89 



Slav communities bordering on Eastern Roumelia. 

 ! some discussion it was decided tliat wherever 

 the Bulgarian inhabitants of a Macedonian see con- 

 stituted two thirds of its Christian population they 

 should have a Bulgarian bisliup, subject to the au- 

 thority of the exarch, and not to that of the oecu- 

 menical patriarch. The Sultan, giving no heed 

 to the remonstrances of the Greeks, began to issue 

 bn-tifs to Bulgarian bishops: but before he had ap- 

 pointed the full number the Bulgarian revolution 

 broke out. For a long time after the war he re- 

 I'uscd to grant any more berats. The Bulgarian 

 Christians in Turkey have always been devoted ad- 

 herents to the dignitaries of their Church because 

 the latter protect them in their civil and political 

 rights. The Greek bishops afford assistance to their 

 fellow-countrymen in Macedonia, but toward the 

 Bulgarian Christians, during the long contest for 

 Hellenic ascendency, they have often adopted a 

 positively hostile attitude, closing the Bulgarian 

 schools and churches and denouncing the mem- 

 bers of the Bulgarian community to the Turkish 

 authorities as rebels. The proposed termination of 

 the Bulgarian schism offered religious unity, the 

 blessing of the patriarch, and the return to the true 

 Church, but these spiritual advantages were no 

 compensation for the real and important benefits 

 that they enjoyed under their autonomic Church 

 and hoped to see extended. The form of the pro- 

 posed reconciliation, which met with the Sultan's 

 ready approval and the hearty acquiescence of the 

 Patriarch Anthymos, and was strongly supported 

 by Russian diplomacy, if indeed it had not its in- 

 ception and impulse in the Russian Foreign Office, 

 was that the exarch should be recognized as the 

 head of an autocephalic Church of the Orthodox 

 rite, having his residence in Sofia, and his ecclesi- 

 astical jurisdiction restricted to Bulgaria and East- 

 ern Roumelia. relinquishing his authority over the 

 Bulgarian bishops in Macedonia, who would come 

 under the authority of the patriarch, the latter be- 

 ing bound to make new consecrations of Bulgarian 

 bishops in dioceses where two thirds of the popula- 

 tion are Bulgarians. Russian influence was brought 

 to bear upon Prince Ferdinand to induce him to 

 make application to the patriarch for the recogni- 

 tion of a Bulgarian autocephalic Church on the 

 basis of this proposal. If the Prince was tempted 

 at first to fall in with this suggestion he was de- 

 terred by the earnest protests of the Exarch Joseph 

 and sufficiently warned by the storm of disapproba- 

 tion roused by the divulgation of the project, not 

 only among the Macedonian churches, but among 

 his own subjects, who saw in it only a renunciation 

 in favor of Greece of Bulgarian political interests 

 and warmly cherished aspirations in Bulgaria. In 

 the Greek Church a large party looked askance at 

 the proposition, fearing lest the Bulgarian prelates 

 to be appointed by the patriarch may in the end 

 outnumber the Greek members of the Holy Synod, 

 and the Church lose its Hellenic character, become 

 Slav, and eventually amalgamate with that of Rus- 

 sia. In August the Bulgarian exarch renewed 

 his request to the Porte for the appointment of 5 

 bishops in Macedonia in addition to the 4 already 

 existing. 



Disputes with Turkey. Collisions between 

 Turkish and Bulgarian forces on the frontier were 

 I reported as taking place early in August. A de- 

 tachment of Turkish troops retired when fired upon 

 by Bulgarian frontier guards in the district of 

 Khaskoi. A similar occurrence took place in the 



department of Tartar Bazardjik. The Turkish and 

 Bulgarian garrisons were increased after these in- 

 cidents, and the Porte first appointed a military 

 commission to ascertain whether the positions that 

 Turkish soldiers had occupied are situated on Bul- 

 garian territory as the Government at Sofia claimed, 

 and afterward acceded to a proposal for the delimi- 

 tation of the frontier by a mixed commission. 



The Bulgarian Government allowed the Eastern 

 Roumelian contribution that it undertakes to pay 

 into the Turkish treasury to fall in arrears from the 

 beginning of 1896. When it was on the point of 



Eaying up a part of the amount overdue, the Tur- 

 ish Government unexpectedly reopened the ques- 

 tion of the Bulgarian tribute, dispatching a special 

 commission to Sofia in August to negotiate with 

 Prince Ferdinand the settlement of the amount of 

 the Bulgarian tribute under the ninth clause of the 

 Treaty of Berlin and the payment of the arrears from 

 1879 up to date. 



Internal Polities. IntheSobranje which closed 

 its sessions on Feb. 17, 1896, a new penal code was 

 enacted. The Minister of War obtained an extraor- 

 dinary credit of 5,000,000 lei to complete the arma- 

 ments of the army and the flotilla on the Danube. 



The Cabinet was reconstructed on Feb. 22 as fol- 

 lows : Minister President. Minister of the Interior, 

 and Minister of Foreign Affairs ad interim. C. 

 Stoiloff ; Minister of Commerce and Agriculture, G. 

 D. Xachevich ; Minister of Justice, Dr. T. Theodo- 

 roff. previously President of the Sobranje ; Minister 

 of Public Instruction. C. Velichkoff; Minister of 

 Public Works, J. Madgaroff. 



Elections for the Chamber occurred on March 1. 

 They were conducted without governmental inter- 

 ference, to judge from demonstrations of public 

 gratitude given to Stoiloff for freedom of election, 

 and passed off in perfect order, resulting in the re- 

 turn of a large Conservative majority. The Na- 

 tional Liberal party, formerly led by Stambuloff, 

 which is distinguished by its attitude of distrust 

 toward the policy of Russia, accepted M. Grecoff 

 for its head, and presented a programme promising 

 a liberal and progressive administration. 



As a sequel to the reconciliation of Bulgaria and 

 Russia, the Minister of War and the Minister of 

 Commerce and Agriculture tendered their resigna- 

 tions on Aug. 13. Col. Petroff firmly opposed the 

 reinstatement in the army of the principality of 

 the Bulgarian officers who were in Russian service, 

 many of whom had been involved in subversive 

 plots and military insurrections against the Bulga- 

 rian Government. In the end Prince Ferdinand 

 accepted this view and renounced the purpose of 

 restoring the emigrant officers for the present. Col. 

 Petroff then resumed the portfolio of War, but M. 

 Xachevich was relieved of his office definitively, M. 

 Gueshoff assuming temporarily the direction of the 

 Ministry of Commerce. His retirement marked the 

 close of the negotiations that had been going on for 

 many months for a commercial treaty with Austria- 

 Hungary. M. Stoiloff visited Vienna in the spring 

 of 1895 to make preliminary arrangements for the 

 conclusion of a definite treaty of commerce to take 

 the place of the provisional commercial convention 

 that would expire at the end of 1896. Such pro- 

 visional conventions were the only kind as yet ex- 

 isting between Bulgaria and foreign nations. The 

 Bulgarian Government presented proposals that the 

 Austrian representatives declared to be unaccept- 

 able. A commercial treaty with Servia was con- 

 cluded in Julv, 1896. 



