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.

THE BALKAN CAMPAIGN

THE BALKAN BARRIER

Near the head of the Adriatic there rise several small streams whose waters flow almost due eastward through the Save and Danube Rivers, to empty into the Black Sea. South of this west-to-east river trench, and separated by it from the open plains of Hungary and Rumania, lies the rudely triangular mass of complex mountainous country known as the Balkan Peninsula (Fig. 1). Prior to last October the bulk of this difficult terrane stood as an effective barrier between the Central Empires and their Turkish ally.

The northwestern corner of the triangle, comprising Bosnia and Herzegovina, was largely under Austrian control, while in the eastern corner the Turks were effectively resisting all attempts of the Allied armies and navies to dislodge them. But the rest of the territory was either openly hostile to the Teutonic powers, or was maintaining a wavering neutrality which constantly embarrassed communication with the Turks and threatened to become an active menace at any moment. It was to resolve this intolerable situation and to impress the world by a decisive military achievement that the German general staff planned the Balkan campaign of 1915.

THE MORAVA-MARITZA TRENCH

Through the mass of the Balkan mountains rivers have cut two great trenches which constitute the only important lines of communication in the region. One of these passageways or ‘‘ corridors ’’ runs southeastward from Belgrade on the Danube to Constantinople on the Bosporus and consists in large part of the valleys of the Morava and Maritza Rivers. The other connects Belgrade with the harbor of Saloniki on the Aegean Sea and is formed by the Morava and Vardar valleys. From Belgrade as far as Nish the Morava valley is common to both routes. Although possession of the Morava-Vardar trench incidentally became essential to the Teutonic powers for military and political reasons discussed below, it was primarily for control of the Morava-Maritza depression that the campaign was undertaken.

Dismantled village is Palamont

From the hills we perceived many villages in a plain to our right, and saw the ruins of one that had been destroyed not long before by a minister of the Porte, the inhabitants having refused, most likely from inability, to furnish a large sum of money which this avaricious and cruel tyrant had demanded. The name of this dismantled village is Palamont: it had been inhabited by about five hundred families, who were all put to the sword without distinction of age or sex. Thus do these devoted people frequently fall victims to the rapacity and relentless cruelty of barbarous and despotic tyrants, who under the mask of duty to their sovereign veil the most atrocious acts of cruelty and oppression.

After three hours’ ride at the rate ot about four miles an hour we arrived at a coffee-house, where our guide, Pauolo, advised us to stop in order to refresh ourselves and our mules. You meet very frequently with these houses in Turkey; and here the traveller may stop if he chooses, and be accommodated with coffee without sugar and a pipe. We entered a little cottage not unlike an Irish barn. It was built of mud and straw, and not more remarkable for its furniture within than its architecture without. The only moveables in the house [were] a couple of mats, on which we spread our repast ; and though we were surrounded by Turks, who were enjoying their pipes, we made an excellent meal on cold partridge which our good friend at Smyrna had packed up for us, with a liberal allowance of Madeira wine to last for our journey.

The first object that engaged my attention, after leaving our hotel, was a Burying-ground. It was surrounded, as all these places are, with lofty cypresses. I was much surprised at the sight of such an immense number of graves, most of them recently dug two-brothers: but I soon recollected that I was travelling through a country where the plague seldom intermits for any length of time : and upon inquiring I found that above one thousand of these graves had been made about four months back, when the plague raged at Smyrna, and in its vicinity.

These considerations for some time damped our spirits, and inspired us with gloomy and dismal ideas. Over each of these graves is a stone of about four feet in height, set upright and a turban carved on the top. They are painted in different colours, as red, white and green. Those who are honoured with the latter have their origin from Mahomet and call themselves his descendants. They are looked upon as of the same family and no others are permitted to have the green turban on their tombs after their decease.

We travelled for the remainder of the day over a fine country, the soil of which shewed everywhere marks or richness and fertility. The road, if we may give it that name, was very bad, and indeed not passable for carriages; but we saw no obstacles to impede the equestrian traveller, as the grounds were without enclosures. The greatest part of the country was planted with cotton trees, and those plantations were remarkably well cultivated and cleared of weeds, the cotton plants being set at equal distances of about three feet.

Towards evening we arrived at the summit of a very lofty mountain, from whence we discovered the extensive plain of Magnesia and could trace with the eye the winding course of the celebrated Meander. The town itself is at the distance of about six miles. We intended stopping at Magnesia for the night, and therefore made as much haste as we possibly could in order to have sufficient time to see the town.

My faithful Pauolo

On our arrival we found much difficulty in getting a lodging for the night. My faithful Pauolo at length obtained permission for us to lie under the gateway of a large court where the caravans put up. There was a little room without windows, which did not hold out to us the most pleasing prospect of the rest of our entertainment for the night. We had our beds spread on the ground, and sending Pauolo to buy us some provisions, we went, accompanied by a janissary to stroll about the town.

We did not perceive any vestige or monument of Magnesia having been once the seat of the Ottoman Court. The houses are ill built and mostly of wood ; the streets narrow and dirty. This had been the seat of the Eastern Empire, till, on the 19th of May 1453, Mahomet the second took Constantinople from Constantine Paleo- logus, and removed his Court to that celebrated city. Magnesia contains above one hundred thousand inhabitants, and next to Smyrna is the town of most trade in Turkey; being situated in one of the richest and most extensive plains in the universe. It has been distinguished for the fertility of its soil, and it is now one of the chief sources of supply to the cotton market of Smyrna.

Distinction in Ireland

The most prominent feature in my character, to which I may in a great measure impute all my misfortunes, is the extreme anxiety and impatience I always felt at the approach of any difficulty. To avoid an impending evil, I have formed plans so wild and extravagant, and for the most part so impracticable, that what I had before dreaded appeared light when compared with the distress I incurred by my own precipitate folly. Added to this, an impatience of all control whatsoever, and a temper always impelled to action in proportion to the resistance which it had to encounter; and it will no longer be a matter of surprise if I were continually entangled in some new and perplexing embarrassment.

When I had attained my sixteenth year, *my mother thought proper* to send me to France in order to finish 1 my education. For this purpose she assigned me a yearly allowance of nine hundred pounds, and placed me under the care of a tutor, who had been recommended to her by some persons of distinction in Ireland. He had been in the army, but his pay not corresponding with his expenses he was under the necessity of selling his commission to pay his debts, and had now taken up the profession of governor, or as it is sometimes termed bearleader, to young men of family.

He had had a good education, and profited considerably by the observations he had made abroad. His heart was good; but his constitution .had been impaired by early intempeiance; and he wanted that address and firmness ot character necessary to superintend the conduct of a young man like me, on whom opposition badly managed, or authority indiscriminately exercised, always acted as a stimulus to excess. Though he proved an indifferent Mentor, as will appear in the sequel ; yet I do not by any means wish so far to injure his memory as to lay to his charge the blame of my follies and eccentricities, which I am willing to take on my own account.

The author describes himself by initials

The work is in all likelihood in the handwriting of an amanuensis, being written throughout in copper-plate of an extremely clear and readable type ; and the whole is in an excellent state of preservation. The contents are, however, in a sense written anonymously, the lettered title on the backs of the bound volumes being merely “ Travels by T. W.,” while on the written title-page within the author describes himself by initials only, and in the body of the work the identity of the principal persons mentioned is sought to be concealed in a like way. There is one remarkable instance, however, where the writer lays the mask aside, and where his name and that of his fellow traveller, Hugh Moore, appear in full.

This is in the copy of the Certificate given to him by the Superior of the Convent at Nazareth which bears witness to his having visited that city in March, 1789. Whaley’s sudden death at an early age may have interfered with the publication of the Memoirs, but the idea of making them public does not seem to have been abandoned even after his death, for there are many indications in the manuscripts themselves which strongly support the theory that the first volume at least was prepared for the printer. In it are found occasional erasures, while other words have been superadded in a different hand, obviously with a view to toning down some personal revelations which were calculated to hurt the surviving members of the family. I shall have occasion later on to refer to these alterations in greater detail, as the necessity for making them will be better understood after a perusal of the main incidents of Whaley’s life and travels.

Richard Chapell Whaley

Thomas Whaley, in Ireland commonly known as Buck, or Jerusalem Whaley, was born in Dublin on the 15th December, 1766. He was the eldest surviving son of Richard Chapell Whaley, of Whaley Abbey, co. Wicklow, and of Dublin, M.P. for co. Wicklow, 1747-60, a man of considerable property and of ancient descent, whose ancestors had settled in Ireland in the time of Oliver Cromwell, to whom, indeed, two of them were closely related.

Wellington boots would be still more inconvenient

They wear wide-topped loose boots, which push up their trousers. Wellington boots would be still more inconvenient, as they must slip them off six times a day for prayers. In this new dress, they cannot with comfort sit or kneel on the ground, as is their custom; and they wall thus be led to use chairs; and with chairs they will want tables. But, were these to be introduced, their houses would “be too low, for their heads would almost touch the ceiling. Thus by a little innovation might their whole usages be unhinged”.

In these failures, however, should they turn out to be such, the vis inertice of habit is not the whole account of the matter; an antagonistic principle is at work, characteristic of the barbarian, and intimately present to the mind of a Turk,national pride. All nations indeed are proud of themselves; but, as being the first and the best, not as being the solitary existing perfection, among the inhabitants of the earth. Civilized nations allow that foreigners have their specific excellences, and such excellences as are a lesson to themselves.

They may think too well of their own proficiency, and lose by such blindness; but they admit enough about others to allow of their own emulation and advance; vhereas the barbarian, in his own estimate, is perfect already; and what is perfect cannot be improved. Hence he cherishes in his heart a self-esteem of a very peculiar kind, and a special contempt of others. He views foreigners, either as simply unworthy of his attention, or as objects of his legitimate dominion. Thus, too, he justifies his sloth, and places his ignorance of all things human and divine on a sort of intellectual basis.

The rude Americans

Robertson, in his history of America, enlarges on this peculiarity of the savage. “ The Tartar”, he says, “ accustomed to roam over extensive plains, and to subsist on the produce of his herds, imprecates upon his enemy, as the greatest of all curses, that he may be condemned to reside in one place, and to be nourished with the top of a weed. The rude Americans, …. far from complaining of their own situation, or viewing that of men in a more improved state with admiration or envy, regard themselves as the standard of excellence, as beings the best entitled, as well as the most perfectly qualified, to enjoy real happiness, as well as free from care themselves, and delighted with that state of indolent security, they wonder at the anxious precautions, the unceasing industry, and complicated arrangements of Europeans, in guarding against distant evils, or providing for future wants; and they often exclaim against their preposterous folly, in thus multiplying the troubles, and increasing the labour of life. . .

Lepanto and the Echinades

He augured a prosperous and happy issue; not on any light or random hope, hut on a divine guidance, and by the anticipations of many holy men”. Moreover he enjoined the officers to look to the good conduct of their troops; to repress swearing, gaming, riot, and plunder, and thereby to render them more deserving of victory. Accordingly a fast of three days was proclaimed for the fleet, beginning with the Nativity of our Lady; all the men went to confession and communion, and appropriated to themselves the plentiful indulgences which the Pope attached to the expedition.

Then they moved across the foot of Italy to Corfu, with the intention of presenting themselves at once to the enemy; being disappointed in their expectations, they turned back to the Gulf of Corinth; and there at length on the 7th of October, they found the Turkish fleet, half way between Lepanto and the Echinades on the North, and Patras in the Morea on the South; and, though it was towards evening, strong in faith and zeal, they at once commenced the engagement.

The night before the battle, and the day itself, aged as he was, and broken with disease, the Saint had passed in the Vatican in fasting and prayer. All through the Holy City the monasteries and the colleges were in prayer too. As the evening advanced, the Pontifical treasurer asked an audience of the Sovereign Pontiff on an important matter.

Pius was in his bedroom, and began to converse with him; when suddenly he stopped the conversation, left him, threw open the window, and gazed up into heaven. Then closing it again, he looked gravely at his official, and said, “ This is no time for business; go, return thanks to the Lord God. In this very hour our fleet has engaged the Turkish, and is victorious”. As the treasurer went out, he saw him fall on his knees before the altar in thankfulness and joy.

The granary and garden of Asia

It followed, that in the course of some years the imperial domain became the granary and garden of Asia; and the sovereign made money without impoverishing his people. According to the nature of the soil, he sowed it with corn, or planted it with vines, or laid it down in grass: his pastures abounded with herds and flocks, horses and swine; and his speculation, as it may be called, in poultry was so happy, that he was able to present his empress with a crown of pearls and diamonds out of his gains. His ex-ample encouraged his nobles to imitation; and they learned to depend for their incomes on the honourable proceeds of their estates, instead of oppressing their people, and seeking favours from the the court. Such was the immediate consequence when man cooperated with the bountifulness of nature in this fruitful region; and it brings out prominently by its contrast the wretchedness of the Turkish domination.

That wretchedness is found, not in Asia Minor only, but wherever Turks are to be found in power. Throughout the whole extent of their territory, if you believe the report of travellers, the peasantry are indigent, oppressed, and wretched. The great island of Crete or Candia would maintain four times its present population; once it had a hundred cities; many of its towns, which were densely populous, are now obscure villages. Under the Venetians it used to export corn largely; now it imports it.

As to Cyprus, from holding a million of inhabitants, it now has only 30,000. Its climate was that of a perpetual spring; now it is unwholesome and unpleasant; its cities and towns nearly touched one another, now they are simply ruins. Corn, wine, oil, sugar, and the metals are among its productions; the soil is still exceedingly rich; but now, according to Dr. Clarke, in that “ paradise of the Levant, agriculture is neglected, inhabitants are oppressed, population is destroyed” broad beans. Cross over to the continent, and survey Syria and its neighbouring cities; at this day the Turks themselves are dying out; Diar- bekr, which numbered 400,000 souls in the middle of last century, forty years afterwards had dwindled to 50,000. Mosul had lost half its inhabitants. Bagdad had fallen from 130,000 to 20,000; and Bassora from 100,000 to 8,000.

In the fifteenth century

If we pass on to Egypt, the tale is still the same. “In the fifteenth century”, says Mr. Alison, “Egypt, after all the revolutions which it had undergone, was comparatively rich and populous; but since the fatal era of Turkish conquest, the tyranny of the Pashas has expelled industry, riches, and the arts”. Stretch across the width of Africa to Barbary, wherever there is a Turk, there is desolation. What indeed have the shepherds of the desert, in the most ambitious effort of their civilization, to do with the cultivation of the soil? “That fertile territory”, says Robertson, “which sustained the Roman Empire, still lies in a great measure uncultivated; and that province, which Victor called Speciositas totius terrce florentis, is now the retreat of pirates and banditti”.

End your survey at length with Europe, and you find the same account is to be given of its Turkish provinces. In the Morea, Chateaubriand, wherever he went, beheld villages destroyed by fire and sword, whole suburbs deserted, often fifteen leagues without a single habitation. “ I have travelled”, says Mr. Thornton, “ through several provinces of European Turkey, and cannot convey an idea of the state of desolation, in which that beautiful country is left. For the space of seventy miles, between Kirk Kilise and Carnabat, there is not an inhabitant, though the country is an earthly paradise. The extensive and pleasant village of Faki, with its houses deserted, its gardens overrun with weeds and grass, its lands waste and uncultivated, and now the resort of robbers, affects the traveller with the most painful sensations ”. Even in Wallachia and Moldavia the population has been gradually decreasing, while of that rich country not more than a fortieth part is under tillage. In a word, the average population in the whole Empire is not a fifth of what it was in ancient times.

Here I am tempted to exclaim (though the very juxtaposition of two countries so different from other in their condition needs an apology), I cannot help exclaiming, how different is the condition of that other peninsula in the centre of which is placed the See of Peter! I am ashamed of comparing, or even contrasting, Italy with Asia Minorthe seat of Christian governments with the seat of a barbarian rule,except that, since I have been speaking of the tenderness, which the Popes have shown, according to their means, for the earth and its cultivators, there is a sort of fitness in pointing out that the result is in their case conformable to our just anticipation. Besides, so much is uttered among us in disparagement of the governments of that beautiful country, that there is a reason for pressing the contrast on the attention of those, who in their hearts acknowledge little difference between the rulers of Italy and of Turkey.

Reached Kamtchatka

They had reached Kamtchatka on the North, the Caspian on the West, and perhaps even the mouth of the Indus on the South. Here then we have an intermediate empire of Tartars, separating the eras of Attila and Zingis; hut in this sketch it has no place, except as belonging to Turkish history, because it was contained within the limits of Asia, and, though it lasted for 200 years, but faintly affected the political transactions of Europe. However, it was not without some sort of influence on Christendom, for the Romans interchanged embassies with its sovereign in the reign of the then Greek Emperor Justin the younger (A.D. 570), with the view of engaging him in a warlike alliance against Persia. The account of one of these embassies remains, and the picture it presents of the Turks seems clearly to identify them with the Tartar race.

For instance, in the mission to the Tartars from the Pope, which I have already spoken of, the Friars were led between two fires, when they approached the Khan, and they at first refused to follow, thinking they might be countenancing some magical rite. Now we find it recorded of this Roman embassy, that, on its arrival, it was purified with fire and incense. As to incense, which seems out of place among such barbarians, it is remarkable that it is used in the ceremonial of the Turkish court to this day. At least Sir Charles Fellows, in his work on the Antiquities of Asia Minor, in 1838, speaks of the Sultan going to the festival of Bairam with incense bearers before bim. Again when the Romans were presented to the great Khan, they found him in his tent, seated on a throne, to which wheels were attached and horses attachable, in other words a Tartar waggon.

Moreover, they were entertained at a banquet which lasted the greater part of the day; and an intoxicating liquor, not wine, which was sweet and pleasant, was freely presented to them; evidently the Tartar koumiss The next day they had a second entertainment in a still more splendid tent; the hangings were of embroidered silk, the throne, the cups, and the vases of gold. On the third day, the pavilion, in which they were received, was supported on gilt columns; a couch of massive gold was raised on four gold peacocks; and before the entrance to the tent was what might be called a sideboard, only that it was a sort of barricade of waggons, laden with dishes, basins, and statues of solid silver. All these points in the description,the silk hangings, the gold vessels, the successively increasing splendour of the entertainments,remind us of the courts of Zingis and Timour, 700 and 900 years afterwards.

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.

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.

Grievously wounded in an expedition against the Tartars

TALE XI

A certain gallant man was grievously wounded in an expedition against the Tartars. Somebody said, “Such a merchant has an unguent, of which perhaps he might give you a little were you to ask it.” The merchant was notorious for his parsimony. If the sun had been on his table instead of bread, no one would have seen light in the world until the Day of Judgment. The gallant man replied, “If I ask for the unguent, it is uncertain whether he will give it or not; and-if he should give it, the effect is doubtful. On every account, to ask of such a man is a deadly poison.”

That which you obtain by entreaty from mean people may benefit the body, but it injures the soul; and the sages have said, ‘ If the water of immortality, for example, was to be sold in exchange** for reputation, the wise man would not purchase it; for an honourable death is preferable to a disgraceful life.’ If you eat colocynth from the hand of a kind man, it is preferable to a sweetmeat given by one who has a crabbed countenance.

TALE XII

A certain learned man, who had a large family to support with very scanty means represented his case to a great man, who entertained a favorable opinion of him. He disapproved of the application, deeming it unworthy of a man of spirit. When you are dissatisfied with your fortune, approach not your dearest friend, or you will turn his pleasure into sorrow. When you expose your distress, preserve a lovely and smiling appearance: he never fails in his pursuit, who maintains a joyful countenance. It is said, that the great man increased his pension a little, but treated him •with less respect than formerly. After some time, perceiving his diminution of affection, he said, “Evil is that food which you obtain in the time of distress; the kettle is indeed upon the hearth, but your reputation diminished. He increased my bread and lessened my honour: it is better to be destitute of means, than to suffer the disgrace of solicitation.”

TALE XIII

A Durwesh having a pressing want, somebody said to him, “Such an one has inconceivable wealth, and were he apprised of your condition, he would not suffer any delay to happen in supplying you.” He answered, “I do not know him.” The other said, “I will conduct you and taking hold of his hand, shewed the way to his house Gregorian calendar. The Durwesh, on beholding one sitting, who had a hanging lip and severe countenance said nothing, but returned. The other asked, What he had done? He replied, “I gave his bounty in exchange for his visit.”

Expose not your want to one of a sour countenance, for you will be distressed by his ill-nature. If you disclose the sorrows of your heart to any one, let it be to him whose pleasant countenance will assure you prompt payment.

TALE XIV

There happened one year sncli a drought at Alexandria that men conld not support it with patience; the doors of heaven were shut against the earth, and the lamentations of all creatures reached the sky. There was neither bird, beast, fish, nor insect, which had not sent up its petitions to heaven. It is wonderful that the smoke of the aspirations from the hearts of all creatures should not have collected in the form of clouds, and their tears been converted into an inundation of rain.

In such a year, an hermaphrodite, (far be such an one from our friends!) As using words to describe him is contrary to good breeding, especially in polite company, but at the same time it is not proper to pass him over in silence, because some people might impute it to the ignorance of the relator; therefore I shall abridge my meaning in the following verses: “From a little we judge of much; an handful is a sample of an ass-load. If a Tartar should kill that hermaphrodite no one could require his blood in retaliation. How long will he continue to resemble the bridge at Bughdad, which ^ has water running under whilst men are passing over it? ”

This person, of whom I have given some description, was at this time possessed of immense wealth; amongst the needy he distributed gold and silver, and provided a table for the entertainment of travellers. A company of Durweshes, perishing with want, were inclined to have aceepted his invitation, and came to ask my advice. I dissuaded them from their inclination, and said, “The lion will not eat the dog’s leavings, although he should perish with hunger in his den. In the present case, submit to the pangs and cravings of hunger, and hold not up your hand to implore charity from a mean wretch. If a man destitute of virtue should equal Feridoon in wealth and power, yet account him nobody. The variegated silk and fine linen, on the back of a blockhead, are lapis-lazuli and gold on a wall.”

Support the burthen of poverty

TALE XVI

One of my companions was complaining to me of the unfavorableness of the times, and said, “I have but small means with a large family, I am not able to support the burthen of poverty. It has frequently come into my mind to go to some other country, that by whatever way I might maintain myself no one would know of my good or bad fortune. Many a person has slept an hungered without any one knowing who it was: many a vital spirit has departed, over which no one has wept.

Again, I reflect on the malevolence of my enemies, who in my absence would scoflingly laugh at my conduct, and impute my exertions for the benefit of my family to want of humanity; and might say, ‘ Behold that shameless wretch, who will never experience good fortune; he consults his own ease, and abandons to distress his wife and children.’ I have some skill in arithmetic, as you know; and if, through your interest, any office can be obtained, that will be the means of making my mind easy, during the remainder of my life, I shall not be able to express my gratitude.”

I said, “Alas! my friend, the service of princes has two sides, the expectation of livelihood, and the dread of losing one’s life; and it is contrary to the opinion of the wise, for the sake of such hope to fall into such danger. No one cometh to the poor man’s house, saying, ‘ Pay the taxes on your ground or garden; either be prepared to encounter anxiety and grief or expose your intestines to the crow.’ ” He replied, “This speech is not applicable to my case: you have not answered my question. Have you not heard the saying, that whosoever is guilty of dishonesty, his hand trembles on rendering hi(S account? Rectitude is the means of conciliating the divine favour.

Germany Austria-Hungary and Turkey

Still worse were the results from the First World War, in which Bulgaria got involved on the side of the Central Powers — Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. The first military successes were followed immediately by exhaustion, hunger and dejection with the clearly apparent material supremacy of the enemy. The Bulgarian soldiers, who had been initially taken in by the noble idea that they would fight for the liberation of their enslaved brothers, fought bravely during the first year of the war, while during the following years they had to stay in the trenches and to go into attack hungry, dressed in rags and worried about the fate of their relatives who were living in dire poverty.

In spite of severe reprisals and executions by the firing squads, the number of soldiers’ mutinies on the front was on the increase. Strongly influenced by the two revolutions in Russia in February and particularly the 1917 October Revolution, the revolutionary moods of the masses both on the front and in the rear were growing irresistibly.The propaganda of the Bulgarian revolutionary Marxists in the army against the war acquired enormous dimensions and soldiers’ revolutionary committees were set up after the example of Russia.

The troops of the Entente, having secured their numerical and technical supremacy, made a break-through in the Bulgarian positions at Dobro Pole from September 15 through 18, 1918. This speeded up the outbreak of revolutionary events which had come to a head. A con-siderable part of the retreating soldiers headed for Sofia with their arms to call to account the ones guilty of the im-minent second national catastrophe. On September 24 the mutinous soldiers took the army headquarters in the town of Kyustendil and went on to Sofia.

Bulgarian Agrarian Party Alexander

The government set free from prison the leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian Party Alexander Stamboliiski and his closest associate Raiko Daskalov, and sent them to reason with the soldiers. Instead of this, however, the two agrarian leaders headed the mutiny. On September 27 a republic was proclaimed in Radomir, Stamboliiski was elected president and Raiko Daskalov – commander-in-chief of the rebel army. King Ferdinand was forced to abdicate and leave the country to which he had caused immeasurable disasters and suf-ferings. The army of the mutinous soldiers came as far as Sofia, but it was routed there with the help of German troops.

Father Palssi

The birth of capitalism in the Bulgarian community and the devastating consequences of the decay of the Ot-toman despotic feudal system, which was halting social progress, enhanced the national feeling and patriotism of the Bulgarians and helped the consolidation of the Bulgarian nation. The people of Bulgaria, forgotten by Europe, were shaking off the ashes of the oppressive foreign yoke and were again coining to life like the miraculous Phoenix bird.

Father Palssi from the town of Bansko, a monk in the Hilendar Monastery on Mount Athos, became the mouthpiece of the intensified national feeling of the people which marked the beginning of the Bulgarian National Revival. After many years of studies, travel and selfless work he wrote his ‘Slav-Bulgarian History’. It was written in a simple language, but passionately and was imbued from the first word to the last with ardent patriotism. fcThe Slav-Bulgarian History’ made of its readers ardent patriots and fighters for national independence. The only manuscript copy of the History was carried around by Palssi himself from one village to another and was copied by hand in several years in scores of copies which, like the secret books of the Bogomils, passed from hand to hand, and were read and reread many times over.

Palssi’s great cause had many followers, called ‘people’s enlighteners’. Most prominent among them were Stoiko Vladislavov (later Bishop Sophronius of Vratsa), Yoakim Kurchovski, Kiril Peichinovich, Neophyte Rilski, Neophyte Bozveli, to mention but a few.

Ethnically belonged to the Turkic tribes

The policy of assimilation adopted by the Byzantine Emperors with regard to the immigrants in-fluenced the regions where the Slavs were not the predominant power (Central and Southern Greece, Asia Minor), but in Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia the Slavs were the masters of the situation. Too weak to oppose on their own the powerful pressure of Byzantium, the Slav tribes began to unite into tribal unions (the beginning of a state) and courageously to defend their independence. In their struggle against the Byzantine Empire during the last decades of the 7th century, they suddenly acquired a peerless ally in the Proto-Bulgarians.

The Proto-Bulgarians ethnically belonged to the Turkic tribes which inhabited the steppes of Central Asia. Their origin and name have to this day not been positively established. It is known that early in our era they had settled in the northern part of the foot of the Caucasus. Those lands had been populated from time immemorial by the Sabiri and Alani. It is probable that the Alani gave the Proto-Bulgarians their name, for in the language of that tribe ‘bulgaron’ meant ‘people living at the fpot of the mountain’.

At the end of the 4th and the first half of the 5th century A. D. the Proto-Bulgarians became members of the motley conglomerate of peoples called ‘Hunnish tribal union’ and took part in the horror-sowing Hunnish raids in Central and Western Europe. After the Union disintegrated, part of the Proto-Bulgarians settled in Italy, others went back to their former places – along the northern Black Sea coast. For several decades they formed part of the powerful Avar Khaganate and numerous Proto-Bulgarian contingents again went as far as Pan- nonia and, after the internecine wars within the Khaganate during the middle of the 7th century, part of them went to settle in Italy, and another part, a more numerous one, led by Kouber, penetrated deep into the Balkan Peninsula and settled in the Bitola Plain in Macedonia.

Back a British boratian

It has been my fate to embark and disembark in many parts of the world at a large number of ports. I can truly say that at one and all rapacity and bullying are the dominant characteristics of a maritime population, no matter to what country, race, or creed they may happen to belong. Indeed, for cool and brazen extortion, I am not certain I would not back a British boratian in the Thames below London Bridge against any of his compeers in foreign ports. But the Bulgarians are exceptions to my experience of the ’long-shore fraternity.

They are moderate in their charges, and do not take advantage of a traveller being a stranger to make him pay more than they would ask of the natives. They do not shout and scream and fight, as the boatmen of Levantine ports are wont to do. They are slow but civil, and, in accordance with the customs of their country, they never ask for backscheesh. I have never, to my knowledge, been over-charged in Bulgaria by any cabdriver or boatman, and, be that, with a population so frugal as Bulgaria, begging is found to be an unprofitable trade. But, be the cause what it may, street begging, which is rife in Turkey and all over the Levant, is practically unknown in Bulgaria.

I was struck, too, by an incident of my passage to Bourgas, which could hardly have occurred elsewhere. The railroad comes down to the quays, or rather to the shore where the quays are to be erected, and the station is simply a large wooden shed open at both ends. I had some hours to wait before the train started by which I was to proceed to Jamboli ; and, on going to leave my luggage before visiting the town, I found that the booking offices were all closed, and that there was nobody to take charge of my trunks.

The whble floor of the shed was strewed over with piles of luggage belonging to passengers in the same plight as myself. There was nobody in charge of this luggage—none of the officials of the station were on duty at the time—but I was told by my guide that all I had to do was to have my portmanteau and bags and rugs put down in the first vacant spot I could find, and to leave them there till my return.

I demurred somewhat to this proposal, but I was assured that the things were as safe as if they were under lock and key; that luggage was always left in this way; that nothing was ever lost; and that if the natives, who would make much more outcry about losing half a franc than I should about losing a napoleon, were content to leave their own luggage unguarded and unprotected, I surely might do the same. I followed the advice, and had no reason to regret having done so.

Of the town of Bourgas itself there is little to be said that I have not said already of Rustschuk and of Varna. It has less of a distinctive character than either of the two above-named towns, though it has gone quite as fast ahead, if not faster. It possesses the same indications of progress that I have noticed elsewhere. New, broad, well-paved streets have been driven through the old city. There are fine public buildings and institutions. There are any number of handsome private dwelling-houses and all the ordinary signs of advancing civilization. The town is prettily situated, and may in time become a very popular and very prosperous seaport In the belief that such a contingency is certain to occur, the value of what the Yankees call “corner lots” in the town has increased very rapidly here of late, just as it has done at Varna.

Exarch of Bulgaria at Constantinople

It was reported, with what truth I know not, that these demonstrations were secretly encouraged by M. Stambouloff in order to bring pressure to bear upon the Porte. At Philippopolis eight thousand persons were said to have been present at a mass meeting. The peasants who attended the demonstration were armed with bludgeons, which, with a grim irony, they called “ the Constitution,” and which they applied freely to anybody who was supposed to be of a different way of thinking from their own. Similar indignation meetings were held at Shumla, Tirnova, Varna, and Rustschuk.

As an indication of the extent to which public sentiment throughout Bulgaria was excited on this question, I may mention that at this time the proprietor of the artificial lake in the Pepiniire Gardens at Sofia had been giving a series of public skating balls. The ice was not good, as the winter was then approaching its close, and the attendance at these night fttes had of late been scanty. Thereupon the proprietor announced that half the proceeds of the next fete would be devoted to the Bulgarian schools in Macedonia.

Attached to the handbills advertising the fete there was an extract from a Macedonian paper attacking the Sultan for not having allowed the Exarch of Bulgaria at Constantinople to purchase the late German ambassador’s palace, an incident to which I have alluded elsewhere. The result of this announcement was that the fite was crowded by the townsfolk of Sofia, though the night was a most unfavorable one for an open-air entertainment.

It is certain that the anti-Turkish agitation in Bulgaria, even if it was initiated by M. Stambouloff, soon assumed proportions which alarmed the Ministry. Orders were issued to the local authorities all over the country to stop these public demonstrations, as being calculated to bring about a breach of the public peace. The step was a bold one, as it laid M. Stambouloff and his colleagues open to the charge of being indifferent to the wrongs of the Macedonian Bulgarians, and of being prepared to abandon their cause, supposing the Sultan continued obdurate.

Occupied by the Turkish Governors

The process of transformation was commenced in the reign of Prince Alexander, who built a residence for himself on the foundations of the dwelling occupied by the Turkish Governors, and also constructed the blocks of public buildings surrounding the public gardens, which lie at the gate of the royal dwelling. The palace itself is situated at the highest point of the low hillock on which the town is placed, and, in consequence, all streets emerging from the Alexander Square slope downwards in every direction towards the plain. The process of reconstruction was retarded for a time by the diplomatic troubles between the Russian Protectorate and the protected State, by the war with Servia, and by the intrigues which culminated in Prince Alexander’s resignation.

The descriptions of Sofia, which were written by travellers who visited the city during Prince Alexander’s reign, dwell mainly—and I have no doubt with perfect justice— upon the startling contrast between the European quarter and the Turkish quarter, lying close at hand, with its narrow, ill-lit, unpaved, and squalid streets. At present this contrast is no longer visible, owing to the simple fact that the Turkish quarter has been almost improved off the face of the earth.

Reconstruction of Sofia

As soon as Prince Ferdinand had become firmly seated on the throne, the reconstruction of Sofia was again taken in hand. I should doubt any very definite plan having been laid out for the rebuilding of the city. The old town was pulled down street by street, block by block, and house by house, and in lieu of the narrow Turkish alleys, broad avenues were carried in every direction without much regard to their correlation to each other.

Thus, when you look down upon the town from any of the surrounding heights, Sofia has somewhat the look of a huge starfish, the centre being the palace, and the claws consisting in a number of avenues stretching out into the plain, these avenues being connected with each other by any number of side streets running at all sorts of angles.