the
British Government, telegraphed that "any renewal of the outrages
would be more fatal to the Turkish Government than the loss of a
battle." Bulgaria, which had been forgotten for centuries, became a
household word. All over the world swept a fierce popular demand
that the Turk be immediately driven out of Europe.

Here was Russia's opportunity. In the face of this world-wide
popular sentiment the policy of the European powers, especially of
Austria, that Russia should not be allowed to acquire more Turkish
territory, could not very well be enforced. The Austrian diplomat
who would object to Russia hurrying to the aid of the outraged
Bulgars, her own blood kindred, would have been mobbed in his own
country. The hearts of people were so moved that they forgot the
dark intrigues of diplomats.

So in the following spring Russia declared war against Turkey, and
Rumania taking this opportunity to declare her complete
independence, sent an army into the field to aid the Russians. The
Bulgars, unorganized and untrained as they were, also gave what aid
they could, especially in the storming of Shipka Pass, through
which the invaders burst out into the plains of Thrace and advanced
triumphantly on to the gates of Constantinople. Then the Turks cried
for terms, and the famous Treaty of San Stefano, drawn up in the
small town by that name just outside the Turkish capital, was the
result.

By this treaty there would have been created the "Greater Bulgaria,"
of which the Bulgarians have been dreaming of and fighting for ever
since. The Bulgaria of the San Stefano Treaty would have cut the
European territories of the sultan in two, and thus effectively
dismembered the Ottoman Empire. In addition to a coast line on the
Black Sea extending a little farther north, and considerably farther
south than Bulgaria now possesses, she would have had a frontage on
the Aegean Sea. Practically all of Macedonia, over to the lakes of
Ochrida and Prespa, and down to near Saloniki, would have been
included; the Vardar and the Struma would have been Bulgarian
streams from their sources to their mouths.

But by this time the great popular indignation against the Turks had
spent itself and the diplomatic machinery of the powers began
revolving again. England, who had protested against the Bulgarian
atrocities strongest, was the first to veto the plan that was to
give all the Bulgarians their independence of Turkey. To Lord
Beaconsfield, Disrael