pressing forward the Bulgarian claim to Macedonia. Nor could a more unfortunate method be adopted of presenting that claim than that of the terrorists who appear to be sheltered or screened at Sofia." _London Times, August 23, 1900._ See, also (in this volume), TURKEY: A. D. 1899-1901. BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: Bulgaria. On the 15th of July, 1895, M. Stambouloff, lately the powerful chief minister in the Bulgarian government, but now overthrown and out of favor, was attacked by four assassins, in the streets of Sofia, and received wounds from which he died three days afterwards. The increasing influence of Russia in Bulgaria was manifested unmistakably on the 14th of February, 1896, when Prince Boris, the infant son and heir of the reigning Prince Ferdinand, was solemnly baptised into the Orthodox Greek Church, the Tzar of Russia, represented by proxy at the ceremony, acting as sponsor. This is understood to have been done in opposition to the most earnest remonstrances of the mother of the child, who is an ardent Roman Catholic, the father being nominally the same. BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: Montenegro: Recent changes. "The accession of territory obtained under the Berlin Treaty has already begun to alter the character of the country. The area of the Principality has been almost doubled, and fertile valleys, tracts of rich woodland and a strip of sea-coast have been added to the realm of Prince Nikolas. Montenegro is now something more than the rocky eyrie of a warlike clan, and the problem of its commercial development constantly occupies the mind of its ruler. The state of transition is reflected in the aspect of the capital. A tiny hamlet in 1878, Tzetinye now bears witness to the growth of civilisation and to the beneficent influence of a paternal despotism. … Nikolas I., 'Prince and Gospodar of free Tzrnagora and the Berda,' is the most picturesque and remarkable figure in the South Slavonic world. Descended from a long line of heroes, the heir of the Vladikas, he has, like them, distinguished himself in many a hard-fought conflict with the hereditary foe. In the field of poetry he has also won his triumphs; like his father Mirko, 'the Sword of Montenegro,' he has written lyric odes and ballads; like his ancestor, the Vladika Petar II., he has composed historical dramas, and his poems and plays hold a recognised place in contemporary Slavonic literature. The inheritor of a splendid tradition, a warrior and a bard, gifted by nature with a fine physique and a commanding presence, he forms the impersonation and embodiment of all that appeals most to the imagination of a romantic and impressionable race, to its martial instinct, its poetic temperament, and its strange—and to us incomprehensible—yearning after long-vanished glories. … Any