KING MILAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 58, 9 March 1889, Page 3

KING MILAN.

Apropos of the news that King Milan of Servifv has abdicated in favour of his son, who is now governing with the help of a Regency, ifc is of interest to have the following estimate of the late monarch's character from the pen of Mr Labouchere, editor of "Truth":—"The Servians are, with few exceptions, the most thorough scamps that exist in the habitable globe. They have acquired all the vices ot civilisation without losing those of savages. A friend of mine once advanced some money on mortgage. He never got it back ; judges, lawyers, and citizens united to rob the stranger. He changedhislawyerfrequently/butheonlyfell from Caiaphas to Pilate ; and, after a varied experience, he acquired the conviction, at the cost of several thousand pounds, that there .as not one honest man in the country. I 'pm not, therefore, surprised that these 2camps tolerate that arch scamp Milan as their king1. Milan was brought up in Paris. His proper sphere would be making canons ■en Paris billiard tables, or hanging about the roulette board at Monte Carlo. By all accounts he was an arraut coward v/hen the Servians were engaged in war" with the Bulgarians. His wife may have been foolish; but, married to such a man, ifc wag difficult to be wise. He was perpetually engaged in some intrigue, which he blazoned forth with all the pride of a ■/petit creve. He has capped his former ;exploit3 by the mode in which he has .secured his divorce. The Metropolitan, w:W has no more power to grant him a divovce than I have, hag taken the matter oub ci the Synod, and has obsequiously, and vi'.fchout even hearing the wife, pronounced a decree, and two Bishops who protested have been threatened with pains and penalties. Henry VIII. was somewhat arbitrary in vis matrimonial views, but he never ventured upon so outrageous a dsfiahce of law am/1 decency."