The Bulgarian Problem

"Xo news from Constant'.nople," snms the B.tuatioD éxactly, wntos a Loiuloii coiroipondent to The Atw York lime. Üntil the sultan gives sotne sign we aru :11 iu au Bgpytian night 01 uuceriainty. Tlie iirst b:ishibazouk wlio erossed the Maritza would cleiir up llio wholo mystery. The workl would thon know svviftly euough wlietlicr Alosander of Battenburg was playiog bis own iranio or soiMHiiie else's; wlielher Kussia plauned tlie moeujeiit., or was really surpriseil nnd provoked by it. Out of all the mvstery it seunis possibie to I traot soiuo few safe infereuces, Nouo of the iuonai:li3 of lliu petty statcs carved out oi the old Otloman empire save Alexauder himself knew what was going ou, for lliey are all scuiryitig touthward to their capital.-) like ceese cauglit in au eárly snow-stoi'iu - King (jeor;o from Gmunden, King Mitan from Vienna, KiogJUharleafrom norili Germauy. Tlie ouioials at lierlin aml Vionna saenied equally taken by surprise, for the papers whiohordinarily speak by the book in the two cities were dutno oven as late as Wonday out ot sheer ignoiance ns to what to say. Thai Hussia was surprlsed ia not so elear. To be eure, the St. Petersburg papers all insist on it, bat (bat counU for absolutoly nothing. Of iüjlilly moi'o woight is the fuut, on ivLicii ts ïuueli stress is laid, that l'riuoe Alexander's relations wiüi tlio liussian court havo seecued to bo irained ol late. Agniust this may be et tlio curious roadiness with which ;elebrations were gotten up at Odessa ud ruany otker Russian cities the very iay 011 "which the tidings were roje Ved iu u country whero neivs usuilly travela at aunil'a paee, and public jntbusiasm is blower still to manifest tself. ïhen, too, tbere is the gieat taot tUat what has been done is proïisely what Kussia trieil to do by the iivjis i, %ití-tsifí, i A'üftlHau J ' urea-, Vlmc :clo I3ulfnriaua should bo uuited, and r.litit tue líaüíans siiouiu De ïu blavio, not l'urkish possession. In this she was [oiled al the time, but she gained the poinls of nauiing the prince of Bulgaria and furuishiug him all the oflicars tor his new aruiy. Now this prince ind theso officei's have aocomplished what Ignatielf strovo to otl'oct at San Stefano- nothing more, nothinp; less -and in u ruanner far more elosely resembling the well-oiled palace revolutioii of the Russian thnn the turbulent oulbreak of the Slav. It may still be that the czar and M. de Giers were unsuspectiug, but it is hard to believe that tbc lgnatietl' party, the Pan-Slavic propaganda of Russia, were not in the schcme. Aud liav.no; played the game tlius far, uot the czar iiiniself can provunt Kussian influence, or even Kussian arma, being thrown iuto tho scalfl lo preserve what lias buen gained. If tli'j Tnrk tries to OTerthrow by force the union Prince Alexandor nn his friends havo formod Russia will come to the aid of Iiulg.sria. On this poiut there secm3 to be no doubt. But ovcu f the Turk does not precipítate a war by entering Ronnielia there ure still niany ugly possibililius oí troublo loit. If the least important section of tlie Slavs eau Ihus te;ir up and defy tho treaty of Berlín why should Servia longer hes. tato to seize the territory for which she asked at Berlín? And ít tuero ís a bmvio ínvasiou of or uprisine in Macedonia, then theGreeks and Albanians all over i tho península must get up and light for their lives. A war of races woulil follüW us certainly as uight suc;.eeds ; day. King AiiUin is said to have i olsreü very Ireely and excitedly, when j the iiuivs reached him at Vienua, that if therc was an uprising in Macedonia he must eiilier ímirch Servia troops in and seize the country or be duposed by üis ovvu people. The Servians '■ would tolérate uo other rule there but Turkish ör their owu, so he declarad over aud over again. But the Greeks are just as deteriiiined, on the other sido, that Mticedonia shall Devor be Servían or Bulgarian, and they havo nluliaanf tlia viuputliy am] ;iíil nf j central Europe which the Slavs do not possess. it is in the likelihood of a Macedonian outbreak, even more than in the chance of Turkish intervention in ! Koumelia, that anxious miuds liud tho danger of a Europoau war. It is j blo that tho western powers may seut to reeogn'zo the aocoinplishcd fuct of Bulgarian unity, to wurti the ■ sultan into acquioscensu, and to allovv Prince Alexandur to blossom into a : kiug bestriding tho Balkans - trusting j to his owu prido and imbition to prevent bis beiug too pliant a tool in Russia's hands. But auy futthrii'lav : encroaclmieuts they can not, foivery j gafety, oouuteiianoe. The terror of : tho Slavonic bugbear is too great at BerÜOi at Vienna, at Romo, at Athens. It is a huge race question whicli looms here, the greatesí sinco Attila's day. Tho Europe of Teutonic civilization dreads thij Slavic invasión, just as tho Kurope of Latin civilization dreaded the submergingGothic wave. The exuberant boast that this conturyis "tho evening of the Latins, the af ternoon of tho TeU'tUflS, tho moririm ot thu i Slavs," has a sinister ïucaning and forebodlne for every statesman west of the Carpathinns and the Vístula. 11 is the one live, gveat thing in i Europcau jjolitics. Austria has leen pusiied southward and eastward by Bismarck sololy to serve as a breakwaterajcainst this vast incominí; t:do. and, crippled and humiliated is rulers of Germans, the ILipsburgs have accepted ttnsdestiny. Tho task is a prodigious one in ono senso, a imple one in ano: her. most half ui the whole uuiuber of AuBtrian subjeots (ü per cent.) re Slavt), but the Gernians and llungariaus. by superior intellect and : ergy, aro iiblo not only to domínate ' thom, but lo keep thcm cjuaireling I nmong thcuiseh-es. The Bobemians, thc Croáis, tho Galiciana, au.l tho rest ppcud their strength for the most part in hiiting oacta other: at least they do uot nito in a common taivo against tliO non Slavic olemeuts. 'l'o rule over sucha wild conglomeraron of races; 6cems difficult; in fact, that very, lack of hotnogeneity renders it easy by comparisou with Germany, Franco, or Kussia. But it is Autstria's new mission, as viowed f rom Varzin, not only to overshadovv and in soiuo way j ern tho seveutcen milliou Slavs under tho llag, but to stand guard on tho Danubo agaiust Kussiau aggression an! Slavonic consolidation alike. It is in th;s capacity thut her action in tho crisis so abruptly developed bc-' comes of almost as great a vital nüicauce as that of Turkoy. All that Aas tri a does she will do with Germany at hor back. The two empires have iu intorosr, looking eastward, which is not in commou.' Long beforo this 'otter roachee the other sido evonts nay have shown that the second of the acts n the modorn drama - or is it tragedyP - of the Slovonie conquost luis begun; or, on the othur hand, the sultan niay huve submitted, tlus sheepstealera of Mácedonia naay havo kopt quinsccnt, iind the wholo orisis mny bo snioothecl over again. But just now not Hismaick him.self can teil what a day may uot brinr iorth.