CHAPTER XXXI.

The Prince.—­The Government.—­The Senate.—­The Minister for Foreign Affairs.—­The Minister of the Interior.—­Courts of Justice.—­Finances.

Kara Georgevitch means son of Kara Georg, his father’s name having been Georg Petrovitch, or son of Peter; this manner of naming being common to all the southern Slaaves, except the Croats and Dalmatians.  This is the opposite of the Arabic custom, which confers on a father the title of parent of his eldest son, as Abou-Selim, Abou-Hassan, &c. while his own name is dropped by his friends and family.

The Prince’s household appointments are about L20,000 sterling, and, making allowance for the difference of provisions, servants’ wages, horse keep, &c. is equal to about L50,000 sterling in England, which is not a large sum for a principality of the size of Servia.

The senate consists of twenty-one individuals, four of whom are ministers.  The senators are not elected by the people, but are named by the prince, and form an oligarchy composed of the wealthiest and most influential persons.  They hold their offices for life; they must be at least thirty-five years, and possess landed property.

The presidency of the senate is an imaginary dignity; the duties of vice-president being performed by M. Stojan Simitch, the herculean figure I have described on my first visit to Belgrade; and it is allowed that he performs his duties with great sagacity, tact, and impartiality.  He is a Servian of the old school, speaks Servian and Turkish, but no European language.  The revolutions of this country have brought to power many men, like M. Simitch, of good natural talents, and defective education.  The rising generation has more instruction, and has entered the career of material improvements; but I doubt if the present red tape routine will produce a race having the shrewdness of their fathers.  If these forms—­the unavoidable accompaniments of a more advanced stage of society,—­circumscribe the sphere of individual exertion, they possess, on the other hand, the advantage of rendering the recurrence of military dictatorship impossible.

M. Petronievitch, the present minister for foreign affairs, and director of the private chancery of the Prince, is unquestionably the most remarkable public character now in Servia.  He passed some time in a commercial house at Trieste, which gave him a knowledge of Italian; and the bustle of a sea-port first enlarged his views.  Nine years of his life were passed at Constantinople as a hostage for the Servian nation, guaranteeing the non-renewal of the revolt; no slight act of devotion, when one considers that the obligations of the contracting parties reposed rather on expediency than on moral principles.  Here he made the acquaintance of all the leading personages at the Ottoman Porte, and learned colloquial Turkish in perfection.  Petronievitch is astute by education and position,