What Nikola I. has done for Montenegro during the fifty years of his reign is more or less generally known. The education of the people, which began under Petar II., has made splendid progress under Nikola I., and to-day Montenegro can boast a large number of statesmen, poets, scholars and men of letters for so small a country. When the Balkan crisis arrived, Nikola, then already King of Montenegro, true to the spirit of his fathers, unhesitatingly and enthusiastically placed himself and his people at the disposal of Serbia and won glorious victories, in consequence of which his territories were considerably enlarged. After the Balkan War, King Nikola surely looked forward to a time of peace and prosperity. But his hopes were doomed to disappointment, for recent events have called him to another and more important task. CHAPTER VIII. THE SOUTHERN SLAVS OF THE DUAL MONARCHY. I. A Homogeneous People—A Militant Past—The Bogumili—National Bondage—Napoleon—Illyrism—Agreement with Hungary—Count Khuen-Hedervary. II. The greatest representative of the Southern Slavs—Strossmayer’s generosity and courage—Fall of Count Khuen-Hedervary—Death of Strossmayer. III. False Dawn—Conference of Fiume—Ban Paul Rauch—Monster Trial in Zagreb—The Friedjung Case—Cuvaj—Frano Supilo. IV. Dalmatia, Istria, Carniola—The Italian Element—Bosnia-Hercegovina—Conclusion. I. The whole south of the Dual Monarchy is inhabited by Slavs. The Kingdoms of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, with the Duchy of Carniola, Istria, and Bosnia-Hercegovina—these, comprising a population of about seven millions, belong almost exclusively to one race. Whereas in all other countries of the Monarchy (especially in Hungary and Bohemia) the different races are represented in varying percentages, the non-Slav population in Croatia, Slavonia, Bosnia and Hercegovina amounts only to about 5-1/2 per cent., in Carniola and Istria to 4 per cent., and in Dalmatia only to 2 per cent. The considerable number of Croats and Slovenes (750,000) living in Southern Hungary (in Torontal, Bacs-Bodrog and Temes) must be added to the above-mentioned seven millions.