There is trouble brewing in the Balkans. The vacillating King
of Servia, irritated by his total loss of popularity and by the refusal of the Russian Court to invite him and his wife to St. Petersburg, has appointed a Cabinet in which the Premier, the Minister of War, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs are all soldiers, and which, it is understood, will try to govern through the Army. Moreover, he has for the time broken with Russia, and is trying to obtain support in Vienna, where, however, he is distrusted as both changeable and feeble. In these circumstances, there are three dangers ahead,—a national rising, a military pro- nunciamiento, or a decision in Russia that the Obrenovitch dynasty has failed. As usual, if Vienna and St. Petersburg can agree, great changes may be peacefully made, or King Alexander may be compelled to follow a defined policy; but if they cannot, and the two sets of influences neutralise one another, there may be revolution in Servia and "fire in all the hills" of the Balkans, where not hundreds, but hundreds of thousands of brave men are, for one reason or another, pro- foundly discontented.
