Year: 1877

IN popular leCturc, UellVeEcu To


Gently, Gladstone, the ex-Premier ol


England, gave the following terse &C.
count Of Montenegro


The history of Montenegro wai


briefly thus: A portion Of the in.
habitants of the northern part of the
Adriatic Sea were conquered by the
Turks in the fifteenth century. A
certain portion of them did not &C.
cedc to any of the three alternatives
which, as he had told them before
were proposed, but went up to the


mountains, which were very high and
difficult of access, and there remained
This occurred in the year 1885. For
the sake of their religion and free
dom, and everything else that made
life happy or desirable, they abandon.
ed their property and went to an in.


hospitable cline with very limited


means of existence, to maintain q
desperate struggle against the whole
power of the Ottoman race, which
struggle they had now carried on al.
most entirely without intermission
for about 400 years. Those remark.
able people were there still, and il
would be observed that in the course


Of the last six months, while the
Turks boasted that they had beaten


the Servians, with the aid that they


had of 1900 or 1900 volunteers from
the Russian army, the Montencgrins
with q population of 10000 or 14O,.
600 people, had, on every occasion
they had met them, beat the Turks
Applause. They had nothing to
fight with, for the most part, except
old-fashioned weapons that none Of


them would like to use they had nc
cavalry or artillery, and any cannon
they used were those they had taken
from the Turks. With all these diff.


culties and the vast numbers brought
against them, they had beaten the
Turkish forces. Now, the Turkish
military were good soldiers and brave


men, and, as VIC are aware at the


present time, they had blockaded one


of the Turkish towns (Niksich) be-


cause there was q question raised
about it in connection with the armis-
tice. In 1916, when the lay sovereign
Of Montenegro retired, he made over


the government of the country to q


Bishop, and a succession Of Bishops


had since governed tho country and
led the people in the desperate strug.


gle between life and death, almost


without intermission, from 1916 to
1912. Those Bishops were warriors


indeed, every priest in the country


was warrior. It was conflict in that
country between life and death, from
day to day, and from year to year
and during that long time have the
people not been permitted to lay aside


the terrible arms they used in the
constant struggle with their enemies


and have maintained their system oi


religion upt to the present time. When


they went up to the mountains, their


leader summoned them and made


them take solemn oath on the New


Testament to abide true to their faith
and nation, and whoever broke this
should be invested with a woman's
apron and hooted from the ranks OF
men. Having referred to the high
esteem in which women are held in
the country, and the almost savagery
with which the Montenegrins treated


the Turks they slew in battle, tho
right honorable gentleman said that
they should try to understand the
circumstances under which the Mon
tcncgrins, when they went into battle
together, and when one of them was
wounded that could not be removed,
II was the duty of the other, especial
ly il he were his brother or his friend,
to cut Off his head and why? To
save him from the horror and insult
and disgrace to which, while alive,
his body would be exposed. OF
course, savage state Of manners
came in and that was one of the
points he held, that when the oppress-
ed were driven to this state of things
their oppressors were responsible for
it. He was glad to say, however, that


in recent times great efforts had been
made to get rid of that ferocity OF
character, and for two generations
past great pains had been taken by
their sovereigns, and, he believed,
with great success, to establish peace
and order and good government
among them. Though their history
had drawn very little attention, and
though he was very far from denying
that it had its dark spots, because the
spirit of fcrocity still prevailed to
some extent, still the heroism of the
people, their sanctities, and their
noble constancy would, i'm his opin-
ion, secure to them to the latest ages
a name more enduring than that
which would be given to other ma
tions, States and peoples who appear
greater in the eyes Of the world.