MONTENEGRO.
Lasrumney, Cardiff, 25th May 1858. Sm—I trust I may be allowed space in your columns for a few remarks en the affairs of Montenegro, which may pass as a supplement to the letter which you were lately good enough to insert on the Danubian Principali- ties. The independent mountaineers of Montenegro appear to be in bad odour with many persons, (including, I am sorry to find, yourself,) on two differ- ent sets of grounds. First, many people fancy them to be rebels against the Sultan ; and the love of Turks which, though not so strong as it was two or three years back, has still not ceased to exist, makes them think that rebels against the Sultan, who are said moreover to be friends of Rus- sia, must necessarily be very wicked people indeed. Secondly, specific ac- cusations are brought against them, as those of excessive ferocity in war, wanton devastations, even direct breaches of faith. These two quedtions are in themselves distinct, but they run very much into one another. As to the first, one has only to state the manifest fact that the Montene- grins are not rebels. The Sultan has not the shadow of a claim to sove- reignty or suzerainty (has Lord Palmerston yet learned the difference be- tween the two ?) over the dominion of Prince Daniel. The Sultan reigns nowhere except by force, and in Montenegro force has failed him. The Ottoman horde has "encamped" everywhere else, but its camp has never been pitched on the Black Mountain. The Porte says that it " considers Montenegro an integral part of the Ottoman empire." It may, if it pleases, say that it considers Russia or Austria an integral part of the Otto- man empire. But its saying so will not make it so in either case. Monte- negro is, as it always has been, de jure and de facto independent. When the Grand Turk says the contrary, the Grand Turk is simply telling an im- pudent falsehood.
Now an internecine war of five hundred years with a barbarous and faithless enemy is not likely to improve the national character of any people. During all that time the Ottoman invader has been trying in vain to con- quer one little state, and because he has tried in vain, he has consoled him- self by saying that the people he cannot conquer are merely rebels and ban- dits. No wonder then if the Montenegrins become as ferocious and almost as faithless as the Turks themselves. They are driven to live on plunder. But is not plunder a lawful adjunct of ",lust and necessary" wars ? Ask the fisherman of Finland or the citizen of Kertch. As for the reputation of faithlessness, remember that unless the Turks have changed since 1848, the Montenegrins have been dealing with the most treacherous of enemies, with men to whom faith and mercy are names alike unknown. I know that a band of Montenegrins were guilty of a breach of truce during the reign of the late Vladika, to the great indignation of that high-minded sovereign. The accusation in the present case seems to touch the reigning prince per- sonally. But you will observe that there is another version given, and it is extremely likely that the story of treachery is a mere Turkish invention to salve over the shame of defeat. In England, I believe, the tale got current through the Horning Post. Till I see some better authority for it, I shall not believe an accusation against a free people on the faith of a journal liable to inspirations from the same source as the famous Tiverton address.
I may add, as to the habits of the Montenegrins, that since the marriage of the present prince with a German lady, the battlements of Czctinie are no longer enwreathed with that garland of Turkish skulls, which used to hang there, as a practical testimony to the independence and integrity of the Montenegrin empire.
What is to be the future of Montenegro ? I beg to suggest the following plan. The Montenegrins have an undoubted right to their independence, but their perfect independence is hardly consistent with the general inte- rests of south-eastern Europe. I wish to see the crumbling Ottoman em- pire gradually changed into a confederation of Christian States. The first step is, what has already happened in the case of Servia, for each province to win its local independence, and for the Sultan to be cut down from sove- reign to suzerain. But it would be a great interruption to this process if an absolutely independent state were interposed between Herzegovina and Albania. When the Confederation is formed, Montenegro ought to be a member of it. It is, therefore, desirable that Montenegro should qualify in the meanwhile by accepting the external superiority of the Sultan. But I am far from wishing an independent people to make even this merely nomi- nal sacrifice without an equivalent. As long as the Montenegrins are con- fined to their mountains, civilization cannot penetrate among them. As yet, they have never had fair play. Let the Porte then purchase the par- tial submission of Montenegro by an extension of its territory. Let Pnnce Daniel be recognized as Prince of Montenegro and of southern Herzegovina. Let him hold both territories in fief of the Sultan by such services in men or money as may be thought equitable, retaining of course the full internal sovereignty of both. This cession would carry with it those two small pieces of seaboard where the Turkish territory reaches to the Adriatic, one on the Gulf of Cattaro, one near Sabioncello. If the nature of the coast allows, the new state would thus be able to obtain a harbour. Such an arrangement as this, if carried out in good faith on all sides, would be of inestimable advantage to all concerned. The Sultan would lose something as a direct sovereign, but would gain something as a feudal superior. The Prince would exchange a precarious position in the first rank of sovereigns for a secure and far more profitable place among the second. Above all, a bloody and desolating warfare would stop. The Montenegrins would have an opportunity for advances in civilization which it now would certainly be their own fault if they did not take advantage of. The people of the ceded districts would be raised from the condition of rayahs of the Turk to that of citizens of a free state under a sovereign of their own rice and creed. Aus- tria would probably kick at such a proposal, as at every proposal likely to advance right or freedom anywhere. But I see no reason why it might not commend itself to the acceptance of Russia, France, and Great Britain.
Previous page
