452 Young Ottomans and constitutionalism with official pressure and general indifference among most of the population The first parliament was composed of a wide mixture of representatives It met for two sessions over the course of five months Sultan Abdul Hamid II used the excuse of war with Russia to dissolve the parliament in 1878 The short-lived constitution remained suspended for the next 30 years Abdul Hamid’s suspension of the constitution marked the end of the Young Ottomans Future reformers were censored and repressed under Abdul Hamid’s rule Further reading: Devereux, Robert The First Ottoman Constitutional Period: A Study of the Midhat Constitution and Parliament Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1963; Findley, Carter Vaughn Ottoman Civil Officialdom: A Social History Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989; Mardin, Serif The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1962 Janice J Terry