688 



TURKEY. 



pire, and develop the well-being of his people, 

 in accordance with the necessities of the times. 

 All his efforts were directed to that end. He 

 also expressed his confidence that the personal 

 qualities of the ambassador afforded a sure 

 guarantee that his Excellency would serve as 

 a means of realizing the benevolent disposi- 

 tions with which the British Government, the 

 old friend of Turkey, was animated, and that 

 these personal qualities would help to consoli- 

 date the ties of friendship uniting the two gov- 

 ernments. 



A change of Ministry was announced June 

 9th, when Said Pasha and Sawas Pasha were 

 dismissed, and replaced by Oadri Pasha, hith- 

 erto Minister of Commerce, as Prime Minister, 

 and Abeddin Pasha as Minister of Foreign Af- 

 fairs ; Cadri Pasha retained the office of Minis- 

 ter of Commerce. The Prime Minister was 

 instructed, in the imperial Tiatt containing the 

 nominations, to introduce necessary reforms 

 without delay, and to preserve such good rela- 

 tions with the powers as were consistent with 

 the interests of the empire. The change in 

 the Ministry was generally believed to be due 

 to Mr. Goschen's private communication to 

 the Sultan ; but it was thought by many per- 

 sons that the new Ministers were the creatures 

 of Said Pasha, whom the Sultan had dismissed 

 in order to please England, with the appear- 

 ance of discharging him, while he virtually re- 

 tained him in power. In July, Osrnan Pasha 

 was dismissed from the Ministry of War, and 

 was succeeded by Hussein Husni Pasha, for- 

 merly Governor of Scutari. 



The spirit of the Albanian League was not 

 weakened by the dissensions which had arisen 

 between the Mussulmans and the Roman Cath- 

 olics ; and the body sent a message to the 

 conference at Berlin, saying that its members 

 would never consent to the dismemberment of 

 their country, or to an exchange by which they 

 might be subjected to foreign rule. The de- 

 cision of the conference to assign Dulcigno to 

 Montenegro was received by them with indig- 

 nation, and bodies of men were promptly sta- 

 tioned at points commanding that place to pre- 

 vent its occupation. New levies were also 

 called for. The final cession of Dulcigno had 

 the effect of disheartening the Albanian Mo- 

 hammedans. Desertions took place among the 

 Turkish reserves, and many Mohammedan no- 

 tables manifested a disposition to come to an 

 understanding with Greece, and accept the 

 special privileges which that country offered 

 them. The Porte having resolved to send the 

 Prince of the Miridites and the chiefs of the 

 Albanian League for trial before a council of 

 war, the Austrian ambassador presented a note 

 pointing out the privileges which were assigned 

 to the Prince under the Treaty of Berlin, and 

 demanding that he be releaspd from arrest and 

 reinstated in his rank. A conciliatory reply 

 was made to these representations. The sup- 

 pression of the Albanian League was ordered 

 in December. Agitation again broke out in 



northern Albania near the end of that month, 

 when the men liable to military service refused 

 to obey the conscription regulations, and the 

 order to call out the reserves remained without 

 effect. Turkish functionaries at Prisrend, Us- 

 kup, and Ipek were dismissed and replaced by 

 Albanians, and the League issued a summons 

 calling the male population to arms. The year 

 ended with the authority of the Porte seriously 

 compromised. The proceedings of the confer- 

 ence at Berlin, and the action of the powers 

 with reference to it, were watched by the Porte 

 with strict attention, and an evident disposition 

 to make the most of every defect in form or 

 substance of its decisions, and to take advan- 

 tage of any sign that might appear of disagree- 

 ment or of interruption to the European concert, 

 The conference adopted a note to be presented 

 by the powers as a collective one, describing 

 the territory that should be allotted to Monte- 

 negro, defining the line which should be fol- 

 lowed as the boundary of Greece, so as to give 

 it a large part of Thessaly and Epirus, and in- 

 sisting upon the execution of reforms in Ar- 

 menia. This note was presented to the Porte, 

 July 15th, by Count Hatzfeld, the German am- 

 bassador. Great excitement had prevailed on 

 the subject among the Turkish population of 

 Constantinople and in court circles, but it had 

 begun to calm down, and the disposition of the 

 Sultan and his Ministers was more conciliatory 

 than when the conference first met. Still, the 

 communication was far from being a pleasant 

 one, and many of its demands were extremely 

 disagreeable. The Porte replied that it ob- 

 jected to ceding Janina, Metzovo, and Larissa 

 to Greece, as well for strategical reasons as on 

 the ground of nationality, but was willing to 

 make concession to the Hellenic kingdom ; and 

 it hoped that the powers would not deny its 

 right to take part in the settlement of the Greek 

 frontier, as it had done in those of Servia and 

 Montenegro, and thatthey would authorize their 

 representatives at Constantinople to treat with 

 it concerning these and other questions. A sec- 

 ond collective note was addressed to the Porte, 

 declining to reopen the discussion, and insist- 

 ing upon the resolutions of the conference, 

 but expressing the willingness of the powers 

 to receive the proposals of the Porte as to the 

 manner in which the territory should be evacu- 

 ated and handed over. Before a reply to this 

 note was received, the powers had instituted 

 a grand naval demonstration in the waters of 

 the Adriatic, to enforce the surrender of Dul- 

 cigno to Montenegro. On the 17th of Septem- 

 ber the Porte addressed a note to its repre- 

 sentatives abroad, explaining what it had done 

 to overcome the objections of its Mussulman 

 population to the cession of territory and to 

 secure the execution of the demands of the 

 powers, and complaining of their urgency and 

 uncompromising attitude. On the 4th of Oc- 

 tober, the Turkish Government presented a 

 note to the ambassadors, undertaking to in- 

 duce the local population of Dulcigno to con- 



