The situation in Macedonia, which was bad enough, for the
" reforms " have failed to conciliate anybody, has been com- plicated by a rising of the Albanian Mussulmans They are disgusted with the reforms, which threaten their right to plunder the neighbouring plains and their ascendency in the Macedonian gendarmerie, and failing to convince the Sultan,
• they attacked 3iitrovitza on March 30th. The Turkish garrison, stimulated by the Russian Consul, who was wounded in the engagement, defended the place vigorously, and the Albanians were driven back with the loss, it is believed, of three hundred men. The Christians are flying from the district in alarm, and the Sultan has ordered the Third Army Corps, stationed at Salonica, to suppress the insurrection. The Sultan, however, can only be half-hearted in that effort, for Albanians guard his palace, and if their kinsfolk were slaughtered too freely might avenge themselves on the Sovereign. The fear of the diplomatists is that Austria may be compelled to attack the Albanians, in which case the partition of the Balkans would begin, or that the Sultan may try measures of repression both'in Bulgaria and Macedonia— whither, it is said, he has summoned his murderous Kurd cavalry—which would bring Russia into the field. The prospect of trouble is imminent, but in no case is it the business of the British Government to do more than counsel its allies.
