SERVIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1296, 30 September 1876, Page 21

SERVIA.

Servia is about one 7 fif th smaller than Scotland, and sparsely inhabited by 1,352,000 inhabitants. Like Scotland^ it is a' land of mountains. On' the southwest the mountains consist of offshoots-of ,thp Dinaric Alps,, and elsewhere the branches of the Balkan chain. One of ■these, gathered into a knotty group in the centre of the country, forms the Rudrik. Mountains. Another, running northwards, meets, a range of the Carpathians, and with' it forms the " Iron, Gates " 'of the Danube. Nothing can exceed the wildnesa and stern sublimity of this cele- 5 brated portal, through which , the great river flows. Generally speaking, Servia i is traversed from south to north by extenj sive mountain ridges. These form valleys, which nowhere expand into plains. In its physical features, th,e country is not I unlike Bosnia and Herzegovina, but with t its green and well-wooded hills, it is in striking contrast to the bare and sterile region of Montenegro. As Montenegro was the unconquered remnant of the old Servian Empire, therefore the little print cipality in the Black Mountains may, in that sense, be held as its truest representative. Modern Servia, however, on account alike of name, resources, and geographical position; claims continuity of national life with the .Servia of the fourteenth • century; The motto of the princes of the present house of Obrenovitqh is,, "Time and, my right." Thoir arms represent a white .cross on a , red fijeld, and on the cross are .inscribed*, two. 1 'dates, 'l3B9 — 1815 ;■ between them lies &< 'drawn sword. • The firat date cdmme'morates the fatal fight of Kossoya, when the .

Servians, overthrown . by the Ottoman became a subject people ; the second , marks ithe year when Milosh Obrenovitch went from his dwelling among the moun- . tains of the interior to the church of Takovo to raise anew the standard of revolt. The drawn sword between the dates may be taken to indicate that the attitude of the subject Serbs on the Danube during four long centuries of Turkish rule was not one of servile submission, but of a nourished antagonism. What gives importance to the revolt of 1815 is that it resulted in the permanent acknowledgment of Servia by the Porte as a selfgoverning, though still tributary, power, under native rulers. Seryia, restored to the Serbs, brought back with it. the hope at some, future time of entire independence, and of an extension of territory co-extensive with that of the old Servian ,' kingdom. Nor do the free and warlike ' inhabitants of the, Black Mountain entertain any jealousy of the national aspirations of their 'brethren on- the Danube. The two Serb powers are in close alliance, and between the families of the respective princes there exists a cordial' friendship.