760 



TURKEY. 



rage aroused an intense excitement throughout 

 the Christian world. The great powers took 

 immediate steps to demand satisfaction for it, 

 and guarantees against the repetition of similar 

 scenes. France, Germany, Austria, and Italy, 

 sent vessels-of-war to Salonica, and England 

 dispatched a gun-boat to accompany the com- 

 mission which the Turkish Government sent 

 to investigate the affair. The chief perpetra- 

 tors of the outrage were arrested and tried, 

 and sentenced in June to penalties which, how- 

 ever, France and Germany declared were not 

 satisfactory to them. In August the Porte 

 paid to the families of the murdered consuls 

 an indemnity of 40,000. The event was fol- 

 lowed at Constantinople, May 12th, by a 

 change in the ministry. The Grand- Vizier, 

 Mahmoud Pasha, was overthrown, and Rushdi 

 Pasha was appointed in his place; while Mid- 

 hat Pasha, who had made himself the head of 

 a new party opposed to further concessions 

 to the demands of Russia, took a place in the 

 cabinet without a portfolio. 



The warning of the Andrassy note had so 

 far produced no substantial result. The re- 

 forms promised by the Porte had not been 

 realized; the discontent in Bosnia and the 

 Herzegovina had not been diminished. On 

 the llth of May, Count Andrassy for Austria, 

 and Prince Gortchakoff for Russia, met Prince 

 Bismarck at Berlin, in a conference which con- 

 tinued till the 13th, to arrange what should be 

 done next. The result was, that a new note 

 was issued, more decisive in tone than the 

 Andrassy note, in which allusion was made to 

 more active proceedings that might be adopted 

 in case the condition of affairs was not soon 

 improved. This note, which was dated May 

 13th, and is known as the Berlin Memoran- 

 dum, or the Gortchakoff note, declared, in 

 effect, that the Porte, by accepting the Andras- 

 sy note, had pledged itself to Europe, and that 

 the great powers had the moral right to ex- 

 pect the Porte to execute its pledges. The 

 Sultan had done nothing to fulfill his promises, 

 and the murders at Salonica must be regarded 

 as a consequence of his weakness. An armis- 

 tice of two months must be arranged between 

 the Porte and the insurgents, on the basis of 

 the five points mentioned in the Andrassy 

 note, and of other points which had grown out 

 of the righteous demands of the insurgents. If 

 this armistice passed away without the object 

 contemplated by the powers being gained, it 

 would be necessary to consult concerning such 

 more effective measures as the interests of 

 general peace would demand, to limit the 

 spread and growth of the prevailing disorder. 

 The Berlin note was submitted to France, 

 Italy, and England. France and Italy gave 

 their adhesion to it ; England declined to ap- 

 prove it, May 19th. Immediately afterward, 

 England sent to Besika Bay, at the southern 

 end of the Dardanelles, a fleet of twenty ves- 

 sels, mostly iron-clads, with about 5,000 men, 

 under the command of Admiral Drummond, 



and increased her war-supplies at Gibraltar 

 and Malta. 



In the last days of May the Sultan Abdul- 

 Aziz was dethroned,by arevolution in the palace, 

 assisted by the softas. The leaders in the revolu- 

 tion were the ministers of the 12th of May, Mid- 

 hat Pasha, the Grand- Vizier Mehemet Rushdi 

 Pasha, the War -Minister Hussein Avni Pasha, 

 and the Sheikh ul-Islarn Karullah Effendi. The 

 other leaders propounded to the Sheikh Ka- 

 rullah Effendi, as the authorized interpreter of 

 the laws of Islam, the question : " If the com- 

 mander of the Faithful becomes afflicted with 

 a disorder of his faculties so that he cannot 

 take cognizance of political affairs ; if he, by 

 personal extravagance, increases the burdens 

 of the nation beyond endurance; if he, by 

 wrongs which he causes, threatens the ruin of 

 the empire and of the Mussulman community ; 

 if his rule is destructive must he be deposed ? " 

 Karullah answered, " The law says, Yes ! " and 

 embodied the question and the answer into a 

 fctna, officially signed, which had the force of a 

 law with the Faithful. Armed with this. /<?, 

 the conspirators, on May 80th, proceeded to 

 effect the deposition of the Sultan Abdul-Aziz. 

 They kept their design carefully concealed till 

 the moment for action arrived. Guards, con- 

 sisting of soldiers on the land side and a ves- 

 sel on the water, were stationed around the 

 Palace Dolma Bagtsheh. Hussein Avni Pasha 

 was dispatched to the Prince Murad Effendi, 

 the eldest son of the late Sultan Abdul-Medjid, 

 and notified him that he must come to the 

 palace to be made Sultan. The prince obeyed, 

 and proceeded to the great hall of the Seraskie- 

 rat, where he was received with homage, and the 

 customary religious services were had for the 

 authentication of the act of his accession. The 

 proceedings of installation having been com- 

 pleted, Redif Pasha was sent to inform Abdul- 

 Aziz that, " by the will of the people," he had 

 been deposed, and must be taken to the Serail 

 of Top Kapu, which had been assigned him as 

 his residence. Abdul-Aziz was excited to a vio- 

 lent outburst of rage by this message ; but 

 when he was shown the guards posted around 

 the palace, he exclaimed, " Great is Allah ! " 

 and fell into a stolid desperation. Accompa- 

 nied by his mother, his sons, and eleven of his 

 wives, he was taken to Top Kapu. The new 

 Sultan was proclaimed as Murad V. An am- 

 nesty was immediately declared for all politi- 

 cal offenses ; the money in the imperial chest, 

 and the treasure of the mother of the Sultan 

 Abdul- Aziz were turned over to the Minister 

 of Finance. Abdul-Aziz was removed shortly 

 afterward from Top Kapu to a pavilion of th 

 palace of Tcheragan, which was assigned to 

 him as his future residence. Here he was 

 found dead on the morning of the 4th of June. 

 His body was examined by a council of nine- 

 teen physicians of various nationalities, who 

 all agreed that he had killed himself by cutting 

 his veins with a pair of scissors, and their ver- 

 dict was published as the official explanation 



