CALIFORNIA. 



95 



and Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Grekoff; 

 Minister of the Interior, M. Radosiavoff ; Minis- 

 ter of Public Instruction, M. Ivantchoff; Minister 

 of Public Works, M. Tontcheff; Minister of Fi- 

 nace, M. Teneff; Minister of Commerce and 

 Agriculture, M. Natchovich; Minister of Justice, 

 M. Pesheff ; Minister of War, Col. Paprikoff. The 

 cause of the fall of M. Stoiloff's Cabinet was a 

 bill passed through the Sobranje sanctioning the 

 transfer to the Bulgarian Government of that 

 part of the European railroad system of Turkey 

 which passes through the principality. The con- 

 tract itself encountered much opposition from 

 residents of certain districts through which they 

 wished the Government to build a competitive 

 line. An arrangement was also concluded for 

 the conversion of all the Bulgarian railroad 

 loans. The haste of the Government in stipu- 

 lating that the transfer of the railroad should 

 take effect on Feb. 1 incensed its opponents the 

 more. In the bill it was made dependent on the 

 sanction of the Porte, and when M. Stoiloff 

 and his colleagues expressed a determination to 

 carry out the agreement with the Eastern Rail- 

 road Company even if the Porte should fail to 

 sanction it before Feb. 1, or, indeed, should with- 

 hold its approval altogether, the Prince inter- 

 vened in the controversy to prevent a possible 

 conflict with Turkey. The Ministers of Finance 

 and the Interior first offered their resignations, 

 and then the Cabinet as a whole. The country 

 at this time was suffering from a severe financial 

 crisis, for which the Stoiloff Cabinet was held 

 to be responsible. The new Cabinet proceeded 

 with the negotiations with the Porte relative 

 to the railroad lease. The Turkish Government 

 raised difficulties, and in the end the proposed 

 lease fell through. The agitation in favor of 

 Macedonian emancipation had been revived in 

 Bulgaria, and in Macedonia the Bulgarian propa- 

 ganda and the rivalries between the Bulgarian, 

 Servian, Greek, and Roumanian schools and lan- 

 guages produced unusual excitement. The new 

 Bulgarian ministry was not disposed to counte- 

 nance the resuscitation of the Macedonian ques- 

 tion, the less so because it had to face serious 

 financial difficulties, and was at a loss where to 

 find the funds to meet the obligations of the 

 Government. It opened negotiations with the 

 Eastern Railroad Company for the transference 

 to it of the sections of the parallel line already 

 built for the purpose of forcing the company in 

 self-defense to cede to the Government the Bul- 



garian section of its railroad system, thus termi- 

 nating the conflict into which the Stoiloff Cabi- 

 net had plunged with this powerful company, 

 composed of the German and Austrian bankers 

 who had undertaken the loan of 1892. In addi- 

 tion to the parallel railroad the late ministry 

 had begun the construction of other railroads 

 and of harbors at Varna and Bourgas, a pro- 

 gramme greatly in excess of the present financial 

 means of the Government. The ministry of M. 

 Grekoff thus found these unfinished works on 

 its hands, and had to meet at once a debt of 

 nearly 50,000,000 francs. The parallel railroad, 

 on which 4,000,000 francs had been expended, it 

 was decided to abandon if the part constructed 

 could not be sold to the company. Of the other 

 unfinished constructions only the almost com- 

 pleted railroads connecting Sofia with Shumla 

 and Rustchuk with Tirnova and the harbor works 

 at Varna and Bourgas would be proceeded with. 

 Peace having been made with the syndicate of 

 foreign bankers, these were willing to help the 

 Government out of its immediate difficulties 

 with an advance of 5,000,000 francs, with the 

 option of loaning 45,000,000 francs later at the 

 price of 87 per cent., with interest at 6 per cent. 

 The Bulgarian Government pledged itseli to 

 repay 15,000,000 francs obtained in recent years, 

 and the syndicate undertook to carry out the 

 conversion of the national debt, including the 

 recent loan of 28,000,000 francs, by the creation 

 of a unified 5-per-cent. loan of 200,000,000 francs, 

 to be taken at 89^ per cent. This arrangement 

 was concluded early in March. On May 7 a new 

 Sobranje was elected, in which the Ministerial- 

 ists obtained 104 seats and the various groups 

 of the Opposition 53. The submission of the 

 Government to the foreign syndicate, from whose 

 control over the railroad communications and 

 public finances the people hoped to be emanci- 

 pated, created much indignation, and produced a 

 situation that was almost revolutionary. The 

 Stambuloff group in the Sobranje withdrew its 

 support from the Government. The Prince was 

 made the object of violent attacks, and these 

 led to restrictions on the liberty of the press. 

 The Government obtained an additional loan 

 from the syndicate in May, but this was not suf- 

 ficient to relieve its needs. The salaries of of- 

 ficials were months in arrears for the first time 

 since Bulgaria became a nation, and the scarcity 

 of money was acutely felt throughout the 

 country. 



C 



CALIFORNIA, a Pacific coast State, admit- 

 ted to the Union Sept. 9, 1850; area, 158,360 

 square miles. The population, according to each 

 decennial census since admission, was 92,597 in 

 1850; 379,994 in 1800; 560.247 in 1870; 864,694 

 in 1880; and 1,208,130 in 1890. Capital, Sacra- 

 mento. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year: Governor, Henry T. 

 Gage; Lieutenant Governor, Jacob H. Neff ; Secre- 

 tary of State, Charles F. Curry; Comptroller, Ed- 

 ward P. Colgan; Treasurer, Truman Reeves; At- 

 torney-General, Tirey L. Ford; Surveyor-General, 

 Martin J. Wright; Superintendent of Public In- 

 struction, Thomas J. Kirk; Superintendent of 

 Printing, Alfred J. Johnston; Adjutant General, 

 W. H. Seaman; Commissioner of Labor, F. V. 

 Meyers; Railroad Commissioners, E. B. Edson, C. 



S. Laumeister, N. Blackstock; Board of Equal- 

 ization, Alexander Brown, R. H. Beamer, Thomas 

 O. Toland, and J. C. Edwards, who died, and was 

 succeeded in May by Lewis H. Brown; Commis- 

 sioners of the Supreme Court, H. S. Foote, Whea- 

 ton A. Gray, and E. J. Pringle, who died, and was 

 succeeded in May by James A. Cooper; Building 

 and Loan Commissioner, Frank H. Gould: Bank 

 Commissioners, John Markley, A. W. Barrett, 

 and B. D. Murphy; Chief Justice of the Supreme 

 Court, W. H. Beatty; Associate Justices, T. B. 

 McFarland, C. H. Garoutte, R. C. Harrison, Wal- 

 ter Van Dyke, F. W. Henshaw, Jackson Temple; 

 Clerk, George W. Root. The officers elected in 

 1898 were chosen on the Republican ticket, ex- 

 cepting T. O. Toland and Walter Van Dyke, who 

 were candidates of the Fusionists. Justice Tem- 

 ple is a Democrat. 



