SERVIA, AUSTRIA, TURKEY, AND RUSSIA. 155 



invested themselves with despotic power to legislate for the country, 

 against the voice and will of the people, and, by a system of whole- 

 sale corruption, forced the Skuptschina to become subservient to 

 their views. 



Such a corrupt administration of power and legislation struck at 

 the foundations of public morality and Constitutional Government ; 

 financial burdens, and extraordinary taxes were imposed, and the 

 financial deficit year by year accumulated. 



The people of Servia naturally resisted these abuses, and the 

 system of Government which produced them, and they appealed to 

 the patriotism of the Prince, as their chosen and popular Ruler, to 

 interpose his Sovereign authority in favour of the national rights. 

 In order to rally" the nation to a sense of the imminent peril 

 of its democratic institutions, the National party, whose only 

 aim was to organise their hard-won independence on a solid 

 and enduring basis, freed from the evil designs of corrupt 

 political adventurers, decided to publish a political journal, whereby 

 they hoped to arouse the popular will in favour of defending liberty 

 against the oppressors. The Ministers, in the exercise of their 

 arbitrary power, proscribed its publication and prosecuted its pro- 

 moters ; and in consequence of this high-handed action by the sup- 

 pression of free thought, and its free expression, the leaders of the 

 people resolved to transfer the agitation by the Press to Switzerland, 

 and to issue at Geneva the suppressed journal, printed in two 

 languages, under the name of " Sloboda " in Servian, and " La 

 Liberty " in French. 



Its programme may be summarised in these terms : — 



A strenuous advocacy of the first principles of national liberty, 

 which were proclaimed by the National Assembly in 1858, in favour 

 of a liberal constitution ; a full extended franchise ; free municipal 

 institutions ; a free press ; liberty of conscience and education ; and 

 other great reforms, which could only save Servia from political 

 degradation, and raise her to an equality with Free-governed States, 

 and thus enable her to march steadily but firmly towards the attain- 

 ment of a higher civilisation. 



Throughout this serious crisis in Servia the Ministers of Prince 

 Michel adopted a policy of exasperation, which encouraged the 

 rising tide of popular discontent, and aroused the hostility that 

 existed between them and the people. 



Their first step was to prohibit the circulation in Servia of the 

 national journal, the " Sloboda,'' and subsequently they assailed 



