ent. A cabinet crisis was brought about in May 1903, by the efforts
of the Russian party to obtain control of the army, and the Stambolovists
returned to power under General Petroff. A violent recrudescence of the
Macedonian agitation took place in the autumn of 1902; at the suggestion of
Russia the leaders were imprisoned, but the movement nevertheless gained
force, and in August 1903 a revolt broke out in the vilayet of Monastir,
subsequently spreading to the districts of northern Macedonia and
Adrianople (see MACEDONIA). The barbarities committed by the Turks in
repressing the insurrection caused great exasperation in the principality;
the reserves were partially mobilized, and the country was brought to the
brink of war. In pursuance of the policy of Stamboloff, the Petroff
government endeavoured to inaugurate friendly relations with Turkey, and a
Turco-Bulgarian convention was signed (8th April 1904) which, however,
proved of little practical value.

The outrages committed by numerous Greek bands in Macedonia led to
reprisals on the Greek population in Bulgaria in the summer of 1906, and
the town of Anchialo was partially destroyed. On the 6th of November in
that year Petroff resigned, and Petkoff, the leader of the Stambolovist
party, formed a ministry. The prime minister, a statesman of undoubted
patriotism but of overbearing character, was assassinated on the 11th of
March 1907 by a youth who had been dismissed from a post in one of the
agricultural banks, and the cabinet was reconstituted under Gudeff, a
member of the same party.

_Declaration of Independence._--During the thirty years of its existence
the principality had made rapid and striking progress. Its inhabitants,
among whom a strong sense of nationality had grown up, were naturally
anxious to escape from the restrictions imposed by the treaty of Berlin.
That Servia should be an independent state, while Bulgaria, with its
greater economic and military resources, remained tributary to the Sultan,
was an anomaly which all classes resented; and although the Ottoman
suzerainty was little more than a constitutional fiction, and the tribute
imposed in 1878 was never paid, the Bulgarians were almost unanimous in
their desire to end a system which made their country the vassal of a
Moslem state notorious for its maladministration and corruption. This
desire was strengthened by the favourable reception accorded to Prince
Ferdinand when he visited Vienna in Febr