the Sultan. Abdul
Hamid, with his small, nervous, exacting nature, has always valued
Ministers in proportion to their obedience, not to their power of giving
timely advice. In every independent suggestion he sees the germ of
opposition, and perhaps of a palace plot. He did so now. By way of
reply, he bade Midhat come to the Palace. Midhat, fearing a trap,
deferred his visit, until he received the assurance that the order for
the reforms had been issued. Then he obeyed the summons; at once he was
apprehended, and was hurried to the Sultan's yacht, which forthwith
steamed away for the Aegean (Feb. 5). The fact that he remained above
its waters, and was allowed to proceed to Italy, may be taken as proof
that his zeal for reform had been not without its uses in the game which
the Sultan had played against the Powers. The Turkish Parliament, which
assembled on March 1, acted with the subservience that might have been
expected after this lesson. The Sultan dissolved it on the outbreak of
war, and thereafter gave up all pretence of constitutional forms. As for
Midhat, he was finally lured back to Turkey and done to death. Such was
the end of the Turkish constitution, of the Turkish Parliament, and of
their contriver[114].

[Footnote 114: _Life of Midhat Pasha_, chaps. v.-vii. For the Sultan's
character and habits, see an article in the _Contemporary Review_ for
December 1896, by D. Kelekian.]

Even the dissolution of the Conference of the Powers did not bring about
war at once. It seems probable that the Czar hoped much from the
statesmanlike conduct of Lord Salisbury at Constantinople, or perhaps he
expected to secure the carrying out of the needed reforms by means of
pressure from the Three Emperors' League (see Chapter XII.). But, unless
the Russians gave up all interest in the fate of her kinsmen and
co-religionists in Turkey, war was now the more probable outcome of
events. Alexander had already applied to Germany for help, either
diplomatic or military; but these overtures, of whatever kind, were
declined by Bismarck--so he declared in his great speech of February 6,
1888. Accordingly, the Czar drew closer to Austria, with the result that
the Reichstadt agreement of July 8, 1876, now assumed the form of a
definitive treaty signed at Vienna between the two Powers on January
15, 1877.

The full truth on this subject is not known. M. Elie de Cyon, who claims
to have seen the document, states that Austria undertook to re