years under the auspices of a constitution which, we are told to believe, has disorganized Bulgaria! Where are we to look for the signs of this disorganization? In the buoyancy of the public revenue? In the growth of trade and commerce? In the advancement of public education? In the energy with which public works are being prosecuted and multiplied? In the improved condition of the Turkish population? Or in that general development of the moral and material welfare of the country which cannot escape the notice of the most superficial observer who compares the Bulgaria of to-day with the Bulgaria of yesterday? "But at least Bulgaria was discredited abroad." With this charge it is more difficult to deal. Foreign opinion, however, can seldom be accepted as a trustworthy criterion of national institutions, and least of all can it be trusted in regard to a country like Bulgaria, which has not yet had time to live down the bitter hostility that only yesterday resented as a crime the very fact of its existing, and which is still surrounded by jealous and hungry neighbours. The two countries in which the Bulgarian Constitution has been most fiercely denounced are Austria and Russia. The value of these attacks is not enhanced by the knowledge that both in Austria and Russia the Constitution was condemned before it was even put on its trial, though the Emperor Alexander II. was too equitable to endorse its condemnation. It was evident that democratic institutions were not likely to find favour in the eyes of the Russian official world. The open hostility which it at last encountered in that quarter was not provoked, but only intensified by the determination of the Liberal Cabinet to emancipate itself entirely from Russian tutelage. This determination again was due to the conviction, which events have only too quickly justified, that so long as the Bulgarian army was in the hands of Russian officers, Bulgaria would never be secure against a coup d'état. Apart, however, from this consideration, there were motives of economy which equally recommended the expediency of dispensing with the costly services of Russian officers and officials. Every year brings back to Bulgaria a fresh contingent of young citizens who have fitted themselves for civil or for military employment by a course of studies abroad, and who are capable of replacing with advantage a body of foreigners who have no sympathy with nor interest in the country which they serve. The Prince, however, declined to listen to the recommendations of his Cabinet. His motives are now obvious, but they reflect discredit upon no one except himself. Austria had from the beginning shown her antipathy to the new order of things in Bulgaria by advising the Prince not to swear allegiance to the Constitution under which he had been elected. After this first proof of friendliness she still expected the Bulgarians to subordinate their interests to hers in two questions of vital importance to the Principality, that of the navigation of the Danube and of the Oriental railways. With regard to the former, the policy of the Bulgarian Government was nearly identical with that of Roumania. Both were ready to recognise Austria's right to exercise a large control over the navigation of the Danube, but both were unwilling to concede her claim to be regarded as the sole Danubian Power. In the railway question, Bulgarian "obstructiveness," as it was termed at Vienna, was principally directed against a scheme which would have handed over the railways of the Principality to the tender mercies of Baron Hirsch. Those who are acquainted with the more or less secret history of the railways of European Turkey will scarcely consider any amount of "obstructiveness" unjustifiable which might avert such a consummation. It may be regretted that in dealing with these delicate questions some of the members of the Liberal Government did not display, either in their attitude towards the Prince or in their relations with the foreign representatives, the tact and prudence which their position required. But, after, all the chief blame which attaches to them is that they forgot the danger of showing one's cards when the last trumps are in the adversaries' hands. While we are on the chapter of foreign opinion, it may be noticed that the Roumanian Government, which is certainly not the worst placed to form an opinion upon Bulgarian affairs, was the only one which declined to send its representative to Sistova, and took no part in the congratulations which the other "civilised " Powers offered to the Prince on the occasion of the interment of the Constitution. Upon the means which were employed to obtain the return of a servile Assembly to ratify the decisions of the Prince, it is, I think, unnecessary to dilate. Public opinion in England has been sufficiently enlightened as to the true character of the electoral campaign. The educated classes were terrorised by Russian Commissioners and military tribunals, and finally kept away by brute force from the polling booths, while the votes of an ignorant 1 (1) Conclusive evidence was furnished to me on this point while I was at Sofia, in the shape of the text of three telegrams, addressed by the Russian Special Commissioner at Nicopoli to General Ernroth, and his Excellency's telegraphic answers thereto. Nicopoli is one of the staunchest Liberal centres in Bulgaria. On the morning of June 27, the day fixed for the first polling, the Commissioner telegraphed to headquarters his apprehension that the elections would be "bad," as a large number of Liberal electors had already gathered in front of the polling-booths. To this telegram General Ernroth replied by an order to call out the troops and take all necessary precautions. The Liberal electors seem, however, to have insisted with unbecoming pertinacity on exercising their rights, for a couple of hours later the Commissioner telegraphs again that no ordinary precautions would suffice to prevent the return of the Liberal candidates, and asks for further instructions. This appeal elicits an order to fix bayonets and load ball cartridges. Even this threat did not intimidate the voters, who are again reported to General Ernroth as gathering in overwhelming numbers and attempting to force their way to the ballot-boxes. General Ernroth is equal to the emergency, for he wires back one single word, "Fire!" The Commissioner, however, was not a man of blood and iron. He contented himself with ordering the soldiers to charge with the bayonet. A peasantry were secured by vague threats of handing them back to the Turk, and by fair promises of exemption from taxation and military service. To this electoral programme, made up in equal parts of violence and of fraud, M. Hitrovo, the Russian ConsulGeneral, did not hesitate to lend the whole weight of the influence, legitimate or other, of which Russia still disposes in the Principality. With such means and such support the Prince's victory was inevitable. After two years of scheming and of plotting he had reached the goal. He had rid himself of an irksome Constitution, and cleverly vaulted into the saddle of autocracy. What the future of Bulgaria will be under the new régime it may yet be thought too early to forecast; but if any conclusion can be drawn from the results with which its inauguration has already been attended, the day would seem to be not far distant when the people of Bulgaria will cast back into the Prince's teeth the very words of his own proclamation-disorganization at home and discredit abroad. Three months and more have now elapsed since Prince Alexander assumed the responsibility of absolute power. To what condition has he brought in that short space of time the country of which he claimed to be the special providence? He has estranged every section of the population, the administrations which he has placed in subjection to foreigners, the army which he has recklessly used for the most unworthy purposes, the educated classes whom he has terrorised, the peasantry whom he has duped by false promises. He has saddled the finances of the Principality with the costs of a huge electoral fraud. He has arrested the work of public education by driving into exile whole bodies of teachers. He has placed onethird of the country under martial law, and handed over the rest to the arbitrary rule of special Commissioners armed with unlimited powers. The iron hand of Russian officers may, for a time, maintain discipline in the army; exceptional measures may coerce the country into outward submission; the taxes may be wrung by force out of a deluded peasantry in spite of electoral pledges; the administration may be stocked with foreigners just as the new Cabinet already is; the support of powerful neighbours may be purchased by the sacrifice of every national interest. But who can doubt what will be the ultimate fate of a régime whose existence is doomed from its very origin to be one continual struggle against the conscience, the intelligence, and the interests of the country? CONSTANTINOPLE, August 9. M. VALENTINE CHIROL. few people were wounded, a number arrested, and the electors were dispersed without having succeeded in registering sufficient votes to get their candidates duly elected. Another tour de scrutin was therefore necessary, and it should have taken place on the following Sunday. But before that date a princely Ukase was issued, disfranchising the town of Nicopoli on account of the disturbances which had taken place there on the 27th of June! Ab uno disce omnia. NAPOLEON THE IDOL. FROM THE FRENCH OF BARBIER. QUICK, Foreman, quick, wood-coal and pit-coal throw, A mighty meal to the vast furnace bring, 'Tis well-the mad fires burst in wrath at large, Blood-red and pitiless they wake: Whilst rolling down they sound their battle charge, Out-flanked and clubbed the metals break With one delirious bound and yell and throe Tin fused, all twists, all twines, as far below At length the work is done-the lights have died, Whilst yet the mass boils hard, fling, Foreman, wide Oh! rushing river sweep along thy bed, The earth's breast gapes to clasp your lava wave, Into that mould of steel, dash down a slave, Napoleon yet-once more that Titan's frame; The soldier grim, in blood and tears and shame, Sad sad for France-the tortured and down-flung, When tottering on its lofty base, Like some poor thief, his earlier statue hung On cruel cords in empty space. And, when by ceaseless efforts overthrown, The Hun of skin that stinks, the stupid Hun, Dragged through the dirt our Emperor's head. On all who keep a heart their breasts within, I saw beneath our marbles shadowing, And strip our trees, as food their bark to fling, I saw the Northman stern of aspect beat Young Frenchmen! lovely in their wantonness, Upon the Cossack's gaze their bosoms press, Well, through those days of pain, of evil fate, There was but one on whom I flung my hate, Oh, straight-haired Corsican, was not France fair |