According to a Vienna telegram in Wednesday's Times, The situation
in Montenegro gives cause for anxiety. There had been a series of bad harvests, but this year the crops were better, and thereupon the Prince called upon the peas- antry to refund the loans made them in the lean years-- " at the usurious rate of 18 per cent."—and pressure is now being used to secure the return of these loans. The condition of the country, in which the Prince is the Gombeen- man, is very primitive. "There is no Chancellor of the Exchequer, and there is not even a Treasury. The public funds are in the keeping of the Prince at the Palace in Cettinje. When his Highness goes away from home, he takes the key of the national strong-box in his pocket." The Times' telegram declares that the real source of the disturbance is
to be found in the fact that Russia no longer pays a subsidy to Prince Nicholas. While the wheels of life in the Princi- pality were oiled by the Russian gold, things went smoothly; but with its stoppage has resulted a general sense of discon- tent and "tight money." It is, of course, possible that the Russian Foreign Office may work on this discontent, and so produce international complications ; but most probably Prince Nicholas's foreclosures will pass off without convulsing that strange little State, which is a sort of cross between Monaco and Switzerland.
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