replaced the cars of Serbia by despots tributary to the Turkish sultan. In 1459, even these vassal rulers were forced to cross the Danube; in 1485, the last Serbian freemen had entrenched themselves among the mountains of Zeta; but none of these changes affected the succession of the Ipek patriarchs, with whom the Porte concluded the same terms as with those of Bulgaria and of Constantinople.

It was not till 1646 that the Turks felt themselves able to break even this contract with the Serb Christians, and to carry off the Patriarch Gabriel Raic, and hang him at Broussa. Henceforth, the Serb prelates felt that the Mahometan yoke was no longer to be borne.

At

The Emperors of Germany were at this time making preparations for war with Turkey, and called on the Serbians to rise. Maxim, the successor of Gabriel, took active measures in the cause. Adrianople he met George Brankovic, the last scion of the last despot, and solemnly consecrated him leader of the Serbs. On his return to Ipek, Maxim suddenly died, happy in not witnessing the wreck of his hopes. His task devolved on Arsenius Crnojevic, a scion of the princely Vlastela (nobles) of Zeta, who ever defied Mahometan rule. To him the Emperor of Germany proposed to induce his flock to cross the Danube, and settle on the ravaged lands in Hungary, promising that they should return to their ancient homes as soon as the Turks could be expelled.

Arsenius believed the imperial word, and himself headed the emigration with 37,000 families. These were the remnant of valour and wealth in Central Serbia; they left their land, not as colonists, but to aid the arms of the German emperor, at that time the rampart of Christendom. For generations they fought the Turk with their own weapons, at their own charges, and ransomed the north bank of the Danube with their blood. Need it be said that the House of Hapsburg rewarded them with broken faith and treachery-that it neither conquered back for them their

on which they settled within its realm? Meanwhile, the regions abandoned by these emigrants fell into the possession of Mussulmans, and the wild Arnaut of Upper Albania made his home on the plains of Metochia and Kossovo.

The Porte, fearful lest the whole Serb population should pass over to Austria, hastily presented a Greek monk to the patriarchal chair; but from this time forward the patriarchate at Ipek received but divided recognition from the Serbs. In 1737, the Emperor of Germany repeated his call to arms. Arsenius IV. (Iovanovic) attempted to lead another detachment of emigrants. But, this time, the Turkish government was aware of the plan. The leader was intercepted and thrown into prison, from which he owed his liberation to the pity of a Turkish woman. The greater part of the emigrants perished.

After this, the Porte went about to destroy the Serb patriarchate. First, two Greek monks were appointed, who gathered together its treasures and sold them; and, when a Serb gained the chair, the Turks took occasion of his first journey to seize him at Belgrade and carry him off to Stamboul. Once more a Greek monk, and then the Patriarchate of Ipek was abolished. The Serb congregations in Turkey were deprived of their autonomy, and placed directly under the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Perhaps there is nothing more deplorable in the history of the Greek Church than the use it made of this extended jurisdiction. Wisely applied, here was a means by which the resolute and strong-handed Serbian might have become content to find his spokesman in the eloquent and intelligent Greek; nobly used, here was a channel through which the learning and European relations of the Greek might help forward and civilize the Serb. That neither wisdom nor nobility dictated the acts of a patriarch of Constantinople-trembling under the Ottoman's paw, removable at his pleasure, dependent for position on bribes to his slaves-this may be understood and excused. But that, of his

Eastern Church should appoint to his Serb flocks Greek bishops, unacquainted with the Slavonic language; that those bishops should hold Greek service in churches founded by Serb kings; that despite should thus be thrown on all traditions of intercourse between Greeks and Serbs in the days of freedom, and the very tongue and name of Greek be rendered odious to his brother in captivity-surely this was unlike the sagacity of the wiliest of peoples. The result might be foreseen. Throughout the Slavonic provinces the Greek bishop became enrolled in the same category as the Turkish governors; and, when a million of Serbs secured to themselves autonomous administration, they placed their relation to the Ecumenical patriarch on the same footing as their vassalage to the Padishah.

Between 1765 and 1830, the Serbian Church has resolved itself into the four divisions already noticed. Of that in the autonomous Principality more than one account has already been published by English clergymen.

As for the patriarchate in Austria, it stands at present an empty chair. The last occupant was chosen in 1848, when the emperor had need of Serbian support. He defers sanctioning a fresh election until he shall need that support

anew.

The orthodox Serb communities in Turkey number somewhere about a million and a half. Their condition is that of a flock whose blood is sucked by its shepherd. Throughout Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Stara Srbia, we found all the bishops Greeks. One only was present in his diocese, and he had but lately returned from Constantinople to squeeze from the wretched peasants that revenue which his compeers were staying in Constantinople to spend. default of payment, the Turkish authorities are invoked to extort the bishop's dues; and the minor clergy, fleeced by their superiors, are constrained to sell every rite of the Church. One peasant affirmed that the corpse of his brother had been left lying in his house until

In

to bury it-two gold ducats paid in advance.

It need scarce be said that the interest of a Greek prelate in his Serb congregation does not extend to supporting its school; and, under all circumstances, it it marvellous that the people ever think of starting one. The orthodox communities of Bosnia and Stara Srbia-a thin population in a mountainous country— lack even those incitements to progress which penetrate to the numerous wealthy Bulgarians. But the idea of education, as of religion, is entwined for the Serbs with that of nationality. While the Slavonic and Albanian Mussulman is called Turk, and the Catholic Latin, the orthodox Christian retains his national name, and his faith is dear to him as Srbska vera. In like manner, he knows education is an attribute of his brethren who are free. The man who starts a Serb school in Turkey is always one who has been in the Principality. And be it remarked that the Stara Srbians, though fewer and poorer, are zealous than the Bosniacs. In Bosnia, the Christian is the villein of a renegade aristocracy; in Stara Srbia his selfrespect is fostered by the presence of monuments of his nation's empire, and he looks down on the arrogant Mussulman as, after all, nothing but a robber Arnaut.

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We visited the schools in Sarayevo, Mostar, Vissoko, Travnik, Tusla, Svornik, Novi Pasar, Pristina, Ipek, Djakova, and Prizren. Sarayevo, a town of 60,000 inhabitants, has the only school of any size; and it is but a normal school-a speaking contrast to Belgrade, which numbers but one-third of its population. Girls' schools are to be met with only in Sarayevo, Ipek, Mostar, and Prizren; and in the two latter the teacher is almost illiterate. In every instance they are due to the zeal of native women of the poorest class-women who, having accidentally learned to read from some clerical relative, never cease trying to provide instruction for their countryfolk. The Russian traveller and author, Hilferding, deserves the thanks of civilized

and other benevolent persons to send some help to these female schools. The Russian Government scarce troubles itself to encourage them; and this is perhaps fortunate, lest some British ambassador should make it his business to have them closed. As for the Serb Government of the Principality, it literally dares not let its left hand know when the right is spreading instruction beyond the frontier. Nevertheless, the school in Sarayevo was founded on a

donation from Serbia, and now and then some timely help is given. But the great benefit for the Serbs in Turkey is the printing of good and cheap schoolbooks at Belgrade. Everywhere we found them in use. It is hard to see how Christians in Bosnia and Stara Srbia could provide instruction for their children, but for the books of geography, arithmetic, and reading which merchants smuggle across the frontier. M. J.

Ir seems to be still a matter of doubt with many, whether the new mines have actually diminished the purchasing power of gold, or have only contributed the additional currency required by the increase of the world's commodities and trade. Fortunately for those who care to pursue the inquiry, the very causes which, by their complexity and fluctuating character, make it vain to seek an exact measure of the effect of the new gold on prices, are in themselves subjects of great interest; for the history of prices is interwoven with the history of the progress and fortunes of mankind. Several writers on the gold question have drawn conclusions from the fall in the value of both the precious metals after the discovery of America; but, without a careful comparison of the economical conditions of that epoch and the present, no sort of inference can be rationally made; and the comparisonone might say the contrast-abounds in instruction apart from the light it throws

1 Some have concluded that a similar fall should be looked for now; while others, adopting Adam Smith's opinion that the American mines produced no discernible effect upon prices in England before 1570, lean to the contrary inference that a long period must elapse before the metallic discoveries of this age can make any perceptible change in

on the monetary problem. The proper region of money is the region of industry, roads, navigation, and trade; and prices approach to equality as these are improved, as men become equally civilized, and as political disorders cease to interrupt human intercourse and prosperity. At this day, in the most civilized countries, the precious metals serve two masters-war and commerce; but in those least civilized they serve none. The currents from the mines may vibrate through a third of the habitable globe, but they have no conductors through more than half of Asia and South America, or through almost the whole of Africa. In the sixteenth century, the bulk of the people of Europe itself could seldom, if ever, have touched a coin from the mines of Mexico or Peru. There was no even distribution through Christendom of the treasure which the Spaniards tore from the New World; and on this and other accounts prices rose unequally in different places, and not at all in some. In the chief towns of Spain they seem to have risen even before the fifteenth century had closed; and in the Netherlands their ascent was much earlier than in England, where the state of the currency before 1560, and the drain consequent on its debasement.

the Government, both retarded and concealed the first symptoms of the falling value of the precious metals. During the first sixteen years after the mine of Potosi was opened, although prices measured in base coin rose rapidly in England, they rose in no proportion to the increase of silver and gold in the world. There was, as it were, a hole in the English purse; and the ancient fine coin of the realm ran out into the foreigner's hands as fast as the new base coin was poured in (just as eagles and dollars have been driven from the American States by the issues of paper). Moreover, war with France and Scotland drew much money out of England, and most of the treasure netted upon trade was hoarded or made into plate. But with Elizabeth came peace with France and a reformation of the currency; silver flowed fast into the Royal Mint; old fine coin returned into the market; and prices, instead of falling in proportion to the improvement of the currency, continued to rise,2 because the new issues exceeded the old, and the increase of commodities, great as it was, did not keep pace with the increase of money and men in the most prosperous parts of the country. One Englishman alone, however, down to 1581, seems to have connected the phenomenon of extraordinary dearness in the midst of extraordinary plenty, which was the common

1 In 1545. The increase of the precious metals before that year was not considerable.

2 It has been argued that, if the currency had been mainly composed of base coin before 1560, prices must have fallen immediately upon its reform by Elizabeth, on account of the greater quantity of silver in each piece of the new money; and that the fact of their not having risen proves that much older and better coin was in circulation all along, forming the real standard of accounts. But the truth is that the old fine coins did not remain in circulation; if they had, prices would have been higher than they were during the base issues, because the total quantity of money current would have been greater. Prices depend on the quantity of money in proportion to commodities-not on its quality

whether it be made of metal or paper. Prices accordingly in England before 1560 rose in proportion to the increase of base

complaint, with the mines of the New World. With others it was a cry of class against class, for covetousness, extortion, extravagance, and luxury; and of all classes against the landlords for exorbitant rents and enclosures. The complaint against enclosures, that they fed sheep instead of men, was no new one; it had been a popular grievance for more than a century, and a subject of legislation before the discovery of America. A recent writer, nevertheless, supposes that at the period of Stafford's Dialogues, "the foreign demand spring"ing from the increased supply of the precious metals fell principally upon "wool. The price of wool accordingly rose 66 more rapidly than that of other indus"trial products in England; the profits "of sheep-farming outran the profits of "other occupations, and the result was "that extensive conversion of arable land "into pasture which the interlocutors in "the Dialogues' describe, and which "was undoubtedly the proximate cause "of the prevailing distress."2 But the

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1 William Stafford, the author of the famous "Dialogues," published in 1581. Mr. Jevons is mistaken in supposing that Stafford overlooked the increase of the precious metals from America, and attributed the rise of prices entirely to the baseness of the currency before 1560. He says that, "With the alteration of the coin began the dearth" (i.e. dearness); and then, in answer to the question, "Why prices fall not back to the old rate now that coin hath been restored to its former purity?"-after observing that rents contracted under the old currency still continued -he says: "Another cause I conceive to be the great plenty of treasure which is walking in these parts of the world, far more than our forefathers have seen. Who doth not understand of the infinite sums of gold and silver which are gathered from the Indies and other countries, and so yearly transferred into these coasts?" &c. &c.-See Harl. Misc, vol. ix.

2 "Political Economy as a Branch of General Education." By J. E. Cairnes, Esq. It is immaterial to the point in question above, but not to the monetary history of the period, to observe that unmanufactured wool was then far from being the chief export of England, and that the loom was then as now England's chief mine. But, had the price of wool been disproportionately high, and led to the growth of sheep in place of corn, the price of mutton should have been comparatively low, whereas its price, like that of beef, was extravagantly

truth is, that corn was not, as this theory assumes, at once comparatively scarce and comparatively cheap; the real paradox is, that it was, like other articles of food, extraordinarily plentiful in the country, and extraordinarily dear in and near the capital and chief towns.1 England had become rich both in money and in commodities, but not in roads and means of carriage; and wool had risen only with all other produce of the realm within reach of the chief markets. The gains of the wool-grower were not greater than those of the clothier, the hatter, the shoemaker, the blacksmith, the butcher, the baker, or the tillage farmer, in most places near the chief centres of increasing population and trade.

Be

fore the New World was discovered, and down to the eve of Elizabeth's reign, the extension of pasture had caused much real distress. But, for a generation before the "Dialogues," tillage had increased and prospered; and the popular charge against the landlords had become an anachronism. Poverty and suffering, it is true, still existed

1 "Albeit," says the historian of that age, "there be much more ground eared now almost in every place than hath been of late years, yet such a price continueth in each town and market that the artificer and poor labouring man is not able to reach unto it, but is driven to content himself with horse corn; I mean beans, peas, oats, tares, and lentils.'

Harrison's Description of Great Britain. And again," There are few towns in England that have not their weekly markets, whereby no occupier shall have occasion to travel far off with his commodities, except it be to seek for the highest prices, which commonly are near unto great cities." And the knight in the "Dialogues" says: "I say it is long of you husbandmen that we are forced to raise our rents, by reason we must buy so dear all things we have of you, as corn, cattle, goose, pig, chicken, butter, and eggs. Cannot you, neighbour, remember that I could in this town buy the best pig for fourpence, which now costeth twelvepence. It is likewise in greater ware, as beef or mutton."

"Cer

2 One cause of corn being cheap in some places was that the gains of the farmer had stimulated agriculture and produced unusual abundance. Harrison accordingly says: tainly the soil is now grown to be much more fruitful than in times past. The cause is that our countrymen are grown to be much more painful and skilful through recompense of

side by side with rapidly increasing wealth, but not through the scarcity of corn. Food of all sorts, though abundant in the country, was dear beyond precedent in and around the places where the population had multiplied fastest. The old feudal and ecclesiastical economy of society had broken up; monasteries and noble houses no longer maintained swarms of serfs, and paupers, and waiting and fighting-men; the nobility and gentry were deserting the country for the town; a long peace, while it had swelled the general numbers of the people, had extinguished the calling of the soldiers; and labourers seeking bread were gathering to the chief centres of employment and wealth. The dearness of provisions in and within reach of the markets where the competition of mouths was thus greatest, was caused not by a decrease of tillage, nor yet by the increase of money alone, but in part by the fact that the increasing supplies which were wanted were drawn at an extravagant cost of carriage from a few limited districts, pack-horses being the principal means of transport from the country to the town. For a similar reason food is now extravagantly dear at the mines of British Columbia, and not merely on account of the plenty of gold, for it is cheaper at San Francisco than in London. The price of meat was even more unequal than that of bread in town and country generally, because there were few roads by which cattle could be driven to market. Corn was, as it still is, more portable than fresh meat; but the means of carrying even corn were so scanty and costly that it was often at a famine price in one place and cheap in another not far off. Wool, again, was more portable than corn, and might be sent to market with profit from districts too remote to supply corn or fresh meat. These circumstances explain the inconsistency of statements in the "Dialogues" and other writings of that period, respecting the prices of corn and meat, and the numbers of the population. Cheapness and dearness, plenty and scarcity, of corn