Gambler had been a member of the Sofia membership

The unlucky gambler had been a member of the Sofia membership, and had in former years been one in all a clique of people that habitually performed there for prime stakes. The play which led the physician to commit suicide didn’t happen within the clubhouse, however in a non-public dwelling. But, with their standard disregard of equity, the Opposition papers made a violent assault, in reference to this lamentable occasion, upon a few of the Ministers who have been within the behavior of coming to the membership and taking part in there until late at video games during which appreciable sums have been misplaced or gained. A powerful article appeared within the Bulgarie, a paper printed in French, and presupposed to be backed by the palace, denouncing excessive play as an evil which should be suppressed ; and definitely for a while after the looks of this text the play on the membership was a lot much less frequent and expensive than it had been beforehand to this unhappy prevalence. Nonetheless my impression is that top play is confined to a really small class. Below the brand new rigime a sure small variety of Sofiotes have amassed fortunes which, although not giant in line with our Western notions, are nonetheless giant in line with a Bulgarian commonplace.

The mode of their each day lives

The acquisition of wealth has not led to any alteration within the mode of their each day lives, and about the one means during which these nouveaux riches of Bulgaria can make use of their wealth is by taking part in for larger stakes than they used to do of their earlier days. Furthermore, it’s only honest so as to add that, excluding card-playing, there’s hardly any type of social leisure to be present in Sofia. The Courtroom and the members of the diplomatic physique are the one individuals who ever entertain. I by no means heard, throughout the entire time of my residence there, of a single dinner being given by any native inhabitant of the city; and I’m assured by individuals who have resided right here for years, and who can be amongst the primary folks to be invited to any social gathering, that this 12 months isn’t any exception within the above respect The truth that night events are an unknown factor in Sofia is proved by the circumstance that, although there are many open cabs, there are solely two closed carriages in the entire of Sofia; and but through the season, if it will probably so be referred to as, of Sofia, the nights are so chilly that it could be unimaginable for girls in evening-dress to exit in an open carriage. I presume that there have to be things like household gatherings in Bulgaria as in different international locations; however I’m knowledgeable that even these form of entertainments are extraordinarily uncommon, and are completely confined to very close to relations. This 12 months a contract was signed for the development of a brand new Dwelling Workplace at Sofia, and M. Stambouloff made it a situation of the contract that the constructing ought to comprise good-looking reception-rooms. The architect knowledgeable me that he understood it was the Premier’s intention to try to stimulate social life in Sofia by giving a collection of Ministerial receptions through the season. In that case, a whole innovation shall be launched into the social lifetime of the capital. I ought to doubt, nevertheless, the instance thus set formally being a lot adopted in personal life. The only a few Bulgarian women who go to at overseas homes state brazenly that, even when their husbands wished it, the situation of their homes, and nonetheless extra of their servants, would render it completely unimaginable for them to obtain their associates at residence or give any sort of get together.

Architecturally Sofia has little or no pretensions

Architecturally, Sofia has little or no pretensions. The homes are all of brick encased in stucco. The width of the thoroughfares, the monotony of the infinite rows of indifferent villas, the scrubby timber planted alongside the foot- walks, and the shabby-genteel air inseparable from stucco in each kind and section, jogged my memory regularly of the non-artistic districts of St. John’s Wooden. Palace, public buildings, personal dwellings, are all normal after the mannequin of the home which kids are first taught to attract, an oblong parallelogram, with a broad slit within the center for the doorway, and with any variety of slim slits for the home windows within the facade. Besides in a number of streets of the enterprise quarter, the homes don’t adjoin one another, however stand aside. Hardly any home is greater than two tales in top: most of them consist of 1 story solely. All of them stand in a plot of floor of their very own, however gardens are few and much between; the locations the place one may look forward to finding a backyard are occupied by outhouses. Besides in two or three of the principle streets, the method of reconstruction remains to be incomplete. Once in a while the broad, clean, flag-stone pavements are intersected by stretches of unpaved floor, stuffed up with rubble and free stones, which a bathe of rain converts, in the interim, right into a quagmire. Right here and there, too, sandwiched in between the fashionable stucco villas, are teams of old- normal Turkish homes, half cottages, half shanties, with white-washed partitions and broad, red-tiled roofs.

Probably superior to the previous Sofia

From a painter’s standpoint the tumble-down, squalid outdated city was infinitely preferable; however, from the standpoint of people that must go their lives in Sofia, the current is likely superior to the previous Sofia has, the truth is, been transformed right into a very reasonable specimen of a well-to-do, commonplace Western metropolis. The streets, not like these of Jap cities, are all named, largely after the native celebrities of the period of Liberation, and the homes are all often numbered. The principle thorough-) fares are extensive and properly paved with macadam. The foot- walks in each a part of the city are glorious, apart from the gaps I’ve simply spoken of; and earlier than lengthy Sofia might be as properly constructed a capital, for its measurement, as any to be present in Europe. At night time the city is lit with oil lamps’; by night time as by day the streets are singularly quiet and orderly. The personal homes, although homely, are snug. The sanitary preparations are nonetheless of a primitive form. I’m on no account positive, nevertheless, that they don’t seem to be — extra conducive to well being than the flowery system of water-drainage which is to be substituted of their place, when a contract, already made for supplying Sofia with an sufficient provide of water, is carried into impact.

Higher irrigation and an elevated provide of labor

Given improved strategies of farming, new agricultural implements, higher irrigation, and an elevated provide of labor, the land could be made to yield infinitely greater than it does at current However all these enhancements require cash, and the peasants have little or no cash to spare past that required for his or her livelihood, whereas the State isn’t able to supply the funds required by augmenting the current taxes. Once more, there is no such thing as a doubt that the development of railways, the making of roads, and the resultant enchancment of the communications between Bulgaria and the outer world would open up contemporary markets, would diminish the price of transport, and would allow the farmers to appreciate a lot increased costs for the produce of their land. Sadly, railways, roads, and ports contain a big instant outlay, which, nonetheless useful it might show hereafter, can’t be anticipated to return any satisfactory revenue for some years to return. By the association made with the Vienna Landerbank adequate funds can be supplied to open up the nation by the development of the Sofia-Shumla Railway, and by the development of the harbours of Varna and Bourgas. However the quantity which has as but been supplied falls far in need of what should be required if the nation is to be totally developed.

Bulgarian statesmanship has to resolve

The issue, due to this fact, that Bulgarian statesmanship has to resolve is, tips on how to elevate cash with out crushing the nation by extreme taxation. It might maybe be stated that, the wisest course could be to defer all enhancements until the gradual enhance of the income—which, even beneath the current unfavorable circumstances, is rising slowly however steadily—permits these enhancements to be carried out one after the other. The State, in any case, is simply a dealer on a big scale; and in enterprise it generally pays higher to make enhancements slowly out of income earned than quickly out of cash borrowed. Certainly, if Bulgaria had been an remoted, out-of-the-way State, corresponding to Denmark, the coverage of paying for all enhancements out of the present income would, I believe, commend itself to the economical instincts of the nation in addition to of the Authorities The query, nonetheless, which Bulgaria has to determine entails political much more than economical issues. No one can doubt—at any fee, no person in Bulgaria’s a part of the world does doubt— that the Jap Query is approaching its closing answer. Not solely the longer term place however the unbiased existence of Bulgaria relies upon upon the character of this answer. If the Principality is, as her individuals imagine, destined to play a number one half within the approaching settlement of the destiny of Turkey in Europe, it’s all-important that Bulgaria ought to have developed her nice inner assets earlier than the anticipated disaster involves cross. Below these circumstances it’s intelligible that the Bulgarian individuals, despite their ingrained thrift and warning, ought to want to see their nation positioned within the foremost rank of the States occupying the lands that lie between the Balkans and the Mediterranean, and this object can solely be attained by pushing ahead the event of Bulgaria’s assets. It’s attainable, due to this fact, if not possible, that this ambition, primarily based as it’s upon a deep nationwide sentiment, might show stronger amidst the Bulgarians than even their ardour for economic system.

Absolute authority to go legal guidelines

The Parliament thus constituted possesses absolute authority to go legal guidelines, to impose taxes, to offer the funds required for the administration of the State, both by loans or by taxation, and to debate and modify the Finances No provision is made, on the one hand, for the contingency of the Prince refusing to sanction the legal guidelines handed by the Sobranje; or, then again, for the eventuality of the Sobranje refusing to offer the funds demanded by the chief as needed for the service of the State. The Prince has the precise of dissolving the Meeting, and ordering recent elections each time he thinks correct; but when the brand new Sobranje ought to persist within the coverage which brought about the dissolution of its predecessor, the Prince is beneath no authorized obligation to withdraw his opposition. There are, actually, two kings in Bulgaria, as there have been in Brentford. These kings are the Prince and the Sobranje. Within the contingency of their disagreement a dead-lock should come up, for whose resolution no mechanism has been devised or apparently contemplated by the framework of the Structure.

Drawing up the Structure

The present interpretation of this unusual omission is that it was not unintended, however intentional. The thing of Prince Donderkoff, and of the fellow-officials who assisted him in drawing up the Structure, was to plot a scheme beneath which Russian affect should of necessity stay supreme in Bulgaria. It was anticipated at St. Petersburg that the reigning Prince, whoever he may be, could be a mere creature of Russia; and on the power of this concept he was entrusted with powers so ample as to put the entire administration of the nation solely in his arms. However to protect towards the eventuality of his not proving as subservient to Russia as was anticipated, he was handicapped by the establishment of a Parliament, elected on essentially the most democratic foundation, and possessed of full and impartial management over the funds of the State. Thus, if the Prince have been to make difficulties in finishing up the coverage advisable from St Petersburg, he may all the time, it was imagined, be delivered to motive by the stress of the Nationwide Meeting performing, because it was affordable to suppose it will act, beneath the affect of Russia. The scheme was ingenious, and would in all probability have proved profitable if the fatuous coverage of the Russians in Bulgaria had not contrived to unite each the Prince and the Meeting in a typical hostility to their Muscovite protectors.

Prince Alexander’s accession

Inside little greater than two years after Prince Alexander’s accession, the battle of jurisdictions, to which I’ve alluded, made itself manifest M. Zankoff and his colleagues, the then Ministers of the State, have been excessive partisans and nearly avowed brokers of Russia ; and in that capability they proposed measures which the Prince thought-about injurious to the pursuits of the nation.

 

One man system

Beneath a ” one man system,” the colleagues of the paramount Minister play essentially a really subordinate half Public life continues to be too novel a factor in Bulgaria for the leaders of the Opposition to take any energetic half in politics. All they will do is to intrigue and bide their time. Certainly, the Opposition could also be stated to be nonexistent, as long as they continue to be—to excuse the bull—out of workplace. M. Stambouloff, in conversing with foreigners, was apt to complain of the utter absence of any organized opposition within the Sobranje. “ It’s unattainable for me,” he would say, “ to elucidate my coverage or defend my measures correctly, when there may be no one to criticise the one or assault the opposite” His successor within the Premiership, M. Stoiloff, was reckoned the chief of the Opposition, however he at all times declined to oppose M. Stambouloff within the Sobranje, and lived virtually solely in seclusion. Whereas I used to be in Sofia, M. Stoiloff by no means got here to the membership, of which he was previously a relentless frequenter, and although he had the status of being the ablest lawyer within the nation, and is, by the way in which, the counsel of the British Legation, he was hardly recognized personally to the Corps Diplomatique, whose homes kind the one social assembly floor to be present in Sofia.

The Ministry have been overshadowed

Even his personal colleagues within the Ministry have been overshadowed by Stambouloffs marked persona. The most effective recognized of those colleagues, one may virtually say the one one recognized overseas, is M. Grekoff, the late Minister of Overseas Affairs. Judging by appearances, you’d put him down as belonging to a better social grade than the rank and file of Bulgarian politicians; I consider, nevertheless, that the one distinction is that he was despatched overseas sooner than most of his contemporaries, and obtained a extra full schooling. He studied legislation for a few years in Paris, speaks French very fluently and really precisely, has travelled an amazing deal, is aware of a lot of international nations, and has the manners, appears, and tone of a person of the world. When you have been to place a fez on his head you’d take him for a Pasha of the category normally chosen to signify the Ottoman Empire in international lands. Not solely generally schooling, however in political information of statesmanship, M. Grekoff was, I ought to assume, forward of all his colleagues, excepting the ex-Premier; however he had not the extraordinary vitality which made Stambouloff the main man within the State. The opposite Ministers have been good officers, and should possess nice political attainments which as but they’ve had no technique of displaying. Their names, nevertheless, as but say nothing to the world outdoors Bulgaria, and never a lot to the world inside.

 

 

The Army – Acquiesce in military expenditure

ONE might naturally expect that in a State, such as Bulgaria, a large standing army in times of peace would be popularly regarded as an unnecessary luxury and an uncalled-for burden. So far is this from being the case that the military expenditure is voted more willingly by the Sobranje, and with less criticism, than the grants required for any other department of the public service. The War Office, with the full sanction of the Sobranje, habitually appropriates for its own use some part of the grants voted for other services, in the not unfrequent event of the amount assigned to any department being found to be in excess of its actual requirements.

Acquiesce in military expenditure

I do not think, however, that this readiness to acquiesce in military expenditure can be accounted for by the hypothesis that the Bulgarians are essentially a warlike nation. They make good soldiers, as the event has shown; but soldiering, as a pursuit, is not one which commends itself readily to the instincts of peasant population. The cause of this apparent anomaly is not far to seek. The maintenance of an army greatly in excess of the normal needs of the country is, from a national point of view, a matter of necessity. The Bulgarians are intensely jealous of their independence, and almost extravagantly proud of their distinct nationality. They are not simple enough to suppose that any force they could possibly muster would enable them to resist their annexation by Russia, supposing the latter Power made up her mind to annex Bulgaria at the risk of war, and supposing the other European Powers acquiesced in her annexation. But they are convinced that so long as they can keep up a strong military force of their own, Russia is much less likely to attack their independence, and the Western Powers are much more likely, in case of need, to come to their assistance. All the public men I have spoken to on the subject regard any direct armed attack on the part of Russia as a very improbable contingency. What they fear is some indirect attack, instigated, if not supported, from St. Petersburg. Supposing there was any decline in the efficiency of Bulgaria as a fighting power, Servia, under pressure from St Petersburg, might—and it is believed would—renew her attempt to invade the Principality. Bulgaria would also be unable, without a powerful army, to protect and claim as her own, in the possible event of a rising against Turkish rule taking place in Macedonia, the large district occupied by men of her own race south of the Turkish frontier. On this account, the statesmen of Bulgaria regard the maintenance of an effective standing army as a matter of paramount necessity; and this view commends itself to the good sense and patriotic spirit of their fellow- countrymen.

Government has the right to grant concessions

I am assured that, though in theory there is no reason why foreign capital should not be employed here in local industries with great advantage, there are in practice various obstacles which cannot well be overcome. The Government has the right to grant concessions to any company, native or foreign, for the working of mines, the reclamation of lands, or the establishment of manufactures; and the Ministers are not indisposed to accord such concessions. But the concessionaire, when he has obtained his concession, finds himself hampered and thwarted at every step by the claims of the commune in which his enterprise has to be conducted. The authority of the commune within its own area is very great; and any member of the commune can raise difficulties which would militate against the concession being worked successfully, on the plea that it interfered with his supply of water, his rights of pasturage, or the cultivation of his lands. There is as yet no clear law with reference to the relative rights of the State and the commune, when the rights of the former come into conflict with local interests. The communal system is so identified with the ideas and customs of the nation, that it is difficult to modify the powers of the State over the internal administration of the communes to the disadvantage of the latter, until the Bulgarian public are brought to see that they have a personal interest in augmenting the legal authority of the central Government.

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Greatly increased prosperity

In view of the greatly increased prosperity of the trading classes, and the rapid growth of the towns, the peasantry consider—and this opinion of theirs is also held by the Government—that they contribute an unduly large proportion to the public revenue. Not only is the land-tax unreasonably heavy, so heavy, indeed, as to cripple the resources which ought to be available for the improvement of the land ; but, owing to the taxes being now collected directly by the Government instead of indirectly by the farming system, and owing to the repayment of these taxes being at present enforced in cash and not in produce, the burden of taxation weighs more heavily nowadays on the peasants than it did in the old times. Any proposal, therefore, to shift the burden of taxation to any material extent from agriculture to trade would not only be just in itself, but would be so popular as to reconcile public opinion to a considerable restriction of communal autonomy. For the present, however, the Capitulations stand in the way of any adequate redistribution of the taxes as against the towns and in favour of the country. Bulgaria is still nominally an integral portion of the Ottoman Empire, and is, therefore, subject to the provisions of the Capitulations.

 

Bulgarian villages

Take it altogether, I should say the inhabitants of Panscherevow—in common, for that matter, with those of most Bulgarian villages—seem to me not to have a bad time. If there is no luxury, there is a good deal of rough comfort, and if their wants are few, these wants are fairly well satisfied. Barring the taxes and military service, they lead much the sort of lives they would like to lead; and that, after all, is about as much as human nature can reasonably expect However, I ought to add that I visited most of the Bulgarian villages when the trees were green, the air warm, and the sun shining. In the long, bleak winter time a peasant’s life in Bulgaria may well wear a less cheerful aspect. The general aspect of all the villages I visited seemed to denote the prevalence of a general coarse well-being amidst the villagers, equally removed from refinement on the one hand and from destitution on the other. In the whole course of my travels I never came across a single dwelling, outside the towns, which you could imagine by any flight of fancy to be the abode of a man of fortune, or even of a well-to-do tradesman. Still, I have no doubt that the great majority of the occupants of these mud cottages have more money hoarded up than you would find in the possession of any English peasant farmer who would be content to live in a similar tenement, under similar conditions of existence. Whatever their hoarded wealth may be, no trace of it is to be noticed inside the houses, where the Bulgarian peasant families live from the hour of their birth to that of their death. The most comfortable dwelling I ever saw, in any of the Bulgarian villages which I visited, was that of a pope in charge of one of the many half-deserted monasteries which are to be found throughout the country.

The monastery lies half hidden

The monastery lies half hidden in one of the ravines which intersect the sides of Mount Vitosch. It stands some five or six hundred feet above the plain, and commands exquisitely beautiful views of the Champaign flats, over which the shadows of the clouds float and shift under the sparkling sunlight. If ever Sofia becomes a capital after our Western fashion, the slopes of Mount Vitosch will become valuable as chosen sites for suburban residences. Even as it is, the monastery in question is frequently visited on Sundays and feast-days as a pleasure resort by the people of Sofia. Sparkling rivulets run down the mountain-side close to the convent, and in these streams there is excellent trout-fishing. Good shooting, too, is to be found in the neighborhood; and if you wish to make the ascent of Vitosch, the monastery is as good a place as any other from which to make your start. If you are not over particular as to your quarters, you can hire rooms for the night from the prior of the convent, who provides entertainment for man and beast. The general look of the place is something between a roadside tavern and a farmyard; all that remains of the ancient monastery is a small chapel almost hidden from sight amidst the stables and outhouses.

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Bulgaria is based on the French system

There is talk, too, of establishing a Cridit Foncier. The law of mortgage in Bulgaria is based on the French system, which is about as good a one as exists anywhere. A mortgage is not binding, as against third parties, unless it has been formally registered by the lender. Registers of all mortgages are kept in the districts wherein the lands mortgaged are situated, and are accessible to anyone who wishes to purchase land ; there is, therefore, no difficulty in ascertaining whether any property offered for sale or mortgage is free of any previous lien, or if not, to what extent it is indebted. I should fancy, however, the extreme smallness of the average holdings would render it difficult for any large institution to carry on a profitable trade in advancing money on the security of landed estate in Bulgaria. The absence of any cadastre and of any central registry office are also difficulties in the way of a Credit Foncier. Moreover, the Bulgarian peasantry are too thrifty and too penurious to mortgage their holdings except under extreme pressure. It is only in the towns that the local banks are able to do any large business as money-lenders upon mortgage.

Each village is administered by a Mayor, assisted by a council of two or more members, in proportion to the population. The Mayor and the Councillors are elected by the direct suffrage of their fellow-villagers, and hold office for three years. In Bulgaria, as in most countries composed of peasant proprietors, there is a standing prejudice against centralization, and a strong preference for local self-government; this sentiment manifests itself constantly in the Parliament, which, in the main, is a Chamber of peasant land-owners.

Bulgarian peasantry was a happy one

Take it altogether, I should say the lot of the Bulgarian peasantry was a happy one. They live very roughly, very thriftily, and, one might almost say, very sordidly; but they have sufficient to eat, they are warmly, if coarsely, clad, and they enjoy generally a certain amount of rude comfort. They work hard, but they work for themselves, and they are now, even more than in the old days, free to live out their own lives after their own fashion. Poverty, in our sense of the word, does not exist. In the towns there are individual cases of destitution owing to drink and misconduct; but these cases are few and insignificant. There is, as yet, no need to make any public provision for the relief of the poor; there is no question of the conflicting interests of workmen and employers; strikes and trades unions are alike unknown. For all these things the Bulgarians have ground to thank the causes which have made them what they are, a people of peasants.

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Mahommedan population

This rapid decrease in the Mahommedan population is a subject of deep regret to the Bulgarian authorities. The north-east comer of the country, the triangle contained between the Danube, the Black Sea, and the northern slopes of the Balkans, is almost exclusively occupied by Tomaks. Every inducement in the way of remission of taxes and of exemption from military service has been held out to keep the Tomaks from deserting their homes. But so far all these inducements have failed to overcome the half-social, half-fanatical influences which render a land where the Giaour holds sway no fit dwelling-place for a true follower of Islam.

The Land Tenure

I have endeavoured in the foregoing chapters to explain the general course of events which preceded the conversion of Bulgaria into an independent State. I have now to deal with its present position. The population of the country nowadays is, in round numbers, three and a half millions. Notwithstanding the large exodus of the Moslem Bulgarians, and the great mortality among infants, due to the absence of midwives, to bad sanitary arrangements, and to the fact of the mothers going back to work in the fields almost immediately after their confinement, the population increases annually by about two hundred thousand. The peasants, as a rule, marry soon after they come of age. Large families are very common, and a household in which there are only four or five children is the exception. The material conditions of life have improved greatly—and notably amidst the poorer classes—since the declaration of independence; and if the present rate of increase continues, it is calculated that the population will be doubled in the course of the next decade.

No cadaster in Bulgaria

Of the existing population five-sevenths, or two and a half millions, are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and the overwhelming majority are small landed proprietors. The proportion of labourers, who work for wages on other men’s lands, is extremely limited. At harvest time, a certain number of foreigners, chiefly Macedonians, come into Bulgaria to seek employment; and the poorer peasant farmers of the country, when their own crops are gathered in, are ready to work for wages on the lands of their wealthier neighbours. But it may safely be asserted that, throughout the rural districts, there is no important section of the community depending for its means of livelihood on any other source of income than the produce of its own lands. There is as yet no cadaster in Bulgaria, though one is shortly to be undertaken. Nor is there, so far, any very satisfactory system of agricultural statistics. It is not, therefore, easy to say what are the average holdings of the present proprietors. According to the estimate of residents well acquainted with the country, the average is about six acres, taken all round, though in many instances the holdings are very small, only amounting to a single acre or even less. According to the law, which is still mainly based upon the old Turkish legislation, the father of a family has only a qualified liberty of testamentary disposal. If he has only one child, he is obliged to leave that child not less than one-half his property; if he has two or more children, he can only alienate one-third ; and, in default of children, his other relatives, including his parents, if still living at the time of his death, have a legal claim to a certain share in his estate. Of course, this system tends to promote the indefinite subdivision of landed property, though, in the case of very small farms, this tendency is modified by voluntary arrangements between the different heirs to the property, in virtue of which one of them is allowed to keep the farm for himself in consideration of his buying out the other claimants, either by paying cash down, or by assigning them a charge on the profits of the farm. There are obvious disadvantages to the State in this continued multiplication of small farms; and there has been some talk of legislation, with the view of checking the further subdivision of estates. The passion, however, for owning land, and the preference for agricultural labour, are so universal amidst the people, that, no matter what legislation may attempt, Bulgaria, for many generations to come, will remain a land of small proprietors.