TURKEY. 



761 



of the cause of his death. On tne night of tlio 

 15th uf June a ministerial council was la-Id at 

 the residence of Midhat Pasha, at which were 

 pro. ni. I., -id, s Midluit, the (irand- Vi/.ier Me- 

 lleinet Ku.-lidi l':i-li:i, Hussein Avifl 1'asha, 



Minister of \V:ir, the Grand-Admiral (Capudan 

 Pasha) Aclniiet Kisserli, and the Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs, Reshid 1'asha. Soon after 

 midnight an ollicer rushed unannounced into 

 the Chamber, tired repeatedly at Hussein Avni 

 Pasha, and fell upon him with a knife. In 

 the mean time all the lights were put out ex- 

 cept a single candle. In the affray which fol- 

 lowed. Kcshid Pasha was killed by a shot from 

 the assassin's revolver, the Capudan Pasha 

 was shot in the shoulder and then stabbed, 

 and Achmet Aga, a member of the house-hold 

 ot' Midhat Pasha, who attempted to arrest the 

 murderer, was also killed. Finally a detach- 

 ment of soldiers came in and captured the mur- 

 derer. He was summarily tried, and was hanged 

 on the morning of the 17th of June. His 

 name was Hassan Beg. He was a Circassian, 

 a brother of the third wife of the Sultan Abdul- 

 Aziz, and had been during the reign of that 

 Sultan adjutant of his eldest son, Yusuf Izze- 

 din Effendi. According to the official state- 

 ment of the affair, he felt aggrieved at Hussein 

 Avni, and sought to gratify a personal animos- 

 ity in assassinating him. 



In Servia the ministry of Kalievitch was at 

 the head of the Government in the beginning 

 of 1876. This ministry was decidedly in favor 

 of peace, and was in opposition to the Skup- 

 shtina, the national Legislature. On the 22d of 

 January the Skupshtina unanimously adopted 

 the war estimates; on the 25th the Minister 

 of War asked the Chamber to grant an addi- 

 tional 224,000 for army equipment, and ur- 

 gency was voted on the measure. On the 

 20th of February the Minister of War issued 

 an order calling out all men between twenty 

 and fifty years of age. Disturbances occurred 

 at the communal elections at Kraguyevatz and 

 Semendria in the last days of February, occa- 

 sioned by agitators who raised the revolution- 

 ary flag. About the same time Prince Milan 

 made peaceful assurances to Prince Wrede, the 

 Austrian representative at Belgrade, which 

 caused a temporary subsidence of the war- 

 feeling. Before the middle of March, how- 

 ever, pressure was brought by the war-party 

 upon Prince Milan ; on the 14th Belgrade 

 was illuminated in honor of the battle of Mu- 

 ratovizza, in the Herzegovina. The Turkish 

 troops massed upon the Servian borders hav- 

 ing committed depredations, the Servian mili- 

 tia were mobilized and ordered to march to 

 the frontier. A cabinet council was held to 

 discuss the policy to be pursued by the Gov- 

 ernment, at which differences of opinion arose 

 which threatened a crisis. On the 23d of 

 March the levy of the reserve had resulted 

 satisfactorily, with a promise that Servia would 

 have 30,000 men disposable in case of war. 

 On the 24th the purchase of 60,000 Chassepot 



rifles for Servia was reported at Berlin. The 

 Governor of Bohemia ordered the frontier to 

 be watched, to prevent the conveyance of the 

 rifles to Servia through Austrian territory. In 

 April it was reported that Prince Wrcd'c, the 

 Austrian representative at Belgrade, had com- 

 municated to Prince Milan a threat that Aus- 

 trian and Turkish troops would occupy Servia 

 if she declared war against Turkey. Prince 

 Milan laid Prince Wrede's communication be- 

 fore the ministers and a parliamentary com- 

 mittee, who unanimously advised him to pay 

 no attention to it. On Sunday, April 9th, a 

 mob at Belgrade made a warlike demonstra- 

 tion, and insulted two persons attached to the 

 Austrian consulate. The Austrian Govern- 

 ment made a demand for satisfaction, and an 

 apology was promptly made. On the same 

 day Prince Milan made an address at a popu- 

 lar festival, and said : " If the Turks attack us, 

 we have sufficient force to repel them." On 

 the 24th it was reported that the War-Office 

 had ordered all militiamen to prepare for a 

 foreign campaign, and that the troops had 

 been ordered to march to the frontier. With 

 the renewal of hostilities in the insurgent 

 provinces the public mind became more in- 

 flamed, and fresh fuel was added by the atroci- 

 ties in Bulgaria and the murder of the consuls 

 in Salonica. Prince Milan was finally forced 

 to comply with the popular demand, and the 

 ministry of Kalievitch made way in May for 

 the popular ministry, Ristitch-Gruitch. But, 

 although the new cabinet was decidedly war- 

 like in its composition, M. Ristitch hesitated 

 to declare war, owing to the unprepared 

 state in which the country still found itself; 

 yet important steps were taken that Servia 

 might be ready when the time came. On May 

 24th a decree was published providing for the 

 issue of a loan of 12,000,000 francs, to bear 

 interest, and to be payable within five years. 

 On May 29th the Russian General Tchernayeff 

 was appointed a general in the Servian army ; a 

 decree published soon after ordered the closing 

 of the schools and courts in case of war, and 

 troops were posted along the frontier. At the 

 same time Servia had entered into negotiations 

 with Montenegro, and on May 26th concluded 

 with the latter a treaty offensive and defen- 

 sive. In consequence of these proceedings the 

 Turkish Government demanded an explana- 

 tion from St-rvia, on June 9th, as to its prepa- 

 rations for war. Servia replied that it desired 

 the preservation of peace, and by no means 

 entertained any hostile intentions toward the 

 Sublime Porte, and at the same time promised 

 to send a special envoy to Constantinople, 

 who should discuss with the Turkish Govern- 

 ment the questions arising out of the situation. 

 The negotiations of the great powers had 

 gone on in the meanwhile, and on them the 

 Servians had built great hopes. They had 

 even gone so far as to formulate certain de- 

 mands, which were essentially as follows: 

 They claimed that Bosnia and Herzegovina 



