Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/300

 ''When the Organic Law is completed the election of the Prince of Bulgaria shall be proceeded with immediately. As soon as the Prince shall have been installed, the new organization shall be put into force, and the Principality shall enter into the full enjoyment of its autonomy.'' VIII. The Treaties of Commerce and of Navigation as Foreigners, well as all the Conventions and arrangements concluded between Foreign Powers and the Porte, and now in force, are maintained in the Principality of Bulgaria, and no change shall be made in them with regard to any Power without its previous consent. No transit duties shall be levied in Bulgaria on goods passing through that Principality.

The subjects and citizens and commerce of all the Powers shall be treated in the Principality on a footing of strict equality. The immunities and privileges of foreigners, as well as the rights of Consular jurisdiction and protection as established by the Capitulations and usages, shall remain in full force so long as they shall not have been modified with the consent of the parties concerned.

IX. The amount of the annual tribute which the Principality of Bulgaria shall pay to the Suzerain Court—such amount being paid into whatever bank the Porte may hereafter designate—shall be fixed by an agreement between the Powers Signatory of the present Treaty at the close of the first year of the working of the new organization. This tribute shall be calculated on the mean revenue of the territory of the Principality. As Bulgaria is to bear a portion of the public debt of the Empire, when the Powers fix the tribute they shall take into consideration what portion of that debt can, on the basis of a fair proportion, be assigned to the Principality.