One naturally judges a country of which one is ignorant by the little
which one knows about the private life of its ruler. And it was
fortunate for Serbia's reputation that Prince Milo[vs] had a Vuk to
throw a shadow over him. Kara George had been a hero, Milo[vs] called
himself a statesman. Anyhow, he walked in crooked paths, although the
murders that he was accused of are now said to be not proven--with the
exception of Archbishop Nik[vc]i['c], one of his critics, and another
prominent man whom he requested the Pasha to have strangled. Kara
George--one finds in many books--was done away with when he came back
to renew the fight against the Turks; most people say that Milo[vs],
his arch-rival, had him murdered in his sleep. All that one knows for
certain is that the assassin was a man in the employ of one of
Milo[vs]'s prefects. As for Milo[vs] sending the head to the Sultan,
it is pointed out that as the Sultan's vassal he could not do
otherwise. But the stories of his wife, the strong-minded Princess
Liubica, are acknowledged to be true--how she would cry out to the
warriors, if they seemed to waver, that they were but women, and how
this induced them to attack again; how she would cook her husband's
meals and wait on him; how when she discovered that any other lady had
found favour in the Prince's sight she slew her, and retired into the
mountains until her husband was appeased or had discovered a new lady.
The court etiquette of that period was under the baneful influence of
Turkey. Milo[vs] used to live in Turkish houses--some of them are
extant to this day--he gave audience as a Turkish pasha, seated amid
cushions on the floor, his room was hung with captured Turkish flags,
and on his head he wore a turban. It was often rumoured that when he
had gained sufficient money he would not continue to forbid the
working of the Serbian salt-mines, lest the profits of his own mines
in Roumania should diminish; and it is not creditable that he should
have made his subjects pay their contributions to the Turkish Tribute
in the currency of Austria, while he would forward it in Turkish
currency--of course less valuable--and keep the difference. He also
tried to monopolize the swine trade, the most lucrative in the
country; he seized whatever he coveted--lands, mills and houses--and
even burned down a part of Belgrade in order to build a new
Custom-House, whose takings would flow into his pocket. "Am I not the
chief," he said, "the Gospodar, and shall I not do what I like with my
own?" But he was a real Prince. After the Peace of Adrianople in 1829
an edict was issued by the Sultan, which recognized Serbia as an
independent principality, with Milo[vs] as hereditary prince. He
organized a standing army and built roads and schools and churches. He
abolished, in 1833, the old Turkish system of land-tenure and
introduced that peasant proprietorship which causes the Serbs, down to
this day, to go into battle in defence of their own lands. In 1836 he
offered the bishopric of [vS]abac to the famous Bulgarian monk,
Neophyte Rilski, who wrote the first Bulgarian grammar and translated
the New Testament, of which the first edition was burned by the Greek
Church at Constantinople, while the second edition sold to the then
enormous extent of 30,000 copies. The modest monk, who was born in
1793 and died in 1881, preferred the life of a student and
teacher;[39] he therefore declined an offer which was so creditable to
him who made it.... Yet in spite of Milo[vs]'s great services to his
country he had his detractors. It was one of them, perhaps, who
painted the portrait that one usually sees of him--an incongruous
portrait, because the uniform is most correct--he is holding in his
hand the Serbian military headgear, not a turban--but the face, with
its serpent-like moustaches, high cheek-bones and black eyes, looks
more like that of a Tartar than anything else. Those who did not care
for Milo[vs] said that it was barbarism not to let the laws be put in
writing; but to this he never would consent. In 1835 he announced in
the official Gazette (_Novine Srpski_) that he was the "only master";
he set about gaining for his country the interest of foreign Powers.
England, which in 1837 sent Colonel Hodges as her agent to Belgrade,
was for having Serbia placed under the protection of the Great Powers.
Constitutional England was backing Milo[vs] and his despotism, while,
on the other hand, Russia and Turkey came out, to their own surprise,
as champions of a constitution. They demanded that the power of
Milo[vs] should be limited by something which they euphemistically
called "an organic regulation." Finally, there was imposed on him a
Senate consisting of members appointed for life, but when this body
asked him to account for the manner in which he had spent the public
funds the Prince found that he could not allow himself to be so
hampered and, in 1839, he abdicated. ("If," he once said, "if Charles
X. of France had understood how to govern as I myself did in Serbia,
he would never have lost his throne.") Vut[vc]i['c], his arch-enemy,
flung a stone after him into the Save. "You will not return," he
cried, "until a stone can float on these waters!" "I shall die as
Serbia's ruler!" shouted Milo[vs]. (And when he ultimately did come back
Vut[vc]i['c] was cast into prison, where he died mysteriously--Milo[vs]
refusing the Turks permission to examine the body.)