10 MARCH 1877, Page 1

A correspondent of the Manchester Guardian, whom we have reason

to believe entirely trustworthy, reports from the Bosnian frontier that matters were never less like settling down. The Christian insurgents hold a mountain district of 2,000 square miles, and declare that they will make of it "a second Monte- negro;" while the plains are terrorised by the Mahommedan Beys, till the 200,000 refugees now protected in Austria, Servia, and Montenegro, though starving, absolutely refuse to return. They have only twopence a day each, and the scenes of misery among them are appalling. The writer calculates that on the conclusion of the armistice, the passes of mountain Bosnia will be defended by 5,000 men, who could by a few gifts of arms be easily raised to 20,000. He affirms that the Bashi- Bazouks are regularly let loose in Bosnia, plunder the villages, and kill women and unarmed men. There is not the slightest idea among the insurgents of submission, and they will certainly not be conciliated by the new Turkish order, just reported by telegraph from Belgrade, to raise 140,000 by forced loan from the rayahs of Bosnia, or Christian peasants only. The " forced loan" is, of course, a mere exaction, and the Bashi-Bazonks will levy twenty times the sum in jewels, household articles, and provisions.