AMONG THE CHURCHES BYZANTINE

But however interesting the old churches of the city are as historical landmarks, however useful as a clue to guide us through the labyrinth of the life of New Rome, their supreme value after all consists in the fact that they are monuments, one of them the finest monument, of what is styled Byzantine Art — the art’ which blended artistic elements derived from Greece and Rome with artistic elements borrowed from Nineveh, Persia, Syria, and unfolded a new type of beauty. It was the flower developed by that fusion of Western and Oriental aesthetic ideals and tastes resulting from the long intercourse maintained between Europe and Asia, sometimes at the point of the sword, and sometimes by the peaceful ministries of commerce.

Nowhere could that Art find a more congenial atmosphere in which to flourish than in the city which binds the West and the East together. Like all else in the world, Byzantine Art was not a sudden creation, independent of all antecedents, unheralded by previous analogous forms. The dome was reflected in the waters of the Tigris and of the Tiber before it was mirrored in the Bosporus.

Columns were bound together by arches instead of by a horizontal entablature, in the Palace of Diocletian at Spalato, before they were so united in the Sacred Palace beside the Hippodrome of Constantinople. Walls glistening with variegated marbles, marble floors glowing with colours that vied with meadows in flower, mosaics radiant with the hues of the rainbow, had adorned homes and made palaces beautiful before the witchery of such coloration cast a spell over the courtiers of Justinian, or suffused the light in S. Sophia.

Even the pendentive that fills the triangular space between two contiguous arches at right angles to each other, so characteristic of Byzantine architecture, is claimed to be an earlier device in domical construction. Be it so. In one sense, there is nothing new under the sun. The new grows out of the old, the present is the product of the past And yet, while a new order of things must spring from an old order, it is not the bare repetition of what has been; while it must employ materials shaped originally for the use of other days, it is not the mechanical combination of those materials.

Losses involved in military service

It not only deprived the Sultans of their finest troops, but has been one of the principal causes of the great decrease in the Moslem population of the country; as that class of the community alone has since been called to sustain the losses involved in military service. The mortality among the soldiers of the Turkish army from disease and war is so great that the Moslem population is rapidly dying out, and well-informed medical experts are heard to say, “ The Eastern Question will be solved by the disappearance of the Turks in the natural course of things.”

The theocratic character of a Moslem State facilitates, indeed, the incorporation of different races in the same social and political system, seeing that all distinctions between men are obliterated by community in the faith of Islam. And it is impressive to see how closely the Mohammedan world, though not free from sects, is knit together by religious principle, and how strongly it cherishes the brotherhood of believers. In it, not in theory only but also in practice, the black man and the white man are fellow-citizens and of the same household.

Impossible for a Moslem State

But on the other hand, because of its theocratic constitution, it is impossible for a Moslem State to accept reforms which seek to secure equality of rights among its subjects, on the ground of a common humanity. Nothing is more opposed to the deepest convictions of a genuine Moslem than the idea that men of a different faith from his own can be his equals. There is no one who can be more polite than a Turk; no one who can treat you in a more friendly and flattering manner than hem.

Yet persons who have known him well, nay, who have loved him, testify that even in the relation of private friendship they have never felt that a Turk had given them his whole self, but was a friend with reservations that might lead him to act toward you in the most unfriendly manner. His religion confers on him an inaccessible superiority, from which he cannot descend without becoming a faithless son of Islam. His interests are superior to those of an infidel.

Code compiled at Constantinople

On 23rd December of the year 438, the Code compiled at Constantinople was presented to the Senate of Rome and recognised by that body. It was a curious reversal of the part which the elder city had acted in the world. The teacher had become the pupil Or is it truer to say, the pupil then did homage to the teacher? The Theodosian Code was superseded by the Code of Justinian the Great, but the earlier compilation retains the honour of being the first great legal instrument to confer upon New Rome the distinction of becoming the tribunal which has guided the most civilised nations of the world into the paths of righteousness and justice in the dealings between man and man. Into the religious controversies which agitated Constantinople while Theodosius II. was upon the throne, this is not the place to enter.

But Constantinople would not have been itself without a hard theological problem to discuss, if not to solve, and we do not know the soul, so to speak, of Constantinople unless we recognise what may be termed the religious temperament of the city. At a period, indeed, when a great religious revolution in the faith of men had taken place, and men were called to make clear to themselves what exactly they believed, and how their beliefs were to be harmonised with their philosophy and the general principles of reason, religious questions could not fail to be prominent everywhere.

They were as naturally prominent in the fourth and fifth centuries of our era, when Christianity became the religion of the State, as they were at the time of the Reformation. But Constantinople made these questions peculiarly its own. It could not well be otherwise where the seat of the chief bishop of the Church in the East was found, and in the capital of a Government which concerned itself in these debates as matters of political importance.

Nor can it be denied that in the discussion of the subjects before the public mind we often witness great intellectual acumen, and a profound religious spirit Able and pious men anxiously sought to reconcile faith in the unity of the Divine, with faith in the intimate oneness between the Divine and the human manifested in the life of Christ. No age is dishonoured by keen interest in that theme.

On the other hand, these discussions sometimes degenerated into idle debate, and displayed some of the most odious feelings of human nature. And Constantinople laid itself open to the well- known satirical description of its theological bias by Gregory of Nyssa. “ The city is full of mechanics and slaves, who are all of them profound theologians, and preach in the shops and in the streets. If you desire a man to change a piece of money for you, he informs you wherein the Son differs from the Father; if you ask the price of a loaf, you are told by way of reply that the Son is inferior to the Father; and if you inquire whether the bath is ready, the answer is that the Son was made out of nothing.”

Under Theodosius II., the interest taken by the citizens of Constantinople in theological controversy was all the greater, inasmuch as the points at issue were raised by religious teachers in the capital itself; one of the heretics being no less a personage than Nestorius, the patriarch of the city. He denied the propriety of the epithet, Theotokos, Mother of God, commonly bestowed upon the Mother of our Lord.

Rome and Constantinople

A great controversy followed, in which all classes of society, from the Emperor and his family to the monks and populace, took part, and displayed, as usual in such cases, a spirit unworthy of the Christian name. So great was the commotion caused by the questions in dispute, that two General Councils of the Church — that of Ephesus in 481, and that of Chalcedon in 451— were convened to affirm the orthodox faith, if not to restore peace. And thus for some twenty years people in Constantinople had all the theology they could wish to discuss. One result of these religious troubles was to evoke the latent antagonism between the different races which composed the population of the Empire mihrimah mosque. Under the guise of religious differences, national diversities asserted themselves. Rome and Constantinople, the West and the East, did not learn to love each other better in the heat of such debates.

While from the Council of Ephesus and the Council of Chalcedon, the Armenian Church and the Coptic Church date, respectively, their separation from the main body of Christendom. The extent to which religious and political aspirations are associated in the minds of the populations of the modem East casts much light upon the formation of different Churches along national lines in the earlier days of the Christian world, and also enables us to understand why religious conflicts caused so much anxiety to the imperial Government of New Rome.

Another feature in the religious life of Constantinople that became very distinct in the time of Theodosius II., was the veneration cherished for relics, and the growing desire to consecrate and enrich the city by their presence. The body of Chrysostom was taken from its grave in Pityus and entombed in the Church of the Holy Apostles, as an act of reparation for the wrongs he had suffered, and as an atonement for the sins of his persecutors. The supposed relics of Joseph and of Zacharias, on their arrival in the city, were received with great pomp by the Emperor, the Senate, and great officials, as though the saints were being welcomed in person.

Constantine enlarged the town into New Rome

The long history of Byzantium, since the day when a band of colonists from Megara settled there in 658 B.C., to the day in 828 A.D. when Constantine enlarged the town into New Rome, must not detain us. It was a prosperous little town, much occupied with fisheries, interested in the business of corn and wine, and a port of call for ships trading between the countries bordering the Euxine and the Aegean.

It was also celebrated as a fortress, being surrounded by walls of extraordinary strength, which were defended on more than one occasion with great heroism. Situated on one of the principal highways between the East and the West, “even in the force and road of casualty,” many of the chief movements of ancient times in either direction passed by its ramparts, and compelled its citizens to take a side in the conflicts of the great powers of the day, and act a part on the field of general history.

When Darius I. crossed the Bosporus into Europe to chastise the Scythians in Russia, the town fell under the power of Persia, and remained subject to the Great King until Pausanias, the victor at Plataea, delivered it from that yoke.

Pescennius Niger

In the struggle for supremacy between Sparta, Athens, and Thebes, it was controlled now by one of the rivals and then by another of them. It acquired great fame by its resistance to Philip of Macedon, when the star and crescent moon, which have from that time been the device of the city through all changes of fortune, exposed the approach of the enemy and disconcerted his plans. With the rest of the Greek world, Byzantium formed part of the dominion of Alexander the Great. In the war between Rome and Mithridates, it became the ally of the former, and was eventually merged in the Roman Empire. Septimius Severus levelled its splendid walls to the ground, because of its loyal adherence to the cause of his rival, Pescennius Niger.

Varna Electrification Region

After the end of World War I the electricity supply in Varna gradually returned to normal. Varna DPP (diesel power plant) operated from 7.00 till 12.00 at daytime and from sunset till midnight. Due to the small loads, only one machine ran in the morning, and both machines-at nighttime.

In 1922 the number of consumers amounted to 1873 with electric meters and 1730 without electric meters, or a total of 3603 consumers at town population of 43 000. These figures show that a large part of the population in Varna was not yet electrified-a situation typical of other electrified towns in Bulgaria. In 1930 a municipal lighting business enterprise was established in Varna. And in 1937 two small separate power plants were also commissioned-one on the Aqueduct from the Batova river, and the other at “Prince Boris” Factory, with a total capacity of 500 kW.

The electrical load increased quite rapidly, and in the evenings the generators voltage fell from 5000 V to 4500 V for covering the peak load. At the same time, the redemption time of the loan drawn by the enterprise for the first three diesel generators was prolonged-the debt to the bank amounted to 1 414 637 Leva and it was returned as late as 1949.

A fourth diesel generator set was also supplied, but its capacity was quite small-500 kW. The disputes whether a new thermal power plant should be constructed or elec-tricity should be supplied by Adree J.S.C.-Bourgas, went on. A special commission assigned to carry out thorough investigations, presented 3 options of development of Varna electricity supply, as follows:

I.Extension of the existing DPP;

II.Supply of electricity from Adree-Bourgas, through a 95 km 60 kV overhead transmission line;

III.Construction of a local thermal power plant.

Czechoslovashki Colben-Danek

The third option was recommended and approved. Through a tender procedure, at the first stage a 2200 kW unit was procured from Czechoslovashki Colben-Danek, Prague (1944), and after that-a second 5000 kW unit, so the total capacity became 7200 kW (10 000 hp). The Varna DPP became a large regional power plant for its time, in compliance with the decisions of the first general electrification plan of 1941.

The Varna Municipality received a loan from the Electrification Fund covering 30°/o of the resources initially needed for the construction of a new thermal power plant. Against that loan, the Municipality undertook the obligation to electrify six districts including the newly liberated Dobrudja (1940).

The civil works on the regional 20 kV overhead transmission lines to the value of 80 million Leva continued simultaneously with the Varna DPP construction. Their length reached 500 km, and sixty five 20/0.4 kV distribution transformers to the cost of 50 million Leva were connected to them.

Thus, by the end of World War II, the Varna electrification region recovered and almost all towns were electrified, but electric lighting still had to reach the villages.

THE MORAVA-YARDAR TRENCH

The Maritza takes a direct course toward Constantinople for more than one hundred and fifty miles, then turns abruptly southward to the Mediterranean Sea. At this sudden bend in the river stands the fortified city of Adrianople. Except for a short distance below the city, the Maritza no longer serves as part of the great pathway to Constantinople, but becomes a segment in the natural moat, consisting of the Tundja and lower Maritza valleys, which in the past has repeatedly provided Constantinople with an admirable first line of defense against aggression from the west. Above Adrianople the river is too frequently obstructed with sandbars to be of much use for navigation, but its broad basin carries the road and railway which follow the southern bank of the stream. South of Adrianople the small Ergene River flows to the Maritza from the east, and its valley offers a very gentle grade which the railway ascends till within a few miles of Constantinople.

THE MORAVA-YARDAR TRENCH

Second in importance to the Morava-Maritza corridor is the deep trench which cuts through the Balkans from north to south, connecting Belgrade with Saloniki. The Morava-Yardar depression does not lead to the land bridge uniting Europe with Asia Minor, but it does serve as a most important outlet channel from the plains of Hungary to the Mediterranean Sea, and is one of the shortest routes from Central Europe to the Suez Canal. From southern Germany and the eastern Alps, the foothills of the Carpathians and the Alps of Transylvania, and from all of the great Hungarian basin, the valley routes lead straight to Belgrade, whence the Morava-Yardar valley cleaves a way through the mountains to the open waters beyond.

Ostrogoths entered northern Greece

It is not without reason that the Morava-Vardar trench has been called the key to the history of the Balkan Peninsula. Through it ebbed and flowed the tides of repeated invasions from the dawn of history. Under Roman dominion most of it was occupied by an important military road. Through it the Ostrogoths entered northern Greece in the fifth century, A. D., while names still found on the map of Greece bear witness to the great Slav flood which, two centuries later, flowed through the trench and overwhelmed the Greek peninsula. The story of the Serb race is largely the story of a struggle for control of this vital artery of communication.

Approached the Meander

December the 3th.

We proceeded on our journey, and the first part of this day’s ride was very unpleasant, as we had for three miles a bad causeway to travel over till we approached the Meander,1 over which there was a wooden bridge of considerable height and length, without battlements and very narrow ; and the construction of it appeared so feeble, that we did not cross it without apprehensions. Here we paused to view this celebrated stream, and bring to our recollection the great events which took place on its banks and will perpetuate its name. Here we fancied we trod the ground where the great Antiochus sustained a total overthrow from Lucius Scipio one hundred and fifty years before Christ,1 in which] he lost fifty thousand foot and four thousand horse with fifteen elephants.

At twelve we reached a poor village called Zachonona about fifteen miles from Magnesia. We had sent our mules with the baggage forward. As we reached this place before them, and had not passed them on the road, we were seriously alarmed, and apprehended that the black slave who was with the baggage had either run off with our effects or was plundered. We remained for two hours in this painful suspense, and were at length relieved by the arrival of the negro, who had taken a different road, by which he had gone several miles out of his way. After having blamed each other for having separated from him, as he had in his possession every valuable and all our money, we resolved to be more prudent for the future.

Attack on our cold provisions

We retired to a kind of barn, where we made a violent attack on our cold provisions. We removed part of our valuables from the trunks and secured them in [our] own pockets. Here we were honoured with a visit from the Governor of the village, accompanied by fifty other Turks, who all appeared in uniform misery. They seated themselves on the ground around us and entertained themselves with admiring our fire-arms, which, we were pleased to find, they were sensible of being well loaded.

Marseillese ladies are in general handsome

The Marseillese ladies are in general handsome, excessively gay and without the least restraint in their conversation; using the most familiar and unrestrained expressions to gentlemen as well as to each other without the least ceremony. This freedom of speech, however, keeps the bon ton at a distance; and though very pleasing in their own circles, becomes very vulgar and tedious to a nice observer. I was young, had a respectable train of servants and spoke the French language tolerably well: this was more than sufficient to gain me admission into all their parties. But my versatile disposition, or rather my evil genius, prompted me to quit this pleasant and harmless society and return to Lyons, where I met with an adventure, from which I may date all my subsequent misfortunes.

In this city I could find nothing to amuse me, if I except the sumptuous entertainments I gave to all those who chose to partake of them. Magnificent balls and suppers to the ladies, extravagant and expensive dinners to the gentlemen, succeeded each other in quick rotation.

The people of Lyons are very different from those of Marseilles. The latter only think how to make life agreeable, while the former concentrate all their enjoyments in the eagerness of making a rapid fortune. As an instance of their interested character, I shall relate a circumstance not generally known ; and which I should not have discovered, had not a Lyonese girl led me into the secret. At Lyons there is a league formed between the shopkeepers and the other inhabitants against all strangers who come to visit them. It is usual for foreigners to bring letters of recommendation to some of the principal inhabitants for the purpose of procuring lodging and assisting them in the purchase of whatever they may stand in need of. These complaisant conductors have ten per cent, from the merchant upon every article which he sells by their recommendation, and for which he of course takes care to reimburse himself in the price of his commodities; so that the purchaser pays ten per cent, more than he would have done, if he [had] gone alone to the shop; and at the same time looks upon himself as much obliged to his friend for his assistance in obtaining what he thinks a good bargain.

The rich and the poor are here employed in their shops and warehouses from morning till night. The spirit of gain is the sole active principle which prevails in this vast magazine of luxury, which distributes its various articles to the four quarters of the world.

The Lyonese ladies

As to the Lyonese ladies, they possess but few attractive charms. A certain apathy and listlessness of manners destroy the effects of any beauty with which nature may have endowed them; and which is further injured by those monstrous wens, from which very few of them are exempt wooden workmanship byzantium. I had no resource therefore, but in the pleasures of the table.

Among my numerous friends and acquaintances were two Irish gentlemen, whose names I shall conceal; because I only wish to impeach myself. I lived with them in so close an intimacy, that in a short time we became inseparable. Some time afterwards I received an anonymous letter, cautioning me to beware of my new friends, who were represented to be a couple of desperate gamblers, come from Spa, for the express purpose of making me the dupe of their execrable trade. They had received information of my residence at Lyons from one of their emissaries, whom they employed in such places as young men of fortune were likely to resort to.

I paid but very little attention to this advice, as I never observed in either of them the least inclination for play: besides, I was so little addicted to it myself, that I did not believe they had sufficient influence over me to induce me to play, even were they so inclined. However, I shewed the letter to my tutor, who was of opinion that I should entirely avoid their company, and gave me some further exhortation against every species of gaming whatsoever : yet I was so infatuated with my new acquaintance, that I disregarded this good advice and the admonition of my unknown friend.

Fifteen thousand pounds

July, 1789, and their return was celebrated by the lighting of bonfires through the city by the excited populace.t Whaley then “ produced such incontestable proofs of having accomplished his arduous undertaking ” that his friends were obliged reluctantly to pay him a sum of fifteen thousand pounds. This left him seven thousand pounds to the good after defraying the expenses of the expedition ; “ the only instance,” to use his own words, “ in all my life before in which any of my projects turned out to my advantage.”3 He remained in Dublin upwards of two years, engaged largely in gambling, only to find in the end that there was a considerable balance against him.

Speaking of these years, he says, “ It was at this period I happily formed an acquaintance with a lady of exquisite taste and sensibility, from whom I have never since separated. She has been a consolation to me in all my troubles, her persuasive mildness has been a constant check on the impetuosity of my temper, and at this moment constitutes, in my retirement, the principal source of all my felicity.” She was a Miss Courtney ;4 and she lived with Whaley up to the time of her death, which took place when he was resident in the Isle of Man.

Having gone the round of such amusements as Ireland could afford, he opened house in London, “ bought horses and carriages, subscribed to all the fashionable clubs, and was in a short time a complete man of the ton at the West End of the town.”

Knutsford: its Traditions and History, by Rev. Henry Green (Manchester, 1887), author of Shakspere and the Emblem Writers.

Dangerous time are highly interesting

A restless curiosity next led him to Paris, where the Revolution was then in progress. His experiences in the French capital at that dangerous time are highly interesting, and are detailed with his usual openness. From thence he returned to Dublin, but only for the purpose of selling an estate, which brought him twenty- five thousand pounds. “ Having paid some debts and made a few necessary urchases,” he went back to Paris with fourteen thousand pounds in his pocket, and again plunged into the old life.

Independent of individuals

What a contrast, for instance, to the German race! In the earliest history of that people, we discern an element of civilization, a vigorous action of the intellect residing in the body, independent of individuals, and giving birth to great men, rather than created by them. Again, in the first three centuries of the Church, we find martyrs indeed in plenty, as the Turks might have soldiers; but (to view the matter humanly) perhaps there was not one great mind, after the Apostles, to teach and to mould her children.

The highest intellects, Origen, Tertul- lian, and Eusebius, were representatives of a philosophy not hers; her greatest bishops, such as St. Gregory, St. Dionysius, and St. Cyprian, so little exercised a doctor’s office, as to incur, however undeservedly, the imputation of doctrinal inaccuracy. Vigilant as was the Holy See, then, as in every age, yet there is no Pope, I may say, during that period, who has impressed his character upon his generation; yet how well instructed, how precisely informed, how self-possessed an oracle of truth, do we find the Church to be, when the great internal troubles of the fourth century required it! how unam-biguous, how bold is the Christianity of the great Pontiffs, St. Julius, St. Damasus, St. Siricius, and St. Innocent; of the great Doctors, St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine!

By what channels, then, had the divine philosophy descended down from the Great Teacher through three centuries of persecution? First through the See and Church of Peter, into which error never intruded, though Popes might be little more than victims, to be hunted out and killed, as soon as made; and to which the faithful from all quarters of the world might have recourse when difficulties arose, or when false teachers any where exalted them-selves. But intercommunion was difficult, and com-paratively rare in days like those, and of nothing is there less pretence of proof than that the Holy See imposed a faith, while persecution raged, upon the ecumenical body.

Myriads of the faithful

Rather, in that earliest age, it was simply the living spirit of the myriads of the faithful, none of them known to fame, who received from the disciples of our Lord, and husbanded so well, and circulated so widely, and transmitted so faithfully, generation after generation, the once delivered apostolic faith; who held it with such sharpness of outline and explicitness of detail, as enabled even the unlearned instinctively to discriminate between truth and error, spontaneously to reject the very shadow of heresy, and to be proof against the fascination of the most brilliant intellects, when they would lead them out of the narrow way. Here, then, is a luminous instance of what I mean by an energetic action from within.

Certain weapons of defence

Moreover, brutes differ from men in this; that they cannot invent, cannot progress. They remain in the use of those faculties and methods, which nature gave them at their birth. They are endowed by the law of their being with certain weapons of defence, and they do not improve on them. They have food, raiment, and dwelling, ready at their command. They need no arrow or noose to catch their prey, nor kitchen to dress it; no garment to wrap round them, nor roof to shelter them.

Their claws, their teeth, their viscera, are their butcher and their cook; and their fur is their wardrobe. The cave or the jungle is their home; or if they are to exercise some architectural craft, they have not to learn it. But man comes into the world with the capabilities, rather than the means and appliances, of life. He begins with a small capital, but one which admits of indefinite improvement. He is, in his very idea, a creature of progress. He starts, the inferior of the brute animals, but he surpasses them on the long run; he subjects them to himself, and he goes forward on a career, which at least hitherto has not found its limit.

Even the savage of course in some measure exemplifies this law of human nature, and is lord of the brutes; and what he is and man generally, compared with the inferior animals, such is man civilized compared with the barbarian. Civilization is that state to which man’s nature points and tends; it is the systematic use, improvement, and combination of those faculties which are his characteristic ; and, viewed in its idea, it is the perfection, the happiness of our mortal state.

Necessarily Christianity.

It is the development of art out of nature, and of self-government out of passion, and of certainty out of opinion, and of faith out of reason. It is the due disposition of the various powers of the soul, each in its place, the subordination or subjection of the inferior, and the union of all into one whole. Aims, rules, views, habits, projects; prudence, foresight, observation, inquiry, invention, resource, resolution, perseverance, are its characteristics. Justice, benevolence, expedience, propriety, religion, are its recognised, its motive principles. Supernatural truth is its sovereign law. Such is it in its idea, synonymous with Christianity; and, not only in idea, but in matter of fact also, is Christianity ever civilization, as far as its influence prevails; but, unhappily, in matter of fact, civilization is not necessarily Christianity.

The plain of the Clitumnus

Even as regards this low tract, he speaks Alison on of one portion of it, the plain of the Clitumnus, as being rich, as in ancient days, in herds and flocks; and he enlarges upon the Campagna of Naples as “ still the scene of industry, elegance, and agricultural riches. There”, he says, “ still, as in ancient times, an admirable cultivation brings to perfection the choicest gifts of nature. Magnificent crops of wheat and maize cover the rich and level expanse; rows of elms or willows shelter their harvests from the too scorching rays of the sun; and luxuriant vines, clustering to the very tops of the trees, are trained in festoons from one summit to the other. On its hills the orange, the vine, and the fig tree flourish in luxuriant beauty; the air is rendered fragrant by their ceaseless perfume; and the prodigy is here exhibited of the fruit and the flower appearing at the same time on the same stem”.

Great plain is so level

So much for that portion of Italy which owes least to the labours of the husbandman: the second portion is the plain of Lombardy, which stretches three hundred miles in length by one hundred and twenty in breadth, and which, he says, “ beyond question is the richest and the most fertile in Europe”. This great plain is so level, that you may travel two hundred miles in a straight line, without coming to a natural eminence ten feet high; and it is watered by numerous rivers, the Ticino, the Adda, the Adige, and others, which fall into the great stream of the Po, the “king of rivers”, as Virgil calls it, which flows majestically through its length from west to east till it finds its mouth in the Adriatic. It is obvious, from the testimony of the various travellers in the East, whom I have cited, what would be the fate of this noble plain under a Turkish government; it would become nothing more or less than one great and deadly swamp.

But Mr. Alison observes: “It is hard to say, whether the cultivation of the soil, the riches of nature, or the structures of human industry in this beautiful region, are most to be admired. An unrivalled system of agriculture, from which every nation in Europe might take a lesson, has long been established over its whole surface, and two, and sometimes three successive crops annually reward the labours of the husbandman. Indian corn is produced in abundance, and by its return, quadruple that of wheat, affords subsistence for a numerous and dense population.

Change of habits and promising no permanent stability

It was a sudden Tartar descent, accompanied with no national change of habits, and promising no permanent stability. Nor would they have remained, I suppose, as they did remain, were it not that they have been protected, as they were originally introduced, by neighbouring states which have made use of them. There, however, in matter of fact, they remain to this day, in Armenia, in Syria, in Asia Minor, even as far west as the coast of the Archipelago and its maritime cities and ports, being pretty much what they were a thousand years ago, except that they have taken up the loose profession of Mahometanism, and have given up some of the extreme peculiarities of their Tartar state, such as their attachment to horseflesh and mares’ milk. These are the Turcomans.

The writer in the Universal History divides them into eastern and western. Of the Eastern, with which we are not concerned, he tells us that “they are tall and robust, with square flat faces, as well as the western; only they are more swarthy and have a greater resemblance to the Tartars. Some of them have betaken themselves to husbandry.

Profess Mahomedanism

They are all Mohammedans; they are very’ turbulent, very brave, and good horsemen”. And of the Western, that they once had two dynasties in the neighbourhood of Armenia, and were for a time very powerful, but that they are now subjects of the Turks, who never have been able to subdue their roving habits; that they dwell in tents of thick felt, without fixed habitation; that they profess Mahomedanism, but perform its duties no better than their brethren in the East; that they are governed by their own chiefs according to their own laws; that they pay tribute to the Ottoman Porte, and are bound to furnish it with horsemen; that they are great robbers, and are in perpetual warfare with their neighbours the Kurds; that they march sometimes two or three hundred families together, and with their droves cover sometimes a space of two leagues, and that they prefer the use of the bow to that of fire-arms.

This account is drawn up from writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Precisely the same report of their habits is made by Dr. Chandler in his travels in Asia Minor in the middle of the last century; he fell in with them in his journey between Smyrna and Ephesus Jugoslavia. “We were told here”, he says, “ that the road farther on was beset with Turcomans, a people supposed to be descended from the Nomades Scythse or Shepherd Scythians; busied, as of old, in breeding and nurturing cattle, and leading, as then, an unsettled life; not forming villages and towns with stable habitations, but flitting from place to place, as the season and their convenience directs; choosing their stations and overspreading without control the vast neglected pastures of this desert empire. …

We set out, and . . . soon after came to a wild country covered with thickets, and with the black booths of the Turcomans, spreading on every side, innumerable, with flocks and herds and horses and poultry feeding round them”.

Zingis or Timour

Of these the first in order is the Hunnish Empire of Attila, and if I speak of it and of him with more of historical consecutiveness than of Zingis or of Timour, it is because I think in him we see the pure undiluted Tartar, better than in the other two, and in his empire the best specimen of a Tartar rule. Nothing brings before us more vividly the terrible character of Attila than this, that he terrified the Goths themselves.

These celebrated barbarians at the time of Attila inhabited the countries to the north of the Black Sea, between the Danube and the Don, the very district in which Darius so many centuries before found the Scythians. They were impending over the Roman Empire, and threatening it with destruction; their king was the great Herman- ric, who, after many victories, was closing his days in the fulness of power and renown. That they themselves, the formidable Goths, should have to fear and flee, seemed the most improbable of prospects ; yet it was their lot.

Crushing force of a remorseless foe

Suddenly they heard, or rather they felt before they heard, so rapid is the torrent of Scythian warfare, they felt upon them and among them the resistless, crushing force of a remorseless foe. They beheld their fields and villages in flames about them, and their hearthstones deluged in the blood of their dearest and their bravest. Shocked and stunned by so unexpected a calamity, they could think of nothing better than turning their backs on the enemy, crowding to the Danube, and imploring the Romans to let them cross over, and to lodge themselves and their families in safety from the calamity which menaced them.

Indeed, the very appearance of the enemy scared them; and they shrank from him, as children before some monstrous object. It is observed of the Scythians, their ancestors, who, as I have mentioned, came down upon Asia in the Median times, that they were a frightful set of men. “ The persons of the Scythians”, says a living historian, “ naturally unsightly, were rendered hideous by indolent habits, only occasionally interrupted by violent exertions; and the same cause subjected them to disgusting diseases, in which they themselves revered the finger of heaven”. Some of these ancient tribes are said to have been cannibals, and their horrible outrage in serving up to Cyax- ares human flesh for game, may be taken to confirm the account.

Wicked man should escape

RULE XXL

A wicked man is a captive in the hand of the enemy, for wherever he goeth he cannot escape from the clutches of his own punishment. If the wicked man should escape to Heaven from the hand of calamity, lie would continue in calamity from tlie s$nse of his own evil disposition.

RULE XXII.

When you see discord amongst the troops of your enemy, be of good courage; but if they are united, then be upon your guard. When you see contention amongst your enemies, go and sit at ease with your friends; but when you see them of one mind, string your bow, and place stones upon the ramparts.

RULE XXIII.

When the enemy has failed in all other artifices, he will propose friendship, that, under its appearance, he may effect what he could not compass as an open adversary.

RULE XXIY.

Bruise the serpent’s head with the hand of your enemy, which cannot fail of producing one of these two advantages:—If the enemy succeeds, you have killed the snake; and if the latter prevails, you have got rid of your enemy.

In the Jay of battle consider not yourself safe, because your adversary is weak; for he who becomes desperate, will take out the lion’s brains.

RULE XXY.

When you have any thing to communicate that will distress the heart of the person whom it concerns, be silent, in order that he may hear from some one else. 0 nightingale, bring thou the glad tidings of spring, and leave bad news to the owl.

RULE XXYI.

Inform not the King of the perfidy of any one, excepting you are assured that he will entirely approve of it, for otherwise you are only workin your own destruction. When you are purposin to speak any thing, do it when you know that your words will take effect.

Sweet frown it exhibits

The Cazy said to a respectable man of learning, who was in his company, “Behold that beauteous girl, how rude she is; behold her arched eyebrow, what a sweet frown it exhibits! In Arabic they say that, ‘ A blow from the hand of her we love is as sweet as raisin.’ To receive a blow on the mouth from thy hand is preferable to eating bread from one’s own band.” Then again she tempered her severity with a smile of beneficence; as kings sometimes speak with hostility when they inwardly desire peace.

Unripe grapes are sour, but keep them a day or two and they will become sweet. The Cazy having said thus, repaired to his court. Some well-disposed persons, who were in his service, made obeisance, and said that, “With permission they would represent a matter to him, although it might be deemed unpolite, as the sages have said, ‘It is not allowable to argue on every subject; it is criminal to describe the faults of a great personage; ’ but that in consideration of the kindness which his servants, had experienced from him, not to represent what to them appears advisable is a species of treachery.

The laws of rectitude require that you should conquer this inclination, and not give way to unlawful desires, for the office of Cazy is a high dignity, which ought not to be polluted by a crime, You are acquainted with your mistress’s character, and have heard her conversation. She who has lost her reputation, what cares she for the character of another? It has frequently happened that a good name acquired in fifty years has been lost by a single imprudence,”

The Cazy approved the admonition of his cordial friends, praised their understanding and fidelity and said, “The advice which my friends have given in regard to my situation is perfectly right, and their arguments are unanswerable..

Debilitated fisherman

TALE XXIV

A powerful fish fell into the net of a debilitated fisherman, who not being able to hold it, the fish got the better of him, snatched the net out of his hand, and escaped. A boy went to fetch water from the river: the flood tide came in and carried him away. The net had hitherto always taken the fish, but this time the fish escaped and carried away the net. The other fisherman grieved at the loss, and reproached him, that having such a fish in his net, he had not been able to hold it. He replied, “Alas, my brethren! what could be done, seeing it was not my lucky day, and the fish had yet a day remaining? A fisherman without luck catcheth not fish in the Tigris, neither will the fish without fate expire on the dry ground.

TALE XXV

One who had neither hands nor feet having killed a millepede, a pious man passing by said, “Holy God, although this had a thousand feet, yet when fate overtook him he could not escape from one destitute of hands and feet. When the enemy who seizes the soul comes behind, fate ties the feet of the swift man. At that moment when the enemy attacks us behind, it is needless to draw the Ivianyan bow.”

Burning flame from wild rue raises

TALE XX

I heard of a collector of the revenues, who desolated the houses of the subjects, in order to fill the King’s coffers; regardless of the maxim of the sages, which says, I whosoever offended the Most

High to gain the heart of a fellow creature, God will make that very creature the instrument of his destruction. The burning flame from wild rue raises not such a smoke as is occasioned by the sighs of the afflicted heart. They say that the lion is the king of beasts, and the ass the meanest of animals; but the sages all agree, that the ass who carries burthens is preferable to the lion that destroyed mankind. The poor ass, although devoid of understanding, yet, on account of carrying burthen, is very valuable. The labouring of an ox and the ass are preferable to men who injure their fellow creatures.’

The King, on hearing some part of his base conduct, ordered him on the rack, and tortured him to death. You will not obtain the approbation of the King, unless at the same time you strive to gain the hearts of his subjects. If you wish that God should be bountiful to you, do good unto his creatures. One whom he had oppressed passed by at the time of his execution, and said, “Not every one who possesses ministerial power and dignity can devour the property of men with impunity; you may swallow a hard bone, but it will tear the belly.

They tell a story of an oppressor, who flung a stone at the head of a pious man. The Durwesh, not having power to revenge himself, kept the stone, till a time when the King, being displeased, ordered the other to be thrown into a pit. The Durwesh then came and bruised his head with the stone; upon which he exclaimed, “Who art thou, and why bast thou flung this stone at my head? ” He answered, “I am such an one, and this is the identical stone that on such a day you flung at my head.”

He proceeded, “Where were you all this time?” The Durwesh replied, “I was afraid of your dignity; but now that I see you in the pit, I consider it a favorable opportunity to avenge myself. Whilst the worthless man is in a state of prosperity, the wise think it proper to pay him respect. When you have not a nail sufficiently sharp for tearing, it is prudent not to contend with the wicked. Whosoever grapples against an arm of steel will injure his own wrist, if it is of silver: wait until fortune ties his hands, when, to the satisfaction of your friends, you may pick out his brains.”

A certain King had a terrible disease, the nature of which it is not proper to mention. A number of Greek physicians agreed that there was no other remedy for this disease, but the gall of a man of some particular description bulgaria tours. The King ordered such an one to be sought for, and they found a peasant’s son with the properties which the physicians had described. The King sent for the lad’s father and mother, and by offering a great reward gained their consent, and the Cazy gave his decision that it was lawful to shed the blood of a subject for restoring the health of the monarch.

The executioner prepared to put him to death, upon which the youth turned his eyes towards heaven and laughed. The King asked, “What there could be in his present condition which could possibly excite mirth? ” He replied, “Children look to their parents for affection; a suit is referred to the Cazy: and justice is expected from the monarch. Now my father and mother, seduced by vain worldly considerations having consented to the shedding of my blood, the judge having sentenced me to die, and the King, for the sake of his own health, having consented to my death, where am I to seek refuge excepting in the high God?

Unto whom shall I prefer my suit, since it is against you that I seek justice?” The King’s heart being troubled at these words the tears stood in his eyes, and he said, “It is better for me to die, than that the blood of an innocent person should be shed.” He kissed his head and eyes, and embraced him, and after bestowing considerable gifts, set him at liberty. They say also, that in the same week the King was cured of his distemper. In application to this, I recollect the verse which the elephant driver rehearsed on the banks of the river Nile: ‘ If you are ignorant of the state of the ant under your foot, know that it resembles your own condition under the foot of the elephant.’

Alexander Stamboliiski

So they resorted to conspiracy. On June 19, 1923, the legitimate government of Alexander Stamboliiski was overthrown by a coup d’etat carried out by the Military League which was loyal to the King, and a bloody fascist dictatorship was established in the country with Professor Alexander Tsankov at the head. The popular uprising against the fascist coup, which broke out in many regions of the coun-try, was crushed, and Stamboliiski was murdered after being cruelly tortured.

The usurped fascist power, however, had by far not stabilized its positions. Only three months later, on the night of September 22, 1923, a new, much better organized uprising broke out, in which agrarians and communists acted in conjunction against the common enemy. The uprising was the most massive in North-Western Bulgaria and in the region of the town of Stara Zagora. The insurgents took scores of towns and villages and es-tablished in them worker-peasant rule. The uprising was headed by the recognized Leaders of the Communist Party Vassil Kolarov, Georgi Dimitrov and Gavril Genov.

The forces of the government, however, were far superior and the insurgent forces were defeated after two weeks of fighting. As after the April 1876 Uprising, towns and villages were put to fire while the role of the bashibozouks was performed with ‘enviable’ success by the specially formed for the purpose fascist bands – Spitzkommandos.

Civilians with progressive convictions

Thousands of insurgents and civilians with progressive convictions were murdered, still other tens of thousands were thrown into prison or forced to emigrate. A new wave of white terror flooded the country after April 16, 1925, when extreme-left elements made an attempt at the life of those present at the burial service of a fascist general in the Sofia Cathedral St Nedelya. The atrocities committed by the fascist dictatorship in Bulgaria aroused the profound indignation of world public opinion and under the impact of a far-reaching international cam-paign of protest and popular hate the “bloody professor’ Tsankov was forced to resign and his place was taken by less discredited reactionary politicians.

STRUGGLE FOR A BULGARIAN CHURCH AND EDUCATION

During the first half of the 19th century the Bulgarian people having come into contact with civilized Europe, became aware of their age-long backwardness, to which they had been inevitably doomed by the barbarous foreign domination, and began to strive for more education. Gradually the old monastery schools were replaced by secular ones which taught according to new methods and curricula. Hundreds of selfless teachers, who had dedicated their lives to the cultural upsurge of their people and to the struggle for their liberation, worked side by side with the outstanding organizers of Bulgarian education Dr Peter Beron and Vassil Aprilov.

Slav alphabet of Bulgarian education

Besides the schools, the library clubs — voluntarily established public educational institutions with a wide range of activities — proved very useful in this work. In spite of the great number of obstacles put up by the Ottomans, the number of Bulgarian schools in the 1870s exceeded 1,500, and that of library clubs — 130. The first Bulgarian newspapers and magazines began to come out in the 1840s.

It was during those days of national revival that the brightest Bulgarian holiday began to be celebrated, which is celebrated to this day – the Day of Cyril and Methodius, the creators of the Slav alphabet of Bulgarian education and culture. In 1869 the Bulgarian Literary Society was founded in the Romanian town of Bralla, which constituted the foundations of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Modern Bulgarian literature was also making its first steps, represented by the talented writers and poets, loyal to their people, Lyuben Karavelov, Hristo Botev, Vassil Droumev, Konstantin and Dimiter Miladinov, Raiko Zhinsifov, Grigor Purlichev, Naiden Gerov, Dobri Voynikov, Petko Rachov Slaveykov, Ivan Vazov and others. Many of them were also revolutionaries and became recognized ideologists and leaders of the Bulgarian national revolution.

The 19th century marked the flowering of the arts of the Bulgarian National Revival period. The painters Zahari Zograph, Stanislav Dospevski and Nikolai Pavlovich, the wood-carvers from the schools in Debur, Tryavna and Samokov, the self-taught talented master- builder and architect Kolyu Ficheto and thousands of anonymous masters created immortal works of art which arouse the admiration of the present generations.

INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY AS AN OFFICIAL RELIGION

Christianity, which had been established as an official religion in the former Roman Empire as early as the 4th century A. D., had become firmly rooted in it by the end of the 9th century and was the ideological foundation of the early feudal civilization. The Bulgarians could by no means join this civilization unless they adopted Christianity as their official religion. In spite of the brilliant military victories of the Bulgarian Khans and Bulgaria’s having become one of the most powerful European states, two centuries after its foundation the country was still belonging to the pagan, ‘barbarian’ world.

Christianity became a vital necessity

The adoption of Christianity became a vital necessity, not only for settling the country’s international situation, but also for its internal consolidation. Both Slavs and Bulgarians were heathens but they believed in different gods, had different ways of life and customs and this drew them apart, in spite of their belonging to one and the same state. The measures taken by Kroum and his successors for the legal and political equalizing of the two : ethnical groups and for building up a centralized state apparatus were insufficient to create the indispensable internal ethnical link. Besides, the heathen belief in more than one god did not assist the establishment of the autocratic rule of the head of state.

Khan Boris (852-889) was a statesman who was acutely aware of these historical tasks and who daringly undertook to solve them. He had good reasons to feel ap-prehensive of the growing Byzantine influence in the country and sought the help of the German Emperor (in 843 the Frankish Empire was divided into three parts) asking him to serve as intermediary in Bulgaria’s adoption of Christianity from Rome. Byzantium reacted without delay by organizing an impressive military campaign against Bulgaria. The condition for signing peace was that the Bulgarians should be converted to Christianity by the Byzantine Church.

Checking the advance of the Russians

The retreating Turkish troops, ill armed, ill commanded, and demoralized by defeat, turned to bay at Philippopolis with a forlorn hope of checking the advance of the Russians. On the top of a hill close by the city there stands a stone slab recording the fact that on this spot General Gourkoff had his head-quarters, while he directed the movements of his troops in the plain below. The battle was not long.

The Turks, finding themselves out-numbered and out-manoeuvred, lost heart and fled towards the Rhodope, leaving their guns behind them. With this defeat the war came to an end, and if it had not been for the arrival of the English fleet in the Sea of Marmora, the road to Constantinople would have lain open to the Russians, and in all likelihood Philippopolis would to-day have been the prefecture of a Russian province.

As things turned out, Philippopolis enjoyed a brief period of independent existence as the Capital of Eastern Roumelia. Had it not been for the modifications introduced into the Treaty of San Stefano at the Conference of Berlin, the two Bulgarian provinces would have been converted at once into one united State, of which the city of Philip the Great would have been the natural metropolis.

Deprived Philippopolis

But the fates, as represented by the Western Powers, willed it otherwise; and when, six years later, Eastern Roumelia threw off* the restrictions imposed upon her by the Treaty of Berlin, and proclaimed her incorporation with Bulgaria, Sofia had already been made the seat of government Though I think that the incident which deprived Philippopolis of her claim to be the capital of Bulgaria is not matter for regret, there can be no question that the Roumeliote city was in many respects better fitted than Sofia to be the metropolis of the Principality. It stands in a singularly central position. It has considerable historical and architectural pretensions. It is surrounded by hills not less beautiful than those which encircle Sofia.

Extreme violence by the Opposition Press

The charge was made use of with extreme violence by the Opposition Press, especially in Philippopolis, and the common expectation was that the agitation against Turkey would soon be converted into a popular outcry for the dismissal of the Ministry. Happily, the Turkish Government became alive to the danger of the situation.

The Sultan gave way and revoked the decree in a very frank and prompt manner. He not only yielded on the school question, but he consented to the appointment of Bulgarian bishops in Macedonia, a favour which he had hitherto persistently refused. He also granted a site for the erection of a Bulgarian school at Constantinople, and gave the Exarch permission to build a new official residence at Pera. He further promised that in future the ownership of the Bulgarian schools in Macedonia should be vested in the hands of the Bulgarian bishops or of their nominees.

The conclusion of this settlement was extremely gratifying to national feeling in Bulgaria, and was popularly attributed to the great skill with which M. Stambouloff had worked on the apprehensions of the Porte and had carried his point without resorting to any military demonstration. The Premier himself attributed a great part of his success to the active support he had received from Sir Philip Currie, who had only recently taken up his position as British Ambassador at Constantinople.

Stambouloffs abode at Sofia

In common opinion, however, throughout Bulgaria, the whole thing was Stambouloffs doing. As soon as the news of the settlement became known in Sofia, a large crowd proceeded with torchlights to M. Stambouloffs abode at Sofia. In reply to the cheers with which he was greeted, he came out on the balcony and made a speech appealing to the Bulgarians to display their special gratitude for the gracious concessions made by the Suzerain, and urging upon them the paramount necessity of keeping on good terms with Turkey as Bulgaria’s best friend and ally.

Cabinet of Ministers seated round a baccarat table

To our Western ideas it seems strange to see a whole Cabinet of Ministers seated round a baccarat-table, laughing, smoking, drinking, whistling, and sometimes singing, while the Premier or the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs holds the bank. Every country, however, has its own usages, and I think it would be unjust to attribute the frequent presence of the leading politicians of Bulgaria in the card-rooms of the Union Club to any special love of gambling. What their presence does show is the total absence of general society in the place. If any Sofiote wishes for relaxation after his day’s work—and most of the leading men here work very hard and very long— the club is the one place he can go to for entertainment. There is but little general conversation in the club, and the only entertainment to be found there is in card-playing. I have thought it worth while to dwell somewhat on this feature of social life in Sofia, mainly in order to show how very meagre and jejune that life still is.

There is a handsome theatre where performances are given occasionally in Bulgarian, but it is very little frequented. There are also one or two cafds chant ants chiefly resorted to by the German commercial travellers, waiters, and shopmen of Sofia.

Contributions from the customers

At these places a few elderly, painted, wrinkled waifs and strays from the music halls of the Fatherland sing songs with cracked voices to the accompaniment of a piano out of tune. After each song the singer comes round with a plate and solicits contributions from the customers. The average contribution is a penny, and these pennies, together with the commission paid upon the liquors which they induce the customers to order, constitute the only remuneration given to the performers.

These wretched places of amusement, so called on the lucus a non lucendo principle, are very little visited by the natives, though I am told that occasionally, on the nights of the great popular holidays, the townspeople come there, and that even Ministers have been seen amongst the audience. Indeed, the utter absence of ladies’ society in Vienna is about the only reason why I can imagine the wildest and youngest of Sofiote gallants ever frequenting these resorts.

Monotony of the endless rows

Architecturally, Sofia has little or no pretensions. The houses are all of brick encased in stucco. The width of the thoroughfares, the monotony of the endless rows of detached villas, the scrubby trees planted along the foot- walks, and the shabby-genteel air inseparable from stucco in every form and phase, reminded me frequently of the non-artistic districts of St. John’s Wood. Palace, public buildings, private dwellings, are all fashioned after the model of the house which children are first taught to draw, a rectangular parallelogram, with a broad slit in the middle for the doorway, and with any number of narrow slits for the windows in the facade.

Except in a few streets of the business quarter, the houses do not adjoin each other, but stand apart. Hardly any house is more than two stories in height: most of them consist of one story only. They all stand in a plot of ground of their own, but gardens are few and far between; the places where one might expect to find a garden are occupied by outhouses. Except in two or three of the main streets, the process of reconstruction is still incomplete.

Every now and then the broad, smooth, flag-stone pavements are intersected by stretches of unpaved ground, filled up with rubble and loose stones, which a shower of rain converts, for the time being, into a quagmire. Here and there, too, sandwiched in between the modern stucco villas, are groups of old- fashioned Turkish houses, half cottages, half shanties, with white-washed walls and broad, red-tiled roofs.

Pass their lives in Sofia

From a painter’s point of view the tumble-down, squalid old town was infinitely preferable; but, from the point of view of people who have to pass their lives in Sofia, the present is doubtless superior to the past Sofia has, in fact, been converted into a very fair specimen of a well-to-do, commonplace Western city. The streets, unlike those of Eastern towns, are all named, mostly after the local celebrities of the era of Liberation, and the houses are all regularly numbered. The main thorough- ) fares are wide and well paved with macadam. The foot- walks in every part of the town are excellent, except for the gaps I have just spoken of; and before long Sofia will be as well constructed a capital, for its size, as any to be found in Europe.