Prince Alexander of Bulgaria has defined the fundamental laws which
he asks the " Great National Assembly," or Constituent Assembly, as we should say, to enact. They are three in number. By the first, the Prince is enabled for seven years to give his decrees full legislative force, and, indeed, con- stituent force, as he may create a Council of State and remodel all institutions. By the second, the assembling of Parliament for this year is suspended, and the Budget extended for another twelvemonth ; and by the third, the Prince, at the expiry of the, seven years, may summon the Constituent Assembly to revise everything on the basis of his new institutions. The Prince declares that he asks the Assembly "purely and simply" to accept his conditions or to dismiss him. There is, it is believed„ no chance of a dismissal, as the Bulgarian middle-class dread foreign occupation ; while the masses are with the Prince, who,. with his conditions accepted, becomes a Caesar of the Napo- leonic type. Parliament will retain no power, except over the Budget. The whole affair is most disappointing, while the Skuptscbina works well both in Roumania and Servia, and the incident will not increase European readiness to enlarge. B ulgaria.
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