RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND BULGARIA. 83 



independence. But alas ! the hopes of every friend of freedom, were 

 rudely shattered, by the telegraphic message of the Czar of Russia to 

 Prince Alexander, at Rustchuk, refusing to recognise the free choice 

 by the Bulgarian Nation, of Prince Alexander, as their Ruler, and 

 compelling him, by his autocratic power, to sign a humiliating and 

 truculent abdication. 



Disguise it as we may, it cannot be concealed, that for a long 

 period the Throne of Prince Alexander had been seriously menaced 

 by Russia, that he had been signally marked out by the Czar for 

 deposition, in the hope of hastening the destruction of the edifice of 

 Bulgarian Independence, which he had been so zealously building up. 



That such a fate should have befallen him, that he should have 

 been deposed after so nobly defending his kingdom against Servia, 

 and after carrying out, during seven anxious years, the great pur- 

 pose for which Europe placed him at Sofia, was as unfortunate, as it 

 was unjust. 



There is no doubt that the dismissal of Prince Alexander, by the 

 Czar, from the Russian army was an undoubted rebuke of the most 

 deliberate kind, for nothing could have done so much to widen and 

 intensify the breach between the Czar and the Prince, as this silly 

 act of personal pique, for by stripping him of this military honour, 

 Russia shewed an unalterable determination to prevent the unifica- 

 tion of Bulgaria with Eastern Roumelia, and to secure his down- 

 fall from 'the Bulgarian Throne, upon which Europe, not Russia, had 

 placed him. 



The fact is, Bulgaria had not turned out as grateful, and pliable in 

 Russian hands, as Russian ambition desired, and the Prince had not 

 proved so willing an agent of Russia, as she wished to have on 

 the Throne, of an enlarged and emancipated Bulgaria. 



Moreover, the Czar and his Government perceived that Bulgaria 

 was no longer the submissive State she was supposed to have been 

 whilst under the Ottoman Porte, or at the time that the armies of 

 Russia fought against Turkey for her Independence. 



Russia found, also, that Bulgaria had new ideas of her own, and 

 with her new-born love of freedom, was very unwilling to be absorbed 

 into the despotism of the Russian Empire. 



Besides, Bulgaria had proved that she could exist without Russia, 

 and could fight for her freedom and independence without Russian 

 aid, and if she had not increased her territory, she had increased 

 her claims for political liberty, and justified the respect of the 

 European Powers. 



