Nothing shows a more hopelessly wrong conception of the whole character of the rayah mind, than to suppose that the dull, unlettered peasants of Bosnia and Herzegovina took up arms as the champions of Panslavism or the ‘Cosmopolitan Revolution.’ Jacques Bonhomme, of whatever nationality, is an emphatically practical being, and a _grande idée_ is entirely beyond his comprehension. Poor Herzegovinian Hodge did not exchange his spade for a musket to secure Provincial Autonomy; he simply wanted to obtain a fair share of what he earned with the sweat of his brow, to gain security for life and limb and the honour of his wife and children, to be allowed at least to live. How far, since the date of the first outbreak, foreign auxiliaries and emissaries may have succeeded in infusing the refinements of _la haute politique_ into this raw material, is beyond my province to enquire. All that I wish to point out is that this insurrection—so pregnant in its consequences—was in its origin Agrarian rather than Political. It was largely an affair of tenant-right. The outbreak of the insurrection was certainly favoured by a variety of accidental circumstances. The visit of the Emperor of Austria to Dalmatia in the spring could not fail to raise hopes of Austrian intervention, and Christians of both sects did their best to lay petitions before his Apostolic Majesty. The dispute between Turkey and Montenegro with reference to the Podgorica affair, induced the malcontents of the Herzegovina to look with confidence for allies among their brothers of the Black Mountain. Another favourable circumstance was the discontent of the Franciscan fraternities, due to the recent infringement of some of their privileges and the delay of the Sultan in confirming their firmans, which made the leaders of the Roman Catholic communion willing to throw in their cause for the nonce with the Greek heretics. One of the most curious features of the present insurrection has been the way in which the two Christian sects have fought side by side.[294]