The Telegraph asserts that the Porte has assented to twelve
reforms in Bosnia and the Herzegovina. These reforms consist of the abolition of forced labour, the substitution of a land-tax in money for a tithe in kind, the appointment of Christian Deputy- Governors under Governors who may be Christian, the collection of taxes by the parishes, and the creation of Provincial Councils, in which Christians will have seats, and which will be allowed to legislate subject to the Sultan's veto. These reforms, the aboli tion of payments in kind excepted, are all illusory, because all depend on the action of Constantinople, which will always evade redress. Midhat Pasha, the Minister of Justice, tried to make them real, declaring in the Divan for an elected Council at Constantinople to regulate all affairs ; but his proposal was, of course, rejected, as inconsistent with the Sultan's authority, and Midhat Pasha resigned. The difficulty in Turkey is not to get reforms promised, but to obtain some guarantee that they will, when granted, be carried out. Turkish subjects say only one guarantee is worth anything, and that is autonomy, with its corol- lary, the right of Christians to enroll themselves in a provincial militia. 'Then oppression ceases, because oppressors are hurt.
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