Herzegovina - Or, Omer Pacha and the Christian Rebels by George Arbuthnot
page 54 of 220 (24%)
page 54 of 220 (24%)
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in this part of the empire, and has worked well whenever it has not been
abused. The original terms of the contract provided that the proprietor should give the land and the seed for sowing it, receiving in return one-third of the produce in kind. The commission of which Kiamil Pacha was President in 1853, endeavoured, whilst regulating the taxation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to ameliorate the condition of the tenant as regards the rental of land. They decreed that he should be supplied with animals, implements, seeds, and also a house in which to live, while yielding to the proprietor in return from 25 to 50 per cent. of the products, according to the more or less prolific nature of land in the different parts of the provinces. These terms were cheerfully accepted by the agriculturalists, by whom they were considered just. The internal state of the Ottoman empire, unfortunately, renders it impossible that these conditions should in all cases be adhered to, and without doubt the tenants are often compelled to pay from 10 to 20 per cent. more than the legal rent. These instances, however, are less frequent than they were a few years ago, and very much less frequent than the depreciators of Turkey would have us to believe. The most scrupulous observance of the terms of the Euchlemeh will be enforced by the Ottoman government if it be alive to its own interests, and the more so that the infraction of it has been, and will always be, turned to account by those who would fain see rebellion and discord prevailing in the Turkish provinces, rather than unity and peace. In 1860 no fewer than nine Servian emissaries were caught in the Herzegovina, who were endeavouring to fan the discontent and ill-feeling already existing amongst the agricultural classes. That province has indeed been for a long time employed by the advocates of Panslavism, or by the enemies of Turkey in general, as a focus of agitation, where plans are hatched and schemes devised, the object of which is to |
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