The Constituent Assembly of Bulgaria, on 29th April, elected Prince
Alexander of Battenberg to the throne of the Principality. The vote was unanimous, and only three names were presented,— Prince Waldemar, of Denmark, who was favoured by England, and therefore hopeless, England having dismembered the Prin- cipality ; Prince Reuss, who was pronounced too old, and had scruples about his children's creed; and the candidate elected, who is a young man of twenty-two, son, by a morganatic marriage with a Polish lady of good. birth, of Prince Alexander of Hesse, and therefore nephew of the Czar. He has been trained as a Prussian officer, is said to be promis- ing, and has fought in the anti-Turkish war. The choice seems to be a fairly good one, though the Prince is rather too young; but he will, under the Constitution, as revised, be assisted by responsible Ministers, and by an Assembly, the whole of which is freely elected by the people. He will reach Tirnova in a few days, where he will find that Prince Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, a most able administrator, now appointed Governor-General of the Caucasus, has done most of the preliminary work of organisation. This Russian noble would, it is believed, have been elected, but the Powers expressed their dislike of the selection, and a telegram from the Czar prohibited the choice of any Russian. The first year will show if the Bul- garians have caught a second Prince Charles.
