Herr von Balky, the Austrian Finance Minister, on Novem- ber
6th made a most rose-coloured speech to the Hungarian
Delegation, on the condition of Bosnia. The local taxation, he said, was now equal to the local expenditure, and the cost of the garrison was reduced to £730,000 a year. The recruiting had been successful even in Herzegovina, only forty-five having fled out of 3,200. The cadastral survey would be completed by next year, and the administration of justice had been thoroughly reformed. The district magistrates had been empowered to settle three-fourths of all cases summarily, with the aid of two jurors elected by the Commune, and this rough- and-ready plan had found great favour with the people. The effort to protect Catholicism had also been relaxed, and the State had not only endowed a seminary for the Orthodox Greek Clergy, but .had established a college for the Mussulman Ulema in Serajevo itself. This is, of course, only an official account ; but the new plan for distributing justice looks able, and the Delegation appear to have recognised the new lenity in the Administration. There was, however, a refusal to transmute the tithe, which is levied on the crop and interferes with agriculture, into a land-tax.
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