THE NEW ROITATELIAN COMPROMISE.
AFORTNIGHT ago it was settled, or supposed to be settled, that as the East Roumelians were certain to fight for the liberties granted them by the Treaty of San Stefano and taken from them by the Treaty of Berlin, and as the entrance of Turkish troops would reopen the Eastern Question, the province was to be subjected to a mixed occupation. English, Austrian, and Italian troops were to be carefully posted at different points, so as not to quarrel with each other, and were to slaughter down the Roumelians, if they intimated in any overt way that they wished to join the Bulgarians. No sooner, however, was this arrangement fairly under way, and the regiments at Aldeishot, it is said, warned for service, -than it broke down, the Powers concerned finding that the more they looked at the cumbrous plan, the less they liked it. Turkey did not see its way to any money, and therefore did not like it at all. The Russian Government saw its way to a better plan, and therefore ceased to like it. The English Government was unwilling, with Sir Bartle Frere and Lord Lytton on its hands, to part with any troops for any prirpose whatever ; and the Italian Government, after much hesitation, finally declined to send its contingent,—probably on a hint from the Garibaldians. The project was therefore given up, and has been succeeded by another, which may fail like the rest, but which for the moment seems to be acceptable, and of which we expect to hear the British Government speak in the warmest terms. Prince Lobanoff and Caratheo- dori Pasha, the Greek who for the moment guides the foreign policy of the Porte, found themselves in agreement about a compromise of a rather singular kind. The Porte, besides disliking the Mixed Occupation scheme, were very anxious that Russian troops should evacuate East Roumelia on the 3rd of May, and proposed, if Russia would agree to that, and to the appointment of Alexo Vogorides, a son of the Greek Prince of Samoa, and once Turkish Ambassador in Vienna, as ad interim Governor-General of East Roumelia, to make some very important concessions. They would waive their right under the Treaty to garrison the Balkans, for a twelvemonth at least, the pretext being that the work of delimitation would occupy at least that time. As within twelve months Bulgaria will not only have her Prince, but a system of alliances, as she has already seventy thousand fair troops, and as this question of the Balkans is for her vital, prosperity being im- possible while Turkish soldiery hang upon the hills, this delay, though in form only temporary, is equivalent to a final resignation of the claim to garrison the hill chain, a most important concession for the future of the new Princi- pality. Its troops and its allies, when the hour arrives for action, will be able to pass southward without the losses in- volved in a preliminary clearing of the Passes. Moreover, the Porte agreed, still for one twelvemonth, to allow the right of summoning Turkish troops into Roumelia to remain not with Alexo Pasha alone, as is provided by the Treaty, but with Alexo Pasha acting in concert with the International Commission, which contains a majority certainly not likely to be betrayed into any undue concession to Pashas. The total result of the arrangement, therefore, as now reported to exist, is that Bul- garia gains most important advantages ; that the line of the Balkans disappears as a military position ; and that East Roumelia is garrisoned for twelve months more to come by its own militia ; while the Governor-General nominated by the Sultan, who alone retains power to be dangerous, is a Bulgarian of the Greek Church, who is familiar with Euro- pean diplomacy, having served for some years in the Turkish Embassies both in London and Vienna, and possesses from his nationality at least a chance of the throne of the united Bulgarian Principality, whenever the Provinces come together. His character is, no doubt, little known in Western Europe, but no Bulgarian Christian can be heartily a Turk, and the ready acceptance of his name by the Russian Embassy shows that he is not suspected of any determination to oppress his fellow-Christians. If, indeed, he is an able administrator, which diplomatists seldom are, his prospects, if he is faithful to his country and his creed, may be far brighter than any which the Porte has the power to offer him.
The compromise, therefore, is not a bad one. There is no English reason for it, tho interest of Europe, and espe- cially of Great Britain, being that the Principality and the Province should be united, and so form a State strong enough to attract all South Slays, and release them from dependence upon Russia. We could defend such a State, if extended to the .lgean and allied with an enlarged Greece, much more easily than we can defend the Turks, and with better consciences besides ; but as we are governed by a Premier whose heart is in Asia some compromise was unavoidable, and this will do as well as any other. Time is with the Christians and the English Liberals, and a gain even'of twelve months will help to solidify Bulgaria, and consolidate the alliances with the States of the peninsula which it will be her first business to form ; while it will allow the Hellenic Government to organise the militia of their new provinces. We have, therefore, no serious opposition to raise ; but we shall be amused to see how Lord Beaconsfield and his followers will demonstrate that they have gained a triumph in the arrangement. Their grand argument, when the Treaty was signed and the Garters be- stowed, was that the line of the Balkans was a far better one than that of the Danube ; that rivers were easily crossed, but that mountains were hard to pierce—except, of course, when they are 18,000 feet high, and thirty miles broad, as in the Indian case—and that "concentrated Turkey " was, in fact, stronger than before. Now, the line of the Balkans is given up. They boasted that East Roumelia had been replaced under the " direct rule" of the Sultan, intending Englishmen, of course, to believe that its resources would be at his dis- posal ; now, Eastern Roumelia is to be governed by a Christian Governor-General, guided by an International Commission, and not to be removed except by arrangement with the Powers, one of which, when the ad interim arrangement is over, may be represented by Lord Granville. It is, moreover, to be garrisoned by its own militia, that is, by soldiers who, in the event of any quarrel, will not be on the Turkish side. They were overjoyed because the two Bulgarias were separated for ever, in defiance alike of good principle and sound policy ; now they have con- sented to an arrangement which, imperfect as it is, has this great merit,—that it allows the Principality and the Province, whenever the propitious moment arrives, to come together with a clang. We suppose they will affirm that their success is proved in the fact that the Russians are evacuating the province, and will be gone by the day fixed. That is true, and important, but we thought they were always arguing that Bulgaria—where the greatest difficulty, we may remark, en passant, is the self-will of the people, who are dreaming of old Bulgaria—had become entirely Russian. Is Bulgaria gone, too, with the Russian troops, or has she ceased to exist because the Balkans in a military sense have been levelled ? or is Lord Beaconsfield, perchance, meditating the despatch of a "British Army" of three thousand men to Sofia? The plain truth of the matter is that the reopening of the Eastern Question has been avoided by postponing for twelve months,— that is, till after the elections,—the inevitable admission that the Bulgarias must either be united, or that Great Britain must land sixty thousand men at Bourgas, in order to prevent their union.
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