Bulgaria past and present Author:James Samuelson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VII. THE LIBERATION OF .BULGARIA. Events which preceded the Russo-Turkish War—Revolt iu Bulgaria—The " Bulgarian Atrocities "—Mr. Gladstone's pamph... more »let—The Czar Alexander the Liberator—Action of the Tory Government—Mr. Gladstone's views—Tergiversation of the Porte—Russian declaration of war against Turkey (April 1877)—The alliance between Russia and Roumania—Russian ingratitude to Roumania the salvation of Bulgaria—Devotion of the Bulgarians—Incidents of the campaign—A brave Bulgarian boy—Condition of the country during the war—The defence of the Shipka Pass—The Bulgarian contingent—The events of the war and its results for Bulgaria—The Treaties of San Stefano and Berlin—Stipulations of the last-named as regarded Bulgaria—Limits of the Principality—Action of the Russians subsequent to the ratification—The Russianising of Bulgaria—The stipulations concerning Eastern Roumelia— Limits of the province—Turkish indifference regarding its government—The political rank of the two States. PEN of Mr. Gladstone and the sword of the Emperor Alexander — not the present one — his father, the liberator of the Russian serfs—severed the chain which for more than four centuries had fettered the liberties of Bulgaria. The causes which led to the Russo-Turkish War of the last decade, and the chief events which preceded it, must still be fresh in the minds of most of my readers. During the year 1875, when a rising took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by one in Bulgaria in 1876 and in the early part of 1877, the Powers of Europe were occupied with pourparlers, conferences, and protocols, the objects of which were, so far as Turkey was concerned, to compel her to grant religious freedom and relief from excessive taxation to her Christian subjects in the Balkan Peninsula; on ...« less