SKI; VIA. 



roi 



that the attempt on his life was made by the I 

 dent's orders, he refused to return to the capital 

 when a siimmo: shortly afterward ordering 



him to come at once t" lake charge of important 

 affairs in the War Department, replying frankly 

 that he was mindful of the fate of a former Minister 

 of War and of the Governor of San IVdro Macori, 

 wlnun he had himself shot in 1893, obeying secret 

 orders of the President. President lieureaux, see- 

 ing that Castillo wa- strong enough to resist an at- 

 tack of Government troops, is supposed to hav. 

 armed suspicion by intimating in his reply that 

 , was the sole author of the attempt on 

 the life of the minister. He directed Castillo to 

 arrest Kstay and bring him to the capital to be 

 tried for the crime. The minister was caught in 

 the trap that was laid for him. As soon as he ar- 

 rived with his prisoner, the latter was set free, and 

 he was himself placed under arrest, deprived of his 

 office two days later by the Congress, and taken 

 on a war ship back to San Pedro Macori by the 

 lent, who ordered that he be shot as soon as 

 they landed at La Caleta, and immediately after- 

 ward had Gen. Jose Kstay also shot for failing to have 

 Castillo killed as directed. At the general election, 

 held on Nov. 1, Gen. Ulisses Heureaux was re-elected 

 e his fourth term as President. 



SEKVIA, a monarchy in southeastern Kurope. 

 The legislative body is the Skupshtina, a single 

 Chamber of 134 members, elected by the direct 

 suffrage of male adult citizens who pay 15 dinars. 

 or francs, in direct taxes. The King. Alexander I, 

 born Aug. 14, 1876. suspended the Constitution in 

 1894 and revived the earlier one of 1869 pending 

 the adoption of a new Constitution, to be drawn up 

 by a commission of the leading members of all 

 political parties. The Prime Minister in 189>> 

 Stoyan Xovakovich ; Minister of the Interior, D. 

 Marinkovich : Minister of Justice, A. Nintshich ; 

 Minister of War, Gen. D. Franassovich : Minister 

 of Finance, II. Popovich ; Minister of Public In- 

 struction and Worship, L. Kovachevich ; Minister 

 of Commerce, Agriculture, and Industry, \V. Stoy- 

 anovich. Cap ;de. 



Area and Population. The area of the kingdon 

 is 19,050 square miles. The population present at 

 the census of Dec. 31, 1895. was 2.314.153. divided 

 into 1,188,909 males and 1. 105.244 females. The 

 number of marriages in 1895 wa- 20.5'.i'.i : of births, 

 101,676 ; of deaths. 02.184 : excess of births, 39,492. 

 The city of Belgrade has 58.992 inhabitants. 



Finance^. The budget for 1896 makes the total 

 revenue 63,059.720 dinars, of which 20,803,720 dinars 

 come from direct taxes, 5,000,000 dinars from cus- 

 toms, 2,927,000 dinars from excise, 2.500,000 dinars 

 from courts of law, 17.159,000 dinars from monopo- 

 lies, 3.428,000 dinars from domains, posts, etc., 

 5.700,000 dinars from railroads. 852.000 dinars from 

 educational and sanitary funds, and 5.290,000 di- 

 nars from various sources. The total expenses are 

 estimated at 63,355,607 dinars, of which 1,200.000 

 dinars are for the civil list, 360.000 dinars for allow- 

 ance to ex-King Milan, 28.640 dinars for court 

 officials, 17,747.506 dinars for service of the debt, 

 120.000 dinars for the Skupshtina. 156.310 dinars for 

 the Council of State. 234,000 dinars for general ex- 

 penses, 2.25 1,858 dinars for pensions and subventions, 

 1.616,128 dinars for the Ministry of Justice, 4.- 

 180 dinars for the Ministry of Education and Wor- 

 ship, 1.231.985 dinars for trie Ministry of Foreign Af- 

 airs. 2.765.765 dinars for the Ministry of the Interior, 

 ..475 dinars for the Ministry of Finance. 14.115.- 

 393 dinars for the Ministry of War. 3.948,633 dinars 

 for the Ministry of Public Works, 3,001.229 dinars 

 for the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, 

 348.453 dinars for miscellaneous expenses, and 

 1,205,052 dinars for the Board of Control. The 



debt on Jan. 1. ISM. amounted to .: 

 dinars, of whic; 



nversion loan. 



I In- Army. 15 y virtue of the law of 

 ind lln- supplementary law of J;:<. 

 military service is oblj^r :iing at ti 



of twenty-one and laMing ten 

 army, two with the colors and eight in the reserve, 

 ten years longer in the tiisi ban, and ten in the 

 A ban of the national militia. The bud^ 



effective of the army in IS'.M; was <', fficers and 



14.000 men in the infantry. 80 officers and 1,400 

 men in the cavalry, 220 officers and 4,000 men in 

 the artillery. 50 officers and 1,000 men in the engi- 

 neers, 10 officers and 300 men in the train, and 10 

 officers and 500 men in the sanitary troops ; total, 

 970 officers, exclusive of staff and superior authori- 

 ties, and 21,200 men with 4.846 hor.-es and 184 guns. 

 The war strength of the regular army is 14 s 

 of the first ban, 125,516; and of the second ban, 63,- 

 i;,i. :;::! 7.323 men. 



Commerce. The total value of the imports in 

 1895 was 28.240,000 dinars, of which 16.624.000 

 dinars came from Austria-Hungary, 2. 435.000 dinars 

 from Great Britain, 2.087,000 dinars from Turkey, 

 1,929.000 dinars from Germany, 1.341,000 dinars 

 from Russia, 1,213 dinars from Roumania, and 

 1,103,000 dinars from America. The total value of 

 the exports was 43,390,000 dinars, of which 38,740.- 

 000 dinars went to Austria-Hungary. 1,617.000 

 dinars to Germany, and 1.421,000 dinars to Turkey. 

 Of the exports 16,046.000 dinars represented horti- 

 cultural and agricultural products, mostly dried 

 prunes, and 18,984,000 dinars animals and animal 

 products, mostly hogs. 



Communications. There are 335 miles of rail- 

 road. The telegraphs have a length of 1,971 miles, 

 with 4.128 miles of wire. The number of dispatches 

 in IN. '.692. of which 770,956 were internal, 



119,112, international, and 10.624 transit dispatches. 

 The post office in 1894 carried 10,316,000 internal 

 and 7,356.000 international letters and newspapers. 

 The receipts of the postal and telegraph services 

 were 1.009,364 and expenses 1.269,480 dinars. 



Political Affairs. The Radicals announced in 

 January their intention to resume political activity. 

 On Aug. 9 a mass meeting was held outside Belgrade 

 at which 20.000 Radicals demanded the restoration 

 of a constitutional regime and petitioned the King 

 to put an end to the present intolerable situation. 

 King Alexander received the deputation of the 

 Radicals, and informed them that he was occupying 

 himself with the constitutional question, and that a 

 solution would be reached at the beginning of next 

 year. The Radicals asserted that the coup d'ttat 

 of 1894 had thrown the country into confusion and 

 disorder, raised a barrier between the King and his 

 people, and lowered the prestige of Servia abroad. 

 The question of chief political interest in 1890 was the 

 treatment of Servian swine by the Austro-Hungarian 

 customs officials, which has been the ground of a 

 standing feud and has contributed as much as any- 

 thing else to the estrangement between Servia and 

 its former protector and ally and the rapprochement 

 with Russia. The Servians accuse the Hungarians 

 of infringing the existing treaty of commerce by 

 periodically prohibiting the importation of Servian 

 hogs on alleged sanitary grounds, whereas their 

 hogs are free from disease and the real object of 

 the sanitary regulations is to protect the Hungarian 

 hog-raising industry. The Servians refused to be 

 officially represented at the millennial celebration 

 in Buda-Pesth, on the ground that the old Servian 

 flag would figure there among the trophies of Hun- 

 garian victories. On May 2 a party of students 

 burned a Hungarian flag in one of the public 

 squares of Belgrade, and in the evening an angry 



