Legislative and administrative policy

He learned to speak Bulgarian fluently, if not accurately; he became conversant with the life and ideas of the people; he studied their necessities, requirements, and ambitions; and he soon felt himself competent to form and express an opinion on all matters of legislative and administrative policy. His Ministers were not slow in making the discovery that the Prince did not intend to rest satisfied with the titular position of a King, but was resolved to exercise the full authority of a constitutional sovereign.

While holding himself studiously aloof from all questions of party politics, he had the good sense to support steadily the statesmen who then commanded the confidence of the country; his influence has been uniformly exerted in favour of a prudent and cautious policy in foreign affairs. If Bulgaria, under the present reign, has sub-ordinated her national aspirations to the development of her internal resources, and to the re-organization of her civil and military administration, this result has been due in a very large degree to the influence of the palace.

Prince Ferdinand never has acquired, and probably never will acquire, the personal hold on the affections of his subjects which was obtained by Prince Alexander. But he has succeeded in inspiring them with the conviction that he has their welfare at heart, and that he is the champion of their national independence.

Majesty

I am not sure also whether his determination to surround himself with the paraphernalia of royalty and to keep up all the etiquette and state of a regular Court is not due to policy as much as to personal inclinatioa There is a good deal of truth in the old riddle about what Majesty becomes when stripped of its externals; human nature is a mass of contradictions everywhere; and I am inclined to think that the Bulgarians—precisely because their own habits, tastes, and ideas are of the peasant order—have a higher respect for the King who is a King, with a Court which is a Court, than they would have for a Prince who was content to be treated simply and solely as the chief magistrate of a peasant commonwealth.

Legislative and administrative policy

He learned to speak Bulgarian fluently, if not accurately; he became conversant with the life and ideas of the people; he studied their necessities, requirements, and ambitions; and he soon felt himself competent to form and express an opinion on all matters of legislative and administrative policy. His Ministers were not slow in making the discovery that the Prince did not intend to rest satisfied with the titular position of a King, but was resolved to exercise the full authority of a constitutional sovereign.

While holding himself studiously aloof from all questions of party politics, he had the good sense to support steadily the statesmen who then commanded the confidence of the country; his influence has been uniformly exerted in favour of a prudent and cautious policy in foreign affairs. If Bulgaria, under the present reign, has sub-ordinated her national aspirations to the development of her internal resources, and to the re-organization of her civil and military administration, this result has been due in a very large degree to the influence of the palace.

Prince Ferdinand never has acquired, and probably never will acquire, the personal hold on the affections of his subjects which was obtained by Prince Alexander. But he has succeeded in inspiring them with the conviction that he has their welfare at heart, and that he is the champion of their national independence.

Majesty

I am not sure also whether his determination to surround himself with the paraphernalia of royalty and to keep up all the etiquette and state of a regular Court is not due to policy as much as to personal inclinatioa There is a good deal of truth in the old riddle about what Majesty becomes when stripped of its externals; human nature is a mass of contradictions everywhere; and I am inclined to think that the Bulgarians—precisely because their own habits, tastes, and ideas are of the peasant order—have a higher respect for the King who is a King, with a Court which is a Court, than they would have for a Prince who was content to be treated simply and solely as the chief magistrate of a peasant commonwealth.

Princess Marie

Within the last few months various events have con-tributed to render the relations between the Prince and his people more intimate and cordial than they were before. His visit to the West, and the reception he received in Austria, and still more in England, were gratifying to his people as evidence of the importance attached to Bulgaria abroad. Then, too, the Prince gained ground in popular opinion by his marriage last year with the Princess Marie of Parma. The choice of the bride was acceptable to the country from the fact of her representing the house of Bourbon, and of her thus claiming relationship by birth with half the royal dynasties of Europe.

Moreover, by her charm of manner and kindliness of nature, the Princess Marie soon made herself popular in her adopted country; and the feeling of general good-will entertained towards her was intensified when, at the commencement of this year, she gave birth to a son, who was born on Bulgarian soil, and who was given by his parents the name of Boris, the national hero of Bulgarian tradition. The father of a Bulgarian Prince could no longer be regarded as a foreigner, and the dynasty has now acquired a national character which, even under Prince Alexander, it had never quite possessed. An old resident here told me that he had never witnessed such a display of enthusiasm amongst a people singularly undemonstrative by character, as that which greeted the announcement of Prince Boris’s birth.

The popular feeling about the infant Prince would probably have been far more enthusiastic if his parents had consented to have him brought up in the Orthodox Greek Faith. If the babe ever grows up to manhood he will, if he is wise, recognize the political advantages of belonging to the same religion as his people. When the royal infant happens—as was the case the other day, during his parent’s sojourn at Eberfeld—to be the sole kingly occupant of the royal palace, a flag of his own is hoisted over the building. But, as he grows up, a creed of his own would be a more effective passport to Bulgarian respect and affection.

Again, the sudden death of Prince Alexander, which only preceded by a few weeks the birth of an heir to the Bulgarian throne, removed a source of possible danger from the path of the reigning dynasty. Before that event all Bulgarians, who, from one cause or another, were dissatisfied with the existing regime, could always contemplate the possibility of Prince Alexander’s restoration as a means of redressing the grievances, whether real or imaginary, under which they considered themselves to suffer.

Prince was the exact opposite

While indifferent to etiquette, he could, when the necessity arose, assume a commanding manner and aspect; and as long as he could hunt and shoot and drill his troops, he was very well satisfied to leave the administration of public affairs in the hands of his Ministers. The new Prince was the exact opposite of his predecessor in almost every respect. He is distinguished in look, and knows how to bear himself with dignity on State occasions, but there is nothing whatever about him of the beau sabreur of which Alexander was so striking a specimen.

Austrian Court

Bom late in his parents’ lifetime, he had always been delicate from his childhood, and, I should think, had as little natural liking for sport or soldiering as any man, educated in the atmosphere of the Austrian Court, could well have acquired. Culture and high breeding and distinction of manner are not qualities which appeal greatly to a peasant community; while a love of ceremonial, a taste for etiquette, and a respect for the forms and usages of Court life are uncongenial to a people accustomed to a very plain, very simple, and very frugal mode of life, and much averse to any alteration of their usual habits.

I gather, therefore, that on his accession the Prince was regarded by his subjects, and even by his Ministers, as a sort of show King, who took no interest in anything beyond the pomp and pageantry of sovereignty. In the early days of his reign he was obliged, owing to his ignorance of the country and the language, to leave State matters under the control of his Ministers. He set, however, steadily to work to make himself acquainted with the country over which he had to rule.

European Powers and treated

Moreover, the chapter of accidents has caused the Prince’s determination to keep up the outward state and dignity of royalty to assume the character of a national protest If he had been recognized at the outset by the European Powers and treated by them as the chosen sovereign of an independent State, his punctilious insistence on the formalities of a royal Court being observed at Sofia might have been ascribed to mere personal vanity.

But, from the commencement of his reign down to the present day, he has been tabooed, treated with scant courtesy, and, so to speak, left out in the cold by his fellow- sovereigns. Though he has now reigned for seven years as the chosen sovereign of Bulgaria, the choice of the nation has been studiously and persistently ignored by the European Powers. No one of these Powers, however friendly disposed, has ever yet formally recognized the existence of the present Bulgarian monarchy. It is not accorded a place amidst the monarchies whose record is recited in the Almanack de Gotha.

Even Great Britain and Turkey have never made up their minds to treat the Prince with the ceremonial due to the legal sovereign of an independent State. The great majority of the diplomatic body at Sofia never go to Court or hold any personal communication with the sovereign. The few members of the body who break through the rule of absolute non-recognition do so rather on the ground of the Prince’s personal kinship to the dynasties they represent, than to the fact of his being the sovereign of the State to which they are accredited.

Result of causing the Bulgarians to regard

Whether the policy of non-recognition is wise or unwise, it has had the good result of causing the Bulgarians to regard the resolution of Prince Ferdinand to be treated in all respects as a legitimate sovereign in the light of a protest against the slight inflicted by his non-recognition, not so much on himself as on the country over which he rules.

National Movement

This was not because her people had any special preference for Republican institutions, but because, as M. Thiers said in regard to France, “One can make a republic without republicans, but one cannot make a monarchy without a monarch.” Happily, the shrewd good sense which characterized the leaders of the National Movement led them to realize the truth that, under existing conditions, their country could only preserve her independence under a Monarchy. After many abortive attempts and many unsuccessful negotiations, a cadet of one of the royal houses of Europe was found, in the person of Prince Ferdinand, ready to accept the proffered crown.

Previous to his selection by the Regency which was appointed on Prince Alexander’s abdication, and of which M. Stambouloff was the leading member, there were probably not a score of persons in all Bulgaria who had ever heard the name of her future sovereign. No doubt, a similar remark would have held good of his predecessor at the time of his accession. But then Alexander came to Bulgaria as her sovereign at the instance and with the approval of the Czar, the Liberator of Bulgaria; while Ferdinand, on his accession, was not befriended by any great European Power, and was notoriously a persona ingrata to the one Power from whom Bulgaria had most either to hope or fear.

As the younger son of the head of the non-regnant branch of the Saxe-Coburgs, his father being a great Austrian nobleman, and his mother a daughter of the ex-King of the French, he had no other known claim to distinction than that of belonging to an illustrious family, connected by ties of consanguinity with almost all the royal houses of Europe, and occupying a high position in Austria, where their estates were situated.

Prince was the exact opposite

While indifferent to etiquette, he could, when the necessity arose, assume a commanding manner and aspect; and as long as he could hunt and shoot and drill his troops, he was very well satisfied to leave the administration of public affairs in the hands of his Ministers. The new Prince was the exact opposite of his predecessor in almost every respect. He is distinguished in look, and knows how to bear himself with dignity on State occasions, but there is nothing whatever about him of the beau sabreur of which Alexander was so striking a specimen.

Austrian Court

Bom late in his parents’ lifetime, he had always been delicate from his childhood, and, I should think, had as little natural liking for sport or soldiering as any man, educated in the atmosphere of the Austrian Court, could well have acquired. Culture and high breeding and distinction of manner are not qualities which appeal greatly to a peasant community; while a love of ceremonial, a taste for etiquette, and a respect for the forms and usages of Court life are uncongenial to a people accustomed to a very plain, very simple, and very frugal mode of life, and much averse to any alteration of their usual habits.

I gather, therefore, that on his accession the Prince was regarded by his subjects, and even by his Ministers, as a sort of show King, who took no interest in anything beyond the pomp and pageantry of sovereignty. In the early days of his reign he was obliged, owing to his ignorance of the country and the language, to leave State matters under the control of his Ministers. He set, however, steadily to work to make himself acquainted with the country over which he had to rule.

Bulgarian male citizen

Every Bulgarian male citizen who has attained the age of twenty-one, and is in possession of his civil rights, is entitled to vote. All citizens of thirty years of age, who are able to read and write, are eligible as representatives. According to the original Constitution there was to be one deputy for every ten thousand souls throughout the Principality; by a subsequent change, however, there is only now one deputy for every twenty thousand electors. The members of the Sobranje are guaranteed absolute freedom of speech, and are not liable to arrest or trial during the session of Parliament without the previous consent of the Chamber. No provision of any kind is made for a Second Chamber.

The deliberations of the Sobranje are open to the public ; and no military force is allowed to be stationed in or near their place of assembly. The Parliament thus constituted possesses absolute authority to pass laws, to impose taxes, to provide the funds required for the administration of the State, either by loans or by taxation, and to discuss and modify the Budget No provision is made, on the one hand, for the contingency of the Prince refusing to sanction the laws passed by the Sobranje; or, on the other hand, for the eventuality of the Sobranje refusing to provide the funds demanded by the executive as necessary for the service of the State. The Prince has the right of dissolving the Assembly, and ordering fresh elections whenever he thinks proper; but if the new Sobranje should persist in the policy which caused the dissolution of its predecessor, the Prince is under no legal obligation to withdraw his opposition.

Kings are the Prince and the Sobranje

There are, in fact, two kings in Bulgaria, as there were in Brentford. These kings are the Prince and the Sobranje. In the contingency of their disagreement a dead-lock must arise, for whose solution no mechanism has been devised or apparently contemplated by the framework of the Constitution.

The current interpretation of this strange omission is that it was not accidental, but intentional. The object of Prince Donderkoff, and of the fellow-officials who assisted him in drawing up the Constitution, was to devise a scheme under which Russian influence must of necessity remain supreme in Bulgaria.

Every Bulgarian private

The possibility of rising from the ranks and obtaining a commission is undoubtedly a great attraction to the recruits upon their joining the army. The saying that every French soldier carried a field-marshaps baton in his knapsack is one of those empty declarations to which the Gallic nature is so addicted. But it may be said with perfect truth, that every Bulgarian private, if he is intelligent, hardworking, and steady, and has made good use of his school education, is well-nigh certain of obtaining a commission, carrying with it not only social distinction, but a salary which, in his eyes, means comfort as well as competence.

There is perfect equality among the services. The only body of troops which enjoys any sort of exceptional privileges consists in a small corps d’ilite which supplies the escorts for the Prince and the guards for the palace. These privileges, however, consist in the members of the corps being somewhat better equipped, better clad, and better mounted than their fellow-soldiers. Otherwise, they serve under the same conditions and are composed of the same class as the regiments of the line.

The military efficiency of the Bulgarian army is a point concerning which one must rely mainly on professional opinion. These opinions have been almost invariably favorable. All I can say from personal observation is, that the Bulgarian soldiery are strong, powerful men, that they are drilling all day long, and that, in common with their countrymen, they look good-humoured and contented.

A quieter, better-conducted body of troops it is difficult to imagine. I have never, either by day or night, seen a Bulgarian soldier drunk or quarrelsome, or even noisy in the streets. To my mind, they do not march with much swing or go, but they cover a great deal of ground without fatigue. They are very fond of singing while on the march. Officers and men appear to be on very friendly and familiar terms, though the etiquette of military service in such matters as saluting is most strictly observed.

Armies of France, Germany

There is nothing of the swagger, so common in the armies of France, Germany, and Russia, to be noticed amidst the Bulgarian soldiery. They are not, as yet, in any sense a caste apart; they are Bulgarians, peasants for the most part, who wear serge uniforms instead of woollen sheepskins. That is the only difference.

Partisan of unbridled democracy

Anyhow, the Constitution, as it exists, was the work of Russia. This fact accounts, to my thinking, for the singularity of the charter. The impression left on one’s mind by its perusal is that the charter must be the joint composition of two authors—the one an admirer of autocratic government, the other a partisan of unbridled democracy ; and that these authors, being unable to agree on any common scheme, had compromised matters by arranging that each in turn should contribute alternate clauses.

The preamble states that the Principality of Bulgaria is to be an hereditary and constitutional monarchy with a national Parliament The clauses defining the respective attributions of the sovereign and the Parliament are drawn up, in the former case, on the most autocratic principles; in the latter case, in accordance with extreme democratic ideas. The position assigned by the Constitution to the monarch may be summarized as follows :

No laws passed by the Parliament are valid without the sanction of the Prince. By right of his office he is chief of the army, and has the absolute power of appointing or dismissing all officers in the service. In the same way the Ministers are nominated by him, and may be deprived of their post at his good will and pleasure.

Ministers is binding on the executive

They are not necessarily members of the Sobranje, though they have the right of taking part in the debates; and their tenure of office is independent of the issue, whether they do or do not possess the confidence of a Parliamentary majority. Every decree emanating from the Prince and countersigned by his Ministers is binding on the executive.

On the other hand, the attributes of the Parliament under the charter are almost co-extensive with the powers of the Prince. Universal manhood suffrage is declared to be the law of the land.