Excerpt from Travels and Politics in the Near East This book is the result of four visits to the Balkan Peninsula in the years 1894, 1896, 1897, and 1898, and of a long study of the Eastern question. While I can honestly say that I have acquainted myself with all the principal works which have appeared on the Near East during the last ten years, I have in all cases relied upon my own personal observations and inquiries, conducted upon the spot, for the statements made in the following pages. Most persons who have written upon south-eastern Europe have treated the subject in a partisan spirit, some championing the claims of one nationality, others espousing the cause of another. Not being an enthusiastic admirer of any one Balkan race to the exclusion of all others, I have endeavoured to discover what is most for the material progress and welfare of them all. The critics of The Balkans were kind enough to say that I had been impartial in narrating the history of the Peninsula; I trust that I may be found to have been equally so in describing its present condition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.