MR. PATON ' S SERVIA.

Arrza a residence of four years in the East to study tongues and observe manners, Mr. Paton, the author of The Modern Syrians, became tired of " azure skies, bubbling fountains, Mosaic pavements, fragrant nee- shi/es," and felt a longing for European society. At Beyrout, therefore, he put himself on board a steamer for Rhodes, Smyrna, and Constanti- nople; whence be reached Varna. By land-journies and the Danube be arrived at Belgrade ; a city that served as his head-quarters for part of two years, with breaks, involving an excursion to England, and a journey through Servia, of which the once renowned Belgrade is the capital. The country or province of Servia is not without interest in its story, society, or scenery. If the reader, not already familiar with its geogra- phy, consult the map, he will perceive that it forms a part of that wild and little-known district which, extending from the Save to the frontiers of Greece, and from the Adriatic to the borders of Bulgaria and Ronmelia, las remained barbarous and isolated both in ancient and modern times : for, although nominally part of Turkey in Europe, Bosnia, Albania, Servia, Macedonia, and some smaller districts, have never yielded much more than a nominal submission to the Porte, unless through the accident of an energetic and loyal governor. For a couple of centuries, during the decline of the Byzantine empire, Servia and the adjacent districts rose, indeed, to the dignity of a kingdom : but the monarchy was over- turned by the Turks at the battle of Kosovo, in 1389, where Laser lost his kingdom and his life ; the province became subject to the Turks; and the ancient feudal nobles were gradually destroyed. As the activity and power of the Sultan declined, that of the provincial soldiery increased, and the dominant Mahometans oppressed the Christians. The brief an- nexation of Servia to Germany through the arms of Eugene, and its subsequent recovery by the Porte, still further disorganized society, though bringing it into contact with the European mind ; and this stimu- lus, with the increasing oppressions of the provincial soldiery or banditti, roused the country to revolt towards the middle of the last century. From 1767 to 1814, a desultory warfare was waged against the Turks ; which terminated in their almost total destruction. The fall of Napoleon led to the temporary triumph of the Porte ; and three hundred Servian Christians were impaled at Belgrade by the Turkish Pasha. Insurrection, 'however, again broke out; and anarchy lasted till 1830, when Servia was constituted a tributary principality to the Porte. A further Liberal revolution occurred in 1838: this gave rise to the " Servian question" of the diplomatists ; and it was finally settled by the mediation of Lord Aberdeen ; Kara Georgovich, a son of the leader of the revolt of 1767, being nominated Prince.

The condition of society in Servia, Mr. Paton says, appears to have

been of a feudal character; and its traces remain to this day, excepting the feudal lords. This unchanged character, in despite of incessant wars, may be accounted for in part by the gradual manner in which the Ser- vian nobility were destroyed, the little interference of the Turks with the social system they find established, and the stationary character of so- ciety unless it be moved by some intelligent principle—commerce, reli- gion, letters, or arts : partly by the truth that feudality, whether Ger- manic or Celtic, was a state of anarchy, whose principle was strife. Be this as it may, the present condition of Servian society in the interior is curious. Adventurers and German imitators congregate at Belgrade ; but the people are simple; intelligent, as the intelligence of a child ; homely in manners • half Oriental in costume and style of living; deriving plenty from the fertility of their soil and perhaps the thinness of popu- lation consequent upon their incessant wars; in forms resembling the middle ages ; in intellect with a turn for modern enlightenment, conse- quent upon their revolutions, their contact with Hungary, and the ap- pearance at Belgrade of some representatives of the 16 fourth estate,"— for surely the following "toast and sentiment" has that origin. "As it began to rain we entered a tavern, and ordered a fowl to be roasted, as the soup and stews of yester-even were not to my taste. A booby, with idiocy marked on his countenance, was lounging about the door; and when our mid-day meal was done, I ordered the man togive him a glass of slivovitsa, as plum brandy is called. He then came forward, trembling, as if about to receive sentence of death, and, taking off his greasy fez, said, ' I drink to our Prince Kara Georgovich, and to the progress and enlightenment of the nation.' I looked with astonish- ment at the torn wretched habiliments of this idiot swineherd. He was too stupid to entertain these sentiments himself; but this trifling circumstance was the feather which indicated how the wind blew. The Servians are by no means a nation of talkers; they are a serious people; and if the determination to rise were not in the minds of the people, it would not be on the lips of the baboon-visaged oaf of an insignificant hamlet."

The character of the scenery is equally fresh and striking ; not so grand as the Alps or the Pyrenees, or so overwhelming as the primeval forests of America, but possessing a softer kind of wildness and beauty. The province is fairly watered, intersected by highlands forming spurs of the Balkan range, and well varied by open lands and forest, the latter often thinning into such a park-like appearance that the traveller con- tinually expects to come upon a mansion ; whilst monasteries (of the. Greek religion) are met with, whose remoteness of site and strength of building bear witness to the former insecure condition of the country. Turks, or rather the shadows of Turks, remnants of the ancient con- querors, or a few ill-paid soldiers in Belgrade and other so-called for- tresses, mark the nominal superiority but real decadence of the Porte, while they give variety to the picture.

In his subject Mr. Paton has the advantage of novelty ; for tourista have not yet overrun Servia. He travelled with the benefit of the Go- vernment recommendation and the good-will of the inhabitants ; who, animated by the sentiment of the swineherd's toast, appeared delighted to see a stranger and show him the lions, though apologizing for their smallness and uncouthness. The Oriental experience of Mr. Paton, and, apparently, his knowledge of their language, were also advantages, espe- cially with the Twits ; and his smart, pleasant, vivacious, though some- what overstrained manner, sets off his matter. Servia is therefore an acquisition to our modern books of travels : but, owing perhaps to the rapid passage of the author, and his recommendations to the authorities, which kept him aloof from the people, there is something slight and un- satisfying about the work. We have motion, incident, scenery, manners, and remarks, with some miscellaneous information on the present state of Servia and its past history; but it is rather a sketch than a picture. The impression on the reader is comparatively faint, and he seems to fee/ that there is more behind. Part of this, however, may arise from the fact, that in backwardness, not backward enough to be savage, there is not a great deal to tell : for Mr. Paton's power over his pen is con- siderable—" smart," as the Americans say. Here is a sketch.

TRAITS OF EUROPE.

How different are the features of Slaavic Turkey from those of the Arabic provinces in which I so long resided. The flat roofs, the measured pace of the camel, the half-naked Negro, the uncouth Bedouin, the cloudless heavens, the tawny earth, and the meagre apology for turf, are exchanged for ricketty wooden houses with coarse tiling, laid in such a way as to eschew the monotony of straight lines; strings of primitive waggons, drawn by buffaloes, and driven by Bul- garians with black woolly caps, real genuine grass growing on the downs outside the walls 2 and a rattling blast from the Black Sea, more welcome than all the balmy spices of Arabia, for it reminded me that I was once more in Europe, and must befit my costume to her ruder airs. This was indeed the North of the Bal- kan, and I must needs pull out my pea-jacket. How I relished those winds, waves, clouds, and gray skies ! They reminded me of English nature and Dutch art. The Nore, the Downs, the Frith of Forth, and sundry dormant Backhuy- sens, reawoke to my fancy.

The moral interest, too, was different. In Egypt or Syria, where whole cycles of civilization lie entombed, we interrogate the past; here, in Bulgaria, the past is nothing, and we vainly interrogate the future.

SERVIAN ASTUTENESS.

The ramparts [of Belgrade) are in good condition; and the first object that strikes a stranger on entering, are six iron spikes, on which, in the time of the first revolution, the heads of Servians used to be stuck. Milosh once saved his own head from this elevation by his characteristic astuteness. During his al- liance with the Turks in 1814 or 1815, he had large pecuniary transactions with the Pasha, for he was the medium through whom the people paid their tribute. Five heads grinned from five spikes as he entered the castle, and he comprehended that the sixth was reserved for him; the last head set up being that of Glavash, a leader, who, like himself, was then supporting the Govern- ment: so he immediately took care to make the Pasha understand that he was about to mak out on a tour in the country, to raise some money for the Vizierial strong-box. "Peh ein," said Soliman Pasha, thinking to catch him next time and get the money at the same time: so Milosh was allowed to depart; but, knowing that if he returned spike the sixth would not wait long for its head, he at once raised the district of Rudnick, and ended the terrible war which had been under much less favourable auspices, by the more valiant but less astute Kara Georg.

(MISTRANSLATION.

The criminal code is founded on that of Austria. The civil code is a localized modification of the Code Napoleon. The first translation of the latter code wpm almost literal, and made without reference to the manners and historical ante- cedents of Servia: some of the blunders in it were laughable. Hoothigue was translated as if it had been Apothets, and made out to be a depot of drugs. When the translator was asked for the reason of this extraordinary prominence of the drag depot subject, he accounted for 'it by the consummate skill attained by France in medicine and surgery !

LAWYERS DI SERVIA.

We then came to the Skeia; and, seeing a large house within an enclosure, I asked what it was; and was told that it was the reconciliation-house, (primiritelnj sad,) a court of first instance, in which cases are decided by the village elders without expense to the litigants, and beyond which suits are seldom earned to the higher courts. There is throughout all the interior of Servia a stout opposition to the nascent lawyer class in Belgrade. I have been more than once amused on hearing an advocate, greedy of practice, style this laudable economy and patri- archal simplicity—" Avarice and aversion from civilization."

• • •

A small lawyer party is beginning in Belgrade; but they are disliked by the people, who prefer short viva voce procedure, and dislike documents. It is re- marked, that when a man is supposed to be in the right, he wishes to carry on his own suit; when he has a bad case, he resorts to a lawyer.

NATIONAL TRAITS.

The Bohemians of the middling, and poorer classes have certainly less sincerity and straightforwardness than their neighbours. An anecdote is related illustrative of the slyness of the Bohemians, compared with the simple honesty of the German and the candid unscrupulousness of the Hungarian. "During the late war, three soldiers, of each of these three nations, met in the parlour of a French inn, over the chimney-piece of which hung a watch. When they bad gone, the German said, That is a good watch; I wish I had bought it." I am sorry I

did not take it,' said the Hungarian. I have it in my pocket,' said the Bohemian."