“During the thirty years of his reign Abdul Hamid has brought ruin on the land; one half of our patrimony he has delivered to the enemy; he has destroyed our fleet, disorganised our army; he has reduced the people to misery; he has annihilated our governmental system, and has left nothing to the civil organisation or the civilisation of the past. He has concentrated the whole government into his own hands, and has dismissed all his tried and experienced Ministers, transferring the reins of office to self-seekers and traitors willing to become his tools.” Grave troubles are predicted after his death, and the Committee urges the population of the Empire, Christian and Mussulman, to be on their guard and to consider seriously the following facts:— “(1) Abdul Hamid and his accomplices are conspiring to hand over the sovereignty and the Caliphate to his fourth son, the youth, Burhaneddin, in defiance of the tradition and the civil and religious law of the Empire. The success of this stratagem would be a mortal blow to the aspirations of the nation. “(2) To prevent the enemies of the country from provoking disorders in order to bring about foreign intervention, guarantees must be given to the Christian populations and, if necessary, written assurances to the Embassies. “(3) The happiness and the future of the country being dependent upon the suppression of the despotic régime and the enforcing of the Constitution, which was recognised in 1876 as an inalienable right of the nation, and after being two years in operation was perfidiously abrogated by Abdul Hamid, our fellow-countrymen, Christian and Mussulman, must of one accord exact the application of that Constitution, which will restore to the country its vitality and safeguard the liberties of the people. United in heart and mind, the Ulemas, the notables of the capital and the provinces, must, through the intermediary of the Grand Vizier and the Valis, demand of the new Sultan that he proclaim and bring into force without delay the clauses of the Constitution. “(4) The duty of preserving the essential rights of the nation belongs, above all, to the members of the guild of the Ulemas and to the high civil and military officials; the ceremony of the Biat, when the chosen of the people demonstrate the popular sovereignty by recognising and accepting the new Sultan, is the most propitious occasion for the exercise of that duty. It is an obligation that lies upon every Turkish subject to exact a pledge from the delegate he sends up to do his duty on that occasion.” The Manifesto ended with an appeal to the Christian and non-Christian populations to prepare for the coming crisis. CHAPTER II IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH