sentence. The smaller district captains and "kmets," or mayors, have a
limited amount of jurisdiction, and can inflict punishments, either in
fines or short terms of imprisonment. They also settle all minor cases
of dispute.

The central, and soon to be the only, prison is at Podgorica. The
majority of prisoners are undergoing different sentences, with and
without chains, for murders in connection with the vendetta, according
to the circumstances. A man who defends his honour, who kills his
slanderer, is very lightly punished.

Against only one class of offender does Prince Nicolas exercise his
autocratic powers, _i.e._ the political offender, with whom he is
relentless. Such men are thrown into prison, interred in dark cells
without trial, and can languish till death sets them free. In this
respect the Prince is harsh, and according to Western ideas barbaric,
though local circumstances fully excuse his seeming cruelty. The
smallness of the prison at Podgorica shows more forcibly than anything
else the remarkable lack of crime in the land. At present (1902)
dangerous lunatics are confined in the common prison, but an asylum is
rapidly nearing completion.

The government is autocratic. A senate, composed of the different
ministers, exists in Cetinje, but all powers are jealously held by the
Prince. He appoints the ministers and all the higher officials of the
land, and only recently have the people been granted the right to
elect the kmets.

Montenegrin engineers now build the roads in place of Austrians and
Russians, and the difficulties that they meet with and surpass at