Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
him highly unpopular. No carriage but his was allowed to appear in the
streets of Belgrade; and, while all political rights were withheld from
the people, he amassed immense wealth by arbitrary confiscations, by
levying heavy taxes and import duties, and by establishing oppressive
monopolies of articles of necessary consumption, particularly salt,
veins of which, discovered by Baron Herder near the Kopaunik mountain,
he forbade to be worked under severe penalties, in order to keep in his
own hands the importation from Walachia. The discontent of the national
party, headed by the _primates_ (as they are called) of the
municipalities, at length broke out into flame--fomented (as it was then
believed) by Russia, who was jealous of the influence acquired over
Milosh by Colonel Hodges, appointed in 1836 consul-general for England,
and with whom he was on the point of concluding a commercial treaty. A
_hatti-shereef_ at this juncture (December 1838) arrived from the Porte,
obtained (as it is said) through the advice of Colonel Hodges, and
containing a form of constitution for Servia, regulating the legal
tribunals, the functions of the ministry, &c., and ordaining the
formation of a legislative council of seventeen members, as a check on
the despotism of the Prince. But the crisis had already arrived. The
senate took the initiative, by charging Milosh with embezzlement of the
public property, and calling him to account; and, after a vain attempt
to make a stand against the popular indignation, he fled with his
treasures into Hungary. An attempt to recover his power having proved
ineffectual, he at length abdicated in favour of his son, Milan; who,
dying soon after, was succeeded by his brother, Michael, under the
guardianship of his mother, Liubitza. But the same system still
continued; and all efforts to procure any redress of grievances proving
fruitless, a general outbreak took place in September 1842, the prime
movers in which were Wucicz and Petronevich, who for several years had
been the recognised heads of the popular party. As it was found that the
few troops round the Prince were not to be depended upon, he quitted
Belgrade, accompanied by his mother and the French and English consuls,
and repaired to Semlin; and after some fruitless negotiation, the
sovereignty was declared vacant by the representatives of the nation,
with the concurrence of the Turkish governor, Kiamil Pasha.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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