96 



BULGARIA. 



in Rio Grande do Sul began to disband. The 

 state of siege proclaimed by Fonseca was raised. 

 On Nov. 25 Gen. Peixoto issued a call for the 

 reassembling on Dec. 18 of the Congress dissolved 

 by Fonseca. The same Congress reassembled, 

 and all the States were represented. Though 

 the secession movement in Rio Grande do Sul 

 did not entirely subside at once, Gen. Floriano 

 Peixoto appeased this thriving and populous 

 state, with 650,000 inhabitants, of whom 200,000 

 are Germans, by choosing the majority of 'the 

 ministers from among its Deputies. The Minis- 

 try of Finance was given to Senhor de Paula 

 Rodriguez Alves, who had a high reputation for 

 ability. The crisis had been caused principally 

 by the financial proceedings of Fonseca and his 

 Cabinet, who found, on assuming power, a for- 

 eign debt of $154,000,000, an internal debt still 

 larger, and $114,000,000 of railroad bonds in 

 which interest was guaranteed, while only one 

 line, the Sao Paulo, capitalized at $9,000,000, 

 earned the amount of the guarantee. The Gov- 

 ernment launched out in new undertakings to 

 please politicians and their localities, and the 

 financial stress became great. The state of the 

 treasury grew alarming when it was discovered 

 that the expected deficit of $14,000,000 would be 

 surpassed by $5,000,000. Foreign trade and pro- 

 ductive activity went on during the crisis. The 

 President's dispositions reduced the deficit for 

 1890 to $8,000,000 in gold, and the country soon 

 settled down under the new Government. 



BULGARIA, a principality in southeastern 

 Europe, tributary to Turkey. The Constitution 

 of 1879 vests the legislative authority in a single 

 Chamber, called the Sobranje, the members of 

 which are elected by universal suffrage for three 

 years, in the proportion of 1 to every 10,000 of 

 population. Eastern Roumelia, which was creat- 

 ed an autonomous province of Turkey by the 

 Treaty of Berlin, was united to Bulgaria by the 

 revolution of September, 1885, and the Prince of 

 Bulgaria was commissioned as Governor-General 

 by the Sultan in April, 1886. The reigning 

 Prince is Ferdinand, born Feb. 26, 1861, the 

 youngest son of the late Prince August, Duke of 

 Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and of Princess Clementine, 

 daughter of Louis Philippe, King of the French. 

 He was elected by the great Sobranje on July 7, 

 1837, to succeed Prince Alexander of Battenberg, 

 who abdicated on Sept. 7, 1886 : but his election 

 has never received the formal assent of the Porte 

 and the signatory powers, as required by the 

 Treaty of Berlin. 



Area and Population. The area of Bulgaria 

 proper is 24,360, and of Eastern Roumelia, or 

 South Bulgaria, 13,500 square miles ; total area, 

 37,860 square miles. The total population was 

 found by a census taken Jan. 1, 1888, to be 3,- 

 154,375 persons, of whom 960,441 inhabited 

 South Bulgaria. The population was divided as 

 to sex into 1,605,389 males and 1.548,986 females. 

 The race statistics give 2,326,250 Bulgars, 607,- 

 319 Turks, 58,338 Greeks, 50,291 gypsies, 23,546 

 Jews, 2,245 Germans, 2,142 Serbs, 2,557 other 

 Slavs, 1,069 Russians, 544 French, and 80,074 of 

 other nationalities. 



Finance. The budget for 1891 estimates the 

 revenue at 80,470,000 leii or francs, and the ex- 

 penditure at 79,299,233 francs. For the army, 

 20,617,435 francs are required ; for the public 



debt, 13,078.618 francs ; for financial administra- 

 tion, 13,820,732 francs ; for the Ministry of the 

 Interior, 8,335,430 francs ; for public works, 7,- 

 722,243 francs ; for public instruction, 5,140,985 

 francs. Of the revenue, 39,952,000 francs are 

 raised by direct taxation, and 15,893,500 francs 

 by custom-house and internal duties. 



The debt to the Russian Government on ac- 

 count of the occupation, of which 15,893,500 

 francs remain to be paid, is to be extinguished 

 in 1896. A loan of 50,000,000 francs was con- 

 tracted in 1887, and another of 30,000,000 francs. 

 The Government has assumed the annual tribute 

 of 118,000 Turkish owed to the Sultan by East- 

 ern Roumelia, and arrears of 21,000 Turkish. 

 The powers have not yet acted on the clause of 

 the Berlin Treaty requiring them to assess the 

 tribute Bulgaria shall pay. 



The Army. The army, service in which is 

 obligatory both in Bulgaria and Eastern Rou- 

 melia, has a peace strength of 1,604 officers and 

 34,203 soldiers, and a war strength of 2,304 offi- 

 cers and 122,703 men. It is organized in 3 divis- 

 ions, of 2 brigades each, composed of 24 regiments 

 of infantry, of 2 battalions and 1 depot battalion ; 

 4 cavalry regiments of 4 squadrons, besides the 

 troop of the guards ; 6 regiments of field artillery, 

 each having 4 batteries, of 4 pieces in peace and 

 8 in war, and a mountain battery with 2 guns ; 2 

 depot batteries and 1 battery of siege artillery ; 1 

 regiment of engineers, of 2 battalions ; and 1 

 disciplinary company. 



The fleet, consisting of 1 yacht, 3 steamers, 7 

 steam sloops, and 2 torpedo boats, is manned by 

 12 officers and 334 men. 



Commerce and Production. The people 

 are employed mostly in agriculture, and the main 

 article of export is wheat. In 1889 the value of 

 the grain exports was 45,841,000 leii or francs. 

 Live animals were exported of the value of 6.000,- 

 000 francs. Other exports are wool, tallow, but- 

 ter, cheese, hides, flax, and timber. The value 

 of the imports in 1889 was 72,869.245 francs, 

 of which 22,492,177 francs came from Austria- 

 Hungary, 21,193,374 francs from Great Britain, 

 9,778,456 francs from Turkey, 4,532,297 francs 

 from Russia, and the rest from Germany, France, 

 Roumania, and other countries ; the direct im- 

 ports from the United States being 59,554 francs, 

 while there were no exports to this country. The 

 chief imports are cotton and other textile manu- 

 factures, iron and other metals, and coal. The 

 total value of the exports in 1889 was 80,581,076 

 francs, of which 30,555,910 francs were invoiced 

 to Turkey, 18,390,317 francs to France, 12,595,444 

 francs to England, 3,558,284 francs to Austria, 

 between 1,000,000 and 2,000,000 francs each to 

 Italy Roumania, Germany, Belgium, and Greece,, 

 and only 84,669 francs to Russia. With Servia 

 the commercial intercourse amounted to 962,547 

 francs of imports and 358,184 of exports. 



Political Complications. The election in 

 August, 1890, of a large majority to sustain in 

 the Sobranje the national or anti-Russian policy 

 of the dictatorial Prime Minister, Stambuloff, 

 was an index of the feeling of the country. 

 Among the uneducated farming class the senti- 

 ments of gratitude toward Russia and of ven- 

 eration for the orthodox Czar have little force, 

 and whatever pro-Russian feeling exists is born 

 of fear of Russian vengeance. The masses of 



