Rufinus and Eutropius successively chief Ministers

At his instance, Rufinus and Eutropius, successively chief Ministers of the Government of Arcadius, were put to death. He incited the Ostrogoths settled in Asia Minor to rebel, and brought them over to Europe to support his ambitious plans. He filled Constantinople with Gothic soldiers, and twice attempted to burn down the palace. And when, in view of the precautions taken against him, he found it prudent to quit the city, it was with the idea of returning with a larger force to make himself the master of the place. His plan failed, as such schemes often fail, through an accident of an accident.

A Gothic soldier treated a poor beggar woman roughly; a citizen took her part and struck the assailant dead. In the condition of the public mind, this proved the spark which produces a tremendous explosion. The city gates were immediately closed and the ramparts manned, while an infuriated mob went through the city hunting for Goths, and did not cease from the mad pursuit until the blood of 7000 victims had stained the streets of the city. Gain as was pursued and defeated, and eventually his head was sent to Constantinople by the Huns among whom he had sought refuge.

Column of Claudius Gothicus

This, indeed, did not put all further trouble at the hands of Goths to an end, but it was the knell of German domination in Constantinople and the East. The reign of Arcadius is the watershed upon which streams, which might have flowed together, separated to run in opposite directions and through widely diverse scenes of human affairs. The inscription, “ob deuictos Gothos” upon the column of Claudius Gothicus now acquired a deeper meaning.

But one cannot think of the reign of Arcadius without recalling the fact that for six years of that reign Constantinople was adorned by the virtues, and thrilled by the eloquence, of John Chrysostom. Although popular with the masses, he provoked the bitter hostility of the Court and of a powerful section of the clergy, by his scathing rebukes of the frivolous and luxurious habits of fashionable society, and by the strictness of his ecclesiastical rule.

Development of the Bulgarian electrical industry

Thanks to its own policy and the development of the Bulgarian electrical industry, a few years after its establishment the company began to offer engineering services, as well. At that time they consisted mainly in the organization of complete projects performed by specialized Bulgarian subcontractors. During that period, in parallel with the projects performed, Electroimpex acquired the potential, experience and reputation of a company famous in the field of engineering activities.

In 1990 Electroimpex was transformed into a public limited company the founders of which included Bulgarian manufacturers of major electrical equipment, research and design institutes, banks, etc. In 1999 the company was privatized through Sofia Stock Exchange.

Today Electro impex, with its 210 employees in the head office, independently performs engineering activities in the field of electric power projects: design, supply, installation, adjusting tests, commissioning, supervision, guarantee and post-guarantee services. On the basis of its own potential of engineers, economists and other highly qualified specialists, equipment and facilities, the company provides, by its own efforts, up to 35°/o of the complete engineering product of the carried out projects for electric power generation, transmission and distribution. It is in projects of that type only that the facilities are offered by Bulgarian and foreign subcontractors in strict conformity with the customers’ requirements and the respective tender documents. Some of the best known manufacturers such as ABB, Alstom, General Electric, Schneider Electric, Siemens, etc. appear in Electroimpex List of Approved Suppliers.

Electroimpex is awarded a Certificate of Approval by Bureau Veritas Quality International in compliance with Quality Standards BS EN ISO 9001:1994 in the field of engineering services for complete turnkey electric power projects, including: HV substations, HV overhead transmission lines, distribution overhead and cable networks, rural and urban electrification, hydro power plants, irrigation and water supply pump stations, package potable water treatment stations, technological lines and factories for electrical goods manufacturing.

The company is also included in the DG1A Central Consultancy Register of the European Community.

Electroimpex is well known in more than 85 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and South America and in some of them, such as Germany, UK, France, Italy, Greece, Albania, Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Cuba, Peru, etc., it has established business contacts with firms with a wide range of activities on the basis of joint- ventures, agencies or traditionally maintained cooperation contacts.

The company has implemented contracts with 18 countries in the world for about 100 projects worth more than 500 million USD and has become a well-known and welcome partner on the international markets.

Electroimpex is a successful company

The analysis of the financial condition of the company performed in conformity with the international auditing standards by the auditor firm KPMG show that Electroimpex is a successful company with stable economic indices, typical of which is 60 min. USD annual turnover for the period 1992-1998.

All these facts and figures show that Bulgaria has significant achievements and experience obtained in the process of construction of a number of turnkey power projects abroad which is a warrant for stable and reliable partnership with foreign companies.

After that-round the clock

For economic reasons, until 1921 the plant operated only at nighttime, and after that-round the clock.

Table 2 presents a summary of the electrification enterprises for public power supply in Bulgaria by 1918.

Until the end of World War I (1918), although the Bulgarians were convinced of the usefulness of electrification and that without it no significant progress in the country was possible, most of the towns except for the above- mentioned five ones, continued to use oil lamps for indoor and street lighting (street lanterns).

Electricity Demand Level

During the period of local electrification electricity demand level could be considered only in relation to several electrified towns and villages, where, except in Sofia, electricity was mainly used for lighting purposes. Sofia had the highest specific electricity consumption per capita, as shown below:

Before the end of World War I the average specific electricity consumption in Kazanlak for all purposes did not exceed 45 kWh per capita, and in Varna it ranged between 5 and 8 kWh per capita. This low figure was due to the irregular operation of its diesel power plant.

Electricity generation in the country

The overall electricity generation in the country by 1913 (at the time of the Balkan wars) was estimated at about 110 million kWh and 2.2 kWh per capita on the average for the country. At the same time the electricity consumption per capita in the USA was 156 kWh, in Germany-41 kWh, and in Russia-14 kWh.

That low electricity consumption corresponded to the low specific installed capacity in the power plants- 50-^60 W per capita, equal to the wattage of an electric lamp. Correspondingly, the annual utilization ratio of installed capacities in the power plants was low, although increasing with time. For Sofia it was 670 h in 1901 and 1074 h in 1917, and for Kazanlak-830-1000 h, respectively.

Morava-Maritza trench

The full significance of the Morava-Maritza trench can be appreciated only in case we recall the important role it has always played in the history of the Nearer East. From all parts of Europe highways of travel converge southeastward toward the points where Occident and Orient touch hands at the Bosporus. Whether coming from the plains of the Po over the Pear Tree Pass, from western and central Europe along the upper Danube, or from farther north through the Moravian and other gaps to the Vienna gateway, travelers find the mass of the Balkans blocking the path to Constantinople and the Bast; just as in other days the hosts which invaded Europe from the lands of Asia Minor found in this same barrier an impediment to progress toward the northwest. Under these conditions it was inevitable that a continuous river trench cutting clear through the barrier from the plains of Hungary to the shores of the Bosporus should become a topographic feature of commanding historical importance.

Morava-Maritza valley

Long before the time of the Romans the Morava-Maritza valley had become a highway for peoples migrating east or west through the mountainous Balkan lands. In a later day one of the principal Roman military roads led from Belgrade through the trench to Constantinople. The great Slavonic flood which issued from the plains of northeastern Europe through the Moravian and Vienna gateways entered the Morava valley and, in the seventh century of our era, was flowing through the trench to surge about the walls of Adrianople. A few centuries more, and the mountain sides were echoiug the shouts of the Crusaders who toiled along the same pathway to fight for the Holy Sepulcher. Back through the same defile came those hordes of conquering Turks who pushed the limits of their misrule to the very gates of Vienna.

In our day a double line of steel rails has succeeded trail and military road, and the smoke of the Orient Express hangs low in the very valley where, centuries ago, dust clouds were raised by the passing of Roman legions, Crusading knights, or Turkish infantry. Here is the vital link in the great Berlin-to-Bagdad railway route, the channel through which German ambition hopes to reach the Far East, and the path by which the Teutonic powers must send men and munitions to the hard-pressed Turks and bring back food to their own hungry people.

Very great rarity in Turkey

Her claret however was excellent, nor did she wish that we should spare it. We had tolerably good beds, which is a very great rarity in Turkey ; and this is perhaps the only place where anything better than the bare boards could be procured.

During all my travels in Asia I thought myself happy when I could get some clean uncut straw on which I might spread my blankets. I mention uncut straw because the Turks, feeding their horses and cattle principally on it, cut the straw very small, immediately after the corn is threshed, and put it into large hair bags in which they send it to the market. They never litter their horses, but make them lie on the boards, and we were frequently compelled to do the same.

We rose early on the following day and took our leave of our good landlady, who made us pay thirty-six dollars, being equal to five pounds eight shillings sterling, for her friendly and comfortable accommodations. Our escort consisted of nine mules, three of which carried our provisions for the journey, as we had nothing to expect on the road, and having to travel nearly three hundred miles on the same animals, it was necessary to spare them as much as possible, which would of course render our progress slow.

The sun was just rising as we ascended the mountain called Yachaku,1 which commands the town and Bay of Smyrna. I do not remember ever having seen so beautiful a landscape: nor can I suppose that there is in the universe a richer or grander prospect than presented itself to our view from this mountain.

The variety of flowering shrubs two-brothers, particularly the arbutus, now quite covered with berries, growing in vast quantities on the sides of the mountain ; the flocks and herds grazing in the valleys ; the noble appearance of the town ; the extensive Bay and shipping of every nation, formed altogether the most beautiful coup d’oeil in the world, and with the splendour of the morning inspired us with sensations the most pleasing.

I could not help observing to my friend how surprised I was that more of our countrymen did not direct their travels to this delightful country ; for I will venture to assert that no part of the globe is better worth their attention, or would more amply repay their trouble and expense than the country from Smyrna to the old and magnificent town of Magnesia, once the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which, as well as its environs, still retains so much grandeur.

Baggage and janissaries

Having spent half an hour on this mountain, almost lost in admiration, we set off by the advice of my faithful Pauolo, full gallop to come up with our baggage and janissaries, who had gone on before us. We soon overtook them at the entrance of a wood, which consisted chiefly of forest trees, such as oak, elm, and pine ; all, however, of inferior growth, and intermixed with the fig, olive, and almond : there was also a vast quantity of dwarf holly, which formed a very thick underwood. The arbutus and the oleander were likewise frequent.

We now heard, for the first time, the drowsy noise of a caravan, which we soon overtook. It consisted of about thirty camels, all heavily laden. They formed a long string, and were fastened to one another by a ring which passed through the nostrils of each, and was tied to the tail of the foremost. Their pace was about the same as that of one of our heaviest waggons in England, but they have the advantage of performing much longer journeys, as they seldom stop to feed. This novel sight for some time engrossed our attention ; but in the course of a few days we were habituated to it, and it soon lost its power of pleasing from the frequent repetition and the tedious sameness of the object.

The country around seemed in a state of nature; yet displayed an uniform appearance of richness and fertility. We perceived but few cottages, and these were only the temporary abodes of shepherds, where the ragged ensigns of poverty were displayed, and the appearance of the inhabitants bespoke their wretchedness, as much as the neglected state of so fine a country indicated the badness of the government to which it was subject.

Distinction in Ireland

The most prominent feature in my character, to which I may in a great measure impute all my misfortunes, is the extreme anxiety and impatience I always felt at the approach of any difficulty. To avoid an impending evil, I have formed plans so wild and extravagant, and for the most part so impracticable, that what I had before dreaded appeared light when compared with the distress I incurred by my own precipitate folly. Added to this, an impatience of all control whatsoever, and a temper always impelled to action in proportion to the resistance which it had to encounter; and it will no longer be a matter of surprise if I were continually entangled in some new and perplexing embarrassment.

When I had attained my sixteenth year, *my mother thought proper* to send me to France in order to finish 1 my education. For this purpose she assigned me a yearly allowance of nine hundred pounds, and placed me under the care of a tutor, who had been recommended to her by some persons of distinction in Ireland. He had been in the army, but his pay not corresponding with his expenses he was under the necessity of selling his commission to pay his debts, and had now taken up the profession of governor, or as it is sometimes termed bearleader, to young men of family.

He had had a good education, and profited considerably by the observations he had made abroad. His heart was good; but his constitution .had been impaired by early intempeiance; and he wanted that address and firmness ot character necessary to superintend the conduct of a young man like me, on whom opposition badly managed, or authority indiscriminately exercised, always acted as a stimulus to excess. Though he proved an indifferent Mentor, as will appear in the sequel ; yet I do not by any means wish so far to injure his memory as to lay to his charge the blame of my follies and eccentricities, which I am willing to take on my own account.

Letter from Oliver Cromwell

This Richard Chapell Whaley was twice married ; first, in 1727, to Catherine, daughter of Robert Armitage, who died without issue ; and secondly, in 1759, when at an advanced age, to Anne, Henry Whaley, son of Edward the Regicide, came to Ireland in 1658 with a letter of introduction from Oliver Cromwell to Henry Cromwell, then Lord Deputy. The original is in the possession of Mr. John Whaley of Annsboro, co. Kildare.

Letter from Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector.

“ Harry Cromwell—I write not often to you. Now I think my self ingaged to mv dearer Cousin Whaley to lay my commands upon you that you shew ali lovinge respect to his eldest son, by his present Ladye, whom you are to receave in the room of his eldest brother both into his command and into your affection. I assure you though hee bee soe neerly to us as you know, yett I would not importune on his behalf soe heartily as now I can upon the scoare of his owne worth, wch indeed is as remark-able as I believe in any of ten thousand of his yeares. Hee is excellent in the Latine, french, and Italian tongues, of good other learninge wth partes suitable, and (wch compleates this testimonie) is hopefully seasoned with religious principles, lett him be much wİth you, and use him as yr owne. being most serious in this desire, and expecting a suitable returne there unto,

“ I rest your lovinge Father

“ Oliver P.

“ my love to your deare wife and to the two babes.

“June I, 1658.

“(Endorsed) 1 June 1658. His Highness conserning Capt. Whaly.”

The reasons for the advancement of Henry Whaley “ in the room of his eldest brother” (John) will be found on referring to the Calendar of State Papers, Ireland, where documents are given from which it appears that Capt. John Whaley, a few days before the date of the above letter, had incurred the Protector’s displeasure by fighting a duel with the Earl of Chesterfield, in consequence of which both combatants were committed to the Tower. The Petition of Capt. Whaley, dated 15th June, 1658, to Cromwell, contains a touching reference to the writer’s recent marriage : “[He] would submit to his confinement were he alone concerned, but he has newly entered into a condition wherein his suffering will as nearly become another’s affliction as his own and is anxious to avoid the unhappiness which a longer separation may produce.”

Participation in some common possession

Next I lay down, that, whereas a state is in its very idea a-society, and a society is a collection of many individuals made one by their participation in some common possession, and to the extent of that common possession, the presence of that possession held in common constitutes the life, and the loss of it constitutes the dissolution, of a state. In like manner, whatever avails or tends to withdraw that common possession, is either fatal or prejudicial to the social union. As regards the Ottoman power, then, we have to inquire what its life consists in, and what are the dangers to which that life, from the nature of its constitution, is exposed.

Now, states may be broadly divided into barbarous and civilized; their common possession, or life, is some object either of sense or of imagination; and their bane and destruction is either external or internal. And, to speak without allowing for exceptions or limitations (for I am treating the subject scientifically only so far as is requisite for my particular inquiry), we may pronounce that bar-barous states live in a common imagination, and are destroyed from without; whereas civilized states live in some common object of sense, and are destroyed from within.

By external enemies I mean foreign wars, foreign influence, insurrection of slaves or of subject races, famine, accidental enormities of individuals in power, and other instruments of what, in the case of an individual is analogously called a violent death; by internal I mean civil contention, excessive changes, revolution, decay of public spirit, which may be considered analogous to natural death.

Again, by objects of imagination, I mean such as religion, true or false (for there are not only false imaginations but true), divine mission of a sovereign or of a dynasty, and historical fame; and by objects of sense, such as secular interests, country, home, protection of person and property.

I do not allude to the conservative power of habit whenlspeak of the social bond, because habit is rather the necessary result of possessing a common object, and protects all states equally, barbarous and civilized. Nor do I include moral degeneracy among the instruments of their destruction, because this too attaches to all states, civilized and barbarous, and is rather a disposition exposing them to the influence of what is their bane, than a direct cause of their ruin in itself.

The granary and garden of Asia

It followed, that in the course of some years the imperial domain became the granary and garden of Asia; and the sovereign made money without impoverishing his people. According to the nature of the soil, he sowed it with corn, or planted it with vines, or laid it down in grass: his pastures abounded with herds and flocks, horses and swine; and his speculation, as it may be called, in poultry was so happy, that he was able to present his empress with a crown of pearls and diamonds out of his gains. His ex-ample encouraged his nobles to imitation; and they learned to depend for their incomes on the honourable proceeds of their estates, instead of oppressing their people, and seeking favours from the the court. Such was the immediate consequence when man cooperated with the bountifulness of nature in this fruitful region; and it brings out prominently by its contrast the wretchedness of the Turkish domination.

That wretchedness is found, not in Asia Minor only, but wherever Turks are to be found in power. Throughout the whole extent of their territory, if you believe the report of travellers, the peasantry are indigent, oppressed, and wretched. The great island of Crete or Candia would maintain four times its present population; once it had a hundred cities; many of its towns, which were densely populous, are now obscure villages. Under the Venetians it used to export corn largely; now it imports it.

As to Cyprus, from holding a million of inhabitants, it now has only 30,000. Its climate was that of a perpetual spring; now it is unwholesome and unpleasant; its cities and towns nearly touched one another, now they are simply ruins. Corn, wine, oil, sugar, and the metals are among its productions; the soil is still exceedingly rich; but now, according to Dr. Clarke, in that “ paradise of the Levant, agriculture is neglected, inhabitants are oppressed, population is destroyed” broad beans. Cross over to the continent, and survey Syria and its neighbouring cities; at this day the Turks themselves are dying out; Diar- bekr, which numbered 400,000 souls in the middle of last century, forty years afterwards had dwindled to 50,000. Mosul had lost half its inhabitants. Bagdad had fallen from 130,000 to 20,000; and Bassora from 100,000 to 8,000.

In the fifteenth century

If we pass on to Egypt, the tale is still the same. “In the fifteenth century”, says Mr. Alison, “Egypt, after all the revolutions which it had undergone, was comparatively rich and populous; but since the fatal era of Turkish conquest, the tyranny of the Pashas has expelled industry, riches, and the arts”. Stretch across the width of Africa to Barbary, wherever there is a Turk, there is desolation. What indeed have the shepherds of the desert, in the most ambitious effort of their civilization, to do with the cultivation of the soil? “That fertile territory”, says Robertson, “which sustained the Roman Empire, still lies in a great measure uncultivated; and that province, which Victor called Speciositas totius terrce florentis, is now the retreat of pirates and banditti”.

End your survey at length with Europe, and you find the same account is to be given of its Turkish provinces. In the Morea, Chateaubriand, wherever he went, beheld villages destroyed by fire and sword, whole suburbs deserted, often fifteen leagues without a single habitation. “ I have travelled”, says Mr. Thornton, “ through several provinces of European Turkey, and cannot convey an idea of the state of desolation, in which that beautiful country is left. For the space of seventy miles, between Kirk Kilise and Carnabat, there is not an inhabitant, though the country is an earthly paradise. The extensive and pleasant village of Faki, with its houses deserted, its gardens overrun with weeds and grass, its lands waste and uncultivated, and now the resort of robbers, affects the traveller with the most painful sensations ”. Even in Wallachia and Moldavia the population has been gradually decreasing, while of that rich country not more than a fortieth part is under tillage. In a word, the average population in the whole Empire is not a fifth of what it was in ancient times.

Here I am tempted to exclaim (though the very juxtaposition of two countries so different from other in their condition needs an apology), I cannot help exclaiming, how different is the condition of that other peninsula in the centre of which is placed the See of Peter! I am ashamed of comparing, or even contrasting, Italy with Asia Minorthe seat of Christian governments with the seat of a barbarian rule,except that, since I have been speaking of the tenderness, which the Popes have shown, according to their means, for the earth and its cultivators, there is a sort of fitness in pointing out that the result is in their case conformable to our just anticipation. Besides, so much is uttered among us in disparagement of the governments of that beautiful country, that there is a reason for pressing the contrast on the attention of those, who in their hearts acknowledge little difference between the rulers of Italy and of Turkey.

Reached Kamtchatka

They had reached Kamtchatka on the North, the Caspian on the West, and perhaps even the mouth of the Indus on the South. Here then we have an intermediate empire of Tartars, separating the eras of Attila and Zingis; hut in this sketch it has no place, except as belonging to Turkish history, because it was contained within the limits of Asia, and, though it lasted for 200 years, but faintly affected the political transactions of Europe. However, it was not without some sort of influence on Christendom, for the Romans interchanged embassies with its sovereign in the reign of the then Greek Emperor Justin the younger (A.D. 570), with the view of engaging him in a warlike alliance against Persia. The account of one of these embassies remains, and the picture it presents of the Turks seems clearly to identify them with the Tartar race.

For instance, in the mission to the Tartars from the Pope, which I have already spoken of, the Friars were led between two fires, when they approached the Khan, and they at first refused to follow, thinking they might be countenancing some magical rite. Now we find it recorded of this Roman embassy, that, on its arrival, it was purified with fire and incense. As to incense, which seems out of place among such barbarians, it is remarkable that it is used in the ceremonial of the Turkish court to this day. At least Sir Charles Fellows, in his work on the Antiquities of Asia Minor, in 1838, speaks of the Sultan going to the festival of Bairam with incense bearers before bim. Again when the Romans were presented to the great Khan, they found him in his tent, seated on a throne, to which wheels were attached and horses attachable, in other words a Tartar waggon.

Moreover, they were entertained at a banquet which lasted the greater part of the day; and an intoxicating liquor, not wine, which was sweet and pleasant, was freely presented to them; evidently the Tartar koumiss The next day they had a second entertainment in a still more splendid tent; the hangings were of embroidered silk, the throne, the cups, and the vases of gold. On the third day, the pavilion, in which they were received, was supported on gilt columns; a couch of massive gold was raised on four gold peacocks; and before the entrance to the tent was what might be called a sideboard, only that it was a sort of barricade of waggons, laden with dishes, basins, and statues of solid silver. All these points in the description,the silk hangings, the gold vessels, the successively increasing splendour of the entertainments,remind us of the courts of Zingis and Timour, 700 and 900 years afterwards.

Opportunity of a brilliant exploit

Set out this banquet for them in our camp, leave the refuse of the army there, and retreat with the body of your troops upon the river. If I am not mistaken, the Scythians will address themselves to all this good cheer, as soon as they fall in with it, and then we shall have the opportunity of a brilliant exploit”. I need not pursue the history further than to state the issue. In spite of the immediate success of his ruse de guerre, Cyrus was eventually defeated, and lost both his army and his life.

The Scythian Queen, Tomyris, in revenge for the lives which he had sacrificed to his ambition, is related to have cut off his head, and plunged it into a vessel filled with blood, saying, “ Cyrus, drink your fill”. Such is the account given us by Herodotus; and, even if it is to be rejected, it serves to illustrate the difficulties of an invasion of Scythia; for legends must be framed according to the circumstances of the case, and grow out of probabilities, if they are to gain credit, and if they have actually succeeded in gaining it.

Our knowledge of the expedition of Darius in the next generation, is more certain. This fortunate monarch, after many successes, even on the European side of the Bosphorus, impelled by that ambition, which holy Daniel had already seen in prophecy, to threaten West and North as well as South, towards the end of his life, directed his arms against the Scythians who inhabited the country now called the Ukraine. His pretext for this expedition was an incursion which the same barbarians had made into Asia, shortly before the time of Cyrus.

They had crossed the Don, just above the sea of Azoff, had entered the country now called Circassia, had threaded the defiles of the Caucasus, and had defeated the Median King Cyaxares, the grand-father of Cyrus. Then they overran Armenia, Cappadocia, Pontus, and part of Lydia, that is, a great portion of Anatolia or Asia Minor; and managed to establish themselves in the country for twenty-eight years, living by plunder and exaction. In the course of this period, they descended into Syria, as far as to the very borders of Egypt.

Religion obtains perfection from the virtuous

RULE V.

A learned man without temperance, is a blind man carrying a link: he showed the road to others, but doth not guide himself, lie who through inadvertency trifled with life, threw away his money without purchasing any thing.

RULE VI.

A kingdom gains credit from wise men, and religion obtains perfection from the virtuous. Kings stand in more need of wise men, than wise men do of appointments at court. Listen, 0 king, to my advice; for you have not more valuable maxim in all your archives than this: “Entrust not your affairs to any but wise men, although public business is not the occupation of the wise.”

Three things are not permanent without three things:—Wealth, without commerce; science, without argument; a kingdom, without government.

RULE VIII.

Showing mercy to the wicked is doing injury to the good; and pardoning oppressors is injuring the oppressed. When you connect yourself with base men and show them favour, they commit crimes with your power, whereby you participate in their guilt.

RULE IX.

You cannot rely on the friendship of kings, nor confide in the sweet voices of boys: for those change on the slightest suspicion, and these alter in the course of a night. Give not your heart to her who has a thousand lovers; but if you should bestow it on her, be prepared for a separation.

RULE X.

Reveal not to a friend every secret that you possess, for how can you tell but what he may some time or other become your enemy. Likewise inflict not on an enemy every injury in your power, for lie may afterwards become your friend. The matter wlucli you wish to preserve as a secret, impart it not to any one, although he may be worthy of confidence, for no one will be so true to your secret as yourself.

It is safer to be silent than to reveal one’s secret to any one, and telling him not to mention it. 0 good man! stop the water at the spring-head, for when it is in full stream you cannot arrest it. You should never speak a word in secret, which may not be related in every company.

Durwesh accompanied

I asking why he did not frequent the city to relieve his mind? He replied, ‘ There dwell many of exquisite beauty: and where there is much clay, the elephants lose their footing.’ ” After making this speech, we mutually kissed and bid each other adieu. What benefit is there in kissing the cheek of a friend at the instant that you are bidding him adieu? It is like an apple with one cheek red and the other yellow. If I die not of grief on the day that I bid adieu, you will not consider me faithful in friendship.

A Durwesh accompanied me in the caravan to Mecca, on whom one of the nobles of Arabia had bestowed a hundred dinars for the support of his family. Suddenly a band of robbers of the tribe of Ivhufacheh attacked the caravan, and plundered it of every thing. The merchants began to cry and lament, and uttered useless complaints. Whether you supplicate, or whether you complain, the thief will not restore the money.

The Durwesh was the only exception; he remaining unshaken, and not at all affected by the adventure. I said to him, “Perhaps, they had not taken your money? ” He answered, “Yes, they carried it off, but I was not so fond of it as to be distressed at losing it. A man ought not to fix his heart on any thing or person, because it is a difficult matter to remove the heart therefrom.” I replied, “Your words suit my circumstance exactly; for in my youth I contracted a friendship for a young man, with so warm an attachment, that his beauty was the Keblah of my eyes, and his society the chief comfort of my life. No mortal on earth ever possessed so beautiful a form; perhaps he was an angel from heaven.

Sacrificed forty camels

TALE XV

They asked Hatim Tai, If he had ever seen or heard of any person in the world more noble-minded than himself? He replied, “One day after having sacrificed forty camels, I went along with an Arab chief to the skirt of a desert, where I saw a labourer, who had made up a bundle of thorns;

whom I asked, Why he did not go to the feast of Hatim Tai, to whose table people were repairing in crowds? He answered, £ Whosoever eateth bread from his own labour will not submit to be under obligation to Hatim Tai.’ I considered this man as my superior in generosity and liberality.”

TALE XVI

Moses the prophet (upon whom be peace!) saw a Durwesh, who, for want of clothes, had hidden himself in the sand. He said, “() Moses, implore God to bestow on me subsistence, for I am perishing in distress.” Moses prayed, and God granted him assistance. Some days after, when Moses was returning from performing his devotions he saw the Durwesh apprehended, and a crowd of people gathered round him. On inquiring, What had happened to him? They replied, “Having drank wine, he made a disturbance and killed a man; now they are going to exact retaliation.”

If the poor cat had wings she would not leave a sparrow’s egg in the world; and if a mean Wretch should happen to get into power, he would become insolent, and twist the hands of the weak. Moses acknowledged the wisdom of the Creator of the Universe, and asked pardon for his boldness, repeating the following verse of the Koran: 1 If God were to open his stores of subsistence for His servants, of a truth they would rebel on the earth.’ O vain man, what hast thou done to precipitate thyself into destruction? Would that the ant had not been able to fly!

When a mean wretch obtains promotion and wealth, of a truth he requires a thump on the head. Is not this the adage of a sage?

It were better for the ant not to have wings.’ Our Heavenly Father hath honey in abundance, but his son is affected with a feverish complaint. He who doth not make you rich, knoweth what is good for you better than you do yourself.

TALE XVII

I saw an Arab sitting in a circle of jewellers of Basrah and relating as follows: “Once on a time, having missed my way in the desert Gregorian calendar, and having no provisions left, I gave myself up for lost, when I happened to find a bag full of pearls. I shall never forget the relish and delight.that I felt on supposing it to be fried wheat; nor the bitterness and despair which I suffered, on discovering that the

bag contained pearls. In tKe parched desert of quicksands, pearls of shells, in the mouth of the thirsty traveller, are alike unavailing. When a man destitute of provisions is fatigued, it is the same thing to have in his girdle gold or potsherds.”

TALE XVIII

An Arab labouring under excessive thirst exclaimed, “I wish that for one day before my death this my desire may be gratified: that a river dashing its waves against my knees, I may fill my leather sack with water.”

In like manner a traveller, who had lost his way in the great desert, had neither strength nor provisions remaining, but a few direms in his girdle. He had wandered about a long time without finding the road, and perished for want. A company of men arrived, saw the direms lying before his face, and the following words written on the ground: “If the man destitute of food were possessed of pure gold, it would avail him nothing. To a poor wretch in the desert parched with the heat of the sun, a boiled turnip is of more value than virgin silver.”

Joined a society of Durweshes

Perhaps my horse was without barley and my saddle-cloth in pawn; and the Prince, who through avarice withholds the pay of his soldiers, does not deserve that they should expose their lives in his service. Give money to the gallant soldier that he may expose his head, for if you do not pay him, he will seek his fortune elsewhere. The strong man, if his belly is full, will fight valiantly, but when hungry, he will run away stoutly.”

Society of Durweshes

A certain Vizier, being dismissed from his office, joined a society of Durweshes, the blessing of whose company made such an impression as bestowed comfort on his mind. The King was again favourably disposed towards him, and ordered that he ‘should be reinstated; to which the Vizier would not consent, saying, that degradation was preferable to employment. “They who are seated in the corner of retirement close the dog’s teeth and men’s mouths; they tear their papers and break their pens, and are delivered from the hands and tongues of slanderers.” The King said, “Of a truth, we stand in need of a man of such sufficiency for the administration of our government.” The Vizier observed, that the proof of a man’s being sufficiently wise, was his not engaging in such matters. The Homai is honoured above all other birds, because it feeds on bones, and injures not any living creature.

Parable.—They asked a Syagoosh, “Why do you choose the servile society of the lion?” He replied, “Because I eat the i*emains of his hunting, and live guarded from the machinations of my enemies, under the protection of his valour.” They asked, “Now that you are under the shadow of his protection, and gratefully acknowledge his beneficence, why do you not approach, nearer, so as to be brought into the circle of his principal servants, and to be numbered amongst his favourite ministers? ” He replied, “I am not so confident of my safety from his severity. If the Gueber lights the fire an hundred years, yet should he fall into it for an instant, he ‘would be burnt.

It may happen that a King’s minister obtains money; or he may chance to lose his head. The sages have said, “Beware of the inconstant disposition ot princes, who sometimes are dissatisfied at a salutation; and sometimes, in return for rudeness, will bestow a dress of honor.” And they have also observed, ‘ Wit is an accomplishment in a courtier, but a blemish in the character of a wise man. Preserve the dignity of your own character, and leave sport and buffoonery to courtiers.”

THE NATIONAL CATASTROPHES

The Turkish government threw a 350,000-strong regular army against the insurgents and tens of thousands of bashibozouks. The insurgents fought courageously for a long time in spite of the numerical superiority and modern armament of the enemy. It took the Turks a month to suppress the uprising in the Strandja district, the closest to the Ottoman capital, while the insurgents in Macedonia, who had been joined by thousands of volunteers from the Principality, withstood the Turkish troops in incessant bloody battles for more than three months. The revenge of the Ottoman Turks was dreadful: over 250 inhabited places were razed to the ground, thousands of insurgents and civilians were killed, over 10,000 people were left homeless and 50,000 sought refuge in the Principality.

THE NATIONAL CATASTROPHES

After the defeat of the Ilinden and Preobrazhenie Uprisings the ruling Bulgarian circLes finally oriented themselves towards the preparation for a war, in order to settle the Bulgarian national question. Taking advantage of the developments in Turkey, where the Young Turks’ revolution had broken out on September 22, 1908 the Bulgarian government proclaimed the country’s in-dependence, which until then had been vassal to the Em-pire. In 1912, under Russian auspices, the Balkan Alliance was set up, consisting of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, which waged a successful war against Turkey.

Immediately after the victory, however, sharp contradictions broke out among the allies. It turned out that the Bulgarian ruling circles had paid little attention to the diplomatic preparations for the war — the treaty with Greece had not treated territorial questions at all, while the one with Serbia had given grounds to the Serbian govern-ment to have claims for additional Bulgarian lands. The treaty had specified the northwestern part of Macedonia as a ‘debatable zone’ whose destiny was to be decided according to the concrete contribution of the two sides to the war against Turkey and depending upon whether Serbia would receive an outlet on the Adriatic. The Russian King had been named arbitrator.

Serbo-Bosnian alliance

When the Asian conquerors reached the centre of the Balkans, the rulers of Serbia and Bosnia were frightened and concluded an alliance for joint action against Murad. The united Serbian and Bosnian troops dealt a crushing blow to the Turks in the big battle near the town of Plochnik in 1387. The Bulgarian Tsar joined the Serbo-Bosnian alliance which provoked an immediate wrathful reaction on the part of the Sultan. In 1388 a numerous Turkish army crossed the Balkan Range and conquered almost the whole of Northeastern Bulgaria without the city of Varna. Tsar Shishman was forced to reaffirm his vassal dependence from the Sultan and the terrible Ottoman hordes again set out for Serbia. In a battle which broke out at Kossovo Pole Murad I found his death but the Serbian troops, which had been joined by several Bulgarian feudal lords, were routed. Serbia also fell under vassal dependence from Turkey. .

The existence of the Bulgarian state became an obstacle on the way to the Ottomans’ further penetration into Central Europe. In spite of its weakness and dependence, it presented a constant threat to the right flank of the Turkish troops which had penetrated deep into the west. That is why Murad’s heir Bayazid I, The Light-ning, decided to put an end to the Turnovo Kingdom. In 1393 he invaded Moesia at the head of a numerous army and after a siege which Lasted three months, succeeded in capturing Turnovo.

One hundred and twenty boyars were massacred in the main church, thousands of Turnovo citizens were taken slaves and Patriarch Evtimi, who had headed the defence of Turnovo until the last moment, was sent into exile to the Rhodopes. Ivan Shishman hid himself in the Danubian stronghold of Nikopol, expecting help from the Hungarian King. The latter, however, never came to his assistance and Nikopol was captured and Ivan Shishman was killed. Only the Vidin Kingdom remained, but a Turkish garrison was also stationed in Vidin.

The Ottomans reached the frontiers of the then powerful Hungarian Kingdom, which forced the Hungarian King Sigismund to prepare in 1396 a big crusade against the Turks. The Ruler of Vidin Ivan Stratsimir opened the gates of his town to the crusaders and joined them with his troops, but the army of the crusaders suffered utter defeat. That was the end also of the Vidin Kingdom.

Ethnically belonged to the Turkic tribes

The policy of assimilation adopted by the Byzantine Emperors with regard to the immigrants in-fluenced the regions where the Slavs were not the predominant power (Central and Southern Greece, Asia Minor), but in Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia the Slavs were the masters of the situation. Too weak to oppose on their own the powerful pressure of Byzantium, the Slav tribes began to unite into tribal unions (the beginning of a state) and courageously to defend their independence. In their struggle against the Byzantine Empire during the last decades of the 7th century, they suddenly acquired a peerless ally in the Proto-Bulgarians.

The Proto-Bulgarians ethnically belonged to the Turkic tribes which inhabited the steppes of Central Asia. Their origin and name have to this day not been positively established. It is known that early in our era they had settled in the northern part of the foot of the Caucasus. Those lands had been populated from time immemorial by the Sabiri and Alani. It is probable that the Alani gave the Proto-Bulgarians their name, for in the language of that tribe ‘bulgaron’ meant ‘people living at the fpot of the mountain’.

At the end of the 4th and the first half of the 5th century A. D. the Proto-Bulgarians became members of the motley conglomerate of peoples called ‘Hunnish tribal union’ and took part in the horror-sowing Hunnish raids in Central and Western Europe. After the Union disintegrated, part of the Proto-Bulgarians settled in Italy, others went back to their former places – along the northern Black Sea coast. For several decades they formed part of the powerful Avar Khaganate and numerous Proto-Bulgarian contingents again went as far as Pan- nonia and, after the internecine wars within the Khaganate during the middle of the 7th century, part of them went to settle in Italy, and another part, a more numerous one, led by Kouber, penetrated deep into the Balkan Peninsula and settled in the Bitola Plain in Macedonia.

Boat sprawled upon the deck

I noticed three Italian masons, who were going to Bourgas to look out for work on the breakwater; a German clerk, who was being sent to Bourgas to learn Bulgarian in a German firm which does business there; and a Russian Jew, who was apparently in the old-clothes line, and who carried that part of his stock-in-trade, for which he could not find a purchaser at any price, upon his own person. But I should think that of the some hundred passengers stowed away in our little cockle-shell of a steamer, fully ninety were Bulgarians. We had half a dozen or so native soldiers in uniform. Even when under drill and at attention, the Bulgarian soldier, brave as he undoubtedly is, has not much of a military air.

When he is off duty and out of sight of his officers, he looks just like what he is in reality, a sturdy, clumsily built ploughboy, stuck into an ill-fitting uniform, which he has never yet acquired the art of wearing. The soldiers on our boat sprawled upon the deck—their huge, high-booted legs seemed to stretch in every direction ; they were eating apples and onions all day long, but they were quite sober, very quiet, and extremely good-natured. There were any number of Bulgarian peasants clad in sheepskins, and a good many clerks and shopmen and their wives and children, all of them untidy, all shabby, and all looking as if they had not of late been addicted to washing.

The passengers lay in layers on the wet deck; the women bare-headed, except for a soiled handkerchief tied round their foreheads, and most of them with bonnet-boxes under their arms. Men, women, and children alike were all victims to sea-sickness. Basins were unknown—when the sufferers could manage it, they staggered to the ship’s side ; when their strength was not equal to the task of moving, they were simply sick on the ground where they lay. But what struck me most was the perfect quiet and good nature of the crowd, even amidst their personal discomfort.

Exarch of Bulgaria at Constantinople

It was reported, with what truth I know not, that these demonstrations were secretly encouraged by M. Stambouloff in order to bring pressure to bear upon the Porte. At Philippopolis eight thousand persons were said to have been present at a mass meeting. The peasants who attended the demonstration were armed with bludgeons, which, with a grim irony, they called “ the Constitution,” and which they applied freely to anybody who was supposed to be of a different way of thinking from their own. Similar indignation meetings were held at Shumla, Tirnova, Varna, and Rustschuk.

As an indication of the extent to which public sentiment throughout Bulgaria was excited on this question, I may mention that at this time the proprietor of the artificial lake in the Pepiniire Gardens at Sofia had been giving a series of public skating balls. The ice was not good, as the winter was then approaching its close, and the attendance at these night fttes had of late been scanty. Thereupon the proprietor announced that half the proceeds of the next fete would be devoted to the Bulgarian schools in Macedonia.

Attached to the handbills advertising the fete there was an extract from a Macedonian paper attacking the Sultan for not having allowed the Exarch of Bulgaria at Constantinople to purchase the late German ambassador’s palace, an incident to which I have alluded elsewhere. The result of this announcement was that the fite was crowded by the townsfolk of Sofia, though the night was a most unfavorable one for an open-air entertainment.

It is certain that the anti-Turkish agitation in Bulgaria, even if it was initiated by M. Stambouloff, soon assumed proportions which alarmed the Ministry. Orders were issued to the local authorities all over the country to stop these public demonstrations, as being calculated to bring about a breach of the public peace. The step was a bold one, as it laid M. Stambouloff and his colleagues open to the charge of being indifferent to the wrongs of the Macedonian Bulgarians, and of being prepared to abandon their cause, supposing the Sultan continued obdurate.

Varna Rustschuk line

The line in question did not prove a financial success, and there were any number of disputes between the English company and the Porte. By the Treaty of Berlin, Bulgaria was compelled to take over all the liabilities contracted by the Ottoman Government in respect of this unfortunate railway. After protracted negotiations the Varna-Rustschuk line became the property of the State at a cost of £1,876,000, which was raised by a six per cent. State loan ; so that, taking into account the price at which the bonds given in exchange for the loan were issued and the cost of commission, the purchase must have cost Bulgaria not far short of £2,000,000.

As the line is only a hundred and forty miles in length, it follows that it was bought at the average price of £14,000 a mile; not a bad price for a line which up to then had barely paid its working expenses. I am well aware that there were large arrears claimed by the company in respect of payments which were said to be due from Turkey and to be in default. I have no reason to assert that the arrangement was an unfair one for either side under the circumstances. Still it is only just to the Bulgarians to record the fact that some two- fifths of her small public debt is due to the enforced purchase of a line owned by a foreign company, and sold by them under a forced sale at a price very considerably above its marketable value.

Turkey Austria Servia and Bulgaria

By the Railway Convention, concluded at Vienna in 1888, between Turkey, Austria, Servia, and Bulgaria, the last-named State agreed to construct the Zaribrod-Vakarel Railway, which formed the final connecting link in the direct line between Constantinople and Vienna. This line was completed in 1889, at a cost of £1,200,000, which was provided for by a fresh loan of like amount Unlike the Vama-Rustschuk Railway, the last-named line was of immense service to Bulgaria, as it placed her in direct communication with Western Europe, and above all with Austria.