74 



BULGARIA. 



the majority of the Bulgarian nation. The 

 Russian commissioner fostered the aspirations of 

 the Liberals for a Great Bulgaria, and probably 

 hoped himself to be chosen Prince of the Pan- 

 Bulgarian nation. His draft was modified in 

 a radical sense by the Constituent Assembly at 

 Tirnova. The Constitution, while embodying 

 extreme principles of popular sovereignty based 

 upon universal suffrage, was, in respect to its 

 provisions lor the practical conduct of the Gov- 

 ernment, in many respects imperfect, as every 

 paper constitution instituting a new political 

 system must be of necessity. The Prince pos- 

 sessed no sympathy for popular institutions, 

 and attributed all the friction and the abuses 

 of the Government to the democratic features 

 of the Constitution. The Conservative minor- 

 ity, from whom he had first chosen his minis- 

 ters, were composed of the semi-aristocracy of 

 the Tchorbadjees, who had acquired* wealth 

 under the Turkish regime, and had come to a 

 modus vivendi with the Mohammedan authori- 

 ties. The Young Bulgaria party, led by men 

 who in the Universities of Vienna and Moscow 

 had imbibed the ideas of Western liberalism 

 and of Russian radicalism, and who were in- 

 spired with an enthusiastic national ambition, 

 presented the only doctrines which appealed 

 to the intelligence and patriotism of the peo- 

 ple. Their agitation had led to the Turkish 

 war and the independence of Bulgaria, and 

 the leadership of the people and direction of 

 the destinies of the young state naturally de- 

 volved upon them. The Prince's repugnance 

 to their advanced ideas of liberty, and his con- 

 tempt for their nationalistic patriotism, were so 

 fixed that he regarded the direction of affairs 

 by the doctrinaires of the Liberal party as a 

 political impossibility. 



The difficulty of working the Constitution 

 lay not so much in the " disorganization at 

 home," which Alexander declared to be the 

 effect of popular government in Bulgaria, as in 

 the fact which he embodied in his twin charge, 

 that the Bulgarian Parliament had brought the 

 country into " discredit abroad." This resulted 

 from the reckless thoroughness with which the 

 Libemls were inclined to carry out the prin- 

 ciple of Bulgaria for the Bulgarians, in entire 

 disregard of the wishes of the powerful neigh- 

 boring empires, on whose good-will their 

 country's existence as an independent nation 

 must in a great measure depend. The over- 

 weening jealousy of outsiders, expressed in the 

 motto " Bulgaria far a da se " of the Liberals, 

 and exemplified in the acts which were de- 

 nounced as obstructive by the Austrian Gov- 

 ernment, and those which were construed as 

 ingratitude by the Russians, was the out- 

 cropping of the ancient masterful spirit of the 

 Bulgarians, and had asserted itself under Turk- 

 ish rule in the repudiation of the dictation of 

 the Phanar, their frequent uprisings against the 

 Porte, and their acquisition of the right of 

 entire local self-government. 



The administration of the finances by the 



Liberal Government had been most successful. 

 Through a redistribution of taxes, they had 

 nearly doubled the revenue, without increasing 

 the burden on the people. The general rates 

 were not greater than under the former Gov- 

 ernment, and were one third lower than under 

 the Turkish rule. The people, on the contrary, 

 were enabled, owing partly to the new high- 

 ways and similar public works to which some 

 of the additional revenues were applied, but 

 chiefly to an abundant harvest, to pay the 

 taxes more easily than ever before. When 

 the Conservatives handed the administration 

 over to the Liberals, they had reduced the sur- 

 plus of 12,000,000 francs received from Prince 

 Dondoukoff - Korsakoff to 7,000,000, during 

 their one year's management of public affairs. 

 The budget which they delivered to their suc- 

 cessors provided another deficit for the coming 

 year, the revenue being placed at 16,000,000 

 francs, and the expenditures at 19,000,000 

 francs. The revised budget of the new ad- 

 ministration balanced revenues and expendi- 

 tures at 27,000,000 francs, and their estimate 

 for the following year fixed them both at 30,- 

 000,000 francs. When dismissed from office 

 by the ulcase of the self-constituted autocrat, 

 they left a surplus of 17,000,000 francs cash in 

 the Treasury. The excess of revenue was ex- 

 pended in public works, roads, barracks, hos- 

 pitals, and public-office buildings, and in es- 

 tablishing a system of higher education and 

 erecting buildings for the elementary schools, 

 which are maintained by the communities. 

 For the latter, of which there are 1,088, afford- 

 ing instruction to 56,354 children, a system of 

 state inspection was inaugurated. Nine sec- 

 ondary schools have been established in the 

 principal towns, including two for girls, be- 

 sides a classical college at Sofia and a priests' 

 seminary at Liscovatz. There is known to 

 have been more or less corruption in the 

 management of the public funds, but they were 

 employed in the main for judicious and useful 

 purposes. Although the people complained of 

 the Government, from a chronic habit of 

 resenting taxation, they were as lightly taxed 

 as ever before, and never had experienced so 

 much prosperity and general well-being. A 

 reform in the treatment of the Mussulman 

 population by the Liberal Government was 

 instituted before their dismissal from power. 

 Persecutions were checked ; efforts were made 

 to persuade Christians, who had seized the 

 property of refugee Mohammedans, to return 

 it to the owners, and, in communities having a 

 preponderant Mussulman population, Turkish 

 mayors (Kmets) were appointed. The change 

 in policy was sufficient to stop the emigration, 

 thus keeping in the country a useful agricult- 

 ural population, as well as strengthening the 

 hands of the Liberals by retaining an element 

 hostile to Russia. 



Prince Alexander, after he had suspended 

 the Constitution by proclaiming it unsuited to 

 the requirements of the country, summoned a 



