16 MARCH 1889, Page 3

The ex-King of Servia is extremely anxious to make it

clear that he abdicated from patriotic motives. He told the corre- spondent of the Neue Preie Presse that he felt he could not endure to be a roi faineant or constitutional sovereign, and that as his people were Radicals, he thought it best to depart, leaving power in hands which would be acceptable to the people. It is probable that King Milan acted from mixed motives, one being weariness of the struggle, and another fear for his mental health ; but his abdication, all the same, is very like a desertion. It is the very essence of hereditary monarchy that the King should never be changed except by death ; and abdication, if not a dereliction from duty, is desertion from a post.