The correspondent of the Times in Bulgaria has been studying
the recent manoeuvres of the Army, and pronounces a very strong opinion upon the quality of the troops. " It may," he says, " be affirmed without hesitation that the Bulgarian troops are, man for man, immeasurably superior to those of any army they are likely to encounter." Their fighting quality was proved at Slivnitza, and since then the Bulgarian Government has strained every nerve, and rather exhausted its finances, to bring their equipment up to the standard of the great regular armies. Being only two hundred thousand in number, even on a war footing they could not, of course, hope:to defeat a first-class Power; but it would be unsafe for the Turks to attack them, and their alliance might be of serious value even to Austria or Russia. That is one reason, at all events, why the Courts of St. Petersburg, Vienna, and Constantinople make such unceasing efforts for " influence " at Sofia, and why Prince Ferdinand is not exactly the "little Prince" as he is sometimes described.
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