The border of the Austrian empire from Povile on the coast of the Adriatic Sea to the Northern frontiers of Dalmatia, and thence through Croatia, Slavonia, the Banat and Transylvania, to Bukowina, has a military constitution peculiar to itself. In this tract, containing nearly a million of inhabitants, the men capable of bearing arms must always hold themselves in readiness to abandon the plough and home, for the purpose of averting the dangers with which they are threatened by rapacious neighbours, or by commodities impregnated with pestilence. The inhabitant of the frontiers, at once a husbandman and a soldier, holds his lands on condition of taking up arms when required. In Transylvania he is the absolute proprietor of the ground he cultivates: in the Banat, Slavonia and Croatia, he is bound by certain restrictions somewhat like those of the feudal tenures of old, without however being obstructed in the enjoyment of the fruits of his industry. The perfidy of an individual draws down punishment on himself alone: his family still retains its right to the possession of his lands, and this right also devolves to females when they marry of their own choice, and continue to reside upon them; nay even when there is not a male left in the house capable of bearing arms, still the land is not taken away. As all the males capable of bearing arms are not called out at once, and every house cannot furnish the number proportioned to the land belonging to it, some other method of equalizing the burdens has been found necessary. To this end a moderate tax is levied upon the land, and from this fund a certain allowance is made to each person while in actual service. Towards the repairing and keeping up of the public works, such as buildings, roads and the like, each inhabitant of the frontiers performs gratuitously a certain quantity of labour proportionate to the extent of his land. Agriculture and the breeding of cattle are the principal resources of the inhabitants of the frontiers. In order that the most necessary trades may not be wanting, particular places are appointed where the mechanic, artist, tradesman and merchant may exercise their respective professions without being subject to military duty. These places are called military communities, and have regular municipal institutions like other towns.