On January 24, 1877, he wrote to Said Pasha, stating that, according to the Turkish ambassador at London (Musurus Pasha), Lord Derby congratulated the Sublime Porte on the dissolution of the Conference, "which he considers a success for Turkey[113]." [Footnote 113: _Life of Midhat Pasha_, by Midhat Ali (1903), p.

142.
Musurus must have deliberately misrepresented Lord Derby.] It therefore only remained to set the constitution in motion.

After six days, when no sign of action was forthcoming, Midhat wrote to the Sultan in urgent terms, reminding him that their object in promulgating the constitution "was certainly not merely to find a solution of the so-called Eastern Question, nor to seek thereby to make a demonstration that should conciliate the sympathies of Europe, which had been estranged from us." This Note seems to have irritated 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.