retained land in Servia should
dispose of their estates within a limited period, and quit the province.
Another firman, in 1833, released the Servians from the payment of
_kharaj_ (the capitation tax paid by rayahs) and all other dues and
imposts, in consideration of an annual tribute of 2,300,000 piastres
(L23,000) to be paid to the Porte; the right of levying taxes was
conceded to the Servian government, and all fortresses erected by the
Turks, since the commencement of the war in 1804, were to be rased.[7]
These concessions, which rendered the dependence of Servia on the Porte
little more than nominal, were doubtless granted through the secret
influence of Russia, whose obvious interest it was to weaken the
connexion between her destined prey and its titular suzerain; but the
despotic power thus placed in the hands of Milosh, was exercised with a
degree of arrogance and contempt of vested rights, which soon rendered
him highly unpopular. No carriage but his was allowed to appear in the
streets of Belgrade; and, while all political rights were withheld from
the people, he amassed immense wealth by arbitrary confiscations, by
levying heavy taxes and import duties, and by establishing oppressive
monopolies of articles of necessary consumption, particularly salt,
veins of which, discovered by Baron Herder near the Kopaunik mountain,
he forbade to be worked under severe penalties, in order to keep in his
own hands the importation from Walachia. The discontent of the national
party, headed by the _primates_ (as they are called) of the
municipalities, at length broke out into flame--fomented (as it was then
believed) by Russia, who was jealous of the influence acquired over
Milosh by Colonel Hodges, appointed in 1836 consul-general for England,
and with whom he was on the point of concluding a commercial treaty. A
_hatti-shereef_ at this juncture (December 1838) arrived from the Porte,
obtained (as it is said) through the advice of Colonel Hodges, and
containing a form of constitution for Servia, regulating the legal
tribunals, the functions of the ministry, &c., and ordaining the
formation of a legislative council of seventeen members, as a check on
the despotism of the Prince. But the crisis had already arrived. The
senate took the initiative, by charging Milosh with embezzlement of the
public property, and calling him to account; and, after a vain attempt
to make a stand against the popular indignation, he fled with his