“I have the honour to be
“(Signed) Saïd.
“15 Zilhidje, 1293, Hegira.”
xxx(31st December 1876.)
To Midhat Pasha, Grand Vizier.
“Highness,—With reference to the measures to be taken against the Editor of the Vakit, I presented to His Majesty the note sent by your Honour last night on this subject. Whilst accepting the spirit of your observations, and even granting that the article in that paper was not in itself seditious, it is not the less a fact that that paper published, without any plausible justification, a statement to the effect that the Fetva of Sheik‐ul‐Islam is sufficient to depose a Sultan, a declaration calculated to prompt the people to a seditious movement, and to nullify the conditions and safeguards on which the promulgation of the Fetva depends, teaching the people that all power is attached to the individual will of the functionary who issues the Fetva. If such acts are tolerated, the papers will not fail to profit by the license, and to abuse it, and His Majesty orders that the Imperial Irade issued against the Vakit and its Editor shall be executed as soon as possible by way of example; the present law with respect to the Press being sufficient for this purpose. Further, the journal Istikbal, in its number of last Tuesday, published a long article to the effect that the delay in the promulgation of the Constitution, which was elaborated and ready for promulgation in his reign, had caused all kinds of ills, and this article corroborates the facts above referred to; and it is with a view to preventing the Press, either from ignorance or evil intention, from adopting a line of reasoning in contradiction to the views and intentions of His Majesty, that His Majesty commands me, with a view of emphasising his views on the subject, to send you a copy of the incriminated article.
“I have the honour to be,
“(Signed) Saïd.
“18 Zilkidje, 1293, Hegira.”
xxx(2nd January 1877.)
Two other subjects of grave difference were the cause of a good deal of fencing between Midhat and the Palace. The one was the position of Galib Pasha, Minister of Finance, whom Midhat was determined to remove from the post of Minister of Finance; the other had reference to mixed education in the State schools, a subject on which Midhat had always held very strong views. But as the foreign envoys in the capital were now demanding the convocation of the official meeting of the Conference, it was determined to postpone the final resolution on these subjects till after the Conference was over.
The preliminary difficulties being at last overcome, or at least their discussion postponed till after the Conference was over, the date for the proclamation of the Constitution, with the Sultan’s famous rider inserted in the text, like the fatal gift of the evil fairy in the fable, was finally determined on.