The life of Midhat Pasha 7

The life of Midhat Pasha 7

Soon after this, difficulties in the provinces of Damascus and

Aleppo, connected with the Custom House, and with the conduct of

the Commander‐in‐Chief of the Army of Arabia, Kibrissli Mehemet

Pasha, necessitated the despatch of a public functionary with full

power to inquire into the irregularities, civil and military, which

were notorious in those provinces. Midhat was chosen for this

important and confidential mission. In the space of six months he

settled the question of the Customs in favour of the Government,

by which the sum in dispute, £T150,000, was restored to the Ottoman

Treasury, and a further surplus of £70,000 was secured. He further

fixed the responsibility for the insurrection of the Druses on the

Commander‐in‐Chief, Kibrissli Mehemet Pasha, and recommended his recall.

 

The courage and capacity of which Midhat gave proof in this mission

attracted to him the attention of the Grand Vizier of the day, the

famous Reshid Pasha, who appointed him to a confidential post in the

Superior Council of the State, which he occupied during the successive

Grand Vizierates of Reshid, Aali, and Great Rifat Pashas. This may be

considered the initiation of Midhat into political, as distinguished

from administrative, life. It was in this post that he assisted, in

1852, at the historical interview between Rifat Pasha, Turkish Minister

of Foreign Affairs, and Prince Mentchikoff, the special envoy of the

Emperor Nicholas, in the negotiations that preceded the Crimean War.

 

In 1854, Kibrissli Mehemet Pasha, who in consequence of Midhat’s

report had been dismissed from the command of the Syrian Army Corps,

became Grand Vizier. He now charged Midhat with the difficult and

delicate mission of pacifying the disturbed provinces of Adrianople

and the Balkans, and clearing them of the brigandage that infested

them. The organising genius of Midhat proved equal to the task. He

suppressed brigandage with a strong hand, and by restoring tranquillity

in this district he deprived the neighbouring States of all pretexts

for chronic complaints. To prevent the return of trouble he further

elaborated a whole plan of re‐organisation, which he submitted to the

approval of the Government at Constantinople, where Reshid Pasha had

again become Grand Vizier. The draft of this plan arrived at the

very time that Reshid and Aali Pashas were engaged in drawing up

regulations for the government of the _Eyalets_ (provinces), with a

view to their decentralisation. Midhat’s plan was accepted, and it

was decided that he should be nominated to the governorship of the

important province of the Danube (Bulgaria), when suddenly another

change of Ministry at Constantinople delayed the execution of the whole

plan of reform. In the meantime an appalling earthquake at Broussa had

caused terrible damage in that important city and much misery among

its inhabitants. Midhat was now despatched thither with a mission to

succour sufferers and to help to restore confidence among the terrified

inhabitants.

 

On his return from Broussa he was despatched as special commissioner

to inspect the provinces of Widdin and Silistria, which were in open

rebellion against the central authorities. Here Midhat, as he had

previously done in Syria, made a detailed report, pointing out the

faulty administration of the provinces, and fearlessly inculpating the

two Valis (governors).

 

This discharge of a public duty was met by the usual manœuvres of

inculpated Pashas. Their friends at the Palace bestirred themselves in

their favour, and induced the Sultan to reject the proposals of Midhat,

and to send a well‐known Ulema at Constantinople, Haireddin Effendi, to

the two vilayets in question, to make a further report in verification

or contradiction of that of Midhat. To the confusion and disappointment

of the friends of the incriminated Valis, Haireddin Effendi made a

report in every way confirming the views and recommendations, and

emphasizing the accusations of Midhat.

 

At this time (1858) Reshid Pasha died, and Aali Pasha, his successor,

obtained six months’ leave of absence for Midhat, to be spent in

travelling in Europe, with a view to the study of certain points

of European administration with which he desired to make himself

acquainted. Paris, London, Vienna, and Brussels were successively

visited in this short period of time, and much valuable information

obtained, both as to the spirit and working of European governments.

 

Midhat had by this time already acquired a certain reputation as a

successful provincial governor and whenever trouble in the empire

declared itself, his name recurred as a fit and proper person to be

despatched as special envoy or governor to pacify the province in

question. Kibrissli Mehemet Pasha had now again become Grand Vizier,

and as trouble of a serious kind had for some time been brewing in

the vilayet of Nish (Servia), where, in spite of the presence of an

imposing force of regular and irregular troops, insecurity of life and

property was rampant, and an alarming emigration of the inhabitants was

taking place, he nominated Midhat to the Governorship of this important

province (1861).

 

Midhat resolved to make an attempt to pacify the province without the

use of armed force, and to gain the confidence of the Bulgarians by

the redress of their just grievances. His first step was to invite the

notabilities of the different districts to conferences, to state their

complaints, and attentively examine with him the remedies that should

be applied. These grievances practically resolved themselves into two:

(1) the entire absence of roads and other means of intercommunication,

which made it impossible for the inhabitants—exclusively cultivators

of the soil—to find markets for their produce; (2) the rampant

brigandage that everywhere existed, rendering life and property

insecure. These two causes, it was, that induced the emigration into

Servia, which was assuming large proportions, where the Bulgarians

found among their fellow‐Slavs both greater security and more

favourable conditions of labour.

 

Midhat readily acknowledged the justice and reasonableness of these

complaints, and proceeded to strike a bargain with the notables. They

were to undertake to use their influence to pacify the country and

discourage emigration for two years, and Midhat engaged within this

time to carry out the reforms and improvements that were mutually

agreed upon between them. Midhat strictly carried out the terms of this

agreement. He ordered the troops back to their barracks, commenced

the great high road between Nish and Sofia with the byroads connected

with it, and by means of military patrols sent out in every direction,

brigandage very soon entirely disappeared from the country. Roads were

now being laid out in every direction, and bridges constructed over

the Morava and other rivers, so as to meet the requirements of an

agricultural population, and facilitate the outlet for their produce.

An elaborate system of block‐houses all along the Servian frontier put

an end to the incursions of armed bands of Servians, which had long

fostered and sustained disturbance in the province, and many Bulgarian

families who had emigrated into Servia now began to return to their

former habitations. Concurrently with these material ameliorations,

Midhat occupied himself with the solution of other economical and

moral problems that concerned the well‐being of the community. The

relations between proprietors and tenants of the soil had long been in

an unsatisfactory condition. Midhat convoked representatives of both

these classes to a conference, and with much pains, and after long

discussions, he succeeded in finding a means of reconciliation between

their opposing pretensions, to the satisfaction of both parties.

 

At Prisrend, in that part of the provinces inhabited by the Arnauts,

he was confronted with problems of a peculiar nature. Here a vendetta

(similar to the Corsican vendetta) existed among the unruly

mountaineers of Albanian descent. Midhat, faithful to his system of

working hand in hand with the inhabitants themselves, convoked an

assembly of notables of the district, and with their co‐operation, and

by their own initiative, instituted a permanent commission to settle

money compositions for bloodshed, and by this means he succeeded in

suppressing a vendetta that had existed for centuries among this brave

but unruly people. He further induced them to give up the practice

of carrying arms, and, for the first time in the history of the

provinces, to submit to Imperial conscription; he further organised

a _gendarmerie_, secured the peaceful collection of taxes, and put

an end to all religious persecution; schools, too, were established,

and hospitals for members of all religious denominations without

distinction. Thus the vilayets of Nish and Prisrend gradually recovered

the full enjoyment of tranquillity and peace, and Christians and

Mussulmans alike began to enjoy the prospect of returning prosperity.

 

In the provinces of Widdin and Silistria the problem of pacification

was complicated by a factor which rendered the solution far more

difficult. Here the continued and systematic interference of Russia by

means of her consuls and agents, supported by the Russian ambassador

at Constantinople, working hand in hand with the agents of the Slav

Committees, who were overrunning the country and preaching the gospel

of rebellion, created quite a new set of problems to be dealt with.

It was no longer local grievances to be redressed, but a political

propagandism to be faced.

 

Aali and Fuad Pashas, the successors of Reshid Pasha, appreciating the

administrative and reforming talents of Midhat, summoned him in 1864

to Constantinople, to consider with them a general organic law for

the government of the provinces of the empire (_loi des vilayets_),

and it was there resolved that the vilayets of Silistria, Widdin,

and Nish should be combined into a single government under the name

of the “Vilayet of the Danube,” and entrusted to Midhat. The Imperial

sanction to this appointment and to the organic reforms proposed was

obtained (in 1865) in spite of the opposition of the reactionary party

in Constantinople, headed by the Sheik‐ul‐Islam of the day, Saadeddine

Effendi, strenuously backed by Sourrouri Effendi Naib, an avowed

enemy of the new Vali, whom we shall meet with later on figuring, as

a reward for his zeal, and in acknowledgment of his impartiality, as

the President of the tribunal that tried and condemned Midhat. But the

influence of Fuad Pasha was sufficient to overcome all such opposition,

and Midhat forthwith entered upon his new and important functions.

 

It will be sufficient to give a summary account of the radical reforms

introduced by the new Vali in the government of this important province.

 

The whole vilayet was divided into seven distinct _sandjaks_

(districts), the sandjak into _cazas_ (cantons), and the cazas into

_nahies_ (communes), and in each of these centres councils were created

for the levying of taxes and local administration of the district.

 

Forced labour (_corvée_) was abolished; bridges to the number of

1400 were constructed; and 3000 kilometres (circ. 2000 miles) of

roads constructed; brigandage was effectually stamped out and a local

_gendarmerie_ raised, and agricultural banks, with a view of relieving

the small farmer from the exactions of the usurer, established. The

capital for these purposes was procured by an ingenious system, founded

on the cultivation of the public and waste lands, by which not only was

relief given to distressed and needy agriculturists, but a local fund

was created for important local improvements. Agriculture, the staple

industry of the inhabitants, soon began to flourish in consequence of

these wise and energetic measures, and with agriculture the affiliated

industries and commerce of the country. The navigation of the Danube,

the great artery of the province, next engaged the attention of the

Pasha, and soon two, and then four, vessels, flying the Ottoman flag

for the first time, made their appearance on this river. A postal

service was likewise started, and through the initiative of the

governor a manufactory of carriages established at Rustchuk, which

at the end of the very first year paid a dividend of 10 per cent. Charitable institutions too were not neglected, and orphan asylums for Christian and Mahomedan children alike were constructed at Rustchuk and Sofia, and the pupils initiated in trades and industries.