Industry throughout the country is still in its infancy. The Servian despises all manual labour excepting agriculture, and it is for this reason he looks down upon the German mechanics in the towns. Young men of the least education aspire to government employment, and the bureaucratic plague, which has wrought such injury in the neighbouring Austro-Hungarian empire, is thus being developed. There are, however, others who have studied at foreign universities, and who devote their energies to the spread of education at home. The progress made in this respect within the last few years has been enormous. In 1839 the sovereign of the country could neither read nor write, whilst, at the present time, Servia, with its numerous schools and colleges, is becoming the intellectual centre of the Balkan peninsula.[58] The Servians have used their best efforts to remove from their country everything reminding them of the ancient dominion of the Mussulman, and they have nearly accomplished this. The Belgrad of the Turks has been converted by them into a Western city, like Vienna or Buda-Pest; palaces in European style have arisen in the place of mosques and minarets; magnificent boulevards intersect the old quarters of the town; and the esplanade, where the Turks exposed the heads of their victims stuck on poles, has been converted into a park. Shabatz, on the Save, has become a “little Paris;” Semendria (Smederevo), on the Danube, which gave the signal of rebellion in 1806, has arisen like a phœnix from its ashes; whilst Posharevatz, known as Passarovitz in the history of treaties, has likewise been transformed. Progress is slower in the interior, but good roads now extend to the most remote corners of the country. Servia is an hereditary constitutional monarchy. The Prince, or _Kniaz_, governs with the aid of responsible ministers and of a senate; he promulgates the laws, appoints all public functionaries, commands the army, and signs the treaties. He rejoices in a civil list of £20,000. His successor, in the case of there being no male heir, is to be elected by universal suffrage. The _Skupshtina_, or national parliament, traces back its origin to the earliest times of a Servian monarchy. It numbers 134 members, of whom one-fourth are nominated by the Prince, and the remainder elected by all male taxpayers. This parliament exercises legislative functions conjointly with the Prince. In addition to it there exist rural parliaments in each of the 1,063 _obshtinas_, or parishes, and these enjoy extended rights of local self-government. The constitution provides for the election of a _Skupshtina_ of 536 members by universal suffrage, should extraordinary events make such a meeting desirable. The affairs of the country have hitherto been managed satisfactorily. A revenue of £554,000 sufficed for the requirements of the State, and up to the outbreak of the war there existed no public debt.