Vide Note in an after part of the volume

Probity inclining in such case, as it may be conjectured, to the side of the foreign grower.

I merely suggest this as one of the expedients that may be resorted to, for embarrassing the British cabinet, and preparing the way for a rupture. Ingenious diplomatists will never be at a loss for ample matter of disagreement, when disagreement is found to be convenient.

The London capitalists, then thoroughly aware that the prosperity of the country has at length completely passed the culminating point, mil no longer receive with their long wonted complacency, the propositions of the Chancellor of the Exchequer; for the barometer of the City in these matters distinctly consists in the supposed available resources of the government. The ministers will, therefore have abundant reason to temporize, however grating it may be to their feelings. The haughty and unceremonious communications occasionally made to them from the court of the autocrat will, therefore, be listened to with a suppressed—a smothered resentment.

In the meantime, the pressing conduct of the Russian envoy will get wind. Some of our manly and determined champions of the agricultural interests, justly alarmed for the consequences, and sensibly alive to the theory of rents—will go down to the “House,”—threaten the stoletov bulgaria tours Government, and vituperate the Emperor. Other country gentlemen, warmed possibly into eloquence by the peculiar nature of the subject, will loudly chime in with and support the bold admonitions and profound maims of their distinguished leaders.

Faithfully reported

His Imperial Majesty will have every word faithfully reported to him and will undoubtedly add this to the catalogue of his grievances, making it the more immediate groundwork of a rupture, preluded by a complaint, in high terms, of the insults thus passed upon a faithful friend and ally by the turbulent assembly of the English Commons.

Then will there be found amongst us those who will dilate on the benefits, under all circumstances, of tranquility; on the Utopian absurdity of the representative system; on the unfitness of popular governments; the illusiveness of that obsolete chimera of political visionaries the “balance of power.”

Still, however, it may be alleviating to admit that, though diminished in activity, the looms, the anvils, and various scientific aids of industry will have only partially discontinued their useful labors. Our home consumption alone will as yet preserve to them a considerable activity. The industrious and confirmed habits of a commercial people, usually long remain to mitigate the decline of their national integrity and strength. The diminution will be gradual, not violent.

Eventually, indeed, the arm of the British artisan may relax its vigor, if, with despair, he discovers that an arbitrary subtraction from his hardly earned gains goes to the tributary sustenance, or forbearance, of a foreign army or for the replenishment of a foreign coffer, leaving him but a scanty and insufficient surplus for his individual maintenance, or for that of his necessitous family.

 

Tremendous ratio

What our debt had now been, it is impossible to say. Our clear revenues, private and public, which are the important consideration, would most assuredly have diminished, and in a tremendous ratio.

Be this, however, as it may, no one can now rea sonly deny that, in the case of our persevering neutrality, Napoleon had been enabled so to confirm his power over the continent, as must have left at his disposition a sufficient mass of force to reduce us, in the sequel, to the condition of a province, when a French general, or proconsul, or titular sovereign, had unquestionably administered the then dependent government of these kingdoms no doubt in perfect consonance with the orders from time to time transmitted from the tent, court, or bivouac of the imperial usurper.

Then it would have been seen that all our interests, commercial and otherwise, were only to be viewed in their relative subservience to those of France. Our money would then assuredly have been considered in the same light in which the Romans regarded the ships and elephants of Carthage as the means of a rebellious warfare. For this purpose, therefore, if for no other, a rigorous system of impoverishment that is to say, within a certain limit (for extreme poverty also breeds aura oily)—would have been resorted to against us as an indispensable precautionary policy.

PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT ALEXANDER NICHOLAS

With a similar sort of plenitude, and almost omnipotence, of authority, has the Czar just invested some Muscovite Senator, as he is termed, with the unlimited government, by anticipation, of “ ALL THE PROVINCES which shall be occupied by his armies beyond the Danube /” the Principalities being included in this investiture.

Now, the second province beyond the Danube (Rumelia), being the very next one to that now actually occupied by the heads of the Russian columns, will enable the Senator to extend the wand of his high office over the waters of the Mediterranean. How many more beyond these two provinces tailor-made bulgaria tours are to be comprehended under the ample “ all,” it might be hazardous to conjecture ; but certain it is that, whatever may be the moderation of the Czar, his armies cannot stop there—they must absolutely go on, or recede.

Much acumen and ingenuity may possibly be exercised in defining the precise scope and meaning of the language employed by the Russian court and the assurances it has perhaps conveyed of its guileless intentions ; bent it may well be questioned whether the recondite talent so displayed will answer any useful end. A celebrated and truly able politician, whose terse and epigrammatic sayings have been often quoted, is reported to have described “words” as given to us, for the purpose of disguising our u thoughts.” The Prince of Benevento was much engaged in diplomacy; to the proceedings of which we may conjecture his sarcastic aphorism more particularly applies.

 

National insolvency

But what gives currency to these ominous prophecies of the national insolvency is, that there are those who occasionally indulge in the same strain who are evidently above all suspicion of an unworthy motive.

Thus it is, that, but a few evenings back, a noble lord, of unimpeachable character for integrity, has not hesitated, at this great crisis, to declare, in his place in; Parliament, that he knows not how the government can go on, even under ordinary circumstances, so utterly impoverished are the national resources and necessitous the Exchequer; and this goes forth on the authority of a distinguished member of the Finance Committee, and provoked, too, by no graver matter than, some inconsiderable item of expenditure, amounting to about a fractional part of the personal recompense just conferred by the Russian Sovereign on General Mankowitz, for concluding a third or fourth rate description of war.

Such avowals, from persons of any eminence of station, are now peculiarly ill-timed and indiscreet. Besides, the statement is in itself utterly unfounded.

But what are the consequences of those unblushing assertions continued to be made in the very teeth of facts? A foreign government, whose sinister projects may have hitherto been checked, perhaps, solely by a sense of the extent of our resources, now argues thus: “ ENGLAND may or may not be in financial difficulties; but certain it is, that the clamor which it would appear will be raised on the least prospect of an extended expenditure or mooting of warlike preparation, must effectually shackle, if not totally debar the ministry from interfering with our proceedings ; private balkan tours  and though they were even sure of a majority in Parliament, the greater part of every cabinet will be reluctant to hazard their places in order, to guard against a contingent danger which may not, at all events, develop itself for some years.”

Inferences are correct

Well the crisis approaches: we will suppose that these inferences are correct, and that the British ministry adopts some half measure intimidated or overborne in their judgment by the prejudice which they are well aware will be otherwise excited against them.

The proper opportunity for action is lost, the secretly hostile government gains some great and formidable vantage ground; at length all the world sees, that we have nothing left for it, but, on the one hand, to submit ignominiously, and no less destructively, or, on the other, to combat. The latter, it need not be feared, will be the choice. But then we enter the lists with every possible disadvantage} under, perhaps, the inevitable necessity of spending some ten or twenty fold what, in the first instance, might have sufficed; and with an inverse chance of success.

MONETARY SYSTEM OF BULGARIA

The monetary units which have been adopted by Bulgaria are the lev (having the value of one franc) and the stotinka (centime), being the hundredth part of a lev.

For some years after the creation of the Principality, the Government found it impossible to introduce any national coins. It had to tolerate the circulation of all kinds of foreign money—Servian, Roumanian, Russian, etc., coins which inundated the market.

In 1881 the Government put into circulation two million francs of Bulgarian copper money, but these, as well as the twelve million of silver money which were issued in 18831884, proved quite insufficient to drive away the foreign money, so that the latter continued to be tour packages balkan used in all commercial transactions. It was not until 1887 that the Government prohibited the circulation of Servian and Roumanian coins,

COMPARATIVE TABLE OF TRANSACTIONS OF THE POST OFFICE

Number.             FT           Number.             FT.          CL

1*96      8,186     —           8,×86     37.336   I.35*,693             6,888     533,5*7                —           —           —           —

1S97      9.390     36           9.554     53.783   3^37.086             *3.434   *461,706             *5           5,640     3,100     7,740

1898      xx,670   120         11.330   75,043   4.663,339            47,**6  3,696,833            40           10,864   *4*0      13.374

1899      xx,9X7  340         11.377   83.8*1  5.347,93*            70,333   4,9×6,801            85           *3.893  *.743     18,638

1900      12,8 a 1                494         12.327   90.963   6,346,603             76,309   5»559»**6         80           19.*5®  3.1*5     **,373

1901      *3»*33 652         14,6OX 114.675                8,195,306             85.741   6^81,9*1             30           449         3403      *6,35*

190a      *7.048  745         16,303   131,503                9439,5*5              96,630   8,188,560            95           9,374

3.778     33.13*

X903      17.786   846         16,940   139.361                10,446,333          93467    7,943.381            95           35.880   4.079     39.959

X904      30,090   1,131     18,969   176,387                14,866,735          105,87*                »

10403,063           44           4*,S*8  3,033     47,*8o

1903      26,160   1,304     *4.956  198,876                1×8,033,033        1*1,330                i*,75*.i5o;          70           54.3*7  3,367                59.654

Total      150,521                3,558     148,963                1101,850              81,927,960          7H/549 62,538,362          84           236405                33,0×7   268432

While in 1887 the same measure was extended to the Russian roubles.

The following table contains the years during which the various Bulgarian coins were issued:

Ynn.       Lev in gold.         Uf iii silver.         Copper money. Nickel money.

1881      —           —           2,100,000            —

1883      —           10,000,000          —           —

1884      —           2,500,000             —           —

1885      —           7,130,000             —           —

1886      —           370,000                —           —

1888      —           —           —           3,000,000

Z89I       —           8,000,000             —           —

1892      —           5,000,000             —           —

1894      3,000,000             12,000,000          —           —

1901      —           —           1,000,000            —

Total      3,000,000             45,000,000          3,100,000            3,000,000

Quite recently a further stock of nickel coins was put in circulation.

The gold coins comprise pieces of 100, 20, and 10 levs.

The stock of silver money consists of coins of 5, 2, 1, and 0*50 francs.

The stock of copper money consists of coins of 20, 10, 5,2, and 1 centimes.

The stock of nickel money consists of coins of 20,10,5, and 2*50 centimes.

The standard of Bulgarian money is        in the case of the gold coins and the silver coins of 5 francs, and of in the case of the silver coins of 2, 1, and 0*50 francs.

The weight of the gold and silver coins is the same as that adopted by the Latin monetary convention, viz.: 6*4516 grammes in the 20 franc gold pieces, and 5 grammes for the silver franc.

Standard.—The Bulgarian monetary system is based on the double standard of gold and silver. There is almost always a difference between the gold and the silver, to the advantage of the first. At present, however, the agio between the two has practically disappeared.

No circulation of foreign silver or copper money is allowed on Bulgarian territory. The gold coins of the countries belonging to the Latin Union are received at their nominal value. Thus, a piece of 20 frs. in gold is accepted in payment of 20 levs in gold. As for the other foreign gold coins, their value is regulated by the following rate, which has been established by the Government:

One pound sterling of 20 shillings            =             25           levs        in gold

Eight Austrian florins      =             20           „              „

One Austrian ducat         = 11 „    „ 60 ct.

Twenty German marks =             24           „              „ 50 „

One pound Turkish         =             22           „              „              60           „

One half Imperial             of^ 5 j   Issued  J

Russian roubles .. I           between             (              =             20           „              „              50           „

One piece of 3 Russian |               1861 and             f

roubles )              1886       J              =             12           „              „              30           „

One Imperial of 10 Russian roubles

(issued after 1880)          =            40           „              „              —

One Imperial of 15 Russian roubles

(issued after 1897)          =             40           „              „              —

One piece of 10 Russian roubles

(issued after 1897)          =             26           „              „              50           „

The smaller gold coins of these countries are accepted at proportionate values.

All the other foreign coins which are not included in the convention of the Latin Union are also received in payment, provided they belong to the metric system.

 

Government powers

Besides, a request, coming from such a source, couched in all the becomingness of amity and high consideration, recommending, in gentle terms, merely an arrangement of the powers of government more assailant with the well-ordered condition of things in the superior state, will not have the air to being so unreasonable; and the less so as the proposition must apparently go to the strengthening of the authority of the native rulers;  nor is it by any means certain that there may not then be advocates in this country, even avowed advocates, of the Russian system. Few, at all events, in a short time, are the governments of the earth that will refuse to lend an attentive, a deferential ear, to the communications of an autocratic envoy.

Perhaps the following, however, may be the course taken. When the Czar is in readiness to pick a quarrel with us, or finds himself strong enough to try, at all hazards, to levy a contribution on this “shop keeping” nation, which will not be resolved on till the new acquirements are well organized, and the fleet in the Marmora is in a forward stat and until some arrangements on the eastern shore of the Caspian, the Aral, and the Tartar Ian frontier generally are made towards

Obviously the smoothing down

It is curious enough, that though this is obviously the smoothing down any difficulties tint may be encountered in a preliminary mutant against the northern provinces of India, even now a matter of tie most perfect  facility Then it is not improbable that the Russian representative at our court may be instructed to represent the earnest hope of his Imperial master, that the duties upon corn should be altogether done away with, that they are conceived in an illiberal and un reciprocal spirit, that they are specially injurious in their operation to his Majesty’s Ukrainian, Crimean, and Walla Heian subjects, who would undoubtedly buy a good deal more of our calicoes, cottons, &e. if they were enabled to send the produce of their farms to the London market The ambassador will argue this point learnedly as an economist.

Finally, a treaty of commerce will be proposed on a plausible basis of reciprocity with respect to corn and some other specified articles of agricultural of unwrought produce all the benefit of the red best, and only convenient line by which to assail India and the one along which Catharine and afterwards Paul actually proposed to begin this operation, still it is, of all the adjoining countries of India, the one which we have left most unexplored, and with which we have sought least communication, commercial or political.

Dacia Romania

At the beginning of 1896, the 44 Balkan ” included in its operations life insurances, the same two companies ceding to it shortly afterwards all the insurances of this kind which they had accepted in Bulgaria.

During the following year another and the last branch of the business of the company 44 Dacia Romania,” that concerning mutual associations, passed over to the 44 Balkan.”

Finally, in 1897, the company “Balkan” still further strengthened its position as a firstclass insurance company. The General Insurance Company 44 Otetchestro,” of Sofia, transferred to the “Balkan” its portfolio and shares, viz.: 20,000 shares of 50 francs each and 10,000 new shares of 50 francs in gold each, wholly paid up. In return, the 44 Balkan “undertook to pay 25 francs in gold for every share of the original stock which had been issued at 75 frs. In consequence of this transaction, the 44 Balkan ” had, at the beginning of 1897, 30,000 shares of 100 francs each, of which 50 per cent, had been called in. The capital of the company remained 1,500,000 frs., as it had originally been fixed.

About the same period the 44 Balkan” undertook an inquiry in Macedonia with a view of extending its business. The results having proved encouraging, it began from 1898 to contract insurances in that province.

A special law of 1898 included the shares of the company 11 Balkan ” in the list of securities which are accepted by the State institutions.

Until 1897 the work of the company was restricted to the following three departments: fire and life insurances, and insurance against damage done by hail. Since then, however, it has tour packages bulgaria created three new branches: insurance against accidents, insurance of transports, and reinsurance.

Company  Balkan

The progress made by the company “ Balkan ” will be seen from the following table, which gives the dividends distributed to the shareholders from 1896 to 1904:

Year       Founder’s hares.              Ordinary shares.

1896      22*50 fr.             18*50 frs.

I897       22*50 „ 18*00 „

1898      22*00 „ 18 00 „

I899       19*00 „ 16*00 „

1900      I9’5° „    16*00 „

1901      19 50 „ 16*00 „

1902      14 00 „ 12*00 „

1903      16*80 „ 14*00 „

1904      16*80 „ 14 00 „

Business in Bulgaria

The Insurance Company “New York” has been doing business in Bulgaria since 1887. It only accepts life insurances. The Bulgarian branch has its seat in Sofia, and is subordinate to the General Agency of the “New York” for Europe, whose offices are in Paris.

The Company “ Union ” has been represented in Sofia since 1897. Like the “ New York,” it only contracts life insurances.

The Sofia branch is under the immediate control of the central Administration in Paris.

The “ Phoenix ” deals exclusively in fire insurances, and has agencies in Sofia and Varna.

The “ Anchor ” contracts all kinds of insurances. It is one of the oldest insurance companies in Bulgaria. Its general agency is in Sofia.

Finally, the “ Assicurazioni Generali,” which has only lately been established in Sofia, contracts life and fire insurances. The General Agency for Bulgaria is in Sofia.

SAVINGS BANKS

The creation of post office savings banks is dne to a law which was passed in 1885, and has since been repealed by the law of 1896. The Bulgarian Government acts as guarantor of the savings banks. The sums which may be deposited in the savings banks vary from 1 fr. to 2,000 frs., this latter sum being the highest which the banks can accept. An exception to this rule is made in favour of charitable funds or friendly societies, which are allowed to deposit sums up to 5,0 frs. The sums may be deposited either in the name of the person who pays them in, or in that of a third party, generally a minor. Every depositor receives, free of charge, a book in which the sums deposited are entered by means of special stamps, which are affixed to the book and initialled by the responsible official. Provided with this book, the tours Bulgaria depositor may apply to any post office in the Principality, which is bound to pay him the required sum, entering the disbursement on the corresponding page.

All the funds of the savings banks are deposited by the post offices or by the State comptrollers in the Bulgarian National Bank. The Bank pays the savings banks an interest of 4} per cent, per annum, of which 4 per cent, goes to the depositors, while the remaining } p.c. is retained to cover the expenses of the administration of the savings banks.

No embargo may be placed on sums deposited with the savings banks.

Such are, briefly, the dispositions of the law which regulates the savings banks at the present time.

The savings banks have, from the very first, met with a favourable reception on the part of the population. Without entering into further details, we reproduce some figures from the official report of the Administration of Posts and Telegraphs for the year 1906. This table will, better than all

Bulgaria Gynasium of Sofia

The Dalmatian Arndt, who spent a short time in Bulgaria as teacher in the Gynasium of Sofia, made a fine pendrawing of the ruins of the Church of St. Sofia. The ancient building rises behind a Turkish street of low huts. The sobriety and the few technical means by which the artist renders the most typical elements of his subject place this pendrawing far above all the other pictures dealing with the same theme.

The Frenchman de Fourcade, who was also a teacher in the Gymnasium of Sofia, figures in the National Museum with four pictures of Constantinople. In these pictures, which have had a considerable influence on young Bulgarian artists, de Fourcade appears a master in rendering graceful details, in freshness and warmth of colour, and in the lighting of houses, roads, human figures, and especially of trees and bushes, which, in the intermingling of brilliant light and shadow, have the appearance of bunches of fresh, green flowers.

Madame Sliapin, Russian, remained for a considerable time in Sofia as owner and manager of a private school of painting. Her pictures are in the Rembrandt style, and deal with typical Russian subjects such as 41 Passed like a Dream.

Tzech Holarek

The Tzech Holarek, who never visited Bulgaria, is represented in the National Museum by his great picture, full of tragic inspiration, 11 The Return of the Bulgarian Prisoners, blinded by Basil I, A.D. 1014.” The grey winter landscape lit by the last rays of the setting sun, the pitiless snowstorm, the helplessness of the long line of mutilated soldiers losing itself in the distance, the weeping and the prostration of the blinded prisoners all this makes of Holarek’s picture a striking canvastragedy of human misery inflicted by human cruelty.

The statues of B. Shatz, for many years professor in the State School of Painting, are devoid of artistic merit, and have exercised no influence on Bulgarian sculpture.

Among the remaining foreigners who have resided temporarily in Bulgaria and have left their productions hanging in the collections of the Prince or of private individuals, only those who have taken part in the various art exhibitions need be mentioned here. They are: Ulrich, Canela, Petras, Madame Shatz, de Francois, Amzel, Kronberger, Oberbauer, Madame Goloubeva, Madame HadjiMikeff, etc. In the earliest exhibitions in visit Bulgaria, organised by the Prince or by other persons, besides the productions of the above foreign artists, pictures of various other Western artists were also exhibited. Thus, in one of these exhibitions which was organised by the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Art in Bulgaria, artists like Laslo, Angelli, Panzinger, Recuajel, de Brun, Lemaire, Aivazovsky, Sudkov ski, Leo Lerch, Hugo Birgel, Zeifert, and Bromberger were represented by one or more of their pictures.

As regards the development of artistic taste in Bulgaria, the importance of those foreign artists who made Bulgaria their temporary home, participating in the various exhibitions and leaving their productions in the Principality, can hardly be overestimated. Some of them have served as models to rising Bulgarian talent Thus, Alexander Bojinoff, the wellknown cartoonist, began his work as landscape painter with an imitation oi one of de Fourcade’s pictures. George Atanassoff, another promising artist and a graduate of the State School of Painting in Sofia, in his picture “ Buffaloes ” has undoubtedly been influenced by Boloungaro’s picture “ Evening.” But far more decisive has been the influence on Bulgarian art of those foreigners who were naturalised and remained permanently in Bulgaria. Together with the young Bulgarians who had studied abroad, principally in Munich, Florence, Paris, Rome, Turin, and Prague or in the Sofia School of Painting, they have done practically everything for the artistic education of the Bulgarian public and for raising art in Bulgaria to its present level.

 

Antique Byzantium

The choice of antique Byzantium as a chief seat of the imperial power of Constantine, is distinguishable on many accounts. It was coeval with the dethronement of Paganism, and erection of Christianity as a state religion; and also was apparently a means of preserving the relics of Roman greatness for nearly a thousand years beyond their duration, in the more ancient mistress of the empire, which, it may be added, was already far advanced in decay. For many ages, though peopled by a contemptible, effeminate race, the united dregs of Greece and Italy, it continued to be the depository of whatever of letters, arts, wealth, or splendor were yet in existence.

A fierce band of martial puritans at length beret into Europe. Having soon overrun several provinces, their attention was recalled, and eager cupidity excited, by the celebrity and reputed treasures of this place. For good part of a century, isolated and enfeebled though it was, it baffled or deterred its ferocious beleaguers, ultimately proving their Capua vitosha bulgaria private tours, and thus passively contributing to avert, from other parts of Europe, what else seems to have been far from impossible, the substitution of the Koran for the Gospel—so far, at least, as the force of arms could affect the conversion.

Thenceforward, during a lapse of four hundred years, it has been bound down and trodden upon in the dust, by merciless lamas, atrocious soldiers, and the iron and bloodstained scepter of the Sultans. Such then has been the perverse fete of this capital—and thus, for so long a period, have its perfectly unparalleled capabilities been in abeyance.

Without precedent

To any people not antisocial or sunk into a torpid and slothful inactivity, such an acquisition must be of the greatest possible value; to Russia it were beyond all price. Rapid without precedent as have been her strides in the lofty career marked out for her, she has nevertheless been most materially retarded by embarrassments peculiar to her position. The ice of the north, and the closed gates to the southward, have hitherto palsied every effort, and barred every approach to a deployment of the maritime means in which happens to consist one of her chief staple and indigenous products.

The removal forever of such deeply felt and mortifying obstacles, by the appropriation of a great port, whose attributes are not only above all parity, but which must have the effect of nearing, by some hundred miles, the most fertile regions of the empire to the rich markets of the west, is what every Russian, with the least ray of intellect or sense of the national interests, must most ardently desire.

 

The law regulating the savings

The number of books issued in the course of 1905 reached 26,190. The sums deposited during the same year amounted to 18,032,022 francs, distributed between 198,876 different payments. These figures, compared with the corresponding figures of the previous years, testify to the rapid development of the savings banks.

Thus, in 1903, the number of books issued was 17,786, and the sums paid in 10,446,333 francs, while in 1904 they were respectively 24,090 and 14,866,737 francs. So that in the course of bulgaria tours two years there was an increase of 8,404 as regards the number of books issued, and of 7,585,689 francs as regards the sums deposited.

The law regulating the savings banks authorises them to acquire State securities on behalf of their clients. At the beginning of 1904 the savings banks had invested in this class of security a sum of 8,124,500 francs, consisting of 16,249 bonds, 500 francs each, of the 6 per cent, mortgage loan of 1892. In the course of that year they invested in the same securities a further sum of 800,000 francs. The capital of the savings banks at present invested in State securities amounts to 15,424,500 francs.

The total capital of the savings banks is about 34,000,000 francs.

The choice of antique Byzantium as a chief seat of the imperial power of Constantine, is distinguishable on many accounts. It was coeval with the dethronement of Paganism, and erection of Christianity as a state religion; and also was apparently a means of preserving the relics of Roman greatness for nearly a thousand years beyond their duration, in the more ancient mistress of the empire, which, it may be added, was already far advanced in decay. For many ages, though peopled by a contemptible, effeminate race, the united dregs of Greece and Italy, it continued to be the depository of whatever of letters, arts, wealth, or splendor were yet in existence.

A fierce band of martial puritans at length beret into Europe. Having soon overrun several provinces, their attention was recalled, and eager cupidity excited, by the celebrity and reputed treasures of this place. For good part of a century, isolated and enfeebled though it was, it baffled or deterred its ferocious beleaguers, ultimately proving their Capua, and thus passively contributing to avert, from other parts of Europe, what else seems to have been far from impossible, the substitution of the Koran for the Gospel—so far, at least, as the force of arms could affect the conversion.

The removal forever of such deeply felt and mortifying obstacles, by the appropriation of a great port, whose attributes are not only above all parity, but which must have the effect of nearing, by some hundred miles, the most fertile regions of the empire to the rich markets of the west, is what every Russian, with the least ray of intellect or sense of the national interests, must most ardently desire.