yond the
average period." The spirit of nationality, and zeal for national
improvement, which pervades the population almost as one man, is
strongly marked by many incidents related in Mr Paton's pages, and one
is so remarkable that we cannot forbear quoting it. An idiot boy, to
whom he had given a glass of _slivovitza_, "taking off his greasy fez,
said, 'I drink to our prince Kara-Georgovich, and the progress and
enlightenment of the nation.' He was too stupid to entertain these
sentiments himself; but if the determination to rise were not in the
minds of the people, it would not be on the lips of an oaf in an
insignificant hamlet." Nor is the progress of intellectual development
behind this patriotic zeal for national independence in the march of
regeneration. "In the whole range of the Slavic family, no nation
possesses so extensive a collection of excellent popular poetry," with
which the British public has been in some measure made acquainted by the
translations of Dr Bowring. "The romantic beauty of their country--the
relics of a wild mythology, which has some resemblance to that of Greece
and Scandinavia--the adventurous character of the population--the
vicissitudes of guerilla warfare--are all given in a dialect which for
musical sweetness is to other Slavonic tongues what the Italian is to
the languages of Western Europe." The Servian Anthology has been
collected by Dr Wuk Stephanovich, the author of several works on
national topics; and there are several living poets, among whom,
Milutinovich, already mentioned, is reputed _facile princeps_. The only
newspaper now printed at Belgrade is the _State Gazette_, which
prudently avoids all remarks on Austrian or Russian policy; and the only
annual is the _Golubitza_, (Dove,) a miscellany in prose and verse,
neatly got up in imitation of the German Taschenbuecher, and edited by M.
Hadschitch, the framer of the code of laws. In the Lyceum, lectures on
law are delivered by M. Simonovich, bred an Hungarian advocate, and
formerly editor of the _Courier_, a newspaper now discontinued; but the
study of law, as well as its practitioners, is said to be unpopular in
Servia at present; and Professor John Shafarik is an able and popular
lecturer on Slavic history, literature, and antiquities; of the latter,
there is a collection in the museum of the institution, as well as a
rich mineralogical cabinet collected by Baron Herder, and including
specimens of silver, lead, and copper