DE LAVELEYE'S "BALKAN PENINSULA."
Ix the light of recent events in South-Eastern Europe, this record of a journey over somewhat beaten tracks, undertaken a couple of years ago by M. de Laveleye, furnishes us with some very instructive reading. Whatever weight the well-known Belgian publicist may or may not carry in the field of practical politics, his position as a political economist is such as to entitle him to a respectful hearing when he brings his trained intellect to bear upon the social and economic problems of the countries through which he passes, and he has let few opportunities escape him of possessing himself of information. Agriculture, manufactures, domestic industries, forestry, currency, communications, and above all, the different systems of land tenure, successively form the subject of digressions which are never weari- some, and with a little editing and correction, might stand as models of industry and observation. Without any strong sense of humour or straining after epigrammatic effect, M. de Laveleye often arrests our attention with a sentence which summarises a whole situation, or demolishes an unsound theory by a happy use of the reductio ad absurdum, or of a carefully veiled and not ill-natured sarcasm. Good instances of this neatness of expression are to be found in his finding the ex- planation of the strength of Prussia in "l'esprit de suite et l'aviditS, la passion des perfectionnements, poursuivis jusqne dans lea moindres (Mails," followed by the antithesis, which we, alas ! have reason to appreciate, that "le manque d'esprit de suite eat une cause de faiblesse pour lea democraties." Again, at Wfirzburg, in just rebuke of the pomp and luxury of the old Prince Bishops, he calls them " aveugles par le sophisme qui fait croire que le luxe de qui jonit eat utile k qui travaille erreur funeste !" And in Servia, commenting on the discomfort of an autocrat's life, he uses the very happy expression,—'. On pent s'appuyer sur des balonnettes, mais on ne pent pas s'asseoir dessus."
The author was, on the whole, fortunate in the introductions he obtained to statesmen and men of mark wherever he went, and his discussion of Schopenhauer's philosophy with Ludwig Noir4 at Wifrzburg, his interviews with Counts Taaffe and Kalnoky, the visit he paid at Djakovo to Bishop Strossmayer, the great Croat protagonist, are recorded in detail, and give a vivid picture of the personality of his interlocutors. As he got further south, however, M. de Laveleye seems to have fallen rather into the hands of partisans, and, as we shall see later, his judgments are often warped by the medium through which he was compelled to see. Keen though his powers of observation may be, the Western traveller, whose knowledge of Eastern
• La Peninsula dts Balkans, &a. By Emik de Laveleye. 2 vols. Brussels: Yoqoardt.
affairs is almost entirely theoretical, is always liable to he misled by the plausibility of his official guide, whose statements be is unable to control from want of acquaintance with the local conditions and language.
Perhaps unfortunately for his reputation in England, M. de Laveleye has allowed his name to be identified with a knot of somewhat sentimental literary politicians, whose views on Eastern subjects are certainly not those of the majority in any class with which we are acquainted. It is with an agreeable sense of relief, then, that we find him in the present volumes deliberately renouncing some of the most important articles of their faith,—condoning, for example, the occupation of Bosnia by Austria, while he insists on Servia's incapacity to take over so great a heritage; almost apologising for Hungarian chau- vinism, and denouncing the Panslav ideal as chimerical, and the Russian policy in the East as misguided and deceitful. It is only when he comes to talk of the European provinces of Turkey that he shows himself uncompromising in his fanatical hostility to any shape or form of Turkish rule. Far be it from us to champion the Ottoman administration, which we yet hope to see banished from all those provinces where a Christian majority shows signs of national life; yet we must point out that there is such a thing as heartless indifference to the fate of a long-suffering Turkish rural population. "Two hundred thousand of them have gone," says M. de Laveloye with a light heart, referring to the Turkish peasantry of Bulgaria ; "let us not pity them, but let them go. Their houses and lands are sold for a song,—a blessing for those who buy." And in another passage, speaking of the ruined Turkish quarter of Sofia, sacked and burnt by Bulgar and Cossack, he says, with characteristic, euphemism, that the houses have fallen into ruin, or have been bought and demolished. Those who witnessed the heartrending miseries of the Turkish refugees from Bulgaria will agree that a word of sympathy would not have been thrown away here.
"Jo tie veux pas refaire Baedeker," says M. de Laveleye, desirous of sparing us descriptions of too well-known things and peoples ; and his narrative passes lightly over Germany and Austria, with an occasional pregnant reflection, such as that upon the contrast of the Rhine and the Danube, or the great principle of nationality suggested by the struggle now going forward in Austria. His summary of this question is excel- lent. The autocrat could govern twenty different nationalities successfully ; but with the reign of popular assemblies, all that has changed. Language must govern, the language of the people, and Parliament, the Law Courts, and schools are bound to adopt the tongue of the majority, whence must arise in mixed com- munities endless bickerings and confusions, unless or until the people can find full satisfaction in a language of election, con- venience, and tradition. The conversation with Count Taaffe, whose tendency is embodied in the phrase, "the satisfaction of all by sacrificing the rights of none," suggests the contradiction which is apparent between Austria's home and foreign policy, the former favouring local Slavic movements, and the latter opposing them, even at the risk of popularising Russia ; and the explanation is found in the preponderance of the Hungarians in the Imperial Cabinet. M. de Laveleye surprises us by the very high opinion he forms of Hungarian statesmanship, and the "allure vive et decidee" with which it has impressed Austrian policy,a briskness and decision which were hardly manifest in the invertebrate attitude of Austria during the events of last autumn and winter. Count Kalooky, for his part, disclaimed to M. de Laveleye all ideas of conquest, excepting of a pacific kind, or ulterior designs on Macedonia, and we are disposed to agree with the author in believing him.
A visit to Bishop Strossmayer at Djakovo furnished the opportunity for a close study of the " Zadruga " system of village communities, in which much is found to commend ; but in Croatia, as elsewhere, the march of civilisation is leading to the breaking. up of these old-world institutions, with which are vanishing also the primitive virtues and picturesque national costumes, driven out by sophistication and shoddy " reach-me- downs." His host's lifelong devotion to the Croat national cause, and his vivid personal qualities, seem to have somewhat obscured M. de Laveleye's judgment, for be offers no word of adverse criticism on those of his acts and utterances which have undoubtedly prejudiced the cause of which he is the champion. If the future of the Southern Slays depends upon a good understanding between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, Strossmayer's activity in propaganda has done much to render such an understanding difficult, and the Orthodox Slays have loudly expressed their resentment of Papal interference. The question of the substitution of the Latin for the Cyrillic alpha, bet, trifling though it appears, is still a religions one, and, as such, would meet with strenuous opposition from the Orthodox, justified, from the practical point of view, by the superiority of expression of the Cyrillic alphabet. The way in which the eloquent Prelate's zeal for his cause exceeds his discretion is shown by the quotation from his Pastoral letter of 1880, addressed to the "Slays, who are called to regenerate the societies of the West," an assumption rather likely to provoke amusement than hostility in those societies.
A journey through Bosnia to Serajevo, and a few days passed there, were enough to convince M. de Laveleye of the necessity for Austria's occupation of Bosnia, and the good work she is doing there. Here the difficulties of adapting Western civilisa- tion to the needs of a partly Mussulman country can be best seen and studied. Some of these problems have been solved, and others await solution ; but the services rendered by Austrian civil and military officers, the fairness shown to the different religious confessions, the judicial reforms and improved com- munications, all meet a hearty recognition from the author, who even goes so far as to admit that he was wrong in regretting the introduction of the conscription, seeing the educational value of military service in a country like Bosnia,—a great admission for one who is professedly a member of the Peace Society, though evidently not a bigot. Returning to Croatia, he examines the Croats' grievances against their Hungarian rulers, some of which appear exaggerated or purely imaginary. The real difficulty, of course, is the incompatibility of their national ideas, the Croat pining for a great Serbo-Croatia as an equipoise to Hungary. So long as their opposition is split into three sections, with totally different programmes, the Magyar has not much to fear; but M. de Laveleye does well to point out the danger which might result from persisting in the attempt to Magyarise Croatia by force, and so creating a vicious enemy on Hungary's flank in the event of any conflict with Austria proper. Deak's prin- ciple of Gleichberechtigung appears to offer the solution, giving to Croatia a local autonomy within well-defined geographical limits.
In Servia, M. de Laveleye was received with open arms by the King and Ministers, and though he gives a tolerably accurate sketch of the history and Constitution of Servia, it is easy to see that the well-known plausibility of his Belgrade friends produced the desired effect, and enabled him to leave the country knowing little more of it than if he had stayed at home and carefully studied some of Mr. Mijatovitch's articles. Everything is couleur de rose, and the reverse of the medal is only seen when the author's special training as an economist enables him to shake off the influence of his guides, and utter a cry of warning against the fatal policy of granting monopolies in guarantee of loans whereby Servia is delivering herself, bound hand and foot, into the hands of Austro-Jewish financiers, or against the rash attempt to create manufacturing industries where hands are wanting and where domestic industries supply local wants. A sketch is given of the elaborate Parliamentary system, but without sufficient indication of what a farce that system is. The rule of Milan is in reality one of the most detestable despotisms in Europe, and the liberal Constitution and progressive legisla- tion of Servia are as great a mockery as the high state of morality which M. de Laveleye says, with perhaps unconscious sarcasm, "is affirmed" to exist. The most valuable passages in the chapters on Servia relate to the policy of Russia in Servia, which might well be read, mutatis mutandis, for the history of the unjustifiable interference of that Power in Bulgarian affairs since the war of 1877-78, with the inevitable resulting loss of dear-bought influence and prestige.
The hopes of Servia being called to form the nucleus of the Balkan Confederation, which is M. de Laveleye's darling project., have been falsified by her late quarrel with Bulgaria, and we regret that he has been unable to rewrite a great deal of his impressions of this latter country. He frankly confesses that he only made the acquaintance of one Bulgarian states- man, M. Balabanoff, and that his friends did not introduce him to any members of the Conservative Opposition. To those who are acquainted with the part played by M. Balabanoff in Bulgarian affairs, it is surprising that M. de Laveleye should not have gone further astray than he has done in his chapters on Bulgaria, which occupy nearly two hundred pages of the
second volume. Suffice it to say that the statistics from official sources are interesting and admirably classified, while his political information is always one-sided, and frequently mis- leading. Such misstatements as attributing the re-establishment of the Constitution to the influence of the Russian agent, M. Yonine, or calling the Military Convention of Colonel Kaulbars "the escape of Bulgaria from Russian guardianship," are un- worthy of an author of such reputation, and minor inaccuracies are not wanting, such as placing the incident of M. Karaveloff offering to take General Cantacuzene's portfolio as Minister of. War in the September revolution, instead of some weeks earlier, when the first Bulgarian captains were promoted. He cannot believe that Bulgarian statesmen should have been found un- patriotic enough to sustain Russian influence, and attempt demonstrations against the Prince in his time of trouble. Surely the "odious fact" was sufficiently notorious, and a little inquiry would have shown that M. Balabanoff was one of the most guilty. It is also absolutely incorrect to assert that the Mussulman sol- diers in the Army are commanded in Turkish, and we have yet to learn that either France or England have renounced their Treaty rights under the Capitulations as far as Bulgaria is concerned. The advice given to the Bulgarians by M. de Laveleye is sound in all that relates to economic and financial questions, and so far has been, or probably will be, followed by the thrifty Bulgars ; but we do not imagine it likely that they will abandon their admirable military system in favour of a Swiss Militia such as he recommends. For all that he may say, the troops that con- quered at Slivnitza were regulars in the true sense of the word, as much as Prussian linesmen are regulars.
Of Constantinople and Turkish misgovernment, it was hardly to be expected that M. de Laveleye should find anything fresh to say. "We must be ready to go further than mere threats," if we would compel Turkey to introduce reforms, is as true a saying now as when it was uttered by a British Ambassador at Constantinople some six years ago, and it is as far from being acted upon now as then ; and the conversion of Constantinople into a free port would be a solution of the greatest difficulty of the Eastern Question, if its details could be settled so as to give satisfaction to all the performers in the European Concert.
From the moment that he sets foot upon Roumanian soil, M. de Laveleye is himself again. He no longer, as in Servia or Turkey, sees everything through spectacles of delicate rose- colour or terrifying crimson, but discourses intelligently of such commonplace evils as a bad system of land tenure and agricul- ture, absenteeism, and the Jewish Question, and enables us to lay down the book with the wish that the author had confined himself more exclusively to his special province, and that when he again launches himself into the seething vortex of the Eastern Question, he may do so with a still more open mind, and trustier pilots through those straits where he has to rely upon uncon- trolled local knowledge.
A long list of errata might be prepared for the second edition of this work, which we trust will be forthcoming. Slav and Turkish words are very liable to get upset in transcription from a traveller's note-book ; and the translation of " raya " as "Mail," given as a proof of Turkish arrogance, when the word simply means "subject," or the rendering of " kmet " as "colon," instead of "mayor," are calculated to repel any intending reader possessed of local knowledge ; while such mis-spellings as "askar " for " ashaar," " chacham " for " hakkam," " matbot " for " matbou," "dachy " for "badly," " montessarif " for " montessarif," " baksich" for "bakchich," " koro " for " horo," " rugra" for" toughra," and " ultchilischte "for " outchilischte," might be multiplied indefinitely.
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