less intensity in Austria, in Bosnia, and in Bulgaria; but it is in Servia that this ambition has excited the greatest attention and has achieved its greatest success. The principality of Servia may now be said to possess a recognised status in the European system. Its free institutions cannot but have a very important influence on the prospects of a race which may be destined perhaps yet to play a great part in the future history of mankind. The country which possesses many moral and political claims on our support is, politically, the youngest member of the European family. The resistance of the Servian people to their Turkish rulers commenced in 1804; but the practical independence of the country was not secured until 1826, when after a protracted and heroic struggle the whole of Servia was freed from Turkish government. But as a country containing little more than a million of inhabitants, and surrounded by powerful States, could not be expected to maintain the independence which it had achieved, it was the opinion of the great European Powers, to which Russia, perhaps somewhat reluctantly, assented, that in the interest of Servia itself its connexion with the Porte should be maintained, while its complete administrative independence should be guaranteed. Negotiations having been entered into accordingly with the Porte with that object, the result was an Imperial decree dated November, 1830. By that instrument the whole internal administration of Servia was confided to native authorities, subject only to the suzerainty of the Sultan, by whom it was stipulated that certain fortified places should still be garrisoned by Turkish troops. So little is generally known in England of the history, institutions, and peculiar political position of Servia, that we are induced to avail ourselves of the recent enquiries of some English travellers to bring before our readers a few of the prominent events in the career of this new State, together with the commercial prospects of a country which possesses many elements of future wealth. The principality of Servia is situate on the northern extremity of the great Alpine range which separates the Adriatic from the plains of Hungary. It is protected to the south by that portion of the almost insurmountable barrier of the Balkan Mountains which constituted the ancient Rhodope; while lateral ridges extending from the principal chain cover both its flanks. The Danube and the Save form its northern boundary; the Drina separates it from Bosnia; and the Morava, which runs through the Principality, almost divides it in two. The surface of the country is extremely hilly, but it possesses only one considerable valley, that of the Morava. The heights are almost uniformly covered with forests of gigantic oak, which not only constitute one surmount. one of its most important natural defences, but form one of its principal sources of wealth. Servia has a general inclination to the north, rising gradually towards the great Balkan chain, of which the Servian passes are extremely difficult to The numerous small valleys formed by the spurs of the mountains rarely expand into plains. As a military position, Servia is surpassed by few countries in Europe, and its success in resisting the Ottoman armies was in no small degree owing to that happy configuration of its surface, which is often so influential in shaping not merely the political destiny but the character of States. There are three distinct periods in Servian history,-that of the Old Feudal Monarchy, the Turkish conquest, and the formation of the modern Principality. The political state of the Servian Empire previously to its subjugation by the Turks resembled that of the other great feudal monarchies of Europe. The revenue of the Sovereign was derived chiefly from the demesnes of the Crown; and a numerous territorial nobility held their extensive estates by military service. Society, as other parts of Europe, was composed of ecclesiastics, nobles, knights, gentlemen, and villains, the last held in the same predial bondage which prevailed wherever the feudal system was completely established. There was no citizen or burgher class; and whatever trade the country possessed was monopolised by Byzantines, Ragusans, or Jews. Gold and silver mines were farmed and profitably worked by Venetians. Castles, afterwards converted into Turkish strongholds, were planted on every commanding eminence, and defended every mountain gorge. These remains of the middle ages can now nowhere be seen to such perfection as in Servia. They are almost in the state in which they were left by their builders, they have been carefully preserved, and are garrisoned, fortified, and held as strongholds to the present day. In other parts of Europe, "Where battlement and moated gate Of hoary Time to decorate,' these relics of the past have been either modernised or are in ruins; in Servia and in Bosnia they carry us back to the thirteenth century, and the lofty keep or battlemented tower still frowns in undecayed strength, and threatens the surrounding country. In 1389 an alliance was concluded between the Servians and the Hungarians with the object of making a determined effort to arrest the progress of the Turkish arms. The destiny of Servia was decided decided on the field of Kassova, where the allied Servian and Hungarian army was routed and cut to pieces, and Lazar, the last sovereign of Servia, was taken prisoner and put to death. The whole of Servia then fell under Turkish sway, with the exception of the city of Belgrade, which still maintained a Christian garrison and successfully resisted the Turkish arms until 1532. Servia did not experience the usual fate of conquered countries after the battle of Kassova; and, notwithstanding the treacherous assassination of the great Sultan Amurath by a Servian, the country was divided and conferred by his successor, Bajazet, upon the two sons of Lazar, who held it as a fief, and paid tribute and did homage for it to the Ottoman Government. If a Mahomedan Sovereign ever entertained the thought of extirpating his Christian subjects, an overpowering sense of self-interest must have deterred him from carrying such a project into effect. Their services were indispensable to him, and so far did one of the greatest of the Sultans carry his views of toleration in favour of a conquered race, that he declared that for every new mosque erected within his dominions he would build a Christian church. Certainly no overpowering sense of humiliation could at first have been felt by the great body of the Servian people as a consequence of their subjugation, for subsequently to the battle of Kassova we find a Servian army taking a prominent part year after year in the wars of Bajazet. The Servian nation was still possessed of great power, and in its relation to the Turkish Empire it was long treated as a trusted dependency. Much misapprehension exists as to the manner in which the Turkish conquests were effected. At the very time when the inhabitants of a large portion of Europe were thrown into agonies of terror by the progress of the Ottoman arms, the conquering legions consisted to no inconsiderable extent of Christian troops, organised according to their respective nationalities. They had their own officers, their own banners, and their own positions in the ranks of the invading hosts. The native forces of the Osmanli settled in Europe would have been altogether inadequate to have attempted those vast schemes of conquest which threatened in the sixteenth century to bring the whole of Christendom under Turkish dominion. It was a spirit of conquest, not of religious enthusiasm, which banded these long-invincible legions together; and the zeal even of the more impetuous disciples of Islamism was absorbed in the stronger passion of martial ambition. The Sultan does not even at the present day possess more loyal subjects than those Roman Catholic Albanians, known as the Mydrites, whose ancestors did not embrace Islamism in the fifteenth fifteenth and sixteenth centuries like the majority of the Bosnian and Albanian noblesse. This Christian clan, as it may be termed, living amidst their mountains, has ever been faithful to their Sovereign, and on the first summons from Constantinople would joyfully bring into the field twenty thousand fighting men for any service that he might require. They received from the great Amurath a firman exempting them from tribute, and conferring on them the proud distinction of carrying the royal standard in war. Equal confidence was reposed in the population of other conquered provinces which the Sultan found the means of conciliating and attaching to his Government. A disaffected soldiery would never have been incorporated with legions encouraged to aspire to the conquest of Europe. In one respect, indeed, the Turkish conquest operated unquestionably to the advantage of Servia. The Spahis or Turkish soldiers who supplanted the ancient nobility were not like the feudal lords of Christendom. None of the oppressive privileges of feudalism attached to their newly-acquired estates. No grants of territories equivalent to petty kingdoms were made, but a fixed sum was charged upon the lands assigned for their support, subject to the payment of which the peasantry were entitled to cultivate the soil for themselves. It has ever been a principle in the Ottoman jurisprudence that all the land of the empire belongs to the Sovereign, the Vicegerent of the Deity upon earth. In a material point of view, therefore, the Turkish conquest was beneficial to the mass of the Christian population. It raised them from the condition of serfs to one of peasant proprietors. Forced labour was certainly sometimes exacted under heavy penalties, and we read of peasants and even artisans having been transported from Belgrade and its neighbourhood to reap the Sultan's harvests in the plains of Adrianople; but these oppressions ceased before the close of the eighteenth century. The position of the Turkish Spahis or soldiers who were settled as feudatories may have resembled that of the Zemindars in some parts of India; while the condition of the peasantry was probably very superior to that of the Ryots, the land-tax being more moderate, and its exaction less severe. The poll-tax, although small in amount, was considered as a redemption from the penalty of death incurred under rigid Mahomedan law by unbelief. The improvement in the material condition of the people was undoubtedly accompanied by much social oppression. Christians were not permitted to enter a town on horseback, and were bound to render personal service to any Turk who demanded it. If a Christian met a Turk on the road, it was his duty to stop until he had passed. He was prohibited from carrying arms. He was The was expected to bear indignities without a murmur. Turkish population, however, congregated in the cities; the Christians were dispersed over the country, or settled in villages, and many are said to have died at an advanced age without ever having seen a town. The Christian population of Servia long dwelt in peace; and if they felt their social inferiority it was mitigated by the lightness of taxation and by mild and equitable laws. The central authority resolutely set its face against all religious persecution, and often called its officers to a severe account for their disobedience. The Servians were eventually driven to insurrection, not by the severity of the laws, or by the hostile feeling of the Sultan to any portion of his Christian subjects, but by the despotism of provincial Pashas disregarding the intentions of the Government, and often disobeying its positive commands. In proportion as the central power at Constantinople became relaxed, oppression in the provinces grew strong; and the evil increased from year to year with the increasing feebleness of the Divan. The Pashas of the distant provinces yielded to their Sovereign only a very imperfect obedience. The Spahis, or Turkish feudatories, not only displayed the most overbearing pride, but systematically plundered the people, and replenished their harems by forcible abductions of the wives and daughters of the peasantry. These wrongs became at length so intolerable that nothing was talked of in Servia but revenge. The forests and mountain-defiles were filled with armed men. The profession of a bandit came to be considered as the most honourable. To waylay, pillage, and kill the plunderers of their country and the defilers of their homes were the most praiseworthy acts which Servians could achieve. Crimes were transmuted into virtues, and a vast organisation having assassination for its object was justified by patriotism if not sanctified by the Church. Servia was in the hands of an association of 'Heyducs;' and when a Russian nobleman requested a celebrated Servian chieftain not to call himself a robber, he replied, I should be sorry, indeed, if there were in the world a greater robber than myself." The general insurrection of the Servian people commenced in 1804, and it is remarkable that the movement at first was avowedly directed not against the authority of the Sultan, but against his mutinous officers; and it was not until towards the close of the insurrection that the views of the patriots, emboldened by success, underwent a change, and they aspired to rid the country entirely of the Turkish yoke. The Government then naturally took measures for the support of its authority. The Servians, notwithstanding the masses of troops brought against them from the |