Whether the protection accorded to Servia has worked beneficially is for my readers to judge.  The abstract question of the advantages thus conferred admits of debate, and for my own part I believe the present miserable state of the province to be mainly owing to the European guarantee.  She was not sufficiently enlightened to profit by the advantages presented to her, and the honourable self-reliance which was the result of a successful resistance to the Turkish arms has given place to a feeling of indolent security.  Nor is this the worst.  A principal feature in a country under guarantee is the total want of responsibility in those vested with administrative power.  Upon this the Servian rulers presume to a preeminent degree, and indulge in many acts of presumption which would be impossible were they not fully alive to the fact that the conflicting interests of the guaranteeing powers, added to their own insignificance (which perhaps they overlook), exempt them from any fear of chastisement.

The principle of supporting the independence of a province forming a component geographical part of an empire, must have but one result, that of weakening the mother state, without, as experience has shown, ameliorating the condition of the province.  Independently, therefore, of the drain upon the Turkish finances, for the maintenance of troops from time to time on the Servian frontier, to counteract revolutionary propaganda, her influence throughout her Slavish provinces is much weakened.  Although in a position as anomalous as it must be unpalatable, the Ottoman Government deserves credit for abstaining so entirely from any species of interference in the internal affairs of the country; for be it remembered that the province is still tributary to the Porte.  The hattischeriff of 1834, by which, on the evacuation of the country, the Sultan retained the right of garrisoning the fortresses, has never been strictly adhered to, and may at some future period lead to complications.  Belgrade is secure from any efforts which may be made against it, but the other forts are hardly worthy of the name, and were only used as a place of refuge in case of attack.  The Servians now complain of the infringement of the hattischeriff, and M. Garaschanin has but lately returned from Constantinople, whither he was sent on a special mission in connection with this subject.  He endeavoured to procure an order for the withdrawal of all Mussulmans from the villages which they now occupy in the vicinity of the forts.  This demand would appear just in the letter of the law, but for the neglect on the part of the Servian Government of one of the conditions, which was, that before resigning their property, the Mussulmans should receive an equivalent in money.  The payment of this has been evaded, and the Porte consequently declines to interfere in the matter; should the Sultan hereafter accede to the demand, it would be no great sacrifice, as he would still retain Belgrade.  Situated as that fortress is, at the confluence of the Danube and the Save, surrounded with strong and well-ordered fortifications, and commanding every quarter of the town, its occupation in the event of hostilities would at once determine the fate of the province.