As it was, the Turks could draw those reinforcements without hindrance.
[Footnote 97: _Sir Stafford Northcote, Earl of Iddesleigh_, by Andrew Lang, vol.ii.p.

181.] [Footnote 98: Our ambassador at Constantinople, Sir Henry Elliott, asked (May 9) that a squadron should be sent there to reassure the British subjects in Turkey; but as the fleet was not ordered to proceed thither until after a long interval, and was kept there in great strength and for many months, it is fair to assume that the aim of our Government was to encourage Turkey.] The Berlin Memorandum was, of course, not presented to Turkey, and partly owing to the rapid changes which then took place at Constantinople.

To these we must now advert.
The Sultan, Abdul Aziz, during his fifteen years of rule had increasingly shown himself to be apathetic, wasteful, and indifferent to the claims of duty.

In the month of April, when the State repudiated its debts, and officials and soldiers were left unpaid, his life of luxurious retirement went on unchanged.

It has been reckoned that of the total Turkish debt of LT200,000,000, as much as LT53,000,000 was due to his private extravagance[99].