The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-09-23 00:00:00

MR. BARING'S REPORT.

Mr. Baring's Report was published on Tuesday
night, in the form of a Supplement to the London
Gazet(e, and it fills about 25 pages. Along with it are
published Mr. Schuyler's Report, the contents of
which are already known ; the Report of Chakir Bey;
the Report of the Extraordinary tribunal instituted at
Philippopolis ; ard some documents tending to show the
designs of the Insurgents in Bulgaria. An introduc-
tory letter from Sir Henry Elliot to Lord Derby gives
a summary of the results at which Mr. Baring has
arrived. The letter of the Ambassador says that the
cruelties justify the indignation they have called forth;
but he adds that the number of victims, who at one
time was said to be 60,000, and afterwards 3),000, is
"fortunately shown to be vastly exaggerated."

Mr, Baring begins by describing the origin of the
outbreak, and then glances at the means taken for its
suppreszion. An active part was taken by two classes
of men, schoolmasters and priests :

"The schoolmasters are men who have many of them been
educated in Russia. They have returned to their homes
with a smattering of education and a mass of ideas respecting
Panslavisna in their heads. On the 19th (3!st) of March a
meeting of 80 agitators took place at Otleulteui, and the date
of the general rising which the Bucharest Committee had
axed for the 18th of April (Ist of Ma 3), was postponed till
after the Ist (13th) of May. The plan of action decided on
was shortly as fallow

"To destroy as much of the railway as possible, including
the bridge at Gamma Keupni ; to burn the rolling stock at
Sarembey ; to set fire to Adrianople in a hundred and to
Philippopclis in sixty places, and also to burn SOfl3, Tatar-
Baztrdilk, Tchtiman, Isladi, and a number of villages ; to
attack the Turkish and mixed villages, and to kill all Mussul-
mans who resisted and take their property ; to occupy certain
Important points, such as Avrat-Alan, Kalofer, Tchonkourlon,
Bazsrejik to be attacked with 3,000 men, and the
Government stores seized. The rising to be general and
simultaneous. Such Bulgarians as refuted to join the insur-
rection to be forced into it, and their villages burnt."

After describing the military means taken to put
down the revolt, the Report says :

"No sooner did the regular troops appear on the scene
than the insurrection was at an end, and much bloodshed
and useless destruction of property would have been spared,
had they only been despatched somewhat earlier."
After stating that the insurrection WM suppressed,
Mr. Baring proceeds to show how that was done. He
first enumerates the charges published in England—
that cartioals of heads had been paraded about the
streets of different towns; that women and children
had been publicly sold in the streets of Phiiippopolis
and Tatar Bazardjik ; that borrthle tortures bad been
practised on the prisoners; that forty young girls had
been ravished and burnt alive in a barn; that at least
25,000 perfectly innocent persons had been massacred;
and that a large number of villages, differently stated
as being between 60 and 100, had been burnt. He then
adds
"It is utterly untrue that cartloads of heads were ever
paraded in the streets of any town; but I think I can trace
the origin of the story, which was telegraphed to England
from Sirvia. During the insurrection about 150 insurgents
crossed over from Roumania in the Radetz4y, and were en-
countered and defeatelljt_T2:o,l•llaz mks to the north of
W-I;*j.v.SoceßfVe 11;;;I;in"Zor"Bouteirattas uerors
took them to the konak, where the Pasha told them that he
wanted not dead men's heads, but live prisoners, fro= whom
he could obtain evidence.

"It Is not true that woman or children have been pub-
licly sold in tr e streets under the very eyes of the authori-
ties at PAlippopolis or Tatar Bazardjsk. D Iring the terrific
confusion that followed the insurrection there is no doubt
that many children were lost; some of these have been taken
into the houses of charitable persons, and others have now
been recovered by their parents. Some may be in the houses
of Massulmans, but I have not heard one single properly
authenticated case of sale. In fact respectable Bulgarians
themselves at Philippopolis and elsewhere have told me that
these stories of males are only fabrications.
As regards young women, a certain number have no
doubt been carried off from different villages by the Bashi-
Bazouks, who keep them in their harems; e. g., after the
assfal massacre of Batak about 10 young women and girls
were taken to the Mussulman villages of Nevrokop, Inioliza,
Alanjevo, Kara Boulak, Youl-Alahalle, Rekitvo, Dorkovo,
Banta, Corsova, BAblak, Kozak, and Fotentzl, where they
still are.

" One man of Batak who knew his wife was in the house of
a Turk named Allhko of Bania, applied to the authorities at
Teter Bizardjik, and a zaptieh was sent to look after her; as
flowever, he came back saying he could not find her, the an
was told that if he wanted his wife he must get her himself.
"Of course, what occurred at Batak may also have on
cursed elsewhere, though I only heard myself one more case
—vlz., of a woman of Prasadum Dervent, who said her
daughter was in the house of a Turk belonging to a neigh -
bouring village."

As to the tortures said to have been inflicted on
prisoners, Mr. Baring reports that the evidence is very
conflicting. He himself daring his journey saw two
men who declared to him that they had been tortured.
He says :

"One of these, a native of Philippopolis, was arrested and
imprisoned for seventreight days, nineteen of which he
passed in what is known as the Pulizza.' a dark damp little
dungeon. in which there is only jest room for a man to lie
down. Ile said he was taken out at night and asked by two
zaptiehs about one Z 3COW and other notables of the town,
and also whether he had taken arms to Peroustitza. On his
declaring that he had no information to give an iron ring
was fastened round his neck which was attached to a chain
pasted through another ring in the ceiling, and he was
then gradually drawn up till his toes only just touched
the ground, and kept in that position till he fainted.
He was never examined before the court, and at the end of
seventy.eight days was released. This is the man's story as I
heard it from his own lips, but of course I have no means
of proving its correctness or incorrectness ; only it appears
somewhat strange to use that this man should have been
tortured by two common zsptiehs without any superior
official being nresent to take down what might be extorted
from him. The other man I saw was a priest, who said that
having been arrested, he was sent to Bazardjtk, and on the
way was brutally beaten by the zaptiehs and Bashi Bazoults
who escorted aim, till, to save himself, he signed a paper
implicating certain persons Ile was then sent to Philip-
popolis, wnere he was confined for 35 days, during part of
which time he was chained to the bars of a window and
iron hooks placed in his mouth."

The mldical man attached to the prison at Philippopoli, Dr. Vlados, a Greek gentleman, with whom
Mr. Baring conversed on the subject, declared that he
utterly disbelieved these stories of tortuil

"At any rate, though the prisoners had not been behind
hand in complaining of other things, not one of them had
said he had been tortured ; he had free access to the prisons,
and if torture had been used it is more than probable that
some one would have made a complaiht to him. A priest
had complained of having been beaten on the road and
showed his bruises. Confinement in the 'PoiTzz 'he said,
though no doubt extremely disagreeable, could not be
regarded as actual torture."

Though Mr. Baring is unable positively to decide
whether prisoners were or were not tortured for the
purpose of extracting evidence, there is no doubt, he
says, that, while they were being conveyed to Philip-
popolis from the places where they were captured they
were in many cases most brutally ill-treated—
" Teta was especially the case with 400 men, who were
mi.rched heavily chained from Bszardjik to Philipopolis, and
who, on their entry into the latter place, were mercilessly
beaten by Math' escort, and pelted and insulted by the
Mursialman mob. Again, 80 prisoners were sent from Philip-
popolls to Bolla ; five of them died on the road. Immediately
after the suppression of the iiisurrection, when the feeling
against the Balgarlans was strongest, the zaptiehi even bees
She poisoners while escorting them from the prison to the place
ej trial. When the great mass of prisoners came in from
the surrounding country there is no doubt that the over-
crowding in the prisons at Philippopolls was terrific; 265
ante
men were confined for four days in a bath, in which there
was not the smallest 'tempt at drainage, the stench becornkg
rsooomfeabrufutlhathdattotshteayguinardthsecsoturledetnotoneeve
prisonert V i
in
the
died
of typhus fever, and, it being represented to the authorities
that a pestilence might break out in the town, they had the
prisoners removed to a khan.''

Mr. Baring has no doubt that at the commencement
the treatment of the prisoners was harsh in the ex-
treme. Mr. Baring next comes to the story of the
burning of the forty girls who are supposed to have
been refugees from Selo? Ytnikeui, a village in the
vilayet of Towns, the deed having been said to have
been committed in a barn near Kstofu-, a place
situated on the southern side of the Balkans, some
six hours from Yenikeui. Mr. Baring says
"The only parson who could tell me anything about this
story declared that the barn was within halt an hour's dis-
tance of Kalofer, but on engulfing at that place I found that
no one had even heard tell of it. Later on I was able to go to
Yenikeul itself, and there the villagers positively denied that
anything of the sort had taken place. On my return to
Philippopolls from Tatar Bazardjdc I heard that a Turk bad
been found who, its a ca'e, had boasted of having beu present
when this &Ent was cemmittcd. I made au unsuccessful
attempt to find this man, but on inquiry I discovered the
story of his existence rested on the assertion of a man named
Esla Petro, of Sopot, whom I know, by personal experience,
to be remarkable for his mendacity.
The qucation of the number of persons who perished
in the late outbreak is, Mr. Baring thinks, the one
that perhaps presents the gre..itest difficulty to any
one wishing to draw up a fair and impartial report of
what took place :
~Rdring, my journey I have heard the number of killed
diffetehtly estimated at anything between 200,000 and 1,830,
the latter being the Turkish chicial estimate, and the former
the calculation of a Bulgarian gentleman waona I happened
to meet."
The greatest loss of lile undoubtedly occurred at Batak,

and there are certainly not more than 1,500 people belonging
to that village left alive. Discover the number of inhabitants
pr. vions to the insurrection, and you can immediately ascer-
tain the number of killed. But here arises the difficulty •,
the population is reckoned at anything between the 1,441
tunes 'of Edib Effendi's Report and 9 000 The former
calculation is evidently far below the mark, as the official
returns give the number cf houses as 494, so that Edib
Effmdi's fl.,ures .vould give not quite three inhabitants to a
house, which calculation is obylou,ly erroneous.
"From Eilb Effendl's Report one would imagine that
there were 1,441 souls in Batak, whereas Moose are the very
figures given me by the Mutessarif of Philippopolis as the
return of males • noufouz ' pay the bedeli askerieh.'
On the other hand, those who accept the highest estimate of
9,000 place the number of houses at 900, which I think is
above the mark

"I am informed on good ant hority that too great reliance
cannot be placed on the cffic'.al `noutonz: as thepopulatiou
invariably understated in it the inhabitants' sending in
(Ilse returns in order to escape Taxation.

"Persons who knew Bulgarian villages well tell me that
one may fairly calculate ten inhabitants to a house, as
married sons usually live in their tither's houses. Adopt
this calculation ler Batak, put the number of houses at 650,
the figures given me by a people who knows the plams well,
and the result. will be 6 500 inhabitant& Of these 1,500 re-
main, 5,00) must therefore have perished in the massacre.
This calculation of ten persons to a house may not be correct
In all villages. At Peronstitz t the average is not qaite six,
but at Batak the houses are said to have been crowded, and
therefore have lees hesitation in appl3ing these figures to
that village than to any other.
"I have given my calculation, and have stated the means
by which I have arrived at it Some may obj 3ct that it is
mere guesswork. In a conntry where reliable sta4istics are
unprocurable, one can but guess at the amount of the popu-
lation. All an inquirer can do is to get the best informa-
tion he can from the most impartial sources and draw his
own concluiion& Should the Turkish authorities be able to
prove my estimate to be incorrect, I will willingly acknow-
ledge my error.
"Again, take Peronstitza, a v:llage of 850 houses and of
about 2000, inhabitants, the Turkish official returns place the
number of killed at 30A0, while the Bulgarians say 1,000
people perished. The truth, of course, Iles between thesetiso
estimates ; but from all I could discover I should say that
the Bulgarians were in ttis instance nearer the truth than
the Turks. During the ilshting that occurred there 450
people escaped to Yustina, and afterwards about 500 men,
women, and children were taken to Philippopolls. It is
difficult to imagine that the Si hole of the remaining population
could have been killed; so that I think the loss of life should
not be stated at above 750.

'The only place in this Province I visited where the in-
habitants had made out anything like a detailed Lis; of killed
was at Otlon-kenii where a regular statement, made by the
Bulgarians themselves, was shown to me of the losses of the
different quarters the result being as follows: Men, 262;
women, 284; children, 217—total, 763.*

"At the time of the outbreak of the insurrection a large
number of people from the surrounding villages flocked to
o.Jou-keul, and when Haft Pasha arrived, according to the
Bulgarian estimate, there were 12,000 strangers present. A
considerable number of these were no doubt killed ; my
Informant said 1,000 or 1,200, but they did not pretend to be
able to anawer for the accuracy of their estimate.

"In the Casa of Phillppopolis 18 villages were partially or
totally destroyed, but I have only been able to obtain reliable
statistics of persons killed from eight of these."

The total given by Mr. Baring amounts to 1,162
He adds that in the CAza of Tatar Baz wdjik 33
Christian villages were destroyed, but that he can only
offer statistics of the loss of life in eight of them. The
total number of killed in these eight was about 5,983.
To these, he says, must be added 130 persons killed at
Avrat•Alan, and six men belonging to Peshtera, one
of whom was murdered near his own village, and five
who perished at Batak, to which place they had gone
on business—thus raising the total to 6,110.

Although he puts the loss of life at 7,145, it cannot,
be says be inferred from this that the total number of
Bulgarians killed in the sandjsk of Philippopolis is re-
presented by these figures.
" Where the Bashi-Bazouks went at the early part of the
insurrection they killed any villagers they laid hands on,
and th nigh the msj it ity of the inhabitants of many villages,
either at the instigation of the revolutionists or from fear of
the Bashi•Bs z-mks, left their homes and took to the moun-
tains, some being either unable or unwilling to fly, remained
b4hind and were ruthlessly butchered."

Taking all these circumstancas into consideration, Mr'
Baring thinks that he cannot be accusel of exaggera-
tion, nor of wishing to paint things blacker than they
really are, in maintaining that about 12,000 persons
perished in the sandjak of Philippopolis.
Coming to the number of Mu3sulmans killed, he
says that it is not much easier to discover than it is to
give a correct estimate of Christian lives bat, but he
thinks that the total number was 163.

Mr. Baring next cornea to the number of villages
burnt. In the sandjak of Philippopolis, both Mussul-
man and Christian, it was 53. Four monasteries were
also burnt aril pillaged. Smile of the monks were
killed or are missing. Respecting the village of
Prasadum DervEnt, he says :

"There cannot be the smallest doubt that the inhabitants
of this village did revolt, otherwise why did they erect for-
tifications, which, though they are far from formidable, are
conclusive evidence that resistance against an enemy was in-
tended. The inhabitants themselves do not deny offering
come slight resistance to Tossoun Bey's men, though, as I
have said before, I totally disclaim the story of the Bashi-
Bsz)uks having summoned the villagers to surrender. The
burning and pillaging, however, were acts of wanton
destruction and cruelty, as not only were 250 people killed,
but the whole population is now condemned to misery and
starvation during the approlching winter. Ths people are
now huddled together in tents sent from /twat Alan, but
as far as I could judge only one house was being rebuilt
When the Bashi-Bazoaks entered a woman had just been
confined ; they went Into the house where she lay helpless,
and murdered both her and the newly-born infant. Detvant
produced yearly 7,00 Turkish pounds' worth of attar of
roses. The revenue on this sum Is now, of course, lost to
Government."

Mr. Baring here notes that he believes Tossoun
Bey has received a decoration, but he adds :

"It is not trite, as is stated in some quarters, that he has
been made Mudir of Carlovo. This latter official I saw my-
self, and he is by no means ill-spoken of by the Inhabitants;
in fact, to him and tn. th. Mutevelli of the Mosque the
,ariovo owe their late4y.

Referring to Peroustitza, containing 350 house, Mr.
Baring thinks that the beet thing he can do is to tran-
scribe the evidence of an Arrneni'm woman and her
daughter, which was given before him at Philippopolis—
but our limited space precludes us from giving this.
The next part of the report deals with the case of
Batak—" the most fearful tragedy that happened
during the whole insurrection."

"The Medjilse of Tatar Bazarjik, hearing that prepare
tions for revoit were going on in this village, ordered
Achmet Agha of Dospat to attack it, and this individual,
having joined his forces with those of .Mohammed Agha
at Dorkova, proceeded to carry out these orders. On arriv-
ing at the village he summoned the inhabitants to give
up their arms, which, as they mistrusted him, they refused
to do, and a desultory fight succeeded, which lasted two
days, hardly any less being inflicted on either side.
On the 9:h of May the inhabitants, seeing that things
were going badly with them, and that no aid
came from without, had a parley with Achmet, who
solemnly swore that if they only gave up their
arms not a hair of their headralshould he touched. A
certain number of the inhabitants, luckily for them, took
advantage of this parley to snake their escape. The
villagers believed Achmet's oath and surrendered their arms,
but this demand was followed by one for all the money in the
village, which, of course, bad also to be acceded to. No
sooner was the money given up than the Bashaßazouks set
upon the people and slaughtered them like sheep. A large
number of people, probably about 1,000 or 1,200, took refuge
In the church and churchyard, the latter being surrounded
by a wall. Tee church itself is a solid building, and re-
sisted all the atterapts of the Bashi-Bazouks to burn it
from the outside; they consequently fired in through the
windows, and, getting upon the roof, tore off the tiles
and threw burning pieces of wood and rags dipped in
petroleum among the mass of unhappy human beings
inside. At last the door Wit 3 forced to, the massacre
completed, and the inside of the church burnt.
Hardly any escaped out of there fatal walls. The only
survivor I could find was one old woman who alone remained
out of a family of seven. When the door was broken in and
she was expecting immmediate death, a Turk took her by the
hand, and saying, 'Come, old woman, I am not going to hurt
you,' led her away ana saved her life. The spectacle which
the church and churchyard present must be seen to be tie-
scribed; hardly a corpse has been burled; where a man fell
there he now lies, and it is with difficulty that one picks one's
way to the door of the church, the entrance of which is
barred by a ghastly corpse stretched across the threshold. I
visited this valley of the shadow of death on the list of July,
more than two months and A half after the massacre, but
still the stench was so overpowering that one could hardly
force one's way into the churchyard', In the streets
at every step lay human remains, rotting rand sweltering in
the summer sun—here a skull of an old woman, with the
gray hair still attached to it; there the false tress of some
unhappy girl, slashed in half by a yataghan, the head which
it adorned having been probably carried off to be devoured
by some of the dogs, who up to this have been the only
scavengerr. Just outside the village I counted more than CO
skulls in a little hollow, and it was evident from their ap-
pearance that nearly all of them had been severed from the
bodies by axes and yataghans. From the remains of Lma,e
wearing apparel scattered about, it is plain that many of the
persons here massacred were women. It is to be feared, also,
that some of the richer villagers were subjected to cruel tor-
tures before being put to death, in hopes that they would re-
veal the existence of hidden treasure, Thus Pe're daph) I-
los need Pope Necio were roasted, and S toy au Stoychoff had his
ears, nose, hands, and feet cut off Enough, I thick, has
been said to show that to Achmet Agha and his men belongs
the &Alec:Jon of having committed, perhaps, the moat
heinous crime that has stained the history of the present
century, Nana Sahib alone, I should say, having rivalled their
deeds. As regards the numbers of killed, I have before
stated that about 5,000 is my estimate. I am aware that
others place it higher, but be this as it may ; whether the
slain are to counted by hundreds or by thousands ao.i not
lessen in the least degree the criminality of the slayers.
The intention was to exterminate all except th.se few girls
(probably about eight)) whom they carried off to satisfy
their lusts. Those that escaped owed their safety to their
own good fortune, and not to the tender mercies of their
neighbours." •
Mr. Baring adds the all-important fact that "for
this exploit Achmet Agha has received the order of
the Medjidie." Mr. Baring is, however, willing to a
certain extent to believe that the Turkish authorities
were not aware, before he visited Batak, of the horrors
that had been committed there :

"The plase lies in the mountains, eight hours from
Bezarji, is somewhat difizult of access, and till I went there
no one had gone who as likely to give the authorities a
faithful account of what he saw. Had they really kncrwia
that the place was a mass of putrefying corpses, would they
not have taken some nnemures to clear them away before I
reached the scene? A Tua who accompanied me from
Bazarjtk, and who on the way had been loud in his denuncia-
tion of the rebels, changed his tone completely when he
really saw what his countrymen had done, and was not less
horror-stricken than I ww."
_ _ _

Mr. Baring pronounces Edib Effendi' s Report as
regards BAtak to be not worth criticism, lie is in-
formed that Edib Effendi never went there.
"Batak was a fimrishing village, and carried on an active
trade in planks. The saw mills have all been burnt, and
30,000 okes of iron carried off or destroyed. The loss in cattle
is also great-1,000 yoke of our., 2,000 °ow', SA-00 sheep and
goats, and 800 horses have been stolen. Ile surviving
inhabitants live in wooden huts constructed outside the
vinage—(about 250 people were living in the village when I
went. About 1,000 were said to be at Ptshters and else-
where. A considerable number, principally women, took
advantage of my visit to return to their vitiage)—and are in
great misery: they are stunned by this clinger, and do not
even try to bury their dead. Some of the women I saw sitting
on the ruins of their houses singing the most melancholy
sort of dirge; others wandered a,)uut the churchyard among
the corpses; while a few that seemed more i hap half bereft
of reason rushed about tearing their hair, boating their brows,
and uttering piercing shrieks."

. - -
The mots of this tragedy," adds Mr. Baring, "are
now in the possession of the Turkish Government, and
it is their bounden duty, by making a striking example
of Aehmet Agha and Mohammed Agha, to prove to
the world that it thoroughly c:iytpproves of their
infamous conduer."—On Mr. Baring's way to Ratak
he passed through the burnt villtge of Radilovo, con.
sisting of 177 homes. Here 25 men and women had
been killed, and 150 yoke of oxen, 20 horses, and 3,000
sheep carried off. Thromfh the intervention of the
authorities the villagers had recovered 30 yoke of oxen
and 350 sheep. Some of their cattle they knew te be
at Tchanandji, but on going to claim it the Turks
drove them off with pistol shots. Mr. Baring also gives
Particulars concerning a uuwbsg of other villages

which were either wholly or partially burned. As to
one of these he reports
' Otloukeui, in Bulgarian Pensgurishti—a large and
wealthy village of 2,ooolhouses—may be looked upan as the
centre of the insurrection. It was here that Benkowsky
hell meetings of insurgents, at which their plan of action
was drawn up Altogether, the inhabitants tell me, he
stayed in the town nearly four mouths, telling everyone
that the Turks were going to massacre the Christians, and
promising Russian aid. When the rising really did take
place, the people killed the Multezim, a ziptien, and some
other Turks, and imprisoned the Mudir's Vekil and others,
who, however, were not armed. The newly. appcinted Mudir
was to occupy his post at the time, and was murdered
outside the village. Two Turkish women were also killed.
ontehle,..thongh apparently one of there only met. her fate
after she had slashed an insurgent across the head with a
knife. While at Otloukeui I conversed with many of the
villagers, and none of them dente* that the Madir was Mur-
dered outside; but some persons who wish to be more Bul-
garian than the Bulgasrians, and whose only object it is to
make the Turks appear as odious as possible in the eyes of
the world, so as to lead to the speedy dismemberment of
their Empire, do not hesitate by a most unworthy piece et
special pleading to—acquit the people of Oiloukeut of this
murder. They say the village had no Siudir, so how could he
be killed in the village? It was true he was killed not inside
but outside, which, as far as he was concerned, makes no
material difference. The insurgents erected fortifications,
which are erected with greater care than any others I saw in the
country, and prepared for resistance. When, however,
II sfiz Pasha and Adil Pasha arrived with troops and irregn-
lars, the resistance they met with was very slight, and they
entered the town and made it pay dearly for its attempts at
revolution. Bath the churches, two schools, the whole of the
market-place, and the beet houses, in all between 400 and
800, were burnt, and the whole town pillaged from one end
to the other. Nothing of the smallest value was left, and
between 30,000 to 0,003 Turkish pounds' worth of prcperty
are said to have been carried off. Unfortunately, the Turks
did not confine themselves to pillage ; over 70.0 people be-
loeting to the village, among whom were many women and
children, were killed, and a large number of strangers also
perished. The number of these latter was stated to use by
the inhabitants to have been about 1,000. Great
numuers of women were also no doubt ravished,
bat considering the natural unwillingness that, of
course, exists among respectable people to give
evidence respecting this class of crime, it is not very easy to
obtain reliable information on the subject. One woman
however, did come forward, and declared that her daughter,
14 years years car age, had been vielated, and then murdered
in her presence. Two little children were brought to me
wounded, one in the foot and one in the thigh. A child is
said to have been impaled on a standard, and paraded in the
streets. Other fearful horrors are spoken of as having been
committed, but I am not in a position to prove or disprove
them, and would, therefore, prefer to draw a veil over them.
I have, however, stated sufficient to prove that Ifefiz Pasha
suppressed the insurrection in this place with a severity not in
the least called for. As a centre of what, no doubt, might
have turned out eventually to lose,a serious rising, an example
was called for, but an example sufficient to strike terror iuto
the population might have been iutlicted without ravishing,
pillaging, slaughtering women and children, and indulging
in cruelties worthy of fed Indians."

z also ,

The repJrt next refers to the well-known story of
Raika Popova, schoolmistress of 0 tioukeui, and sur-
named the " .leen of the B Agar! ins"—
" One day, at the beginning of the insurrection, this
very young woman was taken by her fellow-townspeople,
moulted on a horse, and paraded about the streets, while
the crowd shouted 'Long live the Qieen ! ' The whole
affeir appears to have been really nothing but a drnnken
frolic, )et the g'rl was imprisoned for some time at Philip-
popolis, and only released daring my stay there. She is
said to have lo,:en violated by the Iludir of Otionkeui, in
whose house she was at first confined, and 'also by other
Turks; but though her female companions declare such to
have been her fate, the girl herself stoutly denies it, and
has even expressed her willingness to submit to medical
examination. Perhaps natural modesty may cause her to
shrink from speaking the truth, but I do not quits see how,
In the face of her own positive denial, the Turkish Govern-
ment can be called upon, as some seem to think they ought
to be, to disprove her statement."
Our space preludes us from giving more of Mr.
Baring's Report, which, in cmclusion, is thus summed
up :
" There was undoubtedly a revolution which had to be
suppressed by armed force.
"A small minority of the population committed repre-
hensible acts which merited punishment.
"The Government of Mahmoud Pasha is to blame for
the calling out of the Bashi-Bazouks, for had it sent troops
earlier this disastrous measure would never have been
necessary,
"It is also to blame for allowing revolutionary agents to
circulate under its very eyes, without taking measures to
counteract the spread of their pernicious doctrines.
"The manner in which the riling was suppressed was
inhuman in the last degree, 60 innocent persons suffering for
every guilty one. '

"The deeds of blood I have spoken of, and the misery I
have witnessed, must rouse just indignation in every mind ;
but the infamous conduct of those agitators who, to serve the
selfish ends of States whose only object is territorial aggran-
dizement, have not shrunk from exciting poor, ignorant
peasants to revol', thus desolating thousands of homes, and
leaving to a line, rich Province, a legacy of tears, should
not be allowed to esonoe without their share of public
execration."

The following is an extract from a leader in The
Times on Mr. Baring's Report :

-
Mr. Baring's report establishes the broad and damning
facts that a ferocious llassulman colliery, in revenge for a
feeble and aboritive insurrection, were let loose on the
inhabitants of a large Province; that whole villages and towns
were ruthlessly burnt; that the population were barbarously
massacred, men, women, and children included; and that
during this storm of savage fury crimes of all descriptions and
outrages unmentionable were perp.,trated on the inhabitants.
Mr. Bering estimates that about 12,000 persons
perished in the Sandi tie of Philippopolis alone; and he pre-
sents this as a moderate estimate. Ills the general pictures
thus described which is so horrilale, and which constitutes
the fatal condemnation of the Government under which it
could erist. Mr. Baring commences by detaiiirg what is
known of the origin of the scecalled insurrection itself. A
Committee at Bucharest had, it seemed, for some years been
endeavouting to propagate the Panslavic agitation in Bul-
garia, but did not meet with much success. The Bulgarians,
Mr. Boring says, are an unwarlike, industrious, and quiet
race; and until the rising in Herzegovina there was
nothing in their conduct to cause the Turks any
uneasiness. But since then Mr. Baricg believes that
regular plan of rising had been prepared, and that it
was intended to burn sotto 'Tartish tow.. givi attack the
DuriLten popUtattuu. law nunirgents ereoted rortincations,
they killed a certain number of Turks, whom, in the stuidjair
of Philippopolie, Mr. Baring eitimetes at 200 in all; and he
asserts, in contradiction to Ilatr4letiuyler's Report, that he
bad himself seen the ruins • or-Moicines 'which had been
destroyed. The Turkish Government, however, neglected
' the progress of this rising until the last moment,
and then, in M. B ,ring's opinion, a panic set in
among the Mussulman population, who were in a
minority. Even then, according to statements made by the
Turks themselves at the time, four battalions of regular
troops would have sufficed to put the Insurrection down,
and Mr. Baring considers that even 1,000 troops would
have been sufficient. But Mahmoud Pasha, then in power in
Constantinople, refused to recognize the danger. Regular
troops were wanted for other purpoees ; and at length the
authorities armed the Mussulman population, and placed the
irregular troops at the disposal of the local authorities.
From that moment the Bulgarians wore delivered over, like
a flock of sheep, to bloodshed, fire, lust, and rapine,
sometimes, as at Batsk, aggravated by the grossest
treachery. A few, but a very few, Turkish officials
exerted some slight restraint on their savage auxiliaries ; and
It is the darkest count in the indictment against the Govern-
ment at Constantinople that up to the time of Mr. Baring's
Rsport those who permitted, if they did not order, the atro-
eides had been rewarded, while none of those who restrained
the troops had received any recognition of their conduct.
Ills quite certain that scpnes as dark as ever disgraced the
most backward civilization or the most degraded savagery
prevailed for days in a Province of the Turkish Empire
almost at the gates of Constantinople.
This fact being established, the condemnation of the Go-
vernment under which it occurred is irresistible. Mr. Baring
gives some reasons for believing that the authorities at
Constantinople were really not aware till quite lately of
some of the worst of the atrocities, as, for instance, at Batak ;
and it is very possible that such excuses may be valid in
the case of individuals. But they are wholly irrelevant to
the charge against the Government. That which Europe
cannot ignore is that the Turks were, at all events,
impotent to prevent such abominations, and that conse-
quently, under the present Administration, the Christian
populations of European and Asiatic Turkey have no
security against being made the victims of the most intoler-
able barbarities. From one point of view there is some-
thing even worse in the account Mr. Baring gives of the man-
ner in which the unhappy victims cf these atrocities are now
being treated by the Turkish authorities. Deliberate cruelty
and injustice are almost more inexcusable than an outbreak
of savage passions ; and Mr. Baring tells us that the
villagers who have been robbed of their oxen by
the Circassians and Bashi-Beamks are at this me-
ment subject to requisitions from the authorities,
and are beaten simply because they no longer possess
the cattle which have been stolen from them. Their very
clothes have sometimes been taken from them; they were
seen huddled in tents halt naked entside their villages, and
the Turkish Government, instead of adopting prompt
ntessures to relieve them, is adding to their misery. If this
be not deliberate wickedness it is such utter impotence
that some means must, with the least partible delay,
be adopted to insure the subjects of the Porte
against such treatment. Mr. Baring is no doubt
right when he says that what is needed is "a strong
hand and a master mind." The piotare he draws of bitter
hatred bet seen Mussulman and Chriatians offers but a poor
prospect for the immediate success of a mere scheme of
autonomy. A strong and just Government, for at least a
generation, would probably be needed to enable the
Provinces to recover in any degree from the miseries this Re-
port depicts; and the task, equally difficult and imperative,
of the E eropeaa Powers is to provide some such authority.

Mr. Schuyler's repart is Eet out in detail. It is very
brief when cumpared with Mr. Baring's, and is an un-
compromising condemnation of the conduct of the
Turks. Mr, Schuyler is "unable to find that the
Bulgirians committed any outras or atrocities, or
any acts that deserve that name,' nor can he obtain
tfrom the Turkish officials an) thing but vague state-
.. .
ments.