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ofthe
Addin Lewis Fund

THE PEASANT STATE.
AN ACCOUNT OF BULGARIA
IN 1894.

By EDWARD DICEY, CB.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1894.

LONDON t
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

CONTENTS.

THE PEASANT STATE.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introduction ... ... ... ... ... i

HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE.
II. The Bulgarian Nationality ... ... ... 9
III. The Genesis of Modern Bulgaria ... ... 14
IV. The Era of Turkish Rjjle ... ... ... 29

ORGANIZA TION.
V. The Land Tenure ... ... ... ... ... 37
VI. Aspect of the People ... ... ... ... 45
VII. Village Life ... ... ... ... ... 56

INSTITUTIONS.
VIII. The Bulgarian Church ... ... ... ... 72
IX. The Law of the Realm ... ... ... 83
X. Public Education ... ... ... ... ... 93
XI. The Public Service ... ... ... ... 105
XII. The Army ... ... ... ... ... ... 113

GO VERNMENT.
XIII. The Constitution ... ... ... ... ... 120
XIV. The Prince ... ... ... ... ... 128
XV. The Estates of the Realm ... ... ... 142
XVI. The Ministry ... ... ... ... ... 152

iv CONTENTS.

FINANCES.

PAGE

CHAPTER XVII. The Budget of 1894 ... ••¦ ¦•¦ ••¦ l63
XVIII. The Bank of Bulgaria ¦•• ¦•• ••¦ '77

TRADE.
XIX. Commerce and Industry ... ••• •¦¦ ••¦ *°4
XX. Railways  IQ9

SOCIAL LIFE.
XXI. The Capital  213
XXII. The Court  220
XXIII. Sofiote Society ... ... ... ... ••• 230

POLICY.
XXIV. National Policy ... ... ... ... ••¦ 246
XXV. Attitude towards Russia ... ... ... 262

PROVINCES.
XXVI. Rustschuk ... ... ... ... ••¦ ¦•• 270
XXVII. Varna  281
XXVIII. Bourgas ... ... ... ••• ••¦ •-• 290
XXIX. Philippopolis ... ... ... ... ... 3°°

NEIGHBOURS OF THE PEASANT STATE.
XXX. Roumania and Servia ... ... ... ... 310

XXXI. Postscript

329

THE PEASANT STATE.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
For myself, as for all persons whose tastes or pursuits
or occupations have led them to devote much attention to
foreign affairs, the Eastern Question has always possessed
a peculiar fascination. Whatever view you may take in
respect of European politics, and of England's relation
towards them ; whether you are a Philo-Russ or Russo
phobe ; whether you are an Imperial Federationist, or a
disciple of the " Little England " school ; whether your
sympathies are Liberal or Conservative, Progressive or
Reactionary, you cannot, I think, escape the conclusion
that the organization of Europe, as it has been known
to us since the close of the Napoleonic Wars, must suffer
a radical change whenever the fate of Turkey in Europe,,
is definitely determined. In common, I fancy, with every
man who has ever studied the subject attentively, I have
long ago come to the conclusion that the days of Turkey,
at any rate as a European Power, are numbered. Threat
ened men, as we all know, live long ; but a period which
is long in the life of an individual is a mere moment
in the life of a nation ; and it seems to me well-nigh a
certainty that before the generation which is now entering B

2 THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
on its public career has passed away into the unknown, the
Turks will no longer be the masters of Constantinople.
I have no occasion to discuss the question whether this
change, when it occurs, will be one for the better or the
worse. All I am concerned with is the fact — for such I
believe it to be — that the change is certain and imminent.
Holding these views, I have long taken great interest in
speculations as to what will happen after the expulsion of
the Turks from Europe as a dominant race. My original
impression had been that there were only two possible
solutions of the Eastern Question. The first, the most
probable, and to my mind the least desirable, is the
substitution of Russia for Turkey as the possessor of
Constantinople ; the second, the least probable, but to
my thinking the most desirable, is the substitution in
place of Turkey of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The
idea of a revival by Greece of the old Byzantine Monarchy
does not, I think, come within the domain of practicable
politics. I may add that all my observation of the
Christian races subject to Moslem rule had rendered me
hitherto extremely sceptical as to the possibility of their
ever being able to supply the place of Turkey in Europe,
or to form an effective barrier against Russian aggrandize
ment. On the other hand, I knew that in this latter respect
my views were not altogether shared by persons who
had exceptional means of acquaintance with the conditions
of the Eastern Question. Amongst others, Sir William
White had frequently assured me that the States of the
Balkan Peninsula, if they were allowed time to develop
themselves and consolidate their resources, might prove
formidable obstacles to any advance of Russia towards

I-] INTRODUCTION. 3
the Bosphorus. He had often expressed to me his con
viction that Bulgaria was a country with a future before
her not unlike that under which Piedmont had become
the centre of a united Italy. I may here, too, recall the
fact that on the last occasion, if I remember rightly,
when I saw my old friend Mr. W. E. Forster, before
his death, I found him keenly excited about the war
between Bulgaria and Servia, which was then imminent.
To some casual remark of mine, that I did not think it
mattered much to anybody beyond the parties imme
diately concerned, whether the Serbs beat the Bulgars, or
the Bulgars the Serbs, he remarked, as far as I can recall
his words, " I am sure that you are wrong in this. If
ever you travel through Bulgaria and see the people, as
I have done myself, you will feel very differently, and will
be convinced, as I am, that the independent existence of
Bulgaria is a matter of European importance."
These, and many similar utterances on the part of
acquaintances of mine, whose minds were unbiassed by
any sentimental or theological sympathies with the Chris
tian races under Turkish rule, and who knew what they
were talking about, had long caused me to desire to visit
Bulgaria, and to form my own judgment as to whether
the Bulgarians really did differ in any material respect
from other Christian communities, governed or mis
governed, as the case may be, under Moslem dominion ;
and if such a difference existed, what were the causes
and the main characteristics of its existence. At the
commencement of this year circumstances enabled me to
fulfil this long-cherished wish, and the result of my
researches is contained in the following pages.
Here, at the outset, perhaps, better than elsewhere,

4 THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
I may say something as to the extent to which my study
of Bulgaria has modified my previous opinion as to the
possibility of her playing an important part in the cata
clysm which must ensue upon the downfall of the Ottoman
Empire. I have come with great reluctance to the con
clusion that the creation of the Dual Monarchy in Austria,
or, in other words, the concession of Home Rule to
Hungary, has paralyzed Austria as a European Power
just as the concession of Home Rule in Ireland would
paralyze the United Kingdom. There is, therefore, little
likelihood of Austria's being able to step into the place
of Turkey. The removal of Austria as a possible candidate
for the inheritance of " The Sick Man of Europe " cannot
but favour the prospects of Russia. If this is so, there
is clearly a distinct increase of probability that the ulti
mate solution of the Eastern Question will prove to be
the acquisition of Constantinople by Russia, a contingency
which must in all human likelihood entail the gradual
conversion of all the States of the Balkan Peninsula into
Russian Provinces.
Fortunately, the " Unspeakable Turk " dies hard and
dies slowly ; and the longer the Crescent rules at Con
stantinople, the greater chance there is of the Balkan
States consolidating their independence. I am doubtful
about Servia, and not confident as to Roumania. But I am
now convinced that Bulgaria contains the main elements
required to constitute a powerful nationality. All that
is needed for the development of these elements is time ;
and if Turkey in Europe can only hold together for
another generation, Bulgaria may possibly become so
potent a factor in the Oriental Problem as to alter the
conditions under which the Eastern Question will have

J-J INTRODUCTION. 5
ultimately to be solved. I do not say that Bulgaria is
as yet an effective bulwark against Russian aggression ;
but I do say that she is in a fair way of becoming such
a bulwark, and that she therefore deserves the support and
sympathy of all who, in common with myself, regard the
possible Russification of Eastern Europe with dismay and
dread. I have endeavoured, in the following chapters, to
explain the peculiar and exceptional conditions which
have rendered Bulgaria so utterly different from all the
other Christian States which passed under the sway of
Islam on the decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire.
My investigations led me also to the — to me novel —
conclusion, that Bulgaria is the most perfect specimen of
a peasant State, either existing nowadays, or recorded in
the annals of our present era. In all the works I have
consulted on' Bulgaria, I have never seen this peculiar
aspect of her internal organization dwelt upon with any
fulness. I presume that during the troubled times, when
Bulgaria attracted a large share of foreign notice, the
attention of the outer world was chiefly turned to the
vexed question of the genuineness or otherwise of
the " Bulgarian atrocities," to the vicissitudes of the
Russo-Turkish War, to the fall of Plevna, to the capture
of the Shipka Pass, and later on, to the romantic reign
of the hero of Slievnitza, to his abduction and subsequent
abdication. It is only fair to add that, for many years
after her liberation from Turkish rule, it seemed well-nigh
certain that Bulgaria could have no permanent individual
existence of her own ; and that, for good or evil, it was her
manifest destiny to be absorbed in Russia, or, at the best,
to revolve as a sort of minor planet in the orbit of the

6 THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Muscovite sun. Under these circumstances, her internal
organization possessed but little interest for any one save
her own people. Of late years, however, it has been seen
to be possible, and even probable, that Bulgaria may take
a permanent and independent place amidst the States of
Europe. The question, therefore, of her internal organiza
tion has become a matter of European concern.
For Englishmen in particular, quite apart from their
general interest in the Eastern Question, this aspect of
Bulgaria possesses a special importance. Public attention
in England has in our days been greatly attracted to the
advantages of a peasant proprietary. The merits or
demerits of such a system lie for the present beyond the
range of party politics. Liberals and Conservatives are
alike agreed to accept, as an axiom of political economy,
the dictum that, in a well-regulated state, the mass of the
community ought by rights to have a personal, individual
stake in the land. Our public men seem to be coming
round to the belief that the ideal State would be one best
described by the saying attributed to Henry IV. of France,
that he hoped to see the day when every French peasant
would have a fowl in his pot. We have endeavoured, by
legislation, to create a class of small peasant land-owners
in Ireland ; we are contemplating tlie possibility of
creating such a class in England. It needs no great
political foresight to prophesy that " the three acres and a
cow" theory, originated by Mr. Chamberlain, will soon
become the recognized stock-in-trade of every political
party which stands in need of the agricultural vote.
Again, an important and increasing section of the Liberal
party at home has taken up the view that large accumu
lations of private fortune are an evil to be discouraged, if

L] INTRODUCTION. 7
not prevented, by legislation ; and that, in the new era
which it is hoped to inaugurate, capital and pauperism
will be alike comparatively unknown quantities. I am not
an ardent political economist. I am not, perhaps, much
of a believer in any scheme for the reorganization of
society on a new and a better basis. But my personal
views as to the progress of humanity are of no great
interest to myself, and of none at all to the world at large.
I shall not, therefore, obtrude any views I may hold on
this subject in these pages. My endeavour is confined to
a wish to show that Bulgaria, as at present constituted,
approaches as closely as is consistent with the imperfection
of all human institutions to the ideal State of our latter-
day social reformers, in which there are to be no poor and
no rich, in which every citizen is to have a share, and to a
considerable extent an equal share, in the land of the
commonwealth, in which there are to be no privileged
classes and no social distinctions, and in which the
people, who in the case of Bulgaria are the peasants, are
to govern themselves by themselves and for themselves.
It has been my object, in forming my opinions as to
the present condition of Bulgaria, to keep an open mind.
I have tried to explain the general causes which have
brought about the peculiar social and economical con
ditions of Bulgaria. I have endeavoured to do justice to
the peculiar qualities of race and character which are
partly the cause, partly the effect, of her present system
of government, and her existing social organization. I
have also tried to indicate the defects inseparable from
the state of things under which alone a peasant community
is a possibility. Anybody acquainted with peasant life,
as it exists in naked reality not in fiction, can fill in for

8 THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap. I.
himself the various failings, social, physical, and intellectual,
to which I have had cause to allude frequently. But I
have made no attempt to strike a balance between the
advantages and disadvantages of such a social fabric as
the one I have sought to describe. In Bulgaria, as else
where, my rule has been to take things very much as I
find them, to describe these things as they are in fact, not
as they ought to be in theory ; and to leave it to others to
decide whether the things so described are in harmony
with the abstract principles which govern, or are supposed
to govern, the condition of humanity. Those who wish to
find arguments or illustration, whether for or against the
" three acres and a cow " school of political economy, may
probably find both in what I have written. For my part,
I have no theory to advocate one way or the other. I
shall be content if I succeed in calling attention to a very
exceptional social organization, which in all human like
lihood must be transitory ; and I know of no better term
under which to describe this organization than the title I
have chosen for this book, that of " The Peasant State."

HISTORY OF THE PEASANT
STATE.
CHAPTER II.
THE BULGARIAN NATIONALITY.
It is my object to deal with the present and future of
Bulgaria, not with the past. But in order to understand
the present it is necessary to recall the past ; and for this
reason, I wish to show how Bulgaria, as now constituted,
has a genuine claim to be called a nation.
The Low Countries have been described as the cock
pit of Europe. The Balkan Peninsula has a much better
title to this historic appellation. Hordes of barbarians,
one after another, moved by some unknown impulse,
poured in endless succession from Central Asia into Europe
during the decline of the Roman Empire, crossed the
Balkans on their march southwards ; occupied the land,
which is now called Bulgaria, for periods of indefinite
duration ; and after years, or it may be centuries, of
sojourn, moved further afield, either in search of new
pastures, or because they were themselves driven onwards
by the advance of some fresh horde of wanderers, following
along the same track that their predecessors had pursued.
This page of European history is so utterly obscure, that

IO HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
it is matter of dispute whether the Sclav invasion first
crossed the Danube three or six centuries after the birth
of Christ. All that seems even approximately certain is
that within the above-named limits the Sclavs occupied
the various regions which we now know as Russia, Poland,
Bohemia, Transylvania, Macedonia, Roumelia, and Bulgaria,
and established themselves in these regions as masters,
either destroying the original occupants or absorbing them
in their own dominant nationality.
The whole history of these remote times appears to me
to be contained in the words of Scripture, that " when the
strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, his goods
are in peace : but when a stronger than he shall come
upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him his whole
armour . . . and divideth his spoils." The Sclavs of the
Balkan Peninsula met with their stronger man in the
person of the Bulgars, a Tartar tribe, kindred in race to
the Turks, who, towards the close of the seventh century,
swept down across the Balkans, carrying all before them.
I feel the utmost of diffidence in expressing any opinion
of my own as to the history of this obscure and distant
era. My knowledge on this subject is of the most super
ficial kind, derived solely from what little I have read.
But I give, for what it is worth, the impression left on
my mind from cursory reading, and from local traditions,
that the Bulgars, though they have bequeathed their
name to the country over which they once ruled, never
occupied it or settled themselves in it, in the same
sense as their predecessors, the Sclavs, had done. In
common with their kinsmen the Turks, the Bulgars
were a ruling race, a tribe of predatory warriors ; but as
their power and their vigour died away, they became

II.] THE BULGARIAN NATIONALITY. 1 1
gradually merged in the subject race, over whom they
had originally held mastery as conquerors, and adopted
the Sclav language and the Sclav nationality. Since the
era of the Bulgars, Greeks, Serbs, Turks, have in succession
held sway over Bulgaria ; but for some twelve centuries
the population of Bulgaria have remained Sclavs in race
and language, and — though for a period of less duration —
Sclavs in religion. The Bulgarians, in fact, claim upwards
of a thousand years of distinct nationality ; and if this
claim is not sufficient to constitute a nation, few of the
peoples of Europe have any ground to consider them
selves an historic nationality.
Personally, I attach more importance to the fact that
the Bulgarians have held long and uninterrupted possession
of the soil on which they dwell, than I do to their
traditions of bygone greatness. The whole history of the
Balkan Peninsula, from the establishment of the Byzantine
Empire down to the capture of Constantinople by the
Turks, is one long unintelligible and confused record of
internecine wars between Greeks, Turks, Serbs, Wallachs,
and Bulgarians. Sometimes one race got the upper
hand, sometimes the other. Ever and anon a powerful
chief arose in this remote quarter of Europe ; made war
successfully upon his neighbours ; extended his dominions
over the surrounding states ; and called himself King,
Csesar, Czar, Emperor, as the case might be. The
Bulgarians had their fair share of these ephemeral
dynasties. In the ninth century, there was a certain
Boris, the national hero of Bulgaria, after whom the
infant son of Prince Ferdinand has just been named.
Boris founded the first Bulgarian Monarchy ; made
himself lord and master of the whole Balkan Peninsula,

12 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
almost down to the shores of the ^Egean Sea ; negotiated
with Rome ; and finally became a convert, and forced his
people to become converts, to the faith of the orthodox
Eastern Church. His son, Simian, another of the national
legendary heroes, made war against the Greek Empire;
besieged Constantinople with his armies, and actually
captured Adrianople ; and assumed the proud title of
Czar of the Bulgarians, and Autocrat of the Greeks.
Later on, the Russians invaded Bulgaria for the first time ;
and in order to repel the invaders, the then Czar, Simian,
had to call in the aid of the Greek Emperor, who, in
return, deposed him from his throne, and converted
Bulgaria into a province of the empire. Again, some two
centuries after the overthrow of the Boris dynasty, a
Bulgarian of the name of Asen induced his fellow-country
men to rise in insurrection against the tyranny of Con
stantinople, and declared himself the Czar of Bulgaria.
The story of the Asen dynasty, in as far as it is known,
is one of continued warfare, waged with fluctuating fortunes
against the Greek Empire. The only difference between
the dynasties of Boris and of the Aseni is that, while both
were always at war with their neighbours, and always
sided with one or the other of the Powers who were
engaged in breaking up the Byzantine Empire, the latter
dynasty devoted great energy to the development of its
own dominions. Asen and his successors established
industries, encouraged trade, availed themselves of foreign
teachers in arts and commerce, and succeeded for a brief
period in making Bulgaria a prosperous and progressive
country. After this, the Golden Age of Bulgaria, the country
fell for a time under the sway of Servia. Finally, at the

II. THE BULGARIAN NATIONALITY. 13,
close of the fourteenth century, the Turks made their
appearance on the scene. From that time till the other
day Bulgaria remained a province of European Turkey.
Such, in the shadowest of outlines, is the general history
of the State which, within the last twenty years, has
recovered its national existence.

14 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

CHAPTER III.
THE GENESIS OF MODERN BULGARIA.
It, is not my purpose, as I have said before, to write a
history of Bulgaria. But of all periods of time, the ones
with which the generation of the day are most imperfectly
acquainted, are those which record events that occurred
long enough ago to get blurred in men's memories, and
yet are of too recent date to be enshrined in history.
I feel convinced that there are a hundred educated
Englishmen who, if pressed, could give a fair account of
the Wars of the Roses, or of the American Declaration of
Independence, for one who could supply an intelligible
version of the events which led up to our occupation
of Egypt during the decade that preceded the battle of
Tel-el-Kebir. In the same way, I fancy, a very consider
able proportion of my countrymen and countrywomen,
even amongst the classes who take an intelligent interest
in foreign affairs, would find it extremely difficult to recall
the sequence of events, which, in a period of less than
twenty years, has converted Bulgaria from an obscure
Turkish Pashalik into an independent State. Yet a
general knowledge of these events is absolutely essential
to realize the progress already made by Bulgaria, and still
more that which she is likely to make in the near future.
In order, therefore, to render intelligible what I shall have

III.] THE GENESIS OF MODERN BULGARIA. 1 5
to say later on, let me endeavour to tell, as briefly as I
can, the outline of the story which records the genesis of
the Bulgaria of to-day.
Bulgaria owes her independence to the Russian invasion
of Turkey in 1877. The motives which prompted Russia
to take up arms for the liberation of the Bulgars may not
have been disinterested ; the obligations imposed on the
Bulgars by this intervention may have been more than
cancelled by the subsequent conduct of their liberators.
Still the fact remains that, but for Russia, Bulgaria would
to-day be a Turkish Province, ruled by Turkish officials
in the same way as Macedonia is now. No doubt, for
many years past — in fact, ever since the Greek War of
Independence — there had been an intermittent agitation
in Bulgaria, as in all the other Christian provinces of the
Ottoman Empire, against the domination of the Turks.
I fancy, however, from all I can learn, that this agitation
was less active and less general in Bulgaria than it was
elsewhere. The Bulgars are a far less excitable race than
the bulk of their Sclav fellow-kinsmen ; their religion is
not fanatical ; their minds are mainly taken up with the
tillage of their farms ; they are not, like the Greeks, born
politicians and agitators ; their great desire is to be let
alone to look after their own affairs. A country of small
peasant farmers, with no wealthy and educated class, and
with no natural leaders either by birth or tradition, is not a
promising soil for the development of an armed insurrection
against the powers that be. At any rate, I can see no
evidence to show that, till Russia appeared on the scene,
there was any formidable national agitation amongst the
Bulgarians for the overthrow of Turkish rule. To admit
this is not tantamount to saying that the Bulgarians were

16 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
contented with their lot. The few traders and land
owners who were in a position to afford the expense, sent
their sons to be educated abroad ; and these sons returned
home imbued with Western ideas and eager to see their
country delivered from Moslem thraldom. I suspect there
are few, if any, of the men, now occupying important
positions in Bulgarian public life, who were not in their
hot youths implicated in conspiracies and in secret
associations for the emancipation of Bulgaria. They
would all tell you, if they spoke the truth, that though
at this period they had the sympathy and good wishes
of their fellow-countrymen, they did not meet with the
popular support which is required to make a revolution.
They would, I think, also admit — though with reluctance —
that their original idea was to effect a revolution by
Russian aid ; that they were in constant communication
with the agents of the Sclav propaganda in Russia ; and
that they had most of them received not only instructions
but active assistance from Russia.
The Bulgars took little or no part in the Turko-Servian
War in 1875 J DUt when the war ended in the virtual
emancipation of the Serbs, the time had manifestly come
when it was incumbent upon their neighbours to take
action which might force the hand of the Czar, and thus
necessitate Muscovite intervention. The whole story of
the abortive Bulgarian rising in 1S76 is singularly obscure.
What its intrinsic importance was, who were its leaders
and instigators, and what, if any, was the programme of
the insurgents, are all matters on which it is difficult to
express any definite opinion. The one thing certain is
that the rising was suppressed by the Turks with relentless
severity. That it must have been so suppressed is evident

III.] THE GENESIS OF MODERN BULGARIA. 1 7
a priori to any one acquainted with the Eastern system of
administration. So long as the Giaour pays his taxes
and respects the authority of Islam, he is allowed to do
pretty much what he likes in other respects ; but, if he
rises in rebellion against his rulers, the hand of his lord
and master comes down with overwhelming force. Not to
strike without necessity, but when you have to strike,
to strike a knock-down blow, such is the principle of
Oriental statesmanship. Less than a score of years ago,
a village near Keneh, where English tourists now make
halt daily during the Nile season, rose in insurrection
against the authority of the then Khedive, partly in
resentment of excessive taxation, partly in deference to
religious fanaticism. A local Mahdi had taken it into his
head to preach the duty of returning to the true faith of
Islam, had denounced Ismail Pasha as one who con
sorted with infidels, and had exhorted the faithful to
refuse obedience to the officials of the Government. The
appeal met with some response, and next time the tax
collectors appeared at the village they were driven away
with violence. On learning this, the Khedive sent down
a body of troops under orders to surround the village with
a cordon, and to kill every man, woman, child, and living
thing within the precincts. The order was carried out
literally, and no more was ever heard of the Keneh Mahdi
or of the Keneh insurrection. And, what is more, I could
never discover that this wholesale massacre offended in
any way such public opinion as exists in Egypt. It was
only the regular way in which insurrections had always
been dealt with ; and, after all, it achieved its purpose. If
the Turks act in this fashion towards men of their own
faith, it is only natural they should have, if possible, still
<F c

1 8 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
less scruple in inflicting condign punishment on rebellious
subjects belonging to an alien race and a hostile creed.
I have not, therefore, the slightest doubt in my own mind
that the insurrection in Bulgaria was put down by the
Turks in a fashion utterly inconsistent with our ideas of
law and justice, not to mention humanity. But whether
there were fifteen thousand, or fifteen hundred, or one
hundred and fifty Bulgarians killed, or which of the
various atrocities alleged to have been perpetrated had
any foundation in fact, I have no idea myself, nor have
I met with any one who could give me reliable information
on the point. I have seen enough of Eastern countries to
entertain the utmost distrust of any specific statement of
fact with regard to occurrences which are alleged to have
taken place there, no matter on what authority the
statement may be based. We at home are too well
acquainted with Mr. Gladstone's utter incapacity to see
more than one side of any question, to repose implicit
confidence upon the evidence on which he founded his
famous indictment of the Bulgarian atrocities. Still Mr.
Gladstone's pamphlet served its purpose ; and undoubtedly
the Anti-Turkish demonstration, led by Mr. Gladstone,
encouraged the Russians in the mistaken belief that
England would acquiesce in any fresh aggression against
Turkey, and thereby contributed directly to the outbreak
of the Russo-Turkish War.
The war was waged between the Turks on the one
hand, and the Russians, assisted by the Roumanians, on
the other. The Bulgarians, for whose sake the battle
was nominally being fought, were rather spectators than
actors in the contest. Their sympathies were, no doubt,
enthusiastically enlisted on the side of the Russians, to

III.] THE GENESIS OF MODERN BULGARIA. 19
whom they furnished most valuable aid in the shape of
information. A considerable number of volunteer regi
ments were raised, and took part in the fighting. Still,
even the Bulgarians themselves would hardly allege that
the success of the campaign was mainly due to their
assistance. If this was so there is no cause for blame.
The peasants had had no military training or organization ;
they were very imperfectly provided with arms ; they
were cowed to some extent by the cruel reprisals which
had followed the abortive insurrection ; and, above all,
they were haunted by the dread of being left at the mercy
of their enemies, if the defeat of the Turks should not
prove to be of a decisive character.
Anyhow, the Russians conquered ; and, in the flush
of their victory, when their armies were almost within
sight of Constantinople, they concluded the Treaty of San
Stefano, by one of whose clauses Bulgaria and Eastern
Roumelia were to be formed into an autonomous and
independent State under Russian protection. The Western
Powers, however, acting chiefly on the instigation of
England, refused to ratify the Treaty of San Stefano.
A Congress was held at Berlin to settle the terms of
peace between Russia and Turkey. At this period
Bulgaria was regarded as a mere outpost of Russia ; and,
in consequence, the Western Powers, who were opposed to
the advance of Russia towards the Bosphorils, deemed it
their interest to curtail in many ways the proposed
enfranchisement of Bulgaria. By the Treaty of Berlin,
Roumelia was not allowed to be incorporated with
Bulgaria ; the Turks were, secured the right of erecting
fortifications on the Bulgarian Balkans, a right which
they have never exercised, or dreamt of exercising ; and,

20 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
finally, the titular sovereignty of Bulgaria was also
restored to the Sultan, though no attempt was made to
interfere with the autonomy of the country. The Russians
were also allowed by the treaty to exercise a provisional
protectorate over Bulgaria till such time as the new
Constitution, which was to be provided for the province,
had been got into working order.
Thus, at the close of the war, Russia, however much
she may have failed in her other objects, had obtained
a position of commanding strength in Bulgaria After
all, it was the Russians who had defeated the Turks and
driven them out of the country ; it was they who had
proposed to reconstruct the ancient Bulgarian kingdom
by the annexation of Roumelia; they who had fought
the cause of Bulgarian independence at Berlin, and had
been baffled by the interested opposition of the Western
Powers ; they who had the whole administration of the
country for the time being in their hands ; and they,
above all, to whom the Bulgarians had learnt to look for
protection in the present and for aggrandizement in the
future. Thus, the Russians had all the winning cards in
their hands ; and, if they have lost their hold on Bulgaria,
it is mainly, if not entirely, their own fault. Prince
Donderkoff Korsakoff, who was appointed Russian Com
missioner during the interregnum, made himself personally
popular in Bulgaria. The Constitution framed under the
instructions of the Commissioner was, in theory at any
rate, of an extremely democratic character, and was,
therefore, acceptable to a community in which there was
no titled or wealthy class, and which was composed almost
exclusively of peasants. On the other hand, the provisions
of the Constitution gave very large powers to the Ministers,

III.] THE GENESIS OF MODERN BULGARIA. 21
who, it was taken for granted, were to be nominees, if
not pensioners, of Russia. Finally, the ruler selected to
govern the new State was Prince Alexander of Battenberg,
a very young and, at that time, an almost unknown officer
in the German army, whose sole apparent recommendation
lay in the fact that he was a near relative and a personal
friend of the Czar.
By a curious nemesis, the choice thus made at the
instance of Russia did more than anything else to upset
the proposed Russification of Bulgaria. Judging by the
opinions I have heard expressed by all who came into
contact with him, I should doubt whether Prince Alexander
was a statesman of high capacity or of any marked
administrative talent. But he was bold, high spirited,
quick tempered, and, above all things, a born soldier,
possessed of military talent, if not genius, and impatient
for an opportunity of making this talent known. His
one ambition as Prince of Bulgaria was to create and
organize a native army, and he had the insight to perceive
that under proper training the Bulgarians might easily
be converted into excellent soldiers. This ambition ran
counter to the policy of St. Petersburg. Before the prince's
accession to the throne the Russians had already taken
into hand the work of military reconstruction. Russian
officers had been placed in command of all the important
posts in the Bulgarian army. The Russian,* and not the
Bulgarian, dialect had been made the language in which
the officers had to give orders to their troops. The
uniform, the drill, and the discipline of the Bulgarian
army were made, and are still, the exact counterparts of
those in use in Russia. As soon as the Prince attempted to
take a leading part in the organization and administration

2 2 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
of his own army, he was peremptorily given to under
stand that this was a matter with which he was not to
interfere, and that the War Department must be left
completely under Russian control.
We are very often told that the Russians display
exceptional tact in their dealings with subject races. How
ever this may be, they certainly showed a singular lack of
tact in their relations with Prince Alexander and his
subjects. The men who came to the front in Bulgaria
after the Revolution were almost without exception credited
with strong pro-Russian proclivities. As a written lan
guage, Bulgarian is almost identical with Russian; as a
spoken language, it so closely resembles Russian that
educated men in both countries have little or no difficulty
in understanding each other. As there is practically no
Bulgarian literature, Russian books, up to the period of
which I write, supplied the mental culture of the Bulgars ;
all these books inculcated the doctrine that the welfare
and progress of Bulgaria, as of other Sclav countries, were
indissolubly connected with the advance and grandeur of
the mighty Sclav Empire of the North. Yet, notwith
standing all these advantages, the Russians had no sooner
got a firm footing in Bulgaria, than they contrived to
give mortal offence to the very men who, when their
country had recovered her independence, looked forward
to playing a prominent part in her development. Both in
the civil and in the military administration, the ideas,
aspirations, and prejudices of the Bulgarians were either
ignored or treated with contempt. Their national pride
was outraged ; and their eyes were rudely opened to the
discovery, that in the opinion of their liberators Bulgaria
was henceforward to be a mere dependency of Russia, and

III.] THE GENESIS OF MODERN BULGARIA. 23
that her interests and aspirations were to be subordinated in
every respect to the policy of the Russian Empire. Thus
it came to pass that Prince Alexander, who on his
accession was regarded as a stranger, a foreigner, and a
puppet of Russia, soon became the chosen representative
of Bulgarian independence. His fine presence, his pleasant,
open manner, and his power of ingratiating himself, were
not long in winning personal popularity for the Prince
amidst his new subjects ; but, after all, the main cause of
his influence lay in the accident that he embodied the
dislike of a singularly independent and stiff-necked race,
proud of their historic past and sanguine of future great
ness, to be treated by their Russian protectors as an
inferior and subject people. To speak truth, the Bulgarians
were not long in finding out that they had replaced King
Log by King Stork ; and, on finding this, they bitterly
resented the new servitude which had been imposed upon
them. The Ministers, whose nomination had been forced upon
the Prince on his accession, obeyed blindly the orders they
received from St. Petersburg ; and after the death of the
Czar, Alexander II., these orders became more peremptory
and more offensive than ever. From and after this
time there was open conflict between the native element,
represented by Prince Alexander, and the Russian party in
Bulgaria ; and there can be little doubt that from this
period the deposition of the Prince was determined upon at
St. Petersburg.
The dethronement of Prince Alexander did not, however,
take place till events had occurred which greatly enhanced
his hold on his adopted country. In 1885 an insurrection
broke out in Eastern Roumelia, which proved successful

24 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
almost without an effort; and by which the Turkish
Governor-General was deposed. The first act of the
Provisional Government, established at Philippopolis after
the insurrection, was to proclaim the amalgamation of
Eastern Roumelia with Bulgaria, under the sovereignty of
Prince Alexander. The most plausible explanation of the
curious policy pursued by Russia in regard to this insur
rection, which was brought about by Russian partisans, is
that, according to the calculations formed at St. Petersburg,
it was expected that the Turks would endeavour to
suppress the insurrection by similar means to those em
ployed at the time of the Bulgarian atrocities ; that the
Russians would then intervene as the champions of Rou-
melian independence ; and that, as the price of their inter
vention and of the consequent annexation of Roumelia
to Bulgaria, they would be empowered to nominate, as
ruler of the United Provinces, a prince who would prove
more accessible to Russian influence than the then occupant
of the throne. These calculations were upset, partly be
cause the Turks did not think it worth their while to go to
war for the nominal retention of a province which, by the
Treaty of Berlin, had really passed out of their control ;
partly because Prince Alexander accepted the sovereignty
offered him by the Provisional Government without deeming
it necessary to obtain the consent of Russia or of the
Powers who had signed the treaty of Berlin, by which
Roumelia had been placed under a separate administration
from that of her sister province.
The annexation of Roumelia was followed by the
sudden withdrawal of all the Russian officers from Bulgaria.
It was imagined that this withdrawal would completely
disorganize the Bulgarian army. The post hoc propter hoc

III.] THE GENESIS OF MODERN BULGARIA. 25
line of argument is not one of very great weight. But, to say
the least, it is a remarkable coincidence that the supposed
dissolution of the Bulgarian army should have been
followed by a sudden and unprovoked declaration of war
on the part of Servia, the only alleged excuse for which
was found in a trifling dispute as to the frontiers of the two
countries. There is no need to repeat here the story how
Prince Alexander, left to himself, reorganized the army,
and filled up all the posts left vacant after the withdrawal
of the Russians by a number of young Bulgarian officers ;
how, supported by popular enthusiasm, he created a new
force out of almost raw materials ; and how, finally, he
crushed the Servian army at the battle of Slievnitza.
From the date of that victory the Prince became not
only the champion of national independence, but the hero
of Bulgaria. The Bulgarians indeed were deprived of the
material results of their victory by the intervention of
Austria in defence of Servia. Still the outcome of the
campaign had made the Bulgarians the leading race in the
Balkan Peninsula. In consequence, the idea of forming a
confederation of the Balkan States under Prince Alexander
came into prominence. Whether such a project was then,
or ever will be, feasible is a question for the future to decide.
It is obvious, however, that the union of the Sclav States
south of the Danube would prove a fatal obstacle to the
traditional policy of Russia. It became, therefore, a matter
of paramount importance in the interest of Russia to crush
this project in the bud by the removal of the Prince to
whom, after the victory of Slievnitza, the partisans of a
Balkanic Confederation had learnt to look as the chosen
representative of their cause.
In 1886 the Prince was kidnapped in his own palace,

26 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
compelled to sign his abdication, and carried off as a
prisoner into Russian territory on the northern banks of
the Danube. The abduction gave rise to as strong a
manifestation of popular sentiment in Bulgaria as could be
expected in a country which had been trained for cen
turies in the doctrine of passive submission to the powers
that be. Public opinion throughout Europe insisted upon
the Prince's release, and he returned to Bulgaria amidst
general demonstrations of good-will and affection. He
had no sooner, however, been replaced upon his throne,
than he came to the conclusion that he was fighting a
too unequal contest in his struggle with Russia, and he
then and there announced his abdication of the throne he
had occupied so gallantly and, on the whole, with such
success. The second abdication was made of his own free
will, and, in the face of his apparent vacillation of purpose,
it is difficult to believe that Prince Alexander was of the
stuff out of which the men who make history are built.
It is fair to say, on the other hand, that he showed himself
a good ruler and a brave soldier, and that, under circum
stances of exceptional difficulty, he won the affection and
confidence of a people not prone to bestow confidence or
affection lightly. Bystanders who were present when the
Prince's dead body was brought to Sofia for interment
assured me that, amidst the dense crowd collected along
the route through which the funeral procession passed,
there was scarcely a person present who was not in
tears. Upon the resignation of Prince Alexander, the Pro-
Russian party again got the upper hand. General Kaulbars
was sent from St. Petersburg as a sort of official liquidator
of the Bulgarian difficulty ; his first step was to insist on

III.] THE GENESIS OF MODERN BULGARIA. 2J
an amnesty being granted to all persons who had been
concerned in Prince Alexander's abduction. The Regents,
who had been appointed when the Prince resigned, hesi
tated about complying with these instructions. Thereupon
Russian men-of-war were sent to Varna, and the amnesty
was granted. Subsequently General Kaulbars made a
progress through the country and delivered a number of
speeches, calling on the Bulgarians to return members to
the Sobranje pledged to support Russia and to oppose
the policy of the Regency. The country, however, returned
an overwhelming majority in favour of the Regency.
Upon this, General Kaulbars was recalled, and all diplo
matic relations between Russia and Bulgaria were brought
to a close. This state of things remains unchanged to
the present day. An attempt was made to induce the
Sobranje to elect as ruler the Prince of Mingrelia, a
hanger-on of the Russian Court. The proposal, however,
was rejected. The crown was then offered to Prince
Waldemar of Denmark, and declined by him. Finally,
after various abortive negotiations, Prince Ferdinand of
Saxe-Coburg was elected as the successor of Prince Alex
ander. With his accession Bulgaria may be said to have
commenced her existence as a State, independent alike of
Turkey on the one hand and Russia on the other.
The present position of the Principality is no doubt
anomalous. The Prince has been duly elected by the
National Assembly as provided by the Constitution. He
has now reigned for some six years as the de facto sove
reign of the country. His Government is in close and
friendly relations with the Porte ; and it is notorious that
the Sultan, as Suzerain of Bulgaria, would be willing at
any moment, and has been willing ever since the Prince's

28 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Ch. III.
accession, to recognize him formally as the legal successor
of Prince Alexander of Battenberg.
Up to the present, however, the Sultan has delayed
recognizing the Prince's election in deference to the wishes
of the Czar. The Russian Government objects to the con
firmation of the election on the ground that by the Treaty
of Berlin the consent of all the signatories is essential to
the choice of a Prince of Bulgaria, and that, for reasons
which have never been openly stated, Prince Ferdinand is
not a persona grata to the Court of St. Petersburg. The
other Powers, though they are quite ready to recog
nize the Prince, do not consider themselves sufficiently
interested in the matter to dispute the Russian contention.
In consequence, the Prince remains unrecognized. The
relations, therefore, between the Court and the diplomatic
body at Sofia are of a very exceptional character. All
official communications from foreign Powers are still
addressed, not to the Prince personally, but to the Govern
ment of Bulgaria. This state of things is naturally dis
pleasing to the Prince and to his entourage ; but to the
mass of the people the absence of recognition makes no
practical difference. Indeed, the majority of Bulgarian
politicians are agreed that the disadvantages of non-
recognition are much more than compensated by the
absence of a Russian Minister at the capital, and of Russian
Consulars in all the large towns, as in their opinion these
diplomatic agencies would infallibly become centres of
disaffection and intrigue against the order of things at
present established.

( ^9 )

CHAPTER IV.
THE ERA OF TURKISH RULE.
One of the many questions which suggests itself to any
one who has cause to make a study of Bulgaria is, what
the reason may be why its people are so different from, and
in many respects so superior to, the population of other
Christian States which have also been held for centuries
under the rule of the Crescent. I have no wish to dispute
the many good and even grand qualities which differentiate
the Turk from the mongrel races out of which the
Ottoman Empire is composed. But I think even the most
ardent admirer of the Turks will admit that they are
singularly incompetent and inefficient as administrators.
It is a well-known saying throughout the East, that the
grass never grows where the hoof of the Turk's horse has
trod ; and this saying might not unfairly be called an
epitome of the whole history of Turkey in Europe. The
present prosperous and progressive condition of Bulgaria
seems at first sight inconsistent with the alleged malad
ministration of the country under Turkish rule. It is
obvious that the effects of some five centuries of enslave
ment cannot well have become obliterated in the course
of a mere handful of years.
The explanation of this apparent anomaly is, I think,
twofold. In the first place, the Bulgarians were a more

30 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
stubborn and sturdy race than the bulk of the nationalities
which, after the fall of the Greek Empire, passed under the
dominion of the Crescent. In the second place, the Bul
garians were never brought under the direct domination of
Turkey to the same extent as many of their neighbours.
There are few written records of the era of Turkish rule.
But the general impression seems to be that, from the day
when Bulgaria became a province of the Ottoman Empire
in the reign of the Sultan Bayazet to the day when it
was converted into an autonomous State by the Treaty
of Berlin, the general character of the administration
remained much the same. The so-called vilayet of the
Danube, which included not only Bulgaria proper but the
Dobrudscha on the left bank of the Danube, and part of
Servia as far west as Nisch, was administered by a
governor appointed directly by the Porte, who, as was
the case with the Viceroys of Egypt, was the sole
channel of official communication between the province
and the Supreme Government of Constantinople. The
governor possessed absolute autocratic power. No
decision of the local courts, whether in civil or criminal
cases, was valid till it had been submitted to, and
sanctioned by, the representative of the Sultan. His
authority, however, was limited to some slight extent by
the existence of the Meglis, a sort of council of local
notables, whose advice the governor was empowered to
take, but not obliged to follow. The head governor
resided at Rustschuk on the Danube. The other vilayets,
such as Sofia, had local governors of their own, who
exercised their authority subject to the orders of the
Governor-in-Chief. These local governors had also Meglis
of their own by whom they were supposed to be advised

IV.] THE ERA OF TURKISH RULE. 31
on all matters of local interest. Each vilayet was divided
into a number of districts, administered by officials called
Muktar-Scherifs ; and each village in every district was
presided over by a Kaimakan, whose position much
resembled that of an Egyptian Sheikh. In theory the
Governor-in-Chief selected the local Governors ; the local
Governors appointed the Muktar-Scherifs in their several
districts ; and the sanction of the Muktar-Scherifs was
essential for the nomination of the village Kaimakans,
who were elected by their fellow-villagers. The extent,
however, to which this theory was carried out in practice,
depended mainly upon the personal character of the
reigning Governor. Till quite recent times no official
who was not a Mussulman was ever appointed to any
Government post in Bulgaria. The only exception made
to this rule was in the composition of the Meglis, where
a certain number of Christians were allowed to sit as
representatives of the various non-Mahommedan religious
communities. The majority, however, in all the Meglis
were always Mahommedans. The courts of law were pre
sided over by Mussulman judges, and administered the law
of Islam. Thus Bulgaria was in theory ruled on a highly
centralized system, in virtue of which the sic volo sic jubeo
policy of the Porte was carried out all over the province
through the agency of the Governor-in-Chief. In Turkey,
however, even more than elsewhere, there is a wide
difference between theory and fact. Bulgaria was not a
favourite residence with the Turkish officials. Then, as
now, it was, at any rate during the long winter months,
a bleak, cheerless country, remote in actual distance from
Stamboul, and still more remote in respect of means of

32 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
communication. The population consisted almost exclu
sively of illiterate and uncouth peasants, who earned little
more than was required for their own sustenance, and out
of whose pockets there was very little to be got even by the
most exacting of Pashas. In consequence of this state of
things, the great majority of the officials were not Turks,
but Bulgarians, who had become converts to Islam ; and,
in the general relations of life, not affected by matters of
creed, these officials were, as a rule, on friendly terms
with their Christian fellow-kinsmen.
Moreover, to do the Turks justice, they are not given
to interfere unnecessarily in small matters. The Turk is
at once too proud and too indolent to ever make an efficient
taskmaster. The chief, if not the sole, duty of the Turkish
administration in Bulgaria was to collect the revenue
required by the Porte. In order to discharge this duty with
as little trouble as possible, the administration used to farm
out the taxes ; the post of receiver being conferred, with
out any regard to religious considerations, upon the
contractor who was willing to pay the highest price for
his appointment. The farmers of the taxes were generally
Bulgarians, who from their knowledge of the language,
habits, and circumstances of their fellow-countrymen, were
able to squeeze more money out of the tax-payers than
the Turks could well have done themselves. The result
was that the collection of taxes, which in all Eastern
countries forms the chief point of contact between the
Government and its subjects, was left in Bulgaria almost
entirely in the hands of native middle-men. These
middle-men cheated and overtaxed their fellow-country
men just as they cheated and underpaid the Government
by whom they were employed. Still the oppression of

IV.] THE ERA OF TURKISH RULE. 33
men of your own race and faith is never quite the same
thing to the person oppressed as the tyranny of a stranger
and an alien.
I do not gather that even in the worst of times the
peasantry were cruelly over-taxed. Bulgaria is not a
country like Egypt, where, given a good Nile, the crops
are so rich as to make the poorest fellah worth robbing.
By hard work and extreme thrift the Bulgarian peasants
contrived to earn a living. They had no motive to do
more. What little they saved after they had fed and
housed themselves was hoarded. Large estates were
almost unknown. The peasant had his two or three
acres to till ; and on their produce he lived in comparative
comfort, secured from oppression by his own real or
apparent lack of means. When the Russian troops
entered Bulgaria as liberators, the common soldiers were
astonished to find that the peasants they had come to
deliver from Ottoman tyranny were apparently far better
off than the ordinary Muscovite Moujik. Thus the mis-
government to which Bulgaria was subjected at the hands
of Turkey did not produce quite as evil effects as might
have been expected to result from a vicious system of
administration. As an instance of how the system worked,
I may repeat a story told me by one of the most eminent
of Bulgarian statesmen as coming within his own ex
perience. Some thirty years ago there was a small trades
man at Gabrovo who carried on the business of a tanner,
and had laid by a little money. After the fashion of
his countrymen, he sent his son to Paris to learn how
business was carried on in more civilized countries. After
a few years the lad returned home, having acquired
knowledge of various new processes in the art of tanning,
D

34 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
and persuaded his father to purchase modern machinery
and start a tannery after the French model. The scheme
was carried out ; the factory went on swimmingly, and
threatened to drive local competition out of the field.
Within a few weeks, however, of the new works being
opened the premises were burnt down by Mussulmen in
the tannery trade. The tanner was ruined, but had no
possibility of obtaining redress. He knew perfectly well
who had committed the offence ; but the offenders were
Mussulmen, and it was idle for him, being himself a
Christian, to sue them before a Mussulman tribunal. In
consequence he gave up the business and abandoned all
idea of introducing improvements into his own trade.
Notwithstanding the baleful influence of Mahommedan
ascendency, the antipathies between the followers of the
Crescent and the Cross seem to me to have been far
less keen and embittered in Bulgaria than in most other
parts of the Ottoman Empire. At all periods in their
history the Bulgarians took their religion less fanatically
than other Sclavonic nations. They held rigidly to their
own creed and their own ritual, but in the main they
lived on good terms with their fellow-citizens who had
accepted the religion of the Prophet. I am assured,
though this estimate must necessarily be of a very
problematical character, that the Mussulman population
in Bulgaria never at any time exceeded one-tenth of the
whole, and that at the present moment the proportion
of Christians to Mahommedans is as fifty to one. Ever
since Bulgaria became independent the Mahommedan
exodus has been going on steadily. The Tomaks, as
the Bulgarians who became converts to Islam after the
Turkish conquest are called, have not been oppressed

IV.] THE ERA OF TURKISH RULE. 35
in any way, except during the brief era which followed
the War of Independence. In the great majority of
instances the Tomaks have nothing to complain of in
respect to their treatment by their Christian neighbours.
In common with all other Bulgarians, they have prospered
with the general development of the national prosperity.
Now that the Cross has supplanted the Crescent, the old
ascendency of the Tomaks as a dominant caste has dis
appeared, and they find it difficult to brook being equals
where formerly they were superiors. But the main cause
of the Tomak exodus is of a religious kind. There is no
creed which takes so firm a hold upon the minds of con
verts as that of the Prophet, and the Tomaks are devout
beyond the measure of ordinary Mussulmen. The Mollahs
from the Turkish provinces who visit the Mussulman
villages, especially during Ramadan, never lose an oppor
tunity of exhorting their co-religionists to quit a country
where the Giaour is supreme, where the true faith is not
held in respect, and where, in consequence, Allah will not
listen to the prayers of those who, of free choice, live
and die amidst unbelievers. Appeals of this kind always
come home to true sons of Islam ; and every year Tomak
after Tomak sells his farms, often at a ruinous sacrifice,
and leaves the country of his birth in order to reside
once more amongst the people of his own faith.
This rapid decrease in the Mahommedan population
is a subject of deep regret to the Bulgarian authori
ties. The north-east corner of the country, the triangle
contained between the Danube, the Black Sea, and the
northern slopes of the Balkans, is almost exclusively
occupied by Tomaks. Every inducement in the way
of remission of taxes and of exemption from military

36 HISTORY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap. IV.
service has been held out to keep the Tomaks from
deserting their homes. But so far all these inducements
have failed to overcome the half-social, half-fanatical
influences which render a land where the Giaour holds
sway no fit dwelling-place for a true follower of Islam.

( 37 )

ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT
STATE.
CHAPTER V.
THE LAND TENURE.
I HAVE endeavoured in the foregoing chapters to explain
the general course of events which preceded the conversion
of Bulgaria into an independent State. I have now to
deal with its present position. The population of the
country nowadays is, in round numbers, three and a half
millions. Notwithstanding the large exodus of the Moslem
Bulgarians, and the great mortality among infants, due to
the absence of midwives, to bad sanitary arrangements, and
to the fact of the mothers going back to work in the fields
almost immediately after their confinement, the population
increases annually by about two hundred thousand. The
peasants, as a rule, marry soon after they come of age.
Large families are very common, and a household in which
there are only four or five children is the exception. The
material conditions of life have improved greatly — and
notably amidst the poorer classes — since the declaration
of independence; and if the present rate of increase
continues, it is calculated that the population will be
doubled in the course of the next decade.
Of the existing population five-sevenths, or two and a

38 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
half millions, are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and the
overwhelming majority are small landed proprietors. The
proportion of labourers, who work for wages on other
men's lands, is extremely limited. At harvest time, a
certain number of foreigners, chiefly Macedonians, come
into Bulgaria to seek employment ; and the poorer peasant
farmers of the country, when their own crops are gathered
in, are ready to work for wages on the lands of their
wealthier neighbours. But it may safely be asserted that,
throughout the rural districts, there is no important section
of the community depending for its means of livelihood on
any other source of income than the produce of its own
lands. There is as yet no cadastre in Bulgaria, though one
is shortly to be undertaken. Nor is there, so far, any very
satisfactory system of agricultural statistics. It is not,
therefore, easy to say what are the average holdings of the
present proprietors. According to the estimate of residents
well acquainted with the country, the average is about six
acres, taken all round, though in many instances the
holdings are very small, only amounting to a single acre
or even less. According to the law, which is still mainly
based upon the old Turkish legislation, the father of a
family has only a qualified liberty of testamentary dis
posal. If he has only one child, he is obliged to leave
that child not less than one-half his property ; if he has
two or more children, he can only alienate one-third ; and,
in default of children, his other relatives, including his
parents, if still living at the time of his death, have a
legal claim to a certain share in his estate. Of course,
this system tends to promote the indefinite subdivision
of landed property, though, in the case of very small
farms, this tendency is modified by voluntary arrangements

V.] THE LAND TENURE. 39
between the different heirs to the property, in virtue
of which one of them is allowed to keep the farm
for himself in consideration of his buying out the other
claimants, either by paying cash down, or by assigning
them a charge on the profits of the farm. There are
obvious disadvantages to the State in this continued multi
plication of small farms ; and there has been some talk of
legislation, with the view of checking the further sub
division of estates. The passion, however, for owning land,
and the preference for agricultural labour, are so universal
amidst the people, that, no matter what legislation may
attempt, Bulgaria, for many generations to come, will
remain a land of small proprietors.
The Bulgarians hold their land on a system derived
from the days of the Ottoman dominion. In Turkey, as
in all Oriental countries, the Sultan is theoretically the
absolute owner of all the land, over which he rules by the
grace of Allah. In practice, he is a sort of ground land
lord, whose tenants, subject to certain specified conditions,
have a perpetual lease, which descends as a matter of law
to their heirs. In Bulgaria the condition of tenure was
that the lessees of the land had to pay one-tenth of the
gross produce of their farms to the tax-collectors of the
Government. In the event of default of payment of the
tithe, or of the lands being left uncultivated for three
consecutive years, or of the owner dying without legal
heirs, the land reverted to the State. In the old days, this
system paved the way for a great amount of abuse. Still
in this, as in other matters, the Turks adhered loyally to
any contract into which they had entered ; and I gather
that even under Mahommedan rule the Bulgarian peasantry
had practically a good title to their lands.

40 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
When Bulgaria became independent, the State stepped
into the place of the Sultan ; and the old system of land
tenure has not been materially modified. Taxation by
tithes is, however, at the best, a very costly, cumbrous,
and unsatisfactory arrangement. In Turkish days the
tithe was mainly paid in kind ; during the last few years,
various, more or less successful, attempts have been made
to substitute payment in cash for payment in kind. But
these reforms have not made so much progress as might
have been expected. Owing to the intense conservatism,
characteristic of peasant communities, and to their profound
distrust of any innovation, even if it can be shown to be
conducive to their own advantage, payment in cash is
viewed with scanty favour by the mass of the population.
The tithe system tends to check improvement in agri
culture or the employment of money in the develop
ment of the land. The farmer, as it is, pays one-tenth
of his gross produce. If he raises crops valued at ten
pounds, according to the market rates, he pays one
pound as a tax to the treasury. But if he spends twenty
pounds on manure or irrigation, and thereby raises the
produce of his land to twenty pounds, he has to pay
two pounds in the shape of taxes, without any deduction
being made for the capital he has invested in the per
manent improvement of his lands. Thus the action of the
tithe system actually augments the natural reluctance of
an ignorant and thrifty community of peasant proprietors
to spend money on improvements. In consequence, the
Government are anxious to do away with the present
mode of estimating the land-tax in proportion to the
produce of each particular year, and to substitute for it
a fixed rental, payable in coin, irrespective of the rise and

V.] THE LAND TENURE. 4 1
fall in the amount of the year's production. In other
words, if the proposed changes should be carried out,
the tenant will become a freehold owner, subject only to
the payment of a yearly land-tax to the State, in virtue of
a perpetual settlement.
The communes hold their lands, which are not of very
large extent, under a different tenure. Each commune
owns a certain amount of pasture land and woodland, which
is held in perpetuity, and for which no rent is paid either
in cash or kind. Every member of the commune has the
right of grazing his cattle on the parish pasture-grounds,
and of cutting fuel from the parish woods. As the popula
tion increases, and as land becomes more valuable, the
commune tenure will probably have to be altered. For
the present, the system works fairly well, and is popular
with the country.
The condition of the peasantry has also been improved
by the establishment of the Caisses Agricoles, which owe
their origin to Turkish rule, and which have been largely
developed under the recent administration. When poor
Midhat Pasha — a sort of Oriental Hamlet, born in an
evil hour for himself, to try and set right a world that
was out of joint — lived at Rustschuk, as Governor-
General of the vilayet of the Danube, one of his many
measures of reform was the establishment in Bulgaria of
Mutual Assurance Associations for the development of
local industries. The land-owners in each district were
compelled to contribute a certain sum, calculated in
proportion to the amount of the tithe at which they were
assessed, into a common fund. This fund was placed
under the control of a certain number of the leading
inhabitants of each locality, who were partly elected and

42 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
partly nominated by the administration. The funds so
raised were employed in making advances to the farmers
within the district, who required advances for the improve
ment of their lands. The advances were made on personal
security. As the administrators had to deal with funds
to which they themselves were large subscribers, and as
they were necessarily well acquainted with the pecuniary
position of any borrowers who applied for advances,
there was little risk of the funds of the Caisses being
imprudently invested. When Bulgaria was declared
independent, the native Government found these institu
tions in working order, and has since largely increased
their number. There are now not far from a hundred of
these Caisses to be found in the country, possessing an
aggregate capital of ^600,000, and having power to
borrow loans from the National Bank. None of these
institutions have ever actually failed to meet their liabilities,
though naturally enough several of them have invested
portions of their funds unwisely, have made bad debts,
and have thereby diminished their available resources.
Still, on the whole, they have done good work, they have
enabled farmers in many instances to tide over bad times
without resorting to the native usurers, who charge exorbi
tant rates of interest, and they have acquired the confidence
of the general public. As a proof of this, I may mention
that the Sobranje has recently passed a law authorizing
the guardians of children under age to invest the trust
funds at their disposal in the Caisses Agricoles.
There is talk, too, of establishing a Credit Fonder.
The law of mortgage in Bulgaria is based on the French
system, which is about as good a one as exists anywhere.
A mortgage is not binding, as against third parties, unless

v-] THE LAND TENURE. 43
it has been formally registered by the lender. Registers
of all mortgages are kept in the districts wherein the
lands mortgaged are situated, and are accessible to any
one who wishes to purchase land ; there is, therefore, no
difficulty in ascertaining whether any property offered for
sale or mortgage is free of any previous lien, or if not, to
what extent it is indebted. I should fancy, however, the
extreme smaUness of the average holdings would render
it difficult for any large institution to carry on a profitable
trade in advancing money on the security of landed estate
in Bulgaria. The absence of any cadastre and of any
central registry office are also difficulties in the way of a
Credit Fonder. Moreover, the Bulgarian peasantry are
too thrifty and too penurious to mortgage their holdings
except under extreme pressure. It is only in the towns
that the local banks are able to do any large business as
money-lenders upon mortgage.
Each village is administered by a Mayor, assisted by a
council of two or more members, in proportion to the
population. The Mayor and the Councillors are elected
by the direct suffrage of their fellow-villagers, and hold
office for three years. In Bulgaria, as in most countries
composed of peasant proprietors, there is a standing
prejudice against centralization, and a strong preference
for local self-government ; this sentiment manifests itself
constantly in the Parliament, which, in the main, is a
Chamber of peasant land-owners.
Take it altogether, I should say the lot of the Bulgarian
peasantry was a happy one. They live very roughly, very
thriftily, and, one might almost say, very sordidly ; but
they have sufficient to eat, they are warmly, if coarsely,
clad, and they enjoy generally a certain amount of rude

44 ORGANIZA TION OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap.V.
comfort. They work hard, but they work for themselves,
and they are now, even more than in the old days, free to
live out their own lives after their own fashion. Poverty,
in our sense of the word, does not exist. In the towns
there are individual cases of destitution owing to drink
and misconduct ; but these cases are few and insignificant.
There is, as yet, no need to make any public provision for
the relief of the poor ; there is no question of the conflicting
interests of workmen and employers ; strikes and trades
unions are alike unknown. For all these things the
Bulgarians have ground to thank the causes which have
made them what they are, a people of peasants.

( 45 )

CHAPTER VI.
ASPECT OF THE PEOPLE.
IN the course of my life, it has been my lot to reside in
many out-of-the-way places. But I know of few where I
have felt so much cut off from the outer world as in
the city of Sofia. It is a bright town, with most of
the appliances of civilization. The shop windows dis
play all the articles, and nothing but the articles, one
is familiar with in Western cities. The place, people,
dresses bear to Western eyes a home-like aspect. Indeed,
I think, if I were placed suddenly in the centre of Sofia,
not knowing where I was, I should guess that I was
in one of the commonplace modern cities of the German
Fatherland, in which every travelled Englishman feels
that, though he is not at home, he is not far from home.
Yet, ¦ the longer I stayed at Sofia, the stronger the
impression grew upon me that I was a stranger in a
strange land.
I think this impression is due partly to the fact that
the inscriptions over the shops, the names of the streets,
the placards on the walls, and the notices in the windows
convey absolutely no meaning to the ordinary Western
mind. The letters employed seem to have a sort of remote
kinship to the Greek alphabet, but to any one not conversant
with Sclav languages, the letters look as if jumbled up in

46 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
inextricable confusion, like the figures of a child's map
puzzle thrown, as printers say, into " pie." Then, too, the
ordinary smattering of foreign tongues, by possession of
which our countrymen contrive to make themselves more
or less understood in most parts of the world, is here well-
nigh useless. If you want to ask your way about the town
from ninety-nine out of a hundred of the people you meet
in the streets, you may as well address them in Chinese
as in English, French, German, or Italian. The great
mass of the people speak no language except their own.
The officials and the men of education can commonly
understand French, but they rarely speak it either readily
or fluently. Some dozen words of Russian, which, out of
the very few that I ever knew, have stuck somehow in my
memory, proved singularly useful to me here. At the
hotels and cafes there is a sprinkling of waiters who are
either Germans by birth or who can understand German
when spoken. But kavasses, dragomans, valets de place,
and all the class of people who serve as guides and inter
preters to strangers in other Capitals, are here an unknown
race. So far, the Bulgarians have had but little intercourse
with strangers and foreigners ; they have had, therefore, no
great necessity for the use of any foreign language. The
older generation, indeed, generally picked up enough of
Turkish to make themselves intelligible, but the generation
which has grown up since the Russo-Turkish War has had
little need for a knowledge which was essential to their
parents. In Sofia there are colonies of Greeks, Austrians,
and Jews, who reside mostly in different quarters of the
town. But in as far as language and looks are concerned,
these colonies have become more or less fused in the

VI-] ASPECT OF THE PEOPLE. 47
ordinary Bulgarian mould. English tourists are extremely
rare. At the time I was there, the whole English
community — putting aside the members of our Agency
and Consulate — consisted of three persons, of which trinity
I myself formed one. There are a few Frenchmen resident
in Sofia, who are chiefly employed in the service of the
palace. There are also a considerable number of Germans,
who earn their living as waiters or skilled artisans. Still,
taking everything into account, the foreign element in
Sofia is extremely small in proportion to the importance
and size of the city. Outside the capital this proportion
is infinitely smaller. Thus the more a stranger sees of
Bulgaria, the more the feeling grows upon him that he is
dwelling amongst a very distinct and homogeneous race,
with whom he has but little in common. Even foreigners,
who have resided here for years, do not seem to grow
intimate with the people amongst whom their lives are
spent. There is, I think, a certain amount of popular
prejudice against all foreigners, though, judging from my
own experience, strangers have absolutely no cause to
complain of any lack of friendly courtesy. The truth is
that the Bulgarians are a self-contained, undemonstrative
race, who have no particular wish to go outside their own
circle of home ideas, home interests, and home habits.
Thus the stranger in Bulgaria is necessarily isolated,
and the sense of isolation is increased by the fact that
the whole outward aspect of the towns, and especially of
Sofia, is in all material respects so essentially Western
and not Eastern. One seems here to be somehow in the
West, and yet not of it. There is so little in the look
of things to recall the fact that a few years ago this was
a Turkish country. It is but seldom, except in the

48 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
northern districts, that you meet with fez or turban of
any kind. Everywhere, amidst men and women alike, the
dull, sombre, monotone garb of the West is the all but
universal costume. It is only on market days, when the
peasants troop into the towns from the country, that you
can realize the fact that the East, after all, lies very close at
hand. The long, heavily laden waggons, formed of a pole
with planks on either side and drawn by oxen or buffaloes,
which come creaking and jolting through the streets, are
of the East Eastern. The peasants, bearing goads in
their hands, clad in sheepskins, with their legs swathed
round with woollen cloth, tied with strings round their
calves and ankles, tramp stolidly along with the look of
apathy and indifference to their surroundings which
characterizes the Oriental. The peasant women, too, dis
play the love of gaudy colours which is innate under the
sunlight of Eastern climes. One and all of them wear a
kind of embroidered jacket of many hues, which, unfettered
by stays or belts, hangs down loosely to their knees.
Underneath they display a flannel petticoat, embroidered
with what I believe are called insertions ; and under this
again you catch sight of a more or less white petticoat,
reaching to the ankles of the sandled feet. Their heads
are covered with a turban bound in folds round the hair,
and to it there are attached two long tails floating down
the back. The turbans are mostly white, but are often,
like Joseph's coat, of many colours. Amidst the younger
women the hair is not unfrequently decked out as in the
East with strings of coin. Old and young alike have no
veils to their faces, and I must add that, in most cases,
the Bulgarian women look as if they had washed their
faces— a custom which is by no means characteristic of

VI-] ASPECT OF THE PEOPLE. . 49
Oriental womankind. Men and women tramp, or rather
shuffle, along together — the former in front, the latter
behind, but they seldom seem to speak to each other or
to desire any closer companionship. The women carry
most of the household burdens, the men walk unloaded ;
this, too, is Oriental. Smoking is not common amongst
the men, and drunkenness in public seems almost un
known. Indeed, amongst the things which struck me
most in Bulgaria were the extreme sobriety and quietness
of the native population. Street quarrels, rows, shouts,
and cries are of rare occurrence ; and the very children,
who play tip-cat all day long in the side streets, play for
the most part in silence. Beauty, judged at any rate by a
Western standard, is not characteristic of the ordinary
Bulgarians. Their complexion is muddy, their features are
coarse and ill-formed, and the Tartar element in their phy
siognomy is too predominant. But at the same time they
are a singularly strong-built, powerful race. Both men and
women are broad-shouldered, wide-chested, and full-legged.
Perhaps when you have said that they have the look which
the Scotch call " dour," you have said as much as can
fairly be urged against their possession of physical charms.
During my stay in Bulgaria I was very often reminded
of the Transvaal. The two countries have much in com
mon ; they are both peasant States, ruled by peasant
Ministers, who legislate in accordance with the will of a
peasant assembly. In some important respects the con
ditions of the two countries are fundamentally different.
The Boers are, as a body, large landowners, who constitute
the dominant race amidst a semi-savage population. In
the Transvaal the Kaffirs perform the manual labour which
their Dutch masters are unable or unwilling to do for
E

50 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
themselves. The trade, industry, and development of the
country are left in the hands of foreigners. No amount of
money would induce a Boer to earn wages as a labourer,
or to work in the fields except as a "boss," ordering about
black workmen. Grazing, hunting, and driving a team are
pretty well the only occupations the Boers will consent to
follow. In all the above respects the Bulgarians are the
exact opposite of the Transvaal farmers. They are small
landowners, who till their own fields by their own manual
labour. If the land is not large or fertile enough to
support the whole family, the members who are not wanted
on the farm go to the towns and get employment there
as shopmen or artisans, till they can save enough to buy
a field for themselves. The retail trade and industry of the
State are mainly in native hands, and are daily becoming
more so. Unlike the Transvaal, which owes its prosperity
to enterprises originated, worked, and owned by foreigners,
Bulgaria owes her fortune to the almost unassisted industry
of her own people. If ever the popular belief should be
realized, according to which immense mineral wealth
exists in the remote mountain districts, a second Johannes
burg may possibly come into existence amidst the Balkan
ranges ; but in any case it will be a Bulgarian, and not
an English, Johannesburg. On the other hand, the Bulgars,
who have been for centuries subject to the rule of a race
alien to their own in nationality and creed, do not and
cannot possess the rugged independence of the Boers.
Apart, however, from the differences due to the influence
of their respective histories and their respective surround
ings, the Bulgars and Boers have many points of resem
blance. Both States are essentially peasant communities ;
and the people of both countries have the merits and

VI.] ASPECT OF THE PEOPLE. 5 1
demerits common to the peasant type. When I visited
the Transvaal I found an extreme difficulty in reconciling
the conflicting accounts about the Boer character, which
were given me by old residents, equally well informed,
and, to all appearance, equally truthful. On the one hand,
I was assured that the Boers were sordid in their habits,
ignorant and untruthful, corrupt and unprincipled, and
altogether unfit for independence. On the other hand,
I was told that the Boers were a homely, simple-minded,
law-abiding, and hard-working people, honest in their
dealings, anxious to keep their word, though keen-witted
about their own affairs, and perfectly competent to govern
themselves. My personal observation soon led me to
the conclusion that the Boers were neither as good nor as
bad as they were described respectively by friendly and
unfriendly critics ; but that, on the whole, the favourable
version came nearer to the truth than the unfavourable
one. I suspect, myself, a similar investigation would lead
to a similar conclusion as to the two contradictory estimates
of the Bulgar character you hear constantly from foreign
residents, whose experience gives them some right to
express an opinion on the subject. I was frequently told
that the Bulgars were a bad lot ; that they were greedy,
grasping, and ungrateful ; that they had no self-respect, no
sense of honour. I have no doubt there is an element of
truth in the above description. The Bulgars have only
just regained their liberty after a servitude of centuries. I
have already expressed my opinion that Turkish rule in
Bulgaria was by no means so cruel or so oppressive as it is
represented to have been by ardent partisans of Sclav
proclivities. Still, after making every possible allowance,
the rule of Turkey in Bulgaria was an autocratic despotism

52 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
exercised by masters alien from their subjects in race,
language, and religion. Slavery is slavery all the world
over ; and till within recent years the Bulgars were slaves,
who only enjoyed a modicum of freedom, thanks to the
remoteness of their country, the absence of individual
wealth, and the contemptuous indifference of their Moslem
lords and masters. The marvel is, given these conditions,
that they have retained so much of the virtues of freemen,
not that they should have imbibed a few of the vices of
slavery. Servility, dishonesty, dissimulation, disregard of
truth, and absence of self-respect are failings necessarily
generated by slavery. I am quite prepared to admit that
the present generation of Bulgarians have not lost all the
characteristics inherited from their forefathers. There is
not a Bulgarian, over the age of eighteen, who was not
born under Turkish rule ; and till a year or two ago, there
was not a child at school who could not remember the day
when the Turk was master in the country. Moreover,
the indictments against the Bulgarian character, to which I
have made reference, are at best generalizations from
individual experiences. Whenever you ask for some
definite proof that the Bulgarians are all dishonest and
untruthful, you are told of some isolated instances of fraud
and deceit which have come within the knowledge of your
informants. These instances may or may not be fairly
stated, but, in any case, they are not sufficient to justify-
any general conclusion as to the character of a whole
nation. As against these hasty denunciations, it may be
well to quote the testimony of three witnesses, who enjoyed
considerable opportunities of studying the Bulgarian people.
Dr. Constantine Jirsech, who, some years ago, published a
very impartial work on Bulgaria in German, gives it as his

VI.] ASPECT OF THE PEOPLE. 53
opinion that " the Bulgarian is sober in every respect,
" careful in his expenditure, and hard-working. The energy
" he displays as a cultivator and an artisan is inexhaustible.
" Under the exterior of the peasant, cunning and suspicious
"in accordance with peasant nature, the common Bulgar
" conceals a shrewd and observant mind. Being both docile
" and conscientious, whether as scholar, soldier, artisan, or
" trader, he identifies himself completely with the duties he
"has undertaken to perform. His whole mode of life is
" simple and frugal." Again, Prince Joseph of Battenburg,
the younger brother of the late Prince Alexander, states
that " the people of Bulgaria are sober, laborious, and
persevering. They possess all the qualities which, when
Bulgaria has developed her productive forces, must enable
her some day or other to play the leading part with the
Balkan Peninsula. Bulgaria is a rich, fertile, happy country,
a country with a future." This opinion, I may say, was
expressed by Prince Joseph long after his brother's con
nection with the Principality had come to an untimely end.
Similar testimony is borne by a recent French traveller,
Captain Lamouske : " The dominant features in the Bul
garian character are a certain seriousness and a sense of
what is practical. As a rule the Bulgarian is cold, reserved,
and silent. As a rule, too, he leads a moral life, is hard
working and economical."
I may confirm to some extent these testimonies to the
Bulgarian character by statements which were made to me
in the course of casual conversation by foreign residents,
who have had long personal experience of the country and
its people. The managing director of one of the leading
railways assured me that Bulgaria was the only place he
had ever known where you could leave money about your

54 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
offices or rooms with perfect safety, even if the doors were
open — a statement which, on a small scale, I could corro
borate from my own observation. The manager of a
foreign bank in Bulgaria remarked to me that in all his
experience as a banker in many parts of the world, he had
never known bank customers who repaid loans made to
them so honestly as the Bulgarian peasant farmers. An
English gentleman, who has resided in Bulgaria and owned
land there for the greater part of a long life, gave me as
the result of his experience that, if you wanted work done
in Bulgaria, you got it done more quickly and more
cheaply if you engaged Bulgarian workmen by the day,
than if you contracted for the job by piecework. It would
be absurd to say that these various statements are con
clusive proofs of the general honesty of the Bulgarians.
But they go some way to show that, to say the least, they
are not less honest than their neighbours.
It should be borne in mind that the persons from whom
an ordinary traveller derives most of his information in
Bulgaria are generally people connected in some way or
other with the diplomatic service. All this class of infor
mants, no matter what their nationality, are unconsciously
biased by their partiality for the Turks. I do not wonder at
this partiality. I suspect that in their place I should enter
tain much the same sentiment. Whatever the defects of
the " unspeakable Turk " may be as a master, it is diffi
cult to overrate his merits as an acquaintance. He is an
infinitely more satisfactory personage to deal with than the
average Levantine, or Sclav, or Greek. He has a value for
truth which renders him unwilling, to say the least, to tell
a lie without a motive ; he has a sense of self-respect
which makes him dislike being detected in double dealings,

VL] ASPECT OF THE PEOPLE.

55

even if it is not strong enough to ensure his uprightness ;
he is polished in manner, dignified, and courteous. In fact,
to put the matter briefly, the Turk is the gentleman of
Eastern Europe ; and therefore all diplomatists who have
to do with the East are prejudiced in his favour, and are
disposed to side with him as against the native races which
have revolted, or are endeavouring to revolt, against his rule.
It happens, too, that from a variety of reasons the
progress of Bulgaria is viewed with extreme jealousy, not
only by Russia, but by Greece and Servia. In consequence,
Russians, Greeks, and Serbs, who come into much closer
contact with the West than the Bulgars, are only too glad
to join in any outcry against the Piedmont of the Balkans.
The Bulgarians are not, I admit freely, an engaging or a
particularly attractive people ; they have no literature, no
artistic tastes, no great intellectual culture, and no dramatic
qualities. They are simply a race of peasants with all a
peasant's meannesses and prejudices, but also with all the
peasant's virtues of industry and frugality. I remember
many years ago, when travelling in the Western States of
America, that, as we crossed the prairies of Illinois in the
tram, there was an old Irishwoman seated in the corner
of the car I occupied. Somebody in the car made a dis
paraging remark about the dreary monotony of the endless
plains over which we were passing. The old woman
seemed to take the comment as an insult to the country,
and, pointing to the homesteads rising out of the prairie,
remarked rather to herself than to anybody else, " Sure and
it is a blessed country ; I think God made it for the poor."
And as I travelled through Bulgaria the memory of this
incident often came back to my mind, and I thought that
this, too, was a blessed country, made by God for the peasant.

56 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

CHAPTER VII.
VILLAGE LIFE.
THE more I saw of Bulgaria the more I came to the
conclusion that it was a lucky accident which caused Sofia
to be selected as the seat of the Government, the head
quarters from which the reorganization of the country was
to be initiated and conducted. If the Principality is ever
to play an independent part in history, it must be in virtue
of its distinctive Bulgarian character ; and this character is
more strongly marked and less diluted by foreign elements
in the district surrounding Sofia than in any other portion
of the State. In the capital and its vicinity the Tomak
population is small in number and almost confined to the
towns. The inland position of Sofia and its remoteness
from the sea-coast prevent it from being subjected to any
of the cosmopolitan influences which more or less affect
all seaboard districts. Moreover, from the height of the
plateau which constitutes the province of Sofia, its in
habitants are mountaineers as compared with the people of
the fertile, low, southern plains, while their lives are passed
in a far colder climate than that of Eastern Roumelia.
Under these conditions the Sofiote Bulgarians display the
intense conservatism of habit which marks all races whose
existence is a lifelong struggle against a cold though

VII.] VILLAGE LIFE. 57
bracing climate, against a hard though not ungrateful soil,
and against a variety of economic causes which render
freedom from the necessity for constant toil almost as rare
as absolute destitution. In short, the characteristics which
distinguish the Bulgarians as a race are to be found more
strongly developed in the inhabitants of the northern
plateaus. If Bulgaria is allowed to work out her own develop
ment, the organization of the State must be based upon
the peculiar economic conditions which, as I have en
deavoured to show, distinguish it from almost all other
communities ; and the atmosphere, moral as well as
material, of the country round Sofia is more favourable to
development on these lines than that of which Philippopolis
is the centre. Making allowance for a difference of site,
one Bulgarian village is the very counterpart of every
other. You have only to drive in any direction from
Sofia to find village after village, generally buried in the
valleys at the foot of the hills, which are so like each other
that no one not a native would find it easy to distinguish
them. One of the favourite drives from the capital is that
to the hamlet of Panscherevow, which lies some dozen
miles south of Sofia, on the slopes of the mountain range
of which Vitosch is the highest point, and which stands
on the banks of the river Ishka. On leaving Sofia you
drive for about six miles along the high-road to Con
stantinople, the one central artery which traverses Bulgaria
from the Servian frontier at Zaribrod to the Turkish
frontier at Mustapha Pasha. I should fancy, myself, that
the road must have been originally constructed by the
Romans — it runs so pitilessly straight and is so obviously
the work of a road-building race. Even in the Turkish

58 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
days this road was kept in comparatively good repair,
as it formed the military route between Stamboul and
Belgrade. The construction of the railroad has to some
extent diminished its importance, but it is still the chief
means of communication between the various towns which
lie along its course. Neither expense nor trouble are
spared in building new bridges, keeping the roadway
in good order, and digging trenches along the sides
so as to carry off the water, which formerly flooded the
road whenever the mountain streams poured down the
hillside in torrents after the snow had melted in the
uplands. The plain, through which the road runs, is, as a rule,
cultivated. It is hard to say exactly where the tilled
fields end and where the open pasture-land begins, as
there are no hedgerows or landmarks of any kind between
one field and another. Here, as elsewhere, I was puzzled
to understand where the labourers lived, whose daily toil
brought and kept such a wide area of land under cultiva
tion. Dotted over the plain, at long distances apart, you
could see the whitewashed belfries which denote the
neighbourhood of a village ; but outside the villages,
neither farmhouses nor cottages were to be seen anywhere.
We did not pass or catch sight of, in the half-dozen miles
we traversed along the high-road, a single dwelling of any
kind, with the exception of a roadside tavern. As soon as
we left the high-road, our way lay along a rough field
track, over which it was difficult for any vehicle more com
plicated in its structure than a Bulgarian cart to make
progress. In rainy weather, or when the snow lies upon the
ground, these country roads must be almost impassable,
and, in consequence, the villages to which they lead must

VII.] VILLAGE LIFE. 59
be practically inaccessible. Deep ruts and big boulders
have to be traversed at frequent intervals ; and no horses,
less wiry or sure-footed than those of the country, could
well draw a carriage up the almost precipitous ascents by
which the track crosses one hillock after another. The
only way to make the ascent is to lash the horses into a
mad gallop at the foot of every hill, and even then they
are not always equal to the effort. Carriage accidents in
this part of the country are of frequent occurrence, and
would be still more frequent if, when the carriage begins
to roll backwards owing to the inability of the horses to
crest the hill, its downward course was not commonly
stopped by striking against some of the huge stones which
lie embedded in the field track. In summer time, however,
Panscherevow is a favourite resort for the townsfolk of
Sofia, and forms a sort of Sofiote Richmond. The con
dition of the road leading to this suburban village gives
you a fair idea of what must be the character of the
country cross-roads in more remote districts, where pleasure
traffic is utterly unknown.
The village comprises some two or three hundred
inhabitants, and has, if I counted correctly, about thirty
dwelling-houses. Most of these cottages are surrounded
by a low wall, made in most cases of loose stones welded
together with mud, but in some cases the walls are replaced
by wooden palings. All the houses have "white-washed
walls, and are covered with sloping, red-tiled roofs. The
walls are built either of stone, mixed up with rubble,
or of hard-baked mud. The eaves of the roofs stretch
downwards over the walls and form a sort of rough
verandah, whose shade must be welcome during the great
summer heats, and whose shelter serves as some sort of

60 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
protection against the bitter winter winds. At the same
time, these eaves must obscure the dim light which comes
into the dwelling-rooms through the narrow, iron-barred
windows. Every house almost is one-storied, and built
flush with the ground on which it stands. Inside the
space formed by the walls surrounding the cottages there
are wooden sheds and stables, and plots of open ground,
half waste, half kitchen garden. Most of the enclosures
have trees growing in them, often trees of respectable size
and considerable age. Timber, at all deserving of the
name, is a thing very rarely met with in this part of the
country outside the villages, as, under Turkish rule, all
the trees were cut down for fuel. It was not, perhaps,
the fault of the Turks that the country is thus denuded
of foliage. In a rigorous climate, with its long, bitter
winter, fuel is an absolute necessity of existence; and,
till the coal mines had been opened up, the only fuel
available was the timber of the plains and hillsides. The
complaint against the Turks is not that they cut the trees
down, but that, with characteristic Turkish want of foresight,
they failed to make any provision for the future by plant
ing new trees to replace the ones cut down. The Govern
ment are making great efforts to raise new plantations,
not so much for the supply of fuel as with the view of
providing a more constant succession of rains. As it is,
Bulgarian agriculture suffers greatly from the uncertainty
and irregularity of the showers needed to refresh the soil
during the dry season.
Within the enclosures, pigs, fowls, and ducks strut
about round the cottages, and seem as much at home
there as the human occupants. The walls with which
the cottages are hemmed in, and whose construction and

VII.] VILLAGE LIFE. 6 1
maintenance in good repair must cost a great deal of
labour, are not only useful for the purpose of keeping
the live stock within a ring fence, but they also suit the
ideas and tastes of the Bulgarian peasant. According to
peasant notions, the women of the household ought to
remain within the precincts of their homes when their
services are not required in the fields. If you meet a
party of peasants going to market you will notice that,
if there is room in the carts for anything beyond the
freight, the men ride in the cart, the women trudge behind
on foot, carrying on their shoulders the goods which they
are taking to market, and which, if the men would consent
to walk, might be carried in the carts. Nothing can be
plainer than the lives led, during the greater portion of
the year, by both men and women. They are up by
daybreak, and work in the fields till after sunset. It seems
intrinsically improbable that, as the country grows more
prosperous, the peasants should be content with their
present existence ; and I was told, whilst travelling in the
richer districts, that, of late years, there had been a con
siderable increase in the demand for meat and poultry on
the part of peasants who had formerly been content to live
on bread and garlic.
The fact of the cottages being more or less hidden
behind walls renders it difficult to look inside the houses.
The Bulgarians, too, do not like strangers to come within
their dwellings. But the houses in the one narrow, winding
street which runs through the village, face the roadway,
and, as their doors generally stand open, you can form, by
peeping in as you pass, a fair impression of what a Bul
garian peasant's cottage is in reality. The floors are of
mud ; the kitchen fronting the street is also the living-room.

62 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Behind there is a sleeping-room, with a bedstead in it
for the head of the house, while the sons and daughters
sleep upon mats stretched on the floor. The furniture
consists of wooden tables, benches, and chests. The
crockery and household utensils of every sort seem of
the commonest and coarsest kind. I should doubt if
there is a single house in the whole village in which any
English labourer or artisan, earning good wages, would
not deem it a hardship to be obliged to live in. At the
same time, there was no single dwelling which, given
the habits and customs of the country, could be fairly
described as unfit for human habitation. A similar remark
applies to the dress of the villagers. The day on which
I visited Panscherevow happened to be a Sunday. In
Bulgaria, though work is done in the fields on Sunday to
some extent, the day is more or less of a holiday, and
there are more people to be found in the villages than
would be seen there on an ordinary week-day. Possibly,
on a Sunday, a native might detect some little extra
care or adornment in the dress of the peasants, but to
a stranger the difference in attire between work-days and
holidays is utterly imperceptible. The men had certainly
made no change in their shaggy sheepskins and their
woollen leggings. The women's stiff skirts and flannel
petticoats may have displayed a trifle more embroidery
than usual, and the white linen skull-caps, with their
pendent tails, were obviously fresh from the wash-tub.
In most cases, however, the dress of men, women, and
children alike was frayed, soiled, and tattered. The
clothing was warm and stout enough to keep out the
cold, but it was generally so old and so worn that, in
other lands, the wearing of such attire would have

VH-] VILLAGE LIFE. 63
stamped the wearer as a pauper. The women are fair-
haired, fair-complexioned, slatternly creatures, somewhat
resembling the Scandinavian type, stout and strongly
built, and fairly clean in appearance. The men not at
work seemed to be gathered mostly in the liquor-shops
or to loaf outside its doors ; but, in as far as I could notice,
they drank very little, and were certainly quiet, well-
behaved, and, for the most part, silent. Every now and
then a woman in passing by would exchange a remark
with the crowd of men gathered around the liquor-store ;
but there was no general conversation of any kind, either
inside or outside the doors of the tavern. When I visited
Panscherevow the violets and primroses were just out,
and, as there is a considerable demand for flowers amidst
the townfolk of Sofia, our carriage was surrounded with
village children bearing nosegays in their hands. They
never, however, asked you to buy, or begged or thrust
their wares upon you with the importunity of the
Eastern mendicant. They held out their flowers stolidly ;
but, if you showed no wish to purchase, they went away
equally stolidly, and left you in peace without asking for
anything. The children were one and all ragged, ill-shod,
unkempt, but for all that they looked healthy and well
fed, while the general lack of beauty in their features
and figures was redeemed by a pleasant smile. When
the attempt to do a trade in flowers had been discon
tinued as useless the children returned to their games.
After the wont of Bulgarian children they played
quietly and silently, without screams and without dis
putes. In the cottages, into whose interior I could catch a
glimpse, I could see no sign of the picture of the Virgin

64 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Mary, to be found so invariably in the huts of the Russian
moujiks. Neither here nor elsewhere in my travels
through Bulgaria did I come across any of the roadside
shrines and crosses, so frequent in Russia, before which you
may any day see crowds of peasants kneeling and praying,
even when the snow lies deep upon the ground. Yet, in an
odd way of their own, the Bulgarians are devout believers ;
they are also scrupulous as to observing fasts and going to
confession. During Lent squads of the regiments stationed
at Sofia were marched down three or four times a day to
the church, and after confession received absolution en bloc.
In as far as I could calculate from the frequency with
which I met these squads going and coming to the church,
every soldier in the garrison must have had to confess at
least once a week during Lent. At this season the
peasants absolutely refuse not only to eat meat, poultry, or
butter, but in most instances decline to supply them for
sale in the towns. The result is, that even for strangers
who are not members of the Greek Church, Lent time in
Bulgaria becomes more or less of a penitential season.
The peasants avowedly attach extreme value to the due
celebration of the Church services, and pay the fees
demanded by parish popes for baptisms, weddings, and
funerals, without any great amount of grumbling. The
pope, in the great majority of parishes, is a peasant of the
same class as his parishioners, too much occupied with
the cares of his family, with looking after his cattle, and
above all with the tilling of his plot of land, to be able to
trouble himself greatly about spiritual matters. As long as
he can get his flock to pay their dues and to attend service
on the great festivals of the Church, he considers that he
has done his duty. In the same way, when once the

VII.] VILLAGE LIFE. 65
peasants have got a church where the ritual of their creed
is properly performed by a duly appointed pope, their
religious requirements, such as they are, are amply
satisfied. Their lives are too hard to allow them to pay
much attention to spiritual matters, and I suspect their
whole tone of mind would, under any conditions, prove
eminently unfavourable to the development of religious
fervour. So far as Christianity consists in hating Turks
and Jews, the Bulgarian peasants are sincere Christians ;
but their religion has hardly progressed, as yet, beyond
that somewhat rudimentary stage. This view of mine is
derived mainly from what has been told me by every
resident in the country to whom I have spoken on the
subject. But all I have seen myself, here and in other
Sclav countries, confirms me in my belief that the
Greek Faith is the least spiritual of all the various creeds
of Christendom, and that the Bulgarians are the least
religious-minded, in a doctrinal sense, of all the races
which constitute Christendom after the Eastern rite. It
does not follow that because the Bulgarians are for the
most part ignorant of, and indifferent to, religious dogma
of every kind, they are not attached to their own faith,
or still less are not prepared to regard all persons who
differ from them as heretics and infidels deserving of
extermination. All experience shows that men will fight
as hard and die as bravely for the most ceremonial of
creeds, as they will for the highest forms of religious
belief. All I wish to point out is, that spiritual fervour
and doctrinal zeal are not, and cannot be, the same
important factors in the daily life of a peasant country,
as they are in that of more highly cultivated and more
wealthy communities, where large classes have at once the
F

66 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
means and the leisure to indulge in religious contemplation.
The church — by which I mean the material fabric, not
the spiritual body — is a conspicuous object in every
Bulgarian village, ranking next in size and importance to
the village school-house. Both church and school-house
are invariably plain white-washed buildings. The best
house in Panscherevow is that of the mayor, or rather the
kmet, or deputy-mayor, as the place is not deemed
important enough to have a full-blown mayor of its own.
A sort of barn is attached to the mayor's dwelling, which
serves as the town house of the village, where the
Communal Council holds its sittings and where local
justice is administered.
Take it altogether, I should say the inhabitants of
Panscherevow — in common, for that matter, with those of
most Bulgarian villages — seem to me not to have a bad
time. If there is no luxury, there is a good deal of rough
comfort, and if their wants are few, these wants are fairly
well satisfied. Barring the taxes and military service, they
lead much the sort of lives they would like to lead ; and
that, after all, is about as much as human nature can
reasonably expect. However, I ought to add that I
visited most of the Bulgarian villages when the trees were
green, the air warm, and the sun shining. In the long,
bleak winter time a peasant's life in Bulgaria may well
wear a less cheerful aspect. The general aspect of all the
villages I visited seemed to denote the prevalence of a
general coarse well-being amidst the villagers, equally
removed from refinement on the one hand and from
destitution on the other. In the whole course of my
travels I never came across a single dwelling, outside the
towns, which you could imagine by any flight of fancy to

VII.] VILLAGE LIFE. 67
be the abode of a man of fortune, or even of a well-to-do
tradesman. Still, I have no doubt that the great majority
of the occupants of these mud cottages have more money
hoarded up than you would find in the possession of any
English peasant farmer who would be content to live in a
similar tenement, under similar conditions of existence.
Whatever their hoarded wealth may be, no trace of it is
to be noticed inside the houses, where the Bulgarian
peasant families live from the hour of their birth to that
of their death. The most comfortable dwelling I ever saw,
in any of the Bulgarian villages which I visited, was that
of a pope in charge of one of the many half-deserted
monasteries which are to be found throughout the country.
The monastery lies half hidden in one of the ravines
which intersect the sides of Mount Vitosch. It stands
some five or six hundred feet above the plain, and
commands exquisitely beautiful views of the champaign
flats, over which the shadows of the clouds float and shift
under the sparkling sunlight. If ever Sofia becomes a
capital after our Western fashion, the slopes of Mount
Vitosch will become valuable as chosen sites for suburban
residences. Even as it is, the monastery in question is
frequently visited on Sundays and feast-days as a pleasure
resort by the people of Sofia. Sparkling rivulets run down
the mountain-side close to the convent, and in these
streams there is excellent trout-fishing. Good shooting,
too, is to be found in the neighbourhood ; and if you
wish to make the ascent of Vitosch, the monastery is as
good a place as any other from which to make your start.
If you are not over particular as to your quarters, you can
hire rooms for the night from the prior of the convent,
who provides entertainment for man and beast. The

68 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
general look of the place is something between a roadside
tavern and a farmyard ; all that remains of the ancient
monastery is a small chapel almost hidden from sight amidst
the stables and outhouses. Geese, ducks, fowls, and pigs
straggle all over the place, wandering in and out of the
guest-rooms, which open on a wooden balcony. A coarse
plank table was placed in the courtyard, at which the
prior was seated to receive his visitors and customers, and
from whence he was able to keep his eye on the farm-
servants and on the live-stock of his farm. He was a
genial, fresh-coloured, not over clean old gentleman,
between seventy and eighty ; he had a long, white beard,
and was clad in a singularly shabby and musty black
surplice, with the usual tall, straight, black, round chimney
pot hat on his head. He gave us coffee and mastik, smoked
the cigarettes we offered him, and, both in his look and
manner, resembled the landlord of a country tavern rather
than an ecclesiastical dignitary of high rank. One of our
party spoke Turkish fluently, and as the prior was a
Bulgarian who had been born, and had lived the greater
part of his life, in Macedonia, the language of the Turks
was as familiar to him as his own. He informed us that he
had been compelled to quit Macedonia some twelve years
ago because he had given political offence, and that he had
then come to Bulgaria, where he had been kindly received
and appointed to the priorship of the convent. He seemed
to entertain as bitter an animosity against the Turks as
was consistent with a very good-humoured and easy-going
disposition. On our referring to the recent withdrawal by
the Sultan of the edict concerning the schools in Macedonia,
which had given such offence to the Bulgarians, he
observed that even if the Turks ever happened to do what

VII.] VILLAGE LIFE. 69
was right one day, they always did what was wrong the
next. He added that the grievances of Macedonia would
never be removed till the Turks had been driven out
of the country. It seemed to me he was much more
interested in our questions about the crops and about the
accommodation he could offer to visitors, than he was
when the conversation turned upon political or ecclesiastical
matters. He informed us that he had a stipend of £320
a year from the State ; that, besides this, he made a certain
amount of money by his farm and poultry-yard, and still
more by letting the rooms of the convent during the
summer months. He also got a little — but, as he added,
a very little — from the fees and offerings of the village hard
by, whose parish church was the convent chapel. He
complained also that out of his stipend he was compelled
to pay the services of a coadjutor pope, and to keep the
church in repair. What he may have paid the curate
I cannot say, but from the look of the chapel, which the
prior took us to visit, it must have been long years since
a penny had been laid out on repairs of any kind. The
chapel, the prior assured us, had been built between five
and six centuries ago, before the Turks had conquered
Bulgaria. Being ignorant of all architectural lore, I could
form no opinion as to the antiquity of the building. The
chapel was so dark, the walls and pavements were so
obscured with the smoke of wax-tapers, that it was
impossible to decipher the inscriptions on the flags, or to
discover what the blotches of faded colours on the walls
were intended to represent. The prior seemed to know
as little about the convent's history as I did myself,
and all he could tell us was that both it and the chapel
were very old indeed, and that there was no money

70 ORGANIZATION OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
forthcoming to place the chapel in proper repair, with new
crosses, new pictures of the Virgin, new missals, and new
vestments, such as would befit the historic dignity of the
shrine. It struck me that to any one at all versed in
ecclesiastical architecture, the chapel would have proved a
sort of treasure-trove. But the opinion of the prior
seemed to be that it was quite good enough as it stood, for
all the use that was ever made of it. The day on which
I visited the place was the Greek Good Friday, but there
had been no service performed there that day, as the
peasants of the neighbouring village had all gone to Sofia
to attend the weekly market, and nobody had come to
church. At its very fullest, the chapel could not well
contain more than a score of people. Altogether, I should
consider the prior had a very easy berth, and, even in
wealthier countries, would have been considered well paid
for such clerical labours as he performed. He told us that
he owned two houses in Sofia, and that in the winter time
he resided there himself, because the air in the hills was
too keen and too sharp for a man of his age. In his
absence, the curate looks after the spiritual requirements
of the village, and the prior only returns when the visitors
commence driving out from the capital. I saw no
reason to suppose that the prior neglected his duty, either
in his own opinion or in that of his parishioners. The
reason why I have dwelt upon his personal position, as he
told it to us, is that the incident seems to me to be a
curious illustration of Bulgarian national character. Here
was a man who, in virtue of his position, was of more than
average education, who was certainly not unintelligent,
and who was possessed of means which would have
enabled him to live in considerable comfort ; yet he was

VII.] VILLAGE LIFE. 7 1
content to pass his life as a peasant amongst peasants, not
from any high ideal of the existence best befitting a
minister of God, but simply because the sort of life he thus
led was the one most in accordance with his own tastes,
as it is with those of the great mass of his fellow-country
men.

INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT
STATE.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BULGARIAN CHURCH.
THE Church has played a leading part in the political
history of Bulgaria. The legends as to the conversion of
the national hero, Boris, are probably about as mythical
as those which tell the story of King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table. But amidst a primitive
people, these legends still serve to identify the orthodox
faith with the origin of the Bulgarian nation. At any
rate, whether mythical or not, the alleged wholesale con
version of the Bulgars to the religion of the Cross, if it
was rapid, was not permanent ; time after time they re
lapsed into Paganism ; and, even when they had definitely
become Christianized, it was long doubtful whether they
would throw in their lot with the Roman or the Eastern
Communion. Under Assen and his successors, various
negotiations took place between the Vatican and the Court
of Tirnova, the general purport of which appears to
have been that the Bulgarians were perfectly willing to
join the Church of Rome, if the Papacy could guarantee
them protection against the Greek Empire. As the Popes

Chap. VIII.] THE BULGARIAN CHURCH. 73
were either unable or unwilling to offer anything beyond
spiritual aid, the rulers of Bulgaria seem to have thought
it wiser to stand in with the Greek Church, and thus,
at any rate, to secure friends at the Byzantine Court.
Anyhow, long before the time when the Turks became
masters of Bulgaria, the Orthodox Greek Faith had been
accepted as the national religion of the country ; and so
it has remained for centuries. The conversions to Islam,
though numerous, were not sufficiently plentiful to affect
the general character of the race. Under Turkish rule
the Bulgarians as a body remained Greek Christians ; and
here, as elsewhere in the East, the spirit of nationality,
in as far as it existed, became identical with the profession
of religious belief. The Bulgarian Mahommedan became,
to all intents and purposes, a Turk by nationality. The
Bulgarian Christian remained a Bulgarian, not so much in
virtue of his race, as of his creed.
Given these conditions, it would have seemed natural
that the Bulgarians and the Greeks, united as they were
by a common servitude and a common creed, should have
been drawn together by their common animosities and
aspirations. This would probably have been the case but
for an accident of Moslem rule. From the time of the
Turkish conquest, the Greeks who continued to reside at
Constantinople, and who from the quarter where they
resided were called Phanariotes, contrived to make them
selves useful, and even indispensable, to their Mussulmen
masters. The Phanariotes, gifted with the supple Hellenic
intellect, offered themselves as middle-men between the
Turks and the subject Rayah populations. Then, as
low, the Turks, when their fanaticism was not ablaze,
lisliked the trouble of administration, and were content

74 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
to let their Giaour subjects alone as long as they paid
tribute to the Ottoman Treasury, provided soldiers
for the Ottoman armies, and contributed to the private
wants of the Pashas and their harems. A sort of tacit
understanding was established, by which the Greeks
of the Phanar farmed the revenues of the Christian
provinces of Turkey, and notably of Bulgaria. Probably
the Phanariotes were not altogether so corrupt and so
degraded as they were considered by their co-religionists.
But they unquestionably displayed all the vices which,
from the days of Juvenal, have characterized the Hellenic
race, when in subjection to races of weaker intellect, but
stronger will than their own. They were content to do
the dirty work, which the Turks required doing, and were
too indolent and too proud to do for themselves. One of
the many sources of revenue, out of which the Phanariotes
filled the Turkish Treasury, while at the same time levying
toll for their own use, consisted in the sale of all the lucra
tive posts in the Bulgarian Church. For nearly five hun
dred years every piece of important preferment amidst the
Bulgarian clergy, from the Patriarchate downwards, was put
up to auction. As soon as the successful purchaser had
enjoyed what the vendors considered a reasonable time in
which to recoup himself for his purchase money, he was
deposed by the Porte at the instance of the Phanar ; and
his place was again put up for auction. In the course of
four centuries there are said to have been one hundred and
forty Patriarchs of Bulgaria, so that the average tenure of
the Patriarchal office did not amount to three years in
duration. The Church was thus served by priests of low
character, men of disreputable if not infamous lives, who
were at once servile and venal, and who — the worst offence

VIII.] THE BULGARIAN CHURCH. 75
of all in Bulgarian eyes — were, as a rule, of foreign race,
I cannot learn that this scandalous state of things materially
affected the attachment of the Bulgarians to their national
creed. Here, as in all Sclav countries, religion is a matter
rather of ritual than of dogma ; and so long as a priest is
competent to administer the sacraments and perform the
required services, the personal respect or disrespect in
which he may be held in his individual capacity hardly
counts for anything in regard to his spiritual authority.
The popular objection to the Phanariote clergy was not so
much that they were wine-bibbers, loose livers, and a
disgrace to their cloth, as that they were foreigners, the
nominees and representatives of an alien and detested
rule. The intensity of this dislike to a foreign priesthood
was accelerated by the revival of the sentiment of
nationality, which in Bulgaria, as elsewhere in Turkey,
coincided with the decline of the Ottoman power. The
earlier portion of the present century witnessed the birth
of a national Bulgarian party ; and the first efforts of this
party were directed to removing the patronage of the
Bulgarian Church from the hands of the Patriarch of
Constantinople, who, up to that time, had been a mere
creature of the Porte.
As the other Christian provinces of Turkey in Europe,
such as Moldavia, Wallachia, Servia, and Greece, eman
cipated themselves gradually from Turkish" rule, they
founded what are called auto-cephalous Churches. That
is, they took into their own hands the patronage and
administration of the local branches of the orthodox Greek
Church, while still recognizing the supreme authority in
all matters spiritual of the Patriarch of Constantinople.
The Patriarchs, though they objected to these curtailments

76 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
of their jurisdiction, accepted them as matters of fact;
probably because they had no power to withstand them.
But in the case of Bulgaria, they met her demand for an
auto-cephalous Church with an absolute refusal. The
quarrel went on for many years with varying vicissitudes.
At last, in 1870, the Porte was induced by the representa
tions of the Great Powers, and especially of Russia, to
accede to the demand of the Bulgarians for religious
autonomy. In that year a firman was issued, by which
the right of appointment to all clerical preferments in
the province was taken away from the Patriarch of
Constantinople and transferred to an Exarch, who was to
be elected by the Synod of the Bulgarian Church, to
be nominated on approval by the Sultan, and to reside
permanently at Constantinople. Upon this the Patriarch
of Constantinople issued a proclamation declaring that the
Bulgarians were schismatics, and, in consequence, were no
longer members of the orthodox Communion.
In days long gone by, when, amongst other knowledge
I have since forgotten, I had to acquire a certain smattering
of the theological history of Christendom, I remember
wasting much time and study in a barren effort to under
stand the doctrinal grounds of the great schism which rent
asunder the Latin and the Eastern Churches. I have
retained a vague and confused recollection of the con
troversy between the Homoousiasts and the Homoiousiasts,
upon which the two Churches separated. But this schism
seems to me absolutely pellucid compared to that which,
within our own times, cut off the Bulgarians from the
Orthodox Church. I presume that even a Greek Patriarch
must have accused the Bulgarians of having fallen away
in some respects from the doctrines of the true faith before

VIII.] THE BULGARIAN CHURCH. 'J'J
he ventured on their excommunication. The only vestige,
however, of an explanation on this point I could obtain
from my Bulgarian informants was, that the demand for
the nomination of their own clergy by their own Synod
was deemed by the Patriarch of Constantinople to be
an infraction of his supreme spiritual authority as the
recognized head of the Eastern Church ; and that, by so
infringing his authority, the Bulgarians had laid themselves
open to the charge of schism.
From a religious point of view the excommunication
seems to have fallen flat. The Greek, Russian, Servian,
and Roumanian Churches have never consented to regard
the Bulgarians as schismatics ; and up to the present day
the clergy of the Bulgarian Church are allowed to officiate
as priests in the Muscovite, Serb, Rouman, and Hellenic
Churches. On the other hand, the quasi isolation of the
Bulgarian Church, which was brought about by the action
of the Patriarch, tended to forward the nationalist move
ment amidst the Bulgarians, and to identify the desire for
national independence with that of religious autonomy.
Under the existing Constitution, the Orthodox Greek
Faith is the recognized religion of the State ; and the
National Church is also the State Church. The clergy
receive stipends from the Treasury, varying from seventy
pounds a year, in the large towns, to thirty pounds in the
villages. Besides this stipend, they are allowed to exact
fees at a fixed scale for the performance of exceptional
religious services, such as baptisms, marriages, and burials.
They are also allowed to make a profit by the sale of
tapers and images. The Church, too, owns properties,
though not to a very large extent, in various parts of the
country, and especially in the towns. These properties,

78 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
however, are administered by State officials, who decide
what portions of their revenue should be set apart for
schools or general purposes other than the direct payment
of the clergy. There is, at any rate in theory, absolute
religious toleration throughout Bulgaria. The priests of
all sects of any importance, such as the Mahommedans,
the Catholics, the Jews, receive stipends from the State
on the same scale as the national clergy.
The governing body of the National Church is the
Synod, which is composed of the Bishops. Whenever a
vacancy occurs in a see, the Synod nominates three
candidates for the vacant post. Each parish in the diocese
elects a certain number of delegates in proportion to its
population ; these delegates meet together and record their
votes in favour of one of the three candidates nominated
by the Synod ; the name of the candidate who obtains
the largest number of votes is submitted to the Exarch
for approval, and, if approved, is nominated by him to the
vacant see ; the nomination, however, does not become
legally valid till the Bishop-elect has been formally
appointed by the Government. All offences committed
by the clergy against ecclesiastical discipline are tried and
punished by the Synod ; but for all offences against the
civil law, priests and laymen alike are tried by the civil
tribunals. A striking instance of this supremacy of the
civil over the ecclesiastical jurisdictions was furnished
the other day. In the course of last year the Metropolitan
Clement, who has always been noted as a violent partisan
of Russia, preached a sermon in his own cathedral, in
which he denounced Prince Ferdinand in very violent
terms. For this outrage he was brought to trial by the
Government, before the civil courts, on the charge of

VIII.] THE BULGARIAN CHURCH. 79
having used treasonable language. The Synod protested
against the trial on the plea that the offence, if offence it
was, was of an ecclesiastical character, and ought, by rights,
to be subject to their jurisdiction. The objection was
overruled. The Metropolitan was tried and convicted by
the civil courts, and sentenced to enforced confinement in
a monastery, or, in other words, to imprisonment. Last
February, an appeal was made to the Superior Court to
quash the conviction on the ground of non-jurisdiction.
The appeal was dismissed, and the Metropolitan was left
imprisoned for a few weeks, after which he was released
on a pardon being granted him by the Prince.
The priesthood, almost without an exception, are taken
from the peasant class. Under the present regime a school
has been established for the purpose of educating the lads
who are designed for Holy Orders. The experiment has
not proved very successful, and the Bishops complain that
they find great and increasing difficulty in filling up the
ranks of the clergy. I believe this is mainly due to the
fact that, under the public school system, the scholars
acquire an education which induces them to prefer the
pursuits of civil life to those of the Church. I am told,
too, that the post of Pope, as the village priests are called,
has become much less attractive than it used to be owing
to the changed conditions of the country. In the Turkish
days the Pope was usually given the privilege pf keeping
the village liquor store. This is now altered, and the Popes,
therefore, are neither so well-to-do nor so influential in
position as they were formerly. Moreover, in Bulgaria, as in
most other countries where the Greek Faith is the national
religion, the priesthood is almost always recruited from
the lower ranks of the community. Ritual, as I have said,

80 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap.
is more important than dogma ; to intone well is a gift
of more value to a parish priest than to possess the power
of preaching. The high aspirations which, in other lands,
lead men to become ministers of the sanctuary in the hope
of saving souls, can hardly find much scope in a church
where the possession of a fine figure and a flowing beard
are indispensable requisites for high ecclesiastical prefer
ment. The ranks of the priesthood are, therefore, naturally
filled up by the sons of the poorer peasants, to whom the
small stipend of their cure secures an income, on which
they can marry, have families, and lead a life of what, to
them, seems comfort. In fact, the Bulgarian clergy bear
a considerable resemblance to what I think the Irish
priesthood would be, if they were allowed to marry and
were paid by the State. As things are, the village Popes,
during the greater part of the year, lead the lives of
ordinary Bulgarian peasants ; and it is only on Sundays,
feast-days, and special occasions that their clerical functions
differentiate them from their neighbours. Thus, while
their spiritual authority is weak, their social influence is
very great in a community mainly composed of small
peasant proprietors of their own class and race and creed.
So long, therefore, as the general policy of the Government
is in accordance with the traditions, aspirations, and pre
judices of the Bulgarian people, it can count confidently
on the support of the national priesthood.
The schism, about which I have spoken, has also con
tributed, if I may use the word, to Bulgarize the Bulgarian
Church. The clergy here are not influenced to the same
extent as the clergy of other orthodox Greek communions
by Pan-Sclavonic ideas. Their dislike of Greek ecclesiastical
supremacy, which has been handed down by the traditions

VIII.] THE BULGARIAN CHURCH. 8 1
of the Phanariote era, has been accentuated by the conduct
of the Greeks, who have all along resented the independent
existence of Bulgaria as a possible barrier to the accom
plishment of their " grand idea," the creation of a Greek
kingdom on the Bosphorus, in the event of the disruption
of the Ottoman Empire. Various unfriendly acts, of which
the Bulgarians have of late had cause to complain at the
hands of the Porte, are popularly attributed to Greek
intrigue at Stamboul ; and I think the Bulgarians would
view with extreme reluctance any idea of placing them
selves again under the jurisdiction of the Greek Patriarch.
Of course, the present arrangement cannot be a permanent
one ; and whenever the day arrives, when Bulgaria becomes
nominally as well as practically independent of Turkey,
the head of the Bulgarian Church cannot possibly be
allowed to reside at Constantinople as an official of the
Porte. The position of the present Exarch is one of great
difficulty. He is often blamed by his own countrymen for
not taking up a sufficiently high ground in defending the
rights of Bulgaria ; but it is not easy to see how he can
take up any such ground. After all, the Exarch is treated
at Constantinople as a Turkish official under the orders
and in the service of the Turkish Government. Last
summer the Exarch was ordered by his doctors to go to
Carlsbad for his health, and applied for leave of absence,
signifying his intention of calling on the way at Sofia,
in order to pay his respects to the Prince, whom he has
never yet seen. The request was refused by the Sultan,
and the Exarch was told that, if his health was affected,
the waters of Broussa were quite as good as those of
Carlsbad. Again, a few months ago, the Exarch bought
G

82 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE.
a house at Constantinople, which was the property of
the former German Ambassador. The sale was com
pleted ; the deposit money of ten per cent, of the purchase
price of £15,000 had been duly paid, when the Exarch
received notice from the Government that the bargain
must be broken off, as he was not at liberty to change
his abode without the previous permission of the Turkish
authorities, and that, in the present instance, this per
mission would not be granted. This high-handed action,
in a matter concerning which the Turks would if left
to themselves be utterly and supremely indifferent, is
attributed to Greek and Russian intrigues. The Greek
Patriarch is reported to have protested against the
Exarch being allowed to occupy a better residence than
his own, while some of the more opulent members of the
Phanar were anxious to get the Ambassador's house for
themselves. Finally, the matter was settled by the Sultan's
making a present to the Exarch of an equally good plot
of land for the erection of a Patriarchal residence. Still it
is a matter of serious inconvenience to the Bulgarian
Government that the Exarch should be compelled to
reside in a foreign country, and, if the recent reconciliation
between Sofia and Constantinople should continue in
force, a strong effort will be made to induce the Sultan to
consent to the return of the head of the Bulgarian Church
to his own country.

( 83 )

CHAPTER IX.
THE LAW OF THE REALM.
The founders of the Bulgarian State have as yet evinced
no desire to regenerate the country in a hurry, to place
all its institutions on a logical footing, or to carry into
immediate practice the theories of government to which,
by the charter, they stand committed. When once the
abstract principles which I have enumerated in my account
of the Constitution had been embodied in the charter, no
special haste was shown about giving them practical appli
cation. Hitherto the motto of Bulgarian statesmanship
has been solvitur ambulando.
Thus, though Bulgaria has existed as an independent
State for some fifteen years, it is still without any complete
written code. Under the rule of Turkey, justice, in as far
as it was administered at all, was administered in accord
ance with the Turkish Code, which was introduced
throughout the Ottoman Empire in the earlier part of the
present century, and which was based upon the Code
Napoleon. During the Russian occupation, a new system
of criminal and civil procedure was established in the
country analogous to that which prevails in the dominions
of the Czar. But the system did not work well, and has
had to be largely modified by subsequent legislation. A
number of laws have at different times been passed by

84 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
the Sobranje, dealing with a variety of subjects, such as
mortgages, rights of succession, the guardianship of minors,
and so forth. In every session of the Sobranje commis
sions are appointed to frame laws concerning matters on
which immediate legislation is urgently required. When
all such questions have been discussed and dealt with, a
complete code is to be framed. For the present, all
matters for which provision has not been made by special
legislation are regulated by the provisions of the old
Turkish law, which, as I have said, is substantially identical
with the original Code Napoleon, but which does not
contain the modifications made in that code in France
subsequent to the date of its promulgation.
In the Turkish days, the law was an open profession ;
and anybody who liked could plead in the courts. At the
time of the emancipation there were probably not a score
of Bulgarians who had ever made law a study. At the
outset, therefore, anybody who chose could act as an
advocate or as a legal adviser. But of late years nobody,
not already in practice, is allowed to act as a lawyer with
out a special authorization from the Government. This
authorization is only given to candidates who have taken a
degree in law in foreign universities, or who have served as
communal judges for fifteen years, or who are able to pass
an examination conducted at the Ministry of Justice. At
present there are about a thousand duly qualified lawyers
in Bulgaria, a considerable proportion of whom have been
educated in foreign legal schools.
The judges are functionaries of the State. They are
appointed by the Government, paid by the Government,
and may be removed by the Government. In every com
mune, however small, there is a judge who forms an ex

IX.] THE LAW OF THE REALM. 85
officio member of the Communal Council, elected by the in
habitants. These communal judges have very limited juris
diction. They have no power to inflict personal punish
ment in criminal cases ; all they can do is to impose a fine,
not exceeding sixteen shillings in amount, for a breach of
the law ; and in civil cases they only possess the right of
summary jurisdiction when the amount at issue does not
exceed £2. Their sentences have to be submitted to the
approval of the district judges of the district in which the
commune is situated. These district judges hold office on
the same tenure as the communal judges, but their juris
diction is more extensive. They can impose fines to the
extent of £2, and can decide suits concerning sums not
exceeding £4. ; they may also try charges of theft, not
aggravated by violence. Next in the legal hierarchy come
the judges of First Instance, who hold courts in the chef
lieux of every province. They have authority to adjudicate
in all civil and criminal cases, but their decision may be
referred to the Courts of Appeal, of which there are four
in Bulgaria ; and from these courts there lies a reference to
the Supreme Court of Appeal at Sofia.
Trial by jury is still amidst the reforms of the future.
In the opinion of the Government, the country is not yet
ripe for its institution. The present generation of adult
peasants have had little or no education ; and their ideas
of justice are formed on what may be called the Cadi prin
ciple. When a new generation comes to the front, which has
been educated at the national schools, and which has learned
discipline in the national army, the peasants, it is thought,
may become fit to act as jurymen ; but as things are, the esti
mation in which a Bulgarian prisoner might hold, whether
for good or bad, in the opinion of his fellow-townsmen,

86 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
would have much more to do with his conviction or ac
quittal, than the strength of the evidence connecting him
with the perpetration of the particular crime of which he
stood accused. In the Courts of First Instance, however,
a system has been of late years introduced, which possesses
some of the advantages of trial by jury. In all criminal
cases of a serious character, a certain number of towns
people — men, as a rule, of some education and local
standing — are appointed to sit with the judges and to hear
the evidence adduced for or against the prisoner. When
the case is concluded, the verdict is given by the judges
and assessors in conjunction, the vote of the majority de
ciding the question of guilt or innocence. With the giving
of the verdict of " Guilty " or " Not guilty," the functions of
the assessors are at an end ; and the question of the punish
ment to be inflicted, in the event of conviction, is left to
the sole arbitrament of the judges. Thus, in cases where
political bias may be supposed to enter, the prisoner has
the advantage of being tried before a tribunal composed
of private citizens as well as of functionaries of the
Government. In Bulgaria, as in all countries where the judicial
system is based on French procedure, great importance is
attached to there being at least not less than three judges
on the bench. The multiplicity of judges is supposed to
secure a better chance of a fair trial, and also a greater
uniformity of sentences, than could be expected under the
jurisdiction of a single judge. In all the courts above the
District Courts there are always three or more judges to
hear every case that is brought before them. The dif
ficulties of locomotion and the long distances which divide
town from town, and even village from village, render any

IX.] THE LAW OF THE REALM. 87
amalgamation of the courts extremely difficult. The total
number of judges is very large in proportion to the popula
tion ; and the salaries paid them are, according to our
notions, very small. Indeed, a considerable increase of
judicial salaries is recognized as one of the reforms which
ought to be undertaken as soon as the revenue admits of
any large additional expenditure. It is obvious, even to the
Bulgarian peasants, that poorly paid judges are less likely
to be independent and honest than judges who are com
paratively above the reach of pecuniary temptation. The
evils, however, of an underpaid judiciary are less flagrant
here than might have been expected. All salaries, private
as well as public, are necessarily low in a country where
there is no wealthy class, and where the national in
stincts are penurious. Moreover, official rank possesses
an exceptional importance in a State where there are few
other social distinctions. Judicial posts are therefore
eagerly sought after, even though the pay is poor. At any
rate, the courts seem to command public confidence.
Another legal reform which is urgently needed in
Bulgaria is the revisal of the laws affecting public com
panies. The present law does not contain the modifica
tions introduced into the French Code with respect to
Joint Stock Associations. This is the more to be regretted
as the advantages of Soci/t/s anonymes, or, more correctly
speaking, of Co-operative Societies, are becoming recog
nized in Bulgaria. Throughout the provinces a number
of associations have been formed of late years for the
purpose of carrying on local industries. The members of
these associations, who are mostly small farmers, pay so
much a month as a subscription to the fund ; and the funds
thus subscribed constitute the capital out of which the

88 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
industries in question are carried on for the benefit of the
subscribers. The majority of these local associations have
proved fairly successful ; and if money ever becomes more
plentiful in Bulgaria, there will, I think, be a large develop
ment of co-operative enterprise. This development would
be greatly facilitated if the French laws with regard to
limited liability, in their modified form, were made appli
cable to Bulgaria. Still, even if this was done, it would not
be very easy for foreign companies to take an independent
part in the exploitation of the great natural resources of the
country. Yet, owing to the absence of local wealth and
experience, it is only by the aid of foreign enterprise and
foreign capital that these resources can be rapidly de
veloped. I am assured that, though in theory there is no
reason why foreign capital should not be employed here in
local industries with great advantage, there are in practice
various obstacles which cannot well be overcome. The
Government has the right to grant concessions to any
company, native or foreign, for the working of mines, the
reclamation of lands, or the establishment of manufactures ;
and the Ministers are not indisposed to accord such con
cessions. But the concessionaire, when he has obtained
his concession, finds himself hampered and thwarted at
every step by the claims of the commune in which his
enterprise has to be conducted. The authority of the com
mune within its own area is very great ; and any member
of the commune can raise difficulties which would militate
against the concession being worked successfully, on the
plea that it interfered with his supply of water, his rights of
pasturage, or the cultivation of his lands. There is as yet
no clear law with reference to the relative rights of the
State and the commune, when the rights of the former

IX.] THE LAW OF THE REALM. 89
come into conflict with local interests. The communal
system is so identified with the ideas and customs of the
nation, that it is difficult to modify the powers of the State
over the internal administration of the communes to the
disadvantage of the latter, until the Bulgarian public are
brought to see that they have a personal interest in
augmenting the legal authority of the central Government.
In view of the greatly increased prosperity of the
trading classes, and the rapid growth of the towns, the
peasantry consider — and this opinion of theirs is also held
by the Government — that they contribute an unduly large
proportion to the public revenue. Not only is the land-tax
unreasonably heavy, so heavy, indeed, as to cripple the
resources which ought to be available for the improvement
of the land ; but, owing to the taxes being now collected
directly by the Government instead of indirectly by the
farming system, and owing to the repayment of these taxes
being at present enforced in cash and not in produce, the
burden of taxation weighs more heavily nowadays on the
peasants than it did in the old times. Any proposal,
therefore, to shift the burden of taxation to any material
extent from agriculture to trade would not only be just
in itself, but would be so popular as to reconcile public
opinion to a considerable restriction of communal au
tonomy. For the present, however, the Capitulations stand
in the way of any adequate redistribution of the taxes as
against the towns and in favour of the country. Bulgaria
is still nominally an integral portion of the Ottoman
Empire, and is, therefore, subject to the provisions of the
Capitulations. By these provisions, a foreign resident in Bulgaria, as
in all Turkish provinces, is not liable to pay any internal

90 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
tax beyond the house duty, and escapes scot free from the
other home taxes to which the natives are subjected.
For instance, every Bulgarian who carries on a trade or
profession, or keeps a shop, has to obtain a license for the
privilege. The charges for these licenses are very low and
might easily be raised without injustice to the individual
and without injury to the progress of trade. But under the
Capitulations, no foreigner can be compelled to take out a
license for the purpose of carrying on his trade ; and there
fore the obvious result of materially increasing the charge
for licenses would be to place the native trader at a
disadvantage as compared with foreigners, and to transfer
native trade into the hands of strangers. In the same
way, the internal excise duties cannot be augmented,
as when once goods belonging to a foreigner have been
introduced into the country, after paying the import duty
at the frontier, no further tax can — in virtue of the Capitu
lations — be imposed upon them. On fiscal as well as
moral grounds, it would be most desirable to raise the
excise duty on spirits. But if this were done, the practical
result would be to ruin the native manufacturers and
vendors of spirituous liquors, and to hand the liquor trade
over to foreigners. Again, the income of the town muni
cipalities is mainly derived from the octroi duties ; and it
is impossible to carry out many local improvements,
urgently required in the towns, without further funds.
But, by the Capitulations, octroi duties cannot be levied on
foreign goods on entrance into any town within the country
to a higher extent than two per cent, of the value of the
article taxed. Thus, the Capitulations practically bar the
way to any equitable redistribution of Bulgarian taxation.
The plain truth is that here, as in every civilized state,

IX.] THE LAW OF THE REALM. 9 1
the whole system of the Capitulations has become a bar
barous anomaly. When the Capitulations were originally
framed, they were intended to protect foreigners against
oppression at the hands of the Turk. Nowadays, owing
to the changes in the relative positions of the Rayah and
the Turk, they have become instruments of oppression
against the natives, whether they happen to be Mahom
medans or Christians.
The separate jurisdiction, under which foreigners are
placed by the Capitulations, in respect of criminal offences,
though an even graver theoretical anomaly, is not so much
of a practical abuse in as far as Bulgaria is concerned. The
administration of the law is, on the whole, so well and
cheaply conducted by the native tribunals, that foreigners
attach little value to the privilege of being tried before
Consular Courts. The foreign Powers, too, have shown no
very keen anxiety to enforce in Bulgaria their full rights
under the Capitulations ; and a certain number of modifica
tions have been introduced without protest on the part of
foreign countries into the practical working of this excep
tional jurisdiction. All cases to which a Bulgarian is a
party are usually tried before the native tribunals ; and
a delegate, appointed by the consular representative of any
foreigner placed on his trial, though admitted to the court
and entitled to inspect all the documents produced in evi
dence, is not allowed, as he is in Turkey, to be present at the
deliberations of the presiding judges. Even forcible entry
on the part of the police into the domicile of a foreigner for
the purposes of investigation, which is forbidden under the
Capitulations, is allowed to pass without more than a
formal protest from his official representatives, whenever
the Government is able to show reasonable cause for the

92 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap. IX.
action of the police. Here, as elsewhere in the Ottoman
Empire, the Greeks are the persons who take the most
unfair advantage of the privileges accorded by the Capitu
lations, and whose pretensions are most actively upheld by
their own Government. But hitherto the representatives of
the Great Powers at Sofia have not supported the various
efforts made by Greece to enforce the strict letter of these
obsolete conventions. In all right and equity, Bulgaria
has as good a right as Servia and Roumania to be set free
from the trammels of the Capitulations. But for various
reasons, it is not for the present the policy of the Bulgarian
Government to press for the redress of a grievance whose
removal could hardly be effected without the dissolution of
the nominal bond which still unites Bulgaria to the Otto
man Empire. So, for the time being, the peasantry will
have to remain overtaxed because the existence of the
Capitulations unintentionally prevents any fair share of
the national taxation being placed on the trading and
shopkeeping interests.

( 93 )

CHAPTER X.
PUBLIC EDUCATION.
The desire for education amidst the Bulgarian peasantry
amounts almost to a passion. That this should be so
seems strange in a country where the great mass of the
population are extremely ignorant, very much set on their
own ways, and averse to innovations of any kind. The
Boers, who in many respects so closely resemble the
Bulgarians, are completely free from this craze for book-
learning. What was good enough for their fathers is, in
their opinion, good enough for themselves, and will be
good enough for their children after them. But in this
respect the Bulgarians are completely different. I cannot
make out that any educational census has ever been taken
in the country. The common opinion, however, is that in
the rural districts, at all events, the proportion of the
adult population who have even an elementary knowledge
of writing or reading is extremely small. In the Turkish
days the village priests never took any trouble, to impart to
their parishioners the scanty stock of education they them
selves possessed ; and in as far as they had any opinion at
all on the matter, that opinion was unfavourable rather than
otherwise to the diffusion of book-learning amidst the laity.
Yet ever since the liberation of Bulgaria, the peasants have
been almost morbidly eager to have their children taught

94 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
at school ; and the system of Free Education, which has
been introduced throughout the State, is warmly supported
by popular sentiment. This is the more curious as the
peasant farmers till their own lands themselves, not by paid
labourers ; and the services of every member of the family
are required to supply the requisite amount of field
labour. The children of the house are set to work early,
and the loss of their assistance during school hours must
be a serious matter to their parents. The only explanation
I can offer for this general thirst for education amongst
a people, who have apparently very little taste for book-
learning in itself, is the following. The Bulgarians, as I
have already remarked, have an intense belief in the past
glories of their country, and have also an equally intense
faith in the future which lies before it. Whether rightly
or wrongly, they have got it into their heads that popular
education is an essential condition of Bulgaria's taking,
what they deem, her proper place in the world ; and when
once an idea of any kind has got into Bulgarian heads,
its dislodgment is a matter of excessive difficulty. Then,
too, there prevails throughout the community an equally
general but more practical belief that education opens the
door to the public service, the only form of employment,
other than that of agriculture, to be found in a country
with few and small industries, little trade and less capital.
There is hardly a man in the service of the State who
was not born a peasant of peasant parents ; and the
spectacle of the success achieved by the ministers and
public officials, who owe their position almost entirely to
the fact that they had received an education somewhat
above their fellows, renders every Bulgarian parent
desirous to obtain like advantages for his own children.

X.] PUBLIC EDUCATION. 95
This latter view is confirmed by the fact that the
Bulgarians attach comparatively little importance to the
education of girls.
Be the explanation what it may, the fact remains that
since her liberation Bulgaria has succeeded in establish
ing a very thorough, comprehensive system of popular
instruction. By the Constitution it is decreed that public
education is to be gratuitous and compulsory ; this pro
vision, unlike many others of a similar kind, has been
carried substantially into practice. In every town, village,
and hamlet throughout the principality there are nowadays
a school-house and a school teacher. In the towns the
school buildings are generally the handsomest edifice to
be seen there, and in the villages the school-house is
the cleanest of the cottages. The cost of providing the
school-house, of paying the teachers, and of supplying
the books and other implements of tuition, is provided
partly by the State and partly by the municipalities in
the towns, or by the communal authorities in the villages.
The Sobranje votes every year a grant for education,
which in this year's Budget amounted to somewhat over
£350,000, or about one-seventh of the whole public ex
penditure. Out of this grant there is defrayed the cost
of the salaries of the Education Department, of the Public
Inspectors, and, I believe, of the high school of Sofia.
The balance, after the above expenses have been met, is
divided between the different town and village schools,
the State in each instance paying half the estimated
annual cost, and the local authorities Supplying the
other half out of the local revenues. The Government
has the right to insist upon the amount raised in these
ways being sufficient to provide adequate schooling for

96 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
each locality. This right, however, has seldom to be
exercised, as popular opinion is so much in favour of
education that hitherto little or no difficulty has been
experienced in raising adequate contributions from the
municipalities and communes. In the village schools
there are no fees of any kind ; in the upper schools the
wealthier parents are required to subscribe sixteen shillings
a head annually for each of their children at school, these
subscriptions being employed to create a fund for the
establishment of school libraries, for which no provision
is made by the general grant. Compulsory attendance
has not encountered here anything like the opposition
it has met with in our own country. From eight to
twelve every child is compelled to attend the primary
schools, where reading, writing, and ciphering are the
chief subjects taught. After that age school attendance
is not compulsory ; but the children, if their parents wish
it, are allowed to attend the high schools for six years,
so that the whole period of education extends over ten
years. The funds for the high schools are provided in the
same manner as for the primary schools, and the educa
tion imparted is entirely gratuitous, save for the small
subscriptions to which I have already referred. As the
Bulgarians live almost entirely in villages, and as isolated
cottages are almost unknown, the elementary schools are
universally accessible. I believe, however, that in the
out-of-the-way districts there are not yet a sufficient
number of high schools for the requirements of the
population ; the number, however, of these high schools
is being yearly increased, and the increase would have
been far more rapid if it had not been for the great
difficulty in finding competent teachers. In a few years

X.] PUBLIC EDUCATION. 97
the high schools are expected to turn out an ample supply
of trained schoolmasters and schoolmistresses ; and then
every Bulgarian child, or, at any rate, every Bulgarian
boy, will have the opportunity, if their parents are so
minded, of acquiring, what seems to me, a very thorough
course of instruction at the public cost. All the schools,
I may add, are day schools.
In the towns there are a few teachers who give private
instruction in foreign languages ; but there may fairly
be said to be no private schools. It follows that the
whole education of the country is practically provided
by the State schools. Americans are proud, and very
justly proud, of their common school system; but as the
United States have grown in wealth, and as the social
distinctions which accompany wealth have developed in
the Republic of the West, the children of well-to-do
Americans are brought up more and more in private
schools. Probably the same change will occur in Bulgaria
when the same causes begin to operate. For the present,
however, and for many years to come, the whole population
of Bulgaria must be educated in the State schools. The
children of professional men, tradesmen, and peasants
receive exactly the same education, in the same schools,
and pass their j'ears of learning sitting on the same
benches, studying the same lessons, and playing the same
games. This system must tend to perpetuate the abso
lute equality between all classes which now prevails in
Bulgaria to a far greater extent than in the United States,
or indeed in any civilized community I have ever heard
of, either in the Old World or the New.
Some years ago, when I was travelling in America,
I was always invited, by any acquaintances I might have
H

98 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
in tLj towns I visited, to visit their cemetery and their
common school. Happily the sort of ghoulish taste for
graveyards, which is so universal amidst the Trans
atlantic branch of the Anglo-Saxon race, does not prevail
in Bulgaria ; and I fancy that the popular Bulgarian
sentiment on the subject of burial-grounds very closely
resembles that of the Moslem, namely, that a cemetery
is a resort for the dead and not for the living. Anyhow
in Bulgaria I never found myself expected to visit the
cemeteries, but I was everywhere solicited to visit the
educational establishments. The public schools of Philip
popolis, of which I saw most, are reckoned some of the
best in Bulgaria ; and if, as I was assured by competent
judges, they are fair specimens of the general run of
the high schools throughout the country, the Bulgarians
are certainly to be congratulated on the success of their
scholastic experiment. The boys' school is located in
a very spacious, handsome building, which was built for
the purpose at a cost of some £20,000, and which, in
respect of class-rooms, galleries, and lecture-halls, is
admirably adapted for the objects of an educational
institution. The whole building was scrupulously clean ;
the rooms were well ventilated, cheerful, and commodious.
There are six classes in the school, and each pupil is
expected to rise from a lower to an upper class during
each year of his sexennial curriculum. If he fails to
qualify himself for the class next above his own during
two successive years he is dismissed from the school as
incapable of learning. The hours of study are from eight
in the morning to midday, and from two to four in the
afternoon. If, however, the parents can show valid cause
for requiring the services of their children at home, the

X.] PUBLIC EDUCATION. 99
pupils are excused from afternoon attendance. u'The
summer holidays are so arranged as to cover the period
of the harvest, and thus to enable the boys to assist in
the chief farming operations of the year.
The first class in the high schools is occupied with
testing and, if necessary, completing the elementary
education that the pupils have received in the elementary
schools. The highest class embraces the study of chemistry,
conic sections, the differential calculus, and political
economy. There is no instruction given in dead or
foreign languages. In the intermediate classes between
the first and last, the pupils pass through the various
stages of education in such studies as mathematics, history,
geography, astronomy, and general science. Of course,
when you have to communicate by the aid of an inter
preter, it is not easy to ascertain what degree of learning
the pupils have actually acquired. But, judging from the
diagrams, maps, models, and text-books which I saw in
use, the instruction imparted was certainly of a higher
and more serious character than that given in any ordinary
public school of our own country. The boys appeared to
me to follow the explanations of their teachers with
extreme attention and interest, and had none of the
listless, bored look, which, if my recollection serves me
rightly, used to be — and I dare say is — so characteristic of
English school-boys in a class-room. The teachers seem
to take great interest in their pupils, and were obviously
most anxious to impress a stranger with the extent of
their scholars' attainments. They all declared that the
children, as a general rule, were anxious to learn, and
quick at learning. Any religious difficulty is got over
by allowing the children of different sects to receive

IOO INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
religious instruction in separate class-rooms, imparted by
ministers of their own creed. As the building has any
amount of space, and as there are only four important
schismatic denominations — the Orthodox Greeks, the
Catholics, the Mahommedans, and the Jews — there is no
difficulty about finding separate accommodation for the
purpose. The religious teaching is always given, either
at the commencement or at the end of the day's lessons,
so as to leave the regular school work uninterrupted.
From what I could learn, no very great importance is
attached by the parents to religious instruction being
given one way or the other, so long as no attempt at
proselytizing is made or suspected of being made. The
boys themselves, in common with all Bulgarian lads, were
strong, stout-built fellows, not unintelligent in look, but
with a sort of peasant aspect, which characterizes the whole
race. Morally, though I am bound to say not materially,
they were one and all redolent of the soil. In the
play-ground they were taking lessons in drilling while
I was visiting the school, and I was struck with the
regularity of their movements, as well as with their
likeness to the soldiers of the Bulgarian arm)*, who
always remind me of ploughboys in uniform, brave,
doubtless, strong, and active, and yet with little or no
pretence to what the French call the tetiue militaire.
The professors are, without an exception, Bulgarians who
have received their education either at Robert College,
Constantinople, or in Roumania, Austria, France, and
Russia. One of them had been a student in the Applied
Sciences Department of King's College, London, and
spoke English admirably. But the majority, I should
say, had little knowledge of any language other than

X.] PUBLIC EDUCATION. IOI
those common to most Bulgarians. It should, however,
be remembered that the knowledge of Bulgarian gives a
man of education complete command of Russian literature.
At the ordinary elementary schools the salaries paid to
the masters are liberal, according to the Bulgarian standard,
varying as they do from fifty to eighty pounds a year ;
but the professors in the high schools are comparatively
poorly remunerated, the highest salary being two hundred
pounds. As far as I could learn, they have little oppor
tunity of adding to their incomes by giving private lessons
out of school hours. Still, the present system works so
satisfactorily that even parents who could afford the
expense of sending their children to be educated abroad
now keep them at home, unless they wish their education
in some special branch to be carried beyond the limits
provided by the high schools. In Bulgaria there is a
great prejudice against the importation of professors and
teachers from abroad whenever this can possibly be
avoided. At present the class of educated Bulgarians
who could adequately fill the professorial chairs of a
degree-granting University is so small as to be practically
non-existent. It is hoped, however, that as soon as the
crack pupils of the native gymnasiums have completed
their special studies in foreign lands, it may be possible
to found native universities under native tuition ; in
that event, the present high school of Philippopolis will
probably be converted into a university.
The girls' school, though inferior in accommodation
and internal arrangements to the boys' gymnasium, is a
solid, comfortable building. The class of instruction given
is very much the same in both schools, but at the former
it does not extend nearly so far as in the latter, and far

102 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
less attention is devoted to abstract studies. All I can
say is that I visited several class-rooms in which the girls
wrote very well from dictation, and worked out a number
of difficult sums with great readiness and accuracy.
With the exception of music, accomplishments form no
part of the feminine course of study. The teachers were
of the ordinary schoolmistress type, but looked intelligent,
patient, and painstaking. I noticed, both among boys
and girls, the curious indifference with which the presence
of strangers was regarded. In any English school, the
sudden entry of a group of foreigners, who were treated
as visitors of distinction, would have caused any amount
of whispering and nudging amongst the boys, and of
giggling and glancing amidst the girls. But here the
scholars of both sexes appeared to pay no attention to
the interruption of their lessons, and went on quietly and
stolidly with their tasks, just as if nothing exceptional
had happened. The oldest girls' class I visited consisted
of pupils between fifteen and seventeen, who were going
through an examination in the history of the Crusades.
There were some fifty girls in this classroom, and at the
age of sweet seventeen it is difficult for any girl not to have
some charm of look or manner. I was told by one of
the teachers that the girls were very anxious to get on at
school, as the successful pupils were in great demand as
wives for the officers of the Bulgarian army. If so, I trust
I may say, without lack of courtesy, that the Bulgarian
officers display a preference for intellectual as compared
with physical charms, which is not common amongst
military men in other countries.
Altogether, the system of instruction imparted at the
public schools seem to me very sound and very efficient.

X.] PUBLIC EDUCATION. IO3
The only complaint I heard from the professors was
that the boys were at times extremely insubordinate
and difficult to manage, and that if they did not like a
teacher, they would pay no attention to his teaching.
Only two or three years ago there was a barring out at
the boys' school in Philippopolis. The masters were
forcibly excluded from the building, and, on trying to
force their way in, were driven back by their pupils, armed
with sticks and knives. Order was not restored until
the services of the troops had been called into requisition.
The masters attributed these acts of insubordination partly
to want of tact in some of the then professors, and still
more to the bad influence of the local newspapers, which
had filled the boys' heads with all sorts of crude, Socialist,
and Nihilist ideas.
What truth there may be in this explanation I have no
means of saying ; but I think the extent to which public
education is now carried in Bulgaria is not without danger
to the State. To my mind it is utterly impossible to
imagine that the young lads who, year after year, are
leaving these high schools with a far better education, in
as far as book-learning is concerned, than nineteen middle-
class young Englishmen out of twenty, will be content to
go back to their homes, till their small farms, and lead the
same lives of hard-working penury as their fathers led
before them. It is only a few, after all, of the boys brought
up in the high schools who can become pupil-teachers in
the elementary schools. The Bulgarian Church offers little
attraction to men of education. Trade and industry are
as yet so little developed that young and intelligent men
cannot hope to find the employments in professional and
mercantile pursuits they would naturally turn to in more

104 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.X.
advanced communities. Practically, all that a clever
educated Bulgarian lad has to look to as the reward of
his studies upon leaving school, is the attainment of some
post in the public service ; the best way to obtain such
posts is to engage in political agitation. There is, therefore,
a strong probability of Bulgaria's becoming inundated with
professional politicians. The example of Greece is sufficient
to show the evils inseparable from a state of things under
which political agitation is the best, if not the sole, pursuit
by which men can hope to earn a livelihood on the strength
of their education. The danger, however, of this state of
things is fully recognized by many of the leading Bulgarian
statesmen ; and the good sense of the community may,
there is reason to hope, provide a remedy against the
growing evil. Already there is some talk of rendering
the education provided at the high schools no longer
gratuitous, and of compelling parents who desire a higher
education for their children than that imparted at the
primary schools, to pay a material part of the expense of
secondary education. There is talk, too, of suppressing
the grants provided by the State, out of which children
of needy parents are supplied with the funds required to
pursue their studies at the high schools. The real remedy,
however, for this evil, whose existence is almost univer
sally admitted, is the extension of local trade and local
industry. It seems to me, therefore, that the system of
education now established throughout the principality,
excellent as it is, must lead, as a necessary corollary, to
the introduction of foreign capital, without which there is
no possibility of local trade and industry being developed
for a considerable time to come.

( ios )

CHAPTER XI.
THE public service.
In as far as my experience goes, the condition of the
public service is about the best test of the real advance
made by any country towards civilized life. Wherever
the general run of the administrators are active, pains
taking, and honest, the country is in a good way and
making progress ; wherever the administrators are, as a
body, indolent, indifferent to their duty, and corrupt, the
country is in a bad way and going backwards. Holding
this view, one of my chief endeavours during my visit to
Bulgaria was to ascertain how far the public service
deserved to rank in the former or the latter category.
The class of Bulgarians with whom I came most
directly into contact were the officials of the public service ;
and as to their possession of the two first of the three
qualities I have enumerated as requisite, I can testify to a
considerable extent from my own observation. Almost
all the officials I made acquaintance with spoke more or
less of foreign languages — more, I noticed, of French than
of German ; and one and all were willing and anxious
to give a stranger a good impression of their country.
They had mostly been educated at Robert College, or in
the capitals of the West ; there were very few who had
not resided for some time in foreign countries. The

106 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
number of what one would call highly educated men
amidst the official class seemed to be limited ; the number
of fairly well educated was, however, very large; their
education, as I gathered, having been mainly confined to
the special studies which they had been sent abroad to
learn. That this must be so is obvious enough. In the
first place, the Bulgarians have not reached the stage of
civilization in which the need of general, as distinguished
from special, culture is either felt or supplied ; in the
second place, the national character is not that of a race
addicted to intellectual pursuits or abstract studies; and,
what is more than all, the students, whom Bulgaria has
hitherto sent abroad to finish their education, are, with
scarcely an exception, the sons of peasants who have
expended their hard-earned savings to make them doctors,
lawyers, engineers, as the case might be, not men of
general culture and high education. The officials of whom
I speak were sent abroad for some special object, and, as a
rule, they returned home having achieved that object, and
that object only. All persons I have met, who have had
opportunities of watching the progress of Bulgarian
students abroad, are agreed as to their great power of
application, their extreme desire to learn, and their marked
aptitude in mastering any special study to which they turn
their attention. To rise into the public service is the
great ambition of all Bulgarians, and the first wish of every
Bulgarian — subject only to his passion for increasing the
acreage of his land — is to get employment under Govern
ment, and, having got it, to make it a stepping-stone to
further advancement. Thus it may be assumed, even if
the assumption were not confirmed by observation, that the
Bulgarian officials, as a class, are active and painstaking.

XL] THE PUBLIC SERVICE. 107
It is not so easy to speak with certainty as to their
possession of the third qualification, that of honesty. The
difficulty of forming an opinion on this point is increased
by the fact that every traveller, who keeps his ears open,
will hear entirely different accounts from residents in the
country, who are alike entitled to speak with some authority
on the matter in dispute.
The Bulgarians are not a people to whom the art of
making themselves sympathetic to foreigners comes readily.
They have little or nothing of the suppleness of mind, the
quickness of adopting foreign modes of expression or turns
of thought, which are characteristic of other Sclav nations.
They do not possess also the instinctive good breeding,
the semblance, if not the reality of self-respect, which
centuries of domination as a master race have conferred
upon the Turks. For this, and for other reasons to which
I have alluded elsewhere, they are seldom personally con
genial to strangers whose lot causes them to dwell in their
land. When individuals or races are not congenial to you,
it is only in human nature you should take a somewhat
unfavourable view of their character. A considerable
rebate, therefore, must be made from the estimates of
foreigners, who abuse the country and the people on the
ground that, as old residents, they have a right to form
their own opinion. With the general issue, whether the
Bulgarians are or are not an attractive face, I am not
much concerned. I have lived long enough abroad to
realize the opinion which foreigners hold about our own
claim to amiability ; and I am fully aware that the racial
qualities, which command respect, are certainly not those
which inspire affection. Nations, as well as persons, are,
I am convinced, more liked for their failings than for their

108 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
virtue. When, however, I endeavoured to analyze the
general indictment brought against the Bulgarians by their
detractors, I found it, in the main, to amount to this : that
their courts were dilatory unless the suitor paid, in some
form or other, for expedition, and that the public officials
grew rich upon small salaries. To a certain extent, the
charges in question may be true ; but even admitting their
truth, it by no means follows logically that either the
judges or the officials are corrupt and venal.
The truth is that in this, as in so many other matters,
we English people are accustomed to judge foreign nations
by a standard of our own, which may be much better than
their standard, but which, whether good or bad, is certainly
not their standard. We pay our public servants very high
salaries. Happily for us, we place at the head of our public
offices — or have placed hitherto — men of birth and station,
and generally possessed of means of their own, independent
of their salaries, and thus we have created an esprit de corps
in our judicial and official services, which causes every
member of these bodies to regard any departure from the
social code of English gentlemen as a personal and indi
vidual disgrace. When County and Parish Councils have
fallen, as they infallibly must fall, into the hands of a class
trained in a harder school and imbued with different ideas
of the fitness of things, we shall find in our turn that govern
ment for the people by the people implies that the people
who do govern consider it their right and due to get some
thing for themselves out of the people who are governed.
The man in the fustian coat and corduroys may be at heart
as honest as the man who rides in his own carriage and has
been brought up at public schools and universities. The
only difference between the two is that a five -pound note

XL] THE PUBLIC SERVICE.

109

is a temptation to the former in a sense in which it is not
a temptation to the latter. This is all the difference ; but
the difference counts for much. Some years ago I had
occasion to make inquiries of a small North-country
tradesman — who by industry and economy had made a
little money and had got elected upon the vestry of his
parish — as to the price at which his premises were rated.
I was not surprised to find that they were rated very much
below, not only their real value, but below that at which
his neighbours' houses were assessed. On asking for an
explanation, his answer was, " I should be a fool, and the
" whole parish would call me a fool, if, being on the vestry,
" I did not get my rates assessed lower than those of my
"neighbours." The man, as I had good reason to know,
was honest and fair-dealing in all the ordinary relations
of life ; but I might as well have tried to explain the
binomial theorem to him as have endeavoured to con
vince him that a vestryman ought not to use his official
position in order to get his own rates reduced to his own
advantage. Human nature is the same in Bulgaria as in
Yorkshire ; arid peasants are peasants all the world over.
It is, however, a mistake to suppose that because a
Bulgarian public servant may do things a high-minded
English official would not dream of doing, he is therefore,
necessarily, corrupt. I had occasion some years ago, in
the Transvaal, to have to study the same problem as that
presented to me in Bulgaria. In the former country I was
told on every side that the Boer politicians were all dis
honest, devoid of principle, and open to bribery ; in con
firmation of this charge, my informants pointed to the
notorious fact that there was hardly a public man in the
country who, out of miserably small salaries, had not

IIO INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
somehow amassed a fortune out of all proportion to his
legitimate earnings. Yet my own experience, and that
of friends far better able to form an opinion on the subject,
convinced me that the Boer Ministers and officials were
utterly unamenable to corrupt influences in as far as the
interests, according to their own lights, of their country
were concerned ; that in private transactions their words
could be trusted ; and that, in the ordinary sense of the
word honesty, they were honest men. The explanation
I came to was, that their standard of public honesty was
not the same as our own. Like my friend the Yorkshire
vestryman, the public servants of the Transvaal considered
that, as long as they did their duty to the State, they
had a right to put something into their own pockets ; and
their fellow-Boers, like the vestryman's neighbours, thought
none the worse of them for so doing. To pay large salaries
to State servants is a thing abhorrent to the peasant mind ;
but that the recipients of these salaries should eke them
out by commissions, earned for the discharge of their public
duty, seems to the peasant — so long as these commissions
are not paid directly out of his own pocket — not only a
natural but a praiseworthy proceeding.
I suspect a similar state of public sentiment prevails in
Bulgaria. Even the influence of so popular and powerful a
Minister as M. Stambouloff could not induce the Sobranje
to vote official salaries on any other than a very meagre
scale, but his public influence would not be in the least
impaired by the knowledge that as a Minister he took
care to have some share allotted to him in the profit made
by the persons to whom he gave concessions in the public
interest. This is what every member of the Sobranje
would probably do himself, under similar circumstances,

XL] THE PUBLIC SERVICE. Ill
and would certainly see little or no harm in doing. Any
how the fact of a Minister's having taken commissions for
work done in the public service would not shake the
belief of his fellow-countrymen, that the vital interests of
the country were absolutely safe in his keeping. In much
the same way, the knowledge that judicial proceedings
had been expedited by the reception of a present on the
part of the presiding judges would not impair popular
faith in the justice of the decision at which the court
might ultimately arrive.
It is only fair to the Bulgarian public service to say
here that I found no reliable evidence as to the truth of the
latter imputation to which I refer. On the contrary, many
foreigners, who seem to be most competent to form an
independent opinion, assured me that they would willingly
entrust their interests to the arbitrament of the native
courts. Still, the imputations in question are made so con
fidently in many quarters, that, in endeavouring to give a
picture of the Peasant State, it is unfair to leave without
comment the charge most commonly brought against it by
its detractors. All I contend for is, that even admitting
the charge to be more or less founded, it does not follow
that public officials in Bulgaria are venal. To argue that
because a public servant in Bulgaria may not be in
different to the advantages of a commission, he is therefore
prepared to sell the interests of his country* or to pervert
the course of justice, is to betray an utter ignorance of
human nature in general, and of peasant nature in particular.
Let me also add here, that one of the things which
surprised me most in a country which had for centuries
been subject to Turkish rule, was to find that not only the
word " backscheesh " was unheard, but the thing itself

112 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEAS ANT STATE. [Ch.XI.
was unknown in common life. The Bulgarian peasant will
probably overcharge you, if he can, and will certainly try
to get the best of any bargain he may conclude with you.
But to ask you for " backscheesh," over and above the
price agreed upon, is foreign to his custom and to his
nature. In this, as in many other matters, the Bulgarian,
though in the East, is not of the East, Eastern.

( H3 )

CHAPTER XII.
THE ARMY.
One might naturally expect that in a State, such as
Bulgaria, a large standing army in times of peace would i
be popularly regarded as an unnecessary luxury and an
uncalled-for burden. So far is this from being the case,
that the military expenditure is voted more willingly by
the Sobranje, and with less criticism, than the grants
required for any other department of the public service.
The War Office, with the full sanction of the Sobranje,
habitually appropriates for its own use some part of thel
grants voted for other services, in the not unfrequent event'
of the amount assigned to any department being found to
be in excess of its actual requirements.
I do not think, however, that this readiness to acquiesce
in military expenditure can be accounted for by the
hypothesis that the Bulgarians are essentially a warlike
nation. They make good soldiers, as the event has shown ;
but soldiering, as a pursuit, is not one which commends
itself readily to the instincts of peasant population. The
cause of this apparent anomaly is not far to seek. The
maintenance of an army greatly in excess of the normal
needs of the country is, from a national point of view, a
matter of necessity. The Bulgarians are intensely jealous
of their independence, and almost extravagantly proud of
I

1 1 4 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap.
their distinct nationality. They are not simple enough to
suppose that any force they could possibly muster would
enable them to resist their annexation by Russia, supposing
the latter Power made up her mind to annex Bulgaria at
the risk of war, and supposing the other European Powers
acquiesced in her annexation. But they are convinced
that so long as they can keep up a strong military force
of their own, Russia is much less likely to attack their
independence, and the Western Powers are much more
likely, in case of need, to come to their assistance. All
the public men I have spoken to on the subject regard
any direct armed attack on the part of Russia as a very
improbable contingency. What they fear is some indirect
attack, instigated, if not supported, from St. Petersburg.
Supposing there was any decline in the efficiency of
Bulgaria as a fighting power, Servia, under pressure from
St. Petersburg, might — and it is believed would — renew
her attempt to invade the Principality. Bulgaria would
also be unable, without a powerful army, to protect and
claim as her own, in the possible event of a rising against
Turkish rule taking place in Macedonia, the large district
occupied by men of her own race south of the Turkish
frontier. On this account, the statesmen of Bulgaria
regard the maintenance of an effective standing army as
a matter of paramount necessity ; and this view commends
itself to the good sense and patriotic spirit of their fellow-
countrymen. Moreover, the internal organization of the army, as at
present constituted, is in complete harmony with the ideas
of a Peasant State, in which there is no difference of class
and very little difference of wealth. Every citizen of the
State, not physically incapacitated, is liable to compulsory

XII.] THE ARMY. 115
military service on attaining the age of twenty. Every year
there are about forty thousand Bulgarian youths who come
under this category. But in times of peace, only about
two-fifths of this number are actually called under arms.
The choice, whether a lad serves or not, is decided by the
chance of the conscription, and the balloting for military
service is conducted with perfect fairness. The conscripts
serve, either for two years in the infantry, or for three years
in the cavalry. Up to the age, however, of forty-five,
every soldier who has served in the army belongs to the
reserves, and may be called upon at any time to rejoin
the ranks under certain specified contingencies. Since the
Servian War there have been, on the average, thirty to forty
thousand Bulgarians actually under arms. As about half
that number quit the ranks annually, and as mortality is
not great amidst strong, healthy men between twenty and
thirty, the probabilities are that Bulgaria must now possess
some seventy thousand trained soldiers in the reserve. I
was assured that, if the necessity should arrive, Bulgaria
could at once mobilize an army of one hundred thousand
men, well provided with arms, ammunition, and means of
transport, and ready to take the field at very brief notice.
The existence of such a force enables her to view without
alarm any possible complication which does not form an
incident in a general European war.
The Bulgarian soldiery can never be called upon to
serve out of their own country except in time of war. In
consequence, they are not separated for long periods of
time from their homes and families in the same way as
the troops of States which have colonies or outlying
possessions. Military service here is essentially a home
.service ; and the only valid objection to a large army, from

1 1 6 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap.
a popular point of view, is the necessity it involves of
restricting the supply of the labour available for the
cultivation of the land, in which, either in his own person,
or as a member of a family, every Bulgarian soldier is
individually interested. The men are well fed, well clothed,
and well housed ; and dull as the Bulgarian towns, in which
the troops are mostly quartered, may seem to strangers,
they probably present great attractions to peasants whose
lives have been passed hitherto in out-of-the-way villages.
Promotion is absolutely equal for all ranks and classes
in the Bulgarian army. Any youth who has gone through
his curriculum at the high schools, and who has risen into
the upper class before leaving, has a right to enter the
Military Academy at Sofia as a cadet ; and after studying
there for two years and passing a satisfactory examination,
he is entitled to a commission. At the same time, any
private soldier who has served for two years in the ranks,
and who can pass the examination demanded of the
cadets, is equally entitled to an officer's appointment.
From the nature of things, I presume that the cadets are,
as a rule, sons of peasants somewhat better off than the
mass of their fellow-countrymen. But the differences of
fortune are so slight here, all classes are so equally
removed from either wealth or poverty, that officers and
privates do not represent different social strata, as they do
in almost all other armies. Since the Russian officers
were recalled on the eve of the Servian War, the army,
with hardly an exception, has been officered by native-born
Bulgarians; that is, in the vast majority of instances, by the
sons of peasants. The pay of the officers is liberal and,
according to a Bulgarian standard, even lavish. For
instance, a sub-lieutenant receives £100 a year, a captain

XII.] THE ARMY. 117
£200, a major £300, and a colonel close on £500. The
military salaries are, in every case, relatively higher than
those paid to civil servants occupying analogous positions.
The possibility of rising from the ranks and obtaining a
commission is undoubtedly a great attraction to the recruits
upon their joining the army. The saying that every
French soldier carried a field-marshal's baton in his
knapsack is one of those empty declarations to which the
Gallic nature is so addicted. But it may be said with perfect
truth, that every Bulgarian private, if he is intelligent, hard
working, and steady, and has made good use of his school
education, is well-nigh certain of obtaining a commission,
carrying with it not only social distinction, but a salary
which, in his eyes, means comfort as well as competence.
There is perfect equality among the services. The
only body of troops which enjoys any sort of exceptional
privileges consists in a small corps d'dite which supplies
the escorts for the Prince and the guards for the palace.
These privileges, however, consist in the members of the
corps being somewhat better equipped, better clad, and
better mounted than their fellow-soldiers. Otherwise, they
serve under the same conditions and are composed of the
same class as the regiments of the line.
The military efficiency of the Bulgarian army is a point
concerning which one must rely mainly on professional
opinion. These opinions have been almost invariably
favourable. All I can say from personal observation is,
that the Bulgarian soldiery are strong, powerful men, that
they are drilling all day long, and that, in common with
their countrymen, they look good-humoured and contented.
A quieter, better-conducted body of troops it is difficult to
imagine. I have never, either by day or night, seen a

118 INSTITUTIONS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Bulgarian soldier drunk or quarrelsome, or even noisy in
the streets. To my mind, they do not march with much
swing or go, but they cover a great deal of ground without
fatigue. They are very fond of singing while on the
march. Officers and men appear to be on very friendly
and familiar terms, though the etiquette of military service
in such matters as saluting is most strictly observed.
There is nothing of the swagger, so common in the
armies of France, Germany, and Russia, to be noticed
amidst the Bulgarian soldiery. They are not, as yet, in
any sense a caste apart ; they are Bulgarians, peasants
for the most part, who wear serge uniforms instead of
woollen sheepskins. That is the only difference.
There are many obvious advantages in this national
character of the national army. Still, I am told by
persons not unfriendly to the country, that the homo
geneity — to use a long word — of the Bulgarian army is,
politically speaking, a disadvantage. Apart from their
superior military education, the officers are of much the
same social standing as the men, sharing the same ideas,
interests, and prejudices. From the colonel to the private
they are peasants in uniform, trained to the use of arms,
and united by a common discipline. This fact may
increase the efficiency of the army in time of war, but it
also increases their power as a political element in time
of peace. The officers, indeed, are forbidden to interfere
in any way with politics ; it is difficult, however, to see
how this prohibition can be enforced in periods of political
excitement, in a country where officers and men speak the
same language, belong to the same class, and are governed
by the same influences. In a last resort, the Government
has to rely upon the army, not only for the defence of the

XII.] THE ARMY.

119

country, but for the maintenance of its home authority ;
and supposing the army to be dissatisfied, rightly or
wrongly, with the policy of the Government, the con
sequences might be serious. During the height of the
recent public agitation, caused by the closing of the
Bulgarian schools in Macedonia, the Government might
have found it necessary, in the interest of the State, to
suppress by force the popular manifestations which were
then taking place all over the country ; in such a
contingency, it is not quite certain whether they could
have relied on the army to carry out their instructions.
This danger has been removed by the Porte having given
way and having revoked the edict which created such
indignation in Bulgaria. Similar difficulties, however,
may easily arise ; and then the fact of the Bulgarian army
being the realization of the democratic military ideal — that
is, of its being simply and solely the Bulgarian people under
arms — may possibly prove perilous. It struck me some
what unpleasantly, during the period of which I speak, to
hear it said on every side, that the success of Stambouloff's
policy, in obtaining the withdrawal of the obnoxious decree,
would enable the Government to dismiss the Minister of
War, whose dismissal, for private reasons into which I
need not enter here, had become a political necessity,
without incurring the risk of thereby exciting dissatis
faction in the army. The danger of the army's becoming
a political power would be far less serious if there was
any considerable number of foreign officers in the Bulgarian
service. But in this, as in all other matters, the intense
popular dislike to the introduction of any foreign element
stands in the way of the Government's availing itself of
the assistance of foreigners.

GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT
STATE.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE CONSTITUTION.
I KNOW of few more curious documents than the Con
stitution of Bulgaria. It was drawn up, nominally, by
the Constituent Assembly held at Tirnova in 1877, after
the State had been liberated by Russia, and before Prince
Alexander had been declared the ruler of the new prin
cipality. I should doubt whether, at that period, there
were any considerable number, amidst the delegates of
the emancipated peasantry, who were capable of devising
a Constitution, or had any definite idea of what was
meant by Parliamentary institutions. But even if the
members of the Sobranje had all been apt pupils of the
Abbe Sieyes, it would have made very little difference.
In those days the fate of Bulgaria lay absolutely and
entirely in the hands of Russia. If it had pleased the
Czar to declare that, in his opinion, a republic or an
absolute monarchy, instead of a constitutional kingdom,
was the form of government best suited to Bulgaria, his
recommendation would have sufficed to carry the day.
So long as the new order of things terminated their
subjection to Ottoman rule, and preserved the semblance
of autonomy, the Bulgarians were well satisfied to leave

Chap. XIII.] THE CONSTITUTION. 121
the decision of what that order should be to their liberator
and protector. Even if they had not been so satisfied,
they would have had no choice except to take whatever
institutions were provided for them from St. Petersburg.
Anyhow, the Constitution, as it exists, was the work
of Russia. This fact accounts, to my thinking, for the
singularity of the charter. The impression left on one's
mind by its perusal is that the charter must be the joint
composition of two authors — the one an admirer of auto
cratic government, the other a partisan of unbridled demo
cracy ; and that these authors, being unable to agree on any
common scheme, had compromised matters by arranging
that each in turn should contribute alternate clauses. The
preamble states that the Principality of Bulgaria is to be
an hereditary and constitutional monarchy with a national
Parliament. The clauses defining the respective attri
butions of the sovereign and the Parliament are drawn
up, in the former case, on the most autocratic principles ;
in the latter case, in accordance with extreme democratic
ideas. The position assigned by the Constitution to the
monarch may be summarized as follows : —
No laws passed by the Parliament are valid without
the sanction of the Prince. By right of his office he is
chief of the army, and has the absolute power of appoint
ing or dismissing all officers in the service. In the same
way the Ministers are nominated by him, and may be
deprived of their post at his good will and pleasure. They
are not necessarily members of the Sobranje, though they
have the right of taking part in the debates ; and their
tenure of office is independent of the issue, whether they
do or do not possess the confidence of a Parliamentary
majority. Every decree emanating from the Prince and

122 GOVERNMENT OFTHE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
countersigned by his Ministers is binding on the
executive. On the other hand, the attributes of the Parliament
under the charter are almost co-extensive with the powers
of the Prince. Universal manhood suffrage is declared
to be the law of the land. Every Bulgarian male citizen
who has attained the age of twenty-one, and is in pos
session of his civil rights, is entitled to vote. All citizens
of thirty years of age, who are able to read and write, are
eligible as representatives. According to the original
Constitution there was to be one deputy for every ten
thousand souls throughout the Principality ; by a sub
sequent change, however, there is only now one deputy
for every twenty thousand electors. The members of the
Sobranje are guaranteed absolute freedom of speech, and
are not liable to arrest or trial during the session of
Parliament without the previous consent of the Chamber.
No provision of any kind is made for a Second Chamber.
The deliberations of the Sobranje are open to the public ;
and no military force is allowed to be stationed in or near
their place of assembly. The Parliament thus constituted
possesses absolute authority to pass laws, to impose taxes,
to provide the funds required for the administration of
the State, either by loans or by taxation, and to discuss
and modify the Budget. No provision is made, on the
one hand, for the contingency of the Prince refusing to
sanction the laws passed by the Sobranje ; or, on the
other hand, for the eventuality of the Sobranje refusing
to provide the funds demanded by the executive as neces
sary for the service of the State. The Prince has the
right of dissolving the Assembly, and ordering fresh
elections whenever he thinks proper; but if the new

XIII.] THE CONSTITUTION. 1 23
Sobranje should persist in the policy which caused the
dissolution of its predecessor, the Prince is under no legal
obligation to withdraw his opposition. There are, in fact,
two kings in Bulgaria, as there were in Brentford. These
kings are the Prince and the Sobranje. In the con
tingency of their disagreement a dead-lock must arise,
for whose solution no mechanism has been devised or
apparently contemplated by the framework of the Con
stitution. The current interpretation of this strange omission is
that it was not accidental, but intentional. The object
of Prince Donderkoff, and of the fellow-officials who
assisted him in drawing up the Constitution, was to devise
a scheme under which Russian influence must of necessity
remain supreme in Bulgaria. It was expected at St.
Petersburg that the reigning Prince, whoever he might
be, would be a mere creature of Russia ; and on the
strength of this idea he was entrusted with powers so
ample as to place the whole administration of the country
entirely in his hands. But to guard against the eventu
ality of his not proving as subservient to Russia as was
anticipated, he was handicapped by the institution of a
Parliament, elected on the most democratic basis, and
possessed of complete and independent control over the
finances of the State. Thus, if the Prince were to make
difficulties in carrying out the policy recommended from
St. Petersburg, he could always, it was imagined, be brought
to reason by the pressure of the National Assembly acting,
as it was reasonable to suppose it would act, under the
influence of Russia. The scheme was ingenious, and
would probably have proved successful if the fatuous
policy of the Russians in Bulgaria had not contrived to

124 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
unite both the Prince and the Assembly in a common
hostility to their Muscovite protectors.
Within little more than two years after Prince
Alexander's accession, the conflict of jurisdictions, to
which I have alluded, made itself manifest. M. Zankoff
and his colleagues, the then Ministers of the State, were
extreme partisans and almost avowed agents of Russia ;
and in that capacity they proposed measures which
the Prince considered injurious to the interests of the
country. The actual causes of the dissensions between
the Prince and his Ministers are not very intelligible at
this distance of time. It is certain, however, that Prince
Alexander came, rightly or wrongly, to the conclusion
that his Ministers were determined to thwart his own
policy in every way, and that, in the event of his dis
solving the Sobranje, any elections held under the control
of the then Ministry would, as a matter of course, return
a majority of their nominees. He therefore dismissed his
Ministers, and issued a proclamation convoking the Grand
Sobranje. In the same proclamation he informed his
people that he felt it his duty to abdicate, unless the
Assembly should agree to suspend the Constitution for
seven years, and to allow him during this period to
govern the country without a Parliament. His action
may have been unwise, but it was not in excess of
the powers conferred on him by the Constitution. The
elections, which were held under an executive composed
of his supporters, returned a majority hostile to the late
Ministry. Thereupon the Grand Sobranje agreed to
accept the terms on which alone the Prince professed
himself ready to retain the throne. Owing, however, to
strong pressure which was brought to bear upon him from

XIII.] THE CONSTITUTION. 1 25
Russia, the Prince gave way within a few months of the
extraordinary powers which he had demanded being con
ferred upon him, and consented to the re-establishment of
the original Constitution. Since then there has been no
recurrence of this constitutional difficulty. That this has
been so is due partly to the fact that the reigning Prince
has shown more good sense and judgment than his pre
decessor ; partly to the political ability of the statesmen
who have held office under Prince Ferdinand ; but, above
all, to the accident that, of. late years, both the Prince
and the Sobranje have had a common interest in avoiding
any collision which might furnish an excuse for Russian
intervention. The difficulty, however, still exists, though
for the present it remains latent.
The other provisions of the Constitution have no great
interest for the outer world. A number of the clauses are
concerned with the establishment of a Grand Sobranje,
which is to be elected by the same constituencies as those
which return the ordinary Sobranje, but which is to
consist of double the number of representatives. This
extraordinary assembly is to be convoked when questions
have to be decided, having reference to the acquisition or
cession of national territory, to any change in the Constitu
tion, to a vacancy in the throne, and to the appointment
of a regency. As soon as the questions submitted to this
body have been decided by vote one way or the other, its
functions are at an end.
A number of more or less abstract principles are also
affirmed in the charter, which seem to have been intro
duced into this document rather for the purpose of satisfy
ing public opinion abroad than of meeting any immediate
home demand. The Press is declared to be absolutely

I 26 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
free, the right of public meeting is guaranteed, and the
establishment of any kind of censorship is declared illegal.
All religious denominations are secured perfect liberty of
worship so long as the practice of their creed is not incon
sistent with the law. No difference between one class and
another is to be permitted in respect of their legal status.
All titles of nobility, and all decorations of any kind, are
pronounced to be inconsistent with the fundamental laws
of the realm. Slavery and the slave-trade are prohibited ;
and all slaves, whatever their sex, nationality, or creed,
are to become free on setting foot on Bulgarian soil.
The right of property is proclaimed inviolable, and it is
expressly asserted that no private property can be ex
propriated by the State without adequate compensation.
Torture and confiscation of property are forbidden ; and
the secrecy of letters and telegrams is affirmed to be a
matter of universal necessity. All these general principles
are declared subject to the terms of laws to be enacted
later. In some cases, the laws bearing on these subjects
have not yet been formulated. Up to the present, how
ever, the tendency of all Bulgarian legislation has been in
conformity with the principles recited in the fundamental
charter. The Prince has an income of £24,000 a year guaranteed
him by the Constitution. This income cannot be increased
except by the vote of the Sobranje, or reduced without his
own consent. The Salic law regulates the succession to
the throne. The Prince and his heirs are not permitted to
profess any other religion than the orthodox Greek faith ;
but an exception is made in favour of any prince who
happens, at the time of his election, to belong to any
other religious communion. The orthodox Christian faith

XIII.] THE CONSTITUTION. 127
of the Eastern rite is proclaimed to be the State religion ;
and the authority of the Holy Synod, in all spiritual
matters, is recognized as paramount. Universal military
service is made incumbent on all Bulgarian male subjects,
irrespective of race or creed ; but the precise terms of army
service are left to be determined by future legislation.
Primary education is also declared to be compulsory and
gratuitous. Such are the principal provisions of this curious charter.
With the grave exception I have referred to above, this
¦draft Constitution — framed as it was, necessarily, in extreme
haste, and with a very imperfect knowledge of the true
conditions of the country — forms a not inadequate charter
of Bulgarian liberties. On the whole, it has worked well ;
the country at large has, apparently, no desire for any
fundamental change in its provisions.
Last year a meeting of the Grand Sobranje was held at
Tirnova. At this session, the title of the reigning Prince
was altered from Highness to Royal Highness ; and, in
view of his then impending marriage, it was further decreed
that, if he had a son and heir, the young Prince might be
educated in the Catholic faith, the religion of his parents,
without vitiating in any way his right of succession to the
throne.

128 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

CHAPTER XIV.
THE PRINCE.
AMONGST the many strange vicissitudes which Bulgaria
has experienced during her chequered fortunes, not the
least strange is the fact that the Sovereign of this Peasant
State should happen to be his Royal Highness Prince
Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg. His reign has hitherto proved
eminently successful, but even the warmest partisans
would admit that, at the time when the Prince ascended
the throne, his success seemed more than doubtful. After
the collapse of Prince Alexander, the difficulty of finding
a fit successor to the throne proved well-nigh insuperable.
The Bulgarians would not hear of the Prince of Mingrelia
or of any other nominee of Russia being appointed as their
ruler. On the other hand, it was absolutely certain that
any Prince, not nominated by Russia, would be exposed to
the same hostile influences which had brought about the
military mutiny against his predecessor, and which led to
his virtual deposition. The late Prince had been singularly
fortunate in the circumstances of his short-lived reign
almost up to the period of its dramatic termination. He
had added Eastern Roumelia to the territory of Bulgaria ;
he had defeated Servia ; he had fulfilled the aspirations
and resuscitated the traditional glories of the Bulgarian
nationality ; and by these achievements, no less than by

XIV.] THE PRINCE. 1 29
his gallant bearing and charm of manner, he had won the
affections of a people singularly distrustful and suspicious
of foreigners. If, with all these advantages in his favour,
the hero of Slievnitza had been unable to maintain himself
on his throne, there seemed to be but a sorry chance of
any other foreign Prince succeeding where Alexander had
failed. It is not too much to say that for some time the
crown of Bulgaria was in the market, and in a market
without buyers. Probably, if Bulgaria had been left free
to determine her own future, she would at this crisis of her
history have converted herself into a Republic. This was
not because her people had any special preference for
Republican institutions, but because, as M. Thiers said in
regard to France, "One can make a republic without
republicans, but one cannot make a monarchy without
a monarch." Happily, the shrewd good sense which
characterized the leaders of the National Movement led
them to realize the truth that, under existing conditions,
their country could only preserve her independence under
a Monarchy. After many abortive attempts and many
unsuccessful negotiations, a cadet of one of the royal
houses of Europe was found, in the person of Prince
Ferdinand, ready to accept the proffered crown.
Previous to his selection by the Regency which was
appointed on Prince Alexander's abdication, and of which
M. Stambouloff was the leading member, there were
probably not a score of persons in all Bulgaria who had
ever heard the name of her future sovereign. No doubt,
a similar remark would have held good of his predecessor
at the time of his accession. But then Alexander came
to Bulgaria as her sovereign at the instance and with the
approval of the Czar, the Liberator of Bulgaria ; while
K

130 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Ferdinand, on his accession, was not befriended by any
great European Power, and was notoriously a persona
ingrata to the one Power from whom Bulgaria had most
either to hope or fear. As the younger son of the head
of the non-regnant branch of the Saxe-Coburgs, his father
being a great Austrian nobleman, and his mother a
daughter of the ex-King of the French, he had no other
known claim to distinction than that of belonging to an
illustrious family, connected by ties of consanguinity with
almost all the royal houses of Europe, and occupying a
high position in Austria, where their estates were situated.
On the Continent, princes of royal lineage have little
chance of distinguishing themselves personally in any way,
other than military service ; and Prince Ferdinand was
still a mere child at the date of the last European war.
It was, therefore, no fault of his, if the announcement
that an unknown German Prince had been selected to be
their future sovereign excited little enthusiasm amidst the
people over whom he was called to reign. I question, how
ever, whether a sovereign of far greater personal repute
would have been welcomed with any degree of enthusiasm.
In as far as the Bulgarians troubled themselves about the
choice of their ruler, their one desire was for the restoration
of the Prince who had led their armies to victory, and
who, as they held, had been sacrificed on account of his
loyalty to Bulgaria. The late Prince's restoration, how
ever, was out of the question, and for Bulgaria, situated as
she then was, the election of Prince Ferdinand was, if I
may use a common phrase, Hobson's choice. Hobson,
whoever that mythical personage may have been, is not
recorded to have entertained any special regard for the
object of his enforced selection.

XIV.] THE PRINCE. \-\\
Under these circumstances, the reigning Prince started
on his career heavily handicapped. He was a very
young man, even in a country where all the leading
men are far younger than the average of Ministers in
States of less recent organization. Of necessity, he was
completely ignorant of the language, character, and con
ditions of the country over which he was appointed ruler ;
and at the outset he suffered by comparison with the
previous occupant of the throne. Prince Alexander was
brave to a fault, a gallant soldier, and possessed of that
easy-going bonhommie which furnishes the best passport
to the affections of plain, simple country-folk. While
indifferent to etiquette, he could, when the necessity arose,
assume a commanding manner and aspect ; and as long as
he could hunt and shoot and drill his troops, he was very
well satisfied to leave the administration of public affairs
in the hands of his Ministers. The new Prince was the
exact opposite of his predecessor in almost every respect.
He is distinguished in look, and knows how to bear himself
with dignity on State occasions, but there is nothing what
ever about him of the beau sabreur of which Alexander
was so striking a specimen. Born late in his parents'
lifetime, he had always been delicate from his childhood,
and; I should think, had as little natural liking for sport or
soldiering as any man, educated in the atmosphere of the
Austrian Court, could well have acquired. Culture and high
breeding and distinction of manner are not qualities which
appeal greatly to a peasant community ; while a love of
ceremonial, a taste for etiquette, and a respect for the forms
and usages of Court life are uncongenial to a people accus
tomed to a very plain, very simple, and very frugal mode of
life, and much averse to any alteration of their usual habits.

132 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
I gather, therefore, that on his accession the Prince was
regarded by his subjects, and even by his Ministers, as a
sort of show King, who took no interest in anything
beyond the pomp and pageantry of sovereignty. In the
early days of his reign he was obliged, owing to his
ignorance of the country and the language, to leave State
matters under the control of his Ministers. He set,
however, steadily to work to make himself acquainted with
the country over which he had to rule. He learned to
speak Bulgarian fluently, if not accurately ; he became
conversant with the life and ideas of the people; he
studied their necessities, requirements, and ambitions ; and
he soon felt himself competent to form and express an
opinion on all matters of legislative and administrative
policy. His Ministers were not slow in making the
discovery that the Prince did not intend to rest satisfied
with the titular position of a King, but was resolved to
exercise the full authority of a constitutional sovereign.
While holding himself studiously aloof from all questions
of party politics, he had the good sense to support
steadily the statesmen who then commanded the confidence
of the country ; his influence has been uniformly exerted
in favour of a prudent and cautious policy in foreign
affairs. If Bulgaria, under the present reign, has sub
ordinated her national aspirations to the development of
her internal resources, and to the re-organization of her
civil and military administration, this result has been due
in a very large degree to the influence of tlie palace.
Prince Ferdinand never has acquired, and probably
never will acquire, the personal hold on the affections of
his subjects which was obtained by Prince Alexander.
But he has succeeded in inspiring them with the conviction

XIV.] THE PRINCE. 1 33
that he has their welfare at heart, and that he is the
champion of their national independence. I am not sure
also whether his determination to surround himself with
the paraphernalia of royalty and to keep up all the
etiquette and state of a regular Court is not due to policy
as much as to personal inclination. There is a good deal
of truth in the old riddle about what Majesty becomes
when stripped of its externals ; human nature is a mass
of contradictions everywhere ; and I am inclined to think
that the Bulgarians — precisely because their own habits,
tastes, and ideas are of the peasant order — have a higher
respect for the King who is a King, with a Court which is
a Court, than they would have for a Prince who was
content to be treated simply and solely as the chief
magistrate of a peasant commonwealth.
Moreover, the chapter of accidents has caused the
Prince's determination to keep up the outward state and
dignity of royalty to assume the character of a national
protest. If he had been recognized at the outset by the
European Powers and treated by them as the chosen
sovereign of an independent State, his punctilious insistence
on the formalities of a royal Court being observed at Sofia
might have been ascribed to mere personal vanity. But,
from the commencement of his reign down to the present
day, he has been tabooed, treated with scant courtesy,
and, so to speak, left out in the cold by his fellow-
sovereigns. Though he has now reigned for seven years
as the chosen sovereign of Bulgaria, the choice of the
nation has been studiously and persistently ignored by
the European Powers. No one of these Powers, however
friendly disposed, has ever yet formally recognized the
existence of the present Bulgarian monarchy. It is not

134 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
accorded a place amidst the monarchies whose record
is recited in the Almanach de Gotha. Even Great Britain
and Turkey have never made up their minds to treat
the Prince with the ceremonial due to the legal sovereign
of an independent State. The great majority of the
diplomatic body at Sofia never go to Court or hold any
personal communication with the sovereign. The few
members of the body who break through the rule of
absolute non-recognition do so rather on the ground of
the Prince's personal kinship to the dynasties they repre
sent, than to the fact of his being the sovereign of the
State to which they are accredited. Whether the policy
of non-recognition is wise or unwise, it has had the good
result of causing the Bulgarians to regard the resolution
of Prince Ferdinand to be treated in all respects as a
legitimate sovereign in the light of a protest against the
slight inflicted by his non-recognition, not so much on
himself as on the country over which he rules.
Within the last few months various events have con
tributed to render the relations between the Prince and
his people more intimate and cordial than they were
before. His visit to the West, and the reception he
received in Austria, and still more in England, were
gratifying to his people as evidence of the importance
attached to Bulgaria abroad. Then, too, the Prince
gained ground in popular opinion by his marriage last
year with the Princess Marie of Parma. The choice of
the bride was acceptable to the country from the fact
of her representing the house of Bourbon, and of her
thus claiming relationship by birth with half the royal
dynasties of Europe. Moreover, by her charm of manner
and kindliness of nature, the Princess Marie soon made

XIV.] THE PRINCE. 1 35
herself popular in her adopted country ; and the feeling
of general good-will entertained towards her was intensified
when, at the commencement of this year, she gave birth
to a son, who was born on Bulgarian soil, and who was
given by his parents the name of Boris, the national hero
of Bulgarian tradition. The father of a Bulgarian Prince
could no longer be regarded as a foreigner, and the
dynasty has now acquired a national character which,
even under Prince Alexander, it had never quite possessed.
An old resident here told me that he had never witnessed
such a display of enthusiasm amongst a people singularly
undemonstrative by character, as that which greeted the
announcement of Prince Boris's birth. The popular
feeling about the infant Prince would probably have
been far more enthusiastic if his parents had consented
to have him brought up in the Orthodox Greek Faith.
If the babe ever grows up to manhood he will, if he is
wise, recognize the political advantages of belonging to
the same religion as his people. When the royal infant
happens — as was the case the other day, during his parent's
sojourn at Eberfeld — to be the sole kingly occupant of the
royal palace, a flag of his own is hoisted over the building.
But, as he grows up, a creed of his own would be a more
effective passport to Bulgarian respect and affection.
Again, the sudden death of Prince Alexander, which
only preceded by a few weeks the birth of an heir to
the Bulgarian throne, removed a source of possible
danger from the path of the reigning dynasty. Before
that event all Bulgarians, who, from one cause or another,
were dissatisfied with the existing regime, could always
contemplate the possibility of Prince Alexander's restora
tion as a means of redressing the grievances, whether

136 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
real or imaginary, under which they considered them
selves to suffer. It is only justice to the dead Prince to
say that, after his abdication, he acted towards his
successor with the most absolute loyalty. But so long
as he lived there always existed the nucleus of an
Alexander party, even amongst the staunchest advocates
of Bulgarian independence. As things are now, Prince
Ferdinand is the only possible sovereign of Bulgaria, and
the maintenance of the reigning dynasty has, therefore,
become identified with the cause of Bulgarian inde
pendence. There is, in as far as one can foresee, little
probability of any revolutionary movement in Bulgaria
which might endanger or retard the progress of national
development. Any agitation for dynastic changes must
come from without, not from within ; must be of foreign
origin, not of home production. The people and the
Prince have got, in short, to understand each other, and
this understanding has only confirmed the previous con
viction that the fortunes of the dynasty and of Bulgarian
independence are indissolubly connected, so far, at any
rate, as the present generation are concerned.
Nothing can be more courteous or pleasant than the
Prince's manner when he wishes to make himself agree
able. Owing to the prolonged illness of the Princess, I
was not able to see him during the earlier part of my
sojourn at Sofia. But, on the various occasions when I
saw him later, I had the advantage of learning his views
concerning Bulgarian matters, about which he expressed
himself with great frankness and with great acuteness.
Many things that his Highness said to me were clearly
not intended to be repeated, but the general purport of
his conversation may fairly be recorded. He took, or

XIV.] THE PRINCE. 1 37
professed to take, great interest in the impression which
had been left upon me by my sojourn in Bulgaria ;
and almost exhausted my limited powers of suitable
reply by his repeated expressions of regret that, owing
to the Princess's illness, he had not been able to receive
me earlier or see me oftener. In the uniform in which
he invariably makes his appearances in public he does
not look to the best advantage. But, in ordinary day
dress, he is a tall, well-built, handsome man of thirty,
with a very pleasant smile, a heavy moustache, a pro
nounced Roman nose, and singularly bright, piercing eyes.
Though there is not a trace of grey yet in his coal-black
hair, he might well be taken for some years older than
his real age, and he has the look of a man who has
already had more than his fair share of trouble and
anxiety. He, obviously, takes his kingship very seriously,
and has decided views of his own as to the external and
internal policy of his country. Indeed, my own doubt
would rather be whether his personal individuality was
not too marked for the passive part which his position
almost imposes upon him. Of course, I cannot say how
far his remarks to me were entirely of his own making,
but certainly they were the remarks of a man who had
studied the subject of Bulgaria thoughtfully and had
arrived at certain definite conclusions. He spoke highly
of the self-control, energy, and sobriety of the "Bulgarians
as a race, of their extraordinary aptitude in acquiring
knowledge and in assimilating the ideas as well as the
language of foreign nations, an aptitude which in no
wise interfered with their intense sentiment of nationality.
He professed to have been greatly impressed by the
facility with which his Ministers — men peasant-born and

138 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
self-educated — picked up the knowledge of public affairs
and the manners of society. The Bulgarian intellect was,
to his thinking, a sort of virgin soil in which ideas took
root rapidly, and, when they had taken root, were retained
with all the tenacity of a vigorous and uncultured memory.
As to his own position, both abroad and at home, he
spoke with extraordinary freedom. He did not conceal
the mortification he had experienced at his treatment
by the leading foreign Powers, but added that towards
Russia he never had and never would express himself
otherwise than with respect and gratitude. He could
never forget, or wish to forget, that it was to Russia
his adopted country owed her liberation ; that it was
Russia who had created the army which secured her
independence ; Russia whose uniform he wore, and was
proud to wear. Nothing, he was convinced, could have
been more loyal or more disinterested than the policy
of the late Czar towards Bulgaria. It was since Alexander
the Second's death that this policy had unfortunately
been changed.
The Prince seemed to be under no delusion with respect
to the nature of his hold on the Bulgarian people. The
people, he said, were democratic in their traditions, their
ideas, and their instincts. They had accepted a monarchy,
not from any strong abstract preference for monarchical
institutions, but because they knew and felt the monarchy,
as represented by him, to be essential to their existence as
an independent nation. He was convinced that in this
sense ninety-nine Bulgarians out of one hundred were
staunch supporters of the reigning dynasty, the partisans
of Russia not numbering more than one per cent, of
the whole population. The majority in favour of the

XIV.] THE PRINCE. 1 39
Ministry in office at the time of our conversation was,
in his opinion, a very large one ; still there was an oppo
sition which might hereafter become formidable. This
opposition was to be found almost exclusively in the
towns. The peasants took no interest whatever in politics,
properly so called ; but amidst the town folk there were
two parties, which, for want of any better name, might be
termed Liberal and Conservative. In reality the questions
at issue between them were personal and not political.
In a country like this official employment was the great
ambition of every man of any intelligence and education ;
and the real gravamen of the charges brought against any
Ministry was that, by the fact of remaining in power, they
kept other people out of office. For his own part, he had
always endeavoured to preserve absolute neutrality as to
party politics, and had never allowed personal sentiments
to influence his policy. It was a matter of great satisfaction
to him to have M. Grekoff as Minister of Foreign Affairs
on account of his great ability, though M. Grekoff had been
originally a leader of the Conservative party, which formerly
was anti-dynastic in its ideas. When M. Slavkoff, who had
previously been a violent partisan of Russia, called upon
him and told him that since he had discovered the policy
of Russia to be inimical to Bulgarian independence, he
had rallied to the support of the dynasty, he, as Prince,
had exerted all his influence to secure M. Slavkoff's
accession to office. Though a devout Catholic himself, he
had the greatest respect for the Greek Church, and had
shown this respect recently by granting a free pardon to
the Metropolitan Clement, who, in his own pulpit, had
actually denounced him as a usurper. On his own
account he had no apprehension concerning the Socialist

140 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
agitation, which, undoubtedly, had made some way of late
in Bulgaria. The young men who were sent abroad to
be educated came back, as a rule, imbued with communist
theories ; and these theories were more or less in harmony
with the communal system to which the Bulgarians had
been accustomed for centuries. The Progress, which, in
his judgment, was far the best-written paper in the Princi
pality, advocated the doctrines of Lebel and Lassalle.
Notwithstanding this, the Socialism of the jeunesse
bulgarienne was skin-deep, and dried up as soon as they,
got into the public service. For the present, and for a
long time to come, the influence of the small peasant
proprietary, which forms the great mass of the population,
must prove fatal to any Socialist propaganda. If his
descendants ever succeeded to the throne, they might
possibly find Socialism a serious danger ; but in our own
time it was never likely to be formidable.
With regard to foreign affairs, the Prince held that
the proper policy for Bulgaria was to maintain the most
friendly relations with Turkey. The difficulty was that
Turkey, under the irresolute rule of the Sultan, could
never quite make up her mind whether she ought to be
friendly or unfriendly to Bulgaria. In home affairs his
one rule was to adhere resolutely to any policy adopted
after due reflection ; but at the same time he let the
country know that this policy was just and logical. He
considered that the system of public education was in
danger of being carried to an extent beyond the require
ments of the State. He also held that Bulgaria was hardly
yet fitted for the absolute freedom of the Press which she
at present enjoyed, and remarked that the Constitution, by
which this freedom had been decreed, had been deliberately

XIV.] THE PRINCE. 1 41
framed by Count Donderkoff in order to render the inde
pendence of Bulgaria impossible, and so convert her into
a Russian province.
His Highness spoke to me in French, but frequently
employed English words for which there is no exact
French equivalent, and I may say his pronunciation of
these words was extremely good. He took a great
interest, apparently, in English politics ; he spoke very
favourably about Lord Rosebery, by whom he had been
much impressed during his recent visit to England, and
stated his fervent hope that in the interest of Bulgaria
there might be no change in the direction of English
foreign policy, as conducted alike under Lord Salisbury
and Lord Rosebery. He alluded very warmly to his
personal friendship for the late Duke of Albany ; and I
noticed he always spoke of our Queen as Ma tante.
Altogether he left on me the impression of a man who
had thought and read a good deal, who had distinct
ideas of his own, who attached considerable value to his
own judgment, and who might, if he were thwarted, prove
obstinate.

142 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

CHAPTER XV.
THE ESTATES OF THE REALM.
IN what I have written concerning the Constitution of
Bulgaria I have endeavoured to explain the theory of
government under which the affairs of the State are
administered. But in all countries, and especially in all
countries whose institutions are of novel and, to a certain
extent, of exotic origin, there is always a marked difference
between theory and practice. It would be a mistake to
assume that, because Bulgaria possesses Parliamentary
institutions, she is governed absolutely and entirely after
the fashion of a genuine constitutional State. It would be
an equal mistake to conclude that, because her administra
tion is not always conducted in strict compliance with
constitutional principles, the country is therefore under
autocratic rule. If I were compelled to define the govern
ment of the Peasant Kingdom, I should say the State
was administered on democratic principles, tempered by
autocratic practice. Let me try and show what is meant
by this seeming paradox.
There are, to use our English political phraseology,
three Estates in Bulgaria : the Crown, the Ministers, and
the Sobranje. The Prince possesses larger powers than
those exercised by ordinary constitutional sovereigns. In
practice, as well as in theory, he appoints the Ministry

XV] THE PARLIAMENT. 1 43
and commands the army, while his personal favour or
disfavour exercises an influence in politics which the mere
will of the sovereign cannot exercise in countries where
Parliamentary government is fully established and recog
nized. His power, however, of interference in political
affairs is limited by certain very important restrictions.
He can appoint and dismiss Ministers, but he' cannot
maintain permanently in power any Ministry which is out
of harmony with national sentiment as represented by the
Sobranje. Nor, even if he had the full support of his
Ministers, could he carry out any policy which was dis
tinctly and directly in opposition to the will of the
country. Whatever may be the defects, either of the
Sobranje or of the army, both these bodies are essentially
national institutions, composed of exactly the same
elements as the mass of a singularly homogeneous popula
tion. Under existing conditions, it is almost impossible
to conceive of any administrative measure proving grossly
distasteful to the country without being equally distasteful
to the Sobranje and to the army. It follows that, how
ever wide the powers of the Prince may be, these powers
cannot be exercised in direct opposition to national senti
ments. If Prince Alexander had remained on the throne
as the hero of Slievnitza, and if his political courage and
capacity had been equal to those he displayed in military
affairs, his authority might have assumed an • autocratic
character. But Prince Ferdinand, even if he had any wish
to do so, could not convert his constitutional sovereignship
into a dictatorship. By necessity, as well as by inclina
tion, he must reign, if he is to continue to reign, as a
constitutional monarch.
The Ministry, in much the same way, possess a latitude

1 44 GO VERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap.
of action exceeding that accorded to their fellows in more
highly organized societies. So long as they administer
public affairs in such a way as to satisfy the Prince on
one hand, and the mass of their fellow-countrymen on the
other, they have no great need to trouble themselves as
to whether their modes of administration are exactly in
accordance with their constitutional powers. They may,
and do, influence the elections in a way which is not
exactly constitutional ; they may, and do, disregard at
times the rights conceded by the charter to all citizens ;
they may, and do, occasionally administer public affairs in
a high-handed and autocratic fashion ; but in their case,
as in that of the Prince, their power of acting arbitrarily is
limited by the condition that this power must be employed
in conformity with, or at any rate not in opposition to,
the general sentiments of the country. Being of the same
class as the population whose affairs they direct, being
imbued with the same ideas, aspirations, and prejudices,
they are not very likely to favour a policy or adopt a
measure flagrantly in opposition to popular opinion. But,
even if they were so minded, I fail to see how they could
carry out their purpose. In all grave issues they have
to take account of the sentiments of the Sobranje and of
the army ; and these sentiments must, by the nature of
things, be, as an almost universal rule, in accord with the
will of the nation.
The Sobranje, whatever its theoretical authority may
be, does not as yet possess the full powers of a constitu
tional Legislature. Parliamentary institutions were utterly
unknown in Bulgaria till a very few years ago ; and I
fancy that, in as far as the Bulgarians, at the time of their
liberation, had any distinct idea of their own as to the

XV.] THE PARLIAMENT. 1 45
proper functions of a Parliament, that idea was based upon
their experience ofthe old Turkish Meglis. In accordance
with this experience, they would naturally look upon
Parliament as a body designed, not so much to appoint
or overthrow Ministries, or even to take the initiative in
legislation, but as one intended to advise upon and watch
over the general administration of public affairs.
Except in the large towns very little interest is taken
in politics. To the great mass of the electorate it is a
matter of utter indifference who their representatives may
be. The difficulty is to get the electors to vote at all ;
and in the majority of instances the representatives are
virtually nominated by the Government of the day. The
constituencies pay no attention to the fact whether their
members do or do not take any active part in the debates.
So long as no new taxes are imposed upon the staple
industry of the country, the peasants, I gather, are in
ignorance as to what is done in the Sobranje, or as to
whether the Sobranje is or is not in session. If this is so,
it is easy to understand why the national Legislature has
not hitherto assumed an importance corresponding with
the power it possesses or might possess. Still, as things
are, no Ministry could remain in office, supposing the
Sobranje refused to vote the estimates, without an overt
violation of the Constitution ; and, under existing cir
cumstances, neither the Prince nor the Ministry are likely
even to dream of resorting to a step which might, and
probably would, furnish a pretext for foreign intervention.
All experience shows that, when a representative body
is possessed of the power of making its will supreme, it
soon learns how that power can best be exercised. There
are already signs that the Bulgarian Parliament is
L

146 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
becoming more of a substantive reality. On one or two
occasions a Minister has had to resign, not because he lost
the confidence of the sovereign, but because he failed
to command the approval of the National Assembly.
The electors are beginning to realize that by returning
to the Sobranje representatives pledged to support their
own interests, they can secure these interests being duly
protected. The Government no longer find it as easy
as it used to be to regulate the result of the polls, and
I was assured by the political opponents of the then
existing Ministry that, at the next election, the dissatis
faction of the peasants with the increasing burden of the
taxes on agriculture would manifest iteelf in the return
of a really formidable opposition. I am not at all certain
how far this is true ; but the mere fact that such an
assertion should be made with confidence, shows that
Parliamentary institutions are gradually becoming a real
factor in the public life of Bulgaria. I should say that
at present the Sobranje has very little initiative in the
administration of public affairs. At the same time, it
constitutes a formidable barrier against any permanent
arbitrary action on the part of the Sovereign or the
Ministers, provided always that that action is one to which
popular opinion is distinctly hostile. The Sobranje also
exercises a limited, though increasing, influence on the
course of legislation. Thus, whatever may be the defects
of the Bulgarian Government, it has the practical advan
tage that the policy of the administration must neces
sarily be in harmony with the will of the nation upon
all points — and as yet these points are not many in
number — concerning which the nation has a distinct will
of its own.

XV] THE PARLIAMENT. 1 47
The Sobranje was not in session during my sojourn
in Sofia. As a rule it meets in October and adjourns
before Christmas. I cannot, therefore, speak of its
sittings from personal observation. The Chamber is a
fine building, looking like an opera-house, and is of the
usual Sofiote brick-and-stucco order. It stands on the
outskirts of the town, at the head of the Constantinople
Road, and seemed to me, when I visited it, well con
structed for the purpose of a Legislative Chamber. Over
its portals is inscribed in Bulgarian the national motto
of Belgium, L'union fait la Jorce, by which, I presume, the
union between Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia is com
memorated. The procedure employed in the Assembly
is modelled upon that of the Belgian Chambers. The
Ministers need not be members of the Sobranje, though
they generally are so in fact ; but by virtue of their offices
they have a right, whether they are members or not, to
take part in the debates, though they can only vote on
a division, in the case of their being deputies. Votes are
given by ballot, and the Chamber is open to the public.
In the early days the majority of the deputies were
peasant farmers by occupation as well as by birth ; but
gradually the representation of the constituencies has
passed into the hands of the trading and professional
classes, and only some ten per cent, of the members are
at present peasants living solely upon the farming of their
own lands. This change, however, signifies far less in
Bulgaria than it would elsewhere. The traders, lawyers,
doctors, and journalists, who compose the great majority
of the Sobranje, are, with rare exceptions, sons of peasants
interested indirectly, if not directly, in the land, and
belonging by birth, education, and character to the same

148 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
category as their constituents. Officers in active service
and priests are not allowed to sit as deputies.
Participation in the debates is pretty well confined to
the Ministers and ex-Ministers. There can hardly be
said to be any organised Parliamentary opposition ; in the
present Sobranje the number of avowed opponents of the
late Government did not exceed a dozen. The Ministers
propose their measures and explain their policy whenever
they think proper, and if they are met by any serious
objections on the part of the deputies, these objections are
generally removed at private interviews between the
Ministers and the malcontent deputies, instead of by dis
cussion in public debate. The deputies, as a body, are,
in accordance with the national character, not addicted to
talking for talking's sake. Their conception of Parlia
mentary duty is to draw their salaries of sixteen shillings
a day and to vote with the Ministry to whom, in the main,
they owe their election. There are, as I have already
stated, certain limits beyond which the support of the
deputies cannot be counted upon with confidence. But
within these limits they consider their duty fulfilled if they
vote, steadily and solidly as the Ministry direct. Save
under very exceptional circumstances, it is only upon
questions of finance that there is anything approaching to
Parliamentary criticism and discussion.
According to our English ideas a Chamber, mainly
nominated by the Government in office, can hardly be
regarded as a representative assembly. I cannot doubt,
from all I heard on every side, that the elections are con
stantly, if not habitually, manipulated in the interest of
the party in power. The use of the word party is, I may
add, calculated to convey an erroneous impression. In

XV] THE PARLIAMENT. 1 49
our sense of the word, there are no parties in Bulgaria.
Parties there mean the partisans of one politician or
another. In the great majority of instances the electors
will not take the trouble to vote ; and the elections, if
left to take care of themselves, would probably result in
the return of a Chamber representing an insignificant
minority of the nation. This danger is obviated by the
fact that the elections are not left to take care of them
selves. To illustrate my meaning let me cite one case out
of a score of similar cases reported to me. My informant
in this particular instance was an old English resident, who
had passed most of a long life in the country, and who,
though very friendly to the new order of things, is in a
position that renders him absolutely indifferent to the
favour or disfavour of the Government. This gentleman
assured me that not very long ago, on the occasion of the
election in his town of a representative to the Sobranje, he
took the trouble of counting the number of electors who
presented themselves at the polling booth. According to his
observation, some 200 electors out of a total of 10,000
recorded their votes. On the poll being declared, it was
announced that the numbers for the Ministerial and oppo
sition candidate were respectively 3500 and 3000. On
commenting afterwards on this discrepancy to the return
ing officer, who was a personal friend of his own, he re
marked that he himself had" only seen 200 electors present
themselves at the poll. The answer, given in perfect good
faith, was to this effect : " You surely must be mistaken
in your counting, for there were really 500 genuine votes
recorded." In like fashion it seems to be admitted that
on various occasions, when opposition candidates have
been returned by small votes, the elections have been

150 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
annulled on one pretence or another by the order of the
administration, and fresh elections have been held, at
which care was taken to avoid the recurrence of a similar
mishap. I believe that practices of this kind have been
common under every Bulgarian administration.
Great allowance must fairly be made for this mode
of working the elections. After centuries of subjection
Bulgaria was suddenly provided with Parliamentary in
stitutions, adapted only to States whose people had been
trained for generations in the practice of self-government.
If the Ministry were to abstain from all interference with
the elections, the machinery of administration would in
fallibly fall out of gear. Until the electorate learn to
care about choosing their own representatives, the choice
has got to be made for them. In as far as I could
observe, the fact that each successive Ministry has more
or less manipulated the elections is not resented as a
grievance by the mass of the population. This system of
governmental intervention opens the way, of course, to
many abuses ; but for the present the evils of non-inter
vention would, in the opinion of thinking Bulgarians,
exceed the evils of intervention ; and in politics, after all,
everything is only a choice of evils.
Moreover, when all is said and done, the Sobranje,
however elected, represents fairly enough the average
sentiment of the nation. Given the conditions which I
have tried to explain, the Ministers, whoever they may be,
are bound, whether they like it or not, to govern in ac
cordance with the sentiments of their fellow-citizens ; and,
this being so, a more or less nominated assembly represents
the country quite as fairly as any other. As things are it
would be very difficult to find candidates for the Sobranje

XV] THE PARLIAMENT. 151
who were prepared to support a policy opposed to the
deliberate convictions or prejudices of the country. Even
if such candidates were forthcoming, it would not be easy
to secure their return. So long as the sovereign and the
Ministers have in the last resort no practical means of
coercing the deliberate will of the nation, that will must
dictate the general policy of the Government. For the
present the existing system of administration seems to
me to provide as large an amount of self-government as is
called for by the actual requirements of the Peasant State.
Of course, with the increase of wealth and the spread of
education these requirements will become greater, and the
elections will have to be conducted with stricter regard to
the ethics of popular representation. But no Parliament,
however elected, could be more truly representative of the
Bulgarian people — using the word representation in its
real, not nominal sense — than the Sobranje is to-day.

152 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

CHAPTER XVI.
THE MINISTRY.
The personality of the Ministers plays a far more im
portant part in Bulgaria than could be the case in an older
and more highly organized country. Even if Russia, at
the period when she had just liberated Bulgaria from
Turkish rule, would have consented to the establishment
of a Bulgarian republic, the external and internal con
ditions of the country rendered it utterly and manifestly
unfit for republican institutions. At this time the intention
of Russia was undoubtedly to convert Bulgaria into a
province of the Muscovite Empire ; but the time was not
ripe for the execution of this policy, and, for the moment,
failing a republic, the only form of government which
could possibly be established was an hereditary and a
more or less constitutional monarchy. Both in Servia and
Roumania there had been native families which had
traditional claims to the sovereignty of the country, and
from which a monarch either was or could have been
selected. But in Bulgaria there was not a single family
associated in any way whatever with its previous history,
nor, I should say, a single person who, either by birth,
wealth, or station, stood so clearly above the common level
that he could show any sort of claim to be ruler over his
fellow-countrymen. If, therefore, there was to be a

XVI.] THE MINISTRY. 153
monarchy at all, the monarch must of necessity be a foreign
Prince, unconnected with, and strange to, the country over
which he was called to reign. Thus by the logic of facts,
when Alexander of Battenburg was elected Prince, his
Ministers became, not only the administrators of public
affairs, but the interpreters, if I may use the word, between
the sovereign and the country. Till the concluding years
of Prince Alexander's reign, his Ministers were, in reality,
Russian officials ; but after the recall of the Russian civil
and military authorities, the annexation of Eastern Rou
melia and the Servian campaign conferred upon the Prince
an exceptional position, which made him independent — or,
to speak more correctly, led him to believe that he was
independent — of his Ministers. This mistaken belief was,
I may add, one of the main causes of his downfall.
Prince Ferdinand, on his accession to the vacant throne,
was inexperienced in government, strange to the country,
unacquainted with its languages and its customs, and left
almost alone amongst a people, one of whose dominant
characteristics is a jealous distrust of foreigners. It was
the good fortune of Bulgaria that the Minister who came
to the front after the abdication of Prince Alexander was
a man of singular ability and exceptional force of character.
M. Stambouloff is still in the prime of life, though in
Bulgaria, where all public men are very young, his forty
odd years are considered advanced enough to* give him
the advantage of ripe experience. In common with all
his fellow-politicians, M. Stambouloff is the son of a
peasant farmer, who was sufficiently well off to give his
children a better education than most Bulgarians were
able to acquire during the days of Turkish rule. As a
lad he was bright and intelligent, and was, I believe,

154 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
originally destined for the priesthood. In the era of
which I speak, the priesthood was the most lucrative
profession open to a Bulgarian who had ability enough
to work his way upwards. Even if, which I should greatly!
doubt, M. Stambouloff had any personal desire to enter
Holy Orders, his clerical career was prematurely cut short
by the course of public events. After the wont of the
young Bulgarians of his day, he was an ardent partisan-
of the national cause, and took part in one of the many
agitations against Turkish rule which were encouraged;*
if not initiated, by Russia. He fell under suspicion and
had to leave the country. He took refuge at Odessa,
where he resided for some years. Very little is known
about his sojourn on Russian soil. But it may be taken
for granted that, in common with all his fellow-exiles at
this period, he was in close relations with the Pan-Sclaifil
party, who, in those days, acted as the pioneers of the
Russian propaganda in the Balkan Peninsula. What is
certain is that he employed his time in completing his
education, and that he earned some reputation as a
Bulgarian patriot, and therefore — for at this epoch the two
terms were synonymous — as a partisan of Russia. He
also resided for some time in Paris, and, I believe, took
a degree in Law. When the Russo-Turkish War broke
out he returned to his native country and was elected a
member of the Sobranje. In Parliament he soon made
his mark as an effective speaker and an active politician,
and at the time of Prince Alexander's resignation he was
President of the Chamber. Up to then he had not
identified himself conspicuously either with the pro-Russian
or the anti-Russian party; and it was rather on account-
of his official position, than of his political celebrity, that'

XVI.] THE MINISTRY. 1 55
the Prince, when leaving Bulgaria, appointed Stambouloff
one of the Regents during the interregnum. His superior
ability and power of will soon made him the virtual head
of the Regency ; and it was mainly through his efforts
that the country preserved her independence, and succeeded
in obtaining as her sovereign a Prince who — whatever else
he may or may not have been — was most distinctly not
a nominee of Russia. Bulgaria for the Bulgarians was
the watchword of Stambouloff 's policy ; and this policy he
pursued steadily and persistently during the years through
out which he held office as Prime Minister under Prince
Ferdinand. It is no disparagement to StamboulofFs colleagues to
say that the relations of Bulgaria and the internal adminis
tration of the country were determined and directed by
him throughout his long tenure of office. He had certain
very obvious advantages on his side. The sullen refusal
of Russia to recognize the new regime, or to allow it
to be recognized by the other European Powers, gave
a national character to his anti-Russian policy. The
numerous intrigues to which he was subjected, and
which culminated in the unsuccessful attempt upon his
life, when his colleague, M. Beltscheff, was assassinated
by mistake in his place, endeared him to his country
men as the champion of the national independence. All
the diplomatists who have come into contact with him,
whether they might approve or disapprove of his policy,
are agreed as to the remarkable resolution and tact with
which he conducted the negotiations between Bulgaria
and foreign Powers. The impression left upon my mind
by my conversations with the late Premier was, that the
Bismarck of Bulgaria, as his partisans are fond of

156 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
describing him, possessed no very exceptional knowledge
of foreign politics, and that his success in foreign negotia
tions was due rather to general good sense than to any
special diplomatic statecraft. Indeed, it seemed to me
that M. Stambouloff took more personal interest in ques
tions connected with the land than he did in foreign or
general politics. He informed me that he was one of
the largest landowners in the country, that he held about
20,000 acres of foreign land and about 12,000 acres of
arable land in different parts of the country, and that the
income he derived from this land brought him in next
to nothing. He assured me that in the present condition
of Bulgaria, owing to the absence of roads, the cost of
carriage, and the scarcity of labour, farming on a large
scale could not be made to pay ; it was only peasants,
who had small holdings and worked their own farms
themselves, who could make a profit. The scarcity of
labour was, in his opinion, a very serious matter. If the
Moslem exodus continued, the Government would be
obliged to import foreign labourers and settle them on
the State lands. The construction of railroads in Asia
Minor had already increased enormously the export of
wheat from Turkey, and had thereby diminished the
demand for Bulgarian bread-stuff. Railways and roads
were, in his judgment, essential to the development of the
country. His home policy, which is the one most attacked by
his opponents, must be judged by the results. He has
certainly succeeded in restoring order, in rendering life
and property absolutely secure throughout the princi
pality, in developing the material prosperity of the
country, and in maintaining the forms of constitutional

XVI.] THE MINISTRY. 1 57
government. His detractors — and they are many — accuse
him of being arbitrary, dictatorial, high-handed, and un
scrupulous. I have no doubt there is some ground for
these criticisms. On the other hand, I am convinced that,
on the whole, he has governed the country by modes by
which the country, to say the least, does not object to
being governed. I am convinced, too, that if Bulgaria
were converted into a republic, whose President had to be
elected by universal suffrage, Stambouloff, if votes could
be given freely, would be certain of election by an over
whelming majority.
I remember years ago asking General Prim, who
was denouncing to me the enormities committed, or sup
posed to be committed, under Queen Isabella's reign, how
it was, supposing his accusations to be true, that his
countrymen submitted to her rule. His answer was that
her Majesty was muy Espanola, or every inch a Spaniard.
I imagine a similar explanation would account for a good
deal of StamboulofFs personal popularity. His features
seem to me to denote Tartar rather than Sclav descent ;
but in all other respects he is every inch a Bulgarian. He
shares the ideas, the aspirations, the interests, and the
prejudices of the Bulgarian people, just as he shared their
conspiracies and their struggles. It is a significant fact that
in the early days of Bulgarian independence the so-called
Conservative party, headed by M. Stoiloff, M. Grekoff,
and M. Nikolaieff, were desirous of breaking up the com
munal system of land tenure, and of substituting large
farms worked by labourers for small holdings tilled by
their proprietors. The proposal was defeated by the
opposition of Stambouloff, who made himself the ex
ponent of the democratic instincts of the Bulgarian

158 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
people. He can speak to his fellow-countrymen as they
like to be spoken to ; his manners are those to which they
are accustomed ; and, whenever he chooses, he can be a
peasant amidst peasants. He has picked up, as any man
of his ability is certain to do, the experience required to
enable him to take his part in State functions, and to
hold his own in dealing with foreign statesmen. When,
however, you see him addressing a crowd, sitting round
a table, surrounded by Bulgarians, playing cards or
tossing for drinks, shooting in the mountains, or strolling
about his brewery, you see much more, I fancy, of the real
Stambouloff than you do when you meet him at Court.
Nothing can be simpler externally than his mode of
life. In addition to his land and his investments in stocks,
which are reported to be large, M. Stambouloff is the owner
of an important brewery a short way outside Sofia The
brewery failed in the hands of the original owners ; the
property was sold by the Bank of Bulgaria, who had a
mortgage upon it, and was bought by the then Premier
on very advantageous terms. He intends to open it again,
and is expected to make a very good income out of the
brewery. According to the standard of the country, he
is a man of large fortune, but he still dwells with his
family in a small house in one of the side streets of Sofia.
Judging from what I saw of his residence, there is little
more of luxury, not to mention comfort, about its internal
arrangements than about those of any ordinary Sofiote
household. After the attack on his life, sentries were posted
before his door, and he never quitted the house without an
armed escort. With this exception, his mode of life was
exactly the same as that of nine-tenths of his fellow-towns
men. He was accessible to all comers. On all mornings of

XVI.] THE MINISTRY. 1 59
the week when there were no Cabinet Councils, his reception-
room was crowded with peasants, who had some grievance
to complain of, some favour to ask, or some private busi
ness to transact. To use French phrases for which we
have no exact equivalent, I should say that Stambouloff
was emphatically bon enfant and serviable. His personal
popularity is undoubtedly one of the main factors of his
political power. But this sort of popularity is unattainable
except by men who take a genuine pleasure in seeing
others pleased.
In person, Stambouloff is short, stout, and thickset.
The want of distinction of the face is redeemed by keen,
bright eyes, by a clear sallow complexion, and by a smile,
if he so chooses, of singular sweetness. I was never
present on an occasion when he did not so choose, but
I should think that on such occasions the Tartar aspect of
his features would come into unpleasant prominence. As
a public speaker he is admittedly without a rival in
Bulgaria. As an administrator he towers equally above
his colleagues. Exception may be taken to his modes of
administration, but hitherto they have been crowned with
invariable success. The dilatoriness which is characteristic
of all Oriental administration, and which is a common
failing amidst Bulgarian Ministers, is unknown to Stam
bouloff. Whatever he orders to be done has got to be
done, and done at once. Whatever he promises.is as good
as performed. Loved by many, hated by few, he is feared
by all. Under a " one man system," the colleagues of the
paramount Minister play necessarily a very subordinate
part. Public life is still too novel a thing in Bulgaria for
the leaders of the Opposition to take any active part in

160 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
politics. All they can do is to intrigue and bide their
time. Indeed, the Opposition may be said to be non
existent, so long as they remain — to excuse the bull— out
of office. M. Stambouloff, in conversing with foreigners,
was apt to complain of the utter absence of any organized
opposition in the Sobranje. " It is impossible for me," he
would say, " to explain my policy or defend my measures
properly, when there is nobody to criticise the one or
attack the other." His successor in the Premiership,
M. Stoiloff, was reckoned the leader of the Opposition, but
he always declined to oppose M. Stambouloff in the
Sobranje, and lived almost entirely in seclusion. While
I was in Sofia, M. Stoiloff never came to the club, of
which he was formerly a constant frequenter, and though
he had the reputation of being the ablest lawyer in the
country, and is, by the way, the counsel of the British
Legation, he was hardly known personally to the Corps
Diplomatique, whose houses form the only social meeting
ground to be found in Sofia.
Even his own colleagues in the Ministry were over
shadowed by StamboulofFs marked personality. The best
known of these colleagues, one might almost say the only
one known abroad, is M. Grekoff, the late Minister of
Foreign Affairs. Judging by appearances, you would put
him down as belonging to a higher social grade than the
rank and file of Bulgarian politicians ; I believe, however,
that the only difference is that he was sent abroad earlier
than most of his contemporaries, and received a more
complete education. He studied law for many years in
Paris, speaks French very fluently and very accurately,
has travelled a great deal, knows much of foreign countries,
and has the manners, looks, and tone of a man of the

XVI.] THE MINISTRY. l6l
world. If you were to put a fez on his head you would take
him for a Pasha of the class usually chosen to represent the
Ottoman Empire in foreign lands. Not only in general
education, but in political knowledge of statesmanship,
M. Grekoff was, I should think, ahead of all his colleagues,
excepting the ex-Premier ; but he had not the intense
vitality which made Stambouloff the leading man in the
State. The other Ministers were good officials, and may
possess great political attainments which as yet they have
had no means of displaying. Their names, however, as
yet say nothing to the world outside Bulgaria, and not
much to the world within.
If I have succeeded in conveying any adequate
impression of the peculiar and unique position occupied
by the late Bulgarian Premier, it must be obvious that
the relations between the Prime Minister and the Court
cannot, even with good-will on both sides, have always
been of a perfectly harmonious character. In the early
days of the present reign the Prince was necessarily
compelled to form his opinions simply and solely on the
advice of his Ministers. But after the Prince had acquired
a knowledge of Bulgarian language and politics, and had
made himself personally acquainted with all the leading
men in the country, he became entitled to take a more
independent part in administrative matters than he did at
the outset. It is not in human nature that a young,
active-minded, and ambitious Prince should not at times
resent the ascendency of an imperious Minister, while it
would be still less in accordance with human nature, if the
personal opponents of the Minister did not suggest to the
Prince that, with a Premier taken from their own ranks, his
own authority would be more easily asserted and more
M

1 62 GOVERNMENT OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Ch. XVI.
fully recognized. Up to the other day, in spite of
occasional disagreements, the relations between the Prince
and the Minister were amicable, if not cordial. Both of
them were convinced that they were indispensable to each
other. It was difficult to see how the Prince could get on
without the aid of Stambouloff. It was equally difficult
to see how Stambouloff could get on without the Prince,
whose presence on the throne was essential as a guarantee
for the independence of Bulgaria. The Minister was
perfectly well aware that his tenure of office depended
upon forces which might at any moment pass beyond his
control. His friends, however, were confident — and I
fancy he himself was equally confident — that even if he
had to resign office, no Ministry, presided over by any
other statesman, could remain six months in power in the
face of his opposition, and that any crisis which ejected
him temporarily from office would ultimately result in
rendering his services more indispensable than ever.
Now that the crisis has occurred, it remains to be seen
how far these anticipations will be justified by the result.
All I can say myself, is that if I could be certain of
M. Stambouloff 's not falling a victim to the embittered
personal and political animosities of which he is the object
in many quarters, I should feel little doubt of his early
return to office.

FINANCES OF THE PEASANT
STATE.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE BUDGET OF 1 894.
In the year 1879, the Principality started on its independent
existence with a modest capital of a little under £500,000.
This capital was composed of £80,000 invested in the
National Bank of Bulgaria, to which I shall have to refer
more at length ; of cash in the treasury, estimated at
£170,000 ; and of a fund which had been taken over when
Adrianople was captured by the Russians during the war
with Turkey, and which amounted to close upon a quarter
of a million. As, however, the Russians, later on, claimed
this fund as belonging to them by rights, and, whether
justly or unjustly, took it away in 1880 from the Bulgarian
treasury, it may fairly be said that £250,000 constituted
the stock-in-trade with which Bulgaria commenced
business. The people were unused to freedom* ; the men
who came to the front at this period had had little or no
experience of government or of finance ; an administration,
an army, and a capital had to be created ; and nobody
could reasonably have blamed Bulgaria if, intoxicated by
sudden independence, she had, like most young countries,
run rashly into debt.

1 64 FINANCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Bulgaria, however, in this respect, formed an exception
to the ordinary rule. The Ministers and the deputies in
the Sobranje were, as I cannot have too often occasion
to repeat, peasants or sons of peasants ; and the frugal,
thrifty, and cautious character of a small peasant pro
prietary left its mark at once on the policy of the State.
Whenever the Government urged the necessity for liberal
expenditure, the members of the Sobranje dwelt upon the
advantages of rigid economy ; and on this point they
commonly proved obdurate, though on every other
point they followed blindly the guidance of the
executive. The result has been that in Bulgaria the national
Budgets are framed on principles much at variance with
those in vogue in other countries. The revenue is always
estimated beforehand greatly below its real value ; the
expenditure is calculated considerably beyond the actual
outlay. In the course of the eleven years from 1881 to
1892, there are only four years during which the actual
revenue of the year did not prove largely in excess of its
estimated yield. During the same period there was only
one year in which the annual expenditure exceeded the
estimates. As a net result, the first eleven years of
Bulgaria's independent existence showed a balance of
receipts over expenditure of upwards of a million and a
quarter sterling.
In Bulgaria, as in most continental countries, there
are two classes of Budgets. The ordinary Budget
comprises the normal expenditure and revenue of the
year ; the extraordinary Budget deals with the items
that, in a trading business, would be carried to capital
account. At the commencement of each session, the

XVII.] THE BUDGET OF 1894. 1 65
draft Budgets, whether ordinary or extraordinary, are
laid before the Sobranje, and submitted to their approval.
The final Budgets, that is, the statements of the actual
revenue and expenditure of the year, are only submitted
when the exact amounts have been definitely ascertained.
In a country such as this, a long time is required to get
the accounts properly made out by the local officials in
the different towns and villages ; and, therefore, the
final Budget of any particular year is often not made up
till some considerable time after its expiry.
Figures are bad reading at the best of times ; I have
endeavoured to steer as clear as I can of the elaborate
statistics which have been published on various occasions
by the Bulgarian authorities, with a view of demonstrating
the present and potential resources of the State. Still,
the questions, whether the country is solvent, whether its
revenue is prudently expended, and whether its resources
are capable of further development, have got to be
answered, before one can arrive at any satisfactory con
clusion as to the condition and prospects of Bulgaria in
its capacity as the youngest member of the European
Commonwealth. The simplest and shortest way of answer
ing these questions will be, I think, to take the ordinary
Budget for the present year and to explain its salient
features. The financial statement, which was issued early
this year, and which will be submitted to the Sobranje at
the commencement of the approaching session, has at all
events the merit of being short and simple. Converted
into English pounds sterling, and leaving out fractions
of pounds, the figures of the Budget for 1894 stand as
follows : —

166 FINANCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

Estimated Receipts.

Direct taxes
Indirect taxes ...
Imposts 
Fines 
State revenues . . .
RoyaltiesMiscellaneous receipts

Total

Estimated Expenses.
Public Debt 
Civil List 
High Court of Account
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
, , the Interior
, , Education . . .
,, Finance
,, Justice War
„ Commerce and Agriculture
Public Works 

Total

£
1,677,690 894,480 156,260 28,820
301,960230,3107S3,58o
4,043,100

£
693.496 70,867 10,815
136,132
374,051 352,949
680,998 190,549
896,511 168,614
516,096
4,091,078

The Budget, therefore, shows a nominal deficit of
£47,978. As, however, the receipts are believed to have
been calculated, as usual, below their real yield, the
probabilities are that this year, as heretofore, the final
Budget will show a surplus.
The receipts, which I have given under their general
headings as stated in the Budget, are composed of the
following items : —
The Direct Taxes consist of the land-tax, that is, of
a tenth of the gross value of the produce of any farm,
calculated on the average yield of the four preceding
years ; the taxes levied on goats, sheep, and pigs, the
duty being tenpence a head on the first named and
sixpence a head on the two latter ; the licenses for the

XVII.] THE BUDGET OF 1894. 1 67
sale of tobacco, spirits, and sundry other small articles.
What proportion these different taxes bear respectively
to the total of close upon a million and three-quarters
derived from direct taxes, that is, to some seven-sixteenths
of the whole revenue, is not stated in the Budget. But
I gather that the land-tax constitutes the main item
of this source of revenue.
The Indirect Taxes consist of the import and export
duties levied at the frontier, and of the excise duties
upon raw tobacco grown in the country, upon the manu
facture of beer and spirits, and upon the production of
native salt.
The Imposts are made up of fees charged for registra
tion, for succession duties, for legal certificates, for pass
ports, and for licenses to shoot fish and carry arms.
The Fines include sums levied by the courts of law
and amounts chargeable on the salaries paid to all public
servants, penalties for frauds on the revenue, and for
contraventions of the laws regulating the terms under
which trading and personal licenses are granted.
Miscellaneous Receipts cover the profits on the State
railways, and on the postal and telegraph service, port
dues, and subscriptions to the State telephones.
The State Revenues are levied from wood cut in the
Government forests, from coal and salt and other mines,
from fees charged at public institutions, from the profit on
the State bank and the State printing establishment, and
from a variety of minor enterprises for which State
sanction is required.
The Miscellaneous Receipts are gathered from a variety
of sources. The principal of these sources are the duties
charged on cattle imported from abroad, the fees paid for

l68 FINANCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
exemption from military service, the sale of Government
stores which are no longer required, the contributions
made by the Orient Railway Company towards the cost of
working those portions of their lines which pass over
Bulgarian territory, and, above all, the profit earned by
the State on the issue of coin struck for the use of the
country in foreign mints. This year the Government
intend to have £600,000 coined abroad in silver, and
the profit arising from the difference between the cost
of production and the price of issue is expected to amount
to £188,000. The expenditure for the year is necessarily based
upon problematical estimates. I am assured that the
amounts assigned to the various departments of the
Administration are largely in excess of the amounts which
it is believed will be actually required. The only charge
which can be definitely ascertained beforehand is the
amount needed for the service of the Public Debt.
This amount seems much larger in figures than it is
in reality. The total of £693,496 is made up as follows : —
£
Pensions ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 44,000
Tribute to the Porte in respect of Eastern Roumelia ... 118,040
Payment to the Porte for the Vakarel-Bellova Raihvay ... 2,777

Total ... 164,817

Sinking Funds. £
Russian indemnity for costs of occupation  100,800
Arrears due to Turkey on Roumelian tribute  20,000
Roumelian loan contracted with Imperial Ottoman Bank 20,000
Varna- Rustschuk Railway Purchase Loan  25,520
6 per cent. Mortgage Loan, 18S9  15,400
,, ,, 1892  21,152
Total ... 202,872

XVII.] THE BUDGET OF 1894. 1 69
Interest on State Loans. £
Roumelian Loan  8,000
1888 Loan  106,198
1889 Loan  68,580
1892 Loan  126,912

Total ... 309,690
Costs of Loan. £
Commissions and charges for emission  16,117
The loans due to Russia for the cost of the occupa
tion, and to the Porte in respect of the tribute in arrear,
due from Eastern Roumelia at the time of her annexation
to Bulgaria, are very nearly paid off, as the last instal
ments become due within a couple of years. The total
amount of the other loans are being rapidly diminished by
the operation of the Sinking Funds.
The largest item in the estimated expenditure of the
year is the sum allotted to the Ministry of War, amount
ing as it does to close upon £900,000. Considering that
there has been no call for military preparation in
Bulgaria during the past year, and no likelihood of any
such call being made within the present year, this amount
may seem large. Examination, however, will show that
a very large portion of this expenditure is excep
tional. It is the custom of the Government to accom
pany the Budget with very full explanations as to the
modes in which the sums allotted to the various Minis
tries are to be expended ; though, as a matter of
fact, each Ministry has power — without the previous
consent of the Chamber — to modify the distribution of
the special funds voted for its use. The explanations
given in connection with the Budget are understood to

170 FINANCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
represent the sums which, in the opinion of the Minister
responsible for the outlay, are likely to provide fully for
every kind of expenditure in his department ; but they
are not considered to be absolute engagements preclud
ing the employment of funds designed for one purpose
on some other and more pressing object.
The military expenditure is divided under several
heads. The pay list amounts to £427,312; canteens,
barracks, and uniforms come to £312,000 ; sundry charges,
comprising an infinite variety of expenses, from officers'
travelling expenses to subscriptions towards military clubs,
reach a total of £64,600. Expenses of administration are
£60,000 ; arrears due on last year's account, and cost of
new buildings, contribute £15,000; and £17,599 is set
apart for the reserve fund. There has been no material
change in the War Budgets during the seven years which
have elapsed since the war with Servia, the largest ex
penditure being £956,325 in 1890, and the smallest
£824,657 in 1891. In addition to the amounts voted for
the War Department in the ordinary Budgets, supple
mentary credits have been granted in well-nigh every
year, the funds for which have been provided partly
out of the proceeds of the various loans, partly out
of the annual surpluses. Last December the Sobranje
voted an extraordinary credit of £58,000 for the purchase
of repeating rifles. The whole of the exceptional
expenditure required to place the army in an effective
state is now pretty well completed ; and if there is no
disturbance of the peace, a very material reduction in the
military estimates will, it is expected, be made in a year
or two. The Bulgarian army, on a peace footing, con
sists of about 40,000 soldiers and officers, so that the

XVII.]

THE BUDGET OF 1894.

171

cost per head would be about £22 a year. Of course,
the permanent staff organization has to be far more
elaborate than it would be otherwise, so as to provide
for the contingency of the reserves having to be called out.
The second largest item of expenditure is that of the
Treasury, which amounts to £680,998. This sum is made
up of —

Office salaries 
„ expenses 
Cost of tax collection ...
Administration of State domains
Cost of new coinage ...
Sundries 
Reserve fund 

Total

£
159,176 31,23633,463 9,480
412,000 22,321 13,322
£680,998

As, however, the Government made a profit of £188,000
on the issue of new coinage, struck off at the Mint of
Vienna, the above amount ought by rights to be deducted
from the cost of the operation. If this deduction is made,
the expenditure of 1894 of the Treasury represents a
saving of £5683 as compared with that of the preceding
year. Next in amount comes the item of the Public Works
Department, which includes the Postal and Telegraph
Service. The total expenditure on this department
is £516,096, which is divided under the following
headings : —

Office salaries 
„ expenses 
Exceptional railway charges .
Payments to foreign railways
Public roads 

Total

£
171,099 59,36o
29,33° 58,280
48,000
£366,069

172 FINANCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
£
Brought forward  366,069
Payment of arrears  2,400
Expenses of State salt works  2,000
Port expenses  2,000
Sofia-Pemik Railway  6,800
Public buildings  123,720
Indemnities ... ... ... ... ... ... 2,666
Reserve fund  10,441

Total  £516,096
The sums allotted to the other departments are dis
tributed in much the same way, and call for no particular
comment. It is worth noting that the small deficit of
£47,978, which appears in the Budget of 1894, is not left,
as it very well might have been left, to be provided for
out of the surplus, which there is every reason to expect
will be forthcoming at the end of the present year, as in
the case of most of its predecessors. Special provision has
actually been made to meet the deficit in question by a
reduction of 5 per cent, on all salaries paid to officials,
either in the military or the civil service. The total
amount of the former is £320,000, and of the latter
£604,000. It follows, therefore, that a deduction of 5 per
cent, makes up some £45,000, and thus practically makes
good the deficit, even if the estimates should turn out to
be exceptionally correct.
The dominant facts in the financial position of Bul
garia, which have any interest for the outside public, may
therefore be resumed as follows : — First, in almost all the
ordinary Budgets of the State, the estimated receipts have
been greater, and the estimated expenses less, than they
proved to be in reality. Secondly, from the period when
Eastern Roumelia became incorporated with the Princi
pality, there has been a large balance to the good. Thirdly,

XVII.] THE BUDGET OF 1894. 173
the £4,000,000 which have been spent on exceptional ex
penditure, such as the war with Servia, the construction
of railways, the supply of rolling-stock, the establishment
of the National Bank, and the equipment, of the army,
have been provided to the extent of about £3,000,000 out
of the surplus revenue. Lastly, while the normal revenue
is about £3,500,000, the total liabilities of the State, as
yet accrued, do not exceed £5,500,000, or little more than
a year and a half s revenue.
These liabilities, I should add, comprise the capitalized
value of the tribute payable to the Porte in respect of
Eastern Roumelia, amounting to about £2,000,000 ; the
debt to Russia for the expenses incurred during the occu
pation, and which is £1,000,000 ; and two loans contracted
in London and Vienna for £1,871,000 and £1,200,000
respectively, which were raised for the purpose of pur
chasing the Varna- Rustschuk Railway, and of constructing
the Zaribrod and Vakarel line. All these loans are being
gradually reduced by the operation of the sinking fund
system, which has been rigidly adhered to. The Russian
and the Turkish indemnities will be finally extinguished
when the last instalments are paid off in a very few years'
time. It is obvious, therefore, that so far Bulgaria has
not laid herself justly open to the charge of lavish ex
penditure, or of having incurred liabilities which it is not
within her power to meet. In their public as well as their
private character, the main characteristic of the Bulgarians
is an almost penurious parsimony.
It is not very easy to express any positive opinion as
to how far the taxation is capable of being increased to
any important amount. The population is estimated at
three millions and a half, while the taxes are usually of

174 FINANCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
the same amount, so that the amount of taxation levied, on
the average, upon every Bulgarian is exactly a pound a
head. This amount cannot certainly be called exorbitant.
This revenue, on the other hand, is mainly derived from
the land. The land-tax, the returns from the State
domains, and the arrears which accrued in previous years,
but which have been collected in the course of the year
covered by the last Budget, make up £2,500,000, so that
only £1,000,000 is contributed by the Customs' duties,
the railways, and other State revenues which are not
directly derived from the land. As I have already pointed
out, the land, in the opinion both of the Government and
the countiy, is already burdened to such an extent as to
check the development of its agricultural wealth. Yet,
for the reasons previously stated, it is difficult, so long as
the Capitulations remain in force, to increase materially
the taxes imposed on trade and industiy. It follows,
therefore, that the normal increase of the revenue must
be a slow and irregular process. All persons acquainted
with the country concur in the opinion that it possesses
resources capable of almost indefinite development. For
instance, the soil is very rich, but only a small portion
of its productiveness is brought into play by the primitive
system of spade industry which is still almost universal.
Given improved methods of farming, new agricultural
implements, better irrigation, and an increased supply of
labour, the land might be made to yield infinitely more
than it does at present. But all these improvements
require money, and the peasants have little or no money
to spare beyond that required for their livelihood, while
the State is not in a position to provide the funds required
by augmenting the present taxes. Again, there is no doubt

XVII.] THE BUDGET OF 1894. 1 75
that the construction of railways, the making of roads,
and the consequent improvement of the communications
between Bulgaria and the outer world would open up fresh
markets, would diminish the cost of transport, and would
enable the farmers to realize much higher prices for the
produce of their land. Unfortunately, railways, roads,
and ports involve a large immediate outlay, which, how
ever beneficial it may prove hereafter, cannot be ex
pected to return any adequate profit for some years to
come. By the arrangement made with the Vienna
Landerbank sufficient funds will be provided to open up
the country by the construction of the Sofia-Shumla
Railway, and by the improvement of the harbours of Varna
and Bourgas. But the amount which has as yet been
provided falls far short of what must be required if the
country is to be fully developed. The problem, therefore,
that Bulgarian statesmanship has to solve is, how to raise
money without crushing the country by excessive taxation.
It may perhaps be said that the wisest course would be
to defer all improvements till the gradual increase of the
revenue — which, even under the present unfavourable con
ditions, is rising slowly but steadily — enables these im
provements to be carried out one by one. The State,
after all, is only a trader on a large scale ; and in business
it commonly pays better to make improvements slowly
out of profits earned than rapidly out of money borrowed.
Indeed, if Bulgaria were an isolated, out-of-the-way State,
such as Denmark, the policy of paying for all improve
ments out of the current revenue would, I think, commend
itself to the economical instincts of the country as well
as of the Government. The question, however, which
Bulgaria has to decide involves political even more than

I 76 FINANCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Ch. XVII.
economical considerations. Nobody can doubt — at any
rate, nobody in Bulgaria's part of the world does doubt-
that the Eastern Question is approaching its final solution.
Not only the future position but the independent existence
of Bulgaria depends upon the character of this solution.
If the Principality is, as her people believe, destined to
play a leading part in the approaching settlement of the
fate of Turkey in Europe, it is all-important that Bulgaria
should have developed her great internal resources before
the expected crisis comes to pass. Under these circum
stances it is intelligible that the Bulgarian people, in spite
of their ingrained thrift and caution, should desire to see
their country placed in the foremost rank of the States
occupying the lands that lie between the Balkans and the
Mediterranean, and this object can only be attained by
pushing forward the development of Bulgaria's resources.
It is possible, therefore, if not probable, that this ambition,
based as it is upon a deep national sentiment, may prove
stronger amidst the Bulgarians than even their passion
for economy.

( 177 )

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE BANK OF BULGARIA.
In the Alexander Square of Sofia, one of the few hand
some buildings is that of the National Bank of Bulgaria. I
may also add, it is the only public institution in the place
whose name is affixed outside in any other language than
Bulgarian. The origin of the Bank dates from the days of the
Russian occupation. It was founded on the system of the
State Bank of Russia, which, with this exception, is, I
believe, unique in Europe. In the ordinary sense of the
words, the National Bank of Bulgaria is not a bank at all,
but a department of the Administration, whose functions
consist in the issue of notes and treasury bonds, and in
loaning money for the development of private or joint
stock industries. The Bank has the right to open private
accounts with individual customers ; but this right has, as
yet, been very scantily exercised. The Bank is adminis
tered by officials appointed by the Government ; it is
responsible for the due discharge of its functions to nobody
except the Government ; and in case of its incurring any
liability which it has not the means of meeting, the
Government would have to make good the deficiency.
The capital of the Bank consists of £400,000, which has
been paid by the Government at different times in
N

178 FINANCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
instalments derived from the surpluses accruing during
the last few years ; and it is only this year that the final
instalment has been liquidated. By the statutes, 66 per
cent, of the profits made in each year belong to the
Government, 31 per cent, are placed to a reserve fund,
and the balance of 3 per cent, is set apart as a bonus
for the officials, by whom the banking business is con
ducted. Under these conditions, the Bank ought in theory to be
the Treasury of the State, and all payments received on
account of revenue should be paid into the Bank, while all
payments made by the State should be discharged through
its agency. The statutes are based upon this theory, and
contain provisions under which the Bank may ultimately
become the national exchequer. But up to the present
this theory has not been carried out in practice to any very
large extent. The taxes and rent due to the State are col
lected, as a rule, by local agents in the provinces, and paid
by them into the provincial treasuries ; these treasuries
defray the expenses of the provincial administrations out
of the proceeds, and only remit the balance, if any, to the
central treasury at the seat of Government. The head
treasury in its turn defrays out of its own funds all the
charges of the central administration, and only pays over
the balance to the National Bank. It is obvious, therefore,
that the Bank exercises no direct control over the expen
diture of the State ; and its books only furnish a very
inadequate record of the financial transactions of the State.
In fact, the accounts, on which the Budget is based, are
kept by a completely distinct department, that of the
Receiver-General. Such a system might clearly give rise
to abuses. The Ministers are alive to this danger ; but

XVIII.] THE BANK OF BULGARIA. 179
they consider that, under the present economical conditions
of the country, any complete centralized collection and
supervision of the national revenue are impossibilities.
Taking into account the difficulties of locomotion, the
sparseness of the population, the costliness of travelling,
the infinite number of very small amounts which have to
be collected by the State, and the equally infinite number
of small payments which the State has to make, the local
authorities must be allowed for the time being to collect
local revenues and make local disbursements. It is hoped,
however, that at no remote period the collection and
distribution of the whole revenue of the State will pass
under the control of the National Bank.
The very large powers conceded to the Bank by the
statutes, have indeed been very sparingly employed.
Amongst these powers is that of issuing paper money to
any extent, provided always that the Bank has in its
coffers bullion to the value of one quarter of the amount of
notes issued. Originally, the smallest notes issued were
twenty francs in value, but recently the minimum value
has been reduced to five francs. Yet even at this low
figure the demand for notes is extremely limited. Paper
money is a complete novelty in Bulgaria, and the people
do not take kindly to any novelty. In the rural districts
the peasants will only take silver in payment, and even in
the towns the traders prefer gold to notes. During my
whole sojourn in Sofia I never saw a note of any kind
except in money-changers' windows. Up to last Christ
mas the Bank had only £50,000 worth of notes in circu
lation ; and the gold in their coffers amounted to three or
four times this sum. The currency of Bulgaria, I may add,
is entirely of foreign production. The coinage is exactly

180 FINANCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
the same as that of France, the lev being, or being sup
posed to be, identical in value with the franc. So far no
gold coins have been issued with the Bulgarian stamp ; and
the gold in circulation consists exclusively of French and
Italian napoleons and half-napoleons. The silver coins,
which are of the same denomination as those used in
France, have the lion of Bulgaria on one face and the value
of the coin inscribed in Bulgarian on the other face. From
the look and weight of this silver coinage, I should say
that it contains a larger proportion of alloy than French
silver of equal nominal value ; but the premium on gold is
still very small even in the towns. The silver coin, during
the first few years, was supplied by the Mint of St. Peters
burg, but of late it has been produced at the mints of
Vienna and Buda Pesth. The copper coinage, which con
sists of pieces of ten and five centimes, was manufactured
in Holland. The loaning powers of the Bank have also not been
developed with any excessive speed. During the period
in which the Bank has been in active operation, the total
amount of loans, made either on mortgage or personal
security, has been but a little over £1,000,000 sterling.
The greater portion of this sum has been advanced to
traders and householders in the towns. The holdings of
the peasants are, on the average, too small to bear any
substantial mortgage. The minimum advance the Bank
would consent to make at the outset was £40 ; but of late,
owing to the lack of applications, it has had to reduce this
amount to £20. The advances made are supposed not to
exceed in any case 40 per cent, of the estimated value of
the property mortgaged as regards town loans, and 25 per
cent, as regards rural loans. All applications are examined

XVIII.] THE BANK OF BULGARIA. 181
and all properties are estimated by agents residing in the
same locality as the applicants. These agents are paid
a small commission upon all business introduced by them,
and upon all monies received in repayment of loans. The
average interest charged is 8 per cent. Bad debts have,
of course, been made in some instances, but the loss on the
whole amount advanced by the Bank is estimated not to
exceed 4 per cent, of the total. Hitherto the capital of
the Bank, small as it is, has been found fully adequate to
its requirements ; and the manager assured me that if they
had a much larger capital at their command they would
find it difficult to invest it at once safely and remunera
tively, supposing they were obliged, as they are at present,
to confine their operations to Bulgaria. The Bank has
branches at Varna, Rustschuk, Bourgas, and Philippopolis,
and has agencies all over the country. In the course of
the last five years, the net profit of the Bank has risen
from 781,000 francs in the first year, to 1,333,000 francs in
the second, and the average profit has been between 7 and
8 per cent.
I think, therefore, there is every reason to credit the
statements made on all sides to the effect that the Bank of
Bulgaria is a very well-managed institution. But as there
are no shares, it is difficult to say what, according to the
test of the local market, is the money-value of the Bank as
a property. What impressed me most in the career of the
National Bank is the evidence it affords of the cautious
and frugal policy pursued by the State in all financial
matters. A new country with credit at its disposal is apt
to launch out into liberal and even lavish expenditure.
But in this, as in most other matters, the policy of Bulgaria
is regulated by the instincts of a peasant proprietary. In

I»2

FINANCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

order to make this statement clearer, it may be well to
cite the last balance sheet of the Bank up to December
31st, 1893, leaving out of account, for the sake of sim
plicity, all fractions under £1000.

Assets.

£

Unpaid capital 

¦ 35,000
Cash in hand 
. 248,000
Bills discounted
. 322,000
Loans on personal security
. 30,000
„ mortgages 
. 601,000
Advances to Caisses Agricoles
. 117,000
„ municipalities
• 353,000
Accounts current bearing interest
. 134,000
„ with branch banks
. 230,000
,, „ private customers
. 183,000
,, ,, Treasury ...
• 33,000
„ underlspecial conditions
. 324,000
Deposits 
. 56,000
Advances on State Stocks 
¦ 253,000
Premium on State Mortgage Debentures
. 64,000
Buildings and furniture
. 17,000
Sundries 
. 20,000
Total
£3,020,000
Liabilities.
Capital Reserve Fund 
Bank-notes in circulation
State Mortgage Debentures
Bills 
Accounts current ...
Branch accounts current 
Deposits withdrawable at fixed dates
„ on notice 
Credits opened on guarantees ...
Creditors 
Depositors 
Bills re-discounted 
Profit 
Total
£
. 400,000 88,000 49,000
• 399.00O 29,000
. 194,000
,. 192,000
. 1,098,000
,. 31,000
• 3S9,ooo 60,000
• 57,00° 17,000
. 47,000
^3,020,000
XVIII.]

THE BANK OF BULGARIA.

The Profit and Loss Account for last year is composed
of the following items : —

Debit.
Salaries 
Office expenses
Rent 
Postages and telegrams 
Interest on deposits ...
Interest on Sinking Fund of Mortgage Debentures
Depreciation of buildings 
Sundries  Total ...

£
12,438 1,440 282 75z
60,774 18,751 289
6,95i
£101,677

Credit. £
Interest on bills discounted  19,900
„ loans guaranteed by deposit of stocks ... 2,168
,, mortgage loans  47,803
„ loans to Caisses Agricoles and municipali
ties  36,450
,, special accounts current  22,179
Commission  6,384
Rebate on stamps  115
Exchange  1,985
Sundries  n,797

Total ...

£148,781

The difference between debits and credits represents
the net year's profit of £47,104, which amounts to about
10J per cent, on the capital of the Bank, as against 10
per cent, in the previous ' year. This profit, in accord
ance with the statutes, is divided between the State,
the Reserve Fund, and the staff of the Bank in the fol
lowing proportions: — State profit for 1894, £29,982; Re
serve Fund, £15,697; staff of Bank, £1425 ; total, £47,104.

TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE.
CHAPTER XIX.
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY.
I N all Bulgaria, it is believed, there are not five millionaires.
That is, as everything here is counted in francs, there are
not five persons who possess a capital of over £40,000.
There are, it is calculated, not fifty whose fortunes, if
realized, would exceed £20,000 ; there are not a couple of
hundred whose heirs would have to pay legacy duty on
upwards of £5000. This was the estimate given me by
one of the leading business men of Sofia. On the other
hand, there is hardly a Bulgarian who depends absolutely
and entirely for his livelihood upon his daily earnings, and
who has not some small income of his own, derived from
land, or houses, or cattle. Roughly speaking, therefore,
it may be said that there are neither capitalists nor paupers
in Bulgaria. Whether this state of things is the ideal
condition of humanity I do not pretend to decide. Upon
this, as upon most other questions, there is a good deal to
be said on both sides. At all events, it is certain that
the material development of the country is retarded by
the almost complete absence of local capital ; and though
private fortunes are beginning to increase in amount, it
must be a long time before there is any wealthy class in

Chap. XIX.] COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 185
Bulgaria, able to invest their own surplus funds in the intro
duction of new trades and the promotion of new industries.
The agent of a number of English mercantile firms
complained to me recently that he found it impossible to
push business in the Principality. When asked for the
reason of his failure, his explanation was that the great
mass of the people had absolutely no wants which they
could not satisfy for themselves. The Bulgarian peasant
needs extremely little, and that little he provides from the
produce of his own land. The average cost of a peasant's
daily sustenance does not exceed twopence. Their food,
during the greater part of the year, consists solely of bread
and garlic. Their only beverage is water ; not that they
have any objection to beer or spirits, but because they
object to paying for them. Sheepskins, provided in most
cases from their own flocks, form the universal dress of the
peasantry. The clothes, both of men and women, are
generally home-made. Commonly, they only possess one
suit, and they sleep at night in the same clothes as those
which they wear during the day. Their beds are mattresses
laid on the mud floors of the rooms where they have their
meals. On these mattresses the whole family lie huddled
together. Even in the towns separate bedrooms are almost
unknown. The servants sleep on rugs in the kitchen,
and their masters and mistresses are lodged in a way any
English artisan, earning good wages, would regard as
intolerable. One of the few really handsome houses in
Sofia was hired a short time ago by a friend of mine. The
house, which is of the class that a London auctioneer
would describe as a bijou residence, and which is let for a
great deal more than a house of the same class and dimen
sions would command in South Kensington or Bayswater,

1 86 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. LChap.
was built, as his own residence, by one of the wealthiest
professional men in the town. While being shown over
the house by the landlord, the intending tenant's attention
was called to the size of the principal bedroom, which he
was begged to observe was so roomy that the landlord
himself, his wife, his two children, and their nurses were
all in the habit of sleeping in it at one and the same time.
In a community where so low a degree of comfort is con
sidered sufficient by well-to-do townsfolk of good social
position, it is easy to imagine how rough and how hard
must be the daily life of the common peasants. Thus,
having few material, and no intellectual wants, they are
necessarily bad customers. The necessaries of existence
lie within their own reach ; but as yet they have not a wish
for its luxuries. Their daily lives are, to speak the truth,
so laborious, so rough, and so penurious, that they even
contrive to lay by money. When they have laid it by,
they have no idea of spending it so as to improve the
conditions under which they live. Their one dominant
passion is the hunger for land, and if a peasant sees his
way to add an acre or two to his patrimony, he will part
with his savings for the purpose.
Indeed, the greed of land is one of the causes which
are tending to alter the conditions of Bulgarian existence.
When the Tomaks quitted the country, their lands were
left vacant. A very large portion of these vacated lands
was bought up by the peasants in the neighbourhood,
and, in order to complete the purchase money, they had
to borrow. Having got the lands, they found they had
not the means to work them, and they had to borrow
more. The result is that a large number of the peasant
farmers are nowadays burdened with loans on which

XIX.] COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 1 87
the interest runs at the rate of twelve per cent, per annum ;
and, in order to meet their liabilities, they are finding it
necessary to increase the yield of their lands. Still, there
is as yet no very general indebtedness, as the great mass
of the peasantry live well within their means. They are
satisfied if their crops yield sufficient to supply food for
themselves and their families. Supposing there is any
surplus left, they are willing to sell this surplus, but only
at their own price ; and if that price is above the market
rates, they would sooner store the grain and let it rot than
sell it at what they consider to be a sacrifice.
No capital, therefore, for the development of the lands
can be got from the agricultural class ; there is not much
more to be got from the trading class. Owing partly to
their exemption from direct taxation under the Capitu
lations, and still more to their superior experience and apti
tude, the wholesale trade of the country is very largely in
the hands of foreigners, especially of Greeks, Austrians, and
Roumanians. The retail trade consists mainly in the
sale of articles of a very simple description, almost all
of which could be produced in the country at much
cheaper rates than those at which they can be imported.
There is, therefore, a growing agitation in favour of
raising the import duties on all articles which could be
manufactured at home. Indeed, I fail to see how a
country, situated as Bulgaria is now, can ever develop
native industries without some form of protection. But
even a protective system cannot create manufactures
unless the capital required for their installation is forth
coming ; and, for the present, capital cannot be obtained
from native sources.
The Government has made various efforts of late to

1 88 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
promote the development of native industries. For
instance, advances have been made by the State to
private manufacturers with the view of re-establishing the
local silk trade. Silkworms were kept formerly in almost
every peasant's house. A few years ago, however, there
was a sort of epidemic amidst the grubs ; the stock
perished, the peasants were unable to procure fresh sup
plies, and the trade died away. Owing to the assistance
of the Government, who advanced money for the purchase
of eggs, the house-to-house culture of silkworms has
largely revived, and last year some £80,000 worth of
silk skeins were exported from Bulgaria. In the same
way, great exertions are now being made to restore the
cultivation of the vine, which was almost killed for a time
by the ravages of the phylloxera. The native wine, which
is largely drunk here, is a coarse, wholesome drink, a
good deal resembling the inferior brands of Burgundy, and
might, I believe, be largely used by French manufacturers
at Cette and elsewhere, in the same way as they employ
Spanish and Italian wines, to make up the inadequacy
of the French vineyards to supply the total amount of
Clarets and Burgundies required for foreign exportation.
The State, however, has no large funds at its disposal
for the promotion of industrial enterprise ; and, even if it
had the requisite funds, the subventioning of private
undertakings on any important scale would not be in
accordance with the frugal and almost parsimonious policy
of the Sobranje. The obvious remedy for this state of
things would be the development of local industries by the
aid of foreign capital. But there are certain difficulties in
the way, though rather on the part of the people than of
the Government. There is a general conviction in Bulgaria

XIX.] COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 189
that the railways ought to be the property of the State ;
and I doubt whether any foreign company would nowadays
obtain a concession to construct a railway on Bulgarian
soil. This determination, however, to keep the railways
national property is due far more to the unsatisfactory
experience of the lines which have hitherto been con
structed and owned by foreign companies in Bulgaria,
than to any abstract preference for the principle of State
ownership. The Bulgarians hold our English idea, or
perhaps I ought to say, what used to be our English idea,
that the fewer monopolies the State possesses the better,
and that private enterprises ought to be conducted by
private funds at the profit or loss of the investors, by
whom the funds are provided. This commonwealth of
peasant proprietors is one of the last countries in Europe
in which Socialistic theories as to the proper functions
of the State, whatever temporary holding they may obtain
on the minds of students in the towns, are likely to
influence the course of public legislation. All minerals
belong by law to the State, and two or three coal mines
are now worked by the Government in order to secure
there being always a sufficient supply of coal available
for the public service. But the Government are ready
to grant concessions to any person, native or foreign, who
wishes to work the public mines at his own expense and
risk, and for his own profit. Quite recently they have
given permission to a private company to work a coal mine
adjacent to the State collieries at Pernik.
For the present, however, the only native bodies which
have any considerable means at their disposal are the
municipalities of the large towns ; that is, they are the
only corporate bodies who are in a position to raise any

A

1 90 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
substantial amount on the security of their revenues.
Unfortunately, they have all availed themselves of this
power to nearly the full extent of their credit, and the
money thus raised has been mainly employed in local
improvements, which are expected ultimately to pay a
good interest on the outlay, but which can yield no im
mediate return. The municipality of the Capital suc
ceeded, some years ago, in effecting a loan in London to
the amount, I believe, of £80,000. The interest upon this
loan has hitherto been regularly paid. Great, however, as
has been the increase of Sofia under the present reign,
the supply of new buildings has temporarily outstripped
the demand. Private dwellings are seldom in the market ;
but, to judge by the number of unoccupied shops and
stores in the streets, the increase of local trade has not
kept up with the growth of the population. At any rate,
the building fund of the municipality has been pretty well
exhausted for some time past, and the construction of a
number of important public works has had to be post
poned owing to the lack of money. The municipality
tried lately to raise a second loan abroad, but so far its
efforts have not been attended with success. The pro
vincial municipalities are very much in the same financial
position as that of the metropolis, with the exception that,
their credit being less, their debts, which consist mainly of
loans from the National Bank, are smaller in proportion.
It is thought at Sofia, that foreign capitalists might be
prepared to find funds to construct tramways, gas and
sewage works, and telephones, and carry out other local
improvements on joint account with the municipality. In
theory this idea is feasible, but I doubt its working well
in practice. All the foreigners I have met, who have had

XIX.] COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 191
business relations with the Bulgarian municipalities, assert
that their experience has not been altogether satisfactory.
They do not allege any absolute breach of faith, but they
declare that the municipal authorities were always trying
to get the best of their bargain, to cut down the profit
of the contractor on one plea or another, and to sail, in
fact, as close to the wind as is consistent with not abso
lutely repudiating their liabilities. A German contractor
in large practice, who had built several of the principal
public edifices in the capital, and many of the schools in
the provinces, complained recently in my hearing of the
parsimony of the local authorities and of their sharp
practice. He could never, he said, obtain sufficient credits
to do his work properly ; he always had a fight to obtain
the price formally agreed upon. Once while building a
theatre, he received orders from the municipality not to
complete the building in the form originally proposed,
because the cost already incurred was so far in excess
of the estimates. Upon this he sent in his account, in
which, in accordance with the terms of his contract, he
•charged 5 per cent, on the cost of construction, which had
been calculated at £9000, so that he would have had
to receive commission amounting to £450. In reply he
received an order for £400, on the ground that the
actual outlay, instead of being £9000, was only £8000.
Again, while he was constructing the Exhibition* Building
at Philippopolis, he was asked by the authorities to go to
Vienna in order to study the Exhibition buildings there.
On sending in the account for his travelling expenses,
payment of the amount was refused on the plea that the
charge was not included in the original contract. He
added that when he had to furnish plans and specifications

192 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
to the communal authorities for the construction of
parish schools, he always found it advisable to make the
dimensions larger than was really necessary. He did
this, not because he had any personal interest in increasing
the amount expended, but because this was the only way
in which he could provide the required school accom
modation, as the commune invariably cut down the
dimensions suggested in his plans without asking his
advice. This sort of conduct is so consistent with peasant
nature all the world over, that I am disposed to believe
these complaints have some foundation in fact, though I
have no doubt the local authorities would have a good deal
to say on their side concerning their various disputes with
contractors. The only class of persons who I think are likely to
make money by engaging in building speculations in
partnership with the local authorities are small contractors,
who are content to reside on the spot, and to look them
selves after the employment and the repayment of their
own money. It is obvious that contractors of this kind
do not belong to the class of capitalists who could carry
out the general development of the country on the scale
required by its urgent necessities. Under these conditions,
the best way for a country possessing very large material
resources, but lacking the capital required to turn its
undeveloped wealth to advantage, is to allow its native
industries to be assisted and controlled by foreign capital.
Foreigners, by the law of Bulgaria, enjoy, both in an indi
vidual and in a corporate capacity, the same privileges as
the natives of the country in as far as trade and industry
are concerned. Indeed, so long as the Capitulations re
main in force, they are placed, as I have pointed out, in an

XIX.] COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 193
exceptionally favoured position as compared with the
natives. It is obvious that any important introduction of
foreign capital must tend to modify greatly the present
economic conditions of the country. Whether this would
be a gain or a loss to Bulgaria is an open question. The
laws, however, which regulate human existence, render it
absolutely certain, that where on the one hand there is
a country which has great resources and little capital, and
where, on the other hand, there is any amount of foreign
capital in adjacent countries on the look-out for lucrative
investments, the capital will flow into the country and the
country will welcome the capital. As things stand the pro
bability seems to be that the exploitation of Bulgaria
will fall into the hands of Austria, which has now got com
mand of the Bulgarian markets. Whether this is to be so
or not, must depend upon the action of the other European
capital-possessing countries, and especially of England.
In 1887 England held the foremost place in the Bul
garian market. At that period British goods were im
ported into the principality to the value of £1,354,500 ; in
the year 1891 this amount had declined to £786,400 ;
since then it has gone on declining. Yet within the same
period our exports of cereals from Bulgaria have risen from
£768,000 to £940,400. Thus, while we have purchased
£172,400 more from Bulgaria, we have sold her £568,100
less. The chief customers of Bulgaria are Great Britain,
France, Turkey, and Austria. Within the above period
the imports of France have sunk from £23 5,600, while her
exports have risen from £760,000 to £1,364,400. Turkey
again shows a decrease both in imports and exports, the
former having fallen from £698,000 to £491,600, and the
latter from £2,320,000 to £964,800. The falling off in the
O

194 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
trade of Bulgaria with the above-named countries has,
however, been made up by the increase in her trade
with Austria. In this case, the imports, which were only
£1,061,200 in 1887, were £1,671,300 in 1891, while the
exports remain the same. This change in the course of
Bulgarian trade may be accounted for to some extent
by the general causes which have almost extinguished
British commerce throughout the whole of the Levant.
The English merchants who trade with Bulgaria, I am
assured on every side, will not take the trouble to hunt up
business ; they have either no local representatives here
at all, or employ strangers unacquainted with the language
and customs of the country ; and they refuse to do busi
ness except upon the old-fashioned system of cash on
delivery. The result is that they are undersold by Austrian
and Greek traders, who are more energetic, less particular,
and more easily contented with a small profit. I think,
however, the chief explanation of the falling off in British
trade is that, since the direct Constantinople and Vienna
line has been completed, Austria has become the natural
mart of Bulgaria. After all, Austrian manufacturers and
traders can deliver their goods in the Principality under
present conditions far more cheaply than their English
competitors ; and so long as this remains the case, they
must inevitably command the pick of the Bulgarian
market. When, however, the railways I have spoken of
are completed, the conditions of trade will be materially
altered. With direct and cheap railway communication
between the seaports of Bulgaria and the interior of the
country, English goods shipped to Varna or Bourgas could
be delivered in the inland towns at much lower rates.
English wares are still preferred by the Bulgarians to'

XIX.] COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 195
German goods ; and if they could be delivered as rapidly
and as cheaply they would meet with a ready sale. There
is, therefore, reason to hope that the decline of our trade
with Bulgaria is temporary and not permanent.
The following statistics, which have recently been
published, give, I believe, an accurate account of the
various industrial enterprises as yet established in Bulgaria.
There are already —
54 woollen factories. 3 pottery works.
28 cotton mills. 36 printing offices.
1206 cord and string works. 8 soap works.
8 distilleries. I silk factory.
66 steam and water mills. 2 ink manufactories.
17 breweries. 2 powder mills.
2 dyeing works. 2 paste manufactories.
23 saw-mills. I basket factory.
23 wool-carding works. 55 tanneries.
92 cigar and cigarette factories. 16 flax works.
2 snuff factories.
Thus in a country of over 3,500,000 inhabitants there
are only 1647 factories or works of any kind important
enough to deserve recording, even in a list published in the
official organ of the Government, and intended to demon
strate the great industrial progress which has been made of
late years. It may be added that of these 1647 factories,
1206 are small rope walks, so that there are only 641
factories which in our use of the word would be deemed
worthy of being so described.
In the opinion of its inhabitants the undeveloped
resources of the country constitute a source of great poten
tial wealth. All the statements made on this subject to a
foreign visitor should be qualified by a remembrance of the
fact that the mineral resources of the country have never
yet been scientifically investigated, so that the authors of
these statements are hardly in a position to form any

196 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
trustworthy opinion as to the real value of the riches they
believe to lie buried beneath the Bulgarian soil. I should
therefore hesitate to assume the present State to be quite
the "Tom Tiddler's ground" it is sometimes represented as
being. But I think there is reasonable ground for supposing
that agriculture is not ultimately destined to be the sole, or
even the chief source, of the national revenue. As to the fer
tility of their soil, the Bulgarians can speak from personal
experience. From M. Stambouloff downwards there is
hardly a public man in the country who has not been born
and bred, so to speak, on the land, and who is not person
ally interested in farming operations. Roughly speaking,
Bulgaria may be described as a series of vast plains
intersected by the precipitous ranges of the Balkan
Mountains. These ranges protect the country from the
cold north winds which, during the long winter months,
sweep over the flat steppes, stretching without interrup
tion from the Danube to the Arctic Ocean. On the
other hand, in this low latitude the sun is very powerful
even when the hills are covered with snow. Though
there are no large rivers in Bulgaria, the country-side is
well watered by the countless streams which trickle down
from the mountains into the plains. The soil is soft and
rich, and easily tilled, up to a short depth, by spade labour.
Spring and autumn are not as marked here as they are in
other lands. Winter blossoms into summer and summer
fades into winter without any long interval of transition.
The seed sown in the late autumn is not exposed to the
vicissitudes of climate so familiar to the British farmer.
The departure of the snow is followed by the heavy spring
rains ; and as soon as the summer arrives the plains that
only a few days before looked bleak and bare are covered,

XIX.] COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 197
as if by magic, with rich crops of wheat, barley, maize,
and hay, and, in the southern districts, of rice and tobacco.
The plateau on which the major part of Bulgaria stands
is so elevated that even in the height of the summer the
nights are fresh and dew falls in the morning. In con
sequence the burning heats and the droughts, which wither
up the crops in countries of like latitude, but of lower eleva
tion, are here unknown. So large a portion of the soil is
still not brought into tillage that there is any amount of
pasture land. Both the climate and the fodder are favour
able to the production of flocks and herds. Cattle, horses,
buffaloes, sheep, goats, and pigs are to be found in immense
numbers. But owing to the general economical conditions
of the State there are few graziers on a large scale ; and
though the aggregate quantity of herds and flocks is very
high, the number of beasts owned by individual proprietors
is small in comparison. Silkworms are now very largely
reared in the peasants' homes ; and in Roumelia the rose
farms, from which the attar of roses is produced, cover a
great extent of country. I see no reason, therefore, to
question the universal belief of the Bulgarians, that with
improved methods of tillage, increased supply of labour,
and the introduction of outside capital, the agricultural
yield of their land is capable of immense development.
It is not so easy to form a judgment as to the alleged
mineral wealth of Bulgaria. I am assured that the Balkan
Mountains contain a large number of quartzite reefs ;
alluvial gold is also found in some of the mountain
streams. There is ample evidence of the existence of
gold, silver, copper, and other minerals in the country.
But as the regions in which these minerals are supposed
to be located have never been really prospected, it is

198 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap. XIX.
impossible to say whether the metals in question are to be
found in paying quantities or could be extracted at a price
which would leave a profit. It is certain, however, that both
iron and coal are to be found in large quantities throughout
the country. If these minerals could not be obtained else
where, Bulgaria could provide a more than sufficient supply
of coal and iron for her own use out of her own soil.
There are a few coal and iron mines already at work, which
do fairly well, and would do much better with larger capital,
better machinery, and improved facilities of transport. The
coal from the State colliery of Pernik is sold in Sofia at
about ten francs a ton. It is of inferior quality, and is
more like slag than English coal ; still it throws out great
heat, and has completely driven out the use of wood fires in
the Capital. In those parts of the country, however, which
are not close to a railway, the cost of coal, owing to the
difficulty of transport, is so great that it is very little used.
As the country is opened up by the various railroads now
in course of construction, the freight for coal from the
seaports must obviously become materially cheaper; and
I am not quite certain whether the coal of Bulgaria is of
sufficiently good quality to stand competition with English
coals, which might easily be brought into the country if
the rates of inland freight from the sea-coast did not
virtually prohibit their importation. I am told that in the
north of the province there are coal seams, the quality of
which is quite equal to that of the English article. But
the evidence on which this statement rests is not very
conclusive ; and till the question is settled one way or the
other, it is impossible to say whether Bulgaria is likely,
within any reasonable time, to become a great coal and
iron producing country.

( 199 )

CHAPTER XX.
RAILWAYS.
The most pressing want of Bulgaria is the develop
ment of railway communication. The ranges of the
Balkan Mountains, which traverse the country in well-nigh
every direction until you reach the lowlands of Eastern
Roumelia, practically divide one district from another
by obstacles that are not easily surmountable. The
large towns are still very few in number ; and such high
roads as there are were constructed rather for military
purposes than for providing means of access from town to
town and village to village. The country is very rich in
agricultural produce, and this richness is held to be
capable of almost indefinite development. The produce
of the fields cannot, however, be sold to advantage owing
to the cost and delay in exporting it to foreign markets.
The peasants, therefore, have no great interest in growing
more produce than they can either use themselves or sell
in their immediate neighbourhood. The obvious remedy
for this state of things is the construction of railroads.
When railroads are once made roads will follow of them
selves. At present, Bulgaria is traversed by two main lines of
railway, both going from east to west and having no
connection with each' other. The first and oldest is the

200 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Varna-Rustschuk Railroad, which was built some five and
twenty years ago by an English company, and was con
structed in order to provide direct and rapid access to Con
stantinople from Western Europe, not with much idea of
developing the then almost dormant resources of the
country which it traversed. The line in question did not
prove a financial success, and there were any number of
disputes between the English company and the Porte. By
the Treaty of Berlin, Bulgaria was compelled to take over
all the liabilities contracted by the Ottoman Government
in respect of this unfortunate railway. After protracted
negotiations the Varna-Rustschuk line became the pro
perty of the State at a cost of £1,876,000, which was
raised by a six per cent. State loan ; so that, taking into
account the price at which the bonds given in exchange
for the loan were issued and the cost of commission,
the purchase must have cost Bulgaria not far short of
£2,000,000. As the line is only a hundred and forty miles
in length, it follows that it was bought at the average
price of £14,000 a mile ; not a bad price for a line
which up to then had barely paid its working expenses.
I am well aware that there were large arrears claimed by
the company in respect of payments which were said to
be due from Turkey and to be in default. I have no
reason to assert that the arrangement was an unfair one
for either side under the circumstances. Still it is only
just to the Bulgarians to record the fact that some two-
fifths of her small public debt is due to the enforced
purchase of a line owned by a foreign company, and
sold by them under a forced sale at a price very con
siderably above its marketable value.
By the Railway Convention, concluded at Vienna in

XX.] RA IL WA YS. 2 O I
1888, between Turkey, Austria, Servia, and Bulgaria, the
last-named State agreed to construct the Zaribrod-Vakarel
Railway, which formed the final connecting link in the
direct line between Constantinople and Vienna. This
line was completed in 1889, at a cost of £1,200,000, which
was provided for by a fresh loan of like amount. Unlike
the Varna-Rustschuk Railway, the last-named line was
of immense service to Bulgaria, as it placed her in direct
communication with Western Europe, and above all with
Austria. I do not know that there is any special reason for
discussing in these pages the rights or wrongs of the
Orient Railways question, though it is naturally one which
excites very great local interest. It is enough to say that
these railways, which are supposed to be the origin of
Baron Hirsch's colossal fortune, though they do supply
the great want of a direct route between the Bosphorus
and the Danube, supply it in a way which has given very
general dissatisfaction to the districts traversed. They are
said, whether justly or not, to have been very badly con
structed, to have cost a great deal more than was necessary,
and to have followed a studiously circuitous track so as to
lengthen the distances traversed and increase the cost of
freight and transport. No doubt, the political and financial
embarrassments of Turkey rendered the construction of the
lines in question far more costly than it need have been ;
it is obvious, too, that if the work had to be begun de novo,
a more direct and shorter route would be adopted. But
more than this it would be difficult to affirm with any
degree of certainty. What can be asserted with more
confidence is, that the joint system, under which the line
is worked at present, is eminently unsatisfactory to

202 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Bulgaria. The part of the line constructed by Baron
Hirsch was sold, after various vicissitudes, to a company
called the Orient Railways Company, which I believe is
nominally a Swiss company, having its head office at
Zurich, but the capital of which was mainly subscribed by
Viennese capitalists. The Orient Railways Company
works the line between Constantinople and Sarembey, the
distance between the latter place and the Turkish frontier
at Mustapha Pasha being close on 130 miles. This company
also works the Tirnovo-Jamboli branch, a distance of
nearly sixty-six miles, running throughout over Bulgarian
territory, and connecting at Jamboli with a line to the
port of Bourgas, which was constructed by Bulgaria at
her own expense. Again, the main line from Sarembey
to the Servian frontier is partly leased, partly owned, and
in either case worked by Bulgaria. Adding to the above
a short line between Sofia and Pernik, the Principality
contains in all 512 miles of railway, of which 317 are
worked by the State and 195 by the Orient Railways
Company. The Bulgarian Government is naturally anxious
to get these private lines under its own management It
is contended at Sofia that these lines are worked — and very
properly so — with the view of yielding the largest and
immediate return to the shareholders, not with a view of
developing the resources of the country ; and that, by the
introduction of lower freights and increased facilities, they
might be made infinitely more beneficial to the community,
without any loss beyond a temporary diminution of income.
The company, I fancy, are willing to lease the portion of
their lines running over Bulgarian territory to the State ;
but they will only do so at a price based on their pros
pective rather than their actual value ; and this price the

XX.] RAILWAYS. 203
Bulgarians, rightly or wrongly, deem exorbitant. This
natural divergence of view between sellers as distinguished
from buyers has created a good deal of irritation between
the Bulgarian Government and the Orient Railways Com
pany, and this irritation is augmented by the accidental
circumstance that the Turkish Government has the right
of interfering in any arrangement concluded between the
two contracting parties.
Only the other day an incident occurred in connection
with this railway question, which shows how strangely in
dustrial and international considerations are mixed up in
this part of the world. By the original agreement between
Bulgaria and the Orient Railways Company the point,
west and east of which the main line traffic is worked
respectively by the State and by the company, was fixed
at the station of Bellova, some fifteen miles east of Sofia.
This station lies in a narrow gap, through which the line
passes between a range of hills that separates the plateau
of Sofia from the plains of Philippopolis. There is no room
in this gap to enlarge the station in question, which, owing
to the rapid increase of traffic, has become inconveniently
small. Constant delays and difficulties have arisen at
Bellova from the absence of additional sidings, and on
several occasions accidents have been caused by the block
of trains at Bellova, which in one or two instances have
been attended with fatal results. In order to remedy this
inconvenience the Bulgarian Government proposed to re
move the point of junction, at which the management of
the service is taken over by the State, from Bellova to
Sarembey, a station about six miles east of the former
place, and which lies in the open plain beyond the gap,
and can, if necessary, be enlarged to any amount desired.

204 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
The result of this arrangement was that the section of
the line between Bellova and Sarembey would have in
future to be worked by the State instead of by the com
pany. The arrangement was obviously advantageous to
both parties ; the company raised no objection to the
proposed transfer or to the terms upon which it was to be
effected. The transfer, however, though agreed upon by
both parties, could not be carried out without the formal
consent of the Porte. The Turkish Government had no
personal interest in the proposed change, and was per
fectly willing to accept the principle on which it was
based. Unfortunately, for some time past Bulgaria had
been out of favour with the Porte. The mere fact that
the transfer was desired at Sofia caused it to be viewed
with suspicion at Constantinople ; and, in spite of repeated
promises to attend to the matter, the Porte could not be
induced to sign the formal decree authorizing the contem
plated working arrangement. At last the Government of
Bulgaria lost all patienee, and one fine morning, in the
early part of the present year, it cut the gordian knot by
taking possession of the section in question and placing
its own officials in charge of the Sarembey station. I am
assured that this sort of miniature coup d'e'tat was carried
through by M. Petkoff, the Minister of Public Works,
without the sanction or even the knowledge of his col
leagues. This action of the Government was extremely
popular in Bulgaria ; and in all likelihood the Porte would
have acquiesced, as it always does acquiesce in an ac
complished fact, if difficulties had not been raised in an
entirely different quarter. The Orient Railways Company,
though it was quite willing to agree to the principle of
the proposed transfer, could not reasonably be expected

XX.] RAILWAYS. 205
to approve so high-handed a measure, which might
hereafter constitute a precedent for a summary seizure
of any portion of their lines. The shareholders in the
company are mainly Viennese capitalists and Austrian
grandees, who have great personal influence at the
Imperial Court. Immediately upon M. Petkoff's action
becoming known, the representative of the Austro-Hun
garian Government at Sofia was instructed to enter
a strong protest against any forcible settlement of the
Bellova-Sarembey controversy, as constituting a violation
of the rights of its subjects. Bulgaria has every motive
for keeping on good terms with Austria, and on the
Ministry being informed of this protest having been made,
they showed their good sense by receding immediately
from an untenable position, and withdrawing their officials
from the Sarembey station. In consideration of this con
cession, Austria brought strong pressure to bear at Con
stantinople, and induced the Sultan to sanction an
arrangement, in virtue of which the working of the
Sarembey-Bellova section has now been taken over by
Bulgaria from the Orient Railways Company for a period
of five years, on terms which are mutually satisfactory.
This arrangement, by the way, includes an annual payment
of £80 a kilometre for the lease of another section of the
line west of Bellova, the title to which has been for some
time matter of dispute between the Governments of Bul
garia and Turkey, and which, pending the settlement of
this dispute, had been taken possession of by the Govern
ment of Sofia.
It is not only in connection with the Orient Railways
Company that the political history of Bulgaria is curiously
associated with railway questions. The story of the Varna-

206 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Rustschuk Line, as it was told me, throws a curious light
on the way things were managed in Bulgaria during the
Turkish era. The original concession for the construction
of this line was obtained from the Porte by a Levantine
merchant. He took the concession to London and suc
ceeded in selling it to a syndicate, who sold it again to an
English company formed to build and work the line. The
Board, on which there was a brother of Mr. Gladstone,
was a good one enough in itself; but the British public
did not subscribe largely, and the actual share capital of
the company was extremely small. This, however, was
not a matter of much importance. By the concession the
company were authorized to issue a certain number of
debentures for every kilometre constructed, on which in
terest at the rate of seven per cent, was guaranteed by the
Ottoman Government. In those days, some thirty odd
years ago, the British public still believed in the regenera
tion of Turkey ; and seven per cent, debentures, guaranteed
by the Porte, were regarded as an excellent investment.
The debentures were placed without difficulty, and the
line was duly constructed. Up to the period when the
railway was opened for traffic, the interest, in accordance
with the terms of the concession, was paid out of capital,
and things went well as far as the market was concerned.
But from the outset the line was mismanaged ; the gra
dients were bad, the rolling-stock was inadequate, the
expenses were far in excess of the estimates, and, if local
report is at all correct, the company was overcharged in
every way in the course of the construction of the line. Not
long after the new grand international route between the
West and the East, vid the Danube, the Black Sea, and
the Varna-Rustschuk Railway, had been thrown open to

XX.] RAILWAYS. 207
the public, there occurred the great financial crisis, which
knocked down all Turkish securities, and which, at the
time, was almost as disastrous to the British investor as
the collapse of Argentina three years ago. There proved
to be little or no traffic in the districts traversed by the
railway. Here, as elsewhere in Turkey, the absence of
roads and the insecurity of property paralyzed all local pro
duction not required to supply the producers' own wants.
The Bulgarian peasant had no object in growing wheat for
export to Europe, when the cost of transport would probably
eat up all his profit, and when the fact of his being able
to export wheat at all would certainly have increased the
amount exacted from him by the farmers of the imperial
taxes. It is true that the particular district traversed by
the Varna-Rustschuk Railway was almost exclusively in
habited by Mahommedans ; but in the exaction of taxes
the Turkish Government, to do it justice, recognized no
difference of creed. The through traffic over the line
barely paid its working expenses, and the administration
of this remote railway by an English board, sitting in
London, was at once costly and incompetent. The traffic
returns from the enterprise proved insufficient to pay the
debenture interest ; and when the Porte, in accordance
with the concession, was called upon to make up the
deficit, it repudiated the liability on the plea that the
line had not been so constructed as to satisfy, the con
ditions of the contract. The endless disputes between the
railway company and the Porte are recorded in the
archives of the Foreign Office for whosoever may care to
read them. It is enough for me to say that, whichever of
the two parties to the controversy was most in the right
or least in the wrong, the Porte had always the best of

208 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
the argument, as it simply declined to pay the guarantee,
while the company, even if right in principle, had no
practical power to enforce the payment of its claims. In
despair of coming to any arrangement, the company ac
cepted an offer of Baron Hirsch, then at the height of his
prestige as the railway king of Turkey in Europe. The
bargain was a one-sided one. After the first year of its
operation, the company got no return of any kind from
the undertaking, though, as they alleged, Baron Hirsch,
who leased the line without paying any rent, and was
paid so much a kilometre for working it, earned a hand
some profit out of the difference between what he spent
in working expenses and what he received as an in
demnity for working the line. Even if this is so, all
that can fairly be said is that the English company made
a bad bargain and the Baron made a good one. When
the conference met at Berlin to settle the terms of peace
between Russia and Turkey, strong influence was exerted
in some quarter or other to protect the interests of the
debenture-holders of the Varna-Rustschuk Railway. One
of the conditions of the treaty under which Bulgaria was
to be granted autonomy was to the effect that the Princi
pality must effect the purchase of this ill-starred line.
There were any number of further delays and disputes as
to how this engagement should be carried out in practice.
Finally, as I have said, the Bulgarian Government raised a
loan, out of whose proceeds the debenture-holders were
paid off, and the State became proprietor of the line.
Unfortunately for the original debenture-holders and share
holders, they had long lost faith in ever getting anything
out of the concern, and had mostly sold their holdings for
whatever they could get. Meanwhile Baron Hirsch had

XX.] RAILWAYS. 209
gradually bought up all the stock thrown on the market,
so that when the purchase price was finally handed over
to the company on liquidation, a very small portion of the
amount found its way into the pockets of the original
investors. In as far as I can learn, the Varna-Rustschuk
line, under State management, about covers its expenses ;
but I should doubt its yielding anything like the interest
which the country has to pay upon the loan raised for the
completion of the purchase.
Though Bulgaria finally carried her point with
reference to the Bellova-Sarembey question, the whole
relations between the State and the Orient Railways
Company are necessarily unsatisfactory from a native
point of view. No independent country can like the
principal portions of the main railway route across her
own territory remaining in the hands of a foreign company
under the special protection of two adjacent empires ;
and a strong feelim? is entertained in the Principality
that the Bulgarian sections of this main line ought by
rights to be taken ovftr by the State. It is thought that
if this should be fouAjj^possible, a competing State line
should be constructed Is to secure full control of the
railway communication „f.jWeen the East and the West.
On this account a propos* has been discussed for the
construction of a new line from Bellova to the Turkish
frontier at Mustapha Pasha. It is asserted that such
a line might be made far more cheaply and far more
directly than the present zigzag route of the Orient
Railways, the gradients of which are so steep, and the
curves so sharp, that even the express trains cannot
travel much over twenty miles an hour. This project
may possibly be carried out at some future period. For
p

2IO TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
the present, however, Bulgaria has far too much need
of new railroads in other directions to spend her money
in constructing lines intended to compete with those
already in existence. A somewhat more practical project
is that of constructing a direct line between Sofia and
Jamboli, which would be some hundred kilometres shorter
than the present circuitous route by Tirnova. Some few
months ago overtures were made to eminent railway
contractors in England with the view of inducing them
to undertake the construction of this line, but I am not
aware whether these overtures ever went beyond the
preliminary stage of negotiation. The main object of the
projected line was, I fancy, to bring pressure to bear on
the Orient Railways Company. A direct Sofia-Jamboli
line, whether it paid or not, would command the whole
traffic between the port of Bourgas and the West, and
would thus deprive the Orient Company, which owns the
line between Semlin-Tirnova, and Jamboli, of a very profit
able portion of its traffic. It is thought probable that the
prospect of incurring such a loss mi^ht induce the share
holders of the company to entert-der^he idea of selling or
leasing their Bulgarian lines to t the ^te at a more moderate
price than that they have hithiSSj demanded.
For the present, the gre&t. railway need of Bulgaria
is direct communication between the north and south of
the country. As between east and west communication is
fairly well provided by the Orient Railway and the Rust-
schuk-Varna line. Between these two lines, however,
there is no railway connection of any kind. If you want
to go from Sofia to Rustschuk, a distance, as the crow
flies, of not over a hundred and fifty miles, you must
either go to Constantinople or to Bourgas by rail, proceed

XX.] RAILWAYS. 211
thence by steamer to Varna, and recross Bulgaria by rail
to Rustschuk ; or if you prefer to go entirely by land, you
have to make an enormous detour by Belgrade, Zegedin,
Orsova, and Bucharest to Giurjevo, a town just opposite
to Rustschuk on the northern bank of the Danube.
Again, there is no direct connection between Bulgaria
and the iEgean Sea. You must either go to Constanti
nople and take boat thence to Salonika, or you must
make a very circuitous journey through Servia and the
Herzegovina. In order to remedy these inconveniences,
the Bulgarian Government propose to make a line which
will place Salonika, Sofia, Rustschuk, and Varna in direct
railway communication with each other. The portion
south of Sofia is now in course of construction. The
line from Salonika to Monastir is already finished, and
on the Bulgarian side a commencement has been made by
the opening of the first section of the proposed railway
as far as Pernik, some fifteen miles south of the capital.
I am told that there are no great engineering difficulties
in the completion of the connecting link between Pernik
and the point where the line is to pass out of Bulgarian
territory. A far more difficult section of the proposed line is that
which is to proceed northwards from Sofia, and which
is finally to end close to Shumla, a station on the Varna-
Rustschuk line. Any number of mountain ranges will
have to be traversed, and, as the route taken must neces
sarily follow the lie of the valleys between the hills, the
line will be circuitous and costly. No complete survey has,
I believe, yet been finished, so that the estimated amount
of the cost is still uncertain. But, assuming no political
complication should occur, Bulgaria's financial position

212 TRADE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap. XX.
is such as to enable her to raise the required capital
without difficulty ; and within a few years Sofia will no
longer be cut off, as she is at present, from the northern
provinces of the Principality and the banks of the
Danube. The line in question will pass through coal
regions which are supposed to be extremely rich, and its
construction will certainly give a much-needed impetus
both to local industry and to foreign trade.

SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT
STATE.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE CAPITAL.
AT the railway station of Sofia there is displayed on the
walls a huge map of the countries traversed by the Orient
Line. On this map, which was compiled, I should fancy,
about twenty years ago, you will find some score of
names, showing the position of the principal towns of
Bulgaria, but the capital, Sofia, is not amongst the
number. The explanation is that the present metropolis
of the State was too insignificant a place in those days to
have its name recorded. I could never meet with any very
satisfactory explanation as to why this place was chosen
above all others as the Capital of the country. It is not
associated with any of the historical traditions of the era,
apocryphal or otherwise, when Bulgaria was a great and
independent Empire. It stands on no considerable river ;
it is not a strong military position ; it is not the seat of
any great trade or industry ; and at the period of its
selection it was not particularly convenient of access. It
had, undoubtedly, the negative advantage of being sur
rounded by a purely Bulgarian population, with a very
small admixture of the Mussulman element. It also lay
upon the great military high-road between Constantinople

2 1 4 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap.
and the West. The most probable explanation is, that at
the period when Bulgaria recovered her independence,
Sofia, which was then a small town of some six thousand
inhabitants, happened to be one of the chief seats of the
Turkish administration. Tirnovo, the ancient capital, was
and is almost inaccessible, owing to the absence of roads
and railways, whereas Sofia was clearly on the route which
the line from Vienna to Constantinople would have to
follow. Rustschuk, which, as the abode of the old
Governors-General, was the natural capital, was not
considered suitable, owing to the fact that it lay in the
centre of a district in which the Mussulman element was
predominant. Everything at that period had to be done
in a hurry ; there was no time to pick and choose ; and
as the Turkish Pashas, Cadis, and Bashi-Bazouks took
their departure from Sofia, the Bulgarians found ready to
their hand the residences and offices which the Ottoman
authorities had previously occupied.
Anyhow the choice of a capital, by whatever motives
it may have been dictated, has not proved to be a bad
one. The town stands on a rolling plain some two
thousand feet above the sea, encompassed in almost every
direction by the ranges of the Balkan Mountains. The
result is, that at the end of almost every street in the
town you have vistas of lofty, precipitous hills, clad, for
the most part, with snow during the long winter, and
which, in this clear sparkling air, seem so near at hand as
to lie almost at the gates of the city. As a matter of fact,
the plateau on which Sofia stands extends for miles in
every direction before you reach the foot of the mountains.
Thus, there is almost indefinite space available for the
expansion of the city, supposing its development in the

XXL] THE CAPITAL. 215
future to correspond with its growth in the recent past. A
new city has, in the course of a very few years, been created
upon the ruins of the old, squalid Turkish town. The
dominant idea which seems to have regulated the con
struction of Sofia has been a determination to efface all
traces of the Turkish era and to found a modern capital,
built in conformity with the ideas, customs, and fashions of
Western civilization. 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 down
wards 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 pro
tected 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.
As soon as Prince Ferdinand had become firmly seated
on the throne, the reconstruction of Sofia was again taken

2 1 6 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap.
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.
Architecturally, Sofia has little or no pretensions. The
houses are all of brick encased in stucco. The width of
the thoroughfares, the monotony of the endless rows of
detached villas, the scrubby trees planted along the foot-
walks, and the shabby-genteel air inseparable from stucco
in every form and phase, reminded me frequently of the
non-artistic districts of St. John's Wood. Palace, public
buildings, private dwellings, are all fashioned after the
model of the house which children are first taught to draw,
a rectangular parallelogram, with a broad slit in the
middle for the doorway, and with any number of narrow
slits for the windows in the fagade. Except in a few streets
of the business quarter, the houses do not adjoin each
other, but stand apart. Hardly any house is more than
two stories in height : most of them consist of one story
only. They all stand in a plot of ground of their own,
but gardens are few and far between ; the places where one
might expect to find a garden are occupied by outhouses.
Except in two or three of the main streets, the process of
reconstruction is still incomplete. Every now and then

XXI.] THE CAPITAL. 217
the broad, smooth, flag-stone pavements are intersected by
stretches of unpaved ground, filled up with rubble and
loose stones, which a shower of rain converts, for the time
being, into a quagmire. Here and there, too, sandwiched
in between the modern stucco villas, are groups of old-
fashioned Turkish houses, half cottages, half shanties, with
white-washed walls and broad, red-tiled roofs.
From a painter's point of view the tumble-down,
squalid old town was infinitely preferable ; but, from the
point of view of people who have to pass their lives in
Sofia, the present is doubtless superior to the past. Sofia
has, in fact, been converted into a very fair specimen of
a well-to-do, commonplace Western city. The streets,
unlike those of Eastern towns, are all named, mostly after
the local celebrities of the era of Liberation, and the
houses are all regularly numbered. The main thorough
fares are wide and well paved with macadam. The foot-
walks in every part of the town are excellent, except for
the gaps I have just spoken of ; and before long Sofia will
be as well constructed a capital, for its size, as any to be
found in Europe. At night the town is lit with oil lamps ;
by night as by day the streets are singularly quiet and
orderly. The private houses, though homely, are comfort
able. The sanitary arrangements are still of a primitive
kind. I am by no means sure, however, that they are not
more conducive to health than the elaborate system of
water-drainage which is to be substituted in their place,
when a contract, already made for supplying Sofia with an
adequate supply of water, is carried into effect.
It has been my fortune to witness the birth and growth
of many cities in the New World and in our Colonies.
But I do not know that either Denver city in Colorado, or

2 1 8 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap.
Ottawa in Canada, or Johannesburg in South Africa are
more noteworthy achievements of individual enterprise
than this city of Sofia, with its boulevards, mansions, public
buildings, parks, and kiosks, all on a small scale but
adequate to its requirements. What adds to the marvel
of the achievement is, that the scene, on which it has been
accomplished in the course of some half-dozen years, lies
in the centre of a remote and out-of-the-way district which,
till the other day, was, as it had remained for centuries, one
of the most backward and neglected provinces of the Otto
man Empire. The funds required for the construction of
the capital were mainly supplied by the municipality, who
borrowed the money for the purpose by a loan, raised on
the security of the octroi duties. The money thus earned
was spent right and left in the development ofthe new town.
Two million francs were expended in constructing a new
Turkish bath, though the old one was good enough for
the present demand. Three million francs, too, were voted
to build an H6tel de Ville, the foundations of which have
been dug in the Central Square, but the work has been
suspended owing to funds not being forthcoming for its
completion. In this, as in other ways, there was undoubtedly
a good deal of waste, and probably a certain amount of
jobbery, during the process of reconstruction. But on the
whole the town seems to me to have got fair value for
its expenditure. Street after street of the old Turkish
hovels has been replaced by the broad avenues of which I
have spoken, and in the course of two or three years all
trace of the old town will pretty well have vanished. I
may add that a large proportion of the private dwelling-
houses have been built by their proprietors at their own
cost. By far the larger number of the Sofiote families

XXI.] THE CAPITAL. 219
live in their own houses, and, in consequence, it is difficult
for temporary residents at Sofia to find house-room
elsewhere than in the hotels and lodging-houses. Though
trade has been bad for the last two or three years in Sofia,
as it has been everywhere, the process of building is still
going on rapidly, and the remaining Turkish houses are
disappearing one by one.
There is one mosque still left in the poorer quarter of
the town. Hard by it there rises the graceful minaret
from whence on Fridays — which here, as in most countries
where the Mahommedans have ruled, are the market days
of the town — the Muezzin calls the faithful to prayer.
Amidst the rattling of cabs, the shouts of the news-boys,
and the continuous chatter of the market folk, you can
still catch the plaintive cry of "Allah El Allah," so
familiar to all who have lived in Mussulman lands. But
these last reminiscences of the bygone time, Muezzin and
minaret and mosque, will soon be swept away by the new
order of things, of which Sofia is at once the product
and the symbol. The Moslem population left in the
Capital numbers but a few hundred, and for the most part
consists of the cab-drivers, a trade which, for some reason,
has always been more in the hands of Mahommedans than
of Christians. The small retail trade is chiefly carried on by
Bulgarians ; the larger shop-keepers are mainly Austrians
or Jews. Of the latter there is a considerable settlement
of old standing in the city. The Sofiote Jews are of
Spanish origin and of the Sephardin caste, and, in as far
as look goes, have little in common with the Russian or
Bohemian Hebrew.

2 20 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

CHAPTER XXII.
THE COURT.
It so chanced that I arrived at Sofia a few days after the
birth of the heir-apparent to the Bulgarian crown. The
Princess had so far got over her confinement most satis
factorily, and it was expected that her recovery would be
the occasion for a number of Court festivities in honour
of the recent joyful event. It was only after the infant
Prince had been baptized with all due pomp and ceremony
that any anxiety was felt as to his mother's health.
Suddenly, when everything seemed to be going on well,
violent fever set in ; and from that date till she left Sofia
nearly two months later, the Princess was never able to
quit her room or even her bed. The official bulletins,
which were published daily, and often more than once a
day, conveyed the stereotyped information that the
Princess was going on satisfactorily, and that there was
no cause for anxiety. The nature of her malady, however,
was one of which no reasonable explanation could be
offered, or, at any rate, was offered. During the day
time the Princess was perfectly well, but towards nightfall
fever set in and lasted for hours, the temperature often
going up considerably over ioo° Fahr. The received
theory was that the Princess was suffering from an attack
of intermittent malaria fever, and it was authoritatively

XXII.] THE COURT. 221
declared that the fever had no connection whatever with
her recent confinement. I have reason to believe that the
real explanation was infinitely simpler. One of the many
reasons why people, as I think, should always feel grateful
that they were not born in royal families, is that they are
at liberty to choose their own doctors if they are ill, and
to be cured or not, as the case may be, according to their
own ideas. This privilege is denied to royalty. A
Princess of Parma and Saxe-Coburg, not to mention
Bulgaria, cannot be confined, like any other woman, by
the aid of a competent practitioner or an experienced
midwife. It was, or was supposed to be, in accordance
with the eternal fitness of things that the Princess should
be attended during her confinement by the four most
eminent accoucheurs of the Austrian capital. They were,
no doubt, men of the highest medical attainments ; but
as no one person was responsible for the sole conduct of
the case, certain elementary duties, which would have
been performed by any parish doctor in the case of a
woman confined in a workhouse, were overlooked, while
the Princess's medical advisers were consulting as to the
report they were to make and the treatment they were
to recommend. The result was that some kind of internal
inflammation set in, and though the fever was checked
time after time by the use of febrifuge remedies, it in
variably made its reappearance as soon as these remedies
ceased to be employed. Again and again it was officially
announced that the fever had disappeared, and again and
again the supposed recovery was followed by a relapse.
The doctors were continually travelling backward and
forward between Vienna and Sofia, and it was only after
the attacks of fever had continued for weeks that they

2 2 2 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap.
made, or at any rate announced, the discovery that it was
due to some local inflammation, and not to general causes.
When this conclusion had been arrived at, there was great
apprehension that an operation would be necessary. A
consultation, however, was held at the palace, to which
the most celebrated operators in Vienna had been sum
moned ; and it was finally decided that no drastic
measures were required, that the inflammation, whatever
its cause might be, had best be left to work itself out, and
that the only thing to be done was to remove the Princess
at once to a milder climate than that of the bleak,
elevated, mountain-surrounded plateau of Sofia.
As a matter of course, the Princess's illness stopped all
Court festivities and all public rejoicing. Prince Ferdi
nand was deeply anxious, and was so depressed by the
state of his wife's health that he never quitted the palace,
except in obedience to the urgent remonstrances of
the doctors. He would hardly see any one except his
Ministers, and even in their case he had as few interviews
with them as possible. His one care was to keep the
house quiet, so as to avoid the risk of the Princess being
disturbed during the intervals, in the daytime, when she
dropped off into sleep. The palace, as I have said, stands
in the very centre of the town, surrounded by streets on
every side. Strict orders were given that no carriage was
to pass the royal residence at more than a foot's pace.
The displays of fireworks which were to have taken place
as usual on Prince Ferdinand's birthday, and on the anni
versary of the liberation of Bulgaria from Turkish rule,
were countermanded by royal order, and instructions were
given by the police to request the crowd to avoid all
cheering and shouting and all kinds of noisy manifestations

XXII.] THE COURT. 223
within earshot of the palace. The request, I may add,
was obeyed most carefully and cheerfully.
The palace is a long barrack-like building, with no
wings, and with little ground, either in front or at the
back, on which new buildings could be erected. On the
front it is separated from the Alexander Square by a
broad, raised road. At the back, a narrow strip of walled-
in garden ground divides it from the houses of the
adjacent streets. The accommodation within the palace
is very limited, and at the period of which I speak its
residential capabilities were strained to the utmost by
the presence of the Prince's mother, the Princess Clemen
tine, and of the Princess's father and stepmother, the
Duke and Duchess of Parma, and their respective suites.
The royal guests had come to Sofia in order to be on the
spot during the Princess's confinement, and had intended
to leave directly afterwards ; but their departure was
delayed by her protracted illness.
Under these circumstances, all Court life was neces
sarily at a standstill during the greater part of my resi
dence at Sofia, and I saw less of the Court than I probably
should have done otherwise, as all visitors, and especially
all English visitors who take the trouble to be presented,
are made very welcome at the palace. The Prince was
much in England as a child, at the time when his mother's
family resided there in exile. He can read English easily,
and speaks it fairly, though French and German are the
languages he prefers to employ in conversation. The
Princess speaks English excellently, and without accent,
and is very English in her ideas and tastes. After her
mother's death, which occurred when she was still a very
young child, she was brought up under the sole care

224 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Chap.
of an English lady, Miss Fraser, to whom she is deeply
attached, and who, since her marriage, has continued to
reside with her. The nurses of the baby Prince are
Englishwomen, recommended to the Princess by the
Queen of England, who, through the Coburg connection,
is, in as far as I can make out the genealogy, a grand-
aunt by marriage and a great-grand-aunt by birth of the
heir to the Bulgarian throne.
The first time I visited the palace was on the eve of
the Princess's departure for Ebenthal, her mother-in-law's
residence near Vienna, to which she had been sent by her
doctors for change of air, as soon as it was thought that
she could be removed without danger. On the morning
of the day, I received a letter from the Grand-Marshal of
the Court, informing me that his Royal Highness would
be pleased to receive me in the afternoon. The invitation
was coupled with the gratifying notice that I might be
permitted to present myself in ordinary morning attire.
The Prince, knowing the dislike of Englishmen to putting
on evening dress in broad daylight, had kindly relaxed in
my favour the ordinary rule, that all visitors, who are
desirous of an audience, must follow the French fashion
and appear attired as if they were going out to dinner.
The road to the palace is open to the public, and the
sentries, stationed at the gates, allow any one to pass up
to the central door which opens on the chief staircase. A
number of soldiers in Lancers' uniform, grey jackets,
covered with red braid, and Astrakhan caps, were stationed
on the steps. Aide-de-camps in full uniform, officials in
evening dress, covered with stars and orders, made up
a very fair imitation of a Court. The ante-chamber was
crowded, as the Ministers and other persons connected

XXII.] THE COURT. 225
with the Government, all in evening dress, had come to
pay their respects to the Princess Clementine, who was
expected to take her departure on the following day.
The passages were filled with boxes, and there was an
unmistakable look of an impending flitting about the
whole scene. I was first taken to the room of the Princess
Clementine, who had been kind enough to express a wish
to see me, having known near relatives of mine in the old
days of Twickenham. The Princess's hair is snow-white,
but her features are very beautiful, and her complexion is
marvellously smooth and clear. She is the handsomest of
the Orleans family I have known, and certainly possesses,
to a greater degree, perhaps, than any of them, the singular
charm of manner possessed by royal personages when they
are desirous of being pleasant. In spite of her extreme deaf
ness she has a very sweet and well-modulated voice. But
to shout through an ear-trumpet in a foreign tongue is not
conducive to conversation. Her Highness asked much
after people we had both known during her visits to
Twickenham ; she seemed anxious to learn my impressions
of Bulgaria, spoke highly of the Bulgarian national character,
and was obviously wrapped up heart and soul in the
fortunes of her youngest and favourite son.
After leaving the Princess Clementine, I was conducted
upstairs to the Prince's room. In the ante-chamber at the
top of the stairs, there are hung the flags of the various
native militia regiments which took part in the War
of Independence. On the chimney-piece there stand
three huge wax-tapers, which King Milan took with him
on starting from Belgrade on his campaign against
Bulgaria, which were to have been presented to the
Cathedral of Sofia on the occasion of the High Mass
Q

2 26 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
his Majesty had intended to have celebrated there on
his entry into Sofia at the head of his victorious troops,
and which were captured by the Bulgarian army after the
rout of the Servians at Tirot. All the regular ceremonial
of a presentation at Court was duly observed. About the
passages there were servants in gorgeous liveries ; you
were passed from one chamberlain to another, all in
Court suits ; sentries of the Royal Guard were stationed at
each doorway, and you had to be presented to a series of
officials before you reached the room where the Prince was
waiting to receive his visitors.
Owing to the circumstances to which I have alluded,
there was almost a complete absence of any Court pageants
during my stay at Sofia. The only one of any importance
which I witnessed, was one that took place on the occasion
of the departure of the Princess Clementine and of the
Prince and Princess of Parma. Even this was of what I
suppose would be called the semi-State order. No notice
was given publicly of the event, and the only sign I
noticed of- anything unusual going on was, that the band
played before the palace at an unusually early hour, and
that there were a large number of people driving about the
streets in tall hats, in lieu of the caftans and billycocks
which are the universal head-gear of Sofia all the year
round. Hats are only worn here on Court occasions, and
to see more than one hat about the streets is almost
proof positive that some Court function or other is taking
place. Though pageants of any kind are rare occurrences in
Sofia, and though the departure of the royal visitors was
about as much of a pageant as is often witnessed here, it
seemed to attract little public attention, and there was no

XXII.] THE COURT. 227
crowd, as there would have been in most capitals, either in
front of the palace or along the road traversed to the
railway station. The Orient express, by which the
royalties travelled to Vienna, was timed to start at 10.30 ;
before that hour the Ministers, Court officials, and leading
notabilities of the town were collected on the platform.
Anybody, as a rule, can go in and out of the Bulgarian
stations, which are not kept closed after the usual
continental fashion ; but on the present occasion nobody,
not known to the officials, was allowed to enter the
station. It was a raw, bleak morning, though the sun was
shining brightly, and all the Ministers and officers in
command of the escort had crowded into the station
restaurant. The whole company, including two high
ecclesiastical dignitaries of the Bulgarian Church, with
long, black, flowing robes, and high cardboard hats, looking
like a section of a stove pipe with a flat rim round the top,
were smoking cigarettes and drinking brandy while await
ing the Prince's arrival. The Ministers were in evening
dress, wrapped up in furs and Inverness capes, and had the
aspect of men who had not been to bed all night, and who
had not had time to change their clothes before they left
home. Very few men look well in broad daylight when
clad in seamy, rumpled dress-suits and soiled white ties,
and the Bulgarian Ministers are certainly no exception to
the common rule. They are not built in the dress-clothes
way, and whenever I saw them in other than their work-a-
day costumes, they always reminded me of the supers
who appear as the courtiers in Hamlet, when played at the
provincial theatre. Moreover, the spectacle of a whole
Cabinet Council sitting round the beer-stained table of a
railway refreshment room, and standing drinks to each

228 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
other of beer and brandy, is not, somehow, in accordance
with Western ideas of official dignity. If occasion calls,
these peasant politicians can act the part of statesmen with
no lack of manner ; but when they are not so to speak on
duty, the old peasant nature comes at once to the surface.
It is the same to a great extent with the soldiers. A
stronger, sturdier body of men, privates as well as officers,
I have never seen ; but though they are not slovenly, one
cannot honestly say that they are smart. Their uniforms
fit badly, and are not worn easily, and in their gait they
slouch rather than march. One never can resist the
impression that they are men fresh from the plough and
unaccustomed to any other dress than the sheepskin coats
and woollen leggings of the Bulgarian peasant. There
can, however, be no doubt as to their fighting qualities,
still less as to their physical powers of endurance.
On the arrival of the royal party, accompanied by an
escort of some hundred cavalry of the corps dilite, they
were shown into a private waiting-room, in front of which
red carpets had been laid down, leading up to the Prince's
saloon carriage, which was to be fixed on to the Orient
express. The Ministers, Court officials, and the chief
residents were then summoned in turn to the waiting-
room to take leave of the Princess Clementine and the
Duchess of Parma. After a few minutes, Prince Ferdinand
and his father-in-law, both in full uniform as generals of
the Bulgarian army, came out on the platform and walked
up and down the line of troops drawn up opposite to the
train. Swords were drawn, colours lowered and salutes
exchanged, and the band struck up the Bulgarian National
Air, which, in common with all military music here, was
played with great vigour and precision, though, as far as I

XXII.] THE COURT. 229
could judge, without much musical sentiment. Then the
Prince led his mother up to the saloon carriage ; the Duke
and Duchess of Parma followed, and amidst the hoarse,
deep shouts — rather than cheers — of the soldiers, which
resembled guttural barks, the train slowly steamed out of
the station, and the function was at an end. In obedience
to their instructions, on this, as on every State occasion,
none of the diplomatic body were present, except our own
Minister, the representative of the Sultan, and the Greek
and Belgian Consuls-General.

230 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

CHAPTER XXIII.
SOFIOTE SOCIETY.
If such a thing as " society " exists anywhere in Bulgaria,
it is to be found in the Capital. Sofia is the centre not
only of the political but of the intellectual life of the
country. Yet even here society, as the word is used in
the West of Europe, is conspicuous by its absence. You
may have your doubts whether there is much high think
ing in Sofia, but there is no doubt whatever as to plain
living being the order of the day. The Sofiotes rise early ;
by seven a.m. the shops are open, they are mostly closed
for an hour or so at noon, and then remain open till eight
or nine. By ten, at any rate in winter time, the streets are
well-nigh deserted, and I should fancy the great majority
of the people are in bed. The chief meal of the day, alike
at the restaurants and private houses, takes place at one ;
the food is plentiful enough in quantity and not bad in
quality; the cuisine is a poor imitation of second-rate
Teutonic cookery. Beer and the thin wine of the country
are the only drinks you see at meals, and even of these
the consumption is very small. About seven there is a
supper, which is only a somewhat more meagre and less
ornate edition of the dinner. At the club the charge
for the midday dinner is four francs a head, including
wine ; for the evening supper or dejeuner, as it is quaintly

XXIII.] SOFIOTE SOCIETY. 23 1
called in the club bills, the charge is only three francs.
There is a deduction of about 25 per cent, on these charges
in the case of members who subscribe to the meals for
a month, and in this way the average scale of the club
charges is reduced to that w hich prevails in the best town
restaurants. At the hotels no meals are supplied as a rule.
There is only one good hotel in the whole town, the Grand
Hotel de Bulgarie ; all the others are dirty and uncom
fortable, and are below the level of second-class hotels in
any decent European town.
There are about half a dozen cafes in the town, which
are frequented by the quality of Sofia. Towards five
o'clock these cafes are at their fullest, and by seven they
are pretty well deserted. A lady is seldom seen in any
of them. If one appears there by chance, you may be
pretty sure she is a foreigner. The male customers drink
beer or mastic, a native beverage resembling in taste a
mixture of brandy and absinthe ; the spirit, however, is
unadulterated and is not, I should say, very potent. The
native beer is flat and sour, but the German beer, which
is called here prokesh, and which is manufactured in the
country by German brewers, is fairly good lager. The
habitue's of the cafes pass their time smoking, reading
papers, and playing cards ; but general conversation is
very rare. Indeed, a stranger in these cafes cannot avoid
being impressed by the extreme quiet and taciturnity of
the customers. There is no loud talking, no disputing,
no screaming at the top of the voice. Nobody seems much
to notice who comes in or who goes out. Everybody is
intent on his own occupation, whether it is reading,
smoking, or card-playing. In these respects the cafes of
Bulgaria and of the Levant are utterly unlike ; their only

232 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
point of resemblance is that they are both shabby, dirty,
and malodorous.
There is a good deal of card-playing at the cafes, and
I believe that during the Russian era high play used to go
on constantly in the chief hotels. But in as far as I could
observe, the stakes played for at the cafes in the present
day are not high ; and no great excitement is visible
amidst the card-players. The games most commonly
played are bresch, cayenne, misere, and others of the many
Continental variations of dummy whist. Billiards are played
here, as in France, by the cannon game ; but the element
of luck supplied by pockets is provided for by a number of
small ninepins being placed in the centre of the table. If,
in addition to making a cannon, you hit down one or more
of these ninepins, you score so many points in your
favour in proportion to the number of ninepins knocked
down. I am told that though the stakes played for may be
low, according to English ideas, they are not low in
comparison with the means of the players. While I was
staying at Sofia a great sensation was produced by the
suicide of an eminent medical man, who killed himself
one fine morning after having lost, on the evening before
not only all the money he possessed, but 40,000 francs
which he had no means of paying. The unfortunate
gambler had been a member of the Sofia club, and had in
former years been one of a clique of people who habitually
played there for high stakes. The play which led the
doctor to commit suicide did not take place in the club
house, but in a private dwelling. Yet, with their usual
disregard of fairness, the Opposition papers made a violent
attack, in connection with this lamentable event, upon

XXIII.] SOFIOTE SOCIETY. 233
some of the Ministers who were in the habit of coming
to the club and playing there till late at games in which
considerable sums were lost or won. A strong article
appeared in the Btdgarie, a paper published in French,
and supposed to be subsidized by the palace, denouncing
high play as an evil which ought to be suppressed ; and
certainly for some time after the appearance of this article
the play at the club was much less frequent and costly
than it had been previously to this sad occurrence. Still
my impression is that high play is confined to a very
small class. Under the new regime a certain small
number of Sofiotes have amassed fortunes which, though
not large according to our Western notions, are still large
according to a Bulgarian standard. The acquisition of
wealth has not led to any alteration in the mode of their
daily lives, and about the only way in which these nouveaux
riches of Bulgaria can employ their wealth is by playing
for higher stakes than they used to do in their earlier
days. Moreover, it is only fair to add that, with the
exception of card-playing, there is hardly any form of
social entertainment to be found in Sofia. The Court
and the members of the diplomatic body are the only
persons who ever entertain. I never heard, during the
whole time of my residence there, of a single dinner being
given by any native inhabitant of the town ; and I am
assured by people who have resided here for years, and
who would be amongst the first people to be invited to
any social gathering, that this year is no exception in the
above respect. The fact that evening parties are an
unknown thing in Sofia is proved by the circumstance
that, though there are plenty of open cabs, there are
only two closed carriages in the whole of Sofia ; and yet

234 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
during the season, if it can so be called, of Sofia, the
nights are so cold that it would be impossible for ladies
in evening-dress to go out in an open carriage. I pre
sume that there must be such things as family gatherings
in Bulgaria as in other countries ; but I am informed that
even these sort of entertainments are extremely rare,
and are absolutely confined to very near relations. This
year a contract was signed for the construction of a new
Home Office at Sofia, and M. Stambouloff made it a con
dition of the contract that the building should contain
handsome reception-rooms. The architect informed me
that he understood it was the Premier's intention to try
and stimulate social life in Sofia by giving a series of
Ministerial receptions during the season. If so, a com
plete innovation will be introduced into the social life of
the capital. I should doubt, however, the example thus
set officially being much followed in private life. The
very few Bulgarian ladies who visit at foreign houses
state openly that, even if their husbands wished it, the
condition of their houses, and still more of their servants,
would render it absolutely impossible for them to receive
their friends at home or give any kind of party.
The great difficulty of social life in Sofia is, though in
a more aggravated form than elsewhere, the everlasting
servants' question. In the old days a Bulgarian household
had no domestic servants except the men and women who
were employed on the farm ; and there is no class, as yet,
which has learned to look on domestic service as a regular
occupation. The few native servants to be found in Sofia
are utterly unused to the duties required of them in more
civilized countries. Men servants are almost unknown,
and even in well-to-do houses the wife and daughters have

XXIII.] SOFIOTE SOCIETY. 235
to do most of the house-work. Such native women
servants as there are sleep on mattresses on the kitchen
floor, and are mere maids-of-all-work. The modes of
home life are very primitive, and it is said — with what
truth I know not — that corporal punishment is still the
custom if a servant incurs her mistress's displeasure. The
better class of peasants do not like their children to go
into service, and the result is that the Bulgarian servants,
with rare exceptions, are said to be of a very low class,
and unsatisfactory in all respects.
There are only, as far as I could gather, some dozen
or so of native Sofiote ladies who ever visit at the houses
of the Corps Diplomatique, and almost all these are the
wives of Ministers or ex-Ministers. I presume that in
Bulgaria, as elsewhere, women exercise a powerful
influence in social life ; but the influence, supposing it
to exist, is almost occult. According to Bulgarian con
ception, a woman's mission is to stay at home, to keep
the house, to bring up the children, and attend to the
cooking. Of course, all this will alter to some extent as
education, wealth, and progress make their way ; but it
will, I think, be a long time before Mahommedan ideas
with respect to the female sex cease to exercise a para
mount influence amidst a race so conservative in its
instincts as the people of Bulgaria.
Practically, the only society in Sofia consists of the
diplomatic body. But diplomatic society is very much
the same all the world over, from Paris to Pekin. The
other day diplomats were not unhappily described in a
French paper as les nomades de la haute. Wherever they
go they live amongst themselves ; they are here to-day
and gone to-morrow ; and, like the gipsies, they have no

236 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
permanent status in the social life of the place where, for
the moment, their tents are pitched. During the winter
some two or three charity balls are given in aid of the
various societies established for the relief of poor foreigners
in Sofia. These balls are given under the direct patronage
of the Minister of the country to whom the foreigners in
question may happen to belong. Neither the Prince nor
the members of his Court can attend these balls when
they are given under the patronage of any foreign Minister
who does not go to Court. On the other hand, if the
ball is held under the patronage of the representative of
some one of the friendly Powers, such as Austria, the
Prince always signifies his intention of being present ; but
whenever he does so the representatives of the unfriendly
Powers invariably absent themselves. Under this state
of things the diplomatic body at Sofia find social
relations a matter of difficulty, and I think they are glad
of an excuse for not spending more money upon enter
taining than they can help. Still, as I have said, there
are a certain number of parties given every year at the
different legations. At these parties the Ministers and
the leading public men of Sofia put in an appearance ;
but, as a rule, they are not accompanied by their wives,
and I believe that, with the exception of some few of
these ladies who have been educated abroad, no great
desire is manifested by the Sofiote to establish any personal
intimacy between themselves and the foreign residents.
Even if such a desire is entertained by the ladies of Sofia,
it is certainly not encouraged by their husbands. One
may fairly say, therefore, that what the Germans call
Damen Gesellchaft is an unknown thing in Sofia, and, this
being so, the men can hardly be blamed if they seek such

XXIII.] SOFIOTE SOCIETY. 237
entertainment as they can find at the clubs or restaurants.
Under any circumstances Sofia would be an ungrateful
soil in which to cultivate social relations, to start a salon,
or to try and set a fashion. The genius loci is eminently
unfavourable. Apart from the cafes, the only place where
Sofiote society congregates is at the Union Club, the one
club of the city. It is a pleasant, cheery resort, established
by the efforts of our popular British representative, Mr.
Dering, and, as foreign clubs go, is by no means a bad
imitation of its British original. It contains a reading-
room, where there is a very fair supply of German, French,
and English papers, but, in as far as I could perceive,
no Russian publications ; a billiard-room, which is very
little frequented ; and a dining-room, where breakfast
and dinner are provided daily for all members who like
to subscribe for their repasts, and which is almost exclu
sively frequented by the younger members of the Consular
body who, not being married, have no homes of their
own. Neither the news-room, nor the library, nor the
•dining-saloon are much resorted to by the native members.
If you want to find them you must look for them in
the card-room, which forms the real raison d'etre of the
club. Every afternoon this room is filled with the leading
political and social notabilities of the capital. Baccarat
and bezique are the games most in favour, and I have
at times seen a good deal of money change .hands. The
play goes on till about half-past eight, when, as a rule, the
party breaks up. But about once or, at most, twice a
week, there are late nights. The players on these occa
sions have some sort of supper served up for their own
party at nine, and play begins again at ten, and goes on
sometimes till the small hours of the morning. To our

238 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Western ideas it seems strange to see a whole Cabinet
of Ministers seated round a baccarat-table, laughing,
smoking, drinking, whistling, and sometimes singing, while
the Premier or the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
holds the bank. Every country, however, has its own
usages, and I think it would be unjust to attribute the
frequent presence of the leading politicians of Bulgaria
in the card-rooms of the Union Club to any special love
of gambling. What their presence does show is the total
absence of general society in the place. If any Sofiote
wishes for relaxation after his day's work — and most of
the leading men here work very hard and very long —
the club is the one place he can go to for entertainment.
There is but little general conversation in the club, and
the only entertainment to be found there is in card-playing.
I have thought it worth while to dwell somewhat on this
feature of social life in Sofia, mainly in order to show how
very meagre and jejune that life still is.
There is a handsome theatre where performances are
given occasionally in Bulgarian, but it is very little
frequented. There are also one or two cafe's cliantants,
chiefly resorted to by the German commercial travellers,
waiters, and shopmen of Sofia. At these places a few
elderly, painted, wrinkled waifs and strays from the music
halls of the Fatherland sing songs with cracked voices to
the accompaniment of a piano out of tune. After each song
the singer comes round with a plate and solicits contri
butions from the customers. The average contribution
is a penny, and these pennies, together with the com
mission paid upon the liquors which they induce the
customers to order, constitute the only remuneration given
to the performers. These wretched places of amusement,

XXIII.] SOFIOTE SOCIETY. 239
so called on the lucus a non lucendo principle, are very
little visited by the natives, though I am told that
occasionally, on the nights of the great popular holidays,
the townspeople come there, and that even Ministers have
been seen amongst the audience. Indeed, the utter absence
of ladies' society in Vienna is about the only reason why
I can imagine the wildest and youngest of Sofiote
gallants ever frequenting these resorts.
On fine afternoons — and most afternoons are fine in
the clear, bright air of this elevated plateau — the beau
monde of Sofia takes its pleasure soberly on the one
promenade of the capital, the Constantinople Road. Just
at the entrance of the town there is a public garden called
the Pepinerie, with an artificial lake, on which there is
skating during the winter, while in summer a band plays
in the grounds, and any amount of beer is drunk at the
kiosks. Beyond this garden there stretches the long,
broad, bare, straight highway, leading southwards, which
skirts the foot of the mountains. The view of the hills
on both sides is very beautiful, but the road itself is
dull and dusty. On gala days there are a score or so of
hack-carriages in this Rotten Row of Sofia ; but the bulk
of the public go on foot, walking stolidly to the stone
which marks the second kilometre on the highway, and
then walking back again. The Prince may frequently be
met walking here himself. A few of the officers of the
garrison may also be seen riding ; but, though they are well
mounted, they have, as a rule, bad seats, and in their dull
grey uniforms they detract but little from the monotony of
the scene. There is another public garden in the Alexander
Square, where a military band plays every summer after
noon, and where there is an open-air cafe. There is also

240 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
a wooden booth in the suburbs, where German plays are
occasionally performed in the summer by travelling com
panies. These are all the regular entertainments of the
Capital. Somehow, the Bulgarians seem to me to take
their pleasure, as Froissart said of the English, moult
tristement. There are undoubtedly a good number of educated
people in Sofia, but an educated class with literary
tastes can hardly yet be said to exist in the capital, and
still less in the provincial towns. There are only two
or three book-shops in the whole of Sofia, and even
these seem to me to lay themselves out mainly for the
custom of foreign residents. The few books published in
Bulgarian are almost entirely school manuals or text
books. The only native literature of any importance
consists of newspapers. There is, as I have said, absolute
liberty of the Press in theory ; in practice this liberty is
controlled by the high-handed action of the Government,
which, with or without cause, exercises the right of send
ing the editor to prison for seditious or libellous language.
Ultimately, of course, the editors are placed upon their
trial, but under the usages of the country the Government
possesses the power of postponing the trial of a prisoner
for a considerable period. The remedy provided in this
indirect fashion against Press abuses is not, however, as
efficacious as might be imagined, as in order to evade the
danger of summary arrest the responsible editor is seldom
the real editor, but is some man who has nothing to do
with the paper, and who is simply hired for the purpose' of
being sent to prison, if necessary, in the place of his
principal. Recently, at Philippopolis, there were four
responsible editors of an opposition paper there, in prison

XXIII.] SOFIOTE SOCIETY. 24 1
at one and the same time for the publication of articles
which probably they had never seen and could not have
read if they had seen them. At the same time, no reader
of the Bulgarian Press can doubt the necessity for some
form of censorship. Their columns are filled with the
most violent and rancorous abuse of their political
opponents. The terms in which the editors of the rival
papers abuse each other are such as could not be
mentioned in respectable society, and the general cha
racter of the articles is of the coarsest and crudest kind.
In as far as I can learn, the circulation of almost all the
Bulgarian papers is extremely limited, and extends very
little beyond the towns in which they are published. In
the country districts newspapers are hardly to be found
at all. This state of things will no doubt right itself in
time, but for the moment the native Press enjoys an
amount of license far in excess of that warranted by the
general culture of native newspaper readers.
I have no doubt that in Sofia, as in every other town,
there is a certain amount of local scandal. Human nature
is the same everywhere, and I have no reason to suppose
that the domestic morality of Bulgaria is exceptionally
high. Still a stranger cannot help being struck with how
little you hear in the clubs or elsewhere of domestic gossip,
and still less of scandal. The explanation of this I take
to be that, owing to the absence of general" society and
a sort of semi-Oriental sentiment with regard to the privacy
of the home, the public knows comparatively little of what
goes on inside their neighbours' houses. I witnessed one
incident which seemed to me to throw considerable light
on the relations of married life amidst the peasant class.
One day, when I was passing Zaribrod, the station on
R

242 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
the Servian frontier, I noticed a crowd collected on the
platform, listening to a man gesticulating and shouting
with extreme violence, a thing which you rarely witness
in Bulgaria. On inquiry I found that the man was a Bul
garian peasant, who had carried on a small retail business
in Sofia. He was leaving the country with his family
because he found that an intrigue existed between his wife
and a young man in the town, and this intrigue, as he
declared, hindered his wife from attending to her home
duties and caused her to neglect the business. At the
frontier station he had discovered the lover hidden in a
third-class compartment, while he and his family were
travelling second-class. Thereupon, the husband stormed
up and down the platform, appealed to the stationmaster,
the commissary of police, and the bystanders, calling upon
them to arrest the further progress of the gay Lothario,
whose attentions to his wife had broken up his home and
were driving his family into exile. The wife was a middle-
aged, dowdy, slovenly woman — a Hungarian, as I was
informed, by birth. She was surrounded by a number of
dirty children running all about the platform. The woman
giggled and cried by turns ; the lover looked sheepish,
kissed his hand to his inamorata, and strolled up and down,
half proud and half ashamed, while the husband shrieked
and yelled and bawled. But of violence, or of any threat
to use violence, I could not discover the slightest trace on
the part of either the husband or the lover. Sentiment is
not the fault of the Bulgarian peasantry, and the whole
character of the wrangle was much more like that of two
peasants disputing about the ownership of a pig than that of
a husband quarrelling with his wife's lover about which of
them should accompany the lady. If Menelaus, Paris,

XXIII.] SOFIOTE SOCIETY. 243
and Helen had been Bulgarians, there would, I am con
vinced, never have been a siege of Troy. Public opinion
on the platform was obviously unfavourable to the lover,
on the ground that he had no right to pursue the wife if
the husband objected to his doing so. Finally, he con
sented to remain behind, and the last I saw of him, as the
train moved off, was that he was blowing kisses to the
lady, who was leaning out of the carriage window with
her husband by her side.
Curiously enough, the downfall of the Stambouloff
Ministry, which had held office for a period of unwonted
duration, and which was regarded as overwhelmingly
powerful, was due in part to the one social scandal which
enlivened my residence at Sofia. The whole story illus
trates another phase of Sofiote social life, and therefore
what little there is to say of it may as well be recorded
here. During the Prince's absence in Austria, owing to
his wife's illness, M. Savoff, the Minister of War, suddenly
wrote to the Prime Minister, stating that he could not
consent to sit any longer in the same Cabinet with M.
Slavkoff, the Minister of Justice, whom he accused of being
his wife's lover, and declaring that either he or M. Slavkoff
must quit the Ministry. The Premier demurred to this on
the ground that he was anxious to retain the services of
both Ministers, and that he failed to see that M. Savoff had
any evidence as to the justice of his accusation. There
upon, M. Savoff retorted by declaring that most of his
colleagues, and M. Stambouloff especially, had also had
intrigues with his wife. On the Premier's request, M. Savoff
consented to suspend his resignation, pending the Prince's
return to Sofia. The common report at the time was, that
M. StamboulofFs political opponents took advantage of this

244 SOCIAL LIFE OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
incident in order to weaken his position at Court. Whatever
the cause may be, M. Savoff was induced to drop the charge
against M. Slavkoff, and to transfer it to M. Stambouloff.
M. StamboulofFs friends and partisans declared that M.
Savoff was completely off his head on the subject of his
wife's alleged infidelities. On any hypothesis his conduct
is almost unaccountable. He first took advice as to the
possibility of divorcing his wife, and was informed that
he had no evidence on which a divorce could be granted.
He then challenged M. Stambouloff to fight a duel. The
Premier, whose personal courage is beyond a doubt,
referred the matter to two eminent military men, who,
after examining the case, declared that M. Savoff could show
no reasonable ground for demanding a duel, as he had
absolutely no proof of the charge which he had brought
against the Premier. M. Stambouloff himself spoke with
the utmost frankness on the subject. He told anybody
that, to the best of his belief, he had never seen Madame
Savoff but twice in his life ; that he had never spoken
more than half a dozen words with her ; and, what was
more, that even if he had been disposed to carry on a
clandestine intrigue with any married woman, he was
absolutely debarred from anything of the kind by the fact
that, since the assassination of M. Beltcheff, he never left
the house or went anywhere without an armed escort.
This statement is undoubtedly true, for when he goes
shooting, as he is extremely fond of doing, he is always
followed, even while tramping through marshes on the look
out for snipe, by the soldiers in attendance.
On the Prince's return M. Savoff laid the case before
his Highness. Amongst other statements he specified
the dates of two particular nights which he declared M.

XXIII.] SOFIOTE SOCIETY. 245
Stambouloff had spent in Sofia in his wife's company. On
being shown this statement, M. Stambouloff showed by
his diary that on one of the dates specified he had been
staying with the Prince at his seaside residence near Varna,
and that on the other he had been addressing a public
meeting a hundred miles away from the capital. The
Prince, while admitting the force of the evidence, showed
a certain amount of reluctance to dismissing M. Savoff, on
the plea that he was very popular with the army, and that
his enforced resignation might give offence in military
circles. Thereupon M. Stambouloff handed in his written
resignation to the Prince, and requested him to act upon it
if he thought proper. The Prince, on discovering that M.
Stambouloff, on his part, refused, after what had happened,
to retain M. Savoff as a colleague, consented not only
to the acceptance of the Minister of War's resignation, but
to his immediate dismissal from the ranks of the army.
Thereupon M. Savoff left Sofia for Philippopolis, accom
panied by his wife, with whom he was reported to be still on
the best of terms. There, for the time, the matter ended ;
but the dispute between the Prince and M. Stambouloff on
the subject of the Sofia scandal, which a local paper
described at the time as far exceeding in enormity the
Dilke scandal in London, contributed to the causes which
have led the Prince to dispense, for the time being at any
rate, with the services of his great Minister.

POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE.
CHAPTER XXIV.
NATIONAL POLICY.
It is very difficult to understand the national policy of
any country except your own. Nor is it always easy to
understand that. It is, therefore, with some hesitation
I venture to explain what, in my view, is the national
policy of Bulgaria, in as far as she has at present any
definite policy, other than that of waiting the course of
events. Putting together the many different opinions I
have heard from natives and foreign residents in the
country, and after making due allowance for the bias of
my informants, I have arrived at one or two conclusions
which, if not quite the truth, are, I fancy, very near the
truth. I am convinced that for the time being the
national ambition of the country is confined within very
reasonable limits. There may be Bulgarian enthusiasts
who, inspired by the traditions of the doubtful glories of
a somewhat hypothetical past, look forward to the day
when a Bulgarian empire might be re-established with
Constantinople as its capital. But I do not believe that
any such aspirations are entertained by the great mass
of the people. Amongst the Bulgarians there is no domi
nant sentiment analogous to the grande idee of the Greeks.

Chap. XXIV.] NATIONAL POLICY. 247
Every Bulgarian entertains the belief that within the life
time of the generation now growing into manhood the
Ottoman Empire in Europe will have become a thing of
the past. There is a very general desire that the ultimate
solution of the Eastern Question should prove such as to
secure the independence of Bulgaria, but there is no desire
that Bulgaria should succeed to the inheritance of the
Ottoman Empire. I quite admit that such an aspiration
would be even more unreasonable in the case of the
Bulgarians than it is in that of the Greeks. The Hellenic
nation has a great past, a grand literature, and has also
large colonies of fellow-Greeks settled over the whole face
of the Levant. Bulgaria can put forward no pretensions
of any equal value. Her people have not — and, I think
know that they have not — the qualities of a ruling race.
No more for that matter have the Greeks, but they fancy
that they have, which makes all the difference. The
Bulgars are brave soldiers, but they are not — which is
by no means the same thing — a military nation. A
peasant State of small proprietors can never, as a com
munity, be actuated by a blind desire of conquest. By
character, by custom, and by tradition, the interests of
Bulgaria are confined pretty well within her own borders ;
and the prospect of ruling over foreign countries and alien
races, even if such a prospect were realizable, would have
little attraction for the sober, matter-of-fact Bulgarian
character. Thus it is a mistake to imagine that the Bulgarians,
as a nation, have any particular desire to bring about the
fall of the Ottoman Empire. In common with all the
Rayah races, which have been subject to Turkish domina
tion, they have an hereditary antipathy, partly racial,

248 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
partly theological, to the rule of Islam. Whenever the
Cross replaces the Crescent over the mosque of St. Sophia,
the sympathies of the Bulgars will be with the victors, not
with the vanquished. But, as I have already remarked,
fanaticism of creed is far less marked amidst the Bulgarians
than amidst other Sclavonic races. They are in no
particular hurry to see their own faith rendered triumphant
by the fall of Islam, and they are perfectly content that
the Turks should remain at Constantinople so long as
their presence there affords any protection to Bulgaria
against Russian aggression. Whatever may be the real
truth about the Bulgarian atrocities, it is obvious that they
have left behind no such bitter resentment in the minds of
a people, slow to forgive or forget injuries, as to render
the idea of co-operation with Turkey distasteful to the
national sentiment.
In my opinion the aspirations of Bulgarian statesman
ship look rather towards the ^Egean than towards the
Bosphorus, that is, towards the formation of a Sclav State,
composed of Servia, Montenegro, Macedonia, and Bulgaria,
rather than towards any reconstitution of the Byzantine
Empire. But even this aspiration is not, I gather, very
widely or very seriously entertained. No doubt, the
Bulgarians, if they had to merge their individual existence
in any larger community, would prefer incorporation with
a great Sclav State to any other modification of their
existing status. Pan-Sclavism, however, never made much
progress south of the Balkans, and the influence of the
Pan-Sclav agitation has declined in a very marked way since
the emancipation of Bulgaria from Turkish rule. What
the Bulgarians most desire at heart is to preserve their
independence, and to be governed by their own people,

XXIV.] NATIONAL POLICY. 249
according to their own ideas, customs, and sentiments.
Education and material progress may possibly enlarge
their aspirations, but for the present an autonomous
peasant community, comprising the whole Bulgar-speaking
race within its bounds, forms the ideal of the Bulgarian
people. It is because this ideal is consistent with the
maintenance of Turkey in Europe, and inconsistent with
the establishment of Russia upon the Bosphorus, that
the settled policy of the Bulgarian Government is to
uphold the status quo in Eastern Europe. It is for this
reason that the policy of the Government, though modified
by hereditary dislike of Islam, commends itself on the
whole to popular opinion in the Principality.
I do not believe, therefore, that an attempt to effect
the general emancipation of the Rayah races under
Turkish rule would meet with any enthusiastic support
in Bulgaria, except under one particular contingency to
which I shall refer presently. A crusade, for instance,
for the emancipation of Armenia from Turkish rule
would not in any case be actively encouraged by the
Bulgarians ; and if this crusade was conducted — as in all
likelihood it would be — under the lead, and in the interest
of Russia, it would probably be confronted by the active
opposition of Bulgaria. For the time being Russia con
stitutes the chief danger to the independence of Bulgaria ;
and the Bulgarians, to speak the plain truth, care much
more about the preservation of their own independence,
than they do about the immediate emancipation of their
co-religionists under the rule of the Crescent, so long as
these co-religionists are not men of their own race. It
may be said that this is not a very magnanimous or elevated
policy. My answer would be that I am discussing, not

250 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
what the policy of Bulgaria ought to be upon abstract
principles, but what it is as a matter of fact. I may add
further, that no other policy could reasonably be expected
from her. A community of small landed proprietors is the
last one in the world in which altruistic sentiments are
ever likely to obtain a footing. The French proverb kthat
the shirt is nearer than the coat expresses tersely the view
taken by a peasant community in all public as well as
private affairs. In the present instance the shirt is inde
pendence ; the coat is the substitution, elsewhere than in
Bulgaria itself, of the rule of the Cross for that of the
Crescent. In this respect the policy of Bulgaria is almost identical
with that of Roumania. Both States are much more
concerned about protecting their own independence, which
would be imperilled by the advance of Russia, than they
are about promoting the emancipation of their fellow-
Christians under Turkish domination, who, though they
may belong to the same creed as themselves, are yet of
different race, language, and nationality. This coincidence
of interests has brought about very close and cordial
relations between the two States of Bulgaria and Roumania.
Though there is no truth in the report of an offensive
and defensive alliance having been formed between them,
it is probable that, in the event of any fresh attempt on the
part of Russia to seize upon Constantinople, her advance
along the route followed in 1878 would now be resisted by
the united force of the Roumanian and Bulgarian armies.
Under these altered conditions Bulgaria has become
a source of strength to Turkey as against Russia, in lieu
of a source of weakness. It would be the interest of
Bulgaria to assist Turkey in repelling any Russian attack ;

XXIV.] NATIONAL POLICY. 25 1
and from her geographical position, the character of her
people, and the strength of her army, this assistance is not
a thing to be despised. It might, therefore, have been
expected that Turkey on her side would make it her policy
to conciliate in every way the good will of a Principality
which, though absolutely independent in fact, still recognizes
her nominal suzerainty. This policy is, I believe, the one
which commends itself in the main to Turkish statesman
ship. The steady prosecution, however, of any policy
of this kind is liable to constant interruption owing to a
variety of hostile influences. In the first place, continuity
of policy, in this as in all other matters, is of very rare
occurrence with the Porte, in consequence of the personal
and capricious interference of the Sultan in the smallest
details of the administration. Secondly, there is a natural
disinclination on the part of Turkey to treat as equals a
people who, till the other day, had been ruled by her for
centuries as a subject and inferior race. And, what is more
than all, the influence of Russia at Constantinople is con
stantly exerted to induce the Porte to run counter to the
interests of Bulgaria, even in matters with which Russia has
apparently no personal concern. It is not necessary to
point out the various ways, direct and still more indirect,
by which Russia can bring pressure to bear upon the Sultan
and upon his Ministers. To my mind the wonder is, not
that the Porte has so often given umbrage to Bulgaria, but
that it has hitherto contrived to avoid any open rupture.
That no such rupture has ever taken place is due in no
small degree to the persistency with which the expediency
of keeping on good terms with Bulgaria was impressed upon
the Porte by the late Sir William White, whose death was,
and still is, regarded in Bulgaria as a national calamity.

252 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
The relations between the Christian and Mahommedan
citizens of Bulgaria afford frequent occasions of friction.
The Tomaks object to being compelled to serve in the
ranks of the Bulgarian army. Yet, by the Constitution,
universal military service is compulsory throughout the
Principality. This cause of quarrel has been to a consider
able extent removed b)' the action of M. Stambouloff, who
consented to grant exemption from military service to
every Mahommedan conscript in Bulgaria on the payment
of a fine of £20. A more serious difficulty, however, has
arisen in connection with this question, for which Turkey
is indirectly, if not directly, responsible. In virtue of
one of the laxities of administration which practically
mitigated the abuses of Ottoman rule, Turkish subjects
have always been permitted to obtain naturalization from
foreign Powers, without any great objection being raised
by their own Government. In the old days a large
number of Bulgarian citizens got themselves naturalized
as the subjects of some foreign Power in order to evade
the necessity of serving in the Turkish armies. The Power
which granted letters of naturalization most readily and
most cheaply was Persia, whose authorities were and
are willing to confer the right of Persian nationality
upon anybody who chooses to pay a fee of a very few
pounds. The conditions of Bulgaria have completely
altered since the days when her people were anxious to
enrol themselves as naturalized citizens of a foreign State,
in order to obtain exemption from military service in the
Turkish army. The practice, however, of claiming Persian
nationality as a means of escaping the conscription is still
much in favour, not only with the Tomaks, but with the
Greek Bulgarians. The Government are willing to admit

XXIV.] NATIONAL POLICY. 253
this plea in the case of Bulgarians who became natu
ralized Persians in the old Turkish days. But they object
most reasonably to the continuance of a system under
which any Bulgarian can escape his obligations as
the citizen of a free State, by purchasing for a trifle
the right to call himself a Persian. The Government
of Teheran has little more to do directly with Bul
garia than the Government of Bolivia, and has about as
much influence within the Principality. Persian protec
tion, therefore, would be of little value if it had to be
exercised by Persia. Owing, however, to an ill-advised
arrangement, concluded some little time ago by the
Shah with our Foreign Office, the British Government has
undertaken the protection of all Persian subjects in
countries where the Shah has no representatives of his
own. This is the case in Bulgaria ; and, in consequence,
all Bulgarians who claim to be naturalized Persians can
command the good offices of our representatives through
out the Principality. The discharge of functions, which
Russia, France, and Germany had previously undertaken
in turn, and had each subsequently relinquished as being
too burdensome, not only imposes a vast amount of
uncalled-for and gratuitous trouble upon our Minister and
Consuls, but also brings them into constant disputes with
the national authorities. It is obviously the duty of Bul
garian Ministers to resist all attempts on the part of
Bulgarian citizens to evade their national obligations on the
pretence of being Persian subjects. It is equally the duty
of our representatives to see that, however unreasonable
his contention, a Bulgarian subject, who can show a
valid title of Persian nationality, is not deprived of his
legal privileges. The Bulgarian authorities realize that,

254 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
however vexatious the action of our representatives may
appear to be, they are not to blame for its occurrence, and
that the difficulty under consideration arises out of the un
satisfactory relations between Bulgaria and the Suzerain
Power. The difficulty in question could not have arisen
if Bulgaria occupied the same position, in name as well
as in fact, as that of Servia or Roumania. So long as
Turkey continues to recognize, as Persians, subjects of
her own who have acquired by purchase the right of Persian
nationality, Bulgaria, as being nominally a Turkish pro
vince, cannot dispute the validity of these recognitions.
If the Porte were well advised, the trouble might be
removed at once by a refusal on the part of the Porte to
recognize, as Persians, Ottoman subjects who have never
been in Persia, who were born and bred on Turkish soil,
who have no intention of quitting their homes, and whose
sole claim to Persian nationality lies in their having made
a small money payment to the Persian authorities. Un
fortunately, in this as in other matters which concern
Bulgaria, the Porte is not and never has been well
advised. While making every allowance for the extreme
difficulties under which Turkey is placed, I cannot but
acknowledge that the patience of Bulgaria has repeatedly
been tried almost beyond endurance by the vacillating
policy of the Porte. The persistent refusal of the Suzerain
Power to recognize Prince Ferdinand as sovereign of
Bulgaria, dejure as well as de facto, is a sentimenal rather
than a practical grievance ; still, if the Sultan could once
make up his mind to formally acknowledge Prince
Ferdinand as the legitimate successor of Prince Alexander,
all European Powers, who have no special interest in

XXIV.] NATIONAL POLICY. 255
studying the susceptibilities of Russia, would at once
follow suit. Bulgaria would thus forthwith acquire the
material as well as titular advantages of European
recognition, advantages which she would have enjoyed
long ago but for the insuperable reluctance of the Porte
to come to a decision which might give umbrage at St.
Petersburg. In the same way the assassination of the Bul
garian Envoy, M. Bulkovitch, at Constantinople, and, even
more than the assassination, the way in which Russian
influence was allowed to facilitate the flight and escape of
the assassin, constituted offences for which no adequate
reparation has ever been given or even tendered. Still in
these matters, the Bulgarians have had the good sense to
recognize that Turkey is not the principal offender, and
even if an accomplice after the act, was an unwilling
accomplice acting under compulsion.
A similar excuse cannot be made for more recent
offences of which Bulgaria has had to complain at the
hands of Turkey. I alluded in the commencement of
this chapter to one particular contingency, under which
Bulgaria might be sorely tempted to depart from her
settled policy of not only acquiescing in, but actively
supporting, the status quo of Turkey in Europe. That
contingency consists in the event of any oppression being
perpetrated by the Porte on Bulgarians who are still directly
subject to Turkish rule. The Turkish administration of
Macedonia is the only point concerning which there is any
immediate possibility of a serious conflict arising between
Turkey and Bulgaria. It was in connection with Macedonia
that Turkey contrived the other day to get herself involved
in what might easily have proved a very grave difficulty
with the Principality. There is, and always has been, a

256 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
large Bulgarian population in this Turkish province, whose
inhabitants are pretty equally divided in number between
Mahommedans, Greeks, and Bulgarians. At Sofia you
are confidently assured that the Macedonian Bulgarians
largely outnumber the Greek, and that by position, history,
nationality, and sentiment Macedonia belongs of right
to Bulgaria. At Athens you are told with equal con
fidence that, in virtue of similar claims, Macedonia is a
State which, in the fitness of things, ought to form an
integral portion of the Greek kingdom. I have not the
knowledge to say which pretension is most or least sup
ported by evidence. All I am concerned with is the fact
that, rightly or wrongly, the Bulgarians are convinced that
Macedonia, or, at any rate, the very large portion of the
province occupied by their fellow-countrymen, is their
rightful inheritance. For reasons I have already dwelt
upon, they have no wish to enforce their claims prema
turely, and are quite content to wait till such time as
the decease of " the Sick Man of Europe " is brought about
by natural causes. They resent, however, most bitterly
any action which could possibly impair their ultimate
title to the reversion of Macedonia. There is undoubtedly
an active agitation in Macedonia in favour of annexation
to Bulgaria; and equally undoubtedly this agitation has
the sympathy, if not the support, of the Bulgarian people.
In Macedonia, as elsewhere in Eastern Europe, questions
of race and creed are indissolubly connected with each
other ; and every national movement is associated with
religious sympathies and religious prejudices. From the
date when Bulgaria practically recovered her independence,
the Macedonian Bulgarians have been endeavouring to
stimulate national sentiment by the aid of the Bulgarian

XXIV.] NATIONAL POLICY. 257
schools, which are under the control of the native
clergy. This attempt, if I may use the word, to Bulgarize
Macedonia had created very great irritation amidst the
Greeks, and their influence at Constantinople has of
late been hostile to any aggrandizement of Bulgaria.
Greek influence, I may add, is very powerful with the
Sultan and the Porte, partly on account of their personal
relations with the Phanar, and still more from the fact that
Russia has always taken the side of the Greeks. At the
instance of the Greeks, the Sultan was induced to issue
a decree declaring that henceforth all Bulgarian schools
in Macedonia must be registered in the name of some
specified individual, directly responsible to the Ottoman
Government, and could no longer be allowed to be the
property of the communes, which in respect of all
theological and educational matters are entirely under
the control of the clergy. By this decree, too, the schools
were placed under the direct supervision of the local
Turkish authorities, who, in Macedonia, so long as
Russian influence is predominant at Constantinople, are
certain to act as partisans of Greece. It is not easy for
an outsider to fully understand the merits or demerits
of the decree in question. What is certain is, that it was
regarded, both in Macedonia and Bulgaria, as a deliberate
attempt to deprive the Bulgarian clergy in Macedonia of
their rightful authority as the champions of Bulgarian
nationality. This belief was strengthened by the fact
that the Greek schools in the province were not included
in the operation of the decree.
The issue of this firman excited intense popular indig
nation throughout Bulgaria. Deputations were sent to
the Ministry, calling upon them to take decisive action
S

258 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
in order to protect the Bulgarians in Macedonia from
Turkish oppression. Public opinion does not manifest
itself very loudly or very rapidly in a sparsely populated
country, where there are few large towns, and where the
villages are far apart from each other. Still persons, who
from their position were well qualified to form a judgment,
were confident, at the period of which I speak, that in the
event, which was then deemed probable, of any anti-
Turkish rising in Macedonia, the Government of Sofia
would be compelled by popular sentiment to come to the
aid of their compatriots. The popular belief was that if
the Bulgarian army were to march into Macedonia, as
they could easily do, and proclaim the annexation of the
province, Turkey would acquiesce in an accomplished
fact, as . she had done already in the case of Eastern
Roumelia. I do not think that this belief was shared
by the statesmen of Sofia. At all events, they were
keenly alive to the fact that any Bulgarian invasion of
Macedonia, even if temporarily successful, would probably
furnish Russia with a plea for intervention. In conse
quence, though sympathizing fully with popular sentiment
on this subject, they exerted all their authority to hinder
this sentiment from taking the form of overt action. For
a time it seemed doubtful whether they could carry out
their policy. In the large towns frequent and numerous
meetings were held to protest against the maltreatment
of the Macedonian Bulgarians, and resolutions were
passed, calling on the Government to insist upon the
immediate revocation of the obnoxious decree, even at
the risk of war. 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.

XXIV] NATIONAL POLICY. 259
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 indica
tion 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
Pepiniere 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 fites had of late been scanty. There
upon 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 / ~ite
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 ambassa
dor's palace, an incident to which I have alluded elsewhere.
The result of this announcement was that the fete was
crowded by the townsfolk of Sofia, though the night was
a most unfavourable one for an open-air entertainment.
It is certain that the anti-Turkish agitation fn 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

260 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
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. The charge was made use of with extreme
violence by the Opposition Press, especially in Philippopolis,
and the common expectation was that the agitation against
Turkey would soon be converted into a popular outcry for
the dismissal of the Ministry. Happily, the Turkish
Government became alive to the danger of the situation.
The Sultan gave way and revoked the decree in a very
frank and prompt manner. He not only yielded on the
school question, but he consented to the appointment of
Bulgarian bishops in Macedonia, a favour which he had
hitherto persistently refused. He also granted a site for
the erection of a Bulgarian school at Constantinople, and
gave the Exarch permission to build a new official resi
dence at Pera. He further promised that in future the
ownership of the Bulgarian schools in Macedonia should
be vested in the hands of the Bulgarian bishops or of their
nominees. The conclusion of this settlement was extremely
gratifying to national feeling in Bulgaria, and was popularly
attributed to the great skill with which M. Stambouloff
had worked on the apprehensions of the Porte and had
carried his point without resorting to any military demon
stration. The Premier himself attributed a great part of
his success to the active support he had received from
Sir Philip Currie, who had only recently taken up his
position as British Ambassador at Constantinople. In
common opinion, however, throughout Bulgaria, the whole
thing was StamboulofFs doing. As soon as the news
of the settlement became known in Sofia, a large crowd

XXIV.] NATIONAL POLICY. 26 1
proceeded with torchlights to M. StamboulofFs abode at
Sofia. In reply to the cheers with which he was greeted,
he came out on the balcony and made a speech appealing
to the Bulgarians to display their special gratitude for the
gracious concessions made by the Suzerain, and urging
upon them the paramount necessity of keeping on good
terms with Turkey as Bulgaria's best friend and ally.
How far this wise advice will be acted upon remains
to be seen. But of this I am confident, that if ever a
repetition of similar errors of policy on the part of the
Porte should lead to a genuine national rising against
Turkish rule in Macedonia, Bulgaria cannot and will not
remain an indifferent spectator. The Bulgarians are
determined not to forfeit their reversion to Macedonia,
still less to allow it to be transferred to the Greeks.
Though the Bulgarians object to the Russians on political
grounds, they do not personally dislike the latter in the
same way as they do the Greeks. Even as between Turks
and Greeks they prefer the former. The truth is that the
Greeks have all along been the agents of Turkish oppres
sion in Bulgaria, and in such matters the agent is generally
more unpopular than his employer. As it is, the perma
nent animosity which prevails between Greeks and Bul
garians may very possibly prove a not unimportant factor
in determining the ultimate solution of the Eastern
Question.

262 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

CHAPTER XXV.
ATTITUDE TOWARDS RUSSIA.
DREAD of Russian intervention forms, for the present, the
dominant factor in the national policy of the Peasant
State. I do not think, however, that this policy is in
fluenced by any popular dislike of Russia as Russia. In
all parts of the country there are monuments erected in
honour of the Russians who took part in the War of
Liberation, and I have never heard any Bulgarian, from the
Prince downwards, express any feeling towards Russia other
than one of respect and gratitude for the services their
country has received from the great Sclav Empire of the
north. In what I have written I may have seemed to show an
undue bias towards the Bulgarian view of the controversy
between herself and Russia. It is, however, quite possible
to hold, as I do, that Bulgaria is in the right in opposing
Russia, and at the same time to admit that the latter
Power rendered signal services to the cause of Bulgarian
independence, and may not unnaturally feel aggrieved at
finding her policy thwarted by the very State she called
into existence.
The truth is both Russia and Bulgaria entered on the
war with Turkey under a mistaken impression as to each
other's aims and objects. The Russian nation honestly
believed that they were called upon by the Bulgarians to

XXV.] ATTITUDE TOWARDS RUSSIA. 263
come and deliver them from an intolerable tyranny ; that
so long as the Bulgarians were set free from the rule of
the Crescent, they were indifferent to every other con
sideration ; and that it was their desire and ambition to
become in fact, if not in name, a province of the mighty
Sclav Empire. This belief was in harmony with the
religious fanaticism of the Russian people, with the theories
of the Moscow school of patriots, whose ideal is the fusion
of all the European Sclavonic races into one vast con
federation under the hegemony of Russia, and with the
personal sentiments of the late Czar. I think it probable
enough that this belief was confirmed by the statements
of the Bulgarian political exiles, who had taken refuge in
Russia, and who naturally supported any view of the
situation which was best calculated to induce the Russian
Government to take up arms for the liberation of their
country. It is not necessary to suppose that there was
any intentional deceit on the part of the exiles, from
whom the Russians received their impressions as to the
state of feeling in Bulgaria previous to the war. Anybody
who has ever been personally acquainted with exiles is aware
that they one and all labour under the delusion that their
return is the one thing which their country desires and prays
for. It is therefore intelligible that the Russians should
have honestly imagined that the kindred people, they were
about to deliver from the domination of Islam, were
anxious, as soon as their liberation was accomplished, to
merge their separate identity in that of the great Sclav
brotherhood. At the same time the Bulgarians cannot be blamed if
they failed to realize beforehand the true intentions of
their liberators. With the view of disarming the possible

264 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
opposition of other European Powers, the Pan- Sclavonic
aspect of Russian intervention in Bulgaria was kept
sedulously in the background. Europe was assured that
the sole object of holy Russia in making war upon Turkey
was to free a people of kindred race, creed, and language
to her own from Moslem oppression. These assurances
coincided too closely with Bulgarian aspirations not to be
accepted without questioning. I do not say that the Bul
garians were not most heartily desirous to be freed of
Turkish rule. Nor do I assert that if they had been offered
the alternative between continuing subject to Islam and
becoming a province of the Russian Empire, they would
not have accepted the latter arrangement. What I do
assert is, that they would have accepted it reluctantly and
without any kind of enthusiasm. Then as now, the one
dominant instinct of the Bulgarians was the desire for
independence, the wish to be once more a free people,
ruling themselves after their own fashion. It is not easily
intelligible to foreigners why the Bulgarians, under such
endless vicissitudes and so many centuries of servitude,
should have preserved so intense a sentiment of distinct .
nationality. But be the explanation what it may, the fact
that they did entertain this sentiment is beyond dispute.
If the Bulgarians had been told beforehand that the price
of their liberation was to be absorption into Russia, I think
it possible, if not probable, they would have been more
than half disposed to wait until their deliverance from the
hands of the " unspeakable Turk " could be effected without
the surrender of the national independence.
Thus, when the Turks had finally been driven out of
the country, there was a not unreasonable disappointment
on the side of both Russians and Bulgarians. The former

XXV] ATTITUDE TOWARDS RUSSIA. 265
were disappointed because the people they had liberated
displayed the utmost reluctance in accepting the protection
of their liberators ; the latter were disappointed because
their allies, after having accomplished their emancipation,
did not leave them in possession of the independence for
whose sake emancipation had been mainly . desired. It
was the old fable over again of the man, the horse, and the
stag, with the sole difference that not only did the horse
complain because the man refused to dismount after the
stag was killed, but that the man considered the horse
ungrateful for even wishing to be relieved of his burden.
An eminent Bulgarian public servant, who has seen
much more of the outer world than most of his fellow-
officials, remarked to me one day in the course of con
versation that " the great defects of his countrymen were
their inveterate belief in their capability to do everything
for themselves after their own way and by their own
people, and their excessive dislike to calling in the aid of
foreigners in order to show them how things ought to be
done." The Bulgarians are willing to go abroad in order
to learn from foreigners, but they are not willing to be
instructed by foreigners at home. If the Russians had
taken the trouble to study the Bulgarian character, they
would have realized that the people looked upon them
as foreigners, and bitterly resented the filling up of all
important and lucrative posts in the public service by
Russian officials. In the days of the Protectorate the
native politicians who had taken the leading part in
preparing the way for Russian intervention were left out
in the cold in the distribution of all official appointments.
Moreover, the Russian administrators, civil as well as
military, lost no opportunity of letting the Bulgarians feel

266 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
that in the eyes of their protectors they were a kingdom
of peasants, who ought by rights to feel honoured at
having Russians to instruct and govern them.
The specific cause of complaint which Bulgaria has
against Russia, namely, her persistent refusal to recognize
Prince Ferdinand, does not excite great indignation in
the Principality. To the Court and to the Prince
the lack of foreign recognition constitutes a valid
grievance. But the mass of the population are utterly
indifferent as to whether Prince Ferdinand is or is not
acknowledged to be their legal ruler. To all practical
intents and purposes he is as much a reigning Prince as
if every monarch in Europe addressed him in writing
as brother. The Bulgarian peasants care much more
about solid facts than they do about formal titles. The
Government, however, is not unnaturally annoyed at the
obstinacy with which Russia deprives the country of the
official status to which she is fairly entitled. I confess
I can see little force in the argument, frequently employed
by the partisans of recognition, that, Bulgaria being an
independent State, the Powers who signed the Treaty
of Berlin had no power to place any restriction on her
right of independence. As Bulgaria could not have
become autonomous unless the signatories of the Treaty
of Berlin had been able to agree as to the terms upon
which autonomy should be granted to her, it seems to
me illogical for the Bulgarians to complain because they
are expected to observe the terms prescribed in the Treaty.
A more valid argument in favour of recognition is that
Russia, of her own free will and pleasure, has decided to
place an interpretation upon these terms which the Treaty
was never intended to bear, and cannot fairly be said

XXV.] ATTITUDE TOWARDS RUSSIA. 267
to bear. The clause of the Treaty on the strength of
which Russia bases her refusal to recognize the Saxe-
Coburg dynasty of Bulgaria runs as follows : — " The
Prince of Bulgaria shall be freely elected by the popu
lation of the country, and his election shall be confirmed
by the Sublime Porte after the assent of the Poivers who
took part in the Congress of Berlin. No member of any
of the reigning dynasties of the great European Powers
may be elected Prince of Bulgaria. In case of a vacancy
in the reigning dynasty" (which at the time the treaty
was concluded was that of Prince Alexander of Batten
burg), "the election of the new Prince shall take place
under the same conditions and with the same forms."
The contention of Russia is, that in this clause consent
must be construed as signifying unanimous consent, and
that, therefore, the refusal of any one of the seven Powers
who signed the treaty to approve the choice of the
Bulgarian National Assembly, is of itself a fatal bar
to the Prince elected by the Sobranje ascending the
throne. According to this contention, if England, Austria,
Germany, France, Turkey, and Russia were unanimous
in approving the selection of a prince freely chosen by the
Grand Sobranje, while Greece did not approve, the Porte
would net be justified in confirming the election, and
the election itself would be absolutely null and void ; a
deduction which, in the words of Euclid, is an absurdity.
The Porte has all along made no secret of its readiness
to confirm the election, but it has hitherto declined to do
so owing to the representations of Russia. It is therefore
Russia, and Russia alone, who forbids the recognition of
Prince Ferdinand, and forbids it in virtue of a strained
interpretation of a doubtful clause in the Treaty of Berlin,

268 POLICY OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
without even assigning any ground for her objection to the
Prince being recognized as the chosen ruler of Bulgaria,
other than the one, that this recognition does not suit her
own purposes. Still, the Bulgarians feel that this question
is not one which calls urgently for any immediate
solution. If Russia makes no active attempt to mark her
displeasure, as she did in the case of Prince Alexander, the
mere fact of her having delayed the recognition of his
successor will not weigh heavily against her in Bulgarian
sentiment. I have spoken already of the long series of
offences committed by Russia against the national feeling
of Bulgaria. It is enough to say that when the series
culminated in the sudden recall of all the Russian officers
on the eve of the Servian invasion, which in popular belief
was instigated from St. Petersburg, the Bulgarians came to
the conclusion that no consideration of gratitude for the
services rendered by Russia towards their country's libe
ration could be allowed to militate any longer against the
assertion of their absolute independence. From that day
forward, the main object of Bulgarian statesmanship has
been to render the Principality powerful enough to resist
the re-imposition of any form of Russian protectorate.
Still, notwithstanding all that is past and gone, I do
not think the Russians are personally unpopular in the
country. By the community of language, race, and creed,
which differentiates them both from the rest of Europe,
Bulgarians and Russians are naturally drawn together.
Though the Bulgars care very little for Pan-Sclav ideas,
and are infinitely prouder of their own individual nation
ality than they are of their kinship with Russia, they have
many ideas, interests, and ambitions in common. If ever
Russia makes up her mind to accept the independence of

XXV] ATTITUDE TOWARDS RUSSIA. 269
Bulgaria as an accomplished fact, she will have little
difficulty in recovering even more than her legitimate in
fluence with the Bulgarian people, as well as with the
Bulgarian Government. It is on this account that M.
Stambouloff and M. Grekoff, the singularly able Minister of
Foreign Affairs in the late Ministry, always declined to
make any effort to force the hand of Russia, with the view
of obtaining Prince Ferdinand's recognition. They both
asserted, to my knowledge, that the advantages of recog
nition would be far more than counterbalanced by the fact
that, upon recognition, Russia would have a Minister at
Sofia and Consuls all over the country, and that both the
Legation and the Consulates would inevitably become
centres of intrigue against the existing re'gime. The Prince
naturally enough did not share this opinion, and the
divergence of view between himself and the Ministry on
this subject was, I am convinced, one ofthe main causes of
the crisis which ended in M. StamboulofFs resignation.

PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT
STATE.
CHAPTER XXVI.
RUSTSCHUK.
POLITICALLY, Roumania may be the friend of Bulgaria ;
but the friendship is one of common interests, not of
common sympathies. The two countries are utterly
different, and though so near each other in distance, are
separated by fundamental differences of race, language, and
religion. Given the degree of civilization that the two
States, separated by the Danube, have respectively
attained, the contrast between them, both in their moral
and material aspects, is as great as that which marks the
transit from England into France. If a foreigner wishes
to hear an unfavourable opinion of the Bulgarians, he has
only got to speak on the subject to the first Roumanian he
may happen to meet. He is certain to be told that the
Bulgars are ignorant, stupid, and brutal, and that they
have no pretensions to be called civilized. If you cite the
rapid development of Sofia as a proof of the remarkable
progress that Bulgaria has already made, you are met
with the remark that Sofia is only an artificial product of

Chap. XXVI.] RUSTSCHUK. 271
the Court, and that, outside the Capital, Bulgaria remains
the same as she was in the old Turkish days. I have
heard similar assertions made in Bulgaria by persons who,
for one cause or another, were hostile to the new order of
things ; and therefore I was anxious to judge for myself
what progress was visible in the chief and provincial towns
of the Principality, which lie completely outside the
influence of the metropolis. Though, counted by miles,
the actual distances between these towns are small, yet,
counted by the time and difficulties of transit, these
distances are infinitely greater than those which separate
the Land's End from John o' Groat's. Whatever progress
the provincial towns of Bulgaria have made has, in conse
quence, been due far more to their own initiative than to
any action of the central Government.
Some five and twenty years ago it was my fortune to
visit the northern districts of Bulgaria. At this time the
whole country was under Turkish rule, and the Bulgarian
question had hardly begun to attract the notice of the
European public. Rustschuk had left a strong impression
on my mind, as it happened to be the first place I ever
set foot in where the Crescent ruled above the Cross, where
I first saw in the flesh Turkish officials in red fezes and
Stamboli coats, Bashi-Bazouks, and veiled Turkish ladies.
Even then Rustschuk was not the East, but it was very
near the East, and the first vision of the Orient, however
imperfect and incomplete it may be, is one that makes an
indelible impression upon the Western mind. In the days
of which I speak Rustschuk was a squalid Turkish village,
with a small European quarter, facing the Danube. This
quarter consisted, if my recollection serves me, of a German
inn, which was more of a pot-house than an hotel, of a

272 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Teutonic beer-garden, of half a dozen warehouses, of a
Custom-house, a railway station, and a few stores and
offices, all situated on the low bluffs that rise above the
southern banks of the Danube at this part of its course.
At the period of my first visit Rustschuk was a place of
some local importance as the western terminus of the
Varna-Rustschuk line, which formed a link in the new route
between Constantinople and the West. Previous to the
completion of the Orient Railway, some few years ago, all
travellers from the West, who were not inclined to make
the tedious sea-journey from Marseilles, availed themselves
of this new route, which owed its existence to the ill-requited
energy of an English company. An express train was run
twice a week from Vienna through Buda Pesth to Bazias,
an obscure Hungarian port on the Danube, some little
distance east of Belgrade. From Bazias the Austrian
Lloyd steamers carried the passengers down the Danube
to Rustschuk. The river transit was a long day's journey,
made all the longer by the necessity of transshipment
into a smaller boat in order to pass the rapids at the Iron
Gates. As a rule you reached Rustschuk too late to
proceed the same night to Varna. Next morning you
traversed Bulgaria by rail and embarked in the evening at
Varna on the steamboat, which, if the weather was favour
able, landed you next day at Constantinople. At the
time I am speaking of, this route, circuitous and incon
venient as it was, formed the chief channel of communica
tion between the East and the West ; and Rustschuk
profited greatly by the traffic which the new route brought
into the little Bulgarian village. With the opening of the
Orient Railway the Varna-Rustschuk line saw the last of
its short-lived importance. To some small extent the

XXVI.] RUSTSCHUK. 273
route may still be used by travellers to the Bosphorus from
Roumania or Russia, but even in their case the Belgrade-
Sofia-Constantinople line is the most convenient, though
the longest in actual distance. Practically, the traffic which
first made Rustschuk a place of importance is at an end,
and though it is possible the construction of the proposed
line from Sofia to Shumla may ultimately make Rustschuk
a station on the main route between the West and the
^Egean Sea, this is all in the future, and an uncertain
future, too, into the bargain.
I expected, therefore, to find Rustschuk bearing the
familiar aspect of a place which was once of importance as
a centre of traffic, but which has ceased to be so when its
reason of being was withdrawn, owing to the traffic having
shifted elsewhere. This expectation was confirmed when,
instead of the multitude of passengers of all nationalties
whom I recollect on board the vessel which had landed
me at Rustschuk in 1 869, I found myself almost the sole
passenger in the heavy, freight-laden steamer of the
Danubian Company, plying between Galatz and Pesth,
which carried me across the river from Giurgevo in
Roumania to Rustschuk in Bulgaria. During the brief
transit, we passed in mid-stream the half-sunken hull of a
Turkish ironclad, which had been blown up by the Russians
when they bombarded Rustschuk. No attempt had been
made to raise the hull, and an island was forming rapidly
around it by the silt of the river. The royal yacht of
Prince Ferdinand lay at anchor off the town, together
with a couple of Bulgarian gun-boats and a score or so
of the quaint caravels, with high peaks rising above their
flat shallow decks, which still carry most of the traffic on
the Lower Danube. On a fine day it is a pleasure to sit on
T

274 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
the bluffs of Rustschuk, and to gaze upon the broad
expanse of the grand river, covered with numbers of these
old-world vessels beating gallantly up stream, with their
huge, white foresails bulging out beneath the breeze, or
drifting downwards with the current, their masts bare and
their sails furled. Save that there was more shipping, the
river-side scene seemed to me much the same as my memory
recalled it. But looking shorewards the whole aspect of the
town was new. On the brow of the low mud bluffs there
were a number of well-built, detached villas, standing in
their own grounds, the chief, though hardly the most
luxurious, being a chalet which had been built for Prince
Alexander as his summer residence. Here, as elsewhere
in Bulgaria, these villas had little claim to architectural
distinction. They were the dwellings of well-to-do people,
with Western notions of comfort rather than luxury. Most
of them, I learnt, were the property of Greek or Jewish
merchants whose business caused them nowadays to
reside at Rustschuk.
On the summit of the bluffs a new, broad, well-paved
street, lined with inns, offices, and shops, led up to the
modern town, and ended in the old Turkish quarter.
Here, as in Sofia, all the buildings were of the kind one
sees in every prosperous, second-class South German town.
There were banks, barracks, public offices, and schools,
every one of which might have been transported bodily
from any German city you liked to name between
Mayence and Brunn. The shops were well stocked,
and displayed a larger store of the luxuries of Western
civilization than you would find even in Sofia. There
was, too, a far greater look of busy trade and com
mercial activity than you noticed in the Bulgarian capital.

XXVI.] RUSTSCHUK. 275
Otherwise the general aspect of the two towns was mueh
the same. There was the same absence of places of amuse
ment, of spacious cafes, and of large hotels. Everything
was quiet, simple, and almost sombre. It is only fair
to say that the new Rustschuk dates its origin from the
days of Turkish rule. It was here that Midhat Pasha
resided when he was governor of the vilayet of the
Danube. It was here, too, that he made his first attempt
to carry out the reforms which, in his belief, were to
accomplish the regeneration of the Ottoman Empire, and
which ended in his own destruction. It was part of his
policy to convert Rustschuk into a sort of Ottoman
Manchester; and, of all his grandiose conceptions, the
high street of this Danubian city is almost the only relic
which has survived his fall. Here, at any rate, Midhat's
memory is honoured ; and it is a standing grievance with
the people of the northern province that, when Bulgaria
became independent, Rustschuk was not chosen as the site
of the metropolis. The real objections to its choice as the
Capital were, I suspect, its proximity to Roumania and
the fact that so large a proportion of its population were
Mussulmen at the time when Bulgaria achieved her inde
pendence. Even now, if you leave the main streets, you find
yourself in a Turkish village, which has changed but little
during the last five and twenty years, or, for that matter,
during the last two centuries. The old town is as tumble
down, as squalid, as ill-paved, and as forlorn-looking as I
remember it on the occasion of my first visit. The general
look of decay which characterizes all Turkish towns I
have ever visited seemed to me to be even more marked
in old Rustschuk than it used to be. This impression
is not, I think, a mere fancy. When the Russians

276 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
bombarded the town from the northern banks ofthe Danube,
they contrived to acquaint themselves beforehand with the
situation of the different localities in the city. They left
the modern town, in which the houses are mainly owned
by Bulgarian Christians, untouched, and directed their
fire against the Turkish quarter. The Russian shells
knocked down a large number of houses in this quarter,
and these houses have never been rebuilt. Then, too,
the Mahommedan population of Rustschuk are out of
joint with the new order of things, and have left their
homes to take refuge in lands where Islam is still the
dominant creed ; and, as a result, a large number of
Turkish dwellings have been left empty and are rapidly
falling to pieces. The minarets, however, still taper grace
fully towards the sky ; the muezzins still call out the hours
of prayer ; the turban is still the common head-dress of
the men ; there are still veiled women to be met with in
the streets ; and the dull, sober tone of a Bulgarian city
is still, to some extent, enlivened by the bright hues and
tints of the Eastern world.
The inhabitants of Rustschuk claim that their town
has increased so rapidly in population that it contains
some five thousand more inhabitants than Sofia. This
may be so, but the place did not impress me as covering
anything like the area of the capital, though, owing to
the comparatively large proportion of Turkish dwellings,
in which it is always difficult to ascertain the exact number
of the inhabitants, the total population may easily be more
dense than it appears to be. The majority of the in
habitants are still Moslems or Jews by religion, and even
of the Christian population the larger portion are Rou
manians and Austrians. The explanation of this fact is

XXVI.] RUSTSCHUK. 277
that Rustschuk is essentially a commercial city, and that
the Bulgarians do not, as a rule, take kindly to trade, except
of a retail kind. The small shops, dealing in the local
wares of which Rustschuk is the mart, are mainly owned
by Bulgarians. But the warehouses and stores, where the
goods imported from abroad are stocked, and where
speculative sales and purchases are made in the hope of
potential profit, are almost entirely in the hands of Greeks
and Jews. The Bulgarians, with few exceptions, have not
the knowledge of foreign languages, or the experience of
foreign countries, requisite for import and export trade, if
conducted on a large scale. The instincts, too, of a peasant
race are averse to the element of speculation which lies at
the bottom of all international commerce. It may seem
strange that the absence of the speculative instinct should
be characteristic of a race whose chief social recreation
consists in card-playing. The anomaly is apparent rather
than real. The Bulgarian plays cards, not only because
the occupation amuses him, but because he has, or fancies
he has, somewhat the best of his fellow-players either in
luck or skill. It is one thing to stake your money on
cards you can see and handle ; it is another to run a risk
on transactions concluded out of your sight, and lying
outside your immediate personal control. At any rate,
this is the explanation given me of the fact that a race
addicted to one particular form of speculation, and cer
tainly possessed of an aptitude for trade upon a small
scale, should yet show a marked distaste for wholesale
commerce. The same explanation accounts for the cir
cumstance that lotteries and races, which are popular in
Roumania, Hungary, and Servia, are utterly unknown in
Bulgaria.

278 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
However this may be, the spirit of financial enterprise
is beginning to make way in Rustschuk. Just before I
arrived there the annual meeting of a local insurance
company had been held. The company in question was
founded here three or four years ago for insuring against
fires ; the fire insurance business succeeded so well that
the company deemed it advisable to start a life assurance
branch, and for this purpose has recently issued five
thousand shares of £4 each, which were subscribed for
by the inhabitants of the town at a premium of twelve
and sixpence a share, the amount of shares issued being
subscribed three times over. The profit on last year's
business was £10,000, out of which a dividend of 12 per
cent, was declared, and the sum of £1000 was carried to
the reserve fund. Trade in Rustschuk has flourished
greatly under the new regime. The town has become the
market for the wide plains lying between the Danube and
the northern slopes of the Balkans. Grain is the chief
article of export, Manchester goods and British coals the
chief articles of import. This being the case, it is strange
that there should be no English merchants in the place.
The trade between England and Bulgaria, which used to
be the chief foreign trade in the Principality, is carried
on from the ports of Rustschuk, Varna, and Bourgas.
But in no one of these places is there an English firm of
any consequence. The business is done through Greek
and Jew houses. However, so long as the merchants of
Rustschuk buy English goods and charter English vessels,
I do not suppose it makes much difference to the English
manufacturers and traders whether they deal with their
own fellow-countrymen or with foreigners.
Rustschuk, I should say, from a social point of view, is

XXVI.] RUSTSCHUK. 279
better off than Sofia, though the place is about as dull as
any civilized city well could be. Rustschuk, moreover,
possesses the advantage over Sofia that the representatives
of foreign Powers, who here, as at Sofia, form the chief social
element, are not hampered by the presence of a Court,
with which most of them are not allowed to enter into
social relations. Then, too, there are a certain number of
well-to-do and well-educated merchants residing in the
commercial capital of Bulgaria, while no such class exists
in the political metropolis. The climate of Rustschuk is
infinitely warmer than that of the high plateaus south of
the Balkans ; and though there is no circle of lofty hills
engirdling Rustschuk, yet their absence is atoned for by
the presence of the Danube rolling at the feet of the cliff
upon which the modern town is built. Owing to its
position, there is hardly a house in the new quarter from
which you cannot command a view of the river ; and I am
not surprised if foreigners, who have resided at Rustschuk,
acquire an attachment to the place, which Sofia does not, I
think, possess the power of inspiring. Moreover, the river-
port of Bulgaria has the charm of being within easy reach
of Bucharest The condition of Bulgaria may be, as I
hold, sounder, simpler, more virile, and fuller of future
promise than that of Roumania ; still, however exalted a
view you may take of the duties of life and of its mission,
there is to ordinary, unregenerate human nature a certain
satisfaction in being within easy access of Vanity Fair.
In a couple of hours you can transport yourself from
Rustschuk to a city where there are handsome shops,
luxurious restaurants, theatres, book-stalls, promenades,
and well-dressed women, and where every attempt is made
to satisfy to the full the desires of the world and the flesh,

280 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Ch.XXVI.
not to mention the devil. Even if your sober judgment
bids you prefer the primitive simplicity of Bulgarian life, it
is a comfort to feel, as you do at Rustchuk, that if the
fancy seizes you, the luxuries of the West lie close at
hand.

( *8i )

CHAPTER XXVII.
VARNA.
The distance from Rustschuk to Varna is about a hundred
and forty miles. The one train which makes the journey
daily, takes over ten hours in the transit, so that the speed,
including stoppages, which though frequent are not lengthy,
is at the rate of fourteen miles an hour.
Until you approach Varna there is little of any kind in
the look of the country to attract a traveller's attention.
For mile after mile you traverse a wide expanse of low,
rolling hills, recalling in its apparent solitude and in its
unchanging monotony the South African veldt. There is,
however, this marked difference, that, though the traces
of human habitations are few and far between, the whole
country-side is covered, as far as the eye can reach,
with cultivated fields, in which, at the time I traversed
it, the young green wheat-stalks were sprouting in every
direction. On the pasture lands, immense herds and
flocks were grazing lazily. Every now and then I caught
sight of a field being ploughed by the most rudi
mentary of ploughs, drawn by a yoke of buffaloes ; but,
with the exception of the herdsman and the ploughman, I
saw hardly a trace of field labourers. The month of April
is a slack season in Bulgarian agriculture. The sowing
time is well-nigh over, and the crops are not yet ripe for

282 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
gathering. Still, even making allowance for the season, it
was difficult to imagine whence the labour had come
from, which had brought all this vast extent of ground
under cultivation. The peasants herd together in the
villages, and the villages are for the most part situated
in the hollows, partly from the desire to find shelter from
the winds in winter and shade from the sun in summer,
partly from the hereditary instinct, derived from the old
Turkish times, which leads the Bulgarian peasant to keep
his home as much out of sight as possible. I have no
doubt, therefore, that the population of this northern
plateau of the Balkans, which forms one of the richest
agricultural districts of the Principality, must be far larger
than one would guess from the glimpses one gets of it out
of the windows of a railway carriage. I hear on every side
that the increasing exodus of the Mussulman population
from this part of Bulgaria is a matter of serious anxiety.
The Tomaks make no complaint as to their treatment by
the Government. As against the Administration they have
no grievances ; they are offered exemption from military
service on easy terms ; but, notwithstanding all this, they
object to dwelling in a country where the faith of Islam is
not dominant. In many instances they are selling off their
lands to their Christian neighbours ; and if the present
emigration goes on, the mosques one sees in every village
hereabouts will in a few years' time be left without
worshippers. As yet, however, the Mahommedan element
remains supreme in the districts of Bulgaria which lie
between Rustschuk and Varna. At the roadside stations,
porters, passengers, and loafers, with scarcely an excep
tion, wore the turban, and had the look, as well as the
garb, of a race distinct from that of the Bulgarians south of

XXVII.] VARNA. 283
the Balkan Mountains. I was assured at Sofia that the
Tomaks were Bulgarians by birth and descent and
nationality, whose sole difference from their Christian
fellow-countrymen lay in the accident that their fore
fathers had embraced Mahommedanism during the Turkish
era. This may be so, but I find it very hard to believe
that it is. Possibly, under the harem system, there may
have been a large intermixture of foreign blood in the
families of the Bulgarians who turned Mahommedans.
But be the cause what it may, the Tomaks are as different
from the ordinary Bulgarian in features, figure, gait, and
aspect, as the Arab of Egypt is from the fellah. Tall,
spare, and active, with clear-cut features, upright gait, and
heads well placed on massive shoulders, they form a strange
contrast to the sheepskin-clad peasants south of the Balkans.
Their dress, the turban with many folds, the linen shirt of
variegated colours, bound tightly round the waist with
a broad red sash, seems to fit the wearer as a costume
ought to do, not to be huddled on as a mere covering against
the cold. They walk instead of slouching ; they look you
boldly in the face, which the Bulgarian peasant is not
wont to do. They possess the indescribable air of people
who belong, or deem themselves to belong, to a master race.
I am not in the least disposed to underrate the extra
ordinary power which the creed of Islam exercises upon its
adherents. But the fact of the Tomaks having For several
generations regarded Mecca, and not Jerusalem, as the
sacred shrine of their faith cannot, it seems to me, have
altered their stature, their build, their features, their
complexion, and their gait. The Tomaks may be Bul
garians by race as well as birth, but I question greatly
their being Sclavs.

284 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
At all the stations at which the train made halt,
nine-tenths at least of the people who crowded the
platforms and lounged about the approaches were
Moslems. There were dervishes with the green turbans
which only holy men who have visited the tomb of the
Prophet are entitled to wear ; there were women, bundles
of black clothing, with henna-stained eyes, looking out
from between the folds of white linen which concealed
their faces, and waddling, as only Turkish women can
waddle. There were any number of squat, square-
built, clean-skinned Turkish children, looking like baby
Pashas. The crowd were chattering, laughing, and calling
to each other, instead of maintaining a stolid silence, as
a gathering of Bulgarian peasants is apt to do. The old
men, of whom there were not a few, and who, in spite
of their grey beards and wrinkled faces, still looked hale
and upright, bore for the most part in their hands the
strings of beads, which their fingers moved mechanically
to and fro as they repeated to themselves the attributes
and titles of Allah, the one God of whom Mahomet is the
prophet. Everywhere there were signs of the country
being still inhabited by a Mahommedan population. The
men in the fields, who drove the ploughs and watched the
herds, were all wearers of the turban. The villages were
composed entirely of the square, white-washed houses,
with low, overhanging roofs and lattice windows, which are
to be seen in every Turkish hamlet. For many a long
mile I never caught sight of a church, but in every village
there was a mosque, if not a minaret. Outside the
villages you could see the bare, unenclosed Turkish
burying-grounds, where the sheep were browsing between
the countless tombstones, which lay scattered over the

XXVII.] VARNA. 285
ground, or stood inclined towards each other at every
possible angle. In warmer climes these Moslem grave
yards, where the villagers sit smoking upon the tomb
stones, where the children are playing games, and where
the bright-eyed lizards keep popping in and out between
the headstones of the dead, always seem to me more
cheerful and more homelike, if I may use the word, than
the cemeteries of our Christian faith. But here, in this
bare, bleak land and this chill wintry air, the burial-
grounds of the Mahommedan villages look the very
desolation of desolation. They will scarcely look more
desolate in the days, which cannot be far distant, when
the Tomaks have left their old homes for new abodes,
where they will be surrounded by the people of the
Prophet. I was told by a fellow-traveller that, even at
present, the Tomaks get on comfortably enough in this
part of the country so long as they are in sufficient
numbers to form a community of their own in the
villages in which they dwell. The difficulties arise as
Christians begin to settle in their immediate neighbour
hood ; and in nine cases out of ten the cause of quarrel
is the presence of pigs. In the old Turkish days the
Bulgarian peasants were not allowed to keep the animal
accursed by Mahomet in any village where there were
followers of Islam. Nowadays they have the right to
keep pigs if they please ; and it is only in human nature
that they should derive a certain amount of satisfaction
from the fact of the exercise of their newly won rights
being obnoxious to their Mahommedan neighbours. The
pig, being a gregarious animal, and indifferent to religious
prejudices, strays into Mahommedan farmyards, and even
forces his way into Mahommedan houses. The accident

286 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
of the pig's entry, if accident it is, is regarded by the
Tomak as a studied insult to his creed. Ill blood arises
between the Christian and Mahommedan inhabitants of
the village. The Tomak finally finds life unbearable in
his old country home, and drifts forth into lands where
Islam still rules, and the pig is not allowed to contaminate
the dwellings of the faithful.
As the train begins to descend from the plateau, which
it has taken hours in ascending from the Danube, you
pass through narrow valleys, hemmed in by high hills,
crested with stone ridges on their summit. The country
is well watered ; the villages seem more prosperous ; on
the hillsides there are vineyards everywhere ; and the
fresh, keen salt breeze is proof that the Black Sea is close
at hand. Three times during the journey our passports
were examined, and the names of the passengers by the
train were inspected to see that they corresponded with
a written list. I was told that this precaution was
unusual, but that orders had been received from Sofia
by the officials of the line to be on the look-out for some
person who had incurred the suspicion of M. StamboulofFs
Government. The last inspection took place immediately
before we entered the town of Varna.
There are as yet no quays in the Liverpool of
Bulgaria. In the open bay, which serves fairly well as
a roadstead except when the wind is blowing towards the
shore, there were a score of steamers lying at anchor,
some getting up steam, some unloading their freight into
lighters, some taking in freight from the barges moored
alongside. Out at sea there were a number of sailing
ships tacking to make the harbour. Most of the steamers
were English ; the ships hailed mainly from Russia,

XXVII.] VARNA. 287
Roumania, and Turkey. Next year a line of Bulgarian
steamboats will ply between Varna and the Levant under
the flag of the Principality. The steamers of this new
line are now being constructed in England. The paid-
up capital of the company, to which the Government has
agreed to guarantee a subsidy of nine per cent, was
subscribed in Bulgaria, mainly, I fancy, by the foreign
residents who carry on business at Varna and Bourgas.
The Government has also undertaken to improve the
harbours of these two ports. The contract for the
Bourgas works has already been taken up by a Belgian
firm. The plans of the improvements which it is pro
posed to make in the port of Varna have not yet been
definitely settled, and the construction of the necessary
works is not to be commenced till next year. It is under
stood, however, that the improvements will include the
making of a breakwater, so that vessels may always lie at
safety within the bay, no matter from what quarter the
wind may blow, and the erection of quays, so that ships
of large burden may load and unload without employ
ing lighters. When these improvements are made, the
merchants of Varna consider that their town will be the
most commodious and cheapest port for the grain trade
of any in the Black Sea. In consequence, land in or near
Varna is rapidly being bought up, under the belief that
it is likely before long to increase very largely in value.
The transformation of Varna, since the War of Libera
tion, has not been as rapid and as marked as it has been
elsewhere. The reason of this is, I am assured, the
following. The port dues belong to the State, and their
rapid increase during the last few years has not, therefore,
directly benefited the revenues of the city. The local

288 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
municipality possesses an income of about twenty
thousand pounds a year, derived chiefly from the octroi
and the house-tax. Out of this income the municipality
have determined to rebuild the city and replace the old
tumble-down Turkish quarter by broad streets and
modern dwellings after the model of Sofia. But the
instinct of economy, which is characteristic of every
Bulgarian administration, has retarded the progress of
these town improvements. The occupants of the old
houses, which it was proposed to pull down, naturally
enough demanded large compensation. As their tenancies
were rapidly running out, the municipality of Varna
decided that, instead of raising a loan to provide com
pensation for the tenants of the expropriated houses,
it was wiser to husband their resources and to pull
down the houses one by one as the existing tenancies
expired. As yet, therefore, only one broad main street
has been constructed, which leads directly from the port
up to the cliffs on which the modern city is situated.
Meanwhile the squalid, ill-paved streets of the Turkish
quarter remain much as they were. In the new town,
looking out upon the sea, the municipality have built
a cathedral, several public offices, and a really handsome
school-house, which must have cost nearly a year's revenue.
They have also laid out a public park which, when the
trees have grown up, will furnish a very pleasant resort
for the townspeople. The chief evidence, however, of
the increasing prosperity of Varna is to be found in
the large number of handsome private houses erected
on the bluffs.
About four miles to the north of Varna, Prince Fer
dinand has built, at his own expense, a summer palace,

XXVII.] VARNA. 289
where he spends his time as a rule from July to the end
of September. Varna is rapidly becoming the favourite
watering-place of Bulgaria, and all along the road leading
from the town to the royal residence, there are villas built
as seaside residences. I cannot say that they add much
to the beauty of the landscape, but they indicate the
wealth and prosperity of the city, whose citizens can afford
to have a country-house as well as a town- house. Prince
Ferdinand's palace is beautifully situated on the seashore,
and commands a magnificent view of the sea. Beyond
looking extremely comfortable and costly, it has no
especial character of its own. It is built on the site of
an old monastery, whose chapel still forms part of the
outbuildings. The idea of erecting a summer palace near
Varna had been formed by Prince Alexander, and the
ground for this purpose had been procured during his
reign. But the Prince, who had very small private means,
only proposed to build a sort of rough shooting-box. The
chateau, as it stands, was planned and designed by Prince
Ferdinand, and was furnished from England by Messrs.
Maple's establishment. Prince Ferdinand is fond of
saying that the goods consigned to him by Messrs. Maple
were the only articles employed in the construction of the
palace on which he had received fair value for his money.
On the road to the palace you pass the English
Cemetery, where our soldiers, who died at the . hospital
of Varna during the Crimean War, lie buried. I was glad
to notice that it was kept in good repair and order.

290 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

CHAPTER XXVIII.
BOURGAS.
A STEAMBOAT, to make a remark which is certainly not
novel, but which still more certainly is true, is a microcosm
of the country between whose ports it plies. The remark
holds good of the tug — for it deserves no other name — which
conveys the traffic between Varna and Bourgas, the chief,
if not the only, seaports of the Principality. As the crow
flies, the two towns are scarcely fifty miles apart. There
is a road between the two, but it is very rough, very hilly,
and very precipitous, as it has to make all sorts of detours
to avoid the bays and creeks with which the Bulgarian
coast is indented. There are no public conveyances of
any kind in Bulgaria other than the railroads, and to make
the journey by land would require about a day and night
of constant and wearisome travelling. M. Stambouloff,
who has an extreme dislike to the sea, was in the habit
of going by land from Bourgas to Varna when he wished
to visit the Prince at his seaside residence. But, even
when every preparation was made beforehand for his
journey, he failed to do the distance under some eighteen
hours. For ordinary travellers, the only practical way of
getting from Varna to Bourgas is to take the steamer,
which makes two journeys a week each way. The passage
is calculated to occupy seven hours, but its duration, and

XXVIII.] BOURGAS.

291

even its accomplishment, depend entirely upon the weather.
At both ports you have to land in boats ; and, if the
weather is rough — and in the Black Sea it generally is
rough — the steamer runs for the nearest shelter or returns
to its port of departure without being able to disembark
its passengers. Some day or other the railroad will be
continued from Bourgas to Varna. But there are any
number of more pressing lines calling for construction ;
and I fancy the two rival ports of Bulgaria are not very
keen about facilitating communication with each other, as
neither of them is certain which would lose or gain most
by access from one to another being rendered easy. At
any rate the bi-weekly-tug boat seems to satisfy the
requirements of Varna and Bourgas alike.
I was assured at the Varna office that I must be on
board by ten, as the steamer was under contract to leave
the moment that the mails were delivered. Going down
to the pier I met the mail-cart returning empty. I saw,
however, there was no cause for hurry, as the steamer was
still surrounded by lighters shipping freight for Bourgas.
The weather was bright, the sun hot, but it was blowing
a north-easter, and my boat took nearly ten minutes' hard
rowing to get over the distance of some two hundred yards
at which the steamer lay from the shore. An hour and
a half more were spent in transferring two hundred sacks
of flour from the lighters to the steamer. In each barge
there was only a single sailor, who had to lift the sacks,
every one of which must have weighed a hundredweight,
place five of them one on top of the other, bind the rope
round them, and then hitch the rope to the steam-crane,
which hoisted the sacks from the lighter into the steam
boat's hold. Half a dozen boatmen could have done the

292 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
work in a quarter of an hour, but time is of no great
value in this country ; and it is contrary to Bulgarian
ideas of economy to pay six men, when one man can be
got to do the work, even if he takes six times longer in
doing it.
However, everything in this world comes to an end,
even the loading of. a Bulgarian freight steamer. When
the work was finished, the hold was full to overflowing,
the deck was covered with a miscellaneous cargo, piled
up in utter disregard of the regulations which have been
introduced into the loading of English vessels by the
action of Mr. Plimsoll. Upon the deck there were huge
crates which hailed from Liverpool, a cottage piano from
Vienna, large stacks of firewood, poultry coops, rows of
wooden chairs, coils of rope, and any number of bundles,
sacks, bags, mattresses, and pillows. In order to make
your way from the stern to the bows — though the way
was a very short one, twenty paces at most — you had to
pick your path through a winding maze of chests and
trunks and boxes. Very few of the latter bore traces of
Western manufacture. They were, for the most part,
home-made, studded with brass nails, painted with many
colours, fastened with quaint locks and innumerable cords,
and possessed of more corners than seemed possibly con
sistent with their size and shape. In every vacant space
between the casks and boxes, what I may call tlie over
flow of the passengers crouched and squatted. There is
no such thing as a limit to the number of passengers
a Bulgarian steamer may carry, and the bulk of the
passengers had come early and taken possession of the
deck. The cabin, with its half-dozen grimy, squalid berths,
was fully occupied. The foulness of the air, combined

XXVIII.] BOURGAS. 293
with the odour of bilge water, the stench of greasy
cooking and of inferior garlic, as well as that special scent
peculiar to steamboat cabins all the world over, rendered
it untenable, except by natives who were utterly pros
trated by sea-sickness. No attempt, I should think, had
ever been made within living memory to clean the vessel
or swab the decks. If any such attempt had been made,
it had assuredly proved unsuccessful. The only seat I
could find vacant was on the top of a wine-butt. The
seat, such as it was, had the merit of keeping your feet
clear of the greasy, sloppy deck, over which the water
washed every time the steamer rolled. The sea, as we
are told by Euripides, if my memory serves me right,
cleanses everything, but it failed to wash one coating of
dirt off the deck of our steamer. Luckily, we had a stern
wind, so that the vessel did not plunge, but she rolled
steadily from the time we left the shelter of Varna down
to that at which we got under the headland protecting
Bourgas. Everybody almost was ill. For me, fortunately, the
sea has no terrors, in as far as my stomach is concerned ;
and the scene on the deck was curious enough to interest
anybody for whom it possessed the charm of novelty.
A Belgian gentleman, who, I gathered, was connected
with the contract for the construction of the Bourgas
breakwaters, was the only first-class passenger besides
myself. But, as the steerage passengers had the run of
the ship equally with ourselves, I do not know that we
derived any practical benefit from the distinction. There
were not many foreigners on board of any kind. I noticed
three Italian masons, who were going to Bourgas to look
out for work on the breakwater ; a German clerk, who

294 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
was being sent to Bourgas to learn Bulgarian in a German
firm which does business there ; and a Russian Jew, who
was apparently in the old-clothes line, and who carried
that part of his stock-in-trade, for which he could not
find a purchaser at any price, upon his own person. But
I should think that of the some hundred passengers
stowed away in our little cockle-shell of a steamer, fully
ninety were Bulgarians. We had half a dozen or so
native soldiers in uniform. Even when under drill and
at attention, the Bulgarian soldier, brave as he undoubtedly
is, has not much of a military air. When he is off duty
and out of sight of his officers, he looks just like what
he is in reality, a sturdy, clumsily built ploughboy, stuck
into an ill-fitting uniform, which he has never yet acquired
the art of wearing. The soldiers on our boat sprawled
upon the deck — their huge, high-booted legs seemed to
stretch in every direction ; they were eating apples and
onions all day long, but they were quite sober, very quiet,
and extremely good-natured. There were any number
of Bulgarian peasants clad in sheepskins, and a good
many clerks and shopmen and their wives and children,
all of them untidy, all shabby, and all looking as if they
had not of late been addicted to washing. The passengers
lay in layers on the wet deck ; the women bare-headed,
except for a soiled handkerchief tied round their fore
heads, and most of them with bonnet-boxes under their
arms. Men, women, and children alike were all victims
to sea-sickness. Basins were unknown — when the suf
ferers could manage it, they staggered to the ship's side ;
when their strength was not equal to the task of moving,
they were simply sick on the ground where they lay. But
what struck me most was the perfect quiet and good

XXVIII.] BOURGAS. 295
nature ofthe crowd, even amidst their personal discomfort.
In the intervals of temporary relief from the spasms of
sea-sickness they chatted, not only with one another, but
with the sailors and stokers, who all seemed to be personal
acquaintances of the passengers. When the vessel rolled
— and she rolled so that one could hardly feel sure whether
she would ever recover her balance — the passengers re
mained tranquil. The women never screamed, and, as
the crates and boxes in rolling from one side of the deck
to the other cannoned against them, they simply turned
round and tried ineffectually to cover themselves beneath
their soaked wraps and drenched sheepskins. It is
impossible to say beforehand how any body of people
will behave in moments of extreme excitement. But,
speculating idly, as one is apt to do under such circum
stances, as to what might happen with our overloaded
and obstructed deck, our feeble, broken-down engine, and
our one small, leaky boat, supposing the gale to rise into
a storm, it was satisfactory to note the great apparent
self-possession of the Bulgarian passengers. Indeed, the
only indication of any notice being taken by anybody of
the plight of the vessel was on the part of two Turkish
women, lying huddled on the deck, who, between the
accesses of sea-sickness, kept mumbling some kind of
prayer, in which the words "Allah El Allah" occurred
again and again. Their husband, who bore the sea some
what better than most of the passengers, left his wives to
look after themselves, and smoked incessantly, while his
fingers were always passing to and fro the wooden beads
of his rosary, so that it is possible that he too was praying
mentally. I was told by the captain, who had made a
voyage to England and spoke a little English, that the

296 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
husband was a Tomak, who had occupied some small
post in the public service, but who had thrown it up
because he had made up his mind to flit to Asia Minor,
where he could live amongst people of his own religion.
Alongside the women of his harem there were piled
masses of pots and pans, curtains, bedding, and the
various utensils of a peasant's household, most of them
cracked and broken, and all bearing the impress of the
res angusta domi. The evicted tenants in Ireland, who
are turned out of their cottages because they decline to
pay rent, never appeal strongly to my personal sympathies.
These poor Tomaks, followers of a defeated faith, who
of their own free will leave home and country, part with
their lands, and give up their livelihoods in order that they
may live henceforward amidst the followers of the Prophet,
seemed to me far worthier of respect than the victims of
Saxon oppression in the distressful country.
One of the innumerable ranges of the Balkans runs
along the sea-coast of Bulgaria between Varna and Bourgas.
Dense, black clouds hung all day over the cliffs to the
west, while on the east the sky was blue and clear. The
consequence was that we could see but little of the coast,
which we skirted for hours, rounding one headland, half
enshrouded in the mist, only to see another headland
stretching miles away, half hid amidst the gloom of the
overclouded afternoon. Still I could catch glimpses
enough to be sure that the sides of the slopes running
down to the sea were seldom cultivated, and that the coast
was very sparsely peopled. In a run of fifty miles, during
all of which we were close in sight of land, I could only
note three villages and a dozen whitewashed buildings,
which were probably coastguard stations or watch-towers.

XXVIII.] BOURGAS. 297
The sun was sinking as our steamer doubled the last
promontory, and we found ourselves in comparatively
smooth water, under the shelter of the long tongue of
sand which juts out into the sea to the north of Bourgas,
and serves as a sort of natural breakwater. In fact,
the Bay of Bourgas is better land-locked than that of
Varna. But I am told by inhabitants of the former port
that the roads inside the bay are not as secure or as
easy of access as those of their own port. How this may
be I do not pretend to decide. All I can say is, that
the landing is equally uncomfortable and equally incon
venient in both ports. In justice, I ought to add that at
both places travellers are equally exempt from the ex
actions which usually accompany the process of landing
in boats. 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 boatman 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,

298 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
what is more, I have never been troubled by an impor
tunate beggar. It may 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 prac
tically 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 whole 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.

XXVIII.] BOURGAS. 299
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.

300 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.

CHAPTER XXIX.
PHILIPPOPOLIS.
In the midst of the vast fertile plain which stretches
between the Balkans to the north and the Rhodope Moun
tains to the south, there rise up suddenly some half-dozen
rocky crags along the banks of the river Maritza. By
what freak of nature these isolated rocks emerged ages ago
from the plain, or whether they are simply the summits of
submerged mountains, I am not geologist enough even to
surmise. But it is intelligible to any one why, in bygone
days, the ground between these steep, turret-like hills
should have been chosen as the site of a city. From the
summits of any one of them you can scour the plain in
every direction for miles and miles away. No enemy
could advance against Philippopolis without his approach
being discovered from the watch-towers on these hill-tops
hours before his arrival. Their sides are even now so
precipitous, their ascent so steep, that it must have been
easy to render them almost impregnable as fortresses in
the days of bows and arrows and battering-rams, and even
of the Macedonian phalanx. Tradition says that Philip
the Great of Macedon was the original founder of the city ;
and in as far as I can see, if there is no particular evidence
that he was, there is even less reason why he should not

XXIX.] PHILIPPOPOLIS.

\Ol

have been. In any case, Philippopolis is a very ancient
city ; and I have little doubt that antiquarians might find
here traces of the various old-world dominions, which held
sway in Eastern Europe long before Sclavs and Turks
were ever heard of. The Turks, however, had a marvellous
facility for destroying the relics of antiquity ; and here, as
in all other parts of Bulgaria, I can see few traces of any
building dating back much, if at all, beyond the last
century. Fires, too, are such incidents of daily life in
these old Turkish towns, with their narrow, winding streets,
and their wooden houses overhanging and overlapping
each other at every angle, that the wonder is, not that the
old buildings are not of greater age, but that they should
have survived so long.
The principal quarter of the town nestles between two
crags, which rise above the streets very much as the Pizzo
Falcone quarter at Naples rises above the Strada di Chiaja.
From this centre the town has stretched out in all directions
into the plain, and has even extended beyond the river.
Philippopolis has more of an Oriental look than any city
I have ever seen in Bulgaria. Lying as it does some
1500 to 2000 feet below Sofia, it enjoys a much milder,
though I am told a far less healthy climate. Owing pro
bably to the difference of temperature, one notices a good
deal here of the outdoor life of the south, a thing which is
unknown in the Capital. In the poorer streets, the shops
are mostly open to the air ; traders stitch cross-legged on
their boards, barbers shave their customers, and the baker
kneads his loaves coram populo. Here, also, the mosques
are more numerous than the churches. On the top of
one of the hills I counted some five and twenty minarets,
and I have no doubt there were others which lay out of

302 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
my range of vision ; and from all of these the call to
prayer is made by the muezzin, both at sunrise and sunset.
You do not, however, see nearly so much in Philippopolis
of the Turkish dress and garb as you do round about
Rustschuk. The Mahommedans of Philippopolis keep
very much to themselves. Even now, they number close
upon 7000, and though their community is being con
stantly diminished every year by the departure of about
one-tenth of the whole body, the void thus caused is made
good to some extent by the incourse of Tomak villagers
from the country districts into the town.
The last of the many battles which Philippopolis has
witnessed in the course of its long and varied fortunes, was
one fought by the Turks against the Russians at the close
of the late war. It was just outside the town that the
Turks, who had then been driven out of Plevna and Shipka,
made their last stand. Baker Pasha had been summoned
in haste to Constantinople to assist in the defence of the
Capital against the expected attack of the victorious Rus
sian armies. The retreating Turkish troops, ill armed, ill
commanded, and demoralized by defeat, turned to bay at
Philippopolis with a forlorn hope of checking the advance
of the Russians. On the top of a hill close by the city
there stands a stone slab recording the fact that on this
spot General Gourkoff had his head-quarters, while he
directed the movements of his troops in the plain below.
The battle was not long. The Turks, finding themselves
out-numbered and out-manceuvred, lost heart and fled
towards the Rhodope, leaving their guns behind them.
With this defeat the war came to an end, and if it had not
been for the arrival of the English fleet in the Sea of
Marmora, the road to Constantinople would have lain

XXIX.] PHILIPPOPOLIS. 303
open to the Russians, and in all likelihood Philippopolis
would to-day have been the prefecture of a Russian
province. As things turned out, Philippopolis enjoyed a brief
period of independent existence as the Capital of Eastern
Roumelia. Had it not been for the modifications in
troduced into the Treaty of San Stefano at the Con
ference of Berlin, the two Bulgarian provinces would have
been converted at once into one united State, of which
the city of Philip the Great would have been the natural
metropolis. But the fates, as represented by the Western
Powers, willed it otherwise ; and when, six years later,
Eastern Roumelia threw off the restrictions imposed
upon her by the Treaty of Berlin, and proclaimed
her incorporation with Bulgaria, Sofia had already been
made the seat of government. Though I think that the
incident which deprived Philippopolis of her claim to be
the capital of Bulgaria is not matter for regret, there can
be no question that the Roumeliote city was in many
respects better fitted than Sofia to be the metropolis of the
Principality. It stands in a singularly central position.
It has considerable historical and architectural pretensions.
It is surrounded by hills not less beautiful than those
which encircle Sofia. It is situated on the banks of a
broad river, and it is the centre of one of the most fertile
districts in the whole country. However, Philippopolis
seems fairly well satisfied with things as they are, though
a certain amount of jealousy of Sofia is entertained by its
inhabitants, and there is, in consequence, a tendency on
the part of its inhabitants to take an unfavourable view of
the action of the Sofiote Government. There is a powerful
Anti-Stambouloff party here, which has papers of its

304 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
own, and which is expected to influence the elections in
this part of Bulgaria.
Even in the Turkish days, Philippopolis was a pros
perous city, with — for Bulgaria — an unusual proportion of
well-to-do citizens. There are a considerable number of
roomy, well-built dwellings in the older parts of the town,
which clearly date from periods long anterior to the War
of Liberation. There are also all the usual signs of recent
material progress. The boulevard leading from the station
to the town is lined on either side by handsome detached
villas of the ordinary neo-Bulgarian order. In the streets
old houses are being pulled down everywhere to make
room for lofty, many-storied dwellings. The shops are
the best, and contain the most varied assortments of
goods, of any I have seen in Bulgaria. There is a fine
public garden, laid out by the municipality on the site
of an old Mahommedan cemetery in the heart of the
town, the removal of which was one of the first corporate
acts of the city after it had obtained its independence.
The public schools, of which I have written elsewhere, are,
as buildings, equal or superior to any I have ever seen
in England. The Free Public Library is an institution of
which any Western city might well be proud. It is
located in the building which was designed for the
National Assembly of Eastern Roumelia. It was not,
however, finished till just after the deposition of the
Turkish Governor and the consequent annexation of the
province to Bulgaria. There was no further necessity for
a Parliament House in Philippopolis, and the municipality,
with great good sense, agreed to convert the building into
a public library. The building consists of a plain, large
hall, with a wooden gallery running round it, and with

XXIX.] PHILIPPOPOLIS. 305
bookselves reaching up to the roof. On the railing in
front of the gallery, there are portraits of the Prince and
Princess, and of the Princess Clementine, who have all been
large benefactors to the library. There are portraits also
of M. Stambouloff, of some of the leaders of the Roumeliote
Revolution, and also of one or more of the traditional
heroes of Bulgaria in the days of its legendary grandeur.
In the centre of the hall there stands an oblong table
covered with various magazines and newspapers, amidst
which I noticed the Nineteenth Century, the Illustrated
London News, and the Daily Graphic. The books, judging
from my inspection of the shelves, were mainly standard
works treating of historical, social, or scientific subjects.
For instance, amidst some 4000 English volumes, I caught
sight of Macaulay's " History of England," " A Concord
ance to Shakespeare," John Stuart Mill's works on
Political Economy, Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," Grote's
" History of Greece," and Horace Walpole's " Correspond
ence." Fiction seemed to me very sparely represented,
perhaps because the Bulgarians have hardly any literature
of their own, and what little they have does not run in the
way of novel-writing. I should doubt, too, fiction being
much in demand in a country where education is as yet
pretty well confined to a class who, in as far as they study
literature at all, do so mostly with a view to the tangible
advantages they hope to derive from their -studies as a
means of obtaining official employment. The love of
letters for letters' sake belongs to a more advanced stage
of intellectual development than the Bulgars have yet
attained. Still, there was evidence that the library was
largely frequented ; admission was absolutely free, but
every visitor is bound to sign his name in a book upon
x

306 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
entry. During the last month the attendance, I noticed,
averaged from 130 to 150 a day — a very fair average for
a town of some 35,000 inhabitants, where almost every
body is engaged in agriculture or trade, and where the
proportion of people who can afford leisure time for
reading during business hours must be extremely limited.
The library is open from eight to twelve in the morning,
and from two to eight in the afternoon, and as the Early
Closing Movement is utterly unknown in Bulgaria, there
can be little opportunity during these hours for any busy
person to spend much time reading in the library. All
townspeople are permitted to borrow books from the library
on making a small deposit ; and I am assured by the
librarian that delays or defaults in returning the books
borrowed are of very rare occurrence. The Sobranje
votes about £400 yearly for the purchase of books ; but,
with this exception, the whole expenses of the institution
are defrayed by the municipality.
I drove out one afternoon during my stay at Philippo
polis to visit the new waterworks, which form the chief
improvement that the city has yet carried out. There was
till recently a great deal of fever here, which was attributed
to the bad quality of the water supply. The water of the
Maritza is supposed to be polluted by the town sewage,
which percolates into the river. Moreover, as a great
part of the city is built on the rocky heights of which I
have spoken, water from the Maritza had to be brought
up in buckets. In order to obviate these defects, the
town authorities decided, on the advice of an eminent
Belgian firm of hydraulic engineers, to obtain their water
from a mountain stream in the Rhodope Hills, at a dis
tance of some ten miles from the city ; the stream to be

XXIX.] PHILIPPOPOLIS. 307
tapped at an elevation somewhat above the highest point
of the hills of Philippopolis. The site of the outtake is
in a singularly picturesque mountain gorge. The water,
after being diverted from the stream, passes through a
number of tanks, where it is carefully filtered, and is then
conveyed to Philippopolis by iron culverts. The scheme
has proved a complete success as a means of supplying
the town with a practically unlimited quantity of singularly
fresh and clear water. There' has been of late a very
marked improvement in the healthiness of the city, though
whether this improvement is post hoc or propter hoc I have
no means of saying.
I refer to this incident because it seems to me an
illustration of the good sense which, on the whole, cha
racterizes the local administration of the country. No
charge is brought more frequently against Bulgaria by
people who, for one cause or another, are dissatisfied with
the present order of things, than the assertion that, under
the new regime, the local indebtedness of the municipalities
has assumed serious and alarming proportions. Philippo
polis is often cited as an example of this alleged extra
vagance. But if the information given me by persons who
have no interest in the matter is reliable, the charge in
this instance has very little foundation. Since the libera
tion of Eastern Roumelia Philippopolis has incurred a
debt of £120,000, which, in the main, was borrowed from
the National Bank of Bulgaria at a charge, for interest and
sinking fund, of about 10 per cent. The revenue of the
town, which is chiefly derived from the octroi duties, is
about £20,000 ; and, with the rapid growth of the popu
lation, this revenue is steadily on the increase. The interest
on the city loan absorbs more than three-fifths of the

308 PROVINCES OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
municipality's annual income, and it is admittedly hard
pressed to meet the normal expenditure out of the balance
of some £8000. At times the municipality has been short
of money to meet current expenses. The loan, however,
has been spent to advantage. The waterworks alone cost
£80,000, and the balance of the loan was employed in the
construction and equipment of the public schools, the
town library, and the municipal offices. I should think
it extremely probable that these various improvements
may have put money into the pockets of the leading per
sonages in the city in addition to any general benefit they
may have derived from them as members of the com
munity. As I have said before, the standard of public
duty is not as high in Bulgaria as it is with us. Still, I
can see no evidence whatever that, even making allow
ance for a certain amount of individual jobbery, the
city did not get full value for its money. The great
bulk of the town debt has been incurred in undertakings
which are likely to prove remunerative in the end, and
which are important, if not essential, to the welfare of
the city. What is true of Philippopolis is true, I gather,
as a rule, of the other municipalities. There may have
been mistakes, needless outlay, and a certain amount
of leakage ; but, in the main, the money borrowed has
been well spent. The private dwellings which have
sprung up in the new quarters have, in the great majority
of instances, been built by their owners, not by the muni
cipalities, and so far the local authorities have erred
rather in the way of postponing necessary improvements
out of motives of economy than of carrying them out
regardless of cost. The indebtedness of the towns is a
matter deserving strict attention, but up to the present
it does not furnish cause for serious alarm.

XXIX.] PHILIPPOPOLIS. 309
In many respects Philippopolis seems to me the
brightest and most cheerful of any Bulgarian city I have
visited. Still, this brightness is negative rather than
positive. In Philippopolis, as elsewhere, there is hardly
any amusement provided for the public. There is no
display of either wealth or luxury. There are no places
of entertainment, and by nine o'clock at night the city
is quiet, the streets are well-nigh deserted, and the
cafes, which are even smaller and shabbier than those of
Sofia, are left empty. An English country town after
nightfall is a scene of wild dissipation compared with the
Roumeliote capital.

NEIGHBOURS OF THE PEASANT
STATE.
CHAPTER XXX.
ROUMANIA AND SERVIA.
The Principality may be said, roughly speaking, to be
bounded on the north by Roumania, on the west by
Servia, and on the south and east by Turkey. Of
Bulgaria's relations to Turkey I have already spoken.
With regard to the two former States, there is not much
that absolutely requires saying in order to convey a fair
impression of their influence upon Bulgaria. I was
constantly struck by the very little interest that either
Roumanian or Servian politics seemed to create in Sofia.
The affairs of London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin attracted
far more attention in the Bulgarian Capital than those of
Belgrade or Bucharest. The truth is that, though the
three States of Bulgaria, Servia, and Roumania lie very
near at hand, they are greatly isolated from each other.
This isolation is due partly to difference of character,
partly to the difficulties of locomotion.
I should have been sorry to miss seeing something of
the Rouman and Servian capitals, as these States have
very much in common with Bulgaria in respect of their

Chap. XXX.] ROUMANIA AND SERVIA. 311
external conditions. Their internal conditions, however,
are fundamentally different ; and I was anxious to note for
myself how far this difference made itself manifest in their
respective Capitals, holding as I do that the Capital of a
country is always more or less the embodied personification
of its status, traditions, and aspirations. The circumstances
under which the two States of Bulgaria and Roumania
recovered their independence were very nearly identical.
Within the memory of men still in the prime of life,
Roumania, equally with Bulgaria, formed part and parcel
of the Ottoman Empire. Anti-Turkish risings took place
in what were then called the Danubian Principalities ; the
risings were followed by reprisals ; the European Powers, at
the instance of Russia, intervened for the protection of the
Roumans ; and a sort of qualified autonomy was conferred
upon the Turkish provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia,
which now form the Roumanian kingdom. The Powers,
however, who in those days were hostile to Russia — I am
now speaking of the era which succeeded the Crimean War,
the era when European statesmen still believed in the pos
sible regeneration of Turkey in Europe — attached special
importance to limiting this autonomy so as to hinder the
provinces of the Ottoman Empire lying north of the
Danube, which were then deemed certain to be mere
outposts of Russia, from endangering the safety of the
Ottoman Empire. Any one who takes the trouble to
search through the well-nigh forgotten records of this
bygone era, so near if measured by time, so far away if
measured by events, will find that at this period all the
efforts of Western diplomacy were exerted to preclude the
possibility of the two Danubian provinces being united
into one common State. By the Treaty which secured

312 NEIGHBOURS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
their autonomy, it was provided that Moldavia and
Wallachia, while they had the right, subject to the
sanction of the Sultan, to nominate their own Hospodars,
were to remain separate communities, ruled over by
different Hospodars. This arrangement was deemed at
the time a signal achievement of British diplomacy under
Lord Palmerston, in the same way as the severance of
Bulgaria from Eastern Roumelia was deemed a brilliant
achievement of British statesmanship on the part of Lord
Beaconsfield at the Congress of Berlin. Both achieve
ments proved equally ineffectual and equally short-lived.
There is no need here to go into the confused and obscure
narrative of the rivalry between the Ghikas and the
Stourdzas. It is enough to say that, when the Hospodar-
ship of one of the two provinces became vacant by the
deposition of its ruler, the Hospodar of the sister-province
was forthwith elected to his place by popular acclamation.
Once more diplomacy, ignoring the plain, hard fact that
there is no half-way house between autonomy and inde
pendence, made vain efforts to protect the titular sovereignty
of Turkey over Bulgaria. A compromise was devised, in
virtue of which the native Hospodar gave in his resignation,
while Moldavia and Wallachia were transformed into the
Principality of Roumania, under the rule of a foreign
Prince, the Prince in question being a cadet of the
Hohenzollern family. It was, I believe, on the occasion of
the selection of Prince Charles of Hohenzollern that the
great Chancellor delivered his famous remark, that, " after
all, the mere fact of having once been a reigning sove
reign will always furnish a pleasant recollection to your
Highness." So far the history of the liberation of Roumania and

..XXX.] ROUMANIA AND SERVIA. 313
Bulgaria runs on almost exactly parallel lines. It cannot
be doubted that before very long Bulgaria will follow
the example of Roumania, and obtain titular as well as
practical autonomy. Given similar conditions in the two
countries, one might have anticipated similar results being
forthcoming. In one respect this anticipation has been
fully realized. Both Roumania and Bulgaria, as soon as
they became independent, threw off the tutelage of Russia,
and, instead of forming outposts of Muscovite aggression
against Turkey, became obstacles to the further advance
of Russia towards the Bosphorus. Both Roumania and
Bulgaria have a distinct nationality of their own ; they
both attach the utmost value to their national inde
pendence, and they both have learnt by experience to look
upon Russia, not on Turkey, as the Power by whom that
independence is threatened in the near future. Thus, a
community of political interests has grown up between
the two States, which may possibly lead to an offensive
and defensive alliance between the two in the event of
a new Russo-Turkish War.
In all other respects the two countries, in as far as one
can judge from the aspect of their two Capitals, are the
very antipodes of each other. In Sofia everything is sober,
sombre, simple, if not sordid, and yet with a certain dignity
of its own. In Bucharest everything is bright, brilliant,
luxurious, and lavish, yet bearing a -certain aspect of
artificial varnish. If I had come to Bucharest from any
other European Capital than that of Bulgaria, I should
not, perhaps, have been equally impressed with its air of
wealth and luxury. As it happened, I received my first
impression of the Rouman metropolis under circumstances
calculated to heighten the vividness of the contrasts

314 NEIGHBOURS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
between the two cities. Up to the day when I started
from Sofia the winter was still in full force. The mountains
surrounding the town were covered with snow ; scarcely
a night had passed without there being frost in the
early morning ; the winds cut like knives ; the country
side was as bare and bleak as it was in the depth of
winter ; the rooms were all heated with stoves ; out-of-
doors the air was wintry. But, on the very day after I
had quitted Sofia, and had passed the Hungarian frontier
into Roumania, I found myself in a different atmosphere,
physical as well as moral. The long journey through
Roumania was made in hot, pleasant sunshine. Windows
had to be opened, rugs and coats thrown aside ; every
where, and on all sides, there was a grateful feeling of
the coming summer-time. The bushes were green ; the
lilacs and the almond trees were in full blossom ; and at
midnight, when I entered Bucharest, it was warmer and
brighter than it had been at Sofia, when I left the Bulgarian
capital at noon two days before. Again, too, to a stranger
from the West it is a personal satisfaction to get back
into a country where you can form, by the use of your own
eyes, a clear notion of what is going on around you. In
Bucharest the Greek letters have disappeared, and any
traveller acquainted with Latin or French, or, still more,
with Italian, can easily form a very fair impression of what
is portended by the words he sees inscribed on shop-fronts,
play-bills, and every other kind of mural advertisements.
No great knowledge, for instance, of Latin tongues is
required to indicate to you at the railway stations that
barbati means " men ; '' femei means " women ; " or that
esita is analogous to " exit."
Still, I fancy that even if these conditions had been

XXX.] ROUMANIA AND SERVIA. 315
reversed, if I had left Sofia in the dog-days to find
Bucharest immersed in snow, if I had been as much at
fault to understand Roumanian as I was to comprehend
Bulgarian, I should have been marvellously impressed by
the contrast between the two cities. They are both newly
built ; they are both stucco-fronted ; they are both ex
amples of that peculiar school of nondescript architecture
which prevails throughout Western Europe, and of which
modern Rome is, perhaps, the highest type, and Sofia,
perhaps, the lowest. They have this also in common,
that their construction is still incomplete, and that ever
and anon there crop up in their midst open spots and
bare spaces, where the old whitewashed walls and the
red-tiled roofs of the Turkish cottages are still to be
seen. Otherwise, everything is unlike in the streets of
Bucharest and Sofia. It is the fashion of the Belgians
to describe Brussels as a little Paris ; with even greater
justice the Roumans might describe Bucharest as a little
Brussels. The town is a very large one in size as com
pared with Sofia, though, owing to the scattered way in
which it has been built, it probably covers an area of
ground out of proportion to the amount of its population.
Bucharest, I may say briefly, has all the outward look and
semblance of a wealthy Western city. The houses are
tall, built side by side, and many-storied. The streets
are crowded from early morning with foot-passengers and
carriages. The shops are handsome, with large plate-
glass windows, filled with all the articles which furnish
the stock-in-trade of Vanity Fair in the New World as
in the Old. The hotels are of the regular modern
caravanserai order, which causes them to resemble each

3 16 NEIGHBOURS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
other so closely throughout the world, that if you could
be transported into any one of them in a state of uncon
sciousness you would not know on waking, from any
indication inside the rooms, whether you were in San
Francisco, or London, or Vienna. In lieu of the small,
shabby beer-cellars, where entertainment is alone provided
at Sofia, you have any number of gorgeous cafes and
restaurants, all equipped after the orthodox Parisian
model, and all, if you can judge from the scale of charges,
depending upon the custom of well-to-do and luxurious
frequenters. There are several theatres in the town, where
performances are given by French and German and Italian
as well as native companies. There are any number of
handsome villas in the suburbs which might have been
transported bodily from the Palmen Garten quarter of
Frankfort. Life, animation, bustle prevail all day and all
night about the place. The sound of carriages, tramway-
cars, and omnibuses never seems to cease ; news-boys
are perpetually perambulating the streets and hawking
fresh editions of the local papers. Everywhere you see
the traces of an opulent, pleasure-seeking community. It
is not only material comfort which is to be found here in
plenty — there are everywhere indications of a large-reading
public, such as is utterly unknown in Bulgarian towns.
Any number of newspapers are hawked about the streets.
Two French papers are published here daily — one violently
Governmental, the other equally violent in support of the
Opposition. Illustrated papers, caricatures of public men,
pamphlets, broadsheets, and all the usual concomitants
of an active political life, are to be found here. The
bookshops are plentiful, and well provided with native
and foreign literature. At the cafes you find the leading

XXX.] ROUMANIA AND SERVIA. 317
German, French, and English papers. This is all so
different from Sofia, where there is hardly a bookstall in
the town, and where the beggarly rows of books exposed
for sale are all in Bulgarian, and are chiefly manuals of
agriculture or some other technical science.
I confess, however, that what impressed me most,
coming as I did fresh from endless strolls along the
Constantinople Road, the one promenade of Sofia, where
we reckoned it a gala-day if we met half a dozen tumble
down hack carriages and a couple of officers on horseback,
was the spectacle of the Chaussea, the Bois de Boidogne of
Bucharest. My first visit to it was on a Sunday, and as
that Sunday happened to be the first really hot day of
the spring, all Bucharest seemed to be out-of-doors, and all
the world and his wife, clad in their best, were bent
towards the Chaussea. There was such a run on the
endless rows of well-appointed, two-horse victorias, which
ply for hire in the streets of Bucharest, that the porter
of my hotel informed me it would be impossible to find
a carriage till the hour of the promenade was over. How
ever, I found one by chance ; and as I rode rapidly along
the smooth, well-paved streets, I could not avoid the
reflection that, in respect of public carriage accommodation,
Bucharest was a long way ahead both of London and
Paris, not to mention Sofia. For little more than eighteen-
pence an hour I was provided with a clean, well-cushioned,
easy-going carriage, which was drawn by two sleek, well-
groomed horses, and driven by a coachman, who, externally
at any rate, was clean and spick and span. It is from the
West, not from the North, that Roumania has drawn her
civilization. Throughout the streets you look in vain for
any outward token of the near proximity of Russia, with

318 NEIGHBOURS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap-
the exception that the old Greek Calendar is still in use,
and that the churches belong to the Greek, not to the
Latin rite. The one thing which I noticed savouring
markedly of Russian ideas was the costume of the coach
men, alike in private and public carriages. At Bucharest
as at St. Petersburg the cabmen wear the loose black
velvet coat, which comes down to the heels and is bound
round the waist with a bright red silk sash. Their heads
are covered with sheepskin kaftans. As in Russia, they
drive their team holding one rein in each hand, not both
reins in one hand ; and are seated upon a small, leather
box-seat with raised sides, enclosing a space which fashion
requires they should fill exactly. In most cases the
natural dimensions of the seat and sitter do not correspond
with each other, and art is called in to supply the deficiency
of nature. The result is that the great majority of
Roumanian drivers are provided with the most obvious
dress-improvers, by the aid of which their seats are filled
to overflowing. This custom, which is derived from Russia,
looks odd to Western eyes, but I do not know that it is
more absurd than any other freak of fashion.
The Chaussea is an avenue of acacias, with a plantation
of young trees on either side, which, when the leaves are
fully out, must form a fair copy on a smaller scale of the
Prater at Vienna. Along the roads there were endless
restaurants and cafes, all of which seemed to be doing
a good business. But the real sight of the Chaussea
consisted in the almost unbroken procession of carriages.
I tried to count the private carriages, but soon lost my
reckoning, as, apart from the great number of vehicles of
all kinds, many of the private public victorias were so well
appointed that, unless you caught sight of the numbers on

XXX.] ROUMANIA AND SERVIA. 319
their lamps, it was impossible to distinguish those that
plied for hire from those which were owned by private
individuals. The roadway was broad enough for some
half-dozen carriages to drive abreast, but the throng was
so dense that we had constantly to stop in traversing
a distance of a full mile in length, while our carriage was
never able to proceed at more than a foot's pace. I do
not know that I have ever seen a finer average collection
of horseflesh than that which was displayed on the
Chaussea promenade. The inmates of the carriages were
dressed up to the height of the occasion. Men and women —
I am speaking now of the occupants of the carriages — were
attired after the Western fashion ; the former in faultless
English day dress, the latter in Parisian toilettes de sortie.
At Sofia a tall hat is a rarity ; here it is the well-nigh
universal head-gear, even for clerks and shopmen. It is
no great compliment to the Rouman ladies to say that
they are handsomer than their Bulgarian sisters. The
sallow type of beauty, half Latin, half Levantine, which
prevails here, is not one appealing greatly to my personal
admiration. But this I must say for the ladies of
Roumania, that they are women and not, as for the most
part in Bulgaria, females only. It was like coming back
to civilized life to see once more woman after woman
dressed and got up so as to please the eye, and presenting
something, at any rate to the male gaze, which induced
you to look again. Moreover, so long as human nature
remains what it is, and so long also as you have not got
to pay for the spectacle, I know of no sight more pleasing
to the masculine mind than that of an endless vista of
feminine costumes, which a man sees to be gorgeous and
knows to be costly.

320 NEIGHBOURS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
Altogether, my brief sojourn in Bucharest gave me a
very pleasant impression of the Rouman Capital. If I
were compelled to choose whether I would reside at Sofia
or Bucharest, I might be distracted between my respect
for moral qualities and my personal taste for material
comfort. But, looking at the question from an altruistic
point of view, I am convinced the social development of
Bulgaria, as typified by Sofia, is sounder and more
promising for the future than that of Roumania, as per
sonified by Bucharest The Roumanians have succeeded
in adding another to the Capitals of modern Europe, dis
playing all the luxury, all the extravagance, all the passion
for enjoyment, all the inequalities of wealth, and all the
consequent misery, discontent, and vice which form the
necessary concomitants of our fin de sikle civilization. As
yet, the Bulgarians have only created at Sofia a city fitted
to be the centre of a peasant State. For themselves —
whatever they may have done for strangers — they have
chosen the better part.
How it came to pass that two States, situated so close
to each other as Bulgaria and Roumania, coming into
existence under such analogous conditions, and having so
much in common, should have developed up to now in such
different directions, is a question concerning which I had
not time or opportunity to arrive at any definite conclusion.
Probably the main cause is the fundamental difference of
race and character between the two nations. Whether
the Roumans are or are not, as they boast, the lineal
descendants of the old Romans, they are undoubtedly a
race of Latin origin and Latin tongue, which, by some
strange freak of history, has managed to survive in this
No Man's Land of Eastern Europe. For good or bad the

XXX.] ROUMANIA AND SERVIA. 32 1
Rouman is a Latin, just as the Magyar is a Tartar and the
Serb is a Sclav. There are Rouman-speaking races, not
only on the banks of the Danube, but in Austria, in
Turkey, and in Russia ; and the patriots of Bucharest do
not conceal their ambition of some day or other uniting
all the branches of the Rouman nationality into one State
and then rendering that State the leading member of
some confederation of South-Eastern Europe.
A second reason, I fancy, why Roumania and Bulgaria
have developed in such different fashions lies in the entire
difference, from an economic point of view, of their re
spective points of departure. Bulgaria, as my object
throughout these pages has been to show, started on her
independent career as a community of peasant farmers,
without any aristocracy, any large landed proprietary,
or any wealthy mercantile and professional classes.
Roumania, on the other hand, was the country of the
Boyards, of historic families, of great landowners, and
of vast estates, which were tilled by peasant labourers,
almost if not altogether in a state of serfdom. Then, too,
the country, even if its soil was not richer than that of
Bulgaria, lay close at hand to the markets of Hungary
and Russia, and found a ready sale for its rich agri
cultural produce. The consequence was that both trade
and agriculture were developed at a far earlier period in
the Danubian principalities than was the case in Bulgaria.
Thus, at the epochs of their respective enfranchisements,
the two States started independent life on completely
different terms. The one had a large, wealthy class, com
posed of great landowners and well-to-do merchants, and
side by side of them a numerous proletariate, who had
little or nothing of their own beyond the wages they
Y

322 NEIGHBOURS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
earned in the services of their masters and landlords.
The other had a completely homogeneous population, com
posed almost exclusively of small, independent peasant
proprietors. Add to this, that the former were a people
of the plains, belonging to an excitable, pleasure-loving
race, while the latter were a people of the mountains,
belonging to a frugal, stolid, self-contained nationality.
Given these conditions, there is perhaps no cause for won
der that their internal development should have proceeded
in the contrary directions, symbolized by the respective
aspects of Bucharest and Sofia. My knowledge of
Roumania is too limited and too superficial to enable me
to speak with any confidence as to the correctness of my
deductions. I can only give, for what it is worth, the
impression left upon my mind that, in Roumania, there is
a good deal which is hollow and artificial in the signs of
progress you witness on every side. On the other hand,
whatever progress there is in Bulgaria — and in many
respects this progress is small in comparison with that of
Roumania — is solid, stable, and enduring. In fact, to put
the matter plainly, there is a sort of gilt-and-ginger-
bread look about Bucharest which could hardly fail
to impress even a passing visitor. This impression is
confirmed by what he hears on every side from foreign
residents in the city, who cannot be accused of being
unfriendly to the cause of Roumanian independence. While
doing justice to the great quickness and natural intelligence
of the Roumanians, to their power of expression, and their
marvellous rapidity of comprehension, your informants
assure you at the same time that the people, from the
highest class to the lowest, are wanting in the qualities
which are required to make a nation. Whether the

XXX.] ROUMANIA AND SERVIA. 323
Roumanians are morally more corrupt and depraved than
their neighbours south of the Danube, I have no means
of judging for myself; but a very cursory inspection is suffi
cient to show that physically they are a far less robust,
stalwart, and healthy race. Certain classes of maladies
flourish so vigorously on Roumanian soil, and attain such
proportions, that whole villages have frequently to be
surrounded by a cordon of troops, with orders not to allow
anybody to leave the village and disseminate the malady
abroad until the doctors, who are sent with the troops, can
give the infected villages a comparatively clean bill of
health. Happily for Roumania, the- public opinion of the
community approves of very drastic measures of dealing
with disease, and has no sympathy with any of the
sentimental objections which, in our own country, are put
forward by the Anti-Vaccination League.
Between Servia and Bulgaria the outward differences
are far less striking than those which distinguish Bulgaria
from Roumania. Indeed, the physical and moral con
ditions of the two first-named countries are very much the
same. They are both Sclav States, speaking the same
language. There are certain differences of accent and
pronunciation between the two, certain words which are
peculiar to each country. But these differences are not
greater, I fancy, than those which exist between the dialects
of Yorkshire and Somersetshire, and are certainly not great
enough to hinder the inhabitants of either State from
understanding the speech of the other. Anybody who
knows Russian can make out what is said to him, alike in
Servian and Bulgarian, though I am told that Sclavs and
Bulgars find it more difficult to understand Russian when
spoken to them. This may probably be explained by the

324 NEIGHBOURS QF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
fact of their comparative want of education. The written
language of the three countries is almost identical. Again,
Servia and Bulgaria are adjacent lands, divided, not by
broad rivers or by mountain ranges, but, in the main, by
a purely geographical frontier. Were it not for the
Custom-houses between the two States, a stranger would
hardly know when he had passed from one into the
other. Their religion is identical, and they are both in
theory, whatever they may be in practice, devout adherents
of the Eastern Church. The two Sclav States of the
Balkan Peninsula have also this in common, that for
centuries they remained subject to Turkish rule, that they
both achieved their independence recently, and that they
both owe their final emancipation to the power of Russia.
Their economical conditions are also of much the same
order. Servia, equally with Bulgaria, is a peasant State
in which there are neither millionaires nor paupers, no
privileged classes, and no important industry other than
that of agriculture. But in spite of all these resemblances
the two countries present many points of difference, notice
able even by a passing stranger. In Bulgaria, one sees
everywhere signs of progress ; and in Servia one sees signs
of decay. The Serb peasants have not the cheerful look of
the Bulgarians ; the Serb villages have not the same air
of plain, rough comfort. The thrift and the stolid soberness
of the Bulgarian are not qualities which characterize the
western Sclavs. The latter are fond of calling themselves
the French of Eastern Europe ; but their chief resemblance
to the French consists in their being more loquacious, more
excitable, and more demonstrative than their neighbours.
Unfavourable critics of the policy pursued by Bulgaria
under the present regime are fond of saying that Servia

XXX.] ROUMANIA AND SERVIA. 325
ought to be an object lesson to Bulgaria, as showing the
dangers inherent in the concession of gratuitous education
and of manhood franchise to a population, the great
majority of whom could neither read nor write at the
period when political power was placed in their hands.
The Serbs are keen politicians and great newspaper readers.
The Bulgarians, on the other hand, are still wrapped up
in their home interests, and care very little about general
politics. Between Serbs and Bulgars there is a sort of personal
antipathy not easily to be accounted for ; and in weighing
the value of the comments they pass upon each other, you
must make allowance for the exaggeration inseparable
from racial prejudices. Quite apart from the animosity
engendered by the late war, there are many causes of dis
sension between the two countries. The question whether
the Sclavs in the non-liberated provinces of Turkey in
Europe are by rights Bulgars or Serbs is an issue which
excites the keenest controversy between the twin Balkan
States. Both nations are extravagantly proud of their
traditional, I might almost say their mythical, grandeur in
bygone days ; and both look on the other as interlopers, if
not impostors. My own opinion is, that though the Servians
have perhaps better claims to represent the Sclav nation
ality in the past, the Bulgarians have a better claim to
represent it in the future. Certainly, if the two countries
are to be judged by their Capitals, Bulgaria stands on a
higher level than Servia. Belgrade has many advantages
of position and tradition to which Sofia can make no
pretension. Lying as it does at the junction of the
Danube and the Save, Belgrade might be made a far
finer city than Sofia is ever likely to become. Moreover,

326 NEIGHBOURS OF THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
apart from the beauty of its site, standing as it does on
a ridge between the two rivers, the city has historical
associations of which the Bulgarian Capital is totally
devoid. Belgrade, with its scores of sieges, has a past
of which her inhabitants are justly proud ; while Sofia owes
her pre-eminence simply and solely to the fact that,
within the last twenty years, the Russians selected her as
the metropolis of the province which they had just
snatched from Turkey, and which they intended to make
their own. Servia, again, is indebted for her emancipation
to a native rising under a native leader, while Bulgaria
was set free by foreign intervention. Notwithstanding
all this, Belgrade has much more of the look of an Oriental
city than most of the Bulgarian towns. The small,
detached villas which line the chief streets of Sofia are
almost unknown in Belgrade. There were few signs of
building anywhere. The streets are ill paved, everything
about the town seems untidy and unprosperous. The
shops are not so good as those of the principal towns in
Bulgaria. There are tram-lines in the main street
traversed by the commonest open-air cars I have ever
seen anywhere. The electric light has forced its way here
and there into the city, but the ordinary lighting is not
equal to that of Sofia. Indeed, in all substantial respects,
Sofia is a far more livable place than its rival, the Sclav
metropolis. In both towns there is an almost equally
complete absence of private carriages and well-dressed
people. They are both thoroughly provincial in their
aspect, and their provincialism is not even of a high order.
I cannot say that personally I have any desire to end my
days as a denizen of Sofia. But if the Fates so willed
it, I should not regard my lot as being one-half so

XXX.] ROUMANIA AND SERVIA. 327
intolerable as it would appear to me if I were doomed to
live and die in Belgrade. The latter place, however, has
the advantage of a pretty boulevard sort of street lined
with trees, to which Sofia possesses no counterpart. It
is on this boulevard that the residences of the Foreign
Ministers, the abodes of a few well-to-do foreign
merchants, and the Royal Palace are situated. Except
for the presence of a sentry before the entrance, there is
little to distinguish the King's palace from any other
house in the boulevard. It stands close to the road,
has no flag floating over its roof, no guard-house in
front, none of the outward signs by the employment of
which Prince Ferdinand has contrived to give a certain
semblance of royalty to his residence in the Alexander
Square of Sofia. It so happened that while in Belgrade,
I passed one evening in front of the palace on my
way to dinner. My attention was called to the building
by the fact that on the footwalk opposite the palace,
there was collected a crowd of some twenty people.
The presence of a score of persons standing together in
the public streets constitutes a demonstration in towns
so tranquil under ordinary circumstances as Belgrade or
Sofia. It was obvious that these people were looking at
something which attracted their attention, I looked up,
and on the balcony of the palace I saw a group of two
men in evening-dress. One, who was almost a boy, was
seated in an American rocking-chair, and was swinging his
legs up and down. The second, a short, stout man, kept
walking backwards and forwards along the balcony in
much the same way as a lion paces for hours from
one end of its cage to another. I made inquiries of a
passer-by, and learnt, as I had expected from the presence

328 NEIGHBO URS OF THE PEASANT STA TE. [Ch. XXX.
of the crowd, that the lad in the chair was Alexander,
King of Servia, and that his companion was his father, the
ex-King Milan. On most evenings when the weather is
warm, the two royalties of Servia are, so to speak, on view
upon their balcony during the half-hour that precedes
their dinner. Pomp and state of any kind are far less
observed in the Court of Belgrade than they are in that
of Sofia, and on this account the Servian Court is probably
more popular with its own people. It should, however, be
remembered that Prince Milan and his son are Servians by
birth and breeding, while the dynasty of Bulgaria is, so
far, entirely foreign. It would, in consequence, be im
possible that Prince Ferdinand should acquire the sort of
personal, hail-fellow-well-met popularity amongst his
people which the Servians still entertain towards the ex-
King in spite of all his failings, and which has, to some
extent, descended to his son. I am inclined, however, to
doubt whether if Milan had been Prince of Bulgaria, its
people would ever have pardoned his reckless extravagance,
his utter lack of principle, and the scandals of his private
life. Whatever their defects may be, the Bulgarian
peasants have a sense of self-respect in which the Servians
seem to be deficient.
Thus the little I was able to see of Servia, as represented
by Belgrade, and of Roumania, as represented by Bucharest,
confirmed me in the belief that if ever there should be
a confederation of the Balkan Peninsula, the hegemony
in such a confederation must, by the law of the survival of
the fittest, belong to the State which, under Prince
Alexander, conquered at Slievnitza.

( 329 )

CHAPTER XXXI.
POSTSCRIPT.
THE preceding pages were all written before the
Ministerial crisis at Sofia, which occurred immediately
after the termination of my visit, and which ended in the
resignation of M. Stambouloff, and the accession to office
of M. Stoiloff. I think it will be apparent to any one
who has taken the trouble of reading what I have said
as to the relations between the Prince and his great
Minister, that this contingency was not unforeseen by me,
though I frankly admit I did not regard it as being
•so close at hand. In making this assertion, I lay no
claim to any particular foresight, as it had long been
obvious to any one at all behind the scenes of Sofiote
political life that the position of the Stambouloff Ministry
was one of unstable equilibrium. The causes of this
instability are alluded to in various parts of the foregoing
chapters. It may perhaps be well to recapitulate them.
In my opinion the Stambouloff Ministry had been losing
ground of late, owing to four causes : —
The increase of taxation necessitated by the policy
of internal development (of which M. Stambouloff was the
chief representative) had created considerable discontent
among the peasantry.
The Savoff scandal, whatever the truth may have been,

330 THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap.
had created an unfavourable impression against the Ministry
in the minds of a community whose code of morality is
based mainly on the Turkish notion that any violation of
the harem is the gravest of all social offences.
The long-standing antagonism between the Prince and
the Prime Minister had passed from a chronic into an
acute stage.
The late Ministry had been so long in power that the
party which wished to get into office had become more
powerful and more influential than the party which wished
to remain in office.
It may be noticed that amongst these causes I have
not included the personal unpopularity which, according
to the assertion of his opponents, attached to M. Stam
bouloff, on account of his high-handed and arbitrary
administration. I have made this omission purposely,
because I do not believe that popular disapproval of the
measures by which the late Premier maintained order was,
in any sense, a general sentiment, or had anything to do
with his fall. I have no doubt that M. Stambouloff was
unpopular, and perhaps not unjustly unpopular, with the
opponents whom he had thrown into prison or driven into
exile. All I contend is that his rough system of adminis
tration, based as it was upon the principle that the enforce
ment of justice is more important than the means by which
justice is enforced, did not outrage general opinion in
Bulgaria, but, on the contrary, commanded the approval of
the great mass of M. StamboulofFs fellow-countrymen. To
represent the downfall of his Ministry as being due to any
outburst of national displeasure at his alleged violations of
the letter of the law, seems to me, as to most people who
know Bulgaria, not only untrue, but absolutely ludicrous.

XXXI.] POSTSCRIPT. 331
Nor can I see any reason to suppose that either the
home or the foreign policy of the Government will
be modified to any material extent by the change of
Ministry. Every Bulgarian Government, for many years
to come, must administer the internal affairs of the
country on the same general principles as those adopted
by M. Stambouloff. The only difference will be that
these principles are likely to be applied with less reso
lution, less judgment, and less knowledge of the country
than were displayed by their originator. Upon questions
of foreign policy the present Government may be a shade
less pro- Austrian than its predecessor, but it will, I feel
confident, prove equally anti-Russian. If — a contingency
which I deem most improbable — M. Stoiloff and his
colleagues should display any disposition to place the
country once more under Russian influence or control,
both the Prince and his people would be unanimous
as to the necessity of recalling M. Stambouloff to office.
In certain respects, I consider that the change of
Ministry is likely to be by no means an unmixed evil.
The fact that so important a crisis has been unaccompanied
by any disturbance of the peace or by any outbreak of
popular violence on one side or the other, furnishes a
strong testimony to the progress that Bulgaria has
already made in the art of self-government. If the
elections are held under the present Ministry, my expecta
tion is that on this, as on all previous occasions, the
Government will succeed by some means or other in
returning a majority of the representatives. But owing
to the great personal popularity and influence of the late
Premier, there is certain to be, what there has never been
yet, a really formidable Opposition party in the Sobranje ;

332 THE PEASANT STATE. [Chap. XXXI.
and if this party is led by M. Stambouloff, the antagonism
between the Ministerialists and the Opposition will do
much to convert popular government in Bulgaria from
a form into a reality. I expect also the ultimate result
of the recent crisis will be to place the relations between
the Prince and the late Prime Minister on a sounder
footing, to render the former more convinced of the
extreme importance of retaining M. StamboulofFs services
in the present condition of affairs, and to cause the latter
to become more fully alive to the expediency of studying
the not unreasonable susceptibilities of a Prince, the interests
of whose dynasty are for the present almost indissolubly
connected with those of Bulgaria.
Altogether I can see nothing, in the events which have
occurred since my departure, to modify in any way the
favourable opinion which I formed during my sojourn in
the Principality, and which I have endeavoured to express
in the foregoing pages, as to the present condition and
future prospects of the Peasant State.

THE END.

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