BO OK S.
A HISTORY OF SERBIA.* Tars history of Serbia is the work not only of a traveller but of a scholar. It is highly judicial in dealing with notoriously contro- versial subjects, and it embodies a good deal of diplomatic informa- tion acquired by careful research at the Record Office. Throughout her history Serbia, though not the chief spiritual force working towards the self-recognition and unity of the South Slays, has the greatest material force. Croatia provided the spiritual force and the highest civilization in South Stardom, but Serbia was the nucleus and the material example, and to-day she offers the-rallying centre for the South Slays. As Mr. Temperley says, if there ever is a Southern Slav federation, it will be because of the kingdom of Serbia, which has held up the same sort of hopes to the South Slays that Piedmont held up to the Southern Italians.
In intense love of their country and in brave persistence to the -death in expressing their nationality the Serbians are indeed an .example to the world. It was most unfortunate that this example should have been sullied and temporarily obscured by a terrible swims just- at the time when Western Europe was beginning to awaken to the crucial importance of the South Slav question for-the • History of Serbia. By R. W. V. Tempe:icy. London: a. Bell and Bons, ed-. nee] whole civilized world. On June 10th, 1903, King Alexander, the last of the Obrenovitchos, was murdered together with Queen Drags in circumstances of revolting barbarity, and Britain, Franco; and other Great Powers severed all communication for some time with the Serbian Government, who identified themselves with the reel. cidcs. But all Englishmen have since learned that it would be the most ridiculous mistake to judge either the Serbian people or the Serbian governing class by the crime of 1903. That crime, with its reversion to an elemental savagery, was the culmination of a long feud between the rival Houses of Serbia : its very barbarity had roots in tradition ; but it was a fearful declension from the code Serbia had reached, and Serbia proved the truth of this by ridding herself of the murderers and establishing a Government free from all taint. King Peter (the present King) accepted the Crown in effect from the regicides—from the Skuptehina summoned by the regicides for the purpose—but when he was sure of his position he proceeded to remove the murderers, and this was quietly done without popular opposition. The Serbian people admitted that the action of those Powers which had suspended relations with them.had been justified. Now nothing prevents general recognition of the fact that Serbia
matches her renowned military skill and daring with political qualities which hold out high hopes for the future Jugo-Slav State. Without the formation of such a group-State the problem of the Near East will never be settled, and it is therefore an essential part of the aims of the Allies in the present war.
Mr. Temperley's history of Serbia is a singular demonstration of how racial unity will defymero geographical separation. Political and commercial unity may indeed require roads and railways, but in spite of being deprived of these things by jealous overlords, the South Slays were always conscious. of their racial homogeneity. Evq. religious differences divide them less and less under the threat of oppressive measures against their race. We must not disguise from ourselves, however, that the fair prospect of an early union is jeopardized by a tendency, which seems to be increasing, among some of the Allies in the present war, towards treating Austria- Hungary with leniency as the victim rather than the accomplice of Germany. In the abstract we should heartily welcome this tendency, recognizing as.we do the substantial reason for it. Bat the question is whether the South Slays can be granted the fullnationality they have earned, and without the grant of which Europe will never be tranquil, if the Hapsburg Empire as such is kept in being. The answer seems to us to be that there must be a definite, and it may be called a hard, choice one way or the other. No compromise is possible. If the dignity of the Hapsburgs is consulted at the expense of the South Slays, the immediate cause of the present war will remain is existence.
It is an engrossing story of racial tenacity which Mr. Temperley relates. We see the Empire of Serbia which Dushan founded ground into-the dust by the heel of the eonquering Turks. The over- throw at Kossovo is still mournfully commemorated in the vivid legends and folk-songs of Serbia. It is to the Serbians what Mohacs is to the Hungarians. Under the long Turkish domination the Serbians seemed sometimes to lose their national sense when their own leaders, through weakness, avarice, or lethargy, surrendered their wills to the Turkish masters. But the loss was apparent, not real. The embers were always glowing underneath. And there is of course something to be said for the skill and shrewdness of the Turks at the days of their greatness. Their military efficieney was absolute, and though politically they were exclusive and had no notion of a liberalizing devolution of self-governing rights, they did tolerate all religions. There was a severe purity in their narrow politica which had real elements of strength. When the Turk takes to religious persecution, it is generally because ho is conscious of political weakness. When fears and suspicions replace his consciousness of security, he persecutes the other creeds—mercilessly, barbarously-- and such persecutions have progressively marked his decline. He has become more outrageous than ever now that he seems to be on the verge of disappearing finally from Europe.
The first Serbian insurrection against the Turks (1804-13) pro- duced the astonishing figure of Kara George, the savage but heroic peasant who led the people very nearly to success. He was the grandfather of the present King, Peter Karageorgevitch. He pro- duced such alarm among the Turks that they enormously increased. their Army, but at the critical moment when everything was at stake he lost heart, suddenly, unaccountably :-
" After the first engagements, which wont disastrously for the Serbians, Kara George brought up his reinforcements in support of the army which was opposing Khurshid Pasha's advance from Nish. Then suddenly he lost heart, fell back on Belgrade, leaving his comrades without warning or explanation. He hovered mys- teriously about from place to place, appeared once more on the Morava, and finally in October fled over the Danube into Hungary with a few followers, leaving his countrymen to their fate. It was a sad end to a groat career. The conduct of Kara George at this crisis is one of the numerous unsolved mysteries in his own life and in modern Serbian history. Some have insinuated that it wan his desire to secure his buried gold and transport it- unscathed. E0 Hungary. So singular an explanation is nob impossible for one who combined the coarseness of a peasant with We ability of a soldier and a chief. lietperhaps a simpler cause was.the despair of a gloomy,
imaginative nature, the decay of a strong will broken and agonised by suffering. This failure of nerve, this almost womanly terror, was shown by Frederic once and by Napoleon twice at important raises of their career."
Milosh Obrenovitch succeeded Kara George as the Serbian Prince, and when Kara George tried to return the feud between his sup. porters and those of the Obrenovitches began. As we know, it did not end till 1903.
In six months Milosh Obrenovitch made good the work of Kara George and drove the Turks from Serbia. He walked alone, never trusting the other Christian subjects of Turkey enough to ally himself with them. The Serbians found that in exalting Milosh they had merely exchanged whips for scorpions and they deposed him. His invalid son Milan died before he knew of his succession to the Princedom, and the Serbian Senate, having deposed another son of Milosh, chose a Prince from the rival House, Alexander Obrenovitch. Alexander became a creature of Turkey, and the aged Milosh was actually recalled to save his country. Gaily reaccepting the Prince- dom after an absence of twenty years, he ruled for a year and died in his eightieth year. His son Michael Obrenovitch, an earnest and intellectual reformer, was the author of a really remarkable scheme for a Balkan League—such a scheme as was not brought to fruition
till the genius of M. Venizelos came to bear upon the affairs of the Near East. Unhappily .this enlightened Prince was assassinated in June, 1803. The assassination may have been an incident in the rid of the rival H-YI3C3, hat after the events of 1914 observers will he just as ready to believe that Austrian agents were at work.
Certainly under the next Prince, Milan (a grand-nephew of Milosh), the influence of Austria in Serbia became very noticeable. Milan's secret Treaty with Austria made him as infamous in the eyes of the Serbians as the Treaty of Dover made Charles II. in the eyes of Englishmen. From that time onwards Serbia has had to fear Austria as she once dreaded Turkey. The material reason for Austria's hatred is notorious ; she wanted a military road to Salonika through Serbian territory along the valley of the Morava. In thew circum- stances Serbia could only accept the protection of Russia and set it formally against the covetousness and malice of Austria. The inuuediate but inevitable results aro to he seen in the present war. The ultimate results, as we earnestly hope, will be to place Serbia far above the miseries of dependence on, or subjection to, powerful neighbours. She has but to endure a little longer for a prize of Inestimable worth.
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