114 



BULGARIA. 



and fellowship with all who were servants of the 

 truth under any name. He deprecated all move- 

 ments and tendencies that looked toward separa- 

 tion of the Episcopal Church from connection 

 with the religious life of the country ; and eccle- 

 siastical theories of exclusive claims or of priestly 

 authority met with his instant opposition. He 

 exercised a large influence in drawing persons to 

 the Episcopal Church by his illustration of its 

 comprehensiveness and spirituality, and during 

 thirty-five years of active life as a clergyman he 

 probably did more than any other man by his 

 personal character and influence, and by his 

 preaching and writings, to guide and to assist 

 those who were most in sympathy with the pow- 

 erful movements in speculative and religious 

 thought which have characterized the latter half 

 of this century. 



BULGARIA, a principality in eastern Eu- 

 rope, tributary to Turkey. It was created by 

 the Treaty of Berlin, signed July 13, 1878, which 

 provides that the Prince of Bulgaria shall be 

 elected by the population, which election must 

 be confirmed by the Sublime Porte and the sig- 

 natory powers. Ferdinand, Duke of Saxony, 

 born Feb. 26, 1861, youngest son of Prince Au- 



fust, Duke of Saxony, and Princess Clementine, 

 aughter of Louis Philippe, King of the French, 

 was elected Prince of Bulgaria by the unani- 

 mous vote of the Great Sobranje on July 7, 1887. 

 He assumed the Government on Aug. 14 of the 

 same year without having obtained confirmation 

 from the Porte or the sanction of the great powers, 

 which was and has been withheld up to date by 

 reason of the objection of the Russian Govern- 

 ment. The Constitution of 1879 vests the legis- 

 lative authority in a single Chamber, the So- 

 branje or National Assembly. Its members are 

 elected by universal manhood suffrage, in the 

 proportion of 1 member to every 10,000 inhabit- 

 ants, for the term of three years. Eastern Rou- 

 mania, now called South Bulgaria, was created 

 an autonomous province of Turkey by the 

 Treaty of Berlin, to be administered by a gov- 

 ernor-general appointed by the Sublime Porte 

 for five years, with the consent of the powers. 

 On Sept. 17, 1885, the Government was over- 

 thrown and the union with Bulgaria pro- 

 claimed. As a result of a conference of the sig- 

 natory powers, the Sultan appointed Prince 

 Alexander, then Prince of Bulgaria, Governor- 

 General of Roumelia. When the latter was forced 

 to abrogate, his successor took upon himself the 

 Governor-Generalship as well, but neither the 

 union nor the rights assumed by Prince Ferdi- 

 nand have ever been recognized by the Porte or 

 the powers, although the province to-day forms 

 part of the principality of Bulgaria. 



Area and Population. The area of Bul- 

 garia proper is 24,360 square miles, that of South 

 Bulgaria 13,500 square miles. The total popula- 

 tion on Jan. 1, 1888, numbered 3,154,375, of 

 which 1,605,389 were males and 1,548,986 fe- 

 males. Of the total population, 2,432,154 belong 

 to the Orthodox Greek Church, 668,173 are 

 Mohammedans, 24,352 Jews, and 18,539 Catho- 

 lics. Sofia, the capital, has a population of 30,- 

 428 ; Philippopolis, the capital of Roumelia, has 

 33,442 inhabitants; and Varna, on the Black 

 Sea, has a population of 25,256. (For the army, 

 see the " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1892.) 



Finances. The budget for 1892 places the 

 revenue at 82,647,400 lei or francs, and the ex- 

 penditure at 88,248,075 lei. The principal 

 sources of the revenue and the amounts derived 

 therefrom in 1892 were: Direct taxes, 43,762,- 

 400 lei ; customs and excise, 16,083,000 lei. The 

 principal items of expenditure were: Army, 21,- 

 855,850 lei ; public debt, 13,853,525 lei ; finance, 

 13,177,200 lei ; public works, 11,326,175 lei ; 

 interior, 9,216,800 lei ; instruction, 6,756,400 lei. 



Commerce. The total imports in 1891 were 

 valued at 81,348,150 lei, and the exports at 71,- 

 055,085 lei. The chief imports were textiles, to 

 the amount of 20,961,000 lei; articles of food 

 and drink, amounting to 15,042,863 lei ; chem- 

 icals, 8,155,425 lei; metals and metal goods, 

 7,017,292 lei ; machinery, etc., 8,778,507 lei. The 

 principal exports were grain, amounting to 53,- 

 430,411 lei; and live stock to the amount of 

 6,000,000 lei. The following table shows the 

 trade with the principal countries in the same 

 year in lei : 



Communications. In 1892 Bulgaria had 806 

 kilometres of railroads, of which 494 kilometres 

 belonged to the state and 312 kilometres to pri- 

 vate companies. There were 31 kilometres 

 under construction. 



The post-office in 1890 forwarded 3,698.000 

 letters, 876,000 postal cards, 3,466,000 printed 

 inclosures and samples, and 77,000 money or- 

 ders of the declared value of 17,353,000 francs. 



In 1891 there were 4,710 kilometres of tele- 

 graph lines belonging to the state, with 8,484 

 kilometres of wire. There were transmitted 

 over the wires 742,295 domestic dispatches, 181,- 

 895 international and 23,203 official dispatches. 



Proposed Change in the Law of Succes- 

 sion. The Constitution of Tirnova makes the 

 princely dignity hereditary in the family of the 

 prince duly elected by the National Assembly, 

 confirmed by the suzerain power, and approved 

 by the signatories of the Berlin Treaty. In case 

 of a vacancy the election of a new prince shall 

 take place under the same conditions and with 

 the same forms. The prince first elected may 

 belong to a different confession from the state 

 religion, but his successor must be a member of 

 the Greek Orthodox Church. The Bulgarian 

 jurists decided that this last rule did not apply 

 to a new prince, and consequently did not in- 

 capacitate Prince Ferdinand, a Catholic, when 

 he was elected to succeed Alexander of Batten- 

 berg. The son of an elected prince, however, 

 could not succeed to the throne unless he was a 

 member of the Orthodox Church. An attempt 

 to sow the seeds of religious rancor had been 

 made by pro-Russian intriguers, who accused the 



