The country is said to be rich in mineral', but of this source of wealth, as of the more readily worked wealth of the oak forests), little or no advantage is taken. Iron-ore is found at several points; very rich copper-ore is found at Madenbek in an offset of the Balkan near the eastern frontier. Silver I. also found here. Salt is procured at several point... Agriculture and cattle and swine breeding seem the chief occupations. The people seem generally to enjoy a kind of rough prosperity, and to be In a state of material progress. The Serrian princes have opened some good roads, the principal of which are those that cross the lower part of the principality from the frontier of Wallachia to Belgrade, and the road up the valley of the Morava from Belgrade and Semendria to Masa. These hues are chiefly macadamised, In parts made with gravel.
" The Serie," says the author of ' Frontier Lands,' before quoted, "are in figure the finest race I ever saw "—a fair people, of good, In many instances, of colossal stature, with blueayes, light hair, and open countenances. The houses in the town. are In general well built, but in the villages and hamlets they are constructed In some Instances with wattles plastered with mud, more generally of rough planks Under the Turkish rule they enjoyed almost unlimited liberty a. long as they payed their taxes; but under the rule of their princes this liberty has been vastly curtailed, by the introduction of the pass port and quarantine systems, and of Intricate custom-house regula tions, which would be simply ridiculous as childish imitations of some of the great neighbouring states If they were not so detrimental to the program of an otherwise promisiog country.
The principality is in spiritual matters subject to the archbishop of Belgrade, or Semendria, and to the bishops of ?Abate, Meek, and Ujitza, who are paid by the guvernment, the archbishop receiving 5000 dollars, and each of his suffragans 2500 dollars a year. The number of priests is about 652, who are paid by the parishioners. The number of monks is small. In 1840 there were 80 elementary schools, with about 1000 scholars; in 1850 there were 260, which with the college of Belgrade, had an aggregate of 8000 pupils. About 20 student& are sent to Kicff, in Russia, to study theology, and about. double that nnmber are educated in the universities of Western Europe, chiefly In France. There Is only one printing-preas in the whole country, and that belongs, to the government..
The revenues of the principality are estimated at a million dollars a year. The militia consists of two battallione of infantry of I000 canine squadron of cavalry 200 strong, and 300 artillerymen. But as the Serbs are eminently a martial people, it. is estimated that the
country could equip 150,000 foot and 10,000 horse.
The country of Servia under the Roman empire formed the province of Mcosia Superior. It was invaded by the Goths under the emperor Valens, and some centuries later by the Servi, a tribe of Slavonians, to whom were allotted some grounds south of the Danube by the emperor Leo VL, in order to oppose them to the Bulgarians, who threatened the very existence of the empire in the 10th century. By degrees the Servians encroached also upon the territories of the empire, and in the 12th century the emperor Manuel Comuenus was obliged to fight against them in order to check their incursions. During the subsequent decay of the Eastern Empire, and its conquest and partition by the Latins, the Servians established themselves firmly in the country of Mcesia, forming an independent principality under a prince styled Despotes, in the same manner as the neighbouring Slavonian states of Bosnia and Croatia. Mitred I., sultan of the Otto mans, married a daughter of the Despotes of Servia ; but several years after, the Servians, Hungarians, and other Christian natious near the Danube, alarmed at the progress of the Turks iu Albania, collected a large force under Lazar, Despotes of Servia, and marched against Mur?d, who met the Christian army in the plain of Kosaova, near the frontiers of Albania, A.D.1389, and defeated it with dreadful slaughter, bat was himself killed by a Servian noble, Milosh Obelavitz, Lazar's son-in-law. Lazar was taken prisoner and killed by the Turks in revenge for the death of their own sultan. Iu the following century Sultan 3turad IL, who had married the sister of George, Despotes of Servia, turned his arms against his brother-in-law about the year 1440, overran Servia, took the fortress of Semendria, and obliged George to take refuge at Ragusa, from whence he made his way to Hungary, where he joined the gallant Hunnyades, and through his assistance recovered part of his territories. At last Mohammed II., after taking Constantinople, finally conquered Servia, which he annexed to his empire, with the exception of Belgrade, which was bravely defended by the Hungarians under Hunnyades, and was only taken (in 1522) by Solyman the Great. Servia continued a province of the Turkish empire till 1717, when Priuce Eugene, at the head of an Austrian army, took Belgrade and conquered a part of Service, which was ceded by the sultan to Austria by the peace of Pasearowitz, 1718. But in the subsequent war of 1789 the Austrians, being worsted by the Turks, lost Servia, and gave up Belgrade also by treaty. Marshal Laudon retook Belgrade in 1788, but Austria gave it up again to the sultan by the peace of Szistova in 1791.