Advantages offered by its situation

Apart from the advantages offered by its situation, Byzantium had little to recommend it to Constantine’s regard. It presented neither ample room, nor a large population, nor convenient and splendid buildings to favour the rapid growth of a metropolis. Of the tongue of land on which the town stood, only the portion to the east of the line drawn from the present Stamboul Custom House, on the Golden Horn, across to the Seraglio Lighthouse, on the Sea of Marmora, was occupied. In the bay beside that Custom House lay the harbours of the town, where shipping, traders, and merchants did mostly congregate.

Within the Seraglio Grounds

The Acropolis stood on the rocky hill now enclosed within the Seraglio Grounds, and there several temples were found, that gods and goddesses might unite with men in the defence of the citadel against the steep side of the Acropolis, facing the blue expanse of the Sea of Marmora and the hills and mountains of the Asiatic shore, two theatres were built, while a stadium lay on the level tract beside the Golden Horn. The huge structure of the Hippodrome, which Severus had begun, was waiting to be completed, and to the north of it were the Baths of Zeuxippus and the adjoining public square which bore the same name. All this did not constitute a rich dowry for the future capital But perhaps to the founder of Constantinople that fact was not a serious objection; the greatness and splendour of the new city were to be his own creation.

When precisely work upon the new capital commenced cannot be determined, but the year 828 A.D., as already intimated, may be regarded as the most probable date. The circuit of the fortifications which should guard the city was marked out by Constantine himself with solemn ceremonial, and comprised the territory that stretched for nearly two miles to the west of the old town.

Pleven Electrification Region

The Pleven Electrification Region was developed much later, during the 1940’s when the North Bulgaria Electrification Directorate was established in 1940 and transformed into General Directorate of Electrification in Bulgaria on May 8th 1944.

In Pleven, the administrative center of the region, the issue of electric lighting was raised in 1906, then in 1907 and again in 1911 (a project was drawn up), however, electrification there was begun in 1919. At that time a dynamo installed in a mill was also used for supplying electricity lighting to the neighboring houses.

Large-scale electrification in Pleven began in 1927 when the Pleven DPP was constructed and commissioned with two diesel-engine units of 200 hp each. The Plant was extended by 460 hp in 1930 and 1200 hp in 1949. It operated at 6 kV. The same was the town distribution voltage and that of the 6/0.4 kV distribution transformers.

Later on (1950-1951) near the Pleven-West railway plant, a 110/20 kV regional substation was built in order to pro-vide connection to the regional electrification system of the country. That set the beginning of an orderly devel-opment of the Pleven Electrification Region.

Zlatna Panega

It is worth noting that near Loukovit, on the Zlatna Panega river, the first dam in Bulgaria was built. It was given the name of the river and had 1.2 million m3 storage capacity and a power plant on it, with two units of 480 kW total capacity, commissioned in 1938.

The fastnesses of the Albanian hills

Just as the mountains of Wales and the Highlands of Scotland preserve languages and customs which have been driven from the open country of England, so the fastnesses of the Albanian hills have kept alive a difficult language that is older than classical Greek and customs which render the rude inhabitants of the country a picturesque subject for study. The conquering arm of the Turk reduced the Bulgarian inhabitants of open plains to complete subjection within a comparatively short time; but a century and a quarter was required to secure a less firm hold upon the mountainous lands of Serbia, while the inaccessible wilds of Albania and Montenegro were never completely subjected to Turkish power. Montenegro was the last Serbian stronghold to yield to Turkish supremacy and the first to regain complete independence.

The physical characteristics of a belt of country so difficult to traverse deserve a word of further description. In the north the mountains consist of submaturely to maturely dissected folds of the Appalachian type, trending northwest-southeast parallel to the northern Adriatic coast and rising from 5,000 to 8,000 feet above sea-level in the higher ranges. Between the hard rock ridges streams have excavated parallel valleys on the weaker beds, but these subsequent valleys are of little real service to man since they lie at right angles to the natural course of his movements between coast and interior. Farther south the rock structure is more complex, and the mountain ridges produced by erosion accordingly of more complicated pattern. Among the rocks involved in the mountain building, limestone is a conspicuous element, and its soluble nature has imposed a peculiarly forbidding aspect on the topography.

Most of the rainfall passes under-ground through sink-holes and smaller solution cavities and then finds its way through subterranean channels to a few principal rivers, lakes, or the sea. As a consequence much of the mountain country is dry and barren, springs are far apart, and the open water courses difficult of access because deeply entrenched in rock-walled gorges. The 4 4 gaunt, naked rocks of the cruel karst country ’7 are not only themselves of little value to mankind but they render inaccessible and therefore comparatively useless many excellent harbors on the east coast of the Adriatic.

The janissary insisted on leaving us

The quarrel began again, which I feared would have ended very unpleasantly. The janissary drew his sabre, and had not Mr. M— levelled his gun at him he would most likely have been dreadfully wounded. I now interfered, in hopes of making peace, as the janissary insisted on leaving us and returning to Smyrna. I was much alarmed at this, apprehending that his desire of revenge might induce him to get assistance from the peasants, or join any party in order to plunder, and perhaps murder us. I therefore used every means I could devise to pacify the scoundrel, but to no purpose ; till at last Pauolo putting his arms round his neck kissed him several times in the most affectionate manner, which appeased him a little. He kneeled down, put his fingers in his mouth and made the most ridiculous grimaces, using at the same time the most impertinent language, such as “ Christian Dog,” “Void of faith,” “Unbeliever, etc.” Thus his rage exhausted itself, and Pauolo renewing his embraces, he at last consented to accompany us.

These altercations took up much of our time, so that we did not reach Maccatitch till ten in the evening, where we met our usual difficulties in procuring a lodging and supper. These are weighty concerns to a traveller, though they may appear uninteresting to my readers, to whom I wish to apologise for my tedious repetitions. But as Homer made his heroes eat and drink, and even Voltaire, in his poems, took care not to starve them, so I trust I may be forgiven, if in my narrative, which is truth itself, I record, perhaps too frequently, occurrences so unimportant as my breakfast, dinner and supper.

December the 12th.

Throughout all Turkey

We had now only six hours’ ride from this place of misery to the village of Scala,1 where we were to take boat for Constantinople. Throughout all Turkey the places where goods are embarked or disembarked are called Scala, which literally signifies a ladder ; and in many places we find not only the quay or spot of disembarkation, but the entire village to which it appertains, to go

by this common appellation. This prospect of so speedy a termination to our troubles, raised our spirits, and we set off very early and travelled along the banks of the Maccatitch for some miles. The country was on both sides very beautiful and watered with many rivulets.

Treated like the Prodigal Son

When I had sufficiently recovered my health, I accompanied Mr. R—1 to Dublin, where I was received and treated like the Prodigal Son. I took a house, hired a number of servants, and upon looking into my affairs, found that I had expended, exclusive of my ready money, about twenty thousand pounds of my fortune. Still, however, I might have been happy ; I had an ample property remaining and was caressed by my friends, who looked upon my past follies with indulgence and as merely proceeding from the ebullitions of youth.

This quiet life did not suit my volatile disposition : in order, therefore, to vary the scene, I sent over to London for a female companion, with whom I had been intimate, and who immediately accepted the invitation. I had no motive whatever in giving her the preference but that she was an exotic. My inamorata was neither distinguished for wit or beauty ; but I will do her the justice to say that she had none of that rapacity and extravagance so common with the generality of her profession. What I expended on her account was from my own free will and suggestion. I hired her a magnificent house, suitably furnished, and settled an allowance of five hundred a year on her : this was merely pro forma, for she cost me upwards of five thousand. At her house I kept my midnight orgies, and saw my friends, according to the fashionable acceptation of the word.

But soon growing tired of this manner of living, I conceived the strange idea of performing, like Cook, a voyage round the world ; and no sooner had it got possession of my imagination, than I flew off at a tangent with my female companion to Plymouth, in order to put my plan in execution, which was to purchase a vessel of two hundred and eighty tons burthen, and to carry twenty-two guns. I entered into treaty with a builder, who engaged to furnish me with one of the above description for ten thousand pounds, equipped in every respect, and to be ready in the space of four months.

Turned upon my intended voyage

This affair settled I returned to Dublin, where being one day at dinner with some people of fashion at the Duke of L—’s,1 the conversation turned upon my intended voyage, when one of the company asked me to what part of the world I meant to direct my course first, to which I answered, without hesitation, “ to Jerusalem.” This was considered by the company as a mere jest ; and so, in fact, it was; but the subject still continuing, some observed that there was no such place at present existing; and others that, if it did exist, I should not be able to find it. This was touching me in the tender point : the difficulty of an undertaking always stimulated me to the attempt. I instantly offered to bet any sum that I would go to Jerusalem and return to Dublin within two years from my departure. I accepted without hesitation all the wagers that were offered me, and in a few days the sum I had depending on this curious expedition exceeded twelve thousand pounds.

My whole mind was now engaged on this new project. I was inflamed with the desire of doing what had not been attempted by any of my countrymen marriage under comet, at least by those of my own age ; and I figured to myself the pleasure I should feel at my return to my own country after having accomplished this undertaking : what admiration I should excite by the detail of my wonderful adventures, my hairbreadth scapes, and the descriptions I should give of the beautiful Turks, Greeks, and Georgians, and all the farrago with which my heated imagination was filled.

I was now nearly of age, and Mr. N—2 peremptorily insisted that I should again examine the state of my fortune ; with which request, however unwilling, I was under the necessity of complying. I found it still more diminished by the variety of my dissipation and extravagance. This worthy man, with the greatest delicacy and gentleness, represented to me then, that the way of life in which I was engaged, must inevitably lead me to ruin ; that my extraordinary, not to say scandalous, establishment formed for the English lady did not stand me in less than five thousand a year ; that the annual expense of my ship, exclusive of the first cost, would amount to as much more ; and that at the rate I proceeded, I must in a short time be reduced to indigence, and depend for support upon my friends and relations : that the attachment of the former, as I have since experienced, would cease, when the sunshine of my fortunes, by which they were now attracted, should disappear; and as to the latter, he knew my pride of heart too well to suppose that I could live under the mortification of owing the means of existence to any one, however nearly allied.

Baffling disappointments and romantic episodes

After a series of baffling disappointments and romantic episodes he at length overtook his “ Euridyce,” with whom he returned to London, only to find himself a little while later the inmate of a debtors’ prison. From this unpleasant position, after an ineffectual attempt at gaol-breaking, he was released by his brother- in-law, the Irish Lord Chancellor, who happened to be in town at the time. “ Determined,” as he says, “ not to stay another hour in London,” Whaley then set out for Dublin.

Here he disposed of all his remaining estates for the discharge of his personal debts, and with the surplus, which amounted to about five thousand pounds, true to the spirit of gambling to which he had always been a ready slave, he resolved to try his fortune at play, and either retrieve himself or complete his ruin. “ The latter,” he says, “ was my fate, for in one winter I lost ten thousand pounds, which obliged me to sell all my own jewels, and those I had given to my companion in better days : so that in the course of a few years I dissipated a fortune of near four hundred thousand pounds, and contracted debts to the amount of thirty thousand more, without ever purchasing or acquiring contentment or one hour’s true happiness.”

Hopeless condition of insolvency

He retired shortly afterwards to the Isle of Man in a hopeless condition of insolvency, where he tells us he divided his time between the education of his children, the improvement of a small farm, and the writing of his Memoirs. He ends his story of a wasted and riotous life in a spirit of contrition and remorse, expressing a hope that what he had written might prove of some service to other young men exposed to temptations like his own.

For the continuous folly and eccentricities of Whaley’s ill-spent life it is difficult to account in any rational way ; but, with his accustomed hardihood, he does not shrink from the attempt himself.

Special political bonds

The divine right of the line of Othman is another of their special political bonds, and this too is shown by the following extract from a well-known historian, if it needs showing, to be simply external to Gibbon.

themselves. “ The origin of the Sultans”, he says, “ is obscure; but this sacred and indefeasible right” to the throne, “ which no time can erase, and no violence can infringe, was soon and unalterably implanted in the minds of their subjects. A weak or vicious Sultan may be deposed and strangled, but his inheritance devolves to an infant or an idiot; nor has the most daring rebel presumed to ascend the throne of his lawful sovereign. While the transient dynasties of Asia have been continually subverted by a crafty visir in the palace, or a victorious general in the camp, the Ottoman succession has been confirmed by the practice of five centuries, and is now incorporated with the vital principle of the Turkish nation”. Here we have on the one hand the imperial succession described as an element of the political life of the Os- manlis,on the other as an appointment over which they have no power; and obviously it is from its very nature independent of them. It is a form of life external to the community it vivifies.

Extraordinary vigour and talent

Probably it was the wonderful continuity of so many great Sultans in their early ages, which wrought in their minds the idea of a divine mission as the attribute of the dynasty; and its acquisition of the Caliphate would fix it indelibly within them. And here again, we have another special instrument of their imperial greatness, but still an external one. I have already had occasion to observe, that barbarians make conquests by means of great men, in whom they, as it were, live; ten successive monarchs, of extraordinary vigour and talent, carried on the Ottomans to empire. Will any one show that those monarchs can be fairly called specimens of the nation, any more than Zingis was the specimen of the Tartars? Have they not rather been the Deus e machind, carrying on the drama, which has languished or stopped, since the time they ceased to animate it?

Political development and progress

Again, if there was a power preeminently military, it was Rome; yet what is her history but the most remarkable instance of a political development and progress ? More than any power, she was able to accommodate and expand her institutions according to the circumstances of successive ages, extending her municipal privileges to the conquered cities, yielding herself to the literature of Greece, and admitting into her bosom the rites of Egypt and of Phrygia. At length, by an effort of versatility unrivalled in history, she was able to reverse one main article of her policy, and, as she had once acknowledged the intellectual supremacy of Greece, she humbled herself in a still more striking manner before a religion which she had persecuted.

Here we see the difference between a barbarian and a civilized power. In like manner, while Attila boasted that his horse’s hoof withered the grass it trod on, and Zingis could gallop over the cite of the cities he had destroyed, Seleucus, or Ptolemy, or Trajan, covered the range of their conquests with broad capitals, marts of commerce, noble roads, and spacious harbours. Lucullus collected a magnificent library in the East, and Csesar converted his northern expeditions into an antiquarian and historical research.

If these remarks upon the difference between barbarism and civilization be in the main correct, they have prepared the way for establishing the statements which I have made concerning the principle of life and the mode of dissolution proper or natural to barbarous and civilized powers respectively.

Instruments of political progress

Ratiocination and its kindred processes, which are the necessary instruments of political progress, are, taking things as we find them, hostile to imagination and auxiliary to sense. It is true, that a St. Thomas can draw out a whole system of theology from principles impalpable and invisible; and fix upon the mind by pure reason a vast multitude of facts and truths which have no pretence to a bodily form. But, taking man as he is, he will be dissatisfied with a demonstrative process from an undemonstrated premiss, and, when he has once begun to reason, he will seek to prove the point from which his reasoning starts, as well as that at which it arrives. Thus he will be forced back from immediate first principles to others more remote, nor will he be satisfied till, he ultimately reaches those which are as much within his own handling and mastery as the reasoning apparatus itself.

Turcomans into Georgia

But a more direct and effective instrument of social education followed upon their occupation of Sogdiana. You may recollect I spoke of their empire as lasting for only 200 years, about 00 of which measures the period of that occupation. Their power then came to an end; what was the consequence? were they driven out again? were they massacred ? did they take refuge in the mountains or deserts? were they reduced to slavery? Thus we are introduced to a momentous passage of history: the case was as follows: At the very date at which Heraclius called the Turcomans into Georgia, at the very date when their Eastern brethren crossed the northern border of Sogdiana, an event of most momentous import had occurred in the South.

A new religion had arisen in Arabia. The impostor Mahomet, announcing himself the Prophet of God, was writing the pages of that book, and moulding the faith of that people, which was to subdue half the known world. The Turks passed the Jaxartes southward in A.D. 628; just four years before, Mahomet had assumed the royal dignity, and just six years after, on his death, his followers began the conquest of the Persian Empire. In the course of 20 years they effected it; Sogdiana was at its very extremity, or its border-land$ there the last king of Persia took refuge from the South, while the Turks were pouring into it from the north. There was little to choose for the unfortunate prince between the Turk and the Saracen; the Turks were his hereditary foe; they had been the giants and monsters of the popular poetry; but he threw himself into their arms.

Saracenic and the Turkish

They engaged in his service, betrayed him, murdered him, and measured themselves with the Saracens in his place. Thus the military strength of the North and South of Asia, the Saracenic and the Turkish, came into memorable conflict in the regions of which I have said so much. The struggle was a fierce one, and lasted many years; the Turks striving to force their way down to the ocean tours bulgaria, the Saracens to drive them back into their Scythian deserts. They first fought this issue in Bactria or Khorasan; the Turks got the worst of the fight, and then it was thrown back upon Sogdiana itself, and there it ended again in favour of the Saracens. At the end of 90 years from the time of the first Turkish descent on this lair region, they relinquished it to their Mahometan opponents.

The conquerors found it rich, populous, and powerful; its cities, Carisme, Bokhara, and Samarcand, were surrounded beyond their fortifications by a suburb of fields and gardens, which was in turn protected by exterior works; its plains were well cultivated, and its commerce extended from China to Europe. Its riches were proportionately great; the Saracens were able to extort a tribute of two million gold pieces from the inhabitants; we read, moreover, of the crown jewels of one of the Turkish princesses; and of the buskin of another, which she dropt in her flight from Bokhara, and which was worth two thousand pieces of gold. Such had been the prosperity of the barbarian invaders, such was its end; but not their end, for adversity did them service, as well as prosperity, as we shall see.

It is usual for historians to say, that the triumph of the South threw the Turks back again upon their northern solitudes; and this might easily be the case with some of the many hordes, which were ever passing the boundary and flocking down; but it is no just account of the historical fact, viewed as a whole. Not often indeed do the Oriental nations present us with an example of versatility of character; the Turks of this day are substantially what they were four centuries ago.

Military effort followed

Two centuries of military effort followed, and then the contest seemed over; the barbarians of the North destroyed, and Europe free. It seemed as though the Turks had come to their end and were dying out, as the Saracens had died out before them, when suddenly, when the last Seljukian Sultan was departing in Iconium, and the Crusaders had broken their last lance for the Holy Sepulchre, on the 27th of July, 1301, the rule and dynasty of the Ottomans rose up from his death bed.

Turkish capital

Othman, the founder of the line and people, who take from him the name of Ottoman or Osmanli, was the grandson of a nomad Turk or- Turcoman, who, descending from the North by Sogdiana and the Oxus, took the prescriptive course (as I may call it) towards social and political improvement. His son, Othman’s father, came into the service of the last Sultan of the Seljukian line, and governed for fifty-two years a horde of 400 families. That line of sovereigns had been for a time in alliance with the Greek Emperors; but Othman inherited the fanaticism of the desert, and, when he succeeded to his father’s power, he proclaimed a gazi, or holy war, against the professors of Christianity. Suddenly, like some beast of prey, he managed to leap the mountain heights which separated the Greek Province from the Mahomedan conquests, and he pitched himself in Broussa, in Bithynia, which remained from that time the Turkish capital, till it was exchanged for Adrianople and Constantinople- This was the beginning of a long series of conquests lasting about 270 years, till the Ottomans became one of the first, if not the first power, not only of Asia, but of the world.

These conquests were achieved during the reigns of ten great Sultans, the average length of whose reigns is as much as twenty-six years, an unusual period for military sovereigns, and both an evidence of the stability, and a means of the extension of their power. Then came • the period of their decline, and we are led on through the space of another 270 years, up to our own day, when they seem on the verge of some great reverse or overthrow. In this second period they have had as many as twenty-one Sultans, whose average reigns are only half the length of those who preceded them, and afford as cogent an argument of their national disorder and demoralization.

Skirted Siberia and the north of the Caspian

Here was the first of the three opportunities of a descent southwards, which were open to the choice of emigrants. A portion of them, attracted by the rich pasture-land and general beauty of Sogdiana, took up their abode there; the main body wandered on. They turned northward, and skirted Siberia and the north of the Caspian, crossed the Volga, then the Don, and thus in the fifth century of the Christian era, as I just now mentioned, came upon the Goths, who were in un-disturbed possession of the country. Now it would appear, that, in this long march from the wall of China to the Danube, lasting as it did through some centuries, they lost hold of no part of the tracts which they traversed.

They remained on each successive encampment long enough (if I may so express myself) to sow themselves there. They left behind them at least a remnant of their own population, while they went forward, like a rocket thrown up in the sky, which, while it shoots forward, keeps possession of its track by its train of fire. And hence it was that Attila, when he found himself at length in Hungary, and elevated to the headship of his people, became at once the acknowledged king of the vast territories and the untold populations which that people had been leaving behind them in the last 350 years.

Such a power indeed had none of the elements of permanence in it, but it was appalling at the moment, whenever there was a vigorous and unscrupulous hand to put it into motion. Such was Attila; it was his boast, that, where his horse once trod, there grass never grew again. As he fulfilled his terrible destiny, religious men looked on with awe, and called him the “ Scourge of God”. He burst as a thunder-cloud upon the whole extent of country, now called Turkey in Europe, along a line of more than five hundred miles, from the Black Sea to the Gulf of Venice.

Displeased within a moment

RILE EVIL

A friend whom yon have been gaining during your whole life, you ought not to IK; displeased within a moment. A stone is many years becoming a ruhy, take care that you do not destroy it in an instant against another stone.

RULE LVIII.

Reason is under the power of sense; as a man becomes weak in the hand of an artful woman. Shut the door of that house of pleasure, which you hear resounding with the loud voice of a woman.

RULE LIX.

A purpose without power, is fraud and deceit; and power without design, is ignorance and madness. The first requisites are judgment, prudence, awl wisdom, and then a kingdom; because putting power and wealtli into the hand of the ignorant, is furnishing weapons against themselves.

RULE LX.

The liberal man who eats and bestows, is better than the religious man who fasts and hoards. Whosoever hath forsaken luxury, to gain the approbation of mankind, hath fallen from lawful into unlawful voluptuousness. The hermit who sitteth in retirement, not for the sake of God, what shall the hopeless wretch behold in a dark mirror? A little and a little collected together, become a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop form an inundation.

RULE LX I.

A wise man ought not to suffer the insolence of a common person to pass unnoticed, as he thereby injures both parties; for his own respectability will be lessened, and the other confirmed in his ignorance. When you speak to a low fellow with kindness and benignity, it increases his arrogance Mid perverseness.

Sin, by whomsoever committed, is detestable, but most so in a learned man: because learning- is the weapon for combating Satan; and if the armed man is taken prisoner, the greater will be his shame. An ignorant plebeian of dissolute manners, is better than a learned man without temperance: for that, through blindness, lost the road; and this, who had two eyes, fell into the well.

ON THE EFFECTS OF EDUCATION

TALE I

A certain Vizier had a stupid son, whom he sent to a learned man, desiring him to instruct him, in hopes that his capacity might improve. After having instructed him for some time without any effect, he sent a person to the father with this message: “Your son has no capacity, and has

almost distracted me. When nature has given capacity, instruction will make impression; but if iron is not of a proper temper, no polishing will make it good. Wash not a dog in the seven seas, for when he is wetted he will only be dirtier. If the ass that carried Jesus was to be taken to Mecca, at his return he would still be an ass.”

TALE II

A philosopher was thus exhorting his sons: “My dear children, acquire knowledge, for on worldly riches and possessions no reliance can be placed;

rank will be of no use out of your own country, and on a journey money is in danger of being lost; for either the thief may carry it off all at once, or the possessor may consume it by degrees. But knowledge is a perennial spring of wealth; and if a man of education ceases to be opulent, yet he need not be sorrowful, for knowledge of itself is riches. A man of learning wherever he goes, is treated with respect and sits in the uppermost seat; whilst the ignorant man gets only a scanty fare, and encounters distress. After enjoying power, it is distressing to be obliged to obey; and he who has been used to caresses, cannot bear rough usage from the world.”

There once happened an insurrection in Damascus, where every one deserted his habitation. The wise sons of a peasant became the King’s ministers, and the stupid sons of the Vizier were reduced to ask charity in the village. If you want a paternal inheritance, acquire from your father knowledge, for his wealth may be spent in ten days.

Bestowing hypocritical kisses

In expiation of what had happened, they fell at his feet, and after bestowing hypocritical kisses on his hands and face, brought him into the boat and carried him over, until they came to a pillar of Grecian building that stood in the river, when the boatman called out, “The boat is in danger; let one of you, who is the strongest and most courageous, get upon this pillar and lay hold of the boat’s rope, that we may save the vessel.” The young man, in the vanity of his strength, of which he bad boasted, thoughtless of the offended heart of his enemy, paid no attention to this maxim of the sages, ‘ If you have committed an offence towards another, and should afterwards confer a hundred kindnesses, think not that he will forget to retaliate upon thee that single offence; for the arrow may be extracted from the wound, but the sense of injury still rankles in the heart.’ What excellent advise Yuktash gave to Khiltash!

‘ If you have scratched your enemy, do not consider yourself safe. When from your hand the heart of another hath suffered injury, expect not to be free from affliction thyself. Fling not a stone against the wall of a castle, lest perchance a stone may be thrown at you from the castle.’ As soon as he gathered the rope round his arm and had reached the top of the pillar, the boatman snatched the rope out of his hand and drove forward the vessel. The helpless young man remained astonished.

For two days he suffered much distress and underwent great hardship; the third day sleep overpowered him, and flung him into the river. After a day and a night, he reached shore with some small remains of life. He fed on leaves of trees and roots of grass, until he had somewhat recruited his strength, when he bent his course to the desert, and arrived thirsty and hungry, and faint, at a well. He saw a number of people gathered round it, who were drinking a draught of water for a small piece of money.

Retirement is the kingdom of contentment

TALE XXVIII

A solitary Durwcsh had taken up his abode in a corner of a desert. The King passed him, and the Durwesh, because retirement is the kingdom of contentment, did not lift up his head nor show any signs of politeness. The monarch conscious of his superior dignity, was chagrined, and said, “This tribe of ragged mendicants resemble the brute beasts.” His Vizier said to the Durwesh, “When the monarch of the terrestrial globe passed by you, why did not you do him homage, nor behave even with common good manners? ”

He replied, “Tell the monarch of the earth to expect service from him who hopes to receive; and benefits let him know also, that the monarch is for the protection of his subjects, and not the subjects for the service of the King. The King is the sentinel of the poor, although affluence, pomp, and power are his portion. The sheep are not for the shepherd, but the shepherd is for their service. To-day you will see one prosperous, and another labouring under an afflicted heart; wait only a few days, when the earth will consume the brains of the vain- thinker.

The difference between royalty and servitude ceases when the decrees of Fate are fulfilled. If any one should open the grave, he could not distinguish the rich man from the poor.” This speech of the Durwesh made a favorable impression on the King, who commanded him to make known his wishes. He replied, “I desire you not to trouble me again.” The King said, “Give me some good advice.” He replied, “Reflect, whilst you enjoy power, that wealth and dominion pass from one to another.”

TALE XXIX

A Vizier went to Zool-noon of Egypt, and asking his blessing, said, “I am day and night employed in the service of the King, hoping for some good from him, and dreading his wrath.” Zool- noon wept, and said, “If I had served God as you have feared the King, I should have been reckoned in the number of the just towards turkish republic. If there was no expectation of reward and punishment, the foot of the Durwesh would be on the celestial sphere; and if the Vizier feared G-od as much as he dreads the King, he would be an angel.”

TALE XXX

A King having commanded an innocent person to be put to death, he said, “0 King, seek not your own injury by venting your wrath on me.” The King asked, “In what manner? ” He replied, “This torture will cease with me in an instant, and the crime thereof will remain with you for ever. The space of life passeth away like the wind over the desert; bitterness and sweetness, deformity and beauty, all shall cease. The tyrant imagineth that he commiteth violence against me; but it remain- eth on his own neck and passeth over me.” The advice was profitable to the King, who spared his life and asked forgiveness.

TALE XXXI

The ministers of Nowshirvan were consulting on state affairs of great importance, and every one gave his opinion according to the best of his judgment: the King, in like manner, delivered his sentiments. Buzerchemeher preferred the King’s opinion. The other ministers asked him in private, Why he had preferred the King’s opinion to those of so many wise men? He replied, “Because the event is not known, and the opinion of every one depends upon Grod, whether it shall prosper or fail: therefore it is safest to conform to the King’s opinion; because, if it should fail, my obsequiousness will secure me from his reprehension. To strive to think differently from the King, is to wash the hands in one’s own blood. If he call the day night, it is prudent to say, ‘ Behold the moon and the pleiades.’ ”

The cut-off heads of partisans

A prize equalling the average two-year wages of an employee was paid for killing or betraying a partisan. Public executions were carried out in order to intimidate the people. The cut-off heads of partisans stuck on poles were shown around the villages. Partisan helpers were shot on the spot without trial, their houses were burnt and their near ones left without shelter and food, were interned in far-away places. Thousands of partisans, partisan helpers and members of combat groups died in the fierce struggle, tens of thousands of anti-fascists were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps.

Nazi Germany and fascist Italy

The armed struggle of the Bulgarian people against monarcho-fascism and Nazism was part of the struggle of progressive mankind for the routing of the Nazi aggressors. Its value stands out still more in view of the circumstance that, unlike the situation in the occupied countries, the German troops came to Bulgaria as allies and did not behave openly as occupiers. What is more, after the defeat of Greece and Yugoslavia, a Bulgarian ad-ministration was introduced in Macedonia and Aegean Thrace which created the illusion that the unification of the Bulgarian nation had been implemented at last. In this connection the monarcho-fascist government launched an unbridled chauvinistic propaganda which at first scored certain successes. This fascist propaganda concealed, of course, the fact that the final settlement of the territorial questions had been left for after the war, i. e. that it had been left entirely dependent upon the interests and intentions of nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

After the historic victories of the Red Army at Stalingrad (repsentday Volgograd) and Kursk in 1943, and the increasingly successful operations of the Anglo- American troops on all fronts, the inevitable defeat of the forces of the Axis became evident to all. The ‘symbolic war’ which the Bulgarian monarcho-fascist government had declared so light-heartedly on Britain and USA, acquired real dimensions. Sofia was subjected more than once to massive bombings which caused great destructions and many casualties. Bulgaria’s territory and economy had been placed entirely at the disposal of the Wehrmacht. The country was subjected to a real plunder on the part of nazi Germany and its material resources were thawing away at disastrous rates.

Supreme National Civil Command

Having learned about the activities of the Central Committee and the Committee of Elders, Rakovski returned to Bucharest and started an energetic propaganda against making the Bulgarian national-liberation movement dependent on foreign states1 policies. He succeeded in winning over the majority of the emigrants and formed a ‘Supreme National Civil Command’ which was guided by the principle of sending armed detachments to Bulgaria. In 1867 Rakovski succeeded in preparing two detachments under the leadership of the voevodesPanayot Hitov and Filip Totyu, but his death put an end to his future plans.

Crossed the Danube and engaged

After Rakovski’s death the initiative again passed into the hands of the Committee of Elders, which agreed with the Serbian government that a special military school was to be set up in Belgrade for 200 Bulgarian youths — the Se-cond Bulgarian Legion. The latter, however, had the fate of the First Legion — it was disbanded only several months later. Most of its members went back to Romania and formed a 125-men-strong detachment, headed by the voevodes Hadji Dimiter and Stefan Karadja. In July 1868, the detachment crossed the Danube and engaged in several bloody battles with the Turks. The last of these battles took place on Mount Bouzloudja in the Balkan Range and ended in the death of most of the revolutionaries, including the voevode Hadji Dimiter.

The heroic end of this detachment marked the decline of the detachment tactics. It became obvious that these detachments, sent from outside, in spite of their excellent military schooling, heroism and selflessness of their members were incapable of rousing the people in a mass uprising, History had made it imperative for the Bulgarian national-liberation movement to pass over to a new, higher stage of development and this stage was linked with the name of another great son of Bulgaria – Vassil Levski.

CRADLE OF MEDIAEVAL SLAV CULTURE

At the time when the alarming events described above were taking place in Great Moravia, Bulgaria was the biggest and most powerful Slav state. Moreover, because of the reasons we have already mentioned, she was in great need of an alphabet and of a Christian clergy to preach in the Slav language. The persecuted disciples of Methodius were fully aware of the needs and possibilities of the Bulgarian state, and after their teacher’s death they set out for Bulgaria, which at that time had common frontiers with Great Moravia. The local district rulers in Bulgaria gave them a hearty welcome and sent them to the capital, where Prince Boris was eagerly awaiting them.

Methodius’s best known disciples who came to Bulgaria were Clement, Nahum and Angelarius. Clement was dispatched to the south-western parts of the country as Bishop of Ohrid, while the other two remained in the capital. In only a few years, hundreds of young people, thirsty for knowledge, were taught to read and write in the Slav-Bulgarian language and were then sent as priests and administrators to all parts of the country. Scores of religious books were translated from the Greek and ousted completely the Greek language from the church services.

In 893 Prince Boris organized a Grand Council in the capital of Preslav, which adopted important decisions. Boris’s younger son Simeon ascended to the throne instead of Vladimir, the opponent to Christianity. The capital was transferred from heathen Pliska to Preslav. The Slav (old Bulgarian) language was proclaimed as official state and church language instead of Greek, while the numerous Greek clergy was replaced everywhere by Bulgarian priests. The sound foundations for the rapid development of an original Slav-Bulgarian culture were laid and the most important channels of Byzantine influence were cut off. The catalysts which were to speed up the process of merger between Slavs and Bulgarians, a process which had been going on for more than two centuries had been found.

The reign of Simeon, the greatest ruler of mediaeval Bulgaria, was marked with brilliant military victories which put the very existence of the Byzantine Empire to trial and turned Bulgaria into an empire. In a number of decisive battles, the biggest one at Acheloe (not far from present-day Nessebur), Simeon succeeded in crushing the military might of the Byzantines. He then led his armies in two victorious marches to the walls of Constantinople (in 921 and 923-924) which placed the Byzantine Empire on the brink of annihilation.

The Bulgarian state extended from the Carpathian mountains in the north to the Aegean Sea and Central Greece in the south, from the Adriatic coast and present-day Croatia in the west to the Black Sea in the east, in other words, it occupied almost the entire Balkan Peninsula and present-day Hungary.

Frequently against Bulgaria

I refer to this incident because it seems to me an illustration of the good sense which, on the whole, cha-racterizes the local administration of the country. No charge is brought more frequently against Bulgaria by people who, for one cause or another, are dissatisfied with the present order of things, than the assertion that, under the new regime, the local indebtedness of the municipalities has assumed serious and alarming proportions. Philippopolis is often cited as an example of this alleged extravagance.

But if the information given me by persons who have no interest in the matter is reliable, the charge in this instance has very little foundation. Since the liberation of Eastern Roumelia Philippopolis has incurred a debt of £ 120,000, which, in the main, was borrowed from the National Bank of Bulgaria at a charge, for interest and sinking fund, of about 10 per cent The revenue of the town, which is chiefly derived from the octroi duties, is about £20,000; and, with the rapid growth of the population, this revenue is steadily on the increase. The interest on the city loan absorbs more than three-fifths of the municipality’s annual income, and it is admittedly hard pressed to meet the normal expenditure out of the balance of some £8000. At times the municipality has been short of money to meet current expenses.

The loan, however, has been spent to advantage. The waterworks alone cost £80,000, and the balance of the loan was employed in the construction and equipment of the public schools, the town library, and the municipal offices. I should think it extremely probable that these various improvements may have put money into the pockets of the leading personages in the city in addition to any general benefit they may have derived from them as members of the community. As I have said before, the standard of public duty is not as high in Bulgaria as it is with us.

Still, I can see no evidence whatever that, even making allowance for a certain amount of individual jobbery, the city did not get full value for its money. The great bulk of the town debt has been incurred in undertakings which are likely to prove remunerative in the end, and which are important, if not essential, to the welfare of the city. What is true of Philippopolis is true, I gather, as a rule, of the other municipalities.

Bashi Bazoujcs

Some five and twenty years ago it was my fortune to visit the northern districts of Bulgaria. At this time the whole country was under Turkish rule, and the Bulgarian question had hardly begun to attract the notice of the European public. Rustschuk had left a strong impression on my mind, as it happened to be the first place I ever set foot in where the Crescent ruled above the Cross, where I first saw in the flesh Turkish officials in red fezes and Stamboli coats, Bashi-Bazoujcs, and veiled Turkish ladies.

Even then Rustschuk was not the East, but it was very near the East, and the first vision of the Orient, however imperfect and incomplete it may be, is one that makes an indelible impression upon the Western mind. In the days of which I speak Rustschuk was a squalid Turkish village, with a small European quarter, facing the Danube. This quarter consisted, if my recollection serves me, of a German inn, which was more of a pot-house than an hotel, of a Teutonic beer-garden, of half a dozen warehouses, of a Custom-house, a railway station, and a few stores and offices, all situated on the low bluffs that rise above the southern banks of the Danube at this part of its course.

At the period of my first visit Rustschuk was a place of some local importance as the western terminus of the Varna-Rustschuk line, which formed a link in the new route between Constantinople and the West. Previous to the completion of the Orient Railway, some few years ago, all travellers from the West, who were not inclined to make the tedious sea-journey from Marseilles, availed themselves of this new route, which owed its existence to the ill-requited energy of an English company.

An express train was run twice a week from Vienna through Buda Pesth to Bazias, an obscure Hungarian port on the Danube, some little distance east of. Belgrade. From Bazias the Austrian Lloyd steamers carried the passengers down the Danube to Rustschuk.

Policy of The Peasant State

National Policy

It is very difficult to understand the national policy of any country except your own. Nor is it always easy to understand that. It is, therefore, with some hesitation I venture to explain what, in my view, is the national policy of Bulgaria, in as far as she has at present any definite policy, other than that of waiting the course of events. Putting together the many different opinions I have heard from natives and foreign residents in the country, and after making due allowance for the bias of my informants, I have arrived at one or two conclusions which, if not quite the truth, are, I fancy, very near the truth. I am convinced that for the time being the national ambition of the country is confined within very reasonable limits.

There may be Bulgarian enthusiasts who, inspired by the traditions of the doubtful glories of a somewhat hypothetical past, look forward to the day when a Bulgarian empire might be re-established with Constantinople as its capital. But I do not believe that any such aspirations are entertained by the great mass of the people. Amongst the Bulgarians there is no dominant sentiment analogous to the grande idea of the Greeks.

Every Bulgarian entertains the belief that within the life-time of the generation now growing into manhood the Ottoman Empire in Europe will have become a thing of the past There is. a very general desire that the ultimate solution of the Eastern Question should prove such as to secure the independence of Bulgaria, but there is no desire that Bulgaria should succeed to the inheritance of the Ottoman Empire.

Unreasonable in the case of the Bulgarians

I quite admit that such an aspiration would be even more unreasonable in the case of the Bulgarians than it is in that of the Greeks. The Hellenic nation has a great past, a grand literature, and has also large colonies of fellow-Greeks settled over the whole face of the Levant Bulgaria can put forward no pretensions of any equal value. Her people have not—and, I think know that they have not—the qualities of a ruling race.

Assistance of the Government

The Government has made various efforts of late to promote the development of native industries. For instance, advances have been made by the State to private manufacturers with the view of re-establishing the local silk trade. Silkworms were kept formerly in almost every peasant’s house. A few years ago, however, there was a sort of epidemic amidst the grubs; the stock perished, the peasants were unable to procure fresh supplies, and the trade died away. Owing to the assistance of the Government, who advanced money for the purchase of eggs, the house-to-house culture of silkworms has largely revived, and last year some £80,000 worth of silk skeins were exported from Bulgaria.

French manufacturers

In the same way, great exertions are now being made to restore the cultivation of the vine, which was almost killed for a time by the ravages of the phyllo era. The native wine, which is largely drunk here, is a coarse, wholesome drink, a good deal resembling the inferior brands of Burgundy, and might, I believe, be largely used by French manufacturers at Cette and elsewhere, in the same way as they employ Spanish and Italian wines, to make up the inadequacy of the French vineyards to supply the total amount of Clarets and Burgundies required for foreign exportation.

The State, however, has no large funds at its disposal for the promotion of industrial enterprise; and, even if it had the requisite funds, the subventioing of private undertakings on any important scale would not be in accordance with the frugal and almost parsimonious policy of the Sobranje. The obvious remedy for this state of things would be the development of local industries by the aid of foreign capital. But there are certain difficulties in the way, though rather on the part of the people than of the Government.