KING lltaLAN OF SERVIA.
IF King Milan of Servia, wished to make himself a puzzle to the European community which interests itself in Eastern politics, he may be said to have succeeded. Not every man who in a small way imitates Diocletian, Amurath IL, and Charles V., deserves even a passing notice ; and if Milan attracts any observation, it is because he has been and may still be a little figure in a great drama. He has happened to sit as a ruler in a mountain province which has often been the battle-field of contend- ing Powers, and to reign in a capital famous in song and story. It has been his good or bad fortune to play a part, however subordinate, in moving events ; to be the figure- head, we cannot say the hero, of campaigns not only against the secular enemy of Servia, but even against enfranchised and sturdy Bulgaria. His name is written upon the face of a European treaty ; he has managed to obtain an Act of divorce ; he has imposed. a Cowan- tion on his country; he has plucked of his crown and set it on the head of his youthful son ; he has shown a distinct aptitude for self-advertisement ; and altogether he reminds us, in some respects, of a versatile politician nearer home who also passes for a clever young man. King Milan has tried many things— tried to be a statesman, a patriot Prince, a warrior—hut for the last twelve months he appears to have been trying to ascertain, by experiments on his country and opinion, how far he has become an adept in the art of posing. It is really his efforts in that way which make him interesting, and he seems to have cut out a path for himself among his brother-Kings.
What King Milan actually is, who shall say ? Even what he represents himself to be by his actions, and still more by his explanations of his actions, is hard to come prehend. He is not brave, has apparently never got within hearing of a gun fired in earnest ; but Untie. Topee showed that a man might be very able, and yet the reverse of valiant. Is he a philosopher of a rare type, bent on teaching by severe example ? That is his own estimate of himself, or one of his "sells ;" for he has recently confided to the public ear, through what they politely call in Parlia- ment "the usual channels," the motive which induced him to abdicate. The lesson he sought to impress on his astonished subjects was "that a crown may be laid down without rr- pining." Henceforth, if you believe the regal sage, his life will be spent in showing the Servians that "this can be done,"—for, of course, the rest of the world know it can be done, though such high actions are not frequent. More- over, he does not intend. to recover, or try to recover, the ornament which he has put away. That is very noble ; but somehow the reasons he puts forward to account for the Constitution, clash with the King's proud conception of himself as a moral philosopher teaching by example. For it seems that, "unable and unwilling to govern according to the Radical ideas of the majority," he did not scruple to bestow on Servia institutions which he believed would not be found to suit the interests of the country. That looks very much like, not moral philosophy, but, shall we say, spite, for he apparently hopes that the Servians will make a dreadful example of themselves, and in that way he will be avenged for the slights and vexations put on him. There seems to be a touch of the vexed cynic in this otherwise self-sacrificing Mentor. When the boy. King, his son, asked him why former enemies now behaved "quite nicely" to him, "My boy," he sententiously answered, a la Rochefoucauld, "it is because I have nothing more to ask of them, nor they of me." How much of it may be real, and how much self-deception, we do not know ; but his Majesty plainly is anxioua that we should all think him a fine fellow. In- stead of that, he is regarded as a puzzle, and we can only guess why he imposed on the country a political apparatus which he thought would not work, why he got rid of his Queen, and above all, why he took off the crown so lately won. He is probably a man of some talent, who, not made of the hard, tough Obrennovich texture, could not bear the terrors of public life in a half- savage community, especially when he had to contend with a Queen obstinately bent on thwarting his policy and having her own way, which is a way strongly tinctured with Panslavism. We can easily imagine that such a. flighty ruler of Servia must have been a severe trial to Austria-Hungary, and not altogether a blessing to Russia, though at present she seems to have reaped the fruit 'of his failings. In any case, he is an eccentric specimen of Royalty,—a sort of "King and no King," something of an actor, something of a politician, not without considerable oratorical gifts, having moral audacity rather than moral courage, "unstable as water," and different mall respects from the shrewd, rough, valorous peasant-chiefs who laid the foundations of Servian independence. They made a State; he has only achieved notoriety, and has not, perhaps, had his full share of repute from patriotic enterprises, because he has never been able to face the cannon. Not an enviable destiny. Still, he has an elastic and unquiet temperament which frets in obscurity, and we do not feel at all sure that he will not be heard of again in Servia. For if he laughs scoffingly at the Radical politicians, he grows earnest at ones when Queen Natalie is mentioned, and his language implies that if she interferes again, he may interfere also. According to his theory, the love which: the Queen: bears towards her son is tempered by her ambition, which, • he would have us believe, is the master-passion in her mind, and he insists that the boy is quite aware that he holds the second place in her affections. Of course, he is not an unimpeachable witness, but the whole reputed career of Queen Natalie renders his statement probable. At the same time, she has suffered a wrong in her divorce of a nature never to be forgiven, and the sense of that wrong gives new force to her political aspirations. Milan, hardly less passionate, has combined with the Regents in imposing the conditions which they have framed to govern the interview with the young King which she seeks. The dispute on this subject is still going on, and the point which it illustrates is the visible tendency of the abdicated King to be a power in Servia by virtue of his rights as a guardian and a father. But he does not seem altogether hopeful. As he puts it, the Queen may yield, or if she does not, the Government may exclude her from the Kingdom. The note of despair is discernible in the third course, for even in Servia there are "three courses." "The Government," says Milan in a despondent tone, should the other two ways prove impracticable, "the Government will shut me out of the Kingdom;" and he seems to think that this may happen, for the Queen's Progressist friends—" the Garaschanms, the Ilorvatovitches, e tutu quash "—he fears will surprise the ruling authorities, call in the mob, and set up her Majesty in Belgrade. What would he do then ? On that head the information he vouchsafes is silent ; but, although he hates the sight of cold steel and the smell of powder, he might take a hasty resolution, for his fervid enmity to the Queen is evident throughout his communica- tions to the public. Apart from the light it helps to throw on the character of King Milan, the interest of the pending and bitter quarrel lies in its bearing on the question of peace or war. Queen Natalie has her own quarrel, no doubt, but behind her is the Russian Court and the entire force of Panslavism. If, on any pretence, she got possession of the government in Belgrade, Servia would be a Russian province, and Austria could not long endure such an open display of power. Nothing of the kind may happen ; vet Milan, who is a shrewd judge of Servian politics, evidently fears it ; and the line taken by M. Persiani at the Coronation supports the ground for his alarm. From that point of view the character of Milan, and the possibilities it implies, so far as we can gauge it, is of some moment ; yet not much can be expected from a man of his specific levity, for which all his talents are no counterpoise. It is not the first time that a group of relatively insignificant persons and their private quarrels have greatly :fleeted public tranquillity, and that is the only good reason for dwelling on the peculiarities of one formerly a principal person among them, whose strange conduct has not yet been fully and authentically explained. Perhaps it cannot be ; perhaps, giving way to temper and terror, he was only playing ducks and drakes with a Kingdom and a crown ?
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