Religious liberty exists, but the Greek Church is declared to be that of the State. It has been independent of the Patriarch of Constantinople since 1376, and {179} is governed by a synod consisting of the Archbishop of Belgrad and the Bishops of Ushitza, Negotin, and Shabatz. The former is appointed by the Prince. The high dignitaries of the Church are in receipt of salaries, but ordinary priests are dependent upon fees and gifts. The monasteries have been suppressed by a recent decision of the _Skupshtina_, and their revenues are to be devoted to educational purposes. The military forces of the country consist of a standing army of about 4,000 men, and of a militia including all men capable of bearing arms up to fifty years of age. The first ban of this militia is called out annually for training, the second ban only in case of war. Servia is thus able to place an army of 150,000 men in the field, but the efficiency of these badly trained troops leaves much to be desired, as has been shown by recent events. The country is divided into seventeen _okrushias_, or districts, viz. Alexinatz, Belgrad, Chachak, Chupriya, Knyashevatz, Kraguyevatz, Kraina (capital, Negotin), Krushevatz, Podrinye (Loznitza), Posharevatz, Rudnik (Milanovitz), Shabatz, Smederevo, Tserna-Reka (Zaichar), Ushitza, Valyevo, and Yagodina. The only towns of importance are Belgrad (27,000 inhabitants), Posharevatz (7,000 inhabitants), Shabatz (6,700 inhabitants), and Kraguyevatz (6,000 inhabitants). MONTENEGRO. The name Montenegro is a translation of the Servian Tsrnagora, or “black mountains.” It is a curious designation for a country of white or greyish calcareous mountains, whose colour even strikes the voyager on the Adriatic. The name, according to some, is to be taken figuratively, and is to be understood as designating a country of “bad” or “black” men; others are of opinion that it refers to ancient pine forests which have now disappeared. The Turks have never succeeded in subjugating the Montenegrins, who found safety in their mountain fastnesses. Occasionally the Montenegrins placed themselves under the protection of a foreign power, such as that of Venice, but they never acknowledged the Sultan as their sovereign. The mountains, however, to which they owe their independence, are at the same time their weakness, for they isolate them from the rest of the world. A high range of mountains, as well as a strip of Turkish territory, separates them from their Servian kinsmen; another range, held by the Austrians, cuts them off from the Gulf of Cattaro and the Adriatic Sea. The small Lake of Scutari (Skodra) is their sea; the Zeta and Moracha, which feed it, are their national rivers. If the Montenegrins were permitted to descend into the plains without sacrificing their independence, the arid plateaux now inhabited by them would soon be deserted by all but shepherds.