ART. IX.-1. Through Bosnia and the Herzegóvina on foot during the Insurrection, August and September 1875, with an Historical Review of Bosnia and a Glimpse at the Croats, Slavonians, and the Ancient Republic of Ragusa. By ARTHUR J. EVANS, B.A., F.S.A. London: 1876.

2. Correspondence respecting Affairs in Bosnia and the Herzegóvina. Presented to Parliament July 1876.

3. La Russie et la Turquie depuis le commencement de leurs relations politiques jusqu'à nos jours. Par DMITRI DE BOUKHAROW. Amsterdam: 1877.

4. Eine Türkische Reise. Von KARL BRAUN-WIESBADEN. Zwei Bände. Stuttgart: 1876.

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Ew travellers have been more fortunate in the choice of the scene of their autumnal peregrination than the writer of the volume at the head of this article. Mr. Evans repaired last year to the least known and most neglected part of Europe, though it lies within a few days' journey of the course of the Danube and the shores of the Adriatic. He took with him the qualifications of an accomplished traveller-experience of foreign lands, a multiplicity of languages at command, a store of historical and antiquarian knowledge even of extinct sovereigns and races, a taste for natural history which singularly enlivens his pages, a keen eye for the picturesque, a ready pencil, a good deal of humour, a bold heart and ready hand in emergencies, and above all a stout pair of legs and a hardy constitution, which enabled him to tramp over hills and valleys scarcely trodden by man or beast, to live on the food of a savage, and to sleep as well on the hill-side as in a Bosniak Han-which indeed is not saying much. Here are abundant materials for one of the most agreeable and instructive volumes of travels we have had the good fortune to meet with; and Mr. Evans has not failed to make the best of his opportunities. But his good fortune did not end here. He started on this journey in total ignorance of what he was to meet with. As he advanced into the country, the natural beauty of these provinces, the simplicity of their inhabitants, their past history and their present condition under a weak and incapable government, awakened in him sympathies amounting to enthusiasm; and before he left it, a popular and political movement had broken out around him, which seemed to be the harbinger of brighter and better days to a down-trodden race, and which, as it has since turned out, was of the gravest moment to the Ottoman Empire itself and to all the Powers

of Europe. As the travellers quitted Serajevo on a gloomy evening in August, the city stood out in lurid light, above the mist and darkness that enshrouded its base, an emblem of its portentous position. It is the beginning of the end,' said one of the foreign Consuls to them. Do not be surprised if you are surveying the last days of Ottoman rule in the Serai.' A year has past and the cloud has spread to the dimensions of a tempest. It lowers darkly over all the Turkish provinces in Europe and gathers around Constantinople itself. Political problems, the most difficult of solution-passions, both national and religious-war, carried on with extreme fury and atrocity, because it extends beyond the operations of regular armies, have broken loose, till they fill Europe with agitation, anxiety, and alarm. In this book we find a vivid and sympathetic picture of the origin of the contest, drawn by an eye-witness, full of the just and generous feelings of a young Englishman, and nothing certainly could be more opportune than such a publication.

Dr. Braun-Wiesbaden's sketches of Turkey, the result chiefly of his residence in Salonica, are more slight and desultory; but they are instructive and amusing. He brings vividly before his readers the extreme complexity of the problem, from the extraordinary confusion and disunion of the races and creeds of the inhabitants of these provinces, pervading their whole social life, and every branch of civil and ecclesiastical government. But he may be quoted as a fair and impartial witness of the state of the country, and we shall avail ourselves of some of his observations.*

At any other time we should have been tempted to accompany Mr. Evans at some length in his rambles through the Black Mountains, his expedition to the Latin monasteries of Guciagora and Foinica, which seem to be the least uncivilised abodes in the country, and his passage to the valley of the Narenta and the old city of Ragusa. But we must content

* Want of space alone prevents us from quoting Dr. Braun's account of the origin of the disturbances at Salonica and his very remarkable description of the Jews (Sephardim), who form nearly half the population of that city, but these curious passages would divert us too much from our present purpose. Suffice it to say, that the excitement of the Mohammedans of Salonica was caused by the intrusion of a railway official into the compartment of a carriage reserved for Mohammedan ladies, where he pulled off the yashmak and pelisse of the Bulgarian girl who was escaping in a Turkish disguise. This act set the town on fire with fanaticism and led to the murder of the Consuls.

ourselves with recommending the graphic and humorous portions of his narrative to our readers, when they make acquaintance with the pages of the author. At present, the political interest which attaches itself to Mr. Evans's observations is so strong, that they constitute the most important, if not the most amusing, portion of the book; and we shall confine ourselves for the most part to this view of the subject.

And here we would observe, that although no one can fail to be struck with the strength and unanimity of the feeling which has broken forth, like an eruption, from the very heart of the people of England on learning the horrible excesses committed by the Turkish irregular troops, and possibly by the Nizam and the Redif, in the suppression of this insurrection and the prosecution of the war-though we all share those feelings of disgust and pain, and condemn the acts of a government or an army by which such crimes could be tolerated-it appears to us that the best service that can be rendered at this time to the unfortunate victims of so much oppression and to the English public, who are anxious to release them from it, is to lay the real facts of the case before our readers. We are dealing, avowedly, with the least known part of Europe-we might almost say one of the least known parts of the worldand at the same time, a region split up and divided by strong conflicting currents of race, manners, language and religion. Hardly a speech was made, hardly an article was written, in the earlier stages of this discussion, which did not display some misapprehension of important facts, or some entire omission of essential elements of the problem. In such a state of ignorance, to which all the world must plead guilty, there can be no worse guide than vituperative eloquence. It is quite possible that the very measures recommended to punish the authors of the Bulgarian atrocities or to prevent the renewal of them (which is what we all desire), might have the effect of extending them a hundredfold. The whole of Turkey in Europe is charged with the most combustible materials; and if the fire which has broken out in one or two places spreads to the whole pile, the present generation might witness calamities which have not occurred in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. We write, therefore, under a strong and deep sense of responsibility, believing it to be the duty of every sound English politician and every rational man, not to seek to fan this flame, but if possible to extinguish it; and that the remedies which it may be possible to apply to so difficult and perilous a state of affairs are to be sought not by acts or threats of war, but upon the restoration of peace.

Almost everyone who has come forward in public to discuss this subject has begun by disclaiming party motives, or the desire to convert this calamity into a means of attack on the Government. We cannot say that the pledge has always been faithfully kept; but we agree with the Bishop of Exeter that it would be disgraceful to England to make this a party contest. The objects we have in view are national, and if they cease to be national it is only because they are absorbed in the broader interests of mankind. Lord Beaconsfield may have increased the excitement by his injudicious treatment of the question in the House of Commons; and we should have preferred that Lord Derby's declarations had been made earlier and in his place in Parliament. The Government ought to have coveted, not shunned, a full Parliamentary discussion in July. But these are details on which we shall not waste the least attention. Our sole anxiety is that a dreadful wound should be healed and a great danger averted, we care not how or by whom, so that it be done effectually. It is not by espousing vehemently the views of this or that Minister, or the cause of one or the other party in the quarrel, that an impartial judgment can be formed and a right course of action discerned. There are rights and duties on both sides, and if we are to act as mediators and advocates of peace, they must all be taken into account. Now and then, here and there, some incident recorded on the sanguinary page of war strikes the popular imagination with peculiar and overwhelming force. But if the details were fully known, every passage in warfare is atrocious to those who value human life and liberty-the very object of war being to destroy as many of our fellowcreatures as possible. War itself, between civilised nations, partakes of the refinement and restraint of civilised life. It has its laws, its usages, its alleviations. But war in the belief and practice of barbarous men is simply havoc and destruction. All means are used to kill, to crush, to terrify, to torture the enemy. They know nothing of mitigated carnage or chivalrous forbearance. The only cure for such evils is to terminate the war itself; the final responsibility for these curses of mankind rests with those who instigated and those who began the

contest.

We propose on the present occasion to confine ourselves strictly to the evidence before us as to the state and character of these countries, so long neglected by Europe, and now rising into vivid interest. The population of Bosnia is estimated at 1,211,779 souls, of whom 442,170 are Moslems, 571,756 belong

to the Eastern Church, 185,506 belong to the Latin Church, the rest being Jews or Gipsies. There is, therefore, no true element of nationality in the district, for the religious divisions of the Bosniaks are the symbols of mutual hatred. But the peculiarity which it is of especial importance to bear in mind is that this large Mohammedan population is not Turkish. In point of fact, except a few Turkish employés, whose chief duty is to maintain peace between the native inhabitants, there are no Turks in Bosnia at all. These Bosniaks are not only Mohammedans, but they are, as Vambéry assures us, the most ignorant and fanatical of Mohammedans--fatalists, absolutely opposed to all reforms, and ignorant of even the language and the text of the Koran; but they are the true and pure children of the soil, absolute Sclavonians, amounting to half a million of men, and the immemorial owners of the land. Mr. Evans tells us how this came to pass.

From the earliest days of the conquest the Turks inaugurated the policy of allowing all those natives who would accept the religion of İslam to retain their lands and belongings, and we hear at once of a son of the King of Bosnia and another of the Duke of St. Sava turning Mahometan. It is certain that though the Catholic faction among the nobility was still powerful, a large number of even the highest rank in Bosnia were infected with the Bogomilian heresy; and it is probable that many rightful heirs of ancient houses had been dispossessed for heretical opinions by the dominant Romish caste, and were willing to recover their honours by at least nominally abjuring their religion. By most, perhaps, the renegation was intended to be only temporary; they "bowed in the house of Rimmon" merely to retain their honours. Not a few of these renegade families have preserved even to the present day many of their old Christian and perhaps heretical observances; and it is whispered that there are still members of the old Bosnian aristocracy only waiting for a favourable opportunity to abjure Islàm. Certain it is that a large part of the population of Bosnia went over to Mahometanism.

Whatever were the favouring causes of this wide-spread renegation, its effect has been to afford us the unique phenomenon of a race of Sclavonic Mahometans. This must be borne in mind at the present moment, for nothing is more liable to confuse the questions at issue than to look on the Mussulman inhabitants of Bosnia and the Herzegóvina as Turks. Conventionally, perhaps, one is often obliged to do so, and I must plead guilty in this respect in the course of this work. But it should always be remembered that, with the exception of a handful of officials and a certain proportion of the soldiery, the Mahometan inhabitants of Bosnia and the Herzegóvina are of the same race as their Christian neighbours, speak the same Serbian dialect, and can trace back their title-deeds as far. It is a favourite delusion to suppose that the case of Bosnia finds a parallel in that of Serbia; that here, too, an independent Christian principality could be formed with the same

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