The scanty population is only one of the many signs of the decadence of a country for whose future such high hopes were entertained, and whose name is even now blazoned forth as a watchword to the Christians of Turkey.  In reality, a comparison with most Turkish provinces, and more especially with those in which the Mussulman element predominates, will tell very favourably for the latter.  Roumelia, for example, with a smaller area, contains a larger population, produces more than double the revenue, while land is four times as valuable, the surest 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.