The Eastern Roumelian Commission appears disposed to grant very extensive
privileges to the South Bulgarians. A chapter on The Rights of Citizens," drawn up by M. de Ring, and accepted by the Commission, concedes personal liberties as extensive as those of Englishmen, indeed more extensive, for an English subject of Hebrew faith cannot open his shop on a Sunday, and a South Bulgarian can ; and the British Press, though now pro- tected against "fiscal measures," is still liable to see them im- posed. The single liberty apparently suspended is that of open-air meetings, of all liberties the one of most questionable value. Un- fortunately, the South Bulgarians ask for guarantees for these liberties against the very Judges and soldiers who should enforce the law, and the only guarantee forthcoming is the right of the citizen to enter a national militia,—that is, in fact, the right of insurrection; after which a state of siege, which it is legal to proclaim, would at once suspend all law, except the will of the Governor-General and the soldiery.
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