territory of the empire those who, upon trustworthy information
received by the-police, are found to be causing injury to the safety
of the state.”
It is impossible to form any notion at present of the extent to which
Midhat Pasha was involved in the plot discovered by the minister of
police; but the investigation now in progress, and the examination
which Shefket Pasha, Kemel Bey, Shefket Bey, and others will
undergo, will reveal the true state of the case. Midhat Pasha’s
friends pronounce him incapable of conceiving any such design, but
think it possible that, without directly seeking the results aimed
at by the conspiracy, lie may have favored and encouraged views and
ideas tending to produce those results, and may in this manner have
helped to give consistency to the project.
[Page 562]
change of grand vizier.
The following is a copy of the telegram sent by Safvet Pasha,
minister of foreign affairs, to the representatives of the Porte at
foreign courts, dated the 6th February, 1877:
“Midhat Pasha, having been relieved of his post of grand vizier, in
consequence of proceedings on his part calculated to shake public
confidence, has also received orders to quit Ottoman territory, in
virtue of article 113 of the constitution.
“This change implies no modification whatever in the intention of the
sovereign will to alter the constitution or the policy of the
imperial government. His Majesty, the Sultan, by his imperial hatt
of yesterday, prescribes anew the carrying out and rigorous
application of all the liberal reforms inaugurated by the
constitution.
“In announcing this information to your excellency, you are enjoined
to communicate the same to the minister of foreign affairs of the
government to which you are accordited.”
