BULGARIA. 



The legislative power is vested in the Sobranje, 

 a single Chamber containing 157 members, 1 to 

 every 20,000 inhabitants, elected for five years 

 by manhood suffrage. A Great Sobranje of 300 

 members, specially elected, is summoned when 

 an amendment of the Constitution, the succes- 

 sion to the throne, the appointment of a regency, 

 or the cession or annexation of territory is in 

 question. 



The reigning Prince is Ferdinand, Duke of 

 Saxony, the youngest son of Prince August of 

 Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and of Princess Clementine 

 of Bourbon-Orleans, daughter of Louis Philippe, 

 King of the French. He was elected by the Great 

 Sobranje on July 7, 1887, after the deposition 

 of Prince Alexander of Battenberg, and was final- 

 ly recognized by the signatory powers in March, 

 1*896. The heir* to the throne is Boris, born Jan. 

 30, 1894, son of Prince Ferdinand and Princess 

 Marie Louise of Bourbon, daughter of Robert, 

 Duke of Parma. Prince Boris was baptized a 

 Roman Catholic, but on Feb. 14, 1896, was re- 

 ceived into the Greek Orthodox Church. The 

 Cabinet of ministers in the beginning of 1899, 

 first constituted on Sept. 7, 1897, was composed 

 as follows: President of the Council and Min- 

 ister of Foreign Affairs and of Worship, Dr. C. 

 Stoiloff; Minister of Finance, Theodor Theodo- 

 roff ; Minister of Justice, G. Zgureff ; Minister of 

 the Interior, N. Beneff; Minister of Public In- 

 struction, Ivan Vazoff ; Minister of War, Col. N. 

 Ivanoff; Minister of Public Works and Ways 

 and Communications, J. Madjaroff; Minister of 

 Commerce and Agriculture, C. Velitchoff. 



Area and Population. The area of Bulgaria 

 proper is 24,380 square miles, and that of East- 

 ern Roumelia, or South Bulgaria, is 13,700 square 

 miles. The population of South Bulgaria at the 

 census of Jan. 1, 1893, was 998,431; that of the 

 whole of Bulgaria was 3,310,713, comprising 

 2,504,336 Bulgars, 569,728 Turks, 62,628 Rou- 

 manians, 58,518 Greeks, 52,132 gypsies, 27,531 

 Spanish-speaking Jews, 16,290 Tartars, 6,445 Ar- 

 menians, 3,620 Austrians and Germans, 1,221 

 Albanians, 928 Russians, 905 Bohemians, 818 

 Serbs, 803 Italians, and 3,820 of other nationali- 

 ties. Sofia, the capital city, has 46,593 inhabit- 

 ants; Philippopolis, the capital of Eastern Rou- 

 melia, 41,068. The number of marriages in 1895 

 was 31,230; of births, 138,338; of deaths, 90,210; 

 excess of births, 48,128. 



Finances. The revenue was estimated for 

 1898 at 84,445,713 francs, and expenditure at 

 84,487,975 francs. For 1899 the direct taxes were 

 expected to yield 33,836,000 francs, and indirect 

 taxes 32,451,000 francs. The estimated require- 

 ments for the public debt .were 20,934,146 francs; 

 for the army, 22,623,224 francs; for the interior, 

 7,860,501 francs; for instruction, 7,548,555 francs; 

 for public works, 6,731,693 francs. 



The public debt consists of a loan of 41,290,000 

 francs for the purchase of the Varna and Rust- 

 chuk Railroad effected in 1888, 26,975,000 francs 

 of the loan of 1889, and 98,825,000 francs bor- 

 rowed under the loan act of 1892, besides 9,699,- 

 256 francs of the Russian occupation debt and 

 .826.875 francs due to the Turkish Government. 

 The Eastern Roumelian tribute was assumed by 

 Bulgaria, but the Bulgarian tribute to the Porte 

 and Bulgaria's share of the Turkish debt have 

 never been fixed. In December, 1898, the So- 

 branje authorized a 5-per-cent. loan of 290,000,000 

 francs for the purpose of converting all cate- 

 gories of the national debt into a uniform debt. 



The Army. Military service is obligatory on 

 all Bulgarians from the age of twenty. Moham- 

 medans may pay for exemption, and on those 



who are physically incapable of bearing arms a 

 military tax is levied. Out of 40,000 young men 

 called up annually about 16,000 are drawn by 

 lot for active service. The nominal strength of 

 the army in 1898 was 2,500 officers and 40,555 

 men, with 7,400 horses. The, war effective is 

 126,970 men, with 23,432 horses and 312 guns. 

 The infantry weapon is the Mannlicher repeating 

 rifle of 8 millimetres bore. The artillery is armed 

 with Krupp and Creuzot guns. 



Commerce and Production. The chief arti- 

 cle of export is wheat. Other exports are live 

 animals, woolen cloth, attar of roses, skins, cheese, 

 eggs, silk cocoons, timber, and tobacco. The 

 imports are textiles, metal goods, machinery, 

 groceries, petroleum, paper, coal, salt, and fish. 

 The total value of the imports in 1897 was 83,- 

 994,236 lei, or francs, against 76,530,278 lei in 

 1S96; of the exports, 83,994,236 lei against 108,- 

 739,977 lei. The distribution of the commerce in 

 1897 is shown in the following table, giving values 

 in francs, or lei: 



Navigation. During 1897 there were 8,306 

 vessels entered at Bulgarian ports, of 2,432,282 

 tons, and 8,298 cleared, of 2,434,875 tons. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 length of railroads open for traffic in 1898 was 

 612 miles, and 457 miles were building. 



The post office forwarded 18,783,017 pieces of 

 mail matter during 1897. The state telegraph 

 lines had a total length of 3,250 miles, with 6,910 

 miles of wire. The length of telephone wire was 

 1,028 miles. The number of telegraphic dis- 

 patches sent during 1897 was 2,316,826. The 

 receipts from the post office and telegraphs were 

 3,013,003 francs; expenses, 3,352,259 francs. 



Political Events. Differences between Prince 

 Ferdinand and his ministers concerning the rail- 

 road and financial policy of the Government led 

 to the resignation of M. Stoiloff and his col- 

 leagues on Jan. 28, 1899. M. Grekoff was in- 

 trusted with the formation of a coalition minis- 

 try, which he accomplished on Jan. 31, after his 

 first negotiations with M. Radoslavoff led to 

 nothing, and M. Stoiloff had declined to under- 

 take to reconstitute the Cabinet, and M. Rado- 

 slavoff had failed to get one together independ-^ 

 ently. Finally, M. Radoslavoff consented., to take* 

 office under M. Grekoff with three of his follow- 

 ers and four members belonging to no special 

 groups. The arrangement was completed on the 

 day of the death of the Princess of Bulgaria, 

 Marie Louise of Bourbon, Princess of Parma, 

 who had been a conspicuous figure in Bulgarian 

 politics at the time when, against her desire, 

 her son was baptized into the Greek faith, but 

 who had since won the respect and admiration 

 of the Bulgarians by her quiet and affable de- 

 meanor and her multitudinous charities. The 

 new Cabinet was composed as follows: Premier 



