MIGNET.
785
whose oondnot would bring the Crown itself into disrepute and odium. The upshot was that Mid- hat was made Grand Vizier^ and Mahmoud Nedhim dismissed. His fall was^ however, almost as sudden as his rise, owing to the intrigues of the Palace partj. After a ^ort time he was niade Minister of Jus- tice, but being baulked in every attempt at the introduction of reform in this department he handed in his resignation, and was soon afterwards sent as Governor to Salonica, but he soon returned to Constantinople, where he lived quietly and unemployed till 1875, when he again accepted the Ministry of Justice, though only again to hold it for a very brief period. Midhat Pasha and Hussein Avni, who by this time had become Grand Vizier, after vainly urging on the Sultan the absolute necessity of reform, determined to depose him. This was accordingly done May 81, 1876, and Abdul Aziz was conveyed across the 6K>lden Horn to the Old Seraglio, where he committed sui- cide or was murdered shortly after- wards. Murad V. ascended the throne, but he also was soon de- posed on the alleged ground of insanity. When the present Sultan, Abdul - Hamid II., came to the throne, Midhat Pasha was for the second time appointed Grand Vizier, Dec. 19, 1876, and the new Consti- tution establishing an Imperial Ottoman Parliament was immedi- ately promulgated. His enemies soon triumphed over Midhat, and by their inMgues induced the Sul- tan to dismiss and banish him Feb. 5, 1877, " in accordance with article 113 of the new Constitu- tion." Edhem Pasha succeeded him as Grand Vizier. Midhat Pasha now visited Prance, Eng- land, and other countries of Europe. In Sept., 1878, he obtained per- mission to reside in Crete, and in Nov. the same year he was ap- pointed GK>vemor-General of Syria for a term of five years, replacing
Dievet Pasha, who had made him- self obnoxious to the population. In 1881 Midhat and several other Pashas were arrested, and, after a judicial investigation of a doubtful character (July 27-29), convicted of complicity in the murder of the late Sultan Abdul Aziz. He, and eight others, were condemned to death, but the sentence was com- muted to imprisonment for life, and Midhat was sent to the south of Arabia.
MIGNET, Francois Auoustb Mabie, historian, born at Aiz (Bouches-du-Khdne), May 8, 1796, was educated at Avignon, and hav- ing finished his university course, studied law at his native town, where he had M. Thiers for his fellow-student. He won the prize offered by the Academy of Aix for an ^ge on Charles VII., and soon after took up his residence in Paris, where he lodged with M. Thiers. His dissertation on Feudalism, and the Institutions and Legislations of St. Louis, written for a prize pro- posed by the Academic des Inscrip- tions, was published in 1822 ; his "Histoire de la Revolution Fran- (jaise de 1789 k 1814," in 1824; "Histoire de Marie Stuart," in 1851; Charles Quint," in 1854; and " Eloges Historiques," in 1864. Translations of some of these works have been pubUshed in England. He became one of the contributors to the Courrier Fran^awe, while his friend M. Thiers was writing in the ConstUutionnel ; and both remained until 1830 faithful to these journals, then the organs of the most ad- vanced opposition. ' As M. Mignet, by signing the protest of the press against the decrees of July, had risked his person and liberty, the new government recompensed him by appointing him Director of the Arcluves of the Foreign Ministry. Shortly afterwards he was nomi- nated an Extraordinary Councillor of State, and commissioned to sup- port the budget through the discus- sions in the Chamber in the sessions
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