SERVIA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 759, 3 November 1876, Page 3

SERVIA.

Servia is about one-fifi.li smallertlmn Scotland, and sparsely inhabited by 1,352,000 inhabitants. Like Scotland, it is a land of mountains. On the south-west the mountains consist of offshoots of the Dinaric A lps, and elsewhere the branches of the Balkan chain. One of these, gathered into a knotty group in the centre of the country, forms the Riulrik Mountains, .Another, running northwards, meets a range of the Carpathians, and with it forms the “ Iron Gates” of the Danube. Nothing exceed the wildness and stern sublimity of this celebrated portal, through which the great river flows Generally speaking, Servia is traversed from north to south by extensive mountain ridges. These form valleys, which nowhere expand into plains. In its physical features the country is not un like Bosnia and the Herzegovina, but with its green and well-wooded hills it is in striking contrast to the bare and sterile region of Montenegro. As Montenegro was the nncunquered r'emnant of the old Servian Empire, therefore the little principality in the Black Mountain may, in that sense, be held ns its truest representative. Modern Servia, however,-on account alike of name, resources, and geographical position, claims continuity of national life with the Servia of the fourteenth century The motto of the princes of the presenthouse of Obrenovicch is “ Time and ray right.” Their arms represent a white cross on a red field, and on the cross are inscribed two dates, 1389—1815 ; between them lies a drawn sword. The first date commemorates the fatal fight of Kossova, when the Servians, overthrown by the Ottoman arms, became a sub jict people'; the -second marks the year when Milosch Obrenovitch went from his dwelling among the mountains of the interior to tire church of Takovo to raise anew the standard of revolt. f l he drawn sword between the dates may be taken to indicate that the attitude of the subject Serbs on the TDanube during four long centuries of Turkish rule was not one of servile submission, but of a. nourished antagonism. What gives importance to the revolt of 1815 is that it resulted in the permanent acknowledgement of Servia by the Porte as a self-governing though still tributary power, under native rulers. Servia, restored to the Serbs, brought back with it the hope at some future time of entire independence, and ot an extension of territory coextensive with the old Seman kingdom. Nor do the free and warlike inhabitants of the Black Mountain entertain any jealousy of the national aspirations of their brethren on the Danube. The two Serb Powers are in close alliance, and between the families of the respective princes there exists a cordial friendship.— Leisure Hour.