294 ARTICLE VIII. 1. Die Serbische Revolution. Von LEOPOLD RANKE. Ham burg, 1829. 2. La Turquie d'Europe. Par AMI BOUÉ. Paris, 4 vols. 8vo: 1840. 3. Treaties and Hatti-Sheriffs relating to Servia, presented to the House of Commons by the Queen's command, May 1843. London. 4. Hansard's Debates in the House of Lords, 5th May and 28th July 1843. Debate in the House of Commons 15th August, 1843. 5. Serbia, the Circassia of the West. By DAVID URQUHART, Esq. London, 1843. 6. The Portfolio, Nos. 1 and 2, August 1st and September 1st, 1843. London. THE interest which the principality of Serbia* has of late excited in Western Europe is far from being unmerited. With the simplicity of ancient manners, her inhabitants appear to have inherited a spirit of patriotism, belonging rather to classical than to modern ages. Without an ally, unsustained even by the slightest hope of foreign assistance, they have not shrunk from drawing down upon themselves the indignation of a power, to whose pretensions, however extravagant, the cabinets of Europe are accustomed to submit in silence. By the honest assertion and steadfast maintenance of their rights, they have hitherto baffled all the stratagems of their adversary. The Poles and Circassians had taught the world that the arms of Russia are not entirely exempt from the most humiliating reverses; the Serbians have shown by an equally valuable example, that her claims to be invincible in diplomacy rest on no better foundation. So few sources of information respecting Serbia are generally accessible, and the interests involved in the question of her independence from foreign interference are so complicated and momentous, that we shall offer no apology for presenting our readers with a succinct account of her present position * The name of Servia is a western corruption: it is disliked by the Serbians (or as they call themselves the Sirbs) on account of its analogy to the Latin servus. and recent history; promising that our sketch, if rude, shall be characteristic, and that if imperfect, it shall not be materially erroneous. Situated on the northern declivity of the great Alpine range which separates the Adriatic Sea from the plains of Hungary, the rear of Serbia is protected by an almost insurmountable barrier, whilst the deep streams of the Save and the Danube defend the front, and lateral ridges from the principal chain of mountains cover the flanks of the province. The surface of Serbia is mountainous, and intersected by only one considerable valley, that of the Morava: the hills are almost uniformly covered with forests of oak, which, while they afford excellent timber for ship-building, as well as sustenance to innumerable herds of swine, present at the same time most embarrassing impediments to the operations of an invading army. For security as well as wealth, Serbia is largely indebted to her forests. The area of Serbia is estimated at 1000 square leagues, and is probably nearly equal to that of Bohemia. The population consists of upwards of a million of inhabitants. The number of men capable of bearing arms must therefore exceed 200,000. A lengthened disquisition on the ancient history of Serbia would be foreign to the objects of the present article. We shall pursue this branch of our subject no further than it may be studied with advantage, whilst examining the relations which still subsist between Serbia and the surrounding provinces. The Serbians belong to the great Slavonian, or more properly Slaavian family, of which the Polish and Russian nations have, in modern times, formed the most conspicuous branches. The period of the arrival of the Slaavs in Europe is uncertain: after the fall of the Roman empire, people of this stock probably occupied the whole of Hungary*, as well as Poland, Russia proper, Bohemia and the countries between the Danube and the Balkan. But in the tenth century the Magyars, the ancestors of the modern Hungarians, a race of wholly distinct origin, drove the Slaavian population from the plains of Hungary to seek refuge in the surrounding mountains; *Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, vol. i. p. 83. and thus separated the Slaavian race into two great divisions, the northern and the southern, of which the latter soon extended itself over nearly all the countries lying between the Danube, the Euxine and Ægean seas and the Adriatic: the majority of the inhabitants of that peninsula are at the present day found to be of Slaavian origin. In the earliest period of their history, the southern Slavonians formed several distinct states. Of these, the Bulgarians, who took their name from a Tartar tribe by which they had been subdued, first rose to historical importance. Their wars with the Greek and Latin emperors of Constantinople occupy a large space in the annals of the Byzantine chroniclers. The Serbians succeeded the Bulgarians as the leading Slaavian people. In the early part of the fourteenth century, Stephen Dushan, the king of Serbia, to whom the sovereignty of the country had descended through an hereditary succession of nearly three hundred years, having reduced all the southern Slaavs under his dominion, assumed the title of Emperor of Serbia. His power exceeded that of the former rulers of Bulgaria, and was regarded with proportionate apprehension by the court of Byzantium. The enmity which existed between the Greek and Serbian nations enabled that people to establish itself in Europe, before which both empires were destined to succumb. The Greeks, blinded by the animosity they entertained towards their ancient rivals the Slaavs, overlooked the danger which must arise from the recent but rapidly increasing power of the Osmanlis. The fall of Adrianople and its occupation by the latter people were therefore viewed less with alarm than satisfaction by the Greeks, who vainly imagined that their formidable neighbour might become a new bulwark of their empire against their northern enemies. Their expectations were so far realized, that they saw the arms of the Turks directed in the first instance against the Serbians. In the year 1389, Sultan Murad invaded the Serbian territory with a mighty army. He was opposed by a still more numerous array, drawn from all the Slaavian provinces, under Lazarus the emperor of Serbia*. of Serbia*. On the plain of Kossova, near the * Cantemir, Hist of the Ott. Emp., p. 42. confines of Albania, was fought one of the most memorable battles which took place during the struggle of Islam for supremacy over Christendom. The leaders of both armies died upon the field, but victory declared in favour of the Mahometans. The power of the Serbian empire was destroyed, though Serbia itself continued to form an independent state for more than half a century afterwards. During that period the Turkish sovereigns entered into close alliance with the rulers of Serbia, and it was principally by means of Serbian auxiliaries, and recruits drawn from the warlike people of the Slaavian mountains, that the Osmanlis succeeded in establishing their authority throughout Asia Minor. When the power of the Sultans was thus far consolidated, they undertook the final subjugation of Serbia, they dispossessed the prince of the country and reduced it to the condition of a Turkish province. The surrounding Slaavian nations underwent a similar fate. The little district of Cerna Gora alone (known to Europe under the Italian translation of the name, Monte Negro) preserved the independence which it maintains to the present hour. The Slaavian provinces subject to the ancient emperors of Serbia are unequally divided between Austria and Turkey; the largest and most populous portion of those territories having fallen to the share of the Ottomans. From the period of the Turkish conquest, the history of Serbia becomes a blank. That event was fatal to all the institutions of the nation, and swept away all the artificial distinctions of society; the descendants of kings and nobles forgot their illustrious ancestry; the PEOPLE alone remained. Cut off from all intercourse with other countries, prevented by difference of religion from becoming fused with their conquerors (as has been the case with Western nations which have experienced a similar destiny), the language and manners of the Serbians underwent less alteration than must have taken place if they had been left at liberty to work out their own civilization. The Mahometans residing exclusively in the towns, the country remained still in the occupation of the Serbians. In the wildest gorges of the mountains, in the deepest shades of the forests, their solitary habitations were placed, so as to elude the observation of the passing traveller. Each house contained a little community apart, where several generations, frequently with their collateral branches, lived under a patriarchal government. Thus removed from the sphere of events which agitate and interest the rest of the world, the Serbians cherished with deeper affection the manners and traditions of their forefathers, Their bards, the only historians of a people in such a stage of civilization, celebrated the glories of the reign of Dushan, or lamented the disasters of the fatal field of Kossova. Their language remained the most primitive and uncorrupted of all the dialects spoken by nations of Slavonian origin: the surrounding people descended from that stock continue to regard Serbia as the stronghold and citadel of Slaavian nationality. Except during the periodical visits of the Turkish proprietors and officers of government, the Serbian peasantry enjoyed in their mountain-homes almost unlimited freedom. Their taxes were light; the corvée or forced labour demanded from them was not excessive; they were not bound to the soil, but free to exercise their industry wherever it could be employed to the greatest advantage. In the presence of an Ottoman indeed, whatever might be his rank, the Serbians were required to behave with the deference of inferiors; they were obliged to execute his commands; they must not even resent an insult received at his hands. But the severance of the two populations rendered encounters between individuals of the different nations unfrequent; the Christians avoided the towns, except when carried thither by necessity: many a Serbian lived and died without having even set his foot within the walls of a city. Yet a few words as to the relations between the Turks and the Serbians. The Ottoman invaders, more merciful than the feudal conquerors, who seized the soil itself and converted the cultivator into the servant of its new proprietor, left the land in the possession of its inhabitants, and reserved to the state merely a tenth of the produce. These tithes were granted to individuals (who received the appellation of Spahis) on condition of their rendering military service to the Sultan. Like the feudal grants, these dotations were originally con |