authorities, and many of the stolen cattle and goods were recovered and restored to their owners, but the Turkish troops. remained in Persian territory in the neighbourhood of Lake Urumiah and the matter still remained unsettled at the end of

the year.

In Arabia the Yemen revolt continued to baffle the efforts of the Turkish troops. Ahmed Feizi Pasha telegraphed to the Porte in June that communications between Sanaa and Hodeida had been almost cut off, that the Imperial troops were being hard pressed by the Arabs, and that more troops, ammunition and money were indispensable. The Government made repeated attempts to negotiate with the insurgent chiefs, but without success, and though reinforcements were sent to the Turkish commander, the disorganisation and mutinous spirit of his troops rendered them ill-fitted to cope with the insurgents, who were well armed and whose shooting was stated to be far more accurate than that of their opponents.

Bulgaria, which had of late years made great progress both politically and materially under the wise rule of Prince Ferdinand, was plunged into consternation by the murder of her Prime Minister, M. Petkoff, one of her ablest statesmen and most devoted patriots, on March 11, while walking in the street with the Ministers of War, Commerce, and Finance. The assassin, a dismissed official of the Agricultural Bank, wounded the Minister of Commerce in the arm with the first shot from his revolver, and then fired at M. Petkoff, penetrating his lungs. All the leading men of the party with which M. Petkoff was associated-Stamboloff, Beltcheff, and Vulkovitch-had in previous years also fallen victims to the bullets or knives of assassins. The murderer confessed that he had intended to kill all the Ministers and that he was a Socialist. The late Premier's funeral was attended by deputations from all parts of the country. On March 17 Dr. Gudeff, President of the Sobranye, was appointed to succeed him, the other Ministers retaining their posts. Another political murder took place at Sofia on December 10, when MM. Sarafoff and Garvanoff, organisers of the Macedonian bands, were assassinated by one of their opponents in the Macedonian movement party. An immense procession of people of all classes followed the funeral.

In Servia the regicides continued to be a disturbing element; on February 10 three of them attacked two Nationalist deputies in the street because a Nationalist paper had criticised the regicides and the Court, and some sharp fighting ensued before order could be restored. On June 9 M. Pashitch, the Premier, resigned in consequence of the obstruction of the Radicals on account of certain concessions which he was alleged to have made to Austria-Hungary in the commercial conflict between that Power and Servia (ANNUAL REGISTER, 1906, p. 340). The King, however, induced M. Pashitch to remain at his post, and when the Skupshtina met after the summer recess on November

1 it was prorogued. Much agitation was caused by the murder of two anti-regicide officers who had been imprisoned through the influence of the regicide party at Court, but the Prefect of Police, who was stated to have instigated the murder, was acquitted, and all further proceedings against the alleged culprits were stopped.

Roumania was the scene in March of a formidable agrarian rising which required a force of 140,000 troops to put it down. Numerous towns and villages were pillaged and partly burnt by the rioters, and many lives were lost. The movement was originally directed against the Jews, middlemen belonging to that race having of late years obtained extensive estates and raised the rents of the peasants working upon them, and it was afterwards turned against the Roumanian large landowners. On March 24 the Conservative Ministry resigned, and was succeeded by a Liberal Ministry with M. Sturdza as Premier, which laid before the Chamber a number of remedial measures to redress the grievances of the peasants, several of which were at once carried. More than 81 per cent. of the population lived upon the land, and since the emancipation of the serfs in 1864, when they became proprietors of their holdings on a similar system to that adopted in Russia, the population had largely increased and the amount of land in the possession of each peasant was correspondingly diminished, while the land had been exhausted by unscientific farming, so that a considerable portion of the population was on the verge of famine. The new measures adopted abolished the system of leasing lands belonging to the State and public bodies to middlemen who exploited the peasants, reduced the land tax on small estates, and granted the peasants facilities for raising money in order to pay their rents or increase their holdings. These measures, coupled with the energetic steps taken by the troops to suppress the insurrection, gradually restored order, and the general election which took place in June gave the Government an enormous majority.

Since Montenegro was given a constitution by Prince Nicholas (ANNUAL REGISTER, 1905, p. 330) the little principality has been in a constant turmoil, the Radicals having started an agitation for union with Servia. A new Cabinet under M. Radovitch as Premier was formed on February 1, but preparations were made soon after for a revolt at the instigation of Servian agitators. The agitators were captured by the police in July, and their leaders were sentenced to several years' imprisonment, but the troops who were sent to support the police refused obedience to their superiors. In April a new Ministry was appointed under M. Tomanovitch, and a general election took place in October, during which the office of the journal of the Radical party was wrecked, and the Radical chiefs maintained armed bands in their houses to protect them from the violence of their Conservative opponents, who enjoyed the sup

port of the Court and the Army. The result of the election was that the whole House consisted of Conservatives, the Radicals having refused to take part in it. In November 130 Montenegrins of the "Great Servia" party, many of them belonging to influential families, were arrested for high treason and disloyalty to the reigning family. A serious dispute also occurred with Turkey in October with regard to the delimitation of the frontier near Androvitza. A mixed commission was appointed for the purpose, but the Albanians on the Turkish side of the frontier assumed such a menacing attitude that the Turkish commissioners refused to recognise the Montenegrin claims, upon which a party of armed Montenegrins attacked a Turkish blockhouse and killed or wounded the greater part of the garrison. The matter 'remained unsettled at the end of the year.

CHAPTER IV.

LESSER STATES OF WESTERN AND NORTHERN EUROPE.

I. BELGIUM.

THE Ministerial crisis which had been long foreseen, owing to the differences developed during the past few years among the majority in the Chambers, arose in April, the occasion being a Bill relating to the opening of new mines in the Campine. From the beginning of March, the Government had definitely shown itself opposed to the introduction into the measure of an eight-hours' day for miners; nevertheless, the Chamber adopted an amendment proposed by M. Beernaert, the implacable Catholic adversary of the Cabinet, providing that in the absence of special legislation the hours of labour in the mines should be fixed by Royal decree, on the advice of the Council of Mines. Another amendment, also opposed by the Government, limiting the maximum hours of labour to ten below ground and eight of actual coal-getting, was likewise adopted, in consequence of the action of the "Young Right," which voted against the Cabinet. Beaten on this point the Ministry did not resign, and sought for a basis of compromise with its dissentient supporters. In a party meeting, however, it demanded that the amendments in question should be rescinded on the second reading; but the measure as amended was passed on April 12, by 76 votes to 70, with three abstentions. Thereupon the Government tendered its resignation to the King.

The solution of the crisis was long and difficult. A Ministerial combination had to be devised which would be supported by the votes of both the sections of the Right, which were acutely hostile to one another, not only on the question of the hours of labour in mines but on the questions of the annexation of the Congo State, of service in the Army, and of the introduction

of the Flemish language into the schools. Ultimately, after numerous conferences, the new Cabinet was formed (May 4). A new Department was created, that of Science and Art. The Fine Arts had previously fallen under the Department of Agriculture, and Science under the former Department of the Interior and Public Instruction in so far as concerned education in all its branches, together with the special sciences and learning generally. For the Department of Finance and Public Works, likewise, two distinct Ministries were substituted. The new Cabinet was as follows: Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, M. de Trooz; Minister of Justice, M. Renkin; Foreign Affairs, M. Davignon; Finance, M. Liebaert; Science and Art, Baron Descamps David; Industry and Labour, M. Hubert; Public Works, M. Delbeke; Railways, Post and Telegraphs, M. Helleputte; War, Lieut.-General Hellebaut. Provisionally, the Department of Agriculture was entrusted to M. Helleputte. It will be seen that two members of the former Cabinet, MM. de Trooz and Helleputte, formed part of the new combination. In it MM. Renkin and Helleputte represented the Young Right, the latter more decidedly than the former.

As soon as the Chambers reassembled (May 7) the new Cabinet was severely cross-questioned regarding an incident attending the vote on the Mines Bill. The day after that vote, the outgoing Cabinet informed the Chamber that a Royal decree dated April 11 withdrew the Bill. The Government, therefore, had allowed the Chamber to discuss the Bill while knowing that its own demand for the withdrawal of the measure, countersigned by all the Ministers, was awaiting the Royal signature. The debate was extremely stormy. All the Left regarded the withdrawal under the circumstances as an insult to the dignity of Parliament, since that body had been allowed to debate a Bill known to be virtually dead. The situation of the Cabinet was also necessarily rather embarrassing. If, on the one hand, the two Ministers who formed part of its predecessor had countersigned the decree of withdrawal, on the other hand two other members of it, MM. Renkin and Helleputte, had supported as deputies the amendments which had made the Ministerial crisis inevitable. Ultimately an Order of the Day brought forward by the Left, censuring the Ministers who had countersigned the decree of withdrawal, was rejected by 77 to 68, with two abstentions. The Government then treated the Bill as withdrawn from the consideration of the Chamber, but laid it before the Senate in the form in which the Chamber had voted it. In the Senate, a resolution censuring the former Ministry for withdrawing the Bill was rejected by 54 to 39, with 4 abstentions; another, expressing confidence in the new Cabinet, was passed without a formal division-the Right supporting it by rising in their places, the Left opposing it.

Debates of a lively character, but exhibiting great confusion,

Y

took place in the Chamber on the second reading of a Bill which would practically have made the knowledge of Flemish obligatory on the whole nation. In view of the number and divergence of the amendments proposed by the various parties, the President of the Chamber proposed the reference of the measure to a Select Committee of nine-five members of the Right, two Liberals, and two Socialists. This proposal cut short a barren discussion which had lasted some weeks, and was adopted unanimously.

The conditions of the suffrage for provincial and communal elections were again brought before the Chamber this year, by members of the Left. In these elections proportional representation is not applied, and the minimum age is twenty-five, although important posts in the administration can be held at twenty-one. A proposal to allow all Parliamentary electors to vote at the communal and provincial elections was rejected by 74 to 66 with one abstention; another proposal, introducing proportional representation in the communal elections, was rejected by 82 to 58, with six abstentions.

The communal elections, held for the whole Kingdom in October, were more distinctly political in their character than is usual, being on the Opposition side distinctly anti-Clerical. With this aim the Opposition often formed what is called the cartel, a Liberal-Socialist alliance against the Clericals. Wherever it was formed, the Catholic party was beaten, so that the Liberals and Socialist Opposition intended adopting the same manoeuvre everywhere for the Parliamentary elections in 1908. Certain results of the communal elections profoundly impressed the Catholic party, which appeared disposed to admit that the Liberal demand for proportional representation at these elections was well founded; this was notably so at Antwerp, where, thanks to the cartel, the Opposition won, and where 30,000 Catholic voters have not a single representative on the Communal Council.

A scheme for an understanding between Belgium and Holland was followed with lively interest by the public. The Committee engaged in its consideration in the two countries had no official character, though containing eminent men of all parties, some of them ex-Ministers. The President of the Dutch section, M. Heemskerk, insisted on the fact that the Committee had no political mission, but aimed only at establishing close and friendly relations between the two nations. The President of the Belgian section, M. Beernaert, formerly a (Clerical) Premier, declared that the independence of Holland and Belgium conduced to the peace of the world, and that its continuance was a matter of international concern.

A dockers' strike at Antwerp in August and September led to serious disturbances (Sept. 2-4) through the importation of English and German "strike-breakers." Work was resumed on September 27, partly owing to the intervention of the Burgomaster.