22 DECEMBER 1888, Page 2

Affairs in Servia are in a most ticklish condition. The

peasantry, inflamed partly by rumours of the King's designs, and partly by promises as to the tenure, have decided as a body for the Radical Party ; and out of 402 Members sent up to the Constituent Assembly, only two are Conservative, all the rest being Radicals or Liberals. Both are Russophil, though in different degrees, and both desire to vest the control of foreign policy in the Parliament. To this King Milan will not consent, and he demands that his Constitution shall be passed or rejected en bloc. The Radical leaders, who are acquainted with the foreign situation of the country, have assented to this ; but it is doubtful if their followers will, and if they do not, King Milan must either govern with a state of siege—i.e., proclaim a military tyranny—or abdicate in favour of his son, for whom Queen Natalie would be Regent. The prevailing impression in Vienna is that the King will win, as he always has done ; but when the Deputies meet, a burst of popular emotion may carry away the Army with it. The King, it must be remembered, is not a successful, or even an eminent soldier.