ight, he wishes to carry on his own suit; when he has a bad case, he
resorts to a lawyer.

The ecclesiastical affairs of this department occupy a considerable
portion of the minister's attention.

In consequence of the wars which Stephan Dushan, the Servian emperor,
carried on against the Greeks in the fourteenth century, he made the
archbishop of Servia independent of the patriarch of Constantinople,
who, in turn, excommunicated Stephan and his nominee. This
independence continued up to the year 1765, at which period, in
consequence of the repeated encouragement given by the patriarchs of
Servia to revolts against the Turkish authority, the nation was again
subjected to the immediate spiritual jurisdiction of Constantinople.
Wuk Stephanovitch gives the following anecdote, illustrative of the
abuses which existed in the selection of the superior clergy from this
time, and up to the Servian revolution, all the charges being sold to
the highest bidder, or given to courtiers, destitute of religion, and
often of common morality.

In 1797, a Greek priest came to Orsova, complaining that he had not
funds sufficient to enable him to arrive at his destination. A
collection was made for him; but instead of going to the place he
pretended to be bound for, he passed over to the island of New Orsova,
and entered, in a military capacity, the service of the local
governor, and became a petty chief of irregular Turkish troops. He
then became a salt inspector; and the commandant wishing to get rid of
him, asked what he could do for him; on which he begged to be made
Archbishop of Belgrade! This modest request not being complied with,
the Turkish commandant sent him to Sofia, with a recommendation to the
Grand Vizier to appoint him to that see; but the vacancy had already
been filled up by a priest of Nissa, who had been interpreter to the
Vizier, and who no sooner seated himself, than he commenced a system
of the most odious exactions.

In the time of Kara Georg, the Patriarchate of Constantinople was not
recognized, and the Archbishop of Carlovitz in Hungary was looked up
to as the spiritual head of the nation; but after the treaty of
Adrianople, the Servian government, on paying a peppercorn tribute to
the Patriarch of Constantinople, was admitted to have the exclusive
direction of its ecclesiastical affairs. The Archbishop's salary is
800_l_. per annum, and that of his three Bishops about half as much.

The finances of Servia