BULGARIA. 



CALIFORNIA. 



69 



nounceraent was made that the civil, military, 

 and ecclesiastical service of Bulgaria would 

 henceforth be carried on in the Russian lan- 

 guage. 



The International Commission for the organ- 

 ization of Eastern Roumelia was appointed in 

 September, and held its first meeting at Con- 

 stantinople on the 1st of October. Its meetings 

 were held afterward at Philippopolis. It was 

 not favorably received by the Bulgarian peo- 

 ple, and complaints were made that the Russian 

 officers did not heartily encourage its objects. 

 Prince Dondoukoff-Korsakoff refused to sur- 

 render the administration of the finances to 

 the commission, as was stipulated in the treaty 

 of Berlin should be done, so long as the Rus- 

 sian troops occupied the province ; but he 

 offered to give up the surplus revenue remain- 

 ing after defraying the expenses of the govern- 

 ment, including the payment of the native 

 militia then in the course of formation. It was 

 observed with concern that the Russians, instead 

 of showing an intention to withdraw, were 

 sending fresh troops south of the Balkans. 

 Gen. Todleben, having arrived at Lule Bourgas 

 on the last of October, gave orders for the 

 repair of the bridges in the neighborhood, and 

 for the construction of barracks for the winter 

 quarters of the Russian soldiers stationed be- 

 tween Liverts and Tundja. The arrangements 

 for sending away the greater part of the army 

 and for demolishing the fortresses of Widin 

 and Rustchuk were stopped. The fortifications 

 at Kustendji in the Dobrudja, which had been 

 abandoned, were rearmed, and military guards 

 were posted at the railway stations. The ap- 

 prehension was excited by these movements 

 that the Russians did not intend to be bound 

 by the limitations of the treaty of Berlin, nor 

 to evacuate the Bulgarian territories until a 

 final peace was concluded. Journals friendly 

 to them stated, however, that their renewed 

 advance was ordered, not on strategical grounds, 

 but for the sake of order and humanity. 



On the 29th of October a petition signed by 

 50,000 Bulgarians of Eastern Roumelia and Ma- 

 cedonia was presented to the commission sit- 

 ting at Philippopolis, protesting against the di- 

 vision of Bulgaria. The petitioners professed to 



be astonished at the injustice which the Powers 

 had committed against the Bulgarians in di- 

 viding them into three parts ; declared that, 

 after having experienced nine months of free- 

 dom under the Russian occupation, they could 

 not return to subjection to Turkish misgovern- 

 inent ; and averred that they preferred the 

 provisions of the treaty of San Stefano to those 

 of the treaty of Berlin. In illustration of the 

 injustice which they said the Congress had 

 done to the Bulgarians of Eastern Roumelia and 

 Macedonia, they claimed that the former prov- 

 ince contained the best part of the Bulgarians, 

 and the latter 1,500,000 persons of that na- 

 tionality. The Bulgarian boundary commis- 

 sioners returned to Constantinople early in 

 December, averring that they were forced to 

 do so because the Russians, despite reiterated 

 requests, delayed furnishing an escort, and Gen. 

 Todleben refused to receive them when they 

 wished to remonstrate. 



A meeting of Bulgarians was held at Philip- 

 popolis on the 11 th of November, which re- 

 solved to continue in persistent opposition to 

 the Execution of the work of the commission 

 for organizing Eastern Roumelia. Prince Don- 

 doukoff-Korsakoff was reported to have ex- 

 pressed the conviction, about the same time, 

 that the execution of the treaty of Berlin was 

 a sheer impossibility, for the Bulgarians would 

 take up arms to oppose the separation of East- 

 ern Roumelia from Bulgaria. 



The Bulgarian Assembly was called to meet 

 at Tirnova, December 27th, where, after pre- 

 paring the organic law of the principality, it 

 was expected to elect a Prince. A draft of 

 the Constitution had been prepared, which 

 provided for an Assembly consisting of four 

 hundred deputies, one hundred of whom should 

 be selected by the Government. The Prince 

 should have the right to exercise mercy, but 

 should not be entitled to declare war. The 

 election of the Prince was expected to take 

 place on the 1st of January, 1879. The per- 

 sons named in December as the principal can- 

 didates were Gen. Ignatieff, late Russian Am- 

 bassador at Constantinople, Prince Alexander 

 Wassiltchikoff, Prince Reuss, and Prince Alex- 

 ander of Battenberg. 



C 



CALIFORNIA. The Legislature, after a 

 brief adjournment, reassembled on January 

 4th. In the Senate one of the first bills intro- 

 duced was framed to authorize the Mayor, City 

 and County Surveyor, and Superintendent of 

 Streets in San Francisco to give employment to 

 two thousand laboring men from the date of 

 the passage of the bill to April 10th, the price 

 to be fixed by the officers above mentioned. 

 One of the Senators (Mr. Rogers) said: "It is 

 well known that the streets of San Francisco, 

 at the present time, are full of laboring men 



and mechanics who have nothing to do. Only 

 two or three days ago the day before yester- 

 day they went to the Mayor of that city, I 

 think in a body three thousand strong, and 

 asked him to give them labor in order that they 

 may be able to get bread. The leader of that 

 large body of men said to the Mayor, ' Unless 

 you give us something to do some work we 

 shall be obliged to steal, in order that we may 

 be put in the county jail, where we will have 

 food.' " Another Senator (Mr. McCoppin) ob- 

 jected to the bill, saying: u Why, at the end of 



