REVIEW.

Evening Star, Issue 4264, 26 October 1876, Page 4

REVIEW.

The Slavonic Proninas South, eft's Daw'. A sketch of fneir history u, d ( m n. state in relation to t.-.c « uo!;;?n pf.it.> bj Wil-iam horsy I L>, QC , T..L D., M.P., author of the “ Liio of Cicero,” . “Oases and Opinions on Law,” &c., &e. Late Fellow of Trim! y College, Cambridge. London; John Murray, Albemarle street. 1876. The magnitude of the Slav element of the population of Europe is as yet hardly realised by the mass of the British people, to whom the very name is unfamiliar. Nevertheless the total number of the Slave- * niana in Europe now is estimated at not less than eighty millions, “a fact,” says Mr Forsyth, “with which Europe will one daj have to reckon.” The largest section o; these people is to be found in Russia, but they form likewise a not inconsiderable proportion of the Emperor of Austria’s subjects, while their strength in Turkey has recently been manifested in an unmistakeable manner. They are distinguished for their love of race, and it is this propensity, quite as much as the desire for territorial aggrandisement, which leads the Russians to assist the Slavs in Turkey, either by direct or indirect means, whenever the latter rise in rebellion agamst their Mussulman rulers. The feud between the Russians and Turks is likewise embittered by difference of religion; the Slavs being Christians, worshipping according to the rites of the Greek Church in its varioumodifications, while the Turks are Mohamedans. The Slavonic provinces dealt with bv Mr Forsyth are Servia, Bosnia, witli the Herzegovina and Turkish Croatia, Mot k, negro, aud Bulgaria, all of which are now in arms. Bulgaria, Servia, ami Bosnia lie along the south bank of the Danube and Save : . Herzegovina is ou the east coast of the Adriatic Sea, and Montenegro adjoins it on the south. Servia is the principal figure in this group of provinces, and its inhabitants cherish the hope that it will ultimately become the centre of a great Se: vian king dom. It is in pursuance of this object, indeed, that the Servians are now fighting. Bulgaria is in insurrection because - its inhabitants could no longer endure the oppressions of the Turks; but Servia, although it has felt the Mussulman scourge heavily 91 times past, by its own valour had fought its way to practical independence before it entered upon the present war ; and not only possessed full rights of selt-govern ment, but the Turks several years a.o absolutely quitted the soil of having it to'the occupation of the Slavs. When Mr Forsyth wrote, the solitavvcym!'.-.] %iu 5 •-r sovereignty on the port cl the Okvmyu Forte in the country was z given hag !■ al floated on the rampart-; of 'h-lg-a le. iVv oa, if Servia ch<-set<> el bya-.. a.; ;»• bye .'oreshe mig t h.ivo v.ay y :!,• at , ; a oui ,J during the ur-.;S‘at ‘Vu.'gc; -aid P.u; c Mitau at first seemed disposed to pursu ■ tins policy, notwithstanding tcu .hv.re of f.c Skoupschina, or House of Represent-* lives to begin hostilities. Events, howcwr, proved too strong tor the Prince, and i c declared war; bub it must Ik; clcaily under-’ stood that the prime motive of ;*ervia in entering the battlefield is to possession of the adjoining Province of Bosnia, and that it has not been driven to take up arms in self-defence. Her people have doubtless a long list of insults and injuries to avenge. The Flodden Field of fServia was Kossovo, where a battle was fought in 18 .7 between Lazar, the King of .Servia, and Sultan Amurath I. The Servians were routed, their king being sla n in the confl ct, and the country was ultimately reduced to t e condition of a Turkish province, the Christian inhabitants of Servia, like all the other Rayas in the Ottoman king cm, becoming ‘‘hewers of wood and drawers of vai.tr ’ to their infidel ms stem. Our author Ear 1 depicts their state in tee cm; k cnlh ! century:— ° ,‘ . “ ! be Rayas were excluded from nil si; arc I in the conduct of publ-c affairs, m.d y. Ie in'! fact treated as serfs ;‘ as the m a wie r, - j with to realise a revenue for -he snjc mt o r j the ttate which had subjugated them, a I I of providing for its soldiery' its officer; , ami 1 even,for the Court.’ No Servian dared to ' ride into a town on horseback,‘and to ary Turk who might demand it he was bound to 1 render personal service. If he met a Turk in the road, he was obliged to halt and make way for him, and if he carried arms as a defence against robbers, be had to conceal them. ‘To suffer injuries was bis duty; to resent them was deemed a crime worthy of punishment.’” The Servians underwent frightful crucltH at the bauds of the Janissaries, who muraered Prince Stanoi and every Servian of reputation they couldget at, but their oppressions became at length intolerable, and the people mse in rebellion under the guidance of a peasant called Black George, ihe f.,r--mi 0 S K ervia , ;is “ow wavered for many years. The Napoleonic wars were in their tavor, and in their struggles with t’-e Turks t ] UB P o iod lhe -V rcce've.i liberal as- I sistance Horn Russia, In the tic.Vy of pe. ee was signed between Rmsia ami i lurkey at Bucharest in 18i2, while the suzerainty of the Porte was retained, it was 1 provided that the internal government of ■ the country shonM be left to the Srtl, 6 \ Porte Se V A« UP ° U P £ yment of a to the of Rn« e - \ however, as the attention of Russia was absorbed bv the „,i

A wie -crenca adupon Moscow, the Turks br ke the treaty and endeavored to reduce .Servia to TwS?' St J“ e subj.ciou Ikere followed more insults—more cruelties —more insurrections. • -f V^ ki °2 advantage of a partial attempt 1 surrec.ion in trie autumn of 1814. So'iman Pacha caused 150 of tlo S - v^( , ‘i b T^“ gaged ia iL to h * to iftia - ‘ and there beheaded. werv in-.’,-aiiye. Some were bom <i hand' \nA \■' I and suspended bvtho o- ■ rtones Lung from the mid do of fkjr I come were JJ-m-cd n-, ,Vafb . alivA r« * 3O T u ' al *w -oliicri* « alive °a spits. In answer to all rL ~, ■ strauces the Pacha said that • 0 V.. . ’ !i t S*Sjs “ aot 1,0 »“ •*«*>» »w The Greek revolution enabled Servia to J^bS^T' ° r MKI lack '<> up oy England, France, and ftugahi . Monred areMwa i of ~_u ’ tb '«“• ceded by a,, Treaty of BucbLht; SITn 1826 ■ ervia was erected into a Princhniitv Imt S f* ? OT . te - b,,t witt « toJjS dent internal administration. 'lhe peord Oflbeh t °- S ‘ r ? B * le «» fcS tory of tK™ T"- • «t Mood r.ud o^iZrCrefhte'fe'lgS 1 theTurlm fj ;1 mentio-ed. ' ’ " ■ : f ; ' . Bosi ‘ ia * V'hich adjoins henna or r- v ” a srictiy T (! ,r sd; pmv c^!::: ; v always been so since ?r. , ! ?t has made frequent strip/ dcs in’ h’* “ i dence, tnc Lu-t of which Its • Mussulman population pv ( . s , ’■ j- “ ) towns, while the (J il t :-n occupy tho villages vFi ; b n-• ■ apart. -S It i-j, however, toV,’- < iVT,: 'V ' : jJ theg^MuesulmenSare fnot < sn-r-f '' i" to say, descendants of ih« tree 1 i ' originally invaded?.<urope from 'the yli . aSWa^aSjfciJ

religion !.when Bosnia wa* : ."•nqubred.; _ and the same remark ap ;;L : es to ■£ most' of the Mussulmen :■■'. other par's oi European iHirkoy. H^rat;

vina, the name of wliich iia3 figuivd no cordv:c>. ; ly in the ne.vspapers lately, fc ■ aelieHl!5 r a part if Bosnia; and, like the

■*':er, j- in a very backward state of civivi.sa'ion, alLho:igh it the advantage oi a seaport (Piagusa) on the Adriatic. Jill u. ling to Bosnia generally, Mr Forsyth I tfiites—" Not one man in a hundred of the inhabitants knows how to read, and the chief town, Serajevo, which contains from 40,000 to )50,030:. inhabitants, j;does not'.'possess \a single bookseller's shop." Nevertheless, the people are nighty intelligent, and country possesses abundant natural resources ; but ihe prevailing" such t as" to .stifle all progress. Montenegro is a queer little territory, which at one point comes within a thousand yards of the Adriatic, but it is shut off from that sc . by a strip of Austrian territory, so chi/t it has no seaport, much to its inhabitants' disgust. ''■- Montenegro claimsjjo be an independent State; while the Ottoman I'orte .asserts" a sovereignty over,; it. Montenegro and Turkey have been fighting, on and off, for•. centuries ; but Nature has been'-favorable to the independence of the former. "The country is;a mass of mountains of fantasticjorms, with .vast caverns in •heir sides and base, in which numbers of streams—they,cau hardly beicalled rivers—%re lost to appear again after a subterraneous passage roeks." There ii hnrdly a road .n tho territory. Bulgaria, which lies to the east of Servia md aluits on the Black Sea, is the largest of .ue lavonic provinces of Turi-.ey. It is strictly a Turkish province-, and has been so ii ce 1392. Its inhabitants have borne the j ivrkish yoke far more easily than their it-low Slavonians, alt i.ough a few abortive attempts at insurrection have been made. Tney are a peaceful and industrious people. devoted to agriculture, and widle cliugingto Ihrur a-doieut faiih manners, seem dee tiute of the more heroic viitues. Like the other Christian subjects of the Porte they are treated as a conquered race and ground down with oppression, although the Mussulman inhabitants of Turkey likewise feel the effects of grievous misrule. >'The Christian, however,-is treated an inferior. He stands 0:1 a lower looting to the Mussulman "ven in the Law ( ourts ; he is shut out front) unLrary. service, and from the leading public Yet the Christians form the largest put of the p-ipula-'Ou. According to C ;he i-*nms of !.;.e n> de p^t:u ! atien of Tu;'k;y inPh'ror-.c S :';!? ■; <)U>) r'-'v - , : >- : d-' ■ • 'sTi):.::.)? . ' 's, Ui: 'J/iiO.KoS;- .1.-.vs, :.;.:!'.!,■;. ••;- ! :r. af. f,j r i-'.-rvL-b .-••:••?. b.-e t--.--- .'.'the. :!.y va in ti;o ;.' v ■ : ' ;, ; i r ,v '''" _ G a "•"'H:;!-.y o':niwer be ■ a., : i 0r.t...d U'.vd xai koh donii--i-.-t.uii i- ;• ,'.u end 10.