104 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



appointed. This, perhaps, tended to accelerate 

 the change, which was effected on the death of 

 Peter the Poet in 1851. But a share in it was 

 due to that subtile influence, the love of woman, 

 which has so many times operated at great crises 

 upon human affairs. The young Danilo, the 

 nephew of the deceased Vladika, designated for 

 the succession, was attached to a beautiful girl 

 in. Trieste, and the hope of union with her could 

 only be maintained in the event of his avoiding 

 episcopal consecration, which entailed the obli- 

 gation of celibacy. The Senate almost unani- 

 mously supported him in his determination ; and 

 thus was effected a change which perhaps was 

 required by the spirit of the times. The old 

 system, among other points, entailed a great 

 difficulty with respect to regulating the succes- 

 sion, which, among a people less simple and loy- 

 al, would have been intolerable. So, then, ended 

 that line of the Vladikas of Montenegro, who 

 had done a work for freedom, as well as for 

 religion, never surpassed in any country of the 

 globe. Of the trappings and enjoyments of 

 power, they had known nothing. To them, it 

 was endeared as well as sanctified only by bur- 

 dens and by perils. Their dauntless deeds, their 

 simple, self-denying lives, have earned for them 

 a place of high honor in the annals of mankind, 

 and have laid for their people the solid ground- 

 work on which the future, and a near future as it 

 seems, will build. 



Danilo did no dishonor, during his short 

 reign, to the traditions of his episcopal prede- 

 cessors. He consummated the great work of in- 

 ternal order, and published in 1855 the statute- 

 book in force until 18*76. In the war with Omar 

 Pasha (1852-53), the military fame of the coun- 

 try was thoroughly maintained, under admirable 

 leaders, though as usual with inferior arms and 

 numbers. During the Crimean struggle, he 

 maintained the formal neutrality of his country, 

 though it cost him a civil war, and nearly caused 

 the severance of Berda from the ancient Monte- 

 negro. 1 In May, 1858, his brother Mirko revived 

 and rivaled at Grabovo all the old military glo- 

 ries of Tsernagora. Having no artillery, and 

 very inferior arms, the Montenegrins swept down 

 from the hill upon the gunners of the Turks, and 

 destroyed them. In this battle the Ottoman 

 force, inclosed in a basin or corrie, without pow- 

 er of retreat, displayed a desperate valor, for 

 which on most other occasions they have not 

 been by any means so remarkable. Nor was 

 their numerical superiority so manifold as it 

 > F. and W., pp. C5-'70. G., p. 35. 



commonly had been. They were defeated with 

 the loss of several thousand lives, fourteen guns, 

 colors, baggage, and munitions. From the bod- 

 ies of many dead were taken English as well as 

 French medals, obviously granted for the Crim- 

 ean War, which were seen by Miss Mackenzie 

 and Miss Irby among the collection of trophies 

 at Cettinje. 1 The victory of Grabovo produced 

 a great excitement among the rayahs of Turkey. 

 But the great powers of Europe came to the 

 help of the Porte and its huge empire against 

 the Liliputian state, that is scarcely a speck 

 upon its map. It had to abide a diplomatic ver- 

 dict. A commission, sitting at Constantinople, 

 accorded to it the advantage of establishing in 

 principle the delimitation of its frontiers, and in 

 1859 admitted its envoy, notwithstanding the 

 protest of Ali Pasha, to take part in its delibera- 

 tions. But the powers had in 1857 determined 

 at Paris that, in return for some small accre- 

 tion, and for access to the sea, Montenegro 

 should definitively acknowledge the suzerainty 

 of the Porte. 2 Her refusal was positive, despite 

 the wishes of the prince. It was to French, 3 

 not British, advocacy that she seems to have 

 owed a declaration of May, 1858, 4 which ac- 

 knowledged the independence of the Black 

 Mountain. 



In August, 1860, Prince Danilo was shot on 

 the quay of Cattaro. The assassin was prompt- 

 ed by a motive of private revenge, for which dif- 

 ferent grounds are assigned. Like his prede- 

 cessors, he lived and died a hero. In what esti- 

 mation he was held, let Miss Mackenzie and Miss 

 Irby testify. On his death his body had been 

 carried up the mountain, and deposited in a 

 church. For many weeks afterward, as they tell 

 us, this church was filled, morning, noon, and all 

 night through, by his people, men, women, and 

 children ; and stalwart warriors were, as of old, 

 dissolved in tears. 



Danilo was succeeded by his nephew Nikita, 

 the present Prince of Montenegro. He had not 

 at his accession completed his nineteenth year. 

 It is characteristic of the principality that his 

 own father, Mirko, the victor of Grabovo, con- 

 tentedly gave way to him. Goptchevitch, the 

 brother of his aunt, Princess Darinka, acquaints 

 us that he set out with two fixed ideas: 1. To 

 prosecute the civilizing work among his people ; 

 2. To liberate the sister Servian lands still in ser- 



i Mackenzie and Irby, p. 610. a F. and W., p. 72. 



s It is fair to say that there is, so far as 1 know, no 

 English account of the affair. 

 < F. and "W., p. 73. 



