THE political events of the day have drawn so much of public attention to the regions which I have lately visited, that a sketch of their actual condition as I saw them in the autumn of last year, may not prove unacceptable at the present moment. I have not written in order to plead either this cause or that one. I am not a Philo-Turk, nor am I a Phil-Hellenic, or a Philo-Wallach, or a PhiloAlbanian, or a Philo-Bulgarian; but I believe that a great change is at hand in the southeastern peninsula of Europe, in which these rising nationalities have each its part to play. The old Ottoman empire-the Mussulman theocracy - is doomed, on this side of the Bosphorus at least. Whether its name and the shadow its power be still allowed to endure, or whether the "bag and baggage" policy be carried out to the bitter end, a new order of things is in process of· evolution. If my jottings by the way can help the reader to a clearer apprehension of the grave events which must sooner or later remodel the map of South-eastern Europe, my journey will not have been undertaken in vain.
Some of the notes embodied in the following pages have already appeared in 'Blackwood's Magazine,' in the 'Pall Mall Gazette, and in the 'Fortnightly Review' and I am indebted to Mr J. Morley for his kind permission to make use of the last.