The New York Herald Newspaper, February 1, 1876, Page 3

THB NEW YEAR 1Y EUROPE Brilliant Letter from Emilio Caste- ~ Tar, Ex-President of Spain. The Russian Empire and the Eastern Question. “IVAN THE TERRIBLE.” The Spread of Com- .munism in Russia. RUSSIA AND ENGLAND IN INDIA. The Meaning of the Con- quest of Khiva. THE QUESTION OF SLAVIC NATIONALITY Panis, Jan. 2, 1876, To tag Epiron or Tax Heraty:— ‘There ls nothing more difficult than to anderstand and appreciate the general laws of events occurring in ‘our day and before oureyes. If we turn to the past we discern the leading idea which survives its ruins, ‘The peculiarities, the accidents, the phenomena have disappeared, We see the principles and the spirit that animated them during centuries. In our time tho mul- titade of conflicting events that appcar on the surface dim the clearness of the background, justas the intense passion deadens the judgment, And yet events are governed by asoul now as they have been in the past, The idea is the consistent, continuing idea which ant- mates all life, It is like the atoms that form the world or the nebulary formations in the star-lit heavens that lie even beyond tho reach of the telescopic eye of man, ‘ TUR WISTOKY OF PROGRESS, ‘To order to ascertain bow ideas arise It is sufficient to compare those nations imbued with a spirit of progress'with those that arca prey to reaction. The former grow and increase, fill history with their deeds, the mind with their creations, the seas with navies. ‘The forces of the earth become their slaves, Thw lat- ter, decaying and feebic, divide their time between the ‘fitfulness of civil wars and the Incrtia of despotism. 1n the sixteenth century the region which now forms the expiring Empire of Turkey secmed destined to become the mistress of Europe. The territory that now forms the great American Republic was hardly known, or was traversed by a few heroic adventurers, who were Jed forward to the virgin forests and the mysterious rivers by the impulse of adventure. Now, the absolute authority of military empire has dried up the foun- tains of life on the shores of the Bosphoras, In the forests of North America free conscience, justice, the modernizing spirit carried there by the pilgrims, have founded a republic that seems destined, by an cver jn- creasing strongth, to close forever the eraof wars, and the creative virtue of honest effort and labor found the era of peace. DIVIDING UNRS—ASIA AND AMERICA, The earth, like time, is divided into three great parts, Africa und Asia represent the past, producing inert societios, the despot at the apex and the serf at the base. America represents the future. Here the aristocracies of the past are not to be scen, The chiefs of Asiatic castes called kings, the official churches where the recollections of @ theocracy ure sacred, the absurd privileges dividing haman gocictics into hierar- ebies—all these are and will be unknown, The liberty of tho todividua) wall be in fall harmony with the lib- erty of all, awakening the warmth of a multiplying, progressive life, ROROPR AS IT 18, And between tho slavery of Asin and tho liberty of America, betwoen the castes of the Old World und the, democracies of the Now, between the deepening shades of the past and the bright dawn of tho future, the Enrope of the present is placed between two opposing forces, two contradictory principles, 1t is between the Monarchics or representatives of caste, which, though weak and decaying, still retain sufficicnt strength to live, and tho acmocracies that, strong, aggressive apd robust as they are, have Bet yet acquired the culture necessary to com- pletely assert their power, Thus, as Asia is the land of monarchies and\ America the country of republics, so Europo seems destined to be for some tito to come the region of constitutional systems. It is the medium between the extremes of monarchy and republic, as the present is the mean between the past and the future. GREAT CONNKCTING LINKS. To fulfll with greater fidelity that which I have wndez- taken I will endeavor to interweave evonts past and present, and to foreshadow, go far as events will per- mit, the future. As overy man fs the sou of an extend- ed gencalogy, and every organism the resuit of otner and anterior organisms, so evory leading event is sur- rounded by numerous preceding affairs regulated by a logical law. The connecting of the events of the day with their antecedents will, therefore, bo my special study in the present letter and in following commani- cations, In nature fatality reigns; in history lberty governs, In nature we can demand no responsibility, We cannot ask the sun why he scorchesor burns, be- cause he complies with inevitable laws;<but we can ask from the history of man an account of the good or evil he does, Man is free, and, consequently, responsible under the moral law. For this reason, whenever we find aman who takes a leading part in the develop- ment of human incidents we study him, his tempera- ment, his character, his intelligence, his public ca- reer, and award him the gléry or the infamy of his ca- reer, EUROPEAN NATIONS OP OUR TIME. Various communities occupy the Continent of Eu- rope to-day, The North the Scandinavians, descended from such faces as the Normans, who exercised an enormous influence in the development ot civilization during the Middie Ages by their incursions, the last of the cruptions began by the German nations, The East is held by the Slaves, whom Eastern pride calls Slavonians, great Slaves, Serves or Servians, and who cause the East to tremble with terror by their confed- erations and projected alliances, threatening more and more the peace and stability of other States. In the Southeast dwell the Greeks, the philosophers, artists and lawniakers of the Old World, each day receding further and further from their pristine splendor. Near them are the Turks, the successors to the Gre- | cian Empire, who conquered by the scymitar, but who, having failed to sustain liberty, are now preparing to leave the,territory to some younger and freer frep- dom, The Germans, the Latin race and the Anglo-Sax- ons in their spacious isle occupy the centre, And the two great peninsulas of Italy and Spain, which, with Greece, have contributed most to human calture, the ne at the South and the other at the West, contain faces in whom tho Latin spirit and character still pre- dominate, hotwithstanding the various elements of difference that centuries have introduced, In this ‘mmense agglomeration of races there are {nterme- diate commanities, having tempers peculiar to them- selves, like the Magyars for instance, situated between the Slaves of the North and those of the South, and “ke the Celts, who held Ireland under the Saxon rule, Again, there are the Roumanians, geographically be- ‘onging to the Slaves, but by origin to the Latins, THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, ‘The first in power and splendor is the Russian Em- sire, which siveo the Crimean war has been devoted to the work of a steady, interior reorganization, and since the Franco-Prussian campaign has been mainly seeking foreign preponderance, If wo examine this great people, whose country resemblos the countries of the anciont Asiaties, whose inhabitants only awaited a signal at any time to plunge into warfare, we shall find those volcanic aspirations which demonstrate the fe- verish activity of young races, gifted with ambition and hope. At the blush we see only a czar on the throne anda people in the dust, but a decper study unfolds the gonesis of new spirit, The difficulties of the obsoure Russian tongue generally deprives Russian writers of their merited fame, and yot there is no lit erasure more appropriate 40 OF owD age than phe Suse). the ¢piris ot sian, Decause there is none so marked with social transcendentalism. 4 PICTURE OF DESPOTISM. Lf flotillas lzunched upon Khan of Khiva did not move otherwise he nevertheless launched against the Muscovite camp the ferocious y ae NEW YSRK HERALD, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1876.-TRIPLE SHEET. cause Turkish despotism has defenders, nor the gener- ous impulses of an enchained people toward liberty Even now Russian literature Mourns ye death of an | Kirgheez of the desert, who flocked together, then | have encmios in Europe; the ideas of right have ox- eminent writer, Count Tolstot Hir,’principal title to the remembrance and gratitudeor posterity ts bis wagedy of “Ivan the Terrib/¢,” resembling the his- torieal dramas of Schiller. 4n Ivan wo have terrible, personification of autocricy—wise, like Augustus, and capricious a& Nero, Superstitious as Caligula, suspi- cious ag Tiberius, cruel, like all tyrants. Toward the end of his life, at the pinnacle of his omnipotent swa: wo find hima préy to remorse. The satiety of power embitters even life. He contemplates interment in an obscure Cloister. He becomes a wretched mur- derer by Neing his eldest son for state reasons. He adopts a8 @ substitute a puny youth wilh a narrow soul and a frail body, too weak to struggle against a Poisoned asm re, hunger and misery, against the rebellious fent by the West, the insurrection of the Tartare Impthe East and the rebellion of the tn the North, all appearing like so many ‘spectres of Death, ‘Ivan tho Terriblo,’? at the hour of his abdication, when at the monastery door—nay, even atthe verge of the tomb, meets those Boyards | trembieor alarm themselves, because as yet the Rus- |” whom he ited and decimated, kneeling at his | feet, his reinstallation on the throne, al- ready a a of petrified bones. Immediately he re- gains his fastens on his armor, rushes forth calls together his armies. A comet | him and summons the shades” news of a defeat maddens him to fary, Si at nrg he wna 1 announcement he will die on St, Cyril’s Day, on. that day tal life. é Do we nob See here all the misery of despotism painted by @ master hand? In bis magutfteent novel, “Peace and War,’ we have the arist ef the Inst century, This class wi based on tne een style by Catherine II., who, _. vowing her Own language, speaks always in Fren Hore, too, are’ thie intriguors, courtezans from the loons ; generals ugoless in battle; diplomatists of elegant, mannors but feéble intellect; offcers ot surpassing wgor, but With @oubtful character and irfegulir life Noblemen, tired of the world before having known | it, divert by tying @ balliff to a bear and throwtig into a deep river. Indifferent youths pi ong the ruins of Moscow as if among ys of a garden, We see the | dreadful nd the numerous armies of the years 712, ‘4; Count Rostoptschin defends the sacred “ancient Russia against Napoleon, the inhabitants how the invading coupled with dissertations on the weakness of hig own eyesight, As a most faithful image of fatiilidim We have Gencral Koutonzof arms at the rotroat of fe! 8°" because gained, Regarding’ ti/"""!* ous types of fociety wo diseorn ‘at the i’ an aristocracy ‘ab enfeedled by ok “Nk mone of the aris ‘Earope,’ but at thé.vie! a pevyle totally unlike iimy of the neighboring naiicns COMMUNIETIO PROPAGANDA IN RUSSIA. “Austerlitz because every’A "| disbanded themselves again, like tempest clouds, shun- ning every Serious attack, every plan of scientific, tac- tical warfare. PLANTING CIVILIZATION ON THE STEPPES. ‘Thus it became necessary for the Russians to embody the treacherous steppes within their dominions aud te give for frontier to their Empire, not the desert, with it@ pomadic races only and a sedentary population— the tribes fixed to the ground by the force of an imper- fect civilization—but a civilization superior to the rude and savage state of those aggressive legions, bowered in the immensity of Asia Khiva has been annexed to the Russian Empire, but this annexation 1 not enough; {% is yet necessary to make the frontier the north of Afghanistan and of Persin But in this case, although Russia should take possession of Meru, where for the present she has fixed the limits of her conquests, that’ have been conducted from the limits of the Caspian Sea to the Asiatic Continent, the English have no motive to sian Positions are separated from those of the English by ‘thiles and an impregnable cordillera Thus it is those who know the interior of Asia advise Eng-, land tat in. order to prevent future complications she should imitate the course of Russia and take Hern, =~ thobteer ANGLO- RUSSIAN DIFFERENCES. ‘But the question is not the most important questions, While the Asiatic d are at @ great distance from the metropolis, the Asiatic of Russia are ike natural extensions of the While English domination has 4 character. -mereantile, which is not likely to captivate imaginations, the Rus. sian domination has an imperial aad military character in harmony with the genius of Asia While England professes a severe and austere religion, founded on the independent judgment of the individual, but lite fitted to move the peoples even of ‘the south of Europe,’ Russia professesa religion Oriental in its poetical rites and wisdom, its Asiatic traditions—the only religion, perhaps, that could captivate and ring to the bosom of Clhiristianity people born the'land of mystery under the sky of miracles, Thus itis thatthe fears of Englandiabout Asta, in presence of the progresses of the Russian Empire, appear to me well founded. The eyes are hardiy fixed on the distant horizon of Asia when the arbitrary question in Europe to-day—the question of the East—-springs up spoutaneously. The events of Burope develop them- selves by circles, as it ‘were, around a central controlling event, ‘which’ VecOmes as a central star in the ‘celestial ¢cohomy of the heav- ens, From 1848 wntjb 1653 the events of Eu- rope were grouped ardund the proclamation of the Re- public and the proclamation of the Empire in France. From 1853 until 1859 Europe was goverened by “the events arising out of-"thie war of France and England with Russia, and the wer of Piedmont apd France against Austria, Prem 1859 until 1866 all polities gravi- tated between France and Prussia. To-day, since the modification of the treaty of Paris, which wag the prize obtained by Russia for the humiliations suffered in the Crimea, the difficulties of Europo came back to revolve Thos you. not consider strange the progress which socialist ly makes im the old Russian society. Those school wiah by a formula, more or less broad, to s¢ ial problems, all credit tn the West, gain East, and are a dangerous influence in Russia, w Hertzen little before his death. | in persisting in his communistic propaganda, and yery proud of belonging to a race like the Slay, wi According to him, should settle the contradictions between the laws of the individual and the laws of the State. ‘In one of the last congresses of the democracy 1 heard the persevering Bakunine propose to us—as the ideal of all politics, as the remedy for our evils, as the port of refago, as the heaven of hope—the patriarcial Slav munitipal institations, with their radical negution of all property. But Il never thought” that these dreams, which vanished before reason and experience like mist before the sun, could move so pro- foundly the heart of sian society. Various think- ors, from their Patmos of exile, formulate them. In- numerable books and pamphiets propagate them, Soctenies, which take their names as the apostles of teath and that Of spiritual proletaries, organize them, This foree is like an army of guerillas, ablor than all the bari, stronger than all armics, breaking the marrow network Of the custom house. They diffuse themselves. <A literature pootizes them. The women, tender @8 an idyl, effusive as love, in Jove with their. wa, emancipation, believe in them. Young meaintoxicated by the joy of new life, swear by reagon and by right to defend them, if it is neces- “sary, in oue hundred combats, and to realize them, even at the cost of the greatest sacrifices. Read the requisitions of the First Crown Prosecutor, Zychareff, and you will be frightened at the measureless strongth and meusurcless extent of socialism in Russia. IN Moscow, the Russian’s Rome, a clandestine printing office has been found devoted to revolutionary writings, and worked by imperial employés. The clubs and sec- tions extend in all directions in a most powerful organization, similar to that established by the Itulian carbonari during the servitude of their coun- try. A prince, an old public fanctionary, presides over the club of St, Petersburg; a territorial proprie- tor of the first order is chief of the club of Tambof, and a pensioned judge of eradition and integrity has ox- pended nearly $40,000 from his own purse in this propaganda, The Province of Pouza has a principal Justice of the peace in the eocialist legion, and in the Province of Viatka @ deputation of nobles passed through for the first time to collect funds. Tho Governor General on his part submitted to a counsel of students, who in their turn were under the central commission resident in Switzer- land. The fair sex shows an innovating fanati- cism similar to that which took possession of the Roman young women in the first ages of Christianity and tno maidens of France tn the first days of the Revolution. The daughter of a general supports so- cialist schools, The wife of a colonel of gendarmerie initiates her own sons. Several ladies belonging to the families of private councillors of the Emperor indoc- trinate their innumerable serfs, The impulse of all these united forces is so great, so impetuous, so irre- sistible, that they Imperial agent is in despair and do- clares solemnly the impossibility of arresting or sup- pressing a great politico-religious fanaticism which prevails all over the Empire, REVOLUTIONARY IMPULSES IN MUSOOVITE socIRTY. The high classes in Russia feel something of the | game revolutionary tmpulse that was felt by the high classes jn France toward the end of the last century, ana which led them to fight im America and to lay down their own privileges on the night of the 4th of Au- gust at the foot of the tribune, And the high classes aro | confounded with the orthodox; with the purely Russian party; with that which desires to reawaken the ancient Greek religion and the imperialism antertor to the | time of Peter the Great; with the implacable enemy | which combats the reigning family, accusing it of hav- tng destroyed Muscovite originality, with having raised | up servile bureaucractes and subjected the interests of | Russians to those of proud and conquering Germany. CONQUESTS IN AStA. This interior situation is complicated with the exte. rior situation, which, according to the general feeling, has within its womb two wars, one emanating from the conquests in Asia, the other emanating from ambitions in kurope. Slowly the Muscovite Empire has branched out tnto the centreof Asia The English Power, alarmed at Russian conquests, has frequently around the most dreaded question of the East, And, in tracing the question of the East, the problem al- ready indicated in dwelling upon the social life in Rus- sia reappears in all its vigor. with it we havo also tho awful question of the unity of that Slavonic race, more fruitful yet of wars and catastrophes than the unity of that German race, which only came with so much blood- shed and strife, THE SPREAD OP SLAVIBM. v ‘This mighty Russia has, with the municipal sentiment of young tribes, and, with the national sentiment of ripened peoples, another, which commences to spring up in Russian hearts and which will assert itself in the future—the sentiment of race, Slavism surges and swells with robust and eager life. A few days ago, in the house of the Princess Troubertkoi, I met Riegel, tho celebrated orator of Prague, one of the principal supporters in the East of those Slavonian principles which:to-day possess some of the most emt- nent spirits, and which to-morrow will descend, by the mysterious filtration of ideas, from speculation to reality, until they penetrate to the very depths. And Riegel demonstrated, with a great deal of data and with much clearness of expression, how Slavonism hag* come to life among persecated and oppressed nations and, among the Slavonic races, who were obliged to seek for vigorous support, which they could not find except In the bosom of cording to Russia, the Muscovite people have not been the promoters of Slavonism; it has been the Slavonic peoples who could not support the yoke of their rulers, whether Austrian, German, Hungarian or Turk. In such oppressed races illustrious philologists were born who have shown that the liturgiclanguage of the Rassian Church stands, with respect to modern Slavonic idioms, the same as the ecclesiastical Latin with respect to modern Latin tongues. From tnese oppressed people came the historians who have appealed to the ancient united past. Among these oppressed peoples they praise those who ask that the Muscovite eagle should open his wings and direct bis flight toward the south, to the west, to the banks of the Danube, full of scattered Slaves, to the borders of the Eupbra- tes; to those snow-covered Alps, elevated by God to be 80 many temples of liberty and right, where the clank of so many chains is heard, to thoso dark forests and the depths of the Balkan, where the crescent lingers in the heavens, a dark and sinister star; to those Imperial mountains, which, to convert them- serves into fortresses of universal emancipation, await but the sharp shoot of war that must be raised in the regions of the north. The truth is that, if we look for ideas more precise and more exact about Slavonism, we will find them in Bohemia and among hereminent writers, There its fundamental char- acter {8 recognized to its depths. The half German and balf Mongolian Empire, encered at in Russia, is given its historic originality and {ts anterior independence. ‘The Germans and the Magyars are accused of being tyrants and oppressors. Poland is bittely reproached for rebelling against the Interests of her own race; she herself, from being the oppressed, to become the op- pressor, when her serfs awakened at the crack of the Mascovite whip to redeem themselves. The con- federations of those young races, whose souls havo had one and the same cradle and origin, in the distant past, will have the same country, notwithstanding the existence of their divers nationalities, in the far off future. THR HERZEGOVINA QUESTION. This very numerous race is divided into Northern and Southern Slavs. The latter occupy part of Istria, Dalmatia and Albania, and Croatia, Sia- vonia, Bosnia and, above all, on its m! tary frontiers, Herzegovina and the two principalt- ties of Montenegro and Servia. Hidden there in Siavo. nian genealogy, first by erudition and then by poetry, their interests have been converted into all the races who think themselves brothers by origin and by blood, and who feel themselves called upon to fall similar destinies, Forthis cause the rising of the tribes of Herzegovina bas profoundly moved all the Slaves. In their enthusiasm they desired that the war of ignored tribes, lost in mountain defiles almost unknown to the world, should create the most lively ynterest, such as was awakened by Greece at the hour of her independenes, when all nations remem- bered that she had yet in her veins some of the elements of heroic life and some © reflec tion of ber brilliant and imaginative arts and approached a dispute, It ts very true that the Rus- sians hasten to caim suspicious and phlegmatic Eng- land, ahd to say, with geographical memorials and military maps in hand, how a complete ignorance of Central Asia explains so many vain and unfounded appretensions, The mili- | tary lines which garrison the fronticrs of Sibe: | ria, forced by continuous wars and by political wounds that have broken out unexpectedly here and | there, have moved and stretched in all directions by march that was said to be indispensable to ther security. These reasons for natural defence, imposed by nature upon all beings by rudimentary instinct of self-preservation, have stretched the dominions of Russia as (ar as Turkestan, During 123 years she sub- mitted to all sorts of outrages, of defiances, of assaults, until her representatives, throttled by barbarians, her hosts decimated, she decided on an expedition in 1840 through boundless wastes of sands and deserts of ice. In this am army was ‘lost, devoured by the insatiable voracity of the sageclad steppes, The peace asked for by the Khan and signed in 1842 was no more than a breathing spell for the’ bar- barous warrior and a snare spread for Russia. Thus the | t the warmth of splendid ideas in the mind. Asa general rule, all believe bere in Europe that the present organization of the Turkish Empire eannot last | longer, but all fear the consequences that may arise trom | {te complete collapse. Thus the enthusiasm for the insurgents ig contrasted with the universal fear of their patrons, the real heirs of that Sick Man who Is in his last agonies on the banks of the Bosphorus. Lord Russell alone has fallen into & great extravagance, and, trusting in an old princi- ple of English policy, confounds the Greek insurrec. tion, that captivated him so much by its changes, with this Slavonic insurrection, in whose midst exist many of the peculiar passions of Chris. tlang, bat also many mancuvres Of Russian poli- tice, Garibald! himself, whose tempefament is that of heroism and whose mind burns at the fire of liberty, as a soldier of every democratic crusade, mot- withstanding bis personal prestige and the influence which he exercises over all hearts, has called the free to suecor the oppressed by means of proclamations, in which warlike ardor competes with a tone of pro- pheey, and even he has not been able to find the ready sympathy of other times, when the cause of an ensiaved tribe was confounded with the proper cause | new shifting of the lines of that military frontier’ was not ppough, The exploration of Lake Aral aud the | of liberty by those who Jove the sacred nringinia tended and have taken root, so that our heart beats as much for the mountaineer In Bosnia as for the negro im the forests of Flofida—tor all those who suffer or who have suffered barbarous oppression in the world. Un. fortunately, tn the insurrection of Herzegovina & Strange phenomenon ts seen—an intrigue of diplo- Macy rather than a movement toward liberty. The Germans and tho Russians, more and more euemies | ab the bottom of their hearts in proportion as they mppear more and more friendly by the courtesy of | sheir words, attribute the movomént to intrigue. The Germans say that it is a manmuyre of Russia to fevive the Eastern question, The Russians mormur that it isarevengo of Germany, for the veto opposed this spring by Russia to all attempts at war, The truth is that such rumors cool tie spirits and take fyom those poor mountaineers in arms that suffrage of public conscience, to which they have a perfect t by the hard, sterm fate of their oppressions and ‘by the heroic efforts of their resistance. BERVIA AND MONTENEGRO READY FOR BATTLE, The Slavonic war—that war of races—certainly diea and impassions the bosom in the heart of the ubian Principalities, among those who have spent Meir lives in combat with the Turks, Above all, Abose two rogions that are truly Slavonic (Montenegro and Servia), which have the same histroy, origin and tendencies, tremble for their comrades, and burn to launch themselves into that fight. Tbe eagle is not 80 agitated when its nest is invaded, nor does the lion roar so loudly when his hiding piace is found, as these peoples when they see the crescent and the ¢ross once more in antagooism, and the moun- tain passes watered so often with the heroic blood of their sires. That ancient Servian Empire, whose throne was the eternal mountains and whose creed was national independence, adhering for the most part to the Byzantine religion, has ever fought to prevent ‘the establishment of a Greek Empire upon the ruins of the Koman Empire, or the reconstitution of Rome 4m its universality and grandeur, They were united when all the European world went to pieces at the fall of feudal institutions, They were strong and Serene when the Russians bent down under the sabres f the Mongolians, and the sons of Poland and Bohemia fied to Germany to escape the sword of the Tartars, Qnce they extended from the Ionian to the Black Sea, with the tlara for a crown, like the Pontiff, and the globe beaten into a cross for an ensign. RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTIES IN SERVIA. Perhaps a great part of its misfortunes is explained byreligious differences, The Servians of the West are i¢lined tothe Roman religion; the Servians of tho Bast to the Greek Chureh. These differences oxplain many interior rivalries of Serviaand much enmity of her tribes with the neighboring tribes, The popular its wafers were not enough. Ifthe | of universal emancipation, And it is certainly not be- | the Turks, Servia aided Turkey to subjugate them, ‘Under the plea of their being ancient renegades, trait ors to their country in the terrible day of Kassoro, PRACTICAL PATRIOTS, Thus there is no people who have better known how to profit by everything favorable to themselves, and to flee from everything advorse to them, They divined the policy of the Russian Empire in the East when Peter the Great established {t wittethe same admirable instinct with which certain birds presage and announce the tempest in the mountains and the hurricane on the sea, Nono better than Servia has comprohended the weaknesses and the strength of Turk None has profited more than Servia by the mild policy of Joseph IL of Austria None has combated the Sultan as this singular nation has dono im the person of its hero, George Kara, when the con. dition of Europe at the beginning of the century made victory easy. None would have mado, as Servia did of Milosch, an apostle and a redeemer out of an instrument of oppression. The history of its independence makes {t an epitome of the herotc times by the sublime valor with which each one of its pages glistens, and a study in politics by the ability and pru- dence which are mixed with herdism. ‘Only by such means could she secure her existence when inthe year 1812,abandoned by Russia, delivered over to Turkey, she could, while dragging along and raising herself to the measure of fortune, combating or negotiating accord- ing to necessity, penitent or warlike, martyr or courtler, possessing a fabulous valor on certain occa- sions, and on others a prudence more incredible than her valor; with the audacity of the savage and the fore- sight of the sage, constitute herself a nation at once in- dependent of Turkey and tributary to it, and certain that in time Europe would assure her existence und bean ac- complice tn the aspirations and aggrandizements for which she yearned after so much humiliation and servitude, ; SERVIAN MISGOVERNMENT, In the difficult task of governing themselves this Servian people has not shown the high capacity and the singular self-restraint which it did in the combats for independence. After having obtained so many vic- tories over their blood-stained enemies, they ob- tained few victories over their own passions. Oriental despotism—which seems kept at a distance by the removal of the Turks—raises itself on tho top of that society and its conspiracies are ex. tended im all directions, The Ministers conspire Against the sovereign, the sovereign against liberty. The constitution of 1835 shows the primitive inex- perience of these peoples, They were close to autoc- racy and demagogism ; to aristocratic oligarchy and bar- barous Communism; to Asiatic patriarchalism and Western democracy. The institutions were altered at the will of the Prince, and customs corrupted. The assemblies were periodical reunions of numerous deputies, which lasted four or five days. They only knew how to follow in blind obedience or write #ongs of Servia tell that one day war broke out between the Hungarians, a Catholic people, and the Turks, an infidel people. One ot the Servian kings, belonging, like the majority of his nation, to the Greek orthodoxy, ‘Went to encounter the Hungarian and said:— “#f you conquer what will-you do with our Church?” 41 will impose Catholicity by force.” ‘And going tothe Sultan he asked ofhim the same abd received this reply :— “If 1 conquer, I will raise the orthodox churehes Glose to the synagogues, so that all who believe in Mo- Hiammed and wish {t may go to these, and to the others ‘all who believe in Christ.’” eThe Greek religion suited the Servian spirit and @aracter much better than the Catholic religion. The predominance of metaphysics in the Hellenic faith Attracts people naturally inclined to mystical ideas, ‘Thus it is that Oriental convents, lost in the dark woods or reared upon abrupt mountains, seemed to the eyes of those warlike tribes in the muirrorings of the fasth, in the rosy flush of hope, as sanctuaries o¢ thought where the priests guarded the sacred fire of truth, whero the penitents interceded with God for Sheir people, where the prophets wept for tho dead, i called upon the livingyin the hour marked by a rsaeacs for combat and death. SERVIAN HOPES AND SELP-DECEPTIONS. *) For four hundred yoars the Servia which expired at Kassoro has revived every day in the hearts of her ons. None of them think that her hero Lazarus has @isappeared from the {slumbering fight No, he is hid- den in those distances behind the vell of impenetrable mysteries, as God behind the celestial stars of the firmament. The aposties who baptized Servia have descended from their altars to providentially and shiela him, (The armies which he iiveted. feeeiyed communion on sheir knees, and in that communion they received, et the samo time with the divine host, the immortal hope of one day seeing their chieftain rise from bis invisible temple to the visible throne of Servia Mysterious swallows, that flit between Jerusalem and Belgrade al- most at a single flight, after having brusned with thelr wings the ashes of Calvary and dipped their pinions tn the waters of the Jordan, chirp by the woods and at the monastery doors legends of this nature which | only the faithfal Servian hears. BERVIAN MARTYRDOM DEFINED, Unhappy people! Their martyrdom is one of the most heart-rending tragedies in the pages of history, Their mountains are the highest of Calvaries, and, per- baps the most bloody among the erucifixion of nations. Persecuted, martyred, their life daring the last threo jong centuries seems like a continuing death. Their oppressors casts portion of them from the bosom of the cities to the bosom of the woods, and compelled them in @ savage state to wander In the mountain fastnesses and to clothe themselves in the barks of trees. Those who remained in the city carried their heads bowed upon their breasts and their eyes fixed on the ground. If they raised their head is would bo eaid that they elevated it to look for the light of heaven and for liberty. If they raised their glance it would be said that they elévated It to look at thoir tyrants, and this would bring down death, Some wore dragged from their families, so that they might not speak of their country—even at the fireside with their chil. dren, or in the nuptial couch with their wives, Terror reigned to such a degree that the old men and the women went in search of the strongest in the tribe | and said:—‘Slay us before leaving us to the will of the oppressor.” How often bas the mountaineer, on departing for the woods, caught his betrothed by the hairy gazed upon her with the ecstatic eyes of lova, driven his hunting knife to hor heart, launching forth an agonizing wailand receiving in return a dying smile from the martyr glorified and transigured. The principal hero of Servian independence killed his old and honored father with his own hand. In that eternal captivity, in those ages of misfortune, this race | acquired a mixture of enthusiasm and dissimulation of pride and self-abnegation, of strength and astuteness { which hardened it and gave it the cunning and patience | of tho weak, as well as the energy and the might of | the strong. IRON ARMS, IRON MRARTS AND DIPLOMACY, I know of no history more worthy of attention and study than the history of Servian independence, Abandoned by all, the Servians will erect themselves into @ strong people by the indomitable force of their | character and the unspeakable virtue of their national patriotism. Without ever ceasing to measure the obstacles and the difficulties: which oppose them, they will employ patience, astuteness and even deceit when the force of arms cannot be used. They aro norved like steel, and these are always at the servico of | their Machiavellian intellects, And the prominent useless protests, The councils of State were converted, little by little, into permanent conspiracies, The councillors aspired to an absolute omnipotence, Prince Milosch was de- throned in 1839 and substituted by his elder son, Prince Milan, who, on his death bed, in the hour of bis agony, did not know of his father’s dethronement nor of his own fortune. Prince Milan, eldest son of Milosch, was succeeded by Prince Michael, sec- ond son, not with the title of heir, but in that of an elected prince, who did not reign by reason of his blood but in virtue of popular suffrage. This monarch, who contrasted with Miloseb by his gentleuess, only found conspiracy and mutiny among the people; sub- terranean intrigues in the court, plots presided over by his own Ministers, intrigues engendered by his own mother until the catastrophe in 1842, and his detbronement, By this our hero of Kara, the was the victim of new conspiracies and new crimea, His family held all tho eminent poste and dishonored all the national tribunals. His foreign policy was no less mournful than his interior policy. Serf of the Hapsburgs, courtier of fortune, spy and tool of their machinations, sergeant of their army, he sent the Servian bands to fight against heroic Hungary, and contributed powerfully to her defeat, He insured the slavery of his own people and subjected them to the despotism of Metternich, in the end as terrible as the autocracy of the Sultan. Tho popular assemblies held thetr tongues to avoid the discussion of so many faults, and public indignation arose until the dynasty was consumed. An assembly deposed it, and PRINCE MILOSCH RETURNSD-TRIUMPHANTLY in 1849, weighed down by years, to represent the old Servian autocracy, after having promised to represent liberty,..And. bis dethroved son, M also re: turned, after ‘Tong travel in he was singularly polished), to establish a system much more Parliamentary and to found eomparative liberty. But this good Princo fell ander the dagger of an assassin, and was unable to finish his work. A son of his, educated in the austere college of Paris by an eminent philosopher (M. Huet), reigns to-day in Servia ‘The patriots say that he is neglecting public interests and taking care of only his own affairs; that he curbs the tendencies of his couptry to lend a decided support to tne independence of their brothers in Bosnia’ And this unpopularity of the Prince of Servia contrasts with the popularity of the Prince of Montenegro, who, at the front of 200,000 mountaineers, appears, by his resolution and his patriotism, to be the chief of a great army. Each and all praise bia singleness of character, the clearness of his intellect, the tntensity of his valor, the energy of his convictions, the purity of his patriot- ism, the very rare mixture of eminent qualities and tho assurance he gives of serving his heroic race. The peoples who are oppressed by Turkey hope that Montenegro, im- pregnable fortress for defence, will keep back the Turks toward the south; while Servia, in the rorth, more populated, richer, stronger, could represent tho part which the mountaineers have always represented in the redemption and establishment of great modern nationalities, In a subsequent letter I hope to say something more on this subject. EMILIO CASTELAR. A RUMP COMMON COUNCIL. A REMARKABLE MEETING LAST NIGHT IN A SIXTH AVENUE TAVERN. There was a funny meeting held at Knickerbocker Cottage last night. It was a gathering of men who styled themselvgs the legally elected Aldermen and Assistant Aliermen of the city and county of New York. They denounced the present incumbents of the chairs as impostora The so-called Assistant Aldermen present were Bugh Mallen, William J, Smith, Patrick Reilly, Thomas Dum- mond, Martin Keogh, Michael Kiernan, Patrick Toner, Daniel Hogencamp and several others. Patrick Reilly, of the Twelfth district, presided over them, In an ad- joining room the nominal Aldermen wero {n session. There was not quorum of them present, and owing to this fact some one in- felicitously proposed that &® sergeant-atarms be appointed to go out and drag tn failed to put in an appearan Accordingly the “sargent- out and bring in Mike Burns by shutter or by any other conveyance that might ve deemed practicable. All at oneo Burns appeared, followed by “Alderman? Spaulding. Hence, a quorum being present, J. J. Kehoo was appointed Chairman. Alderman Demarest arose and sald that the gentle. men present the legaliy elected representatives of the people of New York in common council, and that the city might not be compelled to pay two sets of men for performing the same line of duty he proposed the following resolution :— Resolved, That the Com, } quality among them ts a sublime pride, In tho Middle Ages they availed themsslves of Romo against | Constantinople and of Constantinople against Rome. | In tho nineteenth century they availed themselves of | | Russia against Turkey and of Turkey against Russia, | | According to their convenience they are either | slavea or heroes, They will prostrae them- | selves like weak nuns in their solitary convents > to fmportune the skies by prayers and tea | or they will sally out to the field armed and | arrogant, hke the wartiors of ancient Greece, to | make every pass a Thermopy!e, No cause will moro | their iron hearts but their own, Nobody who bas been oppressed will merit compassion from those who ha alone been abandoned in all oftheir oppressions, Inthe midst of the universal enthusiasm which Greek ind | pendence excited, consecrated by the recollections of the first of ancient poets and sung to the lyre of the first | of modern poets, they remained indifferent, notwith- standing that the enemy of Greece {s their own enemy, calculating that a great Hellenic empire might reduce | them toa dependency more lasting than theirdependency | on the Tarks and drag them from @ destiny so brill- tant as the leadership and the direction of the Chris- tian peoples in the East, And when tho Mohammed- roller of the city and county of ase the Finance Department be in w York and every mem| and they are hereby 4 forbidden to money as salary, feos, rs Hoss: Thongaa Shields, Petriek Ly iy Soko omana Shia rie it, Bi orris, William ye ot ead ‘tes, 1 Counell, or 30 aay rs, clerks or aftachis ap- pointed by them in their so-called capacity of Rump Com- mon Counell, inasmach as they are asurpers. The party who read the resolution stumbled over members of the Common | Overy other word, like a plough horse in a hurdie race, The whole thing appeared to be more likes burlesque than @ piain matter of business meeting. The resolu- tion received the unanimous vote of the per- sons present Alderman Demarest then pro- d that «=the Commissioner of Public ‘orks supply more water to tho uptown wards, public charities and Blackwell's Island. is was also carried. Alderman Swartz then moved that the Com- missioner of Public Works be directed to furnish suitable chambers for the use of the boards of Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen of city and county of New York now present in Knickerbocker Cottage. Tho meeting was adjourned uotil Monday next at eight P. M. HURT BY A HORSE CAR. Ronty MoCorren, aged nine years, living on Jane street, was caught between ear No. 128 of the Seventh avenue line and the curbstone in Church street, near Doane, yesterday. and Aad his left ankle severely in ons of Lgawia, oli Siayem Uke ie Serviens arose against | ured first hero of independence, returned to the throne, and | ANOTHER CHURCH SCANDAL, TROUBLE IN THE BROOKLYN PARK AVENUR PRIMITIVE METHODIST CONGREGATION—TH PASTOR'S STATEMENT—STRANGE DISCLO< SURES. Considerable excitement was occasioned in Brookly# yesterday afternoon by the announcement that anothes church scandal had toomed up which concerns the moral character of a pastor who bas come prominently before the public in his capacity of ‘singing preacher. "* This gentleman is the Rev. red” Bell, who describes himself as @ ‘converted pugilist,” and who has cbarga of the souls of the Park avenue Primitive Methodist congregation, which, up to about a year ago, held services in a little wooden building on Bridge str betweon Concord and Tillary streets; but, bis congre- gation growing rapidly, an [mposing edifice of bricks was built on the corner of Canton street and Park ave- hue, and taken possession of in the early part of last year, The church seemed to prosper amazing!y until about three weeks ago, when the startling announce- ment was mado that Mr, Bell intended to give up bis charge to become an evangelist a la; Moody and Sankey, by whose example he was fred) With the announeement from .| the pastor came the statement that some of the con- gregation believed that he was too.liberal for them- ‘The pastor agreed to remain connected with the church until the end of February, but meantime revival ser- vices have been held at the Academy of Music, under his direction, at which be announced his deter- mination to conduct revival services in Brooklyn as Jong as the people wanted tobear lim, and then toleave for fresher fields, Simultaneously with this an- nouncement on the part of Mr, Bell rumors began to circulate concerning the moral char- acter of the reverend gentleman and of undue intimacy with certain lady members of his congregation, One case in particular wascited against him—that of a young lady who is in delicate health, and whom, it said, he visited very frequently, It appears that she was very proud of these visits and boasted of them to some of her lady friends, whom she told, it is said, thas Mr. Bell bad said that he wished she was bis wife and used other endearing terms to her. These ramorg came to the ears of the church committee, some members of whom visited the house of the young lady above mentioned and examined her as to their truth, She denied that Mr, Bell had made any im- proper proposals to ber. Though the church took no definite action in the premises up to last night, it has ‘been an open secret among the congregation for the past, three weeks that these charges had been unofficially’ made and were generally discussed, the expressed wish’ on the part of the pastor being that they should be in- vestigated speedily. z Aramor obtained for some time in Brooklyn yester=, day afternoon that @ warrant bad been issued for the! arrest of tho Rev, Mr. Bell, and that there was “a woman in the case." This caused considerable excite- ment, and a reporter visited the pastor at his comfort.’ able residence, adjoining the church, to obtain bis side of the story, ‘The reverend gentleman seemed willing enough to answer any questions that might be put to him, He denied positively that any order of arrest had been served on bim in any suit. Mr. Bell was im consultation with a Brooklyn lawyer when the reporter called, and after the conference the following conversa- tion took place:— Reportrr—Mr. Bell, is there anything that would lead you to suppose that you would be served with papers in a suit in which @ woman was concerned? ev, Mr. Bett—Slanderous reports have been circu- lated about me ever since I announced my intention of| leaving this church. Every inducement was held out) to me to stay, but I dechued, Secret attacks against my moral character were then commenced. 1 was sub- jected to the MEANEST KIND OF PERSECUTION, and I think you can safely say that some of my con- gregation were 60 incensed against me that they would, sacrifice my reputation to gratify their own spleen. Rerorter—W hat was the nature of these reports? Mr. Brt—That I had made improper proposals to a lady mermber of my congregatian, Revorrer—When did this report first reach your cars? Mr, Brut—About three weeks ago. RerorteR—What did you do about it? Mr. Bett—I have several times gone before the Church Board and requested them to take action an@ investigate these rumors; but no formal charges have yet been prought against me. I am ready to meet them, at any time. The Board meets to-night, and if they do not take action I am determined to sue two or three! persons in the church for slander. Rerorter—May | ask the name of the lacy? Mr, Bet (hesitatingly)—I don’t think I can answer that question. After a pause, you can say that these ru-' mors have connected me , at least, twenty women) in my church, There is a woman at the bottom, of, course, or the reports would not have the desired effect.’ If 1 visited at a house it was at once said: “There is eomething going on there!” and in this wa: I have been slandered until twenty names of ladiei have been dragged in. If 1 had decided on leaving, Brooklyn at once I do not believe there would have: been a word of this, but I mean to stay as long as peo-. ple will hear me, aud that is what rankles. Rerorter—Then | can give an unequivocal denial om your part to the rumors? BELL jonpbetienie Xen sir, you can. t perry efergyman, w sin the room at the“ time, remarked, ‘‘You see they have made Mr. Bell out a very hard case." Mr. Beli is low sized, well built, with piercing black eyes and raven lock: rather agreeable face lighted up with intelligence and a pleasant, taking manner. ry asplendid basso singer, and usually intersperses his sere mong with hymns and religious songs of bis own com. sing. He has not a trace of the prize iichter about im, though he acknowledges ‘himeelf that in yeart gone by he was ‘‘a very hard case” indved, / THE CHARGES. There was a moeting of the church officials of tha Primitive Methodist Episcopal church, Brooklyn, last night, to take action in reference to the charges madq against the pastor, Rev. Fred Bell He is accused by one of the brethren of making !mproper proposals t@ his wife, and by others with sowing discord in the church and creating trouble, The charges are ag folk, lows BROTRER MORMIA' CTARGR Brooxtyy, J Broraen Bats—Daan Str—You are obi William J. Morris of visiting his house, avenue, in this city, on the 21st and 29th of April, 1875, an making improper proposals and using indecent language his wife, Mary L. Morris—lany unbecoming ® pastor any Christian chureh. CHARLES SPURR, President. * Guouas B. Coren, Secretary. ANOTHER CHARGE. Brooxtry, J |. 91, 1876, Brother Brit :— , You aro charged by Brothers Howard and Paisley of vio Inting your pledge given to this church by making « divis and sowing discord and making trouble in this cireui also with making false statements to « reporter of the Dav’ A CHARLES SPURR, President. ‘ronan B, Couven, Secretary After somo debate it was decided to suspend Pastot Bell until the charges are investigated. They will be tried on Friday next Mr, Bell denied the truth of the allegations and sard he would preach in the Academy of Music next Sunday, but not under the auspices of the Primitive Methodist eburch. Orrick ov THR Umrrep States Sirrinc Commisstosrn, WHAT CAPTAIN DUNCAN THINKS, New Yor, Jan, 81, 1870, To rae Evttor ov Tre Heraup:— Much is being said just now in criticism of alleged arbitrary acts of the United States Shipping Commis sioner at this port, and of the suffering of ship owners in consequence, The whole case can be stated ina few words, Just four firms—vessel owners or agents—of this port bi ing deliberately, intentionally, and with a full knowl. ecige of all the penalties, violated certain sections of the Shipping law—sections that have been passed upon and clearly defined by the United States courts having jurisdiction at this port—are suffering. or will suffer, the inconvenience and expense which their un- lawful acts have tuvited. The remedy against any further {neonvenience of this kind is very simp! iz:—to respect and obey the laws of t ited Stat ust ag all other ship own and agente—the most of them very cheerfully—ha done and are doing. Not a very great deal of tntelligence ts necessary to enable any one to understand that from the courts, not from tho departments, must come the final and binding interpretation of ourlawa Respectfully, ©. DUNCAN, United States Shipping Commissioner. ON THE DOWNWARD PATH. Among the prisoners who confronted Justice Keese, in the First District Police Court, at Jersey City, yes. terday morning, was @ handsome, delicate young girl giving her name as Lizzie Barnes, of Hoboken. Her countenance indicated ‘that she had had recourse on more than one occasion to the rum bottle, Her story was that she came to Jersey City on Suaday to see a friend and became mtoxicated, and that on her wa: bome she was met by the notorious ‘‘Hobowen Clipper”? and « ruflanily gang, who attempted to outrage her, Her screams brought « police officer to her aseistan: but the escaped. Justice Keese ‘administered some whol advice and allowed her to go home, MORE WATER FOR BAYONNE. ‘The committee appointed by the Commoti Connell of Bayonne, N. J., to report on the best plan for obtain- ing asufficient supply of water, concluded us labors yesterday, and a report will be made to the Council this hatin | The committeo visited Long Island City, Rahway aod other places, and concluded that the most feasible mee Gb le gp min pn ote: ate large wells and forcing it ng pires through th streets, placing hydrants, to be employed in case of fre atconvenient distances. Under this plan steam fre engines will be.unnecessary. Proposals for performing the work ware velgaleeer ta Connetiman indusen yee terdaw