the protectorate of the kings of Hungary. History tells us that the Magyars, who in those days were good Catholics, after having received from the Pope a sacred banner, and sundry assurances for the safety of their souls, undertook the difficult task of bringing their new subjects these obstinate schismatics—within the fold of the true Shepherd; but the fiery Hun, employing no arguments more persuasive than fire and sword, the poor people, unable to defend themselves, and still clinging to the creed of their fathers, secretly invited to their assistance the Osmanli, who then, for the first time, carved out for themselves a secure footing in Europe, on the plains of Thrace. The struggle of the warriors of the Cross and the Crescent with the Hungarians, who were then a much more numerous and powerful people than we find them in the present day, continued for nearly a century, till at length the war was carried into Hungary, where the Bosnians amply revenged themselves on the descendants of their old tyrants, by slaughtering the inhabitants, and laying the country waste with fire and pillage.

The inhabitants of Bosnia, however, found when it was too late, that they had merely exchanged the yoke of the Hungarians for that of the Osmanli, who, under the name of protectors, deliberately took military possession of all the strong places in the country; thus, finding themselves without a friend in the world, at enmity with the Latins, at enmity with their co-re

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ligionists of Servia, Greece and Bulgaria, for being the cause of bringing the infidels into the heart of the country, and, as we before observed, somewhat tainted in their religious opinions, they made a virtue of necessity, and publicly professed their faith in the creed of their rulers, urged, no doubt, by the powerful motive of self-interest-the chieftain and his clans to preserve their feudal rights, their lands and tenements, and the citizens of the towns their municipal privileges. The piesmas of the people tell us, that so universal was the mania to embrace the creed of Mahomet, that for many years after there was not to be seen a single individual who dared acknowledge himself a Christian, throughout the entire country.

The Osmanli Sultans, who in these days were men of great tact and foresight, without having recourse to persecution as a means of encouraging Mahometan proselytism, merely favoured the renegades by conferring upon the most deserving the highest offices of trust and emolument, and securing to their children, of whatever rank or station, such privileges and distinctions, as must cause them to be envied by those who dissented from their religious opinions. As may be presumed, the Bosnian mania quickly spread into Albania, and every city and town where the Bogomilian heresy had found a footing; and so general was the progress of Mahometanism, about the time of Scanderbeg, that had not that hero, together with several

valiant chiefs of the Slavonian tribes, taken up arms in defence of the Christian faith, and repeatedly beaten the Osmanli, who were till then considered invulnerable-the elect of God-it was presumed by the writers of that period, that the Christian religion would entirely have disappeared from these provinces. From this time, we may date the commencement of the persecution of the Christians by the Turks, which led to a religious war, even yet continued, with more or less ferocity, desolating the country, and causing, at the same time, the decline of the Turkish empire.

Previous to the reforms of the late Sultan Mahmoud, with the exception of the large towns, the whole territory of Bosnia was divided among Beys and Kapitans of districts, who resided in fortified positions; their possessions being hereditary, they considered themselves to be the legitimate proprietors. In addition to these, there was an inferior class of nobles, the Spahis, the proprietors of fiefs, which they held from time immemorial, on condition of being always ready for military service. No doubt, there was to be found here and there some petty tyrant who abused the power confided to him, but generally speaking, the people were happier, and less liable to oppression under this system; they were, at least, certain their property would be protected by their feudal lords, who had an interest in the prosperity of a class, from whose industry they derived their principal maintenance.

Since the abolition of the fiefs, rights, and military privileges of the Bosnian Mussulman nobles, and the conversion of the Beglouks and Spahiliks into imperial Tchifliks, which, after a series of dreadful insurrections, have been arbitrarily conferred upon Bosnian chiefs favourable to the reforms of the Sultan, and by which the possessor acquires not only the right to the tenth of the produce, but, in some instances, to the land itself, the situation of the agriculturist is rendered deplorable. By this despotic act of the Sultan and his Divan, he is liable to be ejected from lands which he inherited from his father, and continued to cultivate as clansman of the lord of the fiefdom. He thus finds himself in the same situation as his feudal lord-deprived at once of every species of property, degraded and humiliated by strangers, who, jealous of his fidelity and attachment_to_his hereditary lord, too frequently treat him like a beast of burden.

Can we therefore wonder, when treaties, rights to property, and all the social obligations that bind man to man in their mutual intercourse are thus violated, that this unfortunate province, above every other in European Turkey, is ever the theatre of the most sanguinary insurrections. The feudal nobles, with their clans rising in arms, to recover their lost fiefs and privileges; the citizens of towns to oppose the introduction of European institutions, tending to sweep away their municipal privileges; and the Christians to avenge

themselves on their tyrants: and this has been the state of Bosnia for nearly half a century; yet its sanguinary history has been as little known to the civilized inhabitants of Western Europe, as if the country had been situated in the interior of China.

In 1837, the English Government, no doubt anxious to advance the commercial prosperity of England, and, we presume, with a laudable desire to become more intimately acquainted with the political and social state of the country, appointed a Vice-Consul in Novi-bazar, whose jurisdiction extended over Bosnia and Upper Moesia; the selection of a gentleman to represent the majesty of Great Britain unhappily fell on M. Vassoevitch, the Knez of a petty tribe of Slavonians, called the Vassoeveti. The ignorant official, vain of his newly-acquired dignity, assumed the title of prince, and, by his arrogance and impertinence, so disgusted the inhabitants, and displeased the Turkish authorities, that before a year had elapsed, both Rayah and Mussulman rose en masse, tore down the Consulate flag, and drove away the empty-headed envoy from the

town.

The first attempt to establish diplomatic and commercial relations with the inhabitants of these inland provinces of European Turkey having proved so unsatisfactory, the vacancy has not been filled up; yet we cannot but think, that in the present state of Turkey, Novi-bazar, or, perhaps better, Bosna-Serai, situated as