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i9i3] STATE OF THE BULGARIANS 159
Thus amongst an enormous majority of the nation
there was no conscious religious feeling, no civilisation,
a complete absence of rights, and to all money was the
sole means of procuring a semblance of a decent
existence; add to this, stubbornness and a certain strain
of materialism which had filtered into the blood of
the Slav population of the country with the blood of
the former Ugro-Finnish conquerors—the Bulgarians,
properly so-called—and no one can wonder that in the
modern Bulgarian soul there is hardly any room for
finer feelings and ideal aspirations.
During my first stay in Bulgaria at the outset of
my diplomatic career, I had had an opportunity of
seeing a very interesting document: the letter which the
Emperor Alexander II. had written to his nephew by
marriage, Prince Alexander of Battenberg, when the
latter was elected the first Prince of Bulgaria at the
Tsar’s wish. This letter, very perfect on the whole,
concluded with touching and profoundly true words,
which ran something like this :—
" But above all things, my dear nephew, never forget
in your relations with your new people the complete
slavery in which they have lived for centuries. Be
generous and indulgent towards the failings which are
the natural consequence of this slavery. Be patient
with your people and endeavour by kind deeds to raise
them to your level and to draw them nearer to you."
Prince Alexander of Battenburg did not appear to
have been created for such a beautiful mission—but
still less was Ferdinand of Coburg. During the
thirty-five years that Bulgaria had existed much had been
done to give her a surface polish, and to provide her
with modern State machinery, but nothing was done
for the souls of the people, to soften their natural
dispositions and their manners. On the contrary,
national fanaticism was encouraged and stimulated as a
virtue. And as no people can exist without religion
and without ideals, the Bulgarians in place of religion
had their national policy, and as supreme moral ideal
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