BULGARIA. 



115 



Prince and his mother of proselyting designs, 

 and the visit of the latter at Sofia was made un- 

 pleasant by the outcry against tin- services of 

 her ohftpel. The diplomatic world was dumb- 

 fniiiidfd in (lie latter part of 1892 when the Bul- 

 garian Prime Minister laid before the ordinary 

 Bobranje a project for amending the Constitu- 

 tion in order to permit the Prince to bring up 

 his heir, if ho should have one, in the Catholic 

 faith. It was understood that Ferdinand was 

 anxious to found a dynasty, a desire that augured 

 well for the security of his position, and the ac- 

 complishment of which would tend to consoli- 

 date it, even though an alliance with a Catholic 

 princely family was found most desirable, since 

 the attitude of the Czar shut the Prince out 

 from any suitable match in an Orthodox family ; 

 but to permit the Catholic Church to stipulate 

 that a born Bulgarian prince must be a Catholic 

 and require the Bulgarians to alter their Consti- 

 tution, with the probable result of establishing a 

 Roman Catholic dynasty on the throne, seemed 

 doubly hazardous. The constitutional amend- 

 ment, as reported by the committee of the So- 

 bran je on Dec. 19, 1892, runs as follows : 

 Tim Prince of Bulgaria and his descendants can 



ITI 



thj 

 fn 



Ml 

 >7 



they Delong to another religion, may retain it. 



This was agreed to by the Chamber, with only 

 13 dissenting votes. The Russian ambassador at 

 the Porte had suggested to the Bulgarian ex- 

 arch in Constantinople that he should menace 

 those who voted for the revision with excom- 

 munication. The latter made the proposition to 

 the Bulgarian Government that the Holy Synod 

 should be invited to deliver an opinion on the 

 ecclesiastical bearings of the amendment before 

 the Great Sobranie took action upon it, but re- 

 frained from positive measures. Dragan Zan- 

 koff, the exiled chief of the Russophile party, is- 

 sued a manifesto appealing to patriots, especial- 

 ly officers and soldiers of the army, to rise and 

 deliver the country from the clutches of false 

 friends and avert the general danger that threat- 

 ened the whole Bulgarian people. An exposure 

 of Russian intrigue published by Jacobsohn, the 

 "former dragoman of the Russian legation at 

 Bucharest, nad done much to keep alive the 



pular distrust of the Russians. The Metropol- 

 .tan Clement on Feb. 26 delivered an incendiary 

 sermon at Tirnova urging the people to oppose 

 the Government as far as lay in their power, in 

 consequence of which members of his congrega- 

 tion and other citizens sent a deputation to re- 

 qiieM. him to refrain from inciting revolution ; 

 and when he declared in a speech to the crowd 

 assembled before his residence that he would 

 continue in the same course, he was forcibly 

 carried off and imprisoned in a monastery, and 

 a telegram signed by the mayors of Tirnova and 

 other towns and several members of the So- 

 bran je was sent to the Stambuloff, requesting the 

 Government to regard his removal as an accom- 

 plished fact, since the people declined to submit 

 to a bishop who had always ignored the true 

 interests of Bulgaria. The exarch, who had 

 abandoned his opposition to the proposed change 

 in the Constitution, promised to move in the 

 matter should it be established conclusively that 



Mgr. Clement had abused the sanctity of the 

 Church in order to excite the population. The 

 question of his removal or the infliction of any 

 ccrlcsiastical penalty was brought before the 

 Holy Synod, and the Government refused to 

 -and iun his illegal deposition by the people, but 

 was ready to have him tried for incitement to 

 insurrection. 



The first declaration of the Russian Govern- 

 ment in regard to the Bulgarian crisis was an 

 official communiqud, printed in the "Govern- 

 ment Messenger, defining its position in the fol- 

 lowing language : 



Since these leaders of the Government now propose 

 to convene the Sobranje in order to modify Article 

 XXXVIII of the Constitution of Tirnova, and thus 

 encroach upon the religion of the country, the Imperial 

 Government, while adhering to the principle of non- 

 intervention in the internal affairs ot the principality, 

 can not remain a dumb witness of an experiment 

 which encounters active opposition among the Bul- 

 garian people. The Imperial Government expresses 

 its earnest desire that the voices which have made 

 themselves heard among the clergy and the well- 

 disposed citizens will serve as a warning to all Bul- 

 garians, without distinction of party, and ward otf a 

 danger threatening the whole people, which is on the 

 point of renouncing the most sacred traditions of cen- 

 turies. The Imperial Government is convinced that 

 the contemplated revolution in the ecclesiastico-polit- 

 ical life of the principality will achieve no favorable 

 results, and will have only sad consequences in the 

 future, inasmuch as it will produce internal dissen- 

 sions, and will seriously disturb the moral relations 

 of the people. 



This communique was sent to the Russian am- 

 bassadors, accompanied by a circular letter stat- 

 ing that the Imperial Government had obeyed 

 considerations of a paramount order in refusing 

 to recognize a regime deprived of legal sanction, 

 which it had always regarded as contrary to the 

 interests of the Bulgarian nation. The ground 

 is taken that a decision of a Bulgarian Assembly 

 with reference to the dynastic question is subject 

 to dispute because the treaty of Berlin estab- 

 lishes no reigning dynasty in the principality. 

 It stipulates how the Prince shall be elected, 

 and that the same conditions and procedure 

 shall be observed in choosing a successor in case 

 of a vacancy, but contains no provision that 

 "gives to the power of the Prince an hereditary 

 character." The circular defines the special po- 

 sition of Russia in the following terms : 



But it is not merely as one of the signatory powers 

 of the Treaty of Berlin that Russia believes it is her 

 duty to raise her voice in the present circumstances. 

 By profoundly wounding the religious feelings of the 

 Bulgarian nation, the measure proposed by the Sofia 

 Government would deal a severe blow at the work of 

 liberation, in the service of which Russia has not 

 spared her blood. The proceedings employed by 

 those who at present govern the principality are 

 known. They will permit these rulers perhaps to 

 gain their ends. But it is our duty none the less to 

 stigmatize as it deserves an undertaking tending to 

 retard the free development of the national life, in 

 disregard of the principles and historic traditions 

 which lie at its foundation. No power would show 

 itself indifferent toward a positive attempt against an 

 order of things which it had sought to cement at the 

 price of the greatest sacrifices. It certainly was pot 

 in order to implant in Bulgaria the present regime 

 that Russia created the principality by force of arms. 

 IVrsmuleil that the blow now being dealt at the Bul- 

 garian Constitution can only drag in its train fright- 



