graft, corruption, unblushing exhibitions of contempt for the people, and insults to statesmen, scholars and especially to the officers of the army. When the scandal about the supposititious birth of an heir occurred, the wrath of the people turned to fury, and, in the night of May 28th, 1903, the garrison of Belgrade carried out the sentence of the nation upon the King and Queen. * * * * * The accession of the Karagjorgjević dynasty, who were really entitled to the crown, opens a new national and political era for Serbia. An old man was called to the throne, but a _grand seigneur_ of the best French school—a school which did not produce debauchees and Boulevard-trotters, but soldiers and statesmen of the first order. King Peter was a Western European in the best sense of the word. He was not only of the blood of the black Karagjorgje, the scion of a house of heroes, but an experienced soldier and statesman. During the long years of his exile he was an officer in the French army, and in virtue of his social position had every opportunity of garnering valuable experience both in peace and in war. All this time he was emphatically the “one who looked on” and watched the development of his country from afar—her struggles and her trials. Although he never resigned his pretendership to the Serbian throne he was often, surely very often, convinced that he himself would never be called to ascend it. But his heart and his love ruled with the Serbian people, and probably he felt the misfortunes of his country more keenly than any other Serbian. It is absurd to hold King Peter responsible for the murder of his predecessor. Any one privileged to know him would indignantly repudiate the thought. His accession to the throne was merely a consequence and in no way a cause of the Obrenović tragedy. But Europe was too horrified at the murder to discriminate at the time, and would accept neither reasons nor explanations proving the necessity of making a fresh start—and this quite apart from the circumstance of the murder. Europe regarded the _deed_ and not the _causes_ of the deed; and refused to search her own histories for similar deeds provoked by similar causes. Thus King Peter was confronted with a two-fold difficulty. On the one hand both he and his country had forfeited the sympathies of Europe, and on the other he succeeded to the government of a country demoralized by the previous reign, and torn by party dissensions. It was a most difficult situation, so many conflicting interests had to be reconciled! Truly a very weighty task for an elderly and perhaps already world-weary man.