the signal for more shouting, in which the boy, who was evidently an innocent victim, took part. Some officious bystanders then took hold of the boy, whereupon many of the students got frightened and began to disperse, while others advised that they should all march down the street in a body. This was going on not only in the most fashionable part of the city, but also at the most fashionable time of the day, when members of the Imperial family and all the grandees of St. Petersburg were taking their midday strolls up and down the Nevsky, and many gendarmes and policemen were about. It was, therefore, but a minute or two before several of the latter came up, but they only met with insult and resistance. In the meantime messengers had been sent to the authorities. With astonishing quickness General Trepoff and several high police officials, with a force of constables, arrived on the scene before all the would-be disturbers of the peace had time to get away. The arrests immediately commenced, and both men and women were hastily dragged off to an isvoshtchick, or public drivers' yard in the vicinity which served as a temporary lock-up. Altogether thirty-two persons were taken, including eleven women. The excitement was very great in the immediate neighbourhood at the time; and the news spreading like lightning over the town, it soon became the one and only theme of conversation, both in private circles and all places of public resort.

"Various rumours," remarked a correspondent of the Times, 66 were quickly put in circulation. It was said that this incident was only an indication of a more extensive movement, and that there had been similar scenes in other parts of the town as well as at Moscow. It was also thought that the affair had been foreseen; that the streets round the cathedral had been well watched all day by the secret police, and that the women who were captured were male students in female attire. There was an attempt made to connect it with Poland by reporting that the students had at first tried to take down one of the Polish standards in the church, but this was afterwards contradicted. The only plausible guess made at the cause of the matter was that the students of the medical school, to which most of the prisoners belong, were discontented in consequence of being pushed through the course of studies in order to be draughted as soon as possible into the ranks of the mobilised troops. But until we know the results of the judicial inquiry now on foot, these reports fail to enlighten us as to the real motives, if any, which led to the demonstration. As an attempt at popular agitation, a more ridiculous exhibition could scarcely be imagined, and the ill-chosen time and place made it doubly absurd. As far as concerned the general public, who did almost as much to preserve order as the police on this occasion, such a miserable effort at political propaganda must have been a complete failure even had the police not interfered. In affairs of this kind I think that the Russian police are apt to make very much ado about nothing, and in taking the most severe

measures the significance of a case like the present is often magnified beyond its real importance. This is the impression which would naturally be made upon an Englishman who has been accustomed to see such meetings of malcontents tolerated in his own country without fear of any dangerous consequences. I had often before heard of the strictness of the authorities in punishing any misbehaviour on the part of the students; and although I could not help admiring the thorough way in which the police performed their duty on the occasion, at the same time it seemed to me that every young man who was unfortunate enough to have long hair or a shawl over his shoulders-two distinctive marks of a Russian student was quickly pounced upon by the officers and hurried off to prison. Whether or not there was any particular reason for this outbreak it is impossible to say with certainty. At the same time, everyone knew that discontent and political agitation among the students were constant sources of trouble in this country."

The excitement caused by this émeute gradually subsided in the following week. It was known that many arrests had been made, and it was asserted that some of the culprits would be sent to Siberia. But the far greater interest attaching to the result of the Conference at Constantinople monopolised the attention of all, and that was the one topic which occupied public opinion in Russia, as in the rest of Europe, at the close of the year.

CHAPTER IV.

TURKEY AND THE EASTERN QUESTION.

Historical retrospect, the beginning of the Revolts: situation of Turkey and its provinces in January-Effects of the Andrassy Note: military and diplomatic events in the Spring-Postponement of dividends-The Bulgarian revolt in April: its extent and the mode of suppression-The outrage at Salonica: action of the European Powers-Deposition and death of Abdul Aziz: accession of Murad-Assassination of Turksh ministers-The Berlin Note-Servia and Montenegro: narrative of military events from June 30 to October 30-The Russian Ultimatum and the Armistice-The Deposition of Murad in favour of Abdul Hamid Mr. Baring's Report-Diplomacy in November and December-Lord Salisbury on his travels-The Commission of Demarcation-The ConferenceAffairs in Roumania.

GREECE. Ministerial crisis-Causes of neutrality-National resources-The Agricultural Bank-Financial measures.

Ir needed no gift of prophecy on the part of the English Prime Minister to predict, as he did at the Guildhall Banquet of 1875, that the following year would witness important events in the East. The famous diplomatic episode of the Andrassy Note, in December, only marked a new stage in proceedings that had long been important, and were rapidly becoming threatening. It will be well, therefore, to preface our record of Eastern events by a brief historical retrospect.

Herzegovina, where the revolt broke out, had long been one of the most disturbed parts of the Ottoman Empire, and it was only a few years since Omar Pasha stamped out a rebellion in that Province. The immediate cause of the outbreak seems to have been a dispute between some tithe farmers and some Christian peasants after the harvest of 1874. The strife went on till the January of the following year, when, to escape from exactions and imprisonment, the peasants fled to Montenegro. At the request of the Prince of Montenegro, Dervish Pasha, the Governor of Herzegovina, agreed to let them come back and offered them an amnesty. But they were stopped on the frontiers by Turkish troops and two of them were killed. Dervish explained that the soldiers had acted without orders, but after the people did come back to their homes they were, they said, exposed to outrage and insult. Their houses were burnt, some of them were beaten, and one was put to death. Resistance followed, and the month of June saw the beginning of a desultory contest. It is also said that political motives had helped to bring on this disturbance. The peasants, it is stated, had listened to the promptings of the Servian Omladina, and they are likewise said to have been pushed on by a man named Pezzia, who had eighteen years before been a renowned brigand in Bosnia, and had lately escaped from confinement. But, whatever may have been the occasion of the disturbance, the causes of it had long existed in the constitution of Mahomedan society and the fitful exactions of Ottoman rule. The rebellion was at once attended by the usual effects of Turkish disturbances. The Christians complained of foul outrages; the Mahomedans accused them in turn of murdering and beheading Turkish travellers; and we may easily believe that there was little scruple on either side.

Towards the end of August, after the revolt had lasted for a couple of months, the European Cabinets tried to make peace by sending their Consular Agents to confer with the rebels. But after weeks of negotiation the attempt wholly failed. The insurgents said that they dare not lay down their arms unless the Powers would protect them against the Agas and the Zaptiehs. They added, however, that they wished to remain faithful subjects of the Sultan, "taking off their hats at the mention of his name." Mr. Holmes, the British Consul, who gave a report of the scene, was on his way back to Mostar after the failure of his efforts, when he met a body of Turkish troops going to attack the insurgents whom he had left and who had been assured that they might assemble in safety. He and his colleagues were very indignant at a breach of trust which might have seemed to cast doubt on the good faith of the Consuls themselves. Soon afterwards the rebels formally stated their grievances and demands. They complained that the so-called tithe had been advanced 12 per cent.; that the taxes had been collected with gross unfairness; that Christians were made to undergo forced labour on the public roads; that their horses were used for the service of the army; that the Agas

were tyrannical, the Courts corrupt, and property, life, and honour insecure. As an instance of the way in which they were treated, they stated that some Christians had been killed for going to see the Emperor of Austria on the occasion of his famous journey through Dalmatia-a journey supposed at that time to be an evidence of peculiar goodwill for the Turkish as well as the Austrian Slavs. The Christians added that they would die rather than suffer such slavery. They begged either that some Christian Power would give a corner of land to which they might all emigrate; so that Bosnia and Herzegovina might be formed into an autonomous state, tributary to the Sultan; or, finally, that the European Cabinets would send a strong body of troops to protect them until good laws could be established.

Meanwhile, Server Pasha, the Commissioner whom the Porte had sent to the scene of the disturbance, had made many cheering promises. So long ago as September 2, 1875, he gave a pledge that the officials should be guilty of no more arbitrary or vexatious acts; that an extraordinary tribunal should be established to do justice to persons who had been wronged; and that those who had been unjustly imprisoned should be set free. A benignant Hatt gave these fair promises the emphasis of the Sultan's own word. As the Insurgents would not listen to those offers, the Porte declared, on October 4, that the tithe would be lowered to the old rate of 10 per cent.; that all arrears of taxes would be abandoned; that the several religious communities should be represented in the Administrative Councils; and that agents should be appointed to insure the equitable collection of the taxes. A few days later-on October 11-Server Pasha gave a further list of the reforms which the Porte intended to execute. The Medjlis, or Local Councils, should be reorganised; the tithes should be levied on the land instead of on the growing crops; the taxes on animals should be reformed; administrative decrees and legal judgment should be translated into the Slav language, the requisition for horses should be abolished, and a committee of Turks, Greeks, and Catholics should be appointed to see that the new rules were put in force. On December 13 all the principles of these reforms were set forth in an Imperial Firman. Thus, as Musurus Pasha declared to Lord Derby, "the edifice of which the foundation was laid by the Firman of Gulhané in 1839, and the body completed by the HattiHumayoun of 1856, was now crowned and made perfect by the second Firman." But the rebels would not listen to these promises. Acting-Consul Freeman wrote to Lord Derby on February 18, 1876, that they had received the Firman with indifference. While the Porte had been busily framing new plans of reform, the rebellion had been spreading. The bitterness of the strife had been deepened in October, 1875, by the massacre of some Christians who had come back to their homes from Dalmatia. Crowds were taking refuge in Austrian territory, and the desultory fights

S

were not always favourable to the Turks. Servia and Montenegro were giving secret help to the rebels. Soon after the Christians took up arms Prince Milan had, in his speech to the National Assembly, declared that they had been driven to revolt by despair; and, in a fiery address, the National Assembly had pronounced it impossible for Servia to remain indifferent to their fate. Material as well as verbal help was secretly sent by the Servian people, and some of the peculiarly warlike Montenegrins joined in the fight against their hereditary foe.

Such was the threatening prospect in the closing weeks of 1875. The three Imperial Courts had, meanwhile, been taking counsel together in order to prevent the strife from spreading, and to remove the causes of dispeace. The task of stating their common views was left to Count Andrassy, on account of his intimate knowledge of Turkey, and the danger which Austria found in a spreading Slav rebellion on the borders of her own Sclavonic Provinces. The result was the famous Andrassy Note, which was first made known to our Government in a despatch dated December 30, 1875, from the Austrian Chancellor to Count Beust. After pointing out that the Porte had stated general principles rather than formed practical plans of peace, Count Andrassy laid down a series of specific demands. The revenue derived in Bosnia and Herzegovina from indirect taxation should, he urged, be applied as before to the general purposes of the Ottoman Empire; while the income obtained from direct taxation should be spent on the Province itself. Complete religious liberty should be established. The system of farming the taxes should be abolished. The execution of these reforms should be placed under the care of a Special Commission, half the members of which should be Mussulmans and half Christians. Count Andrassy also showed that much of the dispeace was caused by the fact that the Mahomedans owned most of the soil and the Christians tilled it. Hence he urged that the State should sell portions of its waste lands to the peasantry on easy terms. As the people would not trust the bare word of the Porte, the Powers must, he added, obtain from the Sultan, by means of an official Commission, the confirmation of his Imperial promises and the acceptance of the demands to be presented by the European Governments.

The most important part of the despatch was the prognostication of the future. Count Andrassy declared that "the indefinite promises of the Iradé of October 2 and the Firman of December 12 would only exalt without contenting the hopes of the insurgents. It was clear that the Turkish forces had not succeeded in putting an end to the disturbances. All the Christian populations believed that the spring would bring them reinforcements from Bulgaria, Crete, &c. And it is to be foreseen that the Governments f Servia and Montenegro which, at present, have great difficulty olding aloof from the movement, will be unable to resist the