of trained bureaucrats and inadequacies in tax collection.” Though reforms had been started by Resid in 1841, their initial success was interrupted by the outbreak of the Crimean War. Two years of study resulted in the Provincial Regulation of 1858. The main idea behind the Regulation was concentrating power back into the offices of the provincial governors and spreading the Tanzimat reforms across the entire Empire. It kept the provincial government structure that was already in place, but ensured that the governors of each province were the main source of authority as well as the chief representative of the central government in Istanbul through whom, all communications with the central government were made. In addition to administration councils’ structures being reformed, a Cadastral Department in each province was responsible for registering every male resident, whether they be Muslim or non-Muslim, Ottoman or foreign resident. Each of these residents was issued a “population tax certificate" (vergi nüfus tezkeresi) which stated his tax obligation and also served as an identity card.” A new conscription system was also introduced that better reflected the needs and population makeup of each province. Fuat also worked on reforming the financial system of the Empire. These reforms included the introduction of an annual budget system and the budgets of each ministry subject to the scrutiny of the treasury to keep in check with annual revenues. To increase these revenues, the inefficient tax farming system was ended in 1861 with the establishment of the Excise Tax Administration which was separate from the bureaucracy of the Ministry of Finance and replaced the former Customs Administration. Foreign Minister 1858-1860: The Mount Lebanon Crisis In 1860, violence broke out in the Mount Lebanon region of modern-day Lebanon between the Maronite and Druze communities over which group would control the region. Ultimately, the Druzes dominated and pillage nearly every Maronite town nearby. Fuad, as the foreign minister was sent to investigate these massacres and carry out the Empire’s foreign policy initiatives. Due to his success at executing the changes of the Tanzimat program, Fuad was sent to Syria and arrived in Beirut on July 17, 1860, armed with extreme power granted to him by the Sultan. He brought in a nationalistic viewpoint that these conflicts were “local sectarian characteristics that Ottoman reform ultimately would discipline.” He was sent by Sultan Abdulmecid along with the new Western-style army to work with a newly