Grain is the chief article of export, Manchester goods and British coals the chief articles of import This being the case, it is strange that there should be no English merchants in the place. The trade between England and Bulgaria, which used to be the chief foreign trade in the Principality, is carried on from the ports of Rustschuk, Varna, and Bourgas. But in no one of these places is there an English firm of any consequence. The business is done through Greek and Jew houses. However, so long as the merchants of Rustschuk buy English goods and charter English vessels, I do not suppose it makes much difference to the English manufacturers and traders whether they deal with their own fellow-countrymen or with foreigners.

Rustschuk, I should say, from a social point of view, is better off than Sofia, though the place is about as dull as any civilized city well could be. Rustschuk, moreover, possesses the advantage over Sofia that the representatives of foreign Powers, who here, as at Sofia, form the chief social element, are not hampered by the presence of a Court, with which most of them are not allowed to enter into social relations.

Then, too, there are a certain number of well-to-do and well-educated merchants residing in the commercial capital of Bulgaria, while no such class exists in the political metropolis. The climate of Rustschuk is infinitely warmer than that of the high plateaus south of the Balkans ; and though there is no circle of lofty hills engirdling Rustschuk, yet their absence is atoned for by the presence of the Danube rolling at the feet of the cliff upon which the modern town is built Owing to its position, there is hardly a house in the new quarter from which you cannot command a view of the river ; and I am not surprised if foreigners, who have resided at Rustschuk, acquire an attachment to the place, which Sofia does not, I think, possess the power of inspiring.

Moreover, the river- port of Bulgaria has the charm of being within easy reach of Bucharest The condition of Bulgaria may be, as I hold, sounder, simpler, more virile, and fuller of future promise than that of Romania; still, however exalted a view you may take of the duties of life and of its mission, there is to ordinary, unregenerate human nature a certain satisfaction in being within easy access of Vanity Fair.

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