NEWS OF THE WEEK
CONGRESS is getting on. It has, it is said, advanced so far, that all fear of collision is now over, and that it will separate on or before July 10th. This is, perhaps, premature, but it seems certain that the Bulgarian question is settled. The country from the Danube to the Balkans is formed into an independent State, which will be called" Bulgaria," -will be ruled by an elected Prince, and will have an army of its own. The State will own all the fortresses, including Varna, and will include Sophia, through which it is possible, with a certain expenditure of men, to turn the Balkans. The Balkans themselves are resigned to the Sultan, who may build in them as many forts and keep in them as many troops 218 he pleases. The region South of the Balkans, again, stretching from a point below Bourgas on the Black Sea to the Karasn, but not touching the /Egean, will form an autonomous province, to be called "Eastern Roumelia," to be governed by a Hospodar, appointed for five or ten years, who will be nominated by the Sultan and the Powers, and will, it is rumoured, be an Anglo-Indian officer. He will be aided by a local elective Parliament, and supported by a local militia, whose higher officers must, however, be approved by the Sultan. It is understood that a Western Roumelia will also be created, but its boundaries depend upon the settlement of the Greek claim.
