n should be
nominated, who knows your language and customs.

'8th. I will take such measures as shall secure you the right of
purchasing landed property.

'When this proclamation shall have been promulgated to you, and
you should still have some farther favour to ask at my hands, you
may do so in writing, or by word of mouth. All that is possible for
your welfare I will endeavour to fulfill.

'Furthermore, it is your bounden duty to submit yourselves to your
sovereign, and to show humility to him.

'From the Divan Marshal &c. &c. &c. &c.
--at Mostar.

'When you shall have heard what I have promised, see that everyone
know of it, and what is necessary to execute let me know, and it
shall be fulfilled.'

This proclamation, was disseminated in all the Nahias (districts),
towns, and villages, and in many instances produced a favourable result.
But it could not be expected that these assurances, even though they
should have reached them, could have made much impression on a set of
lawless brigands, who loved plunder for plunder's sake, and who were
supported both morally and practically by the agents of civilised
European powers.

Having allowed a sufficient time to elapse for all to make their
submission, it now remained to employ force where it was requisite. But
the difficulties which Omer Pacha had to encounter were prodigious. An
unprecedented drought rendered an unusually sterile country more
incapable than ever of sustaining life, while the period which
generally elapses between the autumn rains and the killing frosts of
winter, renders the time available for military operations short and
uncertain. Add to this, the total want of provisions, stores, and other
necessaries, which his predecessors had neglected to procure, and an
empty treasury, and we may not be surprised that his mission is as yet
uncompleted. But another and still greater difficulty presented itself
to him. This related to the attitude which he should assume towards
Montenegro.

The shortest and most efficient line to pursue, in order to arrive at
the root of the evil, would have been to have invaded and subjugated
that province. But even had he felt confident of his power to effect it,
he remembered too well the lesson of former years, when his successful
advance was checked by political interference. There was little reason
to suppose that the same power, which then intervened,