In this manifesto he claimed independence for Syria (including Lebanon) as a result of the constitutional development in the Ottoman Empire. He asserted that constitutional government in the Western sense wasn't possible in the Ottoman Empire and that it would inevitably lead to its dissolution because of the political aspirations of the minorities. The German orientalist Martin Hartmann was outraged at this manifesto. He argued that the Committee didn't represent all Syrians in the Ottoman Empire and in foreign countries, as they claimed. Moreover, he accused the representatives of the Syrian interests to use the introduction of a constitution only as a pretext to gain advantages and independence for Syria. The government of the German emperor was strongly opposed to a division of the Ottoman Empire, because, being allies of the sultan, they were afraid of a growing influence of the English and the French in that region. The manifesto wasn't very well received by the population in Syria and Lebanon. One of the first to repehend him, was Beirut's Christian deputy Sulayman al-Bustani. According to the governor in Damascus, the circular or manifesto caused widespread anger and sadness in Syria. Muhammad Arslan, deputy from Latakia, even pleaded to extend the condemnation to the entire Moutran family, although many members of his own family had been among the first to condemn him. Even Nakhlé's brother Nadra Moutran, one of the founders of Al-ikha, the Arab-Ottoman Brotherhood, in Istanbul, harshly criticized his brothers Rachîd and Nakhlé who professed to be the leaders of the Syrian Central Committee in Paris. On the other hand, many Syrians were afraid of French designs on Syria. They therefore strongly declared their support for the Ottoman state and condemned the circular. Nadra Moutran also thwarted the political activities of his two brothers in another way, publishing at the time of the manifesto a book about the Young Turks, expounding his ideas of this political movement and its future (Reflexions d'un vieux Jeune-Turc, 1908). Shortly after the deposition of sultan Abdûl-Hamid in 1908 and the renewal of the constitution, where the sultan justified the suspension as having been only temporarily “until the education of the people had been brought to a sufficiently high level by the extension of instruction throughout the empire”, there occurred a counter-revolution of reactionary elements. As it was generally felt that he was behind this coup, he finally lost his power completely and was in April 1909 substituted by his brother Rachîd Effendi who was proclaimed as Sultan Mehmed V.