26 DECEMBER 1885, Page 2

The latest accounts from the Balkan are, with one exception,

all favourable. The Military Commissioners have decided that Servia must quit the district of Widdin, and that Bulgaria must retire from Pirot ; and as that is equivalent to stale-mate, both Princes have agreed. The ultimate terms of peace will he settled by diplomacy, and will no doubt be that neither State shall gain any advantage, but that Servia shall acknowledge herself technically in the wrong. The junction of the Bulgarias is believed to be arranged, and it is hoped that the Czar will even repair his error by restoring Prince Alexander to his rank in the Russian Army, a concession that we doubt. The position of Greece is, however, still threatening. The Govern- ment goes on accumulating forms on the frontier at an expense almost unendurable to the Greek Treasury, while the Saban continues to pour Reserves from Asia Minor into Macedonia. It is asserted that two hundred thousand Ottoman troops are now accumulated in that unhappy province, which mast, of coarse, provide food and forage for them all, and is being more closely stripped than if it had been occupied by an enemy. The object of this accumulation of Asiatics is still far from clear, the Sultan evidently acting upon some belief of his own, which may be that Austria, for all her professions, intends in early spring to advance to Salonica. The pressure on the Turkish Treasury is severely felt in Constantinople, where nobody, except a soldier, receives pay.