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where a doctor would not be likely to settle, and they are obliged to attend the poor gratis. Their pay is extremely small.

The country is well supplied with telegraph wires, and there is a regular post, which, however, is far from being as perfect as those organised in the Western nations.

The judicial system of the Servians is well worth the study of those learned in the law. There is an excellent popular account of it to be found in 'Les Serbes de Turquie,' by A. Ubicini. He says, speaking of Legislation penale: Les 'peines edicteés par le nouveau code penal (1860) ne gardene 'aucune de la rigueur parfois excessive des anciennes lois 'Serbes.'

Corporal punishment was abolished in 1873. Civil degradation is a sentence regulated as to time; and if a malefactor has abused his position in any particular trade, he may be condemned to refrain from that trade in future. At Belgrade there is a Court of Cassation, composed of a president, vicepresident, and fifteen judges; also a Court of Appeal, divided into two parts, one for civil cases and one for criminal. There are throughout the country eighteen county courts. The chiefs of the communes can only decide on cases up to forty shillings.

The Servians who freed themselves and have founded the present Principality were wholly uneducated, and most of their chiefs might, with Douglas, have said,

Thanks to St. Bothan, son of mine

Save Gawain ne'er could pen a line;'

but the want of education was keenly felt by the nation, and steps were taken to establish a system of national instruction. There are now more than 331 public educational establishments, in which are 460 masters instructing more than 16,000 pupils. These establishments may be divided into 318 primary schools, 10 secondary schools, and 3 universities. All this work has been done in the face of the most formidable difficulties, since the language of Servia is not spoken by any other civilised community, so that professors and schoolmasters were found with difficulty.

Servia is essentially a territorial democracy, a nation of

peasant proprietors, whose chief wealth lies in vast hordes of swine, fed largely on the acorns of her primeval forests. With us the word democracy is too often associated with visions of an unwashed turbulent multitude called the mob, the most depraved of our population clamouring for political changes. But there is yet another view of democracy. Supposing all men to be pretty nearly equal in social condition, how then could we obtain an aristocracy or privileged order to rule the rest? and if not obtainable, a democracy would be inevitable, but with this important difference as compared with our own here the democracy cries loudly for change, and urges on its rulers; there the democracy is intensely conservative, and is with difficulty urged onwards by its chosen rulers. In Servia, then, you have no aristocracy and no mob, and the people get on very well without either. There is not a single large proprietor throughout the country: the peasants have divided the land amongst themselves.

There

Servia, having achieved a practical independence, is naturally looked up to for aid and guidance by the oppressed populations around her still groaning under that organised system of brigandage called the Turkish Government. No insurrection occurs in Bosnia, Herzegovina, or Bulgaria without a thrill of sympathy being felt throughout the country. is just as much difference in race, language, and religion between Servia and Bosnia as between Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, and no more. The two counties are divided by the river Humber; the two countries by the river Drina; so that when the rayahs of Bosnia and Herzegovina are driven to insurrection, they naturally look for aid from their free brethren. On these occasions diplomacy is stern and pressing. The Austrian Government enjoins strict neutrality; for Austria, beyond all other countries, is anxious for peace to consolidate her heterogeneous empire; the Russian ConsulGeneral speaks with much authority, as Russia is the avowed patron of all the Slavonian races, and her advice may or may not be for peace. She works in dark and tortuous fashion, but always with supreme indifference to the sufferings or welfare of other countries. France hitherto has leaned towards a generous recognition of struggling nationalities; but now she seems to watch the policy of Germany and to

endeavour to thwart it; while England always has supported Turkey, per fas et nefas, shutting her ears to every cry of distress. So far Servia has been kept neutral, as far as any overt act of the Government is concerned; but insurrections in the neighbouring provinces have always been materially aided by private enterprise from this free province, and the Government has not dared too sternly to guard the frontiers.

During the Herzegovinian insurrection Servia has been held down, as it were, by main force by Austria and the Powers, for an avowed rising in Servia in aid of the rebels would inevitably change a local rebellion into a European war. Austria has been in a most painful position.

If she were to show a decided sympathy with the struggling Slavonians she might eventually emerge from a war with two or three million more Slavonians on her hands in addition to her own-not easily governed Croatians; and the Slavonian element in her empire would then be strong enough to overpower their natural enemies, the Hungarians, to deteriorate the policy of the Government by importing into it a less civilized elements, and to create new dangers of incalculable magnitude. Of late years a small but determined and energetic party has made itself heard on the Danube and filled with dismay the older and more sober statesmen. The Omladina, or Radical Republicans, aim at not nothing less than founding a large Slavonian Republic on the ruins of the Austrian and Turkish empires. With regard to the latter the philanthropist can but wish them success. Each form of Government is denounced by the partisans of the other, but all must agree that anything is better than the dismal despotism of the Turkish Empire.

If, on the other hand, Austria were to aid the Turks too openly in suppressing the Herzegovinian rebellion she would alienate and exasperate her large Slavonian population, which at critical times, notably during the Hungarian rising of 1848, has afforded her timely aid.

Although Servia is now quiet, and has officially refused all aid to the rebels, it is by no means certain that this policy will continue during the summer of 1876, if the rising is not quelled. The enthusiasm of the people for their oppressed brethren has been at boiling point, but their military preparations have not been equal to their enthusiasm. During the

regency, while Milan was a boy, the military stores were not properly looked after, and there are more than rumours of peculation. No one knows better than the Prince the unpreparedness of his country; but under the plausible excuse of self defence those deficiences are being rapidly made up, and during the whole ensuing winter warlike preparations will continue. If the rebels can manage to exist during the coming winter months, Europe may yet see how great a fire a little spark may kindle, and Servia may yet become a household word in Europe.

ART. V.The Stock Exchange and Foreign Loans. Report from the Select Committee on Loans to Foreign States. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, July 29,

1875.

WARNING the public against the dangers of foreign loans is a case of locking the door when the steed is stolen. The mischief has been done; the money advanced upon no, or upon very bad, security, has been lost; the unscrupulous promoters have reaped their golden harvest; and the emi'nent financiers' who have fattened on the spoils laid by a

credulous public at their feet have grown to the height of

their

power. Was there any use, it may then be asked, for

the House of Commons to appoint a committee to examine into the subject of foreign loans, with special reference to the defaulting South American republics? The limits of the

inquiry

were tolerably well understood at the time, and the

Chancellor of the Exchequer, who assented to the proposal with evident reluctance, warned the public against exaggerated hopes of the results likely to be secured. No encouragement was given to the idea that the Government would sanction the employment of force to right the wrongs so eloquently expounded by Sir Henry James. In his speech proposing the appointment of a commission, the member for Taunton quoted some bellicose remarks of Lord Palmerston, that were favourable to the idea that English diplomacy might in certain circumstances enforce the contracts entered into with English subjects by foreign states. It was neces

sary that no illusion should be permitted to exist on this point, and, after consultation with the Foreign Office, the Chancellor of the Exchequer carefully guarded against the possibility of misconception. Events since have confirmed the wisdom of the warning. The readiness with which the cry for interference with Turkey, to compel her, vi et armis if necessary, to continue honest, has been raised and re-echoed, proves the proneness of the public to invoke national aid in any difficulty. The influential deputation that lately waited upon Lord Derby on the question of the Turkish default went away less than half satisfied, because the utmost that could be given was the assurance that the Government would do what it could to help the bondholders by unofficial representations. The arguments of the Foreign Secretary against direct diplomatic interference with Turkish finance were irrefragable. If it were understood that the English creditor of defaulting foreign states might rely upon English arms to enforce his contract, why need he take thought regarding the security on which he lends his money? He would have the advantage, when the credit of the borrowing state was not the best, of high interest, and would be sure, if anything went wrong, that English power would be employed to set him right. He would thus be put in a better position than the creditors of England herself, who must be satisfied with three per cent. When the foreign loans which the Commission inquired about were contracted, there was no understanding that, in case of default, the Government would go to the rescue of the creditors; for in that event the loans would have been obtained on easier terms. Where would be the justice of suddenly altering the conditions of the contract by intruding the force of British diplomacy upon the field? How could it be right to impose burdens on the nation to save people from the pecuniary loss which is the result of their own imprudence and greed of high interest? Would it be at all fair to make all classes of the community pay to help those people who, with their eyes open, risked their money because the profit they were promised was far above what usually attends a safe investment ?

Recent events have done much to enlighten the public mind on these points. The view to which Lord Derby gave ex

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