74 RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND BULGARIA. 



evoked such a storm of indignation from the public press, and the 

 public voice, that no Cabinet or Government could for a moment 

 withstand. 



The Great Powers, especially Great Britain, resolutely declared, 

 that whatever Treaty of Peace had been signed at San Stefano, 

 its record was waste paper until it had been submitted to the general 

 sanction of Europe ; in fact that no one of the 29 articles would be 

 allowed to stand without the sanction of the signatures of the Treaty 

 of Paris, Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, and Italy, who were 

 equally interested, equally devoted to the interests of the Ottoman 

 Nation, and its Christian population, as the disinterested Government 

 of Russia. 



In general terms the Treaty of Stefano was the abolition of every 

 obstacle intervening between Russia and her goal — the possession of 

 Constantinople and the Straits of the Dardanelles, with a paramount 

 influence over Asia Minor. 



One provision constituted a great Bulgaria, stretching from 

 Servia to the Euxine, and from the Danube to the Egean. 



Another provision authorised an assembly of the notables of 

 Bulgaria to elect a Prince in the presence of 50,000 Russian soldiers, 

 which practically would have secured the election of her own nominee, 

 for instance, Skoboleff, Dondukoff-Korsakoff, or Dolgourokoff. 



Another provision authorised Russia to an occupation of Bulgaria 

 by her 50,000 soldiers in arms, to enable her to settle its political 

 administration, which would practically have created Bulgaria into a 

 Vassal State of Russia. 



Another provision authorised a prolonged occupation of Servia and 

 Montenegro, in order to bring them into a willing subjection, a 

 humiliating submission to the Czar. 



Another provision cut off for ever from Turkey the provinces of 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina, and presented them as a free gift to the 

 Government of Austria-Hungary, as the purchased price of Austro- 

 Hungarian neutrality during the War. 



Another provision authorised the razing to the ground of all the 

 fortresses on the Danube, and forbad the passage of all ships of war 

 on the Danube except Russian, for the defence of the Principality of 

 Bulgaria. 



What remained of European Turkey after these divisions and sub- 

 divisions annexed to or brought under the dominion of Russia, con- 

 sisted of a small irregular triangle of territory having Adrianople on 

 the West, and Constantinople on the East. 



