RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND BULGARIA. 79 



overthrew the Government, and proclaimed by acclamations its union 

 with Bulgaria. 



Whatever may be our opinions in regard to the provisions of the 

 Treaty of Berlin, whether we sympathise or not with the Slavs and 

 Russophiles for the union of Eastern Roumelia with Bulgaria, under 

 a Ruler chosen by the people of the United Provinces yet, it must be 

 acknowledged, there was accomplished by the union of Eastern 

 Roumelia with Bulgaria, a flagrant violation of the Treaty of Berlin, 

 and that the most conspicuous violators, the instigators of all the 

 miserable intrigues which culminated in the Revolution of the i8th 

 September of 1886, which overthrew the Government at Phillip- 

 popolis, deposed the Governor-General, and installed Prince Alex- 

 ander of Bulgaria in his place, was no other, directly and indirectly, 

 than the leaders of the Panslavists, in the pay and under the 

 authority of the Russian Government and the Russian Czar. 



The origin of the Revolution, and the precise causes which precipita- 

 ted this Union, and especially the motives which compelled Prince 

 Alexander to participate in it, are hazy and difficult to explain. This, 

 it may safely be said, that subsequent to the election of Prince 

 Alexander as Ruler of Bulgaria, and Aleko Pasha as Governor- 

 General of Roumelia in 1878, Russian influence and intrigues widely 

 prevailed on both sides of the Balkans, Russian officers controlled the 

 Bulgarian Army and the Roumelian Militia, and Russian adventurers 

 took the lead in the turbulent politics of the newly-constituted States. 



In Bulgaria, the unslumbering Russian party, finding that the 

 Sobranje, or National Legislature, was too strong for the promotion 

 of the ulterior designs of Russia, compelled Prince Alexander 

 against his will to dissolve the Parliament, and to elect if possible 

 one more agreeable to the Russian mind ; various Officers of State, 

 and Military Commanders, were dismissed from their responsible 

 positions, and supplanted by men who had the confidence and were 

 prepared to promote the interests of Russia in the internal adminis- 

 tration and external relations of the kingdom. 



In Roumelia the Russian party were equally active. Aleko Pasha 

 refused to comply with the demands of the Russian Government for 

 the armament of the Militia with Russian rifles, under the command 

 of a Russian General. 



At the end of 1884 Aleko Pasha's term of office came to an end, 

 and his re-appointment found no favour with the Russian Govern- 

 ment, and his successor Gabriel Pasha, was a willing tool in the hands 

 of Russia for the accomplishment of her sinister designs. 



