740 



SERVIA. 



food-taxes, 750,000; tobacco excise, 900,000; 

 salt monopoly, 400,000; tobacco monopoly, 

 250,000; mining monopoly, 40,000; liquor 

 excise, 800,000 ; fees, 1,600,000; public prop- 

 erty and enterprises, 1,770,000; receipts of 

 fund for public instruction, 1,050,000 ; of fund 

 or public sanitation, 900,000 ; sinking fund of 

 public debt, 2,575,000 ; balance in the Treas- 

 ury, 2,000,000; otber receipts, 10,175,000. 

 The expenditures were estimated at 32,616,192 

 francs. The chief items were 7,409,937 francs 

 for the service of the public debt, 8,933,595 

 for war, 4,846,747 for the Ministry of the In- 

 terior, 2,636,389 for the Ministry of Education 

 and Worship, and 2,408,820 for the Ministry of 

 Public Works. 



By the financial operations of the present 

 ministry the public debt has advanced to over 

 100,000,000 francs. It consisted before of a 

 smalt internal loan and the foreign loan of 20,- 

 000,000 francs, both raised to pay the cost of 

 the Turkish War. The Government was in- 

 volved in losses through the failure of the 

 Union G6n6rale and its Austrian branches. 

 These were variously reported to be from 17,- 

 000,000 francs to much larger amounts. The 

 Austrian Treasury in some indirect way came 

 to the assistance of Servia, and by its sacrifices 

 aided in extricating the King's Government 

 from its embarrassment. 



POLITICS AND LEGISLATION. The political 

 crisis, which began with the refusal in 1880 of 

 Ristich, the Liberal Premier, to sign a com- 

 mercial treaty with Austria and to agree to the 

 Austrian railroad prospectus, reached its climax 

 in 1882. The treaty was thought by the Min- 

 ister and the Skuptchina to confer unequal 

 benefits upon Austria and the railroad conven- 

 tion to be designed to convert the Servian 

 railroads into strategical routes for the use of 

 the Austrian army in the event of a war with 

 Russia. A threatening note from Vienna drove 

 Ristich to resign. The new Skuptchina was 

 elected through Austrian influences. Pirot- 

 chanatz took the helm. The treaty was con- 

 cluded, and the railroad convention approved. 

 The construction of the railroads was undertak- 

 en by the Union Ge'ne'rale of Paris. The failure 

 of this enterprising society in February, occur- 

 ring at the time when the Servians were ex- 

 cited by the conflict between Austria and their 

 neighbors of kindred race, the Herzegovinians, 

 caused the struggle to be renewed. The Radi- 

 cals interpellated the Government with regard 

 to the losses sustained by the nation through 

 the failure of Bontoux's company. Pirotcha- 

 natz made evasive and unsatisfactory replies. 

 On the refusal of the ministry to give the in- 

 formation demanded, fifty-five members left 

 the House and resigned their seats. This re- 

 duced the Skuptchina to less than the three 

 fourths necessary for a constitutional quorum. 

 It suspended its sittings pending the elections 

 to the vacated seats, which took place in May. 

 Of the members who had thrown up their 

 mandates, forty -nine were again returned, 



though the Government had exerted a pressure 

 on the constituencies which was unexampled 

 even in Servia. The King and his ministers 

 had alienated the entire population. The op- 

 position had started with the friends of demo- 

 cratic doctrines, of whom there were forty in 

 the Skuptchina elected to carry out the designs 

 of Austria. The Prince, in humbling himself 

 to Austria and sacrificing Servian interests, 

 aided in the spread of these advanced ideas. 

 The party obtained a strong hold among the 

 rural population. The adherents of Ristich 

 joined them. The clergy, with the Russophile 

 Metropolitan Michael at their head, threw 

 the weight of their influence into the scale. 

 The Government took the unfortunate course 

 of deposing the Metropolitan Michael. Other 

 violent acts added to the general detestation 

 that was felt for the King and his Cabinet. A 

 breach of the Constitution was committed in 

 a neglect to order a general election after the 

 resignation of the fifty-five members, but the 

 newly-made King would not have felt safe on 

 his throne if he gave the country an oppor- 

 tunity to express its condemnation and antip- 

 athy. The return of the forty-nine members 

 placed the Government in the same dilemma 

 as before. Pirotchanatz was alarmed and con- 

 founded, and immediately offered his resigna- 

 tion. The Radical party offered the terms on 

 which they would allow the government to go 

 on. These were, that they should be taken 

 into the committees of the House and have 

 the just share in legislation which had been 

 denied them, and that steps should be taken 

 to call a Great Skuptchina to revise the Con- 

 stitution and secure the larger liberties de- 

 manded by the whole nation. The King or- 

 dered Pirotchanatz to remain at his post, and 

 procure a majority and a quorum by any 

 means. The elections of the returned Radi- 

 cals were pronounced null and void by the 

 rump Assembly, and the candidates next on 

 the poll-lists declared elected. To give them 

 their seats without certificates of election, 

 which the local authorities refused to make 

 out, was the final act of the coup d'etat. The 

 mock Assembly sat a few weeks, and then ad- 

 journed to avert danger. The frame of the 

 popular temper was critical in the extreme. 

 If it had not been for fear of provoking an 

 Austrian military intervention and bringing 

 worse ills upon their country, the Servians 

 would have chased their King out of his do- 

 minions. The anger of the people found an 

 exponent in Ilka Markovitch, a political en- 

 thusiast, who made an attempt on the life of 

 King Milan on October 23d. This lady was 

 moved to the act by a private grievance in ad- 

 dition to motives of fanatical patriotism : her 

 husband, a valiant officer, had been shot with- 

 out cause, by .orders of a military tribunal, 

 during the Turkish War, and her property con- 

 fiscated by the Government. The King was 

 in consternation, and turned to Ristich, en- 

 deavoring to rally to the support of the throne 



