urest test of
the prosperity of a country. This last is easily accounted for by the
lamentable indolence of the masses, who are contented to live in the
most abject poverty, neglecting even to take advantage of a naturally
fertile soil. Yet must it not be supposed that indifference to its
possession prompts this contempt for the cultivation of land. There is
probably no province so much enclosed, and where the mania for
litigation in connection therewith is so rife as Servia. An
insurmountable obstacle is thus thrown in the way of foreign enterprise,
by the narrow-mindedness of the people.

The same want of energy has had the most baneful effect upon commerce,
the very existence of which is merely nominal. Even at Belgrade the
common necessaries of life are daily imported from the Austrian banks of
the Danube. No one is more alive to the deplorable state of affairs than
the reigning Prince, whose long residence in the capitals of Europe has
familiarised him with their bustling scenes of thriving activity. Well
will it be for Servia and himself, if he shall turn the experience which
he has acquired to some practical account. Any doubts which he may
previously have entertained regarding the misery of the country, and the
moral degradation of his subjects, were removed effectually by all that
he witnessed in a recent expedition into the interior--miserable hovels,
uncultivated fields, magnificent forests wantonly destroyed, were the
sights which met him at every turn. At length some restrictions have
been placed on the wilful abuse of the greatest source of wealth which
the country possesses. Nor are they premature, for the reckless
destruction of the forests, combined with a failure of the acorns during
the past year, produced serious distress. Already has the export trade
of pigs diminished by one-third of the average of former years. This is
immediately owing to the necessity of feeding them on Indian corn, a
process which proves too expensive for their poverty-stricken owners,
and which in this respect places the pig and its proprietor upon an
equality. The latter live almost entirely upon maize and sliegovich, a
kind of rakee made out of plums, and extremely fiery.

The mode of treatment of their women, an infallible sign of civilisation
or the reverse, was brought prominently to the Prince's notice by the
following circumstance:--Having, in company with the Princess, visited
the cottage of a thriving pig-owner, he o