686 



TURKEY. 



land ; that Ahmed Tevfik deserved the punish- 

 ment awarded to him, in conformity with the 

 religious laws of the country, and that he was 

 liberated only by the clemency of the Sultan ; 

 and expressed satisfaction at the resumption of 

 official relations with Sir Henry Layard. Hafiz 

 Pasha gave an explanation of his part in the 

 affair, which was accepted as satisfactory ; and 

 it was agreed that Ahmed Tevfik should be 

 removed to an island having a Christian popu- 

 lation. The exchange of notes on the subject, 

 however, still continued. Sir Henry Layard 

 refused to accept the principle laid down by 

 the Turkish officers that a foreigner might be 

 arrested, provided his ambassador were in- 

 formed of the fact within twenty-four hours 

 of the events. The aspect of the case in view 

 of the Treaty of Berlin was reviewed. Sawas 

 Pasha insisted that the seizure of Mr. Roller's 

 papers was justified, and that the release of 

 Ahmed Tevfik was an act of grace on the part 

 of the Sultan. Sir Henry Layard recognized 

 the good intentions of the Sultan, and was 

 disposed to consider the matter settled. Ne- 

 gotiations were continued in January and Feb- 

 ruary between Sir Henry Layard and Sawas 

 Pasha for the constitution of a Protestant 

 community in Turkey, under the direction of a 

 chief ecclesiastic, for whom the British am- 

 bassador claimed the privileges of a Patriarch. 

 The Porte, however, insisted upon certain re- 

 strictions in respect to these privileges. 



The Council of Ministers concluded the dis- 

 cussion of the budget in March. It was re- 

 solved to introduce the gold standard with the 

 Turkish pound as the monetary basis, its value 

 being fixed at one hundred piasters. The 

 revenue from all sources was required to be 

 paid into the Treasury in gold, but provision 

 was made for the acceptance of the debased 

 metallic currency in payment of arrears due 

 the Government at the rate of two hundred 

 piasters to the Turkish pound. Reductions of 

 nearly thirty per cent., which it was proposed 

 to realize from the abolition of certain of the 

 Ottoman embassies abroad, were decided upon 

 in the estimates of the Ministry for Foreign 

 Affairs. Other retrenchments included re- 

 ductions in the salaries of many of the state 

 officers. The Government also resolved to 

 double the land-tax, in order to balance the 

 budget. 



A decree fixing the value of the medjidie at 

 nineteen instead of twenty piasters, the effect 

 of which involved a depreciation of the cur- 

 rency and a loss to the public of six or seven 

 million pounds, was the occasion of great dis- 

 content and some serious disturbances. Busi- 

 ness was suspended in Crete. In Aleppo, the 

 Mussulmans denounced the Christians as the 

 cause of the poverty of the Government. At 

 Damascus, the traders refused to accept the 

 metallic money with which the soldiers had 

 been paid, and trouble arose. Similar scenes 

 took place in other towns in Asia; and Midhat 

 Pasha, Governor of Syria, declared that he 



could not guarantee the carrying out of the 

 measure, and that it was likely to be attended 

 with grave consequence*. The Austrian charge 

 tfaffaires remonstrated against the deprecia- 

 tion of the currency, because it involved a 

 change in the construction of the treaty with 

 Austria. Sir Henry Layard informed the Gov- 

 ernment that the payment of customs, light- 

 house, and sanitary dues would be made under 

 protest, because the depreciation was equivalent 

 to an increase of those duties. Sir Henry 

 Layard also formally protested against an ar- 

 rangement which had been entered into by the 

 Porte with the Galata bankers, declaring that 

 the indirect taxes had already been hypothe- 

 cated to the English bondholders. 



The budget was criticised by the Minister 

 of the Interior, Mahmoud Nedim Pasha, who 

 declared that the estimates of revenue were 

 illusory. He refused to give the proof of his 

 allegations when asked to do so by the officers 

 whom the Sultan had designated to examine 

 his objections, saying it was the duty of the 

 Council to point out the inaccuracies of the 

 estimates. The Sultan then referred the bud- 

 get to the Council, which proceeded to examine 

 the details in the presence of Khereddin and 

 Safvet Pashas. On the conclusion of the ex- 

 amination and discussion, Said Pasha proposed 

 that, in view of the opposition it had met with, 

 the budget should be signed afresh by ;ill the 

 Ministers, notwithstanding that it had been 

 already signed. All the Ministers who were 

 present assented to the proposition and at- 

 tached their names to the document, except 

 Mahmoud Nedim Pasha, who left the Council. 

 The budget was approved by the Sultan. The 

 Government suffered great stringency for the 

 want of money. A reduction in the number 

 of departments of the Imperial Council was 

 ordered as a measure of economy ; the tele- 

 graph service was impeded on account of the 

 want of means to pay the operatives. When, 

 in the latter part of April, the Sultan ordered 

 three battalions to Yemen to subdue the recu- 

 sant tribes of southwestern Arabia, the small 

 sum required for transport and maintenance 

 could not be raised. All the principal bankers 

 of Galata were applied to in vain, and his Ma- 

 jesty had finally to content himself with dis- 

 patching three engineers to try to protect the 

 scanty garrisons on the spot by constructing 

 earthworks. 



The Ottoman Bank in September made an 

 advance to the Government of 50,000 Turk- 

 ish. Early in October the British and French 

 Governments, having claimed from the Porte 

 the payment of the funds for the coupon of the 

 loan of 1855, the Porte applied to the bankers 

 who farmed the indirect taxes to advance the 

 amount required out of the sum which had 

 been set apart for the foreign bondholders. 

 The bankers declined to accede to the request 

 until the Government had come to an arrange- 

 ment on the. matter with the holders of bonds 

 of all the other loans. The Government a few 



