which, be it remarked justice or injustice, may at any time equally be obtained. But it is certain that in ordinary cases the evidence of twenty Christians would be outweighed by that of two Mussulmans. The Turks have naturally shown little zeal, except under European pressure, in carrying out the design, which, taking from the Kadis the decision of all disputes between Christians and Mussulmans, and referring such cases to the Medjliss, threatens to destroy the essentially Turkish institution of the Mehkemes. In each of the Medjliss of Serajevo there are four or six Mussulmans; one, sometimes two Pravoslavs, one Roman Catholic, and one or two Jews. A knowledge of Turkish is necessary, as the proceedings are wholly conducted in that language. The influence of the non-Mussulmans is very small, and the office is most unpopular among the Pravoslavs, on account of the contempt with which they are liable to be treated by the Mussulman majority. Such being the state of things, the position of the Christian towards the Mussulman remains intolerable. The hereditary insolence of the Mussulman Bosnian is met by the hereditary cringing of the rayah. It will take some generations of a better system than the present to restore to the rayah the virtues of the free. As an instance of Turkish insolence, under the eyes of the European Consuls in Serajevo, where the Turks are on their best behaviour, I will give the following anecdote. A Dervish, named Hadji Loy, met in the road near the town of Serajevo, a Pravoslav priest on horseback. He ordered him to dismount, telling him, "Bosnia is still a Mahommedan country, do you not see that a Turk is passing? Dismount, instantly!" Three different times he met the same priest, and obliged him to get off his horse. This Dervish also forced a whole wedding party of Roman Catholics to pass him on foot. This happened in 1871, and that same year in Serajevo itself, a Christian boy of eighteen was stabbed by a Mussulman, who escaped in the midst of the market-place, in the presence of numerous Turks and Zaptics. I have been told terrible stories of cruelties occurring in distant parts of the Province. I refrain from relating these stories, for I was unable to enquire into them, the recital being always accompanied with entreaties of secrecy. The wretched.

Christians dared not complain. They dared not tell any one who they thought could make their case known, because of the certain vengeance

with which they would be treated. is telling his own tale to Europe. of bitter wrong and suffering.

But now the poor Bosnian rayah Let him be heard; it is a true tale

A. P. IRBY.

Congress Notes.

BY AN ASSOCIATE.

WITH the first fall of the leaf, and the passage of harvest come the self-constituted Parliaments which are the raison d'être of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. Both are sneered at by the Philistine world; both survive, though one less vigorously than the other, the passive opposition with which a cold-hearted public regard them. The year 1875 will be remembered by its dull congresses, the Social Science Meeting at Brighton being, without exception, the most dismal ever known since the Society, full of promise, and with a brave flourish of trumpets, began its career. But this is to anticipate. Let me write down a few impressions left upon my mind by these congresses.

Bristol comes first in order. On the whole, we had a very pleasant time in the quaint comfortable old city of the west. The British Association is far from a model society, but it is in every respect superior to its less practical sister. The British Association, it has always struck me, represents things done. The Social Science Association things said. Of course in this world we must have both doing and talking, but the doer is generally better esteemed than the talker.

Is it because of this distinction that the British Association puts more common sense into its management, and more descision into its administration, than the other body? Let the cause be what it may, there certainly is no comparison between the clear-headed arrangements made at Bristol, and the loose-fisted management at Brighton.

The inhabitants of Bristol threw themselves into the scheme with praiseworthy thoroughness, and the local committee were neither mean nor idle. All that Bristol could do to make the meeting a success was done by the ordinary inhabitants, by the enterprising gentlemen who formed themselves into a committee, and by the mayor and corporation, and other public bodies. It was a severe test to Bristol that another B. had to be brought into comparison with it, namely Belfast, where the success of every department was so pronounced; but finally, when we had packed up our baggage and driven down Park Street on our way to the ugly ill-managed Bristol terminus, we were forced to admit that the comparison could he fairly borne. Clifton, as all who have dwelt in it know, is a delightful suburb. During the British Association week we saw it at its best. The early autumn suits it well. There were certain flowers and shrubs which appeared to have kept back their riper glories until we arrived. Magnolias, myrtles, fuschias, and geranium s were bounteous to behold; the shrubberies which are Clifton's crown were in the hey day of foliage and colour. The weather was fine. The prospects from the rocky height, partaking largely as they do of woodland scenery, were mellow, bright, and always clear. The lodging-house people were attentive, and, marvel of marvels, conscientious, never dreaming of raising their charges fifty per cent by way of showing their hospitality to strangers, as the lodging-housekeepers of other towns do. As to private hospitality, the less said about it the better. The fashion, if the truth must be whispered, has died out. Well do I remember a decade ago how the well-to-do inhabitants of the towns at which we met vied with each other in their efforts to entertain us. They would send in a request that so many visitors might be sent to them; the fact of their being visitors and members was held a sufficient passport to the open door. What friendships were formed in those days! We have none of this enjoyment There is generally a scramble for the most eminent, that is to say the most popular members, men whose names are well-known to the world, whose names, in point of fact, will shed radiance on the host who succeeds in bagging them when it is duly announced in the

now.

local paper that the great gun is housed within his walls. I should not like to call that hospitality; yet that is the sort of thing to which what used to be termed "private hospitality" has been reduced. Perhaps it is best so; only don't let us have platform votes of thanks and speeches for what is not. Bristol, to be sure, was better than Brighton, but after all, as I have taken the liberty to remark, the less said about this subject the better.

Do you ask what one remembers of the addresses, papers, speeches? Then you have me there. Beyond a general impression that it was all right and pleasant, I can tell you nothing from memory. Sir John Hawkshaw's inaugural address I could not hear, being eight rows from the front, but it read extremely well in print, and to persons who take an intelligible interest in civil engineering, must be a very valuable pamphlet to keep upon the shelf devoted to odds and ends of literature. As for the other presidential addresses, the Association perseveres in their incorrigible habit of having them delivered simultaneously, or, as the Daily News put it, discharged in a volley. From all I could gather by pestering my friends with questions, there was not much lost at Bristol by one's natural inability to be in several places at once. Do not misunderstand me; the addresses were very far from worthless, but they were terribly technical, and although there were some ladies at the meeting who amazed the savants by their love and comprehension of the deepest scientific lore, I must confess a preference for subjects that lie more upon the surface. There was one address that charmed every hearer; it was by Professor Rolleston, in the anthropological department of the Section of Biology. That morning stands out like an obelisk in my remembrance of the Bristol week. It would not be easy to forget the Professor's earnest eloquence, the telling sentences, the instantaneous and strong sympathy between the speaker and his audience. Apart from this there was no really "moving" presidential utterance.

Amongst the debates the most exciting occurred in the section of Economy and Trade. It was here that the discussion was raised by Mrs. Crawshay's paper on "Lady Helps," and here also the few ladies