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SEE VIA. 



SERVIA, a kingdom in Eastern Europe. Com- 

 plete independence was recognized in the Treaty 

 of Berlin. The Constitution of 1869 reaffirmed 

 succession in the family of Obrenovich, de- 

 clared the responsibility of the ministers to the 

 Assembly, and vested the legislative power in 

 the Skuptschina, jointly with the sovereign. 

 The Senate was transformed into a Council of 

 State, charged with the elaboration of laws. 

 The Skuptschina, which is elected for three 

 years and holds sessions annually, consists of 

 174 members, of whom 129 are elected by the 

 people, every tax-payer having a vote, and 45 

 are appointed by the King. A Great National 

 Assembly, composed of four times the number 

 of the ordinary, is elected to decide on consti- 

 tutional questions. Servia was proclaimed a 

 kingdom, March 6, 1882. 



The King, Milan I, is the fourth of the dy- 

 nasty. He was born in August, 1854, and suc- 

 ceeded his cousin, Prince Michail, assassinated 

 June 10, 1868. The Cabinet is composed of the 

 following members: President of the Council 

 and Minister ol the Interior, N. Cristich ; Min- 

 ister of Foreign Affairs, M. Bogwichevich ; 

 Minister of War, Col. Petrovich ; Minister of 

 Justice, G. Pantelich ; Minister of Finance, A. 

 Spasich ; Minister of Public Works, 0. Protich ; 

 Minister of Instruction and Ecclesiastical Af- 

 fairs, G. Pantelich, ad interim. 



Area and Population. The area of Servia is 

 20,850 square miles, including 4,250 square 

 miles added by the Treaty of Berlin, from which 

 the Turkish population has nearly all emigrated. 

 The population returned by the census of 1878 

 was 1,669,337, composed of 850,275 males and 

 819,062 females; estimated population at the 

 beginning of 1883, 1,810,606. The bulk of the 

 population are of Serbic race and of the Or- 

 thodox Greek religion. There were in 1878 

 13,367 Mohammedans, 3,492 Israelites, 4,178 

 Roman Catholics, and 27,289 gypsies. Bel- 

 grade, the capital, contained at the beginning 

 of 1883 an estimated population of 36,177. 



Commerce. The chief trade is with Austria. 

 The largest article of export is live hogs. The 

 principal exports in 1881 were of the follow- 

 ing quantities: Hogs, 325,240; cattle, 27,752; 

 sheep and goats, 64,935 ; grain, 26,523,369 

 okes (the Turkish oke = 2-83 pounds) ; dried 

 prunes, 10,563,201 okes: wine, 2,460,298 okes. 



Finances. The revenue is derived mainly 

 from direct imposts. The budget for 1882-'83 

 makes out the receipts as 34,930,000 dinars, 

 or francs, and the expenditures as 34,469,919 

 dinars. The public debt is over 100,000,000 

 francs, incurred for the construction of the 

 Belgrade and Vranja Railroad, to repay the 

 war requisitions, and lesser sums to compen- 

 sate the disinherited Turkish proprietors, and 

 repay a war debt to Russia. 



The Army. The introduction of the German 

 military system causes a considerable increase 

 in the national expenditures. Before the war 

 with Turkey the military forces consisted of a 

 militia. The standing army musters 9,710 men. 



The reorganization is calculated to create an 

 available war force of 165,000 men. 



Political Crisis. King Milan, having entered 

 on a career of despotic violence by dissolving 

 the Skuptschina in 1882 and refusing to recog- 

 nize the constitutional majority, did not shrink 

 from the conflict which he invited, but in 1883 

 openly established a military despotism in the 

 place of parliamentary government. The King 

 and the Pirotchanatz ministry were not re- 

 strained from pursuing their pro- Austrian pol- 

 icy by the popular disapprobation. The de- 

 cision of the Conference d quatre settled the 

 route of the railway to connect Western Eu- 

 rope with Constantinople, which passes through 

 Belgrade and Nish (see AUSTRIA-HUNGARY). 

 The discord between Russia and Servia was 

 increased by the enactment of a new law regu- 

 lating the relations between church and the 

 state, particularly with reference to the elec- 

 tion of a metropolitan. The appointment of 

 the primate had previously been left to the 

 church, and thus controlled by the Emperor 

 of Russia. The arbitrary suspension of the 

 metropolitan by King Milan in 1882 exasper- 

 ated the people and drove the clergy into the 

 camp of the opposition. The Russians were 

 therefore the more inclined to contest the eccle- 

 siastical question as a means of preserving their 

 political influence. The Synod elected the 

 Archimandrite Theodosius Mraovich in April, 

 after the provisions of the new law. The new 

 metropolitan was consecrated a few days later. 

 The Servian chaplain in Moscow, having com- 

 plied with the request of the Servian Govern- 

 ment to pray for the new archbishop, was ig- 

 nominiously expelled from Russia during the 

 coronation, by order of the metropolitan of 

 Moscow. In August, King Milan visited Vi- 

 enna, where he was cordially received, and 

 subsequently attended the autumn manoeuvres 

 of the German army as the guest of Emperor 

 William. These friendly conferences were in- 

 tended as a counter-check to Russian political 

 activity in Montenegro, Roumania, Bulgaria, 

 and Eastern Roumelia. The marriage of the 

 Servian pretender, Peter Karageorgevich, to 

 the daughter of the Prince of Montenegro, in- 

 dicated the complete withdrawal of Russian 

 confidence in King Milan and the prosecution 

 of Servian schemes without the Obrenovichs. 



The Servians are thoroughly imbued with 

 the idea of popular sovereignty. They have 

 always been conscious of their power, and in 

 former struggles with their rulers have come 

 out victorious. Recently doctrines of Euro- 

 pean radicalism and Russian socialism have 

 been widely disseminated among the peasantry 

 by Belgrade professors and other Servians ed- 

 ucated at Paris and in Germany. 



The political parties in Servia were the Con- 

 servative, the Liberal, and the Radical. The 

 party at the helm of government, the Conser- 

 vative, may be described as the party of the 

 King and of the Austrians, and described itselt 

 as the Progressive party, because it pursued 





