police, which is to be composed of both Christian and Mussulman zapties. Most of these, he assured me, are in course of execution. Yet I venture to say that to this day Herzegovina has not realized the slightest practical benefit from all his plans and labours. Non possumus is in the watermark of every Turkish edict of reform, no matter who the Sultan, or who his Grand Vizier. The abolition of the conscription of horses was the first measure attacked: the Aga was summoned to furnish them instead of the peasants, and he took the first he could lay his hands on-the horses were the same, and the pay.

In fact, the illustrations of the working under Server Pasha's own eyes were very curious. The local medjlis was, after nominal promulgation of the above reforms, called on to sign a memorial to the Porte praising and endorsing the administration of the province. The Christian members were presented the memorial, written in Turkish, which none of them could read, for signature, with the assurance that it was in reference to the administration of the hospitals; but, versed in Turkish wiles, they took it to be translated, and declined signing when they found out what it was. They were immediately dismissed from the Medjlis. So much for independence of councils.

I made the acquaintance of an army surgeon who had been attending a Christian boy of thirteen, wantonly shot in broad daylight by a Mussulman boy of twelve. The young assassin was carried in triumph around the neighbourhood by his comrades, and the wounded youth to the hospital. It seemed that the young Turk had had a present of a rifle (army pattern), and had gone out to try it. Seeing the Christian lad gathering grapes in his mother's vineyard, he took deliberate aim, and shot him through the body at close

quarters. He was a long time in a very critical state, but finally recovered, the family being obliged to pay all the expenses of his illness. I had all the particulars from the surgeon, and the facts as to investigation from the consuls, on whose complaint an investigation by the Turkish officials was ordered; a report, fully recognizing the facts, was made, and there the affair ended. "Making a report "is, to the Turkish mind, the ne plus ultra of judicial investigation into any matter in which Mussulman deeds are called into question. The Pasha was astounded when the consuls protested against this trivial manner of treating the incident, and replied, "Have we not made a report?" The culprit never was molested. The Turks divide their judicial proceedings in a manner ingenious, if not just; they investigate Mussulman offences without any punishment, and punish the Christian without any investigation.

Nor is it only the Christian who receives injustice. Mussulmans who are lax in their duty share in the treatment due to the Christian. Of this I had a striking instance in the case of Avd Aga Biscevics, which proves that a liberal Mussulman may just as well be a Christian. The story in

brief is as follows:

A certain Christian of Mostar, one Tripacuics, being a man of influence, and in the way of certain Moslem interests, the Chaoush (non-commissioned officer of Zaptiehs), Osman Deinics, a chief of the fanatical Mussulman party, was employed to kill him, which he did. The family of Tripacuics demanding justice on the murderer, and witnesses testifying that it was the Chaoush Deinics, the Mussulman authorities declined to entertain the complaint, and subsequently one Georgio Civics, a relative of Tripacuics, took up the case so importunately that the parties interested

determined to get rid of him, and for this purpose they sent to the inn which he kept a professed bravo, by the name of Pivodics, a Mussulman, in company with another Mussulman, Melencics Jussuf. The two desired beds, but the inn being full, they were refused, and so contented themselves with drinking in company with several others already in the guest-room, among whom was Biscevics. After that night Pivodics was seen no more in Mostar, but was seen by many next day in Metkovics, whence he went to Ragusa, where also he was seen by acquaintances, and whence he went to Constantinople. His family demanding him at the hand of justice, Melencics Jussuf deposed that he was last seen at the inn of Civics in company with certain other people, who were all summoned as witnesses, but who all testified that he left the inn in good health, and these were thrown into prison till they should be willing to testify conformably. Among them, of course, was Biscevics, who, although a Mussulman, was equally refractory, and from that day, three years before, the honest fellow had lain in prison (except at intervals when he was brought out to testify in the case, and, refusing to give false witness, was remanded again), until Bairam of the third year, 1875, when, according to a Mussulman usage, he was released on security, and after twenty days' liberty in Mostar he escaped with the aid of two Christians and came to Ragusa, not long after my return from Mostar. He was a captain of the Reserves, and besides imprisonment was degraded, and was anxious to get a rifle to join the insurgents, and to let the whole world. know what justice is at Mostar. I may say that Aga Biscevics was in haste to get to Cettinje, as the only place of perfect security and justice; and when I assured him he was as safe in Ragusa as I was, he kissed the skirts of my

coat in raptures of gratitude and joy. He had not dared to show himself for fear of being captured and carried back to Mostar.

Now, a curious feature in the case, which illustrates the value of Turkish reform and Turkish sincerity in the execution of them, at the moment when everything was being done that the Porte could do to satisfy Europe of its capacity to render justice to its Christian subjects, is this: Civics had been taken out of prison to be tried by the newly organized mixed council, by which Server Pasha was to show how well things could be done in Mostar, and as the case was clearly one of unjust imprisonment, he was acquitted; but as the council subsequently was found to derange the course in which justice was in the habit of running, it was soon dissolved, and then Civics was rearrested, tried by the Kadi, and sentenced to five years' imprisonment, and was still in prison when I took down from the lips of the hero, Avd Aga Biscevics, the above details, the case itself having been briefly related to me by one of the consuls in Mostar.

URING the remaining part of the autumn (and indeed after Utovu, Sept. 30, 1875), until the

middle of November, military operations were limited to the movements of the Turks to keep open communication with the various fortresses in the mountain country about Piva, Niksics, &c. The insurrection was without head or general direction from any side. The chief of Piva, Lazar Socica, had since the outbreak distinguished himself above all his fellow captains by the energy and daring of his raids, his attacks on the blockhouses distributed through the mountain country, and the exceptional discipline he obtained in his corps. Of the line of works which protected the road from the plain of Gatschko to the valley of the Tara he had destroyed all except that of Goransko, which was defended by artillery. In this campaign he used various devices, the most successful of which was a portable blockhouse, borne by the men, and which being thick enough to prevent the rifle-balls from penetrating, was carried up to the walls, where a mine under the the foundation was the means, generally, of bringing the garrison to surrender. Socica distinguished himself by his humanity as well as by his bravery, all the troops who sur