96 



BULGAKIA. 



dentials remain in force, are inviolable. For 

 crimes committed before or after the opening 

 of the Assembly a deputy can only be prose- 

 cuted after the consent of the Oonstituante has 

 been secured. A deputy can not be prose- 

 cuted for opinions expressed in the discussions 

 of the Assembly. There will be three sessions 

 each week Monday, "Wednesday, and Friday; 

 but the sessions may be increased or diminished 

 by a vote of the Assembly. The sessions shall 

 be public, and can only be made secret by the 

 demand of the President, or upon the written 

 request of twenty members, and even then 

 must be sustained by at least one-third of the 

 members present. On March 6th the Assem- 

 bly elected the former Exarch its President. 

 No work of any importance was done, the 

 Assembly confining itself to speeches on the 

 condition of the Bulgarian race. On March 

 18th the Assembly adopted the address drawn 

 up by the committee in reply to Prince Don- 

 doukoff-Korsakoflfs message. It expressed the 

 gratitude of Bulgaria to the Russian Emperor, 

 and alluded to difficulties placed in the way of 

 the future of the principality by the presence 

 of Turkish troops in the Balkans. On March 

 19th Prince Dondoukoff-Korsakoff sent a mes- 

 sage to the Assembly expressing his regret at 

 hearing that the Assembly had deviated from 

 the line of duty marked out by the Treaty of 

 Berlin, and had been occupying itself with 

 matters entirely outside its jurisdiction. He 

 strongly desired that no more time should be 

 wasted in discussing matters concerning which 

 the Constituante had no power of action or 

 even of suggestion. A motion was then made 

 and carried that the consideration of the Consti- 

 tution should be immediately proceeded with, 

 and the secretary was ordered to read the draft 

 prepared by Prince Dondoukoff-Korsakoff. A 

 committee of fifteen was appointed to revise 

 the draft, and on April 2d it handed in its re- 

 port. In regard to religious matters, prosely- 

 tism should be forbidden. With regard to the 

 Prince, it rejected the clause of the original 

 draft which stated that the relations of the 

 Prince to the Porte should be those of a vassal, 

 and maintained the stipulation that the prince- 

 ly dignity should be hereditary in the direct 

 male line. The civil list was fixed at 600,000 

 francs per annum. Education was to be com- 

 pulsory and free. All who paid taxes to the 

 amount of 100 piasters should have a vote; 

 and it proposed to abolish the Great National 

 Assembly, and to constitute a National Assem- 

 bly and a Senate, partly nominated and partly 

 elected. Of three ecclesiastical senators, one 

 should be the representative of the Mohamme- 

 dan clergy. The present National Assembly, 

 strengthened by two elected members from 

 each of the 120 districts, should elect the Prince. 

 On April 3d the Assembly began the discussion 

 of the Constitution, and considered the first 

 thirty-five articles, and made several modifica- 

 tions in the original draft. Sophia was select- 

 ed as the capital of Bulgaria, and the salary of 



the Prince was fixed at 600,000 instead of 

 1,000,000 francs. Articles 36 and 37 were 

 passed on the 4th, and Articles 38 to 62 on the 

 5th. The recommendation of the committee 

 that proselytism be prohibited in the princi- 

 pality was rejected. New articles were added, 

 declaring that slavery should not exist in Bul- 

 garia, that no titles of rank should be insti- 

 tuted, and that only military merit should be 

 rewarded by a decoration, which the Prince 

 alone would have the right to confer. On the 

 7th the statute for the election of a Prince was 

 considered, and after a short discussion it was 

 decided that the composition of the present 

 Chamber precluded its proceeding with the 

 appointment, and that new elections would be 

 necessary. A resolution was accordingly passed 

 by a large majority requesting Prince Dondou- 

 koff to take steps for the new elections with- 

 out delay, on the basis of three deputies for 

 each ten thousand of the population. On 

 April 8th the Bishop of Sophia introduced a 

 motion to insert an article in the Constitution 

 requiring all religious publications to be sub- 

 jected to the censorship of the Holy Synod 

 before being put on sale in Bulgaria. The 

 motion was rejected by an almost unanimous 

 vote. Articles 73 to 78 inclusive were adopted, 

 with the following modifications : Article 73 

 now reads," Primary education is gratuitous 

 and obligatory." In Article 74 the freedom of 

 the press and of all publications was more em- 

 phatically asserted than in the original clause. 

 The discussion over Article 78 became very bit- 

 ter and personal in its character. A number of 

 members desired to have a Senate as well as a 

 Lower House of Representatives. This was 

 resented by a majority of the deputies as an 

 attempt to establish a privileged class of na- 

 tional legislators, and the motion to establish 

 a Senate was rejected. On the 9th Articles 

 79 to 117 were passed. Article 79 was entirely 

 remodeled, and it was decided that the ordi- 

 nary Assembly should be entirely elective, one 

 member representing ten thousand persons of 

 both sexes ; the Assembly to sit for three years. 

 Any citizen over twenty-one years of age, en- 

 joying political rights, should be qualified to 

 vote ; in order to be eligible to the Assembly, a 

 man must be thirty years of age and able to 

 read and write Bulgarian. On the 19th Arti- 

 cles 118 to 149 were disposed of. Article 137, 

 relating to the composition of the future Con- 

 stituantes, was changed so as to make these 

 assemblies purely elective by the people, in 

 the same manner as provided for the ordinary 

 Legislative Assembly. Articles 142 to 147 

 were rejected entirely. These articles provided 

 for the creation of a Council of State, which 

 was regarded as unnecessary. Article 148, de- 

 fining the duties and jurisdiction of the Coun- 

 cil, was thoroughly changed, and the duties of 

 the Council were distributed among the Na- 

 tional Assembly, the Court of Cassation, and 

 the Council of Ministers. On the 21st the re- 

 mainder of the Constitution was disposed of. 



