BULGARIA. 



holders. The compulsory clauses of the school 

 law require every child between the ages of 7 

 and 12, inclusive, to attend school for at least 

 six months in the year. The penalty inflicted 

 on the parent or guardian for non-compliance 

 is $5 for the first offense, and $10 for each sub- 

 sequent conviction. 



BULGARIA, a principality created by the Treaty 

 of Berlin, signed July 13, 1878, out of a por- 

 tion of the Christian provinces of Turkey. The 

 treaty provided that it should be an autono- 

 mous principality, tributary to Turkey, and 

 under the suzerainty of the Sultan, with a 

 Christian government, a prince elected by the 

 people, and a national militia. By unanimous 

 vote of the Constituent Assembly, Prince Alex- 

 ander of Battenberg, brother of the then Em- 

 press of Russia, and grand-nephew of the Ger- 

 man Emperor, was elected hereditary prince 

 as Alexander I, April 29, 1879. The Constitu- 

 tion of 1879 vests the legislative authority in 

 a single Chamber, the Sobranje, or National 

 Assembly, elected by universal suffrage in the 

 proportion of one deputy to every 10,000 in- 

 habitants, and gives the Prince power to ap- 

 point additional members not to exceed half the 

 number elected by the people. The duration 

 of the National Assembly was fixed at four 

 years, but the Prince could dissolve it at any 

 time and order new elections. The Constitu- 

 tion was suspended by Prince Alexander in 

 1881, who dissolved the National Assembly, 

 and, by despotic use of the military power and 

 falsification of the returns, procured the elec- 

 tion of a Grand National Assembly, the body 

 intrusted with the power to make changes in 

 the Constitution, which, by a vote of July 13, 

 1881, clothed the Prince with autocratic legis- 

 lative, and executive powers for seven years. 



Statistics. The area of Bulgaria is estimated 

 at 24,360 square miles. The population, as 

 returned in the census of Jan. 1. 1881, was 

 1,998,983, of whom 1,023,730 were males and 

 975,253 females. As regards religion, 68-8 per 

 cent, were Christians, 30'7 per cent. Moham- 

 medans, and 0-5 per cent. Israelites ; in respect 

 to nationality, 66'7 per cent, were Bulgarians, 

 30-6 per cent. Turks, 1-3 per cent. Roumani- 

 ans, 0-5 per cent. Greeks, 0'5 per cent. Israel- 

 ites, 0'3 per cent. Germans, and O'l per cent, 

 of other nationalities. In 1883 the emigration 

 of the Mohammedan element recommenced on 

 a large scale. The capital, Sofia, contained 20,- 

 541 inhabitants ; Rustchuk, 26,867 ; Varna, 

 24,649 ; Shumla, 22,921. There were nine oth- 

 er towns of over 10,000 inhabitants. The main 

 occupation of the people is agriculture. The 

 exports of grain are about 1,500,000 tons per 

 annum. Other articles of export are wool, tal- 

 low, hides, and timber. Coal and iron mines 

 exist, but are almost entirely undeveloped. 

 There is a railroad between Rustchuk and Var- 

 na, 140 miles in length. 



Army. The army has been the subject of 

 particular attention on the part of Prince Al- 

 exander. In order to increase the reserve ar- 



my as rapidly as possible, the period of service 

 with the colors is only two years, instead of 

 four. The army was trained by Russian of- 

 ficers, who fill most of the superior commands. 

 Bulgarian officers have been educated at the 

 Military Academy at Sofia to take their places 

 as speedily as practicable. The number of 

 Russian officers in 1882 was 376. In the au- 

 tumn of 1883 there were 185 Russian officers 

 still on the lists, and 400 of Bulgarian nation- 

 ality. The total strength of the army was 

 16,500 men. 



Political Review. Prince Alexander, when by 

 a state-stroke he abolished representative gov- 

 ernment, placed himself under the direction 

 and tutelage of the Russian court. He soon 

 found that his Russian mentors would give 

 him no chance to exercise his statecraft, but 

 pursued aims which were more in harmony with 

 the ideas of the Radical party which he had 

 expelled than with his own. The coup d^etat 

 placed it in the power of the Russians to 

 strengthen their grasp upon the country. Al- 

 exander had made his cousin, the Russian Em- 

 peror, the arbiter between himself and his 

 subjects, expecting when endowed with auto- 

 cratic power to guide the policy of the country 

 by balancing the interests of Russia and Aus- 

 tro-German interests against each other, and 

 thus secure the independent position guaran- 

 teed by the Treaty of Berlin. Instead of the 

 personal government at which he aimed, he 

 was forced to submit to the dictation of Rus- 

 sian guides who sympathized with the Pan- 

 bulgarian and radical ideas of the popular party 

 which they had aided the Prince in excluding 

 from the seats of government witli the bayo- 

 net. Zankoff and Balabanoff, the Radical lead- 

 ers, from their near place of exile in Eastern 

 Roumelia, and in clandestine visits in the coun- 

 try, were able to carry on a lively agitation 

 for the overthrow of the Prince. Hitrovo, 

 the Russian consul-general, who had planned 

 the arrangements of the coup d'etat, and many 

 of the Russian officers, openly fraternized with 

 the Prince's enemies. Kryloff, the Russian 

 general, who was Minister of "War, refused to 

 issue an order forbidding officers of the army 

 to take part in these antagonistic demonstra- 

 tions. Alexander journeyed to St. Petersburg, 

 and threatened to lay down the crown if he was 

 obliged to submit to such indignities, where- 

 upon the Emperor recalled the obnoxious offi- 

 cials, and gave the Prince for advisers Generals 

 Soboleff and Kaulbars, who were supposed to 

 be free from Panslavistic tendencies, admon- 

 ishing him at the same time to be sparing in 

 the exercise of his autocratic powers. 



The ministry which was formed in July, 

 1882, consisted of Gen. Soboleff, Premier and 

 Minister of the Interior; Gen. Kaulbars, Min- 

 ister of War ; Natshevich a Bulgarian, whose 

 appointment as Minister of the Interior a year 

 before in the place of the Russian Lieut-Col. 

 Remlingen, who was dismissed, had provoked 

 angry menaces from Hitrovo Minister of Fi- 



