N THE ROUSTCHOUK DISTRICT]

At first an attempt had been made by the Powers to exert peaceful
pressure upon Turkey, so that her Christian provinces should be granted
local autonomy. The project of the Powers for Bulgaria proposed that the
districts inhabited by Bulgarians should be divided into two provinces;
the Eastern Province, with Tirnovo as capital, was to include the
Sandjaks of Roustchouk, Tirnovo, Toultcha, Varna, Sliven, Philippopolis
(not including Sultan-Eri and Ahi-Tchelebi), the kazas of Kirk Kilisse,
Mustapha Pasha and Kasilagatch; and the Western Province, with Sofia as
capital, the Sandjaks of Sofia, Vidin, Nisch, Uskub, Monastir, the three
kazas of the north of Seres, and the kazas of Stroumitza, Tikvesch,
Veles, and Kastoria. Districts of from five to ten thousand inhabitants
were to stand as the administrative unit. Christian and Mohammedans were
to be settled homogeneously in these districts. Each district was to
have at its head a mayor and a district council, elected by universal
suffrage, and was to enjoy entire autonomy as regards local affairs.
Several districts would form a Sandjak with a prefect at its head who
was to be Christian or Mohammedan, according to the majority of the
population of the Sandjak. He would be proposed by the Governor-General,
and nominated by the Porte for four years.

Finally, every two Sandjaks were to be administered by a Christian
Governor-General nominated by the Porte for five years, with consent of
the Powers. He would govern the province with the help of a provincial
assembly, composed of representatives chosen by the district councils
for a term of four years, at the rate of one deputy to thirty or forty
thousand inhabitants. This assembly would nominate an administrative
council of ten members. The provincial assembly would be summoned every
year to decide the budget and the taxes. The armed force was to be
concentrated in the towns and there would be local militia beside. The
language of the predominant nationality was to be employed, as well as
Turkish. Finally, a Commission of International Control was to supervise
the working of these proposals.

The Porte promised reforms on these lines, but did not go beyond
promising. The task of forcing her to end a cruel tyranny was one for
the battlefield.

The Russo-Turkish War broke out on April 12, 1877, and what Turkey had
refused to yield of her own accord was wrested from her by force of
arms, in the preli