In order to commemorate the occasion, and enforce these new principles, it was proposed to erect a magnificent public monument, the plans and designs of which were confided to the writer; but before the foundations could be laid, a complete
"Change came o'er the spirit of their dreams."
The great Napoleon has wisely pronounced that "Constantinople is the key to all Europe, and designed to be the capital of the world." Turkey may, therefore, be divided and subdivided, but Constantinople, the great bone of contention, being indivisible, the partition of Turkey becomes an impossibility, and political equilibrium will not permit any one power to usurp its possession.
It was fortunate that it fell accidentally into the hands of the Turks, who were incapable of availing themselves of its advantages; and for the same reason it is desirable they should retain it. Hence the maintenance, or diplomatically speaking, the integrity of Turkey became an essential element in the polity of Europe.
The proclamation of the above Hatti Sherif, or Royal Edict, was therefore hailed with general satisfaction by the European states, and hopes were awakened that the impending danger would be averted by such an entire change in the administrative government.
But the Turks of the ancien régime, perceiving no threatening attitude in their European neighbors, and highly offended at the ultra-liberal measures of the reform party, who even dared to insult their Mussulman prejudices, and coolly inform them that "the council chamber was not a theological school for the discussion of religious polemics, nor convertible into a mosque," resolved to resist to the utmost, and re-establish their own party. They, therefore, in a body, protested to the sultan, who, in such a dilemma, could do nothing but dismiss the actual ministry, and organize a new one.
Rendered bold by success, the new ministry, at whose head was placed Riza Pasha, soon began to adopt fanatical measures, whereby to modify the Tanzimat, which it did not suit their policy to nullify altogether; for, by it additional security of life and property was granted even to themselves.
Besides, the lords of the realm, who only existed by the "cohesive power of public plunder," foresaw that the Tanzimat secured equality of civil and political rights to the Christians, especially to the Armenians, who, being better educated and more enlightened than they themselves were, and in fact the ruling spirits, would soon have preceded them in all the departments, and taken the lead in the control of the country.