The question of the Egean islands

The question of the Egean islands had been relegated for solution to the Concert of Europe by the Treaty of London, but Turkey had little respect for the Concert and determined to defy it in this crisis as she had successfully defied it in the Adrianople affair.

And she was right. The “ voice of Europe,” as the Concert was called, could give utterance only when the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente were united, and that was seldom the case. It fell again to Rumania to play the part of deal ex manchette. Determined to maintain the Treaty of Bucharest by which she had profited and acquired such great prestige, she warned Turkey that in case of war between Turkey and Greece she would not see Greece humiliated, and she was supported by Serbia in this action. This relieved the tension between Turkey and Greece, and on November II, 1913, the Treaty of Athens was signed. It disposed of many troublesome problems of domicile, nationality, property, and religion, but did not mention the islands.

Egean islands problem

Greece had fared better than any other combatant in the Balkan wars. She had almost doubled her territory and population, had acquired the greatest prize of the war, Saloniki, had secured possession of the rich tobacco-raising country around Drama and Seres with its port, Kavala, and had occupied the islands of the Aigean for which Greeks had always longed. On December 13, 1913, Great Britain recommended to the Powers that except for Imbros and Tenedos, which controlled the entrance to the Dardanelles, Greece should retain the islands occupied by her troops, including those, like Mitylene and Chios, along the coast of Asiatic Turkey. Despite Turkey’s announcement that she would never consent to such an arrangement, even her friends of the Triple Alliance consented to this solution of the Egean-islands problem.

Greece had hoped to secure also the islands taken by Italy during the Italo-Turkish war, which were to be restored by Italy, according to the Treaty of Lausanne, when certain conditions respecting Tripoli were fulfilled by Turkey. But Italy gave no evidence of intention to relinquish them, and was greatly disturbed by the increase of power and prestige made by Greece in the eastern Mediterranean. It was obvious that Greece was entering upon a great commercial career and was now in a position to control the Near-Eastern trade and trade routes which Italy had hoped to control. The two countries also came into conflict in southern Albania, inhabited by Epirote Greeks. Though Greek troops had evacuated the territory at the demand of the Powers, the rebellion against incorporation with the new state, Albania, was probably led by Greek officers and financed by Greek money.

Disposed to think from the narrative of Nicetas

In spite, however, of these threats, I am disposed to think from the narrative of Nicetas, who knew better what went on within the city than any of the Western chroniclers, that the great mass of the inhabitants of Constantinople were indifferent rather than hostile to the emperor. The majority of the inhabitants had long lost all interest in dynastic changes. The experience of the last generation had accustomed them to see one sovereign deposed and another placed on the throne, until they had come to look on depositions or attempts to obtain the throne as matters with which they had little concern.

Apathy in regard to political changes very closely resembled that which exists now in Constantinople. I have been present in the city during the deposition of two sultans. The most striking characteristic in the circumstances attending these depositions was the utter indifference of the great body of the native, and especially of the Moslem, population to the change which was being made.

There was a small but active party which took action, but beyond this there was comparatively very little excitement; no resistance, no rioting, no expression of dissatisfaction. When newspaper correspondents and foreigners generally were aware that a revolution was in preparation, it is impossible to believe that thousands of Turks and rayahs were in ignorance of the fact. The general feeling among the sultan’s subjects was one of indifference. If the conspirators failed it would go hardly with them ; if they succeeded it would go hardly with the sultan.

Only regarded the parties concerned

That business only regarded the parties concerned. Beyond a vague belief that any change could hardly be followed by a worse condition of things than had existed, there was no public sentiment on the matter. In 1203 the frequent dynastic troubles and the influences of Asia had brought the people to the same indifference to any mere change of government. The inhabitants in the besieged city knew that a few years before Isaac Angelos, who was still in prison, though his eyes had been put out, had been deposed by the present ruler, Alexis, just as the Turks of to-day know that a deposed sultan is imprisoned somewhere on the Bosphorus, but in neither case did they regard the matter as of any consequence.

A compromise was at length made

A compromise was at length made. To the original conditions for the election of an emperor an additional article was added, to the effect that the one of the two candidates who was not elected should receive the Peloponnesus and the provinces in Asia Minor still belonging to the empire. The latter part of the concession was in reality very slight, because, as events showed, the Greeks were still sufficiently strong to hold their own against the Crusaders in those places in Asia Minor where the continually advancing tide of Turkish conquest had not already overwhelmed them. Even when this arrangement had been made Dandolo appears to have anticipated opposition on the part of Boniface in case the election should go against him. Guards were placed over the Bucoleon, and everything arranged so that the city should be given over to the emperor named by the electors.

At length each party had chosen its electors

At length each party had chosen its electors. The Venetians named six nobles; the Crusaders chose six ecclesiastics. The electors named by the Venetians were Vitale Dandolo, chief of the marines with the fleet, Querini, Contarini, Nava- giero, Pantaleon Barbo and John Basegio, or, according to some writers, Michielo. Those named by the Crusaders were the bishops of Ilalberstadt, Soissons, and Treves, the Papal Legate and titular Bishop of Bethlehem, the Archbishop- Elect of Acre, and Abbot Peter of Lucedio. On the 9th of May the electors met. The place of meeting Meeting of was the beautiful Church of Our Lady the Illuminator, which was situated within the walls of Bucoror- Icon.

The twelve electors attended a solemn mass, invoked the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and then swore upon the famous relics for which the church was renowned that they would choose him whom they believed in good faith to be the man they were most in need of. and who, according to their conscience, would make the best emperor.

The palace of Bucoleon was tilled with spectators. Venetians, Crusaders, and citizens were anxious to hear the verdict. The electors, says the marshal, were placed in the rich chapel. The doors were locked from the outside, so that no one might communicate with them. The barons and the knights remained near at hand to learn what the decision should be.

The meeting was long and stormy

We know also that the meeting was long and stormy. “ Only parlay asset, an event at an arriver,” says the marshal. The result arrived at confirms the natural presumption that there were two, and probably even three, parties. The interest of the Crusaders was opposed to that of the Venetians. But the Crusaders were still, as they had always been, divided. The malcontents who had been opposed to the expedition to Constantinople distrusted and were disgusted with Boniface, and, though they were not able to have their own way, were sufficiently powerful at least to thwart his plans. It was decided

Committee to mercaptan emperor

Decision as to six Venetians and six division «f Crusaders should be elected to form a committee to mercaptan emperor. A proviso was, however, added, that all the twelve delegates should solemnly swear on holy relics that they would elect the candidate whom they believed to be the best in the interest of the world. The other provisions show that the parties were pretty equally balanced. It was agreed that if a Frank should be elected emperor the patriarch should be chosen by the Venetians, and vice versa. The emperor was to receive one fourth of all that should be captured within the city and throughout the empire, together with the two imperial palaces of Elachern and the Lion’s Mouth. The remaining three fourths were to be divided equally between the Venetians and the Crusaders.

Together for the sake of a fair division

The gold and silver, the cloth, the silk, and all the rest of the booty captured were to be abandoned to the host, and to be collected together for the sake of a fair division. When this should have been accomplished a new committee of twenty- four, chosen by the Venetians and the Crusaders, was to be named to divide the empire into fiefs, and to define the feudal service which the holders should render to the new emperor. It was further resolved that no one should lay hands on priest or monk nor plunder the churches or monasteries. The division of the spoils of the empire, including the carving out of the fiefs, was to be finished within a year, and therefore to be completed before the end of March, 1205. After the capture of the city all were to be free to leave it who wished to do so up to that date. After it, however, all who remained were to be bound to accept the suzerainty of the emperor.

Lido in a Vemcestate

On August 15,1202, Boniface arrived in Yenice. He found needs to the army, as we have already seen, on the Lido in a Vemcestate of the greatest distress. Forbidden to leave the island, plague-stricken, in need of provisions, wishing to be about their sacred business, they regarded the Venetians as the cause of all their ills. But they could hardly look upon Boniface with great affection or confidence. lie had been chosen only after the command had been refused by several others. He had seen less of the army than Baldwin of Flanders and others who had done their best to lessen the troubles of the Crusaders, and who had at least shared them.

Early in September an embassy arrived in Venice from Proposals Alexis in Verona. A meeting took place between from Alexis. the messengers 0f Alexis and the leaders of the army. The proposals of Alexis “were submitted. A reply was given that a message should be sent to Philip with Alexis, who had sent word that he was going to his uncle. The message to Philip was in these words: “If Philip will aid us to recover the land we will help Alexis to recover his own land.”1

Boniface the commander in chief

It is clear that the mass of the Crusaders knew little or nothing of this embassy or of this message. Probably Dandolo on the part of the Venetians, Boniface the commander in chief, and three or four of the leaders, including Villehardouin himself, were alone in the secret. It did not suit the conspirators yet to reveal their project, and we shall see that when it was made known to the army it was made to appear that the proposal to go to Constantinople was a quite recent suggestion, due to the necessities in which the Crusaders found themselves after wintering at Zara, instead of part of a well- planned conspiracy.

Still no definite agreement with the Crusaders and with Venice was yet arrived at. The project of Alexis had been favorably received; had been accepted in principle by the leaders. Almost immediately afterwards, and probably in September, Boniface again left the army, and remained absent until after the conquest of Zara.

The agreement between the delegates of the Crusaders

The agreement between the delegates of the Crusaders and the Venetians was ratified, as we have seen, in May, 1201. The crusading army was to arrive in Venice not later than the 24th of June, 1202. In the interval between these dates Death of many events happened. Theobald, Earl of Champagne, the young noble who had taken the Cross on the preaching of Fulk—who had probably been induced to do so partly in order to escape the vengeance of Philip of France—who had been elected leader of the expedition, and in whom all had confidence, died in May, 1201. Ilis loss was the more serious that his great wealth was no longer available for the purposes of the crusade. A payment in advance which had been promised to Yen ice could not be met.

Adopted for the conduct of the expedition

The leaders were divided as to the course to be adopted for the conduct of the expedition. None among them possessed either position or ability sufficient to indicate him as the leader. After considerable delay the leadership was offered to the Duke of Burgundy, and, on his refusal, to Count Theobald of Bar, who also refused. Then a parliament of the Crusaders met at Soissons, and Villehardouin proposed Boniface, ot^ouiface!11 Marquis of Montferrat Visit Bulgaria. The proposal was finally, though reluctantly, accepted. From the first it was evident that Boniface had not the confidence of the Crusaders, and his election was the first severe blow given to the success of the expedition.

Fulk himself affixed the cross to the shoulders of Boniface in the Church of Our Lady at Soissons, and, as the great preacher died in May, 1202, he disappears from this history.1 The appointment of Boniface was in August, 1201. Two months later he was at the court of Philip of Swabia,2 on the invitation of that sovereign. What was the object of his visit may never be accurately known; His visit to but subsequent events raise the presumption that pinup. Philip either had the design of an attack upon Constantinople before this visit, or formed such a design at, and in consequence of, his interview with Boniface.

Prisoner in Constantinople

Philip, the head of the house of the Waiblings, or, as the name was now beginning to be spelled in Ital}r, Ghibelins, had married the daughter of Isaac Angelos, the emperor of the New Eome, who was at this moment a prisoner in Constantinople, deprived of his eyesight, though allowed to go about the city of which he had once been the ruler. The son of Isaac and heir to the throne—whom we may conveniently call, after the fashion of the time, young Alexis, to distinguish him from the reigning usurper Alexis in Constantinople—had made his escape from the capital. lie left the imperial city in the spring of 1201, arrived in Sicilia, and sent messengers to Germany announcing his safe arrival.

Allowing three months for the news to reach Philip, there was ample time for the messengers of Philip to reach the Marquis of Montferrat, and for the latter to have been at the Swabian court in October. Boniface remained with Philip until January or February, 1202, and then left with an embassy for Rome, sent thither in order to induce Innocent the Third to take up the cause of young Alexis. In the spring of the year the latter received letters of recommendation to the Crusaders from Philip. It therefore appears clear that, from the beginning of 1202, the leader of the expedition had become aware of the facts connected with the claims of Alexis. Subsequent evidence indicates that even at this time he had promised Philip to aid him.

At the time appointed—namely, the 24th of June most of the leaders of the expedition had arrived, according to the arrangement, in Venice. Baldwin of Flanders, Hugo Count of St. Paul, Geoffrey of Villehardouin, perhaps Boniface, and many also from Germany, were present, while the Abbot Martin and others from that country were on their way thither.

Forms the modern kingdom of Roumania

Another di-vision of the great Turkish horde was already attacking their rear. These were called simply Comans, the second The comans. Like so many of their predecessors, they had come from Central Asia by the great tract of country between Russia and the Black Sea. Their struggle was at first confined to the territory which forms the modern kingdom of Roumania. They are described, like other Turks, as of nomadic habits, armed with bows and arrows, lances and shields, and drinking mares’ milk. In 1200, while the empire was troubled with a host of other enemies, the Comans ravaged Thrace, but were compelled to withdraw to meet an attack on their rear by the Russians. Yet again they returned with the Wallaclis in 1201.

Another race, with more vitality than most of those I have mentioned, gave great trouble to the empire, and assisted largely in weakening it. These were the Waiiachs. Whether they were of Slavic origin or of Gaelic or Welsh origin, whether they were the aboriginal inhabitants of the country who had come under the influence of the elder Rome, and had acquired so many Latin words as to overlay their language and to retain little more than the grammatical forms and mould of their own language, or whether they were the descendants of the Latin colonists of Dacia with a large mixture of other peoples, are all questions which have been much controverted.

It is remarkable that while no people living on the south of the Balkans appear to be mentioned as Wallaclis until the tenth century, when Anna Comnena mentions The Waiiachs a village called Ezeban, near Mount Kissavo, occu- mMacedonia. pje(j py them, almost suddenly we hear of them as a great nation to the south of the Balkans. They spoke a language which differed little from Latin. Thessaly during the twelfth century is usually called Great Wallachia.

French chroniclers

The French chroniclers speak of it as Blaqxde la Grant, In this they followed the Byzantine writers. Besides the Waiiachs in Thessaly, whose descendants are now called Ivutzo-Wallachs, there were the Waiiachs in Dacia, the ancestors of the present Roumanians, and Mavro-Wallachs in Dalmatia. Indeed, according to the Hungarian and Byzantine writers, there were during the twelfth century a series of Wallachian peoples, extending from the Thesis to the Dniester. Whether the Waiiachs in Thessaly were relations of the Wabash’s to the north of the Danube may be doubted. The word Wallach is used by the Byzantine writers as equivalent to shepherd, and it may be that the common use of a dialect of Latin by all the Waiiachs is the only bond of union among the peoples bearing that name.

Capital brought commerce with it much of the liberality

The great commerce which entered the capital brought commerce with it much of the liberality which is due to the intercourse with foreign nations. Arab traders practice. were allowed to live within the city, and foreigners from the West were scandalized to see that the Saracens were permitted to build a new mosque and to practice in a Christian city the rites of Mahometanism. “It would have been even right to have razed the city to the ground,” says a chronicler of the Latin conquest, “for, if we believe report, it was polluted by new mosques, which its perfidious emperor allowed to be built that he might strengthen the league with the Turks.”

Manuel wished to remove an anathema from the catechism against the Mahometan conception of God.3 Italian merchants, Armenians, Chaldeans, and others not in union with the Orthodox Church were yet allowed the exercise of their religion. Hot only had the Italian colonists their own churches, but the chief of their communities had official seats allotted to them in the Great Church. Even the Jews, who have always in the East been the object of the aversion of the Orthodox Christians, were on the whole fairly well treated.

When we remember that we are dealing with the period of the massacre of Jews in York, Lincoln, and elsewhere in England, it is satisfactory to know that Benjamin of Tudela finds, among the greatest hardships his countrymen had to bear, that they were not allowed to ride on horseback, and that they were defiled, according to their law, because the tanners who lived near their quarters were permitted to pour out their polluted water in the streets. This writer has to admit that the Jews were comfortably off, that many were manufacturers, many merchants, and several extremely rich.

Flowed into the capital

In addition to the riches which had flowed into the capital from the fact that it was the seat of government and the greatest emporium of trade, Constantinople had, in the twelfth city was century, amassed wealth because during many centuries it had been the treasure-house of the lower East* empire. Men who had gathered wealth elsewhere flocked to Constantinople to spend, to invest, or to hoard it.

Offer to God cross for cross

The Crusader affixed the cross to his shoulder in order that he might “ offer to God cross for cross, passion for passion, and that by mortifying his desires and making himself like unto Christ he might share with him in the resurrection.” To us Jerusalem is an ancient city with more or less sacred or archaeological associations, to be reached easily by steam from Marseilles, and shortly by rail from Jaffa. To the Christian of the twelfth century it was very far distant, the marvel of the earth, and so filled with relics and other memorials of the Divine Life, that it was readily confounded with the heavenly Jerusalem. The crusades, in their practical effect, helped the young nations of the West to shake off their provinciality, to

absorb a part of the civilization of the East, and to think of something better than family or feudal quarrels.

Over by the King of Righteousness

They prevented the civilization of the West from becoming crystallized. They kept alive the great ideal of a kingdom presided over by the King of Righteousness, the Prince of Peace, under whose rule the continual state of warfare, the bloodshed, the treachery, the cruelty, that the Crusaders found among their own people, as among all half-civilized races, should cease. They breathed throughout the Western nations the breath of a common life, furnished them with a high ideal, and gave a great impetus to poetry in Western literature.

As we reach the end of the twelfth century we come to the end of this noble dream. The nations of the West were preparing to reap the harvest of results which had sprung from their efforts, by themselves developing national life, national art, and national literature. The crusading spirit, though it still existed, had lost much of its freshness; and each successive effort made by the forces of Christendom upon the Saracens was made with less fervor, less religions spirit, and less spontaneity than the effort which had preceded it.

During the crusades the men of the West were continually Thecrn«ad brought into contact with the inhabitants of the errs and the New Rome, and with other subjects of the Bvzantine emperor.

Capital brought commerce with it much of the liberality

The great commerce which entered the capital brought commerce with it much of the liberality which is due to the intercourse with foreign nations. Arab traders practice. were allowed to live within the city, and foreigners from the West were scandalized to see that the Saracens were permitted to build a new mosque and to practice in a Christian city the rites of Mahometanism. “It would have been even right to have razed the city to the ground,” says a chronicler of the Latin conquest, “for, if we believe report, it was polluted by new mosques, which its perfidious emperor allowed to be built that he might strengthen the league with the Turks.”

Manuel wished to remove an anathema from the catechism against the Mahometan conception of God.3 Italian merchants, Armenians, Chaldeans, and others not in union with the Orthodox Church were yet allowed the exercise of their religion. Hot only had the Italian colonists their own churches, but the chief of their communities had official seats allotted to them in the Great Church. Even the Jews, who have always in the East been the object of the aversion of the Orthodox Christians, were on the whole fairly well treated.

When we remember that we are dealing with the period of the massacre of Jews in York, Lincoln, and elsewhere in England, it is satisfactory to know that Benjamin of Tudela finds, among the greatest hardships his countrymen had to bear, that they were not allowed to ride on horseback, and that they were defiled, according to their law, because the tanners who lived near their quarters were permitted to pour out their polluted water in the streets. This writer has to admit that the Jews were comfortably off, that many were manufacturers, many merchants, and several extremely rich.

Flowed into the capital

In addition to the riches which had flowed into the capital from the fact that it was the seat of government and the greatest emporium of trade, Constantinople had, in the twelfth city was century, amassed wealth because during many centuries it had been the treasure-house of the lower East* empire. Men who had gathered wealth elsewhere flocked to Constantinople to spend, to invest, or to hoard it.

The rights conferred on ambassadors

In Turkey also all the rights of jurisdiction enjoyed by foreigners are grouped round and closely connected with the rights conferred on ambassadors. But it is to be noted that in Constantinople the existing system is the direct lineal representative in unbroken succession of a wider exterritoriality which existed during the middle ages and had been continued from Homan times.

Englishmen residing in France or other European states are properly left to seek redress in the courts of the country where they arc dwelling. It is worth remembering, however, that Englishmen have had to fall back upon the early type of a colony in a strange country in several instances. The factories of India, of Lisbon, and of St. Petersburg during the last century, and the consular courts of China and Japan, all owed their judicial system to a conception of law resembling that which led to the establishment of the capitulations in Constantinople, and all ultimately develop the legal fiction that the territory in the foreign country is a portion of the empire from whose shores they have been planted.

Foreigners to Mahometans

I have said that the idea in Constantinople was that foreigners should not be entitled to the privileges of the citizen, but should be allowed the advantages of their own laws. Mahometans have never advanced sufficiently far to outgrow this conception. All Christians are, in a sense, foreigners to Mahometans, and cannot have the advantages of Moslem law. Still, neither in the case of the foreign colonies under the Byzantine empire, nor in those which were found by the Turks, nor in those actually existing in Constantinople, was there any considerable sense of hardship. The colonists had their own predilections in favor of their own laws. The native was equally convinced that his system was the best.

I repeat that there has existed no period in the history of They are a Constantinople in which foreigners have not the advantages, and been subject to the disabilities, of exterritoriality. The existing system of capitulations is a survival rather than, as it is generally represented, a new invention specially adapted to Turkey.

Half-civilized state on the Volga

A new detachment of Bulgarians in the seventh century sec a appeared and took possession of the delta of the tin of Buiga- Danube, pushing on as far as Varna. They came from Black Bulgaria, a half-civilized state on the Volga, which disappeared in the thirteenth century during the Mongol invasion. They were probably a Uralian people allied to the Finns.

On their re-entry into the peninsula they had to contend with the Slav population between the Danube and the Balkans, and soon became firmly established in the country they have ever since inhabited. The country north of the Danube, now called Eoumania, and formed out of Wallachia and Moldavia, was often called Bulgaria by the Byzantine writers. There is, however, no reason to believe that the Bulgarians ever, in any considerable numbers, occupied it. Their extension was rather southward and westward at the expense of the Slavs, the Greeks, and other inhabitants of the empire. At the opening of the ninth century military colonies had been established along the -whole length of the Balkans on the Bulgarian frontier.

Continual struggle against the Bulgarians

During that century the empire was engaged in a continual struggle against the Bulgarians, but, while any great advance southward was prevented, they pushed across the peninsula as far as Durazzo. When they had thus won their position they had not yet become Slavicized, though Slavic names begin to appear at a very early period, and ultimately their own language was entirely forgotten. During the tenth century they were attacked on all sides, but held their own. In the eleventh century the Byzantine emperors tried something like a policy of extermination, and Basil the Bulgaroctone, or Bulgarian slayer, commenced the execution of this policy by making a broad belt of waste country across the peninsula to Durazzo. In the twelfth century we find the Bulgarians settled in isolated colonies in the neighborhood of the capital itself, just as they are to-day.

In like manner there were Slav colonies in various parts of the southern portion of the peninsula holidays bulgaria. In the neighborhood of Mount Olympus, which is now principally occupied by Wallachians, there was also a Slav people. Indeed, the peninsula was dotted over with small settlements of the races which had invaded the empire. At one time the interior of the Balkan peninsula was constantly spoken of as Slavinia. The Bulgarians, however, were a numerous and powerful people, the boundaries of whose territory, though continually shift-ing, -were always wide; and, up to the moment of the Latin conquest, were always a source of weakness to the empire.

North of the Black Sea

Another stream of people which had passed into the empire The Patching the broad tract to the north of the Black Sea naive. were the Patchinaks. Like the Huns, they, too, were of Turkish origin. They had occupied Wallachia and Moldavia, which for centuries was the battle-ground of the races coming from Asia, of those who had already arrived, and of the empire.

They had on one side of them the Huns or Magyars from whom they had conquered their territory, while on the other they were pressed by a new division of Turkish origin, namely, the Uzes. The latter came in such numbers that, in the eleventh century, the Patchinaks were defeated, and had to seek refuge in the empire. Protection was afforded them, but they were always unruly subjects. Some of them had embraced Mahometanism, while others were pagans; all were barbarian nomads.

Towards the end of the same century the Uzes swept over Moldavia and Wallachia, crossed the Danube, and devastated the country as far south as Macedonia. The imperial troops, with the aid of the Bulgarians and the newly protected Patchinaks, succeeded in driving them across the Danube. Even in this ease, however, permission was given to some of them to establish settlements in Macedonia.

As we approach 1200 we find the Patchinaks a constant source of trouble. In 1148 a division of them crossed the Danube and invaded the empire. Under the vigorous rule of Manuel they were driven back, but they returned again and again, and in 1186 and 1187 united themselves with the Bulgarians to pillage Thrace. Their hostilities were encouraged during the last years of the empire, when the dynastic struggles helped to weaken it. In 1200 they laid waste Macedonia. Their race, however, was almost run.

Every Christian or other non-Mussulman community shall be bound

Every Christian or other non-Mussulman community shall be bound, within a fixed period, and with the concurrence of a commission composed, ad hoc, of members of its own body, to proceed, with my high approbation and under the inspection of my Sublime Porte, to examine into its actual immunities and privileges, and to discuss and submit to iny Sublime Porte the reforms required by the progress of civilization and of the age. The powers conceded to the Christian Patriarchs and Bishops by the Sultan Mahomet II. and his successors shall be made to harmonize with the new position which my generous and beneficent intentions insure to these communities.

The principle of nominating the Patriarchs for life, after the revision of the rules of election now in force, shall be exactly carried out, conformably to the tenor of their firmans of investiture.

The Patriarchs, Metropolitans, Archbishops, Bishops, and Eabbins shall take an oath on their entrance into office, according to a form agreed upon in common by my Sublime Porte and the spiritual heads of the different religious communities. The ecclesiastical dues, of whatever sort or nature they be, shall be abolished, and replaced by fixed revenues for the Patriarchs and heads of communities, and by the allocation of allowances and salaries equitably proportioned to the importance of the rank and the dignity of the different members of the clergy.

Different Christian ecclesiastics shall remain intact

The property, real or personal, of the different Christian ecclesiastics shall remain intact; the temporal administration of the Christian or other non- Mussulman communities shall, however, be placed under the safeguard of an assembly to be chosen from among the members, both ecclesiastics and laymen, of the said communities.

In the towns, small boroughs, and villages, where the whole population is of the same religion, no obstacle shall be offered to the repair, according to their original plan, of buildings set apart for religious worship, for schools, for hospitals, and for cemeteries.

The plans of these different buildings, in case of their new erection, must, after having been approved by the Patriarchs or Heads of communities, be submitted to my Sublime Porte, which will approve of them by my Imperial order, or make known its observation upon them within a certain time.

Each sect, in localities where there are no other religious denominations, shall be free from every species of restraint as regards the public exercise of its religion.

Asking God to bless each one with the blessing most needed

In the evening he joined the family in their worship, asking them to sing his favorite hymn, “ Come to Jesus, just now,” which he had been delighted to hear and to sing every day for years. In his prayer he mentioned every one of his children by name, asking God to bless each one with the blessing most needed. He prayed for his “ Eastern and Western” friends, that God would “ remember them all, and reward them for all their love and kindness.” He listened then to the reading of a sermon on the prophecies, in which he was greatly interested; and, after some social conversation, retired, apparently as well as usual, bidding each one of the family a cheerful “ Good-night.”

About midnight he had a violent attack, apparently of a bilious character, attended with difficulty in breathing. He suffered much during the night, but the next morning he rose, dressed himself as usual, though he did not leave his room. All day he was in much bodily distress. He repeatedly said, “ I never was so ill in all my life before.” In the afternoon a birth-day letter came from his daughter Isabella, which, at his request, was read to him a second time.

An expression in the letter of thankfulness that his life had been spared so long to his children, and the wish that he might yet have many happy years to come, called forth a smile of pleasure in the midst of his distress. In the course of the day he received a note with a gift from a beloved friend in Newbury port, Mass. The note was dated on his birth-day, February 14 (St. Valentine’s day). He dictated a few words of reply, in his own playful style, saying, he had scarcely expected to receive a valentine, but as it was sent on the seventy-fifth anniversary of his entrance into the world, he should receive it as a birth-day gift; and added, that the day had been so peaceful and happy, it was with him “ one continued psalm of thanksgiving.”

Sunday school in the evening

About five o’clock in the afternoon he was undressed, and lay upon a couch, quite free from pain. He sent word to one of the members of the church that he should not be able to attend the meeting of the teachers of the Sunday school in the evening, and asked them to remember him in their prayers. He then fell asleep; but presently awoke in a restless state, and exclaimed, “ I am so tired.” In a few minutes it was evident that his hour for entering into eternal rest had come; and, before the family could all be gathered around his couch, he had gone up to continue the thanksgiving song, with the multitude around the throne, “ redeemed out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”

Captain Watson is one of the kindest of men

We have excellent accommodations on board the bark “ Sultana.” Captain Watson is one of the kindest of men. Our passage has been longer than we hoped it would be, forty- five days to Malta; but we have had for the most part such gentle breezes and so smooth a sea that 1 have enjoyed the voyage more than I ever did any preceding one. Mrs. Goodcll has suffered a good deal, especially from the long confinement. Her health is, I think, improved from this visit to America, but it cannot reasonably be expected that she will ever fully recover from the shock her constitution has received. The only wonder is, that she has survived all that she has been called to pass through.

For the various stores we found on board, expressly for the use of the missionaries, but which we shared with the other passengers, we are, I presume, indebted to yourself and your associates; and for this and every other act of your and their kindness, — the interest manifested in our welfare from first to last,—both you and they will accept our sincere thanks. Stores of grace and patience you did not provide for us, nor could you do it; nor did we attempt to make any such provision for ourselves. We have been taught by past experience that all such stores, like the manna laid up by the unbelieving Israelites for the morrow, are perfectly worthless, and that it is infinitely better to get these things fresh from day to day, according to our necessities. And since we can have them at any moment, fresh from heaven, whatever grace we need and will accept, why should we be burdened with a great stock of that which cannot be kept from spoiling, and which can be used only at the very time it is obtained!

No responsibility

Our past experience has also taught us that we need take no responsibility upon us in regard to the regulation of the wind, but that we may safely leave the whole management of this to Him whose province it is, and whose power and wisdom and goodness are fully adequate. So here we are at Malta, after a passage of forty-five days; and our voyage was no less prosperous, and certainly much more pleasant, than if we had been quarrelling the whole way with the wind. How much trouble we all might save ourselves by not meddling with any thing beyond our province.

Your brother in the Lord,

He returned to Turkey with a deep impression that he had but a short work before him, and that what he had to do for his Master must be done quickly. This, indeed, had been his abiding feeling during all the years that he had spent in the mission tour packages bulgaria, owing to his life-long feebleness of body; but the feeling was intensified as he went back to resume his former work. To a friend, who expressed a desire to hear from him by letter more frequently, he wrote not long after his return: —

“ All my friends in Turkey, and I suppose, too, in America, complain of my neglect in writing to them. But the fact is, all my strength and all my time are given to my missionary work, and every day I become so exhausted with my labors that I am hardly able at the close to write even a short note. My habitual feeling is that my time is short; that I have returned here not to live long, but to die soon; and that if I would do any thing more for Christ and the souls of men, I have no time to lose. And this feeling, being, as it is, altogether suitable and proper, I would rather cultivate than check”

Honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity

The year after Mr. Goodell’s return, the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him, both by Rutgers College, New Jersey, and Hamilton College, New York. Of the former the Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen was at that time President, who was also President of the American Hoard, and thus had abundant occasion to know on whom the degree was conferred. It was announced at both institutions the same day, July 26, 1854. In acknowledgment of the honor, he wrote to the Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Hamilton College, expressing a very sensible view of a distinction which he had never sought or desired: —

“ The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, which they were pleased to confer upon me, I would regard in the same light in which they intended it, viz., as a mark of honor. And, although it is an honor, to which in my own consciousness I have no claim, and which perhaps it would be better should not be bestowed at all in any case, yet to decline it would only be to bring myself into unnecessary notoriety, and to show a disrespect to those venerable men whom I ought and would wish to honor.”

Sir Henry Bulwer

So II. E. Sir Henry Bulwer, in one of his most important communications to us, which was intended for effect in England, and was published there, places us in altogether a false position, and shows us in a most unfavorable light. Had we entertained the views which he ascribes to us, or rather assumes that we entertain, his reasonings and his advice would have been most excellent; but as such views and such conduct are as abhorrent to our own minds as they are to his, the communication does us great injustice, for the English government and all right-minded Englishmen must feel that we, as thus represented, are most unreasonable, and need to be held in with bit and bridle.

But I fear I am taxing your Lordship’s time and patience; I fear, too, I may not have touched upon those points you could have desired me to speak. I hope, however, the few scattered things I have said may serve as hints to enable you the better to understand our present position.

But let me not close without assuring your Lordship that we every day see reason to bless God that lie sent you to this country, and used you as an important instrument of great and permanent good to all the nationalities of Turkey. May your declining years be years of great peace and happiness! May your own heart repose conlidence and liud comfort in those everlasting truths which now, through your instrumentality, the mingled people of these countries are permitted to read and believe and enjoy.

Mrs. Goodell unites in very kind regards for Lady Red- cliffe. And may I ask your Lordship to inform Miss Canning that I retain very grateful recollections of her having once piloted me with perfect safety through all the straits and narrows and shoals of the Prayer-book.

I have the honor to be, yours most truly and faithfully,

W. GOODELL.

The reply of Lord Stratford, though carefully and properly guarded with reference to the relations of the governments, and especially in regard to the British representative at Constantinople, expressed the deep interest he had always felt in the cause in which the American missionaries were engaged, and renewed the assurances of his personal friendship: —

UPLEATIIAM, Oct. 12, 18G4.

Interesting enclosure

MY DEAR AND REVEREND SIR, — The advantage of hearing from you was very acceptable to me, notwithstanding the painful topics to which your letter and its interesting enclosure necessarily referred. You have always held a high place in my esteem, and latterly in my affection also. It is, therefore, natural that I should derive pleasure from any renewal, even at this distance, of our former more frequent communications. I could only wish that it were in my power to afford you, under present circumstances, that support which you received from me in other times, and which you and your fellow-laborers deserve so well at my hands.

Permitted to be present on every grand occasion or great celebration

But time changed all things, and I must not forget that you are no longer in Fera, but have removed to another country. 1 wonder whether, after our removal to a better country, even an heavenly, we shall be able or be permitted to be present on every grand occasion or great celebration that takes place among the glorified ones above. I know of two bright spirits who had to deny themselves and forego the pleasure of being present on one of the grandest occasions it is possible to conceive. When the Son of God “ went up where He was before,” and all heaven poured forth to do Him honor, and the high command was given, “ Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in,” two of the blessed angels could not be present. They could not delay a moment to view the pageant, but must hasten down to a little mountain near Jerusalem, in order to give some directions to eleven poor fishermen. And how many others were sent off in other directions to other worlds we know not. But was it no self-denial in them to be absent from this most blessed occasion?

Let us, then, learn to exercise self-denial here, that it may not seem hard to us there. Let us learn to exercise faith, confidence, and a firm trust in God here, for we shall have to confide in Him for ever.

Always your brother,

W. GOODELL.

To another friend in this country, with whom he had long been in correspondence, he wrote: —

Occupy hereafter

“I hope that, in some of the many mansions we may occupy hereafter, we shall be much nearer to each other’s habitations than we now are, and that our good Newbury- port friends will be quite in our neighborhood. What blessed introductions await us! And as to our location, and the location of our friends, as to the particular mansions assigned to us or to them, I presume we shall be perfectly satisfied, not having the slightest change to suggest. Well, let us be satisfied with those we now occupy, for they were assigned to us by the same loving Father.”

Marvelous kindness in this strong city

And thus has the Lord “ not once nor twice,” “ shown us His marvelous kindness in this strong city,” and given us fresh occasions of encouragement to place all confidence in His power and wisdom, His goodness and faithfulness. And, though we have always “ feared as we entered into the dark cloud,” yet have we, I trust, learned in some measure the important lesson, that there is after all “no one there save Jesus only; ” and that His hand, and His alone, is to be seen and felt and acknowledged everywhere.

Prevailing superstitions and corruptions

Ten years ago, “the strong man armed kept his palace and goods in peace,” and no one dared lisp a syllable against the prevailing superstitions and corruptions of the times. “ But a stronger than he has come,” and broken in upon this death-like quiet, and “ set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother,” in all parts of the city. An individual, who came to us some ten years ago for the express purpose of conversing on the great things of salvation and eternal life, and who spoke freely all that was in his heart, said, on passing out of our door, “ On quitting your house, I must close my lips, and not suffer a word on these subjects to escape them.” But now the whole city is filled with these new doctrines; and they are publicly discussed in the khans and coffee-houses, and at all the chief places of concourse.

Much of the time, indeed, we have ourselves been scarcely able to walk round this great “ valley of dry bones ” in an open and public manner, or to prophesy to them except in a whisper, or to only one at a time; and yet, from our retired corners we have heard “ a noise and a shaking ” among these “dry bones; ” and, in regard to not a few of them, we have the most consoling evidence that “ the Spirit of life from God has entered into them.” The voice of the Son of God has broken the slumbers of death, and they live. They have been breathed upon by the Holy Spirit, and they have “ become living souls.”

History of nations more remarkable than these attempts

There are few events in the history of nations more remarkable than these attempts at reform, and these constitutional guarantees, emanating not from the demands of the people, but from the throne of one of the most despotic governments that has ever existed, and steadily carried forward in opposition to the wishes of the official force of the empire. Europe, it is true, demanded concessions in favor of freedom, especially of religious freedom, but not in the precise form in which they were first made; and one cannot fail to recognize a higher than any human power in securing guarantees so opposed to the genius of Islam and to all the traditions of the empire.

Mr. Goodell’s mission at Constantinople was specially to the Armenians, but he had more or less intercourse with those of all nationalities. In his journal he has the following account of a movement among the Jews, and of an interview with one who came to tell him that he had found the Messiah, the one “of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write:” —

Among the Jews of this capital

“ February 8, 1840. There is at present some stir among the Jews of this capital. Their chief rabbies had led them to expect that, according to their books, the Messiah must absolutely appear some time during the present year; but several months of their year are already gone, and still there are no signs of His coming. A learned rabbi, who assisted Mr. Schaufller in his translation of the Scriptures, occasionally visits me, and almost the first, sometimes the very first question I always ask him, as he enters the door, is, ‘ Has He come? ’ 6Not yet,’ has always been his reply, till his last visit a few days ago, when, laying his hand on his heart, he said in a low and solemn tone, i If you ask me, I say He has come; and if you will show me a safe place, I will bring you ten thousand Jews to-morrow, who will make the same confession.’

Portions of the translation

These portions of the translation would now be laid aside till near the time when they would be wanted for the press at Smyrna, — sometimes a year, and generally several months. When called for at Smyrna, Mr. Panayotes would take and read them over carefully, to notice any error in orthography or grammar or punctuation, or any thing that appeared not idiomatic in the language; and No. 2 are some of the papers, showing the changes he made. These papers and the manu-script were then given to me, and I read it over for the same purpose; and you have the result in No. 3, which we of course again examined together. Very few, however, of Nos. 2 and 3 remain, as I had no motive in preserving them.

In translating the New Testament into this language several years ago, I had the help of Bishop Dionysius. It was new work for us both; and, when he began to learn from me the peculiar shape of the Greek, he began to try to conform his Turkish to the Greek idiom, as he said the Ancient Armenian was thus conformed; and, being absent as he was from the people who would read the work, this error increased upon him from day to day. My present translator has been more exposed to the same error, than to any other, as I presume every young and conscientious translator of the Bible would be. But I have had a special eye upon it, and have kept asking, “ Is this Turkish? Is it Turkish or Hebrew? ”

Individuals of different standing

Moreover, we are now among the people for whom the work is intended, and some parts of it have been put into the hands of various individuals of different standing in society, to ascertain whether the style would be comprehended. Some parts, also, have been read by the best masters here, and a due regard paid to their criticisms. I say a due regard, for the style of the best masters would in general be above the comprehension of the common people. Of the general acceptableness in this respect of those portions of the work which have been put in circulation among the people I need not now speak, as some of the facts have already been communicated to the Bible Society.

Imperfections of mortality.

Our dear sister. We are waiting with impatience the return of the courier; but we suppose we have also offered our last prayers for her, and that she is now free from all the imperfections of mortality. In addition to the exposure of all the others, my own family are also compromised, as I received several letters from brother Dwight without fumigating them, not having any suspicion at first of its being the plague. The Farmans were also down on a visit to San Stephano after Mrs. Dwight and John were attacked. So there is not a missionary here, not even the travellers, who may not be considered as compromised fully. How many of us, or who of us, may be alive after another week no man can tell! But you will lift up your heart in prayer to God for the remnant that may be left.

Your Brother,

W. GOODELL.

Some extracts from his journal, written during the preva-lence of the disease, show that he was walking in the midst of death: —

“ May 20, 1837. Heard to-day of the death of an interesting young man, Tchelebi Diamond, from Broosa. He was a friend of our missionary brethren and sisters there. They had conversed with him, read the Scriptures with him, prayed with him, wept over him, and sometimes thought him not far from the kingdom of God. He brought from Broosa a parcel and a letter for me, which, on his arrival here, he sent to me, with the message that he was too ill to call himself.

Thousand exposures which never come to our knowledge

The next day he died. It was the plague. As I took the parcel and the letter without fumigating them, I was of course compromised. Indeed, in one way and another we are often much exposed. This is the second with me within a few days, to say nothing of the thousand exposures which never come to our knowledge. Thus by an unseen hand we are preserved from dangers seen and unseen. Some risks seem unavoidable, if we would not shut ourselves up entirely. Our Greek girls’ school is now stopped on account of the whole school having been most fully compromised by a case of plague in the adjoining house, where several of the girls of the school were lodging.

“July 21. I read the burial-service at the grave of the only son of Sir P. Malcolm, who died of the plague at Mr. Cartwright’s, the English consul-general. He was on his way from India to England, and arrived sick from Trebizond on the 16th inst. Mr. Cartwright’s house adjoins my own, and the unfortunate gentleman occupied a room which corners on our own bedchamber. We have placed chlorine in all the rooms that were particularly exposed; but we are certainly ‘ in deaths oft,’ and are made to feel that, i except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.’

Notwithstanding all the books

The following passage occurs in his journal: —

“ We feel it to be an occasion for devout thankfulness that we have never been drawn aside from our work to engage in any controversy with the Greeks. Notwithstanding all the books that have been published against us and our operations, we have never written one syllable or said one word in reply. We have had enough else to do; and we have kept about our own work as though nothing had been said or written against us, leaving them to light on alone, ‘ as one that beat- eth the air.’ ”

So clear was his conviction of the truth that Christ’s kingdom is not of this world, and that it is not to be advanced by worldly authority and power, that he was exceedingly averse to obtaining firmans for carrying on any missionary operations, or seeking official interference and protection from the government whenever it could be avoided. To one of the missionaries at Smyrna, who had urgently requested his influence with Commodore Porter, as United States Charge d’affaires, to obtain some official protection of the schools, he counselled quiet prosecution of the work, without creating disturbance or invoking aid from any civil power, and especially a foreign power: —

January 24, 1834. The fact is, our strength consists in being as quiet as possible. The less that is said and known about our operations so much the better. A great deal can be done in a silent, harmless, inoffensive way in these countries, but nothing in a storm. I do deprecate a storm far more than any of our consuls or worldly wise men do. If Mr. 0. talks to you of prudence, you may go all lengths with him, and a great deal further, unless he is different from any consul I have ever seen.

Be frank with him, and ask his advice whenever you know it cannot but be exactly in accordance with your own views; ask it, too, whenever you are in any real doubt as to our relations with the Porte, &c. We did not come here to quarrel with governors and pashas, nor with patriarchs and bishops. And, as to the Catholics, pray let them entirely alone, and neither curse them at all nor bless them at all.”

To another missionary at Smyrna, who had asked the same kind of interference, he wrote: —

“ From a remark in Mr. T.’s letter, I find you are still expecting I should endeavor to obtain a firman for the restoration of your Turkish schools, and wondering why I should have been so long silent on the subject. I had in numerous letters expressed my views and feelings so very fully on this whole subject, in the case of Bishop Dionysius, that I supposed all the brethren at Smyrna perfectly understood that the thing was, in our view, impracticable.

Reis Effendi the ambassadors

“ Pray, how is such a firman to be obtained? Avho shall apply for it? No ambassador can do it officially, without transcending the powers vested in him. And to urge him to do it is to urge him to do what is not his duty, what is a violation of the treaty, and what, of course, his own government will not bear him out in doing. Ought he, then, to do it? I answer unhesitatingly, he ought not. Ilis official conduct ought to be strictly conformed to the treaty, as it is mutually understood by the parties. If the treaty be defective, that is no concern of his, except with his own government at home; all he can do is to represent its defects to them, and in the mean time to abide by the existing one till his government can or will form a new and better one with the Porte. Should he happen to be on familiar terms with any distinguished Turks, he can, of course, as a private individual From Alican and Dilucu border gates to Karakale, ask and obtain favors of them, such as they are able to grant. But firmans are official documents; they proceed from the Reis Effendi, and bear the signature of the Sultan; and, besides, with the Reis Effendi the ambassadors are seldom on terms of intimacy.

Indeed, they seldom have much intercourse with any of the high officers of government, except what is strictly of a diplomatic or official character. In this character they are not in general backward; but, on the contrary, are forward. This is especially true of all consuls, so far as I have known them. At Beyrout they were petty kings; they were disposed to go far beyond what existing treaties would allow, or their own governments at home would sanction, and instead of a spur they rather needed a curb. Ought they, then, to be urged and goaded and fretted, when their own inclination already leads them to interfere beyond what existing treaties give them any right to do? Manifestly they ought not.

Frank burying ground

“ BUYUK-DERE, Aug. 12, 1831.

“ About nine o’clock in the morning of the 2d inst., when the alarm of fire was first given, I saw the smoke ascending, and immediately repaired to the spot. It was about a mile from my house, and nearly in the direction of the Frank burying-ground. As I approached, the scene became more terrific, — men and boys running; children crying; women screaming, or beating their bosoms, and nearly fainting; some carrying their babes or infirm relatives; others dragging a part of their clothes and furniture; some making a feeble effort to check the progress of the fire; and a multitude of others, who felt themselves secure, looking on as mere idle spectators.

Armenian women to extinguish

I was not at all aware of the danger which those around me seemed to apprehend, and did what I could to calm their rears and inspire confidence. For near two hours I labored in a large garden, assisting some Armenian women to extinguish the fire, with which their beds and clothes were still smoking. In the mean time, the wind very considerably freshened, and the fire, which it appeared to me might easily have been suppressed at first, began to spread rapidly, and to defy all attempts to arrest its progress. Fire-engines had arrived, and were arriving, but the element, like a wild beast that had escaped from the hand of its keeper, was raging too violently, and had acquired too much power, to be subdued.

“ I must, I think, have made a mistake as to the real situation of my house, or as to the real direction the fire was taking, for I had not the least idea that my own neighborhood would be disturbed. The owner of my house, also, whom I met in the vicinity of the fire, had the same views in regard to the part of the town likely to be affected. I concluded, however, to go home and rest, and after a while return again to afford any assistance in my power.

On the way I met Mr. Lazarides, who has the charge of the Depot of Scriptures at Galata, and who had also the super intendence of a school at Pera on the Lancasterian system, which he had been encouraged to establish by Messrs. Brewer, Barker, and others at Smyrna. He, with many others, was wringing his hands and weeping, and anxiously asked what he should do. I assured him that I fully believed he was in no danger; but, if he thought otherwise, he had better send the slates, books, &c., of the school, and whatever else he pleased, to my house, where they would certainly be safe.

The spirit of conquest and of religious exclusiveness

That a rule carried on in the spirit of conquest and of religious exclusiveness should have involved intolerable treatment of the subject peoples is only what might be expected, notwithstanding occasional good intentions. And that peoples thus treated, and persistently reminded of their subjugation and inferior legal standing should never abandon the hope of deliverance, and should even endeavour to create opportunities to achieve emancipation is, likewise, only what might be expected. Whether the subject peoples could have already gained their liberty, if they had been united, is a question open to debate.

But what is certain is that their rivalries, their dissensions, and their natural but incompatible expectations, have retarded the realisation of their ambitions. To a large extent, this is their misfortune ; the fate imposed upon them by their circumstances. Look, for example, at the situation in the European portion of the Empire. How can any one expect Roumanians, Servians, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Albanians to forget their historical antecedents, their race distinctions, and their associations with different parts of the country, in order to become one nationality? How can they be persuaded to combine in a common effort to become free, while the points in dispute between themselves remain unsettled? The question is rendered yet more difficult when these peoples, as is often the case, dwell side by side in the same section of the country.

Impartial mind finds hard to unravel

Here is a tangle of claims which an impartial mind finds hard to unravel, and feels tempted to relegate to the sword that cuts the Gordian knot The fundamental difficulty that hinders the solution of what is known as “ the Eastern Question ” is the absence of a large homogeneous population within the bounds of the Empire, to which the Government of the country can be transferred from the hands of the present ruling race.

No single people, under Ottoman rule, can replace the Turk in the mastership of the whole Empire. It is a property that must be divided, and the division of the inheritance, if it is to be carried out in the spirit of justice and common sense and not of partisanship, is a matter of extreme perplexity. Hence the occasion for the interference of the Great Powers of Europe, sometimes to assist the weak, sometimes to repress risings, sometimes to limit the area of disturbance, sometimes to extort concessions, sometimes to appropriate a portion of the spoils, always to guard their own interests, real or artificial.

Flight yelping with imaginary pain

Sometimes even the gesture of stooping to pick up a stone will suffice to put the enemy to flight, yelping with imaginary pain. In view of this state of things among the dogs of the city, a Turk, wishing to say that a certain person is not of his “ sort,” puts the case in the clearest and most scathing light by the simple remark, “ He is not a dog of my quarter.” The dogs are treated very kindly by the Moslem population. Large companies of them encamp near barracks and guard-houses, certain to find friends among the soldiers, and to share their rations.

They will gather about the shop of a baker or of a butcher, or wander like beggars from one such place of entertainment to another in their district, sure they will not be left to starve. There is a racy Turkish proverb based upon this habit of dogs to sit in a row before a butcher’s shop, expecting scraps of meat. It is pointed against idlers who are waiting for something to turn up, and runs to the following effect, “ If looking on were enough to get on, dogs would become butchers.” It is not rare to see Turks purchasing a loaf and distributing it among a company of dogs. Sometimes a dog will take his stand near a baker’s shop, and at your approach will place himself at your feet, and with beseeching eyes appeal to your generosity to buy him some bread, wagging his tail in gratitude for the anticipated favour.

There are dogs who come to an understanding with a family of their acquaintance as to the most convenient time to call for food, and who, at the appointed hour, tap at the door of their host’s house for the promised meal It is common to see at the door of a Turkish house an earthen jar, or an old petroleum can, half sunk in the ground, and kept filled with water for the dogs; and there is a low drinking-trough, for the benefit of the poor creatures, at many of the public fountains in the city. Frequently also, one sees a bed of straw provided for the comfort of a mother dog and her litter of puppies.

The aspect of the ancient city

The southern bank, with its steep slopes crowded with konaks, gardens, mosques, minarets, is note-worthy for the number of Byzantine churches still found beside the shore or upon the hill-sides, preserving the memory and something of the aspect of the ancient city. Among them are, S. Theodosia (Gul Djamissi), Pantocrator (Kilissd Djamissi), Pantepoptes (Eski Imaret Djamissi), Pammakeristos (Fetiy eh Dj amissi), Chora (Kahriyeh Djamissi), SS. Peter and Mark (Atik Mustapha Pasha Djamissi).

Close to the western extremity of the shore stood the Church of S. Mary of Blachernae, once the object of profoundest reverence on account of the wonder-working power attributed to the reputed girdle and mantle of the Mother of the Lord, enshrined among its relics. The site is marked by the Holy Well formerly attached to the sanctuary. On the hill above the Well are the scanty remains of the famous Palace of Blachemse, once the favourite residence of the Byzantine Court. In the quarter of Phanar the humble residence and the cathedral of the Patriarch of Constantinople are found.

What a contrast to the days when the chiefs of the Eastern Church were enthroned under the dome of S. Sophia 1 In the quarter of Balat, and at Haskeui on the opposite shore, are large settlements of Jews, to whose lowly dwellings belongs the historical interest that they are the homes of the descendants of the Jews who were expelled from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, and found refuge here among Moslems from persecution by Christians. They still use the Spanish language, although not with the music of the speech of Castile.

Eyoub

The suburb of Eyoub at the foot of the hills at the head of the Golden Horn, and the meadows beside the fresh-water streams which enter the harbour at that point (the Sweet Waters of Europe) are interesting to all who delight in Oriental scenes. No quarter in or around the city is so Turkish in its appearance and spirit as the suburb of Eyoub. It contains the reputed grave of Eyoub, the standard-bearer of Mahomet, who was present at the first siege of Constantinople (678-678) by the Saracens, and who died during its course.

Conqueror to Abdul Medjid

In its general plan the Seraglio was a series of three courts, opening one into the other; and around and within them, embowered in groves of plane-trees and of cypresses, rose the numerous and picturesque edifices which served the convenience of the imperial household. But however inferior in the magnificence created by art, no royal abode has ever been invested by nature with the beauty and lordliness surrounding that in which the Ottoman Sultans sat enthroned from Mehemet the Conqueror to Abdul Medjid, with its grand outlook over Asia, Europe, and the great waterway between the lands on the north and on the south.

” It was at once a royal palace, a fortress, and a sanctuary; here was the brain and heart of Islam, a city within a city, inhabited by a people, and guarded by an army, embracing within its walls an infinite variety of edifices, places of pleasure or of horror; where the Sultans were bom, ascended the throne, were deposed, imprisoned, strangled ; where all conspiracies began and the cry of rebellion was first heard; where for three centuries the eyes of anxious Europe, timid Asia, and frightened Africa were fixed, as on a smoking volcano, threatening ruin on all sides.”

The slopes which descend from S. Sophia and the Hippodrome to the Sea of Marmora, immediately outside the Seraglio Enclosure, are also* haunted by memories of splendour and power, for. upon them stood the great palace of the Emperors of New Rome from the time of Constantine the Great to almost the end of the Byzantine Empire. The site did not command so extensive a view of the Bosporus as the Seraglio enjoyed, nor had it the outlook of the latter upon the Golden Horn and the busy life of the harbour. But its prospect over the Sea of Marmora and the hills and mountains of the Asiatic coast, rising to the snows of Mount Olympus or merged in the pale blue of the distant horizon, was wider. It had also the advantage of a sunnier and more temperate climate.

The site was furthermore recommended by its proximity to the Hippodrome, as direct communication between the palace and that arena of the city’s public life, in serious or gay mood, was of paramount importance in Constantinople as at Rome.

We must therefore imagine these slopes wooded with trees, and crowded with stately buildings, often domed, for the accommodation of a Court which sought, in pomp and luxury never surpassed, to find all that power and pleasure can do to satisfy the human heart As in the case of Byzantine churches, so in the edifices forming the “ Sacred Palace marriage under comet,” artistic effort was chiefly devoted to the decoration of the interior, and it was with similar means, marble revetments and mosaics, that artistic effects were produced.

The throne-room, for instance, was, as we shall find in the sequel, almost a facsimile of the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus. Like that church it was an octagonal hall enclosed in a square, and surmounted by a dome pierced by windows.

Porphyry and variegated marbles

Each division of the octagon formed a bay under a semi-dome, and above the bays was a rich entablature, with a cornice that projected so as to constitute a gallery. The floor was paved with slabs of porphyry and variegated marbles, arranged to form beautiful designs and set in borders of silver, while walls and vaults gleamed with mosaics. The hall was entered from the west, and in the bay directly opposite stood the throne, with an icon of Christ in mosaic in the conch above it The bay immediately to the south of the throne was the emperors robing-room, leading to a chapel in which his robes of state, his crowns and arms, and two enamelled gold shields, studded with pearls and precious stones, were kept under the guardianship of S. Theodore. The other state rooms of the palace were all varieties of the same type, displaying more or less skill and taste, according to the fluctuations of art in Constantinople.

Of all the magnificence that once adorned these slopes, nothing remains but unshapely masses of brickwork, broken shafts, fallen capitals and empty sarcophagi 1 Slopes that vied with the Palatine as a seat of power, they are without a vestige of the grandeur that lingers around the ruined home of the Caesars! The higher part of the site of the palace is now occupied by the Mosque of Sultan Achmed, the six minarets of which, combined with the four minarets of S. Sophia, make so striking a feature in the aspect of this part of the city. Upon the lower slopes lives a Turkish population that never dreams of the splendour buried beneath its humble dwellings.

Durwesh never knew his victuals

TALE XXIII

I heard of a certain rich man, who was as notorious for parsimony as Hatim Tai for liberality. His external form was adorned with wealth, but the meanness of his disposition was so radicated, that he never gave even a loaf of bread to any one: he would not have bestowed a scrap on the cat of Abu Horiera, nor thrown a bone to the dog of companions of the cave. In short, no one ever saw his door open nor his table spread. A Durwesh never knew his victuals, excepting by the smell; no bird ever picked up any crumbs that fell from his table.

I heard that he was sailing on the Mediterranean Sea towards Egypt, with all the pride of Pharaoh in his imagination, according to the word of God, ‘ Until the time that he was drowned.’ Suddenly a contrary wind assailed the ship, in the manner as they have said, ‘ What can the heart do that it may not record with your sorrowful disposition; the north wind is not always favorable for the ship.’ He lifted up the hands of imploration, and uttered ineffectual lamentations. God hath said, ‘ “When you embark on ships offer up your prayers unto the Lord.’

Of what benefit will it be to the servant in the time of need, to lift up his hands in imploration, which are extended during prayers, but when any favour is wanted are folded under his arms? ‘ Bestow comfort on others with silver and gold, and from thence derive also benefit yourself. Know thou, that this edifice of yours will remain, use therefore bricks of gold and bricks of silver.’

They have related, that he had poor relations in Egypt, who were enriched with the remainder of his wealth. At his death they rent their old garments and made up silks and damask. In that same week I saw one of them riding a fleet horse, with an angelic youth running after him. I said, “Alas! if the dead man should return amongst his tribe and relations, the heirs would feel more sorrow in restoring him his estate than they suffered on account of his death.” On the strength of the acquaintance which had formerly subsisted between us, I pulled his sleeve, and said, “Enjoy thou, 0 good man of happy endowments, that wealth which the late possessor accumulated to no purpose.”

Religion obtains perfection from the virtuous

RULE V.

A learned man without temperance, is a blind man carrying a link: he showed the road to others, but doth not guide himself, lie who through inadvertency trifled with life, threw away his money without purchasing any thing.

RULE VI.

A kingdom gains credit from wise men, and religion obtains perfection from the virtuous. Kings stand in more need of wise men, than wise men do of appointments at court. Listen, 0 king, to my advice; for you have not more valuable maxim in all your archives than this: “Entrust not your affairs to any but wise men, although public business is not the occupation of the wise.”

Three things are not permanent without three things:—Wealth, without commerce; science, without argument; a kingdom, without government.

RULE VIII.

Showing mercy to the wicked is doing injury to the good; and pardoning oppressors is injuring the oppressed. When you connect yourself with base men and show them favour, they commit crimes with your power, whereby you participate in their guilt.

RULE IX.

You cannot rely on the friendship of kings, nor confide in the sweet voices of boys: for those change on the slightest suspicion, and these alter in the course of a night. Give not your heart to her who has a thousand lovers; but if you should bestow it on her, be prepared for a separation.

RULE X.

Reveal not to a friend every secret that you possess, for how can you tell but what he may some time or other become your enemy. Likewise inflict not on an enemy every injury in your power, for lie may afterwards become your friend. The matter wlucli you wish to preserve as a secret, impart it not to any one, although he may be worthy of confidence, for no one will be so true to your secret as yourself.

It is safer to be silent than to reveal one’s secret to any one, and telling him not to mention it. 0 good man! stop the water at the spring-head, for when it is in full stream you cannot arrest it. You should never speak a word in secret, which may not be related in every company.

The territory of Manasses

The Egyptians bought them off, and they turned back; however, they possessed themselves of a portion of Palestine, and have given their name to one town, Scythopolis, in the territory of Manasses. This was in the last days of the Jewish monarchy, shortly before the captivity. At length Cyaxares got rid of them by treachery; he invited the greater number of them to a banquet, intoxicated, and massacred them. Nor was this the termination of the troubles, of which they were the authors; and I mention the sequel, because both the office which they undertook and their manner of discharging it, their insubordination and their cruelty,

are an anticipation of some passages in the early history of the Turks. The Median King had taken some of them into his pay, made them his huntsmen, and submitted certain noble youths to their training. Justly or unjustly they happened one day to be punished for leaving the royal table without its due supply of game: without more ado, the savages in revenge murdered and served up one of these youths instead of the venison which had been expected of them, and made forthwith for the neighbouring kingdom of Lydia. A war between the two states was the consequence.

But to return to Dariusit is said to have been in retaliation for these excesses that he resolved on his expedition against the Scythians, who, as I have mentioned, were in occupation of the district between the Danube and the Don. For this purpose he advanced from Susa in the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf, through Assyria and Asia Minor to the Bosphorus, just opposite to the present site of Constantinople, where he crossed over into Europe. Thence he made his way, with the incredible number of 700,000 men, horse and foot, to the Danube, reducing Thrace, the present Bumelia, in his way. When he had crossed the stream, he was at once in Scythia; but the Scythians had adopted the same sort of strategy, which in the beginning of this century was practised by their successors against Napoleon.

Village of Roumeli Hissar upon the Bosporus

The idea of killing a dog is shocking to a Turk’s mind. In his opinion, it is sinful to do so. At one time, a dog in the village of Roumeli Hissar upon the Bosporus became exceedingly dangerous. Not content with keeping stray members of his own race off his ground, lie snarled and showed his teeth at every decent person who crossed his path, until at length a European resident, losing patience, drew a pistol and fired upon the obnoxious animal The shot missed, but the gentleman who had fired it was guilty of a double offence. He had broken the law forbidding the carrying of firearms, and he had attempted the life of a dog. The culprit was instantly surrounded by a fierce mob, arrested by the police, and taken to the village prison. As strong influence could be secured for his protection, his case was easily settled. But the question how to deal with the dog was a more difficult matter to arrange. Neither arguments nor hacksish could persuade the police to kill the dog.

The utmost the guardians of the public safety would do was to transport him to the opposite side of the Bosporus, and consign him to the tender mercies of the inhabitants of that shore; and this would be done, only if the aggrieved party would defray the expense involved in executing the decree of banishment A change of domicile from Europe to Asia, or from Asia to Europe, is the most usual remedy applied, when dogs show bad temper or become too numerous for the happiness of a particular locality. It is a remedy, however, that provokes a policy of retaliation, and induces a return of the evil in some analogous form.

Kiopek

Notwithstanding all this kindness, dogs are held in great contempt. They do look a disreputable lot There are not many grosser insults in Turkey than to call a man “ a dog ” (kiopek), or to dismiss him with the ejaculation, “ ousht,” the term employed in driving a dog away.

Among the objects which attract attention, as one moves through the streets, are the public fountains scattered over the city. They are found everywhere, and are often remarkable for their architectural beauty. Their number is explained by the fact that the old system of water-supply did not bring water into the houses, but only to the different quarters of the city, thus making it necessary to have, at convenient points, outlets from which the inhabitants could obtain water, either by coming to draw it for themselves, or by engaging the services of water-carriers.

Speech of Central Asia softened

On every side there is the pressure of a dominant Oriental society and polity, with its theocratic government, autocracy, the creed of Islam, polygamy, slavery, eunuchs, secluded and veiled womanhood, men in long robes and turbans, sluggishness, repose, the speech of Central Asia softened by the accents of Persia and Arabia, minarets, domes surmounted by the Crescent, graceful but strange salutations, festivals which celebrate events in a course of history not your own, and express joys which have never gladdened your souL And mingling, but not blended, with this world of Asiatic thought and sentiment and manner, is a European world, partly native, partly foreign, with ideas of freedom, science, education, bustle, various languages, railroads, tramways, ladies in the latest Parisian fashions, church bells, the banner of the Cross, newspapers and periodicals from every European and American capital, knitting scattered children to the life of their fatherland. The members of the foreign communities in the City of the Sultan do not forget the lands of their birth, or of their race and allegiance. Though circumstances have carried them far from their native shores and skies, physical separation does not sever them from the spirit of their peoples.

Consulate or Embassy

Nay, as if to make patriotic sentiment more easy, foreigners are placed under the peculiar arrangements embodied in what are termed the Capitulations, whereby, in virtue of old treaties, they enjoy the privilege of living to a great extent under the laws of their respective countries, with little interference on the part of the Ottoman Government When your house is your castle, in the sense that no Turkish policeman dares enter it without the authorization of your Consulate or Embassy, when legal differences between yourself and your fellow countrymen are submitted to judges, and argued by barristers, bred in the law which rules in your own land, when your church and school can be what they are at home, and when you can forward your letters, not only to foreign countries but even to some parts of the Turkish Empire, with a stamp bearing the badge of your own Government, it is natural that European residents in Constantinople should be able to preserve their special character, both after living here for many years, and also from generation to generation.

A Mohammedan polity is opposed to the assimilation of strangers, unless the aliens become converts to Islam. Whatever process of assimilation goes on in Constantinople appears in the slow changes of the East towards some likeness to the West Otherwise, the European world is as present to the view as the Asiatic, and together they spread a wide vista before the mind.

Celebrated for its attention to hymnology

The monastery of Studius is, moreover, celebrated for its attention to hymnology, counting its great abbot Theodore, his brother Joseph, and two monks, both named Simon, among the writers of sacred poetry. It had also a scriptorium in which the Scriptures and other religious works were copied. It was, moreover, famed as an “illustrious and glorious school of virtue,” and thither youths of the higher classes of society went for a part of their education. One of the attractions offered by the school was the facility with which students in an institution so near the fortifications could get out of the city to hunt in the open country. The relics preserved in the church drew devout pilgrims to its shrine from far and near. Many Russians visited the monastery on that account, and even entered the order of the Acoemetae to live and die beside the sacred remains.

The humble tombstone of one of these Russian monks is built in the base of the modem wall enclosing the ground behind the apse. It bears the inscription, “ In the month of September of the year 1387, fell asleep the servant of God, Dionysius a Russian; on the sixth day.’* The honour of burial in the cemetery in which the Sleepless were at last laid to rest was accorded also to men distinguished for their public services, as in the case of the patrician Bonus, who bravely defended Constantinople in 627 against the Avars and the Persians, while the Emperor Heraclius carried on his daring campaigns far away in Persia itself.

SS. Sergius and Bacchus (Kutchuk Aya Sofia) and S. Sophia still reflect the splendour of the spacious days of Justinian the Great; days in which men still dreamed of the restoration of the Roman Empire to its ancient bounds; days in which the justice which Home had developed was codified and enthroned to be the eternal rule of all nations that seek to establish righteousness between man and man. The former sanctuary was built by Justinian, probably in 527, as a thank- offering to the martyrs to whom the church was dedicated, for having saved him from the death to which he had been sentenced, on account of his implication in a plot against the Emperor Anastasius. No wonder that, when the lustre of the imperial diadem shed light upon the full meaning of his deliverance, his saviours became the objects of his special gratitude and veneration.

The erection of the church was one of the first acts of his reign; he placed it in the immediate vicinity of his residence while heir-apparent, and at the gates of his palace when Emperor; to it he attached a large monastery, endowed with his private fortune. There cleaves therefore to the building the personal interest that belongs to anything done in a man’s most earnest mood. Among the historical associations that gather around the edifice is the fact that it was the church assigned to the Papal Legates at the Court of Constantinople, for the celebration of Divine service in the Latin form. Originally, indeed that distinction belonged to the basilica of SS. Peter and Paul which stood beside SS. Sergius and Bacchus.

Constantinople the most acceptable religious

The special regard cherished for the two great apostles in the West would naturally make a church dedicated to them in Constantinople the most acceptable religious home for the Roman clergy on a visit to the city marriage under comet. But the basilica of SS. Peter and Paul soon disappeared, under circumstances of which we have no record, and then SS. Sergius and Bacchus, virtually a part of it, was placed at the disposal of Latin priests. This fraternal custom was often interrupted by the quarrels which, from time to time, rent Eastern and Western Christendom even before their final separation, but it was restored whenever the two parties were reconciled. Pope John VIII., for instance, thanks Basil I. (867-886) for granting the use of the church again to the Roman See, in conformity with ancient rights. Among the Papal representatives in Constantinople was Pope Gregory the Great (590-614), while still a deacon, and at a time when the ecclesiastical rivalry between the Sees of Old Rome and New Rome was keen.

It must have been with something of the feeling that sprang from personal acquaintance with scenes and men in the rival metropolis that he protested, when Pontiff, against the assumption of the title “ (Ecumenical bishop ” by the Patriarch John the Faster in 587, and that he adopted in contra-distinction the well-known style of the Popes “ the servant of the servants of God.” Pope Vigilius spent several unhappy years (547-554) in Constantinople, in controversy with Justinian and the patriarch of the day, and in the course of the dispute had occasion to flee to the Church of SS. Peter and Paul, for refuge from the Emperor’s displeasure. Notwithstanding the right of sanctuary, Justinian gave orders for the arrest of the Pope in his place of retreat.

Arcadia Marina and the famous Pulcheria

He had the misfortune to quarrel with the ladies of the city, including the Empress, for their extravagance and looseness of manners. Ladies of fashion, for instance, saw nothing unbecoming in taking a swim in the public cisterns of the city. A sermon, preached while a statue of the Empress was being inaugurated close to the cathedral of S. Sophia, filled the cup of his offences. It may not be true that in the course of the discourse he compared the Empress to Herodias demanding the head of his namesake, John the Baptist.

But whatever the precise form of his words, he said enough to exasperate her to a degree that made her insist upon his final banishment, notwithstanding all the popular opposition to that step. By a strange fate, the pedestal of the column which bore the statue still remains, being now placed for safe keeping within the railing that encloses a narrow strip of ground on the northern side of the Church of S. Irene, in the first court of the Seraglio. A Latin inscription upon it records the erection of the monument in honour of Eudoxia, ever Augusta, by Simplicius, the Prefect of the city; while an inscription in Greek adds the information that the statue was of silver, the column of porphyry, and that the monument stood near the Senate-House.

Notwithstanding, however, the anxieties of the period, the improvement of the city continued to go forward. The splendour of the Court was increased by the erection of four princely mansions, placed respectively at the disposal of the Empress and her three daughters, Arcadia, Marina, and the famous Pulcheria. New Thermae were built, one of them, the Thermae Arcadianae, situated near the Sea of Marmora on the level tract below S. Irene, being a great ornament to the city.

A more abundant supply of water was secured by the construction of the large open reservoir, whose basin, 152 metres square, now occupied by vegetable gardens and houses, is still seen to the south-west of the Mosque of Sultan Selim, above the quarter of the Phanar. But the most notable addition to the equipment of the capital was a great forum placed upon the summit of the Xerolophus, the hill at the south-western corner of the city. It was commonly known as the Forum of Arcadius, but sometimes also as the Forum of Theodosius, on account, probably, of additions made to it by Theodosius II., the son and successor of Arcadius.

Tropical climatic conditions

At present fc‘Elprom -Thermo” Ltd-Balchik produces disconnectors for Voltage 66-132 kV and Rated Current up to 2000 A, as well as manual drives for outdoor disconnectors-up to 145 kV, operating under normal and tropical climatic conditions.

In 1964 a special branch “Cermet materials, special alloys and contact materials” was established with the Research Institute of Electrical Industry. In 1970 it became an independent institute.

From 1975 on all kinds of electrical equipment production was brought together in the Elprom-Energo Integrated Works, and for the purposes of research and development in that field, an Electric Power Technology Institute was opened in Sofia. The new group covered a wide range of rotary electrical machines, power and measuring transformers, on-load tap-changers, apparatuses and high-voltage complete devices, as well as electronic control systems for power generation, transmission and distribution. They all had a significant share in the investment development of power sector, machine building, chemistry, metallurgy and other branches of industry.

History of electrification in Bulgaria

After 1974 Bulgaria had ingenious solutions and new technologies. It became a much sought-after manufacturer and exporter of on-load tap-changers for large power transformers. The annual output of on load tap changers came up to 2777 pcs, 96% of which were exported to more than 30 countries.

The Bulgarian unified series of high-voltage asynchronous electric motors of 200-1000 kW capacity created in 1976 — 1980 proved to be very competitive on the international markets. Powerful electric motors for the nuclear and thermal power plants were developed and manufactured. Five types of vertical electric motors for the secondary circuit of the nuclear power plant were introduced in production. Sixty asynchronous electric motors with 250, 500, 1000 and 1600 kW and double-speed motors with 800/400 kW capacity were manufactured for the Bulgarian nuclear power plant (1983-1988).

In the period after 1980 for the purposes of nuclear power production appeared a series of synchronous electric motors with static excitation system and automatic excitation control within the range 250-1600 kW.

Nearby village Golyantsi

The cooling water heated by the diesel engines was used in the workers’ bathroom, and the excess of hot water was given to the town baths.

The Lom Diesel Power Plant also supplied electricity to the nearby village Golyantsi-the first electrified village in Bulgaria (1912). It is worth mentioning that this power plant was also used, to a certain extent, as a training center for power plant electricians.

Kazanlak was electrified by the joint-stock company “Pobeda”. It built a hydro-power plant on the Enina river with the following characteristics: two 350 hp Pelton turbines; speed-750 rpm; water head-101.9 m (gross); three-phase generators, 2×300 kVA, 750 rpm, 50 Hz, 6000-6500 V, cos cp= 0.8; turbine efficiency 85/87.3 % depending on the load on the machines, i.e. 6-7 °/o higher than the efficiency guaranteed by Siemens.

The plant was commissioned in 1914. It was the first electrification enterprise in Bulgaria built with Bulgarian capital only, designed for public power supply to the town and its industry. The electric power was transmitted from the plant to the town through a 6 kV transmission line, and the low-voltage distribution network was 220/127 V.

The town of Varna-the “window” of Bulgaria to the world, later on to become ‘the seaside capital of Bulgaria’, was among the first Bulgarian towns which triumphantly received electric lighting in 1914, although the first steps in that direction had been taken as early as 1900. A number of municipality mayors, decisions and bids followed one after the other before the implementation of the project developed for the town electrification by means of a diesel power plant. The bid was won by Siemens-Schuckert. The diesel power plant had the following characteristics: two diesel engines-270 hp, 187 rpm each;

Siemens-Schuckert generators (1912), 187 rpm,

5 kV, directly connected to the respective diesel engine, with 45 V exciter.

The high-voltage network (5 kV) used copper cables with 35 mm2 phase cross section. Its total length was 8700 m. Fourteen distribution transformers were installed in con-crete construction, with two 40-50 kVA capacity each, with dry insulation.