advised by the Emperor to adopt a conciliatory and constitutional course of action. The Russian Consul at Sofia has advised a different course, but it is understood that Prince Dondoukoff, the Russian Governor of Bulgaria during the war, is in favour of sustaining the Constitution and allowing the Liberals to govern the country so long as this is the wish of the people.

Since writing the above I have received from one of the best men in Bulgaria an elaborate statement of his view of the situation. As his sympathies are with the Prince and the Conservative party, whose views I am very anxious to state fairly, I quote the substance of his statement:

"On his arrival Prince Alexander tried to form a Ministry which should unite in itself the most distinguished men in our country, especially those who had been prominent in the Constituent Assembly, but MM. Zankoff, Caraveloff, and Stoyanoff (Liberals) declined to act with MM. Balahanoff, Grekoff, and Natchovitch (Conservatives), and after five days of fruitless negotiations the Ministry was formed without any Liberal members. What was now our true policy? We had a Prince allied with and beloved by all the Sovereigns of Europe, possessing rare personal qualities, and who had come here with the sole. object of devoting himself to the welfare of the country. All Europe showed an absolute confidence in him, made important concessions to him on his journey, and gave him the title of Highness, a title which Servia and Montenegro obtained only after the recognition of their independence. It was our duty to rally around our Prince, to strengthen his position and to secure for him the affection of our people the more so as the hatred of the people for the Turks had weakened their respect for all Government and the sentiment of loyalty was unknown to them. The hope of Bulgaria is not so much in its Ministers or in its Parliament as in its Prince, for there is no hope of seeing our national aspirations realized in the union of our people until Europe is satisfied that he is not simply a tool in the hands of demagogues who promote disorder in order that they may profit by it. Our Liberal friends failed to see this, and no sooner was the Ministry formed than a crusade was commenced against it. The Ministers were calumniated, the people were excited in every possible way and made to believe the most absurd stories, while at the same time an unseemly controversy was carried on in regard to the title of the Prince. All this was done at a time when it was most essential to strengthen the principle of obedience to authority, to organize and consolidate the Government, and to counteract all disorganizing tendencies. The elections took place in the midst of great excitement. As there are no organized parties in Bulgaria, no one knew the result until the deputies came together. Then it was found that there was a large majority opposed to the existing Ministry. Now, please notice that in an official proclamation of the Liberals the very existence of the monarchical principle here was ignored, that their newspapers often contained indirect attacks against the Prince, and that the Assembly itself on three occasions violated the Princely prerogative. Note also the fact that great irregularities took place at all the elections, and that the Assembly seated ten persons who were disqualified by their age, as well as three others who were disqualified by committing crimes, and others who had not received a majority of the votes at the elections. Yet the Prince in his anxiety for peace passed over all these irregularities. Then came the debate on the Address from the Throne. The reply of the Assembly carefully avoided giving the Prince the title of Highness, and used the inferior title given in the Consti

tution. It also accused the Ministry of violating the Constitution, although no facts were given to sustain this accusation. Still the Prince accepted the reply and also the resignation of the Ministry, because he saw that some of the Ministers had, through their inexperience and the difficulties of their position, made serious mistakes and were not equal to their position. He then called M. Caraveloff and invited him to form a Ministry, but informed him that, to put an end to the existing unhappy political strife, he wished him to give some place in his Ministry to MM. Grekoff and Natchovitch, or, if they were personally disagreeable, to some other leading Conservatives. He also asked for the programme of the new Ministry. After three days M. Caraveloff declared that, as he understood that the reply of the Assembly to the Address of the Prince was unsatisfactory, he was ready to modify it, both in regard to the title given to the Prince and in regard to the passage relating to the Czar. This was satisfactory to the Prince; but four days later M. Caraveloff came to the Prince again and informed him that, after two stormy sessions of the Assembly, he had been unable to induce them to give him the title of Highness, that he could not consent to act with MM. Grekoff and Natchovitch, and that he had been unable to find any other Conservatives who would act with him. He then proposed a list of Ministers, some of whom were men utterly unfit for their places and unknown to the country. The Prince could not accept them.

"The crisis had now lasted eleven days; the Liberals could not form a competent Ministry; there was great excitement in the country; the Porte improved the occasion to send disagreeable notes; there were rumours of an Austrian occupation; addresses poured in from all parts of the country begging the Prince to dissolve the Assembly and take the Government into his own hands. The Prince dissolved the Assembly and called together a new Ministry. Grekoff and Natchovitch were retained as the most competent of the old Ministry; Bishop Clement and M. Economoff are new men, and a Frenchman has been invited to take the Ministry of Finance. From all parts of the country have come congratulatory addresses, but the party of disorder still exists and there is little to be hoped from the coming elections for a new Assembly. The people generally are ignorant, inexperienced, and debased by their long submission to Turkish rule. They are easily influenced by high-sounding words and false patriotism, and the Prince is sometimes discouraged and inclined to abdicate. Should this happen, we are lost. It will not be uninteresting for you to know that the leaders of the Radicals are all Russian graduates, while not one of the deputies in Eastern Roumelia has studied in Russia.

"One of the most distinguished European friends of Bulgaria was present at the sitting of the Assembly when the Address was discussed. In coming out he said, 'You have once more your Bulgarian massacres, only in this case you Bulgarians are massacreing each other.' This is a sad comment, but it is true, and our future seems to me very dark."

No one can read this statement without feeling that the author is a true patriot and a loyal subject of the Prince. It is, no doubt, true that Eastern Roumelia will never be united to Bulgaria until the European Powers are satisfied that the Government of Bulgaria is worthy of their confidence. It must also be acknowledged that the Liberal leaders have failed in their duty to their country in so obstinately refusing to form a Coalition Ministry. What is said of the ignorance and inexperience of the mass of the people is equally true. But, on the other hand, Europe can have little sympathy with a struggle over the title of the Prince, especially when it is understood that the Liberals claim that the title given by the Constitution is the highest in

the Bulgarian language, and may be properly applied to the Czar himself. Nor can I modify the opinion already expressed, that it would have been wiser for the Prince to have accepted the Liberal Ministry, and given it a trial. It is not strange that the young Prince is somewhat disheartened, and it is to be hoped that he will be encouraged by England, at least, to be patient, and give Constitutional Government a fair trial in Bulgaria. Patience and mutual forbearance is what the country needs more than anything else—and true patriotism should devote all its energies to the moral and intellectual elevation of the people. As this progresses, the Government, whether despotic or constitutional, will necessarily adapt itself to the real character of the nation; while, so long as the people remain in ignorance, the most liberal Constitution in the world would not secure good government, or even genuine civil liberty.

AN EASTERN STATESMAN.

MYSTERIES OF ADMINISTRATION IN

TURKEY.

EVER

VER since the conclusion of the peace of 1856 the question of reform in Turkey has occupied the attention of European statesmen. Prior to the Crimean War the condition of the Christian population of the European provinces of the Empire was much to be deplored, and it was hoped that the clause in the treaty by which the Sultan engaged himself to introduce reform would lead to its amelioration. Such in fact proved to be the case, not, however, so much in consequence of the action of the Turkish Government as of that of the political agents of the European Powers, whose intervention in their behalf, while it had the effect of entirely changing the relative positions of the Moslem and Christian populations, had also the necessary result of undermining the authority and prestige of the central Government. Europe by that treaty was for the first time brought into close political contact with Turkey, and the effects were soon felt throughout its Christian provinces. Although according to the letter of the treaty all interference with the execution of the Hatti Houmayoum and other measures of reform was prohibited, practically it existed, because it was evident that those measures were intended by the Turkish Government to be purely illusory, and the agents of the Foreign Powers took advantage of its bad faith to enforce them, partly because it opened a door for unlimited intrigue against each other and increased their importance in the country, and partly because it was scarcely in human nature to see people suffer through the neglect of the Government to carry out the reforms which they had solemnly promised to introduce, - without interfering in their behalf. The result was a rapid progress on the part of the Christian population and an increased development of the resources of the country. The effect of this political contact, and of the improved conditions which resulted from it, was to produce an

increased commercial and financial intercourse with Europe. Turkey became a country to be exploité by Christendom. Railroads and steamboat lines had brought it closer to civilization, and the cupidities of civilization became attached to it. On the pretence of introducing reforms Turkey asked for money, and Europe lent its money freely. No sooner had the money of Europe flowed into its coffers than the speculators and contractors followed it, with a view of extracting it as speedily as possible from those coffers and transferring it to their own pockets, under the pretext of still further developing the resources of the country by means of the construction of railways, public works, and improvements of various kinds. The Turkish Government, absolutely devoid of the financial instinct, and intuitively conscious that political intervention in the introduction of reform was undermining its authority and placing the Christian population in a position which would enable them sooner or later to throw off their yoke, resisted to the utmost, but ineffectually, the interference of Europe, while they were succumbing to its financial influence. The result was that in the degree in which the Christian provinces were growing more wealthy and independent the central Government was becoming more enfeebled and more corrupt. It was becoming enfeebled by the foreign political domination and intrigue of which its extremities were the theatre, and it was becoming corrupted by the unscrupulousness of foreign finance which had been attracted to the seat of its Government.

The attempt of Europe to reform the European provinces of Turkey having so far resulted in a bloody and disastrous war, by which the semi-independence of a large part of the Christian population has been achieved, and the extermination or exile of a large part of the Moslem population has been accomplished, and having also brought about the bankruptcy of the Government and the utter demoralisation of its administration, it would be well to consider whether the engagements into which England has entered to reform the Asiatic provinces of the Empire may not also be attended with serious consequences. Europe may not be responsible for the results which have flowed from the treaty of 1856; she may fairly say, that if Turkey had honestly set about introducing reform, political interference would not have been necessary, and the war which resulted from it would not have occurred, and that if she had listened to the advice of the able political economists who have been sent from time to time to assist her in the management of her finances, she would not have fallen a victim to speculators and sharpers, and the extravagant waste of public money by former Sultans would have been checked. This only makes the matter still worse. If the Turkish Government resists reform in Asia Minor, which unquestionably it will do, as it did in European Turkey; and if the revenues of the country are robbed and wasted as they have been, and loans continue to be contracted for small sums at ruinous rates,-for large ones are no longer possible, and the financial plunderers of Europe are