ice to the solemnity of the occasion; the
envoys of the Powers suppressed their laughter; and before long, Lord
Salisbury showed his resentment at this display of oriental irony and
stubbornness by ordering the British Fleet to withdraw from
Besika Bay[111].

[Footnote 111: See Gallenga (_The Eastern Question_, vol. ii. pp.
255-258) as to the scepticism regarding the new constitution, felt alike
by foreigners and natives at Constantinople.]

But deeds and words were alike wasted on the Sultan and his Ministers.
To all the proposals and warnings of the Powers they replied by pointing
to the superior benefits about to be conferred by the new constitution.
The Conference therefore speedily came to an end (Jan. 20). It had
served its purpose. It had fooled Europe[112].

[Footnote 112: See Parl. Papers (1878), Turkey, No. 2, p. 114, for the
constitution; and p. 302 for Lord Salisbury's criticisms on it; also
_ibid_, pp. 344-345, for Turkey's final rejection of the proposals of
the Powers.]

The responsibility for this act of cynical defiance must be assigned to
one man. The Sultan had never before manifested a desire for any reform
whatsoever; and it was not until December 19, 1876, that he named as
Grand Vizier Midhat Pasha, who was known to have long been weaving
constitutional schemes. This Turkish Sieyes was thrust to the front in
time to promulgate that fundamental reform. His tenure of power, like
that of the French constitution-monger in 1799, ended when the scheme
had served the purpose of the real controller of events. Midhat
obviously did not see whither things were tending. On January 24, 1877,
he wrote to Said Pasha, stating that, according to the Turkish
ambassador at London (Musurus Pasha), Lord Derby congratulated the
Sublime Porte on the dissolution of the Conference, "which he considers
a success for Turkey[113]."

[Footnote 113: _Life of Midhat Pasha_, by Midhat Ali (1903), p. 142.
Musurus must have deliberately misrepresented Lord Derby.]

It therefore only remained to set the constitution in motion. After six
days, when no sign of action was forthcoming, Midhat wrote to the Sultan
in urgent terms, reminding him that their object in promulgating the
constitution "was certainly not merely to find a solution of the
so-called Eastern Question, nor to seek thereby to make a demonstration
that should conciliate the sympathies of Europe, which had been
estranged from us." This Note seems to have irritated