minary treaty of San Stefano. By this treaty, Bulgaria
was made an autonomous principality subject to Turkey, with a Christian
government and national militia. The Prince of Bulgaria was to be freely
chosen by the Bulgarian people and accepted by the Sublime Porte, with
the consent of the Powers. It was agreed that an assembly of notables,
presided over by a Russian Commissioner and attended by a Turkish
Commissioner, should meet at Philippopolis or Tirnovo before the
election of the Prince to draw up a constitutional statute similar to
those of the other Danubian principalities agreed to after the Treaty of
Adrianople in 1830.

The Treaty of San Stefano brought into being on paper a Bulgaria greater
in area than the Bulgaria of 1912, and greater even than the Bulgaria of
1914. But the Treaty was not ratified. Other European Powers, alarmed at
the prospect of Russia becoming supreme in the Balkans through the aid
of a Bulgarian vassal state, interfered, and the Congress of Berlin
substituted for the Treaty of San Stefano the Treaty of Berlin.

The Treaty of Berlin provided:

Bulgaria is to be an independent Principality, subject to the
Sultan, with a Christian government and a national militia; the
Prince of Bulgaria will be freely chosen by the Bulgarian nation
and accepted by the Sublime Porte, with the approval of the
Great Powers; no member of a reigning European family can be
elected Prince of Bulgaria; in case of a vacancy of the throne
the election will be repeated under the same conditions and with
the same forms; before the election of the Prince, an assembly
of notables will decide on the constitutional statute of the
Principality at Tirnovo. The laws will be based on principles of
civil and religious liberty.

By the Treaty of Berlin the boundaries of Bulgaria were very greatly
curtailed as compared with those of the Treaty of San Stefano, shrinking
from an area as great almost as the Bulgarian Empire of Simeon down to a
broad band of territory running between Eastern Roumelia and Roumania.

[Illustration: A BLIND BEGGAR WOMAN]

But the Bulgars kept the Treaty of San Stefano rather than the Treaty of
Berlin before their eyes as their national charter. Almost from the
first there were encroachments upon the provisions of the Treaty of
Berlin. Its limitations of Bulgarian sovereignty were ignored little by
little. Eastern Roumelia was united to Bulgaria proper b