that its prolongation may bring to their aid some of those powers who are burning with impatience to assist them, but withheld by motives of policy. Sir Charles Dilke, in a speech delivered in London on the 16th instant, vouches for the veracity of the accounts of the desolation of Bulgaria and the wholesale slaughter of unarmed men and innocent women and children, scenes which have been repeated, it is said, in the valley of the Timok, and will be, I fear, throughout Servia. These appalling massacres, reported on such respectable authority, lead me to qualify my first opinion that they had been exaggerated, both in extent of territory and numbers, and to join in the horror which is everywhere expressed at such barbarity. To create a desert and call it peace is not a new art, but to revive it as a lost one belongs to the warfare of the modern Turks, if we may believe what is currently reported, on apparently good authority, of them, but which it is still to be hoped may prove to be the exaggeration of partisan feeling. The following proclamation has been issued by the Sultan: CONSTANTINOPLE, August 14. The following is the dispatch sent by the Porte to its representatives abroad, relative to the Bulgarian amnesty: "His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, our august master, moved by his sentiments of paternal solicitude and exceeding clemency, has been pleased to grant a full and complete amnesty to all the individuals who were implicated in the Bulgarian insurrection, and to those whose trial is not yet terminated. Excepted from this imperial clemency are those who have already been sentenced, and those who, having been accused of being the chiefs and organizers of the insurrection, have already been delivered into the hands of justice. All the others who are in custody will be set at liberty on giving due security. All prosecutions in counection with the events in question will be stopped, and henceforth no one will be pursued or arrested on this head. At the same time the special tribunals to which the preliminary inquiries have been intrusted will be suppressed, and the sentences passed on those coming under the above-mentioned exceptions will be referred to the ordinary tribunals." SIR: The war between Servia and Turkey was brought to a close, for the present, on September 1, by the battle of Alexinatz, in which, as might have been expected, superior arms and discipline gave victory to the Turks. The intervention asked by Servia will doubtless end in peace, but I regard any settlement by the great powers, unless by making a most radical change in Turkish affairs, as of the most temporary character, and resembling those vain compromises by which in our own country it was sought to avert the inevitable conflict between freedom and slavery. Nor am I by any means disposed to agree with those who are congratulating themselves on the fact that the crisis of a general European war is over. Much will depend upon how the Turk bears his successes, for Christendom has been so shocked at his conduct, and is so full of sympathy for its fellow Christians, that the least recurrence of such scenes as ushered in the campaign will make it hard to restrain Europe from an interference which would lead to the abolition of the Turkish government in Europe, and no amount of skillful diplomacy could restrain this movement if farther excited. The population of Servia is 1,400,000; Bosnia, 1,300,000; Wallachia and Moldavia, now consolidated as Roumania, 4,500,000. Of these, seven-tenths are said to be Christians. Servia and Roumania are practically independent states, acknowledging the titular sovereignty of the Porte, and paying an annual tribute. The population of European Turkey south of the Balkans is 6,000,000, of whom a majority are Turks, although even this is stoutly denied by some authorities. To an American, the obvious idea would be for three contiguous states to unite under one government-if it were permitted, like our own-and under whose laws they could not fail to reach a distinguished position among the nations, as well as to give such an assurance of power in their unity as would command respect from all neighbors. The habits of the people, I am told, differ as widely as their religion. The Christians are decidedly progressive: establish schools, improve in agriculture, are docile, humane, and industrious. The Turk is said to be just the reverse, and to have utterly lost his ancient characteristics of truthfulness and fair dealing, and to be morose, fanatical, vindictive, intolerant, and indolent; a foe to progress in any shape, and having his worst passions excited to frenzy by the appearance of a Christian schoolteacher. If one may believe apparently impartial persons, they justify the remarks of Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, who says of them: "It is the only instance of a nation having reached its zenith of power without having been civilized. It came into Europe as a horde, it became powerful as a horde, and it remains a horde." I have, &c., No. 17. E. F. BEALE. No. 8.] Mr. Beale to Mr. Fish. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, (Received October 25.) SIR: Since my last we have had various, constant, and conflicting rumors in relation to the peace negotiations now in progress in settlement of the Turco-Servian war. The Servian army has been so largely reinforced by Russian volunteers that it is again very formidable, and, with the two opposing forces within rifle-range of each other, it is doubtful whether the pacific intentions of both goveruments may not be frustrated by accidental collision or the design of those who would prefer to see the war prosecuted rather than peace established. The proclamation by the army of Prince Milan as King seems to have been an embarrassing event to that ruler, for if he declines it he may offend his army to a degree that would jeopardize his position, and if he accepts he will offend powers which have been his greatest friends. The army is now said to be beyond his control, and an ambitious and successful leader of it might so far endear himself to the people as to render a usurpation of the supreme authority no difficult matter. The peace neg otiations seem to be a mere patch work of compromises, which, even if successful in bridging over the im mediate difficulty, would leave the future full of anxiety and liable at any moment to set Europe in a blaze of war. The more one looks at the Eastern question the more perplexing and intricate it becomes, and the greater the difficulty of reconciling conflicting claims and producing permanent tranquillity short of cutting the Gordian knot by a total termination of Turkish rule over the Christian provinces. Bosnia is a striking illustration of one of these difficulties. She is a sort of inland peninsula; that is to say, she is hemmed in by Montenegro, a virtually free province, bold, warlike and progressive, on one side, and Servia, occupying the same relation to Turkey as Montenegro, on the other, leaving Bosnia connected with the power to which she belongs politically only by a narrow neck of territory. It is interesting to recall that in this country of Bosnia originated the first Protestant movement of Western Europe, and that even before the heresies (as the Catholic Church calls them) of John Huss, in Bohemia, she had sent out her missionaries to preach the gospel as she read it, and to disseminate her religious views over the rest of the world. When the persecutions of the church of Rome were at their worst, and de Montfort had desolated Provence, she offered, in this remote corner, a generous asylum to her co-religionists, many of whom found here what had been denied them at home, the right to worship God after thir own forms and belief. Suddenly, in 1643, in a single week, the Turks overran the entire country, and from that date to the present, the bête noire of European politics has been the Eastern question. The country abounds in undeveloped mineral wealth, which, if worked, would produce a revenue capable of sustaining a great state. The Romans took from its mountains vast treasure in the precious metals, besides which it is richly supplied with iron and coal, and the largest deposits of quicksilver have long been known to exist there. To our countrymen it will be interesting to know that the Slavic races inhabiting these states seem always to have had a strong democratic tendency, and a dim but instinctive sentiment in favor of republican self-government. An intelligent and cultivated gentleman writing of them in this present year, and speaking of their past as well as present condition, says: The whole Illyrian triangle was divided into a great number of small states or independent districts, called Zupy. Zupa means a bond or confederation, and each Zupa was a confederation of small villages or communities, represented by a magistrate called a Zupan. The Zupaus elected a Grand Zupan, who may be looked upon as the president of the federation. The same author, in speaking of the Croats, another branch of the Slavic race, says: It became a constitutional principle in Croatia, that when the king died a new king should be elected by the bans of the crown lands. This was as early as the seventh century; and in speaking of them as they exist to-day, he says: The Bosnians are of a temperament admirably fitted for parliamentary government, and, what is more, owing to their still preserving the relics of the free institutions of the primitive Sclavs, they are familiar with its machinery. In their family communities and in their villages the first principles of representative government are practiced every day. This is high commendation from a most intelligent author, and gives hopes that the race which produced for ancient Rome a Justinian and a Belisarios, as well as in later times the earliest Protestants of the Christian Church, may yet, under the benign influence of good government and freedom from the oppressive exactions of Turkey, justify the universal sympathy which has of late been so freely offered by all Christendom. I have, &c., No. 18. E. F. BEALE. · No. 15.] Mr. Beale to Mr. Fish. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Vienna, November 2, 1876. (Received November 20.) SIR: I have received from the minister for foreign affairs a circular note, communicating the existing regulation in this empire bearing upon the deportment and salutes to be exhibited and tendered towards members of the army of other countries who may appear in military uniform, under the condition, however, that reciprocal attention shall be observed in those countries towards members of the Austro-Hungarian army. I am requested to submit this fact to the knowledge of the United States government, and accordingly append a copy of the note, which is in the French language, together with a translation. I have, &c., E. F. BEALE. [Inclosure.-Translation.] NOTE VERBAL. According to the regulation introduced into the Austro-Hungarian army, and sanctioned by His Majesty the Emperor and King, all the members of the armed forces appear in uniform whether at home or abroad; then the sentinels and guards are required to render to the troops, flags, and military of other powers, without exception, the same honors as to the troops, flags, and military of the said army. It is further the duty of the imperial and royal military officials, who may be abroad on leave of absence, and who desire there to wear their uniforms, that they present themselves before the military authorities of the station where they are passing their leave of absence. While adding, that the regulation of courtesy in question has been enacted upon condition of reciprocity, the imperial-royal ministry for foreign affairs begs to request the legation of the United States of America to be pleased to convey the foregoing to the knowledge of its government. VIENNA, October 30, 1876. No. 19. Mr. Fish to Mr. Beale. No. 14.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: Upon the receipt of your No. 15, stating that you had received from the minister of foreign affairs a circular note communicating the existing regulations of the Empire bearing upon the deportment and salutes to officers of the armies of other countries who may appear in military uniform, with the condition that reciprocal attention shall be observed in those countries toward officers of the Austro-Hungarian army, I caused a copy of your dispatch to be submitted to the Secretary of War, with the request that he would furnish me with a reply for your information. I am now in receipt of a communication from the Secretary of War, inclosing a letter addressed to him by General Sherman, to whom the matter had been referred, and in whose views the Secretary states that he fully concurs. In this communication it is stated that as European nations are more familiar with the uniforms and decorations of rank among one another than we can be in this country, it might be difficult at times to instruct our troops to pay the honors due to particular ranks as shown by the uniforms of the several nations, but that every effort will be made to extend to Austrian officers traveling or sojourning in the United States the fullest honors belonging to their grade, whether by salutes of guns or guards of honor, requesting only that each officer carry with him and exhibit his commission or evidence of rank, which, it is stated, is usually certified through their minister residing in. Washington. The General of the Army expresses the pleasure it will give him in using every effort to reciprocate proper honors toward officers of the Austro-Hungarian army. I will thank you to communicate these facts to the minister of foreign affairs. I am, &c., No. 20. HAMILTON FISH. No. 22.] Mr. Beale to Mr Fish. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Vienna, December 18, 1876. (Received January 22, 1877.) SIR Referring to Mr. Delaplaine's dispatch, No. 114, of the 14th of March last, wherein mention is made of the passage, at that time, by the Reichsrath, of a law authorizing and empowering the minister of finance for Cisleithania to contract a loan and to issue bonds for the same, the interest to be at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum, payable in gold, and the coupons to be free from all tax on reduction, I have now to advise you that on the 10th instant subscriptions to the same for forty millions of florins were invited at the rate of fifty-six florins in gold per hundred of the loan. The total amount was subscribed for ou the first day. * For my own part I must avow the opinion that the Austrian public credit does not exhibit a favorable appreciation, when a gold loan producing annually nearly 8 per cent. at the rate of emission did not obtain higher competition. As I am informed that the allotments now bear a premium of only one-half of 1 per cent., I am further disposed to believe that the subscriptions made were generally not for permanent investment, but in the speculative hope of early realizing a small profit thereon. I consider it perhaps appropriate, in reference to the public credit of |