Transcriber’s Note:

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

AN
ACCOUNT
OF
THE PRINCIPALITIES
OF
WALLACHIA AND MOLDAVIA:
WITH
VARIOUS POLITICAL OBSERVATIONS
RELATING TO THEM.

By WILLIAM WILKINSON, Esq.

LATE BRITISH CONSUL RESIDENT AT BUKOREST.

Dobbiamo considerare queste due provincie, Wallachia e Moldavia a guisa di due nave in un mar’ tempestoso, dove-rare volte si gode la tranquilita e la calma.       Delchiaro—Revoluxione di Wallachia.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1820.

Printed by Strahan and Spottiswoode,

Printers-Street, London.

PREFACE.

Amongst the nations of Europe most given to letters, none have so largely contributed to the general list of publications, relating to the condition and progress of the different countries of the world, as the English; and no travellers possess to the same degree as they do the love of describing them, however numerous the accounts that have preceded the period of their own experimental observations. Their journals, nevertheless, hardly ever fail to create interest, and the least share of novelty in form or matter induces the less travelling class of their countrymen to read them with pleasure.

Turkey and Egypt in particular have long been favourite themes; and indeed the Ottoman empire in every point of view, whether topographical, historical, administrative, religious, moral, political, military, or commercial, offers an inexhaustible subject for investigation, and an endless excitement to curiosity. No regular and minute description has, however, yet been undertaken of two of its most important and curious provinces, those which divide the principal part of the ancient kingdom of Dacia, under the modern denomination of Wallachia and Moldavia, although in the renewed existence of Greek governments exercising most of the prerogatives of independency, in the struggles of two nations between a strong remnant of Dacian barbarism and the influence of modern civilisation, and in a country comprehending within its own boundaries all the productive resources which fall but separately to the share of other countries, sufficient matter may be found to render them a subject by no means unworthy of notice.

These considerations have encouraged me to write the following pages with the view of laying them before the public. An official residence of some years in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, afforded me the most ample opportunities of observation on every thing they contain most interesting, and I have endeavoured to make an accurate and satisfactory description of them. With regard to their history, I have only dwelt upon the most remarkable events, and have merely given it that extent to which its degree of importance seems entitled. I was apprehensive that longer and more minute details might be found tedious and unnecessary.

I regret, however, that at the time I wrote this account, I was not sufficiently prepared to enter into further particulars with respect to the minerals with which those countries abound; I intend, if I return to them, to bestow as much attention as possible to that particular object, and to make it the subject of a future separate treatise.

I am aware that my present undertaking is deserving of an abler pen; but as the character of nations can only be properly understood after some length of residence among them, I trust that the circumstances which place it to my lot, will make the apology of my intrusion, and become a motive of indulgence to its deficiencies in literary merit.

As Wallachia was the country of my fixed residence, I naturally chose it for the principal scene of my observations; and indeed the history of the two principalities is throughout so intimately connected, the form of their respective governments, the language, manners, and customs of the inhabitants, have ever been so much alike, that a description of the one renders a distinct account of the other superfluous.

The political importance to which these two provinces have risen since the reign of the ambitious Catherine, has given them a place of no small consequence in the general balance of Europe. Most of the European cabinets keep an eye upon them from the same motives, though with different views; but politics alone have hitherto brought them into notice, and philosophically or philanthropically speaking, it must be confessed that a share of attention, directed by common justice and humanity, was equally due to their definitive fate.

I have taken an opportunity of introducing into my appendix, a very curious account of the military system of the Ottoman empire, translated from a Turkish manuscript by an English gentleman, who possesses a perfect knowledge of that language, and who has favoured me with it. I have added to it some explanatory notes, rendered necessary by the metaphorical, and in many parts, obscure style of the original writing, and which my friend has purposely translated in a literal sense, in order not to divest it of that originality of narration which constitutes a great share of its interest.

The work was written in 1804, by order of the then reigning Sultan, Selim III., with the view of explaining the important advantages of the new military institution, called Nizam-y-Gedid, by which the Ottoman armies were trained into a regular form of discipline.

This institution, however necessary, and although strongly supported by all the higher classes, was so violently opposed by the clamorous janissaries, that at length it became impossible to continue it, and since the year 1805, the former regulations, or rather irregularities, have again been prevalent in the Ottoman armies. The same disorders which the Turkish author so faithfully describes as having existed before the introduction of the Nizam-y-Gedid, have necessarily followed its abolishment, and Turkey will no longer trust to her own means for salvation in future war. Her last one with Russia has made her feel but too sensibly how far the present form of discipline of her armies may prove fatal to her existence, if ever she is abandoned to herself for defence.

CONTENTS.

AN ACCOUNT

OF

THE PRINCIPALITIES

OF

WALLACHIA AND MOLDAVIA.

CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION AND EXTENT OF WALLACHIA AND MOLDAVIA—HISTORICAL REMARKS FROM THE DECLINE OF THE DACIANS TO THE LAST CENTURY.

The principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, situated between 43° 40′ and 48° 50′ north latitude, 23° and 29° 30′ east longitude, occupying a space of 350 miles in length, and 160 in breadth, are separated from the Austrian provinces of Temesvar, Transylvania, and Boukovina, by the Carpathian mountains; from Russia, by the river Pruth; and from Bulgaria (the ancient Mœsia), by the Danube.

It is sufficiently ascertained that these two provinces, joined to those of Transylvania and Temesvar, composed the kingdom of Dacia, finally conquered by the Romans.

The Dacians were originally a Scythian or Sarmatian tribe, resembling, in language and manners, the Thracians; the Greeks, indeed, considered them as a part of the Thracian nation.

They were a sober and vigorous people, capable of enduring any hardships and privations in war: they did not fear exposing themselves to the greatest dangers, because they looked upon death as the beginning of a much happier life; and this doctrine, according to Strabo, they held from a philosopher named Zamolxis, who was held in high repute by them.

The progress of the Roman arms, which, under the reign of Augustus, were carried to the banks of the Danube, brought them into contact with the Dacians, who were at that time governed by a warlike prince named Bærebestes, who boldly set the Roman conquerors at defiance. After his death, they were divided into four or five different principalities, and their strength was a good deal broken by the Romans; but their last king Decebalus, one of the ablest and most enterprising warriors of his time, re-united them into one body towards the 87th year of the Christian æra.

The first irruption of the Dacians into the territory of the empire, took place during the latter part of Augustus’s reign; and, at times repulsed, at other times successful, they continued to annoy the Romans without any decisive advantage taking place on either side. At last the Emperor Domitian, determined to put a stop to their depredations, marched in person against them.

The particulars of the war which ensued are sufficiently detailed in the Roman history. The result of it having been such as to compel Domitian to sue for peace; he consented to pay to Decebalus an annual sum in the shape of a pension, but which, in fact, was nothing less than a tribute. It was regularly paid by the Romans until the year 102, when the Emperor Trajan declared his resolution to discontinue it; and the Dacians thereby considering themselves no longer bound to observe the treaty of peace, crossed the Danube, and laid waste the Roman territory. Upon these acts of hostility, Trajan put himself at the head of a numerous army, and marching against them, forced them to retire, passed the Danube in pursuit, engaged and defeated their successive forces, and finally compelled Decebalus to acknowledge himself his vassal. Trajan then returned to Rome, where he received the honour of a triumph, and the title of Dacicus.

But not long after, Decebalus, eager to shake off the Roman yoke, invaded and plundered the territory of his neighbours the Iazygæ, who were also tributary to the empire, on their refusal to join him against the Romans. Trajan again took the field at the head of a vast army, determined to chastise and subdue the Dacians. He reached the banks of the Danube in Autumn, and he thought it prudent to wait there the return of the fine season, that he might carry on military operations with more facility and success. It was during this interval, that he caused his famous bridge to be built over the Danube, under the direction of the architect Apollodorus of Damascus; and its present remains are sufficiently visible to verify the ancient accounts of this stupendous work. When the water is very low, some of the piles stand two or three feet above it, and render that part of the river difficult of navigation; they are looked upon as rocks by the natives of each side.

At the return of the Spring, when the bridge was completed, the Roman army marched over it, and commenced hostilities. The war was long and difficult, but it terminated in the complete subjugation of the Dacians, and in the death of their king, Decebalus, who, finding it impossible to avoid being made prisoner, killed himself that he might not fall alive into the conquerors’ hands.

Dacia was thus converted into a Roman province, and Trajan shortly after sent colonies to increase its population. New cities were built, and pavements were constructed on the high roads, for the greater facility of communication.[^[1]] It was governed by a Roman pro-prætor until the year 274.

Under the reign of Gallienus, when the empire was already declining, various parts of Dacia were seized by the Goths, and other barbarous nations.

A few Roman legions yet remained in the country, under the reign of the Emperor Aurelian, who, returning from Gaul, came down to Illyria, and finding a great part of Dacia in the hands of the barbarians, foresaw the impossibility of maintaining any possessions in the midst of them, and he withdrew a good number of the Roman inhabitants to the other side of the Danube, and settled them in Mæsia.

During the space of a hundred years from that period, those of the natives who had remained behind, and their descendants, were incessantly exposed to the rapacities of a variety of barbarous tribes, who came into the country for plunder.

Towards the year 361, the Goths, more powerful than the rest, seemed to have been left in exclusive possession of the province, and were inclined to make a permanent stay in it. They embraced the Christian religion, and established it in Dacia; since when, to the present moment, it has never ceased to be predominant amongst its inhabitants.

In 376, the Hunns, having over-run the countries possessed by the Goths, forced Athanaric, King of the Vizigoths, to retire with all his forces to that part of Dacia, situated between the rivers Dniester and Danube, now called Moldavia. He raised a wall between the latter river and the Pruth, by which he thought himself sufficiently protected against the attacks of his enemies. The Hunns, however, were not stopped by it; and their approach spread such consternation among the Goths of the interior, that those who had the means of escaping, to the number of some hundred thousand, fled for refuge into the Roman territory, and were permitted by the Emperor Valens, to settle in Thrace, upon condition that they should live peaceably there, and serve, when required, in the Roman armies.

The Hunns having penetrated into Dacia, were left masters of it until the year 453, when Ardaric, King of the Gepidæ, a people previously conquered by Attila and the Hunns, revolted against them, in consequence of Attila’s death. His son and successor, Ellach, marched against them, but being defeated and slain, the Hunns were driven back into Scythia, and the Gepidæ remained masters of all Dacia. They entered into a sort of alliance with the Romans, who agreed to pay them a pension. In 550, their first quarrels with their neighbours, the Lombards, took place; and being sometimes assisted by the Emperor Justinian, they carried on frequent hostilities against them, for the space of eight years, at the end of which both nations resolved to decide the fate of the war by one great battle. The Lombards, under their King Alboin, had previously formed an alliance with the Avars, a people of Scythian extraction; and, assisted by them, they marched to action. Both sides fought with equal valor; but at last victory declared in favour of the Lombards, who, pursuing the Gepidæ, made a great slaughter among them. The Gepidæ, either destroyed, dispersed, or subdued, never after had a king of their own, and ceased to be a nation.

Alboin’s achievements in Dacia attracted the notice of Narses, sent by Justinian to conquer Italy: he made offers to him, and finally engaged him to join the expedition with all his forces. The Lombards thus abandoned their possessions in Dacia and Pannonia to their friends and neighbours the Avars. These, also known by the name of White-Hunns, remained in them until their own destruction by the Franks and Bulgarians. In the 7th century, being joined by other barbarous tribes, they pushed their incursions as far as the gates of Constantinople, where they were so completely defeated by the Emperor Heraclius, that they could not recover the blow: it was the original cause of their rapid decline.

Towards the close of the same century, a nation, known under the names of Slaves and Bulgarians, came from the interior of Russia to that part of Mæsia, which has since been called Bulgaria. Soon after a great number of Slaves, headed by their chief Krumo, crossed the Danube, and settled in Dacia, where they have since been known under the name of Wallachs. Opinion varies with respect to the origin of this name. Some historians pretend that the Slaves distinguished by it the Romans of Mæsia; whilst others maintain that they meant by it a people who led a pastoral life, and had given it to the inhabitants of Mæsia, most of whom were shepherds; and that a great number of these, having joined the Slaves in Dacia, the name by degrees became a general one amongst its inhabitants. The modern Wallachians, however, exclude it altogether from their language, and call themselves “Rumunn” or Romans, giving to their country the name of Roman-land, “Tsara-Rumaneska.”

Some former inhabitants of Dacia, joined by a number of Slaves and Bulgarians, separated from the new settlers, and went to the lower part of Dacia lying between the rivers Olt and Danube, where they fixed their habitations. They formed themselves into a nation, and chose for their chief one Bessarabba, to whom they gave the Slavonic title of Bann or regent. The country within his jurisdiction was called Bannat; and it retains to this day the name of Bannat of Crayova, the latter being that of its present capital. Several other petty independent states arose at the same time in various parts of Dacia; but they were frequently annexed to the same sceptre, at other periods dismembered, according to the warlike ardour or indolence and incapacity of their various chiefs. Their general system, however, consisted in making war against the Romans of the lower empire, in which they were seconded by the Slaves and Bulgarians of Mæsia, whom they looked upon as their natural allies. This state of things continued to the close of the 9th century, at which period the Slaves having fallen into decline, various hordes, originally Scythians, successively undertook the conquest of Dacia, driving each other out of it, according to the momentary superiority of the one over the other. The most remarkable of these were the Hazars, the Patzinaces, the Moangoures, the Ouzes, the Koumans, and other Tartars.

The natives were treated as slaves by all these hordes of barbarian intruders, and great numbers of them were continually retiring to the other side of the Carpathians; where they settled under their own chiefs, sometimes independent, at others tributary to the kings of Hungary. The most conspicuous and thriving of these colonies were those of Fagarash and Maramosh.

The devastations continued in the plains finally drove out all the natives, and in the 11th century the Tartars retired, leaving the country a complete desert. It remained in this state until the year 1241, when the inhabitants of Fagarash, conducted by their chief Raddo Negro (Rodolphus the Black), crossed the mountains, and took possession of that tract of country, which is now called Upper Wallachia. Nearly at the same time, the inhabitants of Maramosh under their chief Bogdan, came and settled in that part which is by some called Moldavia, from the name of the river Moldau, which crosses it to fall into the Danube, and by the natives and Turks, Bogdania. Raddo Negro and his followers halted at the foot of the mountains, where they laid the foundation of a city, to which they gave the name of Kimpolung. At present it is reduced to an indifferent village; but its original extent is marked by old walls in ruin; and some inscriptions in its cathedral church attest it to have been Raddo’s capital. His successors transferred their residence to Tirgovist, more pleasantly situated in the plains.

Some Wallachian, Transylvanian, and Hungarian authors differ in opinion with respect to the exact period of Raddo’s and Bogdan’s establishment in Wallachia and in Moldavia, and fix it at a different year of the early part of the 13th century; but as they give no satisfactory explanation on the subject, I am disposed to differ from them all, in placing that event in the year 1241, on the strength of the following considerations:—1st. It does not appear probable that the kings of Hungary, who, at the commencement of the 13th century were very powerful, and who looked upon Fagarash and Maramosh as dependencies of their crown, would have suffered their inhabitants to desert them, in order to settle in foreign countries: 2dly, It would seem strange that Raddo, Bogdan, and their followers should have quitted their homes in a prosperous country, and come to inhabit a desert, without some extraordinary event had necessitated so remarkable an emigration: and 3dly, the best Hungarian historians place in the year 1240 the invasion of Battou-Han in the northern countries; and add, that having crossed Russia and Poland at the head of 500,000 men, he entered Hungary in the year 1241, where he staid three years, during which he put every thing to fire and sword, and finally retired because nothing more was left to satisfy his thirst of blood.[^[2]] It appears, then, extremely probable that the ravages of Battou-Han, and the terror he spread in the adjacent provinces, were the only causes of this emigration, which no historian has yet otherwise accounted for.

Bogdan and Raddo assumed the Slavonic title of Voïvode, equivalent to that of commanding prince. When tranquillity was restored in Hungary, they acknowledged the supremacy of the Hungarian king; but it does not appear that the formalities of the recognition had been such as to bind their successors; for, at the early part of the principalities, some Voïvodes disputed it with success; and from the commencement of the 14th century, their independency was acknowledged by Hungary.

The Bannat of Crayova had been little molested during the great incursions of the barbarians: in the 9th century it had become tributary to the kings of Hungary, who afterwards held it as a sort of refuge for the knights going to, and coming from, the Holy Land; but soon after Raddo’s arrival, the Bann submitted to him the supreme sovereignty of the Bannat, and it has since then been annexed to the principality of Wallachia.

During the latter part of his life, Raddo raised another city, distant about thirty miles south-west of Kimpolung, on the borders of the river Argis: he gave it the name of Courté d’Argis, and resided in it occasionally. He also built a church here, which, two hundred years after, one of the Voïvodes beautified in a very conspicuous manner. The whole of the exterior work is entirely of carved marble, something in the style of the steeple of St. Stephen’s church at Vienna, but far more elegant. The whole produces a very striking effect; and, as it has perfectly preserved its original beauty, it is certainly a monument that the Wallachians may boast of in any part of Europe.

The Voïvodate was not made hereditary; and although it devolved sometimes from father to son, the successor was obliged to go through the formality of being elected by the chiefs of the nation.

Several successors of Raddo strengthened the government, the population increased, and a great number of small towns and villages were built in the country. Frequent hostilities against the Hungarians, arising from the claims of sovereignty of the latter, accustomed the Wallachians to war; and in 1391 the Voïvoide Mirtza collected a numerous force, and attacked the neighbouring possessions of the Turks with the view of rescuing them from their hands. The Sultan Bajazet being at that moment employed in Asia in a troublesome war with the Prince of Castomona, had left his conquests near the Danube without the means of defence. But when the news of their invasion reached him, he suspended his operations in Asia, and returned to Adrianople, from whence he sent a numerous army to Wallachia. The Voïvode marched to meet the Turks; and, after a bloody battle, he was defeated, and compelled to become tributary to the Sultan. The annual amount of the tribute was fixed at three thousand piasters.[^[3]]

Wallachia continued to pay it until the year 1444; when Ladislas King of Hungary, preparing to make war against the Turks, engaged the Voïvode Dracula to form an alliance with him. The Hungarian troops marched through the principality and were joined by four thousand Wallachians under the command of Dracula’s son.[^[4]]

The Hungarians being defeated at the celebrated battle of Varna, Hunniades their general, and regent of the kingdom during Ladislas’s minority, returned in haste to make new preparations for carrying on the war. But the Voïvode, fearful of the Sultan’s vengeance, arrested and kept him prisoner during a year, pretending thereby to show to the Turks that he treated him as an enemy. The moment Hunniades reached Hungary, he assembled an army and placed himself at the head of it, returned to Wallachia, attacked and defeated the Voïvode, and caused him to be beheaded in his presence; after which he raised to the Voïvodate one of the primates of the country, of the name of Dan.

The Wallachians under this Voïvode joined again the Hungarians in 1448, and made war on Turkey; but being totally defeated at the battle of Cossova, in Bulgaria, and finding it no longer possible to make any stand against the Turks, they submitted again to the annual tribute, which they paid until the year 1460, when the Sultan Mahomet II. being occupied in completing the conquest of the islands in the Archipelago, afforded them a new opportunity of shaking off the yoke. Their Voïvode, also named Dracula[^[5]], did not remain satisfied with mere prudent measures of defence: with an army he crossed the Danube and attacked the few Turkish troops that were stationed in his neighbourhood; but this attempt, like those of his predecessors, was only attended with momentary success. Mahomet having turned his arms against him, drove him back to Wallachia, whither he pursued and defeated him. The Voïvode escaped into Hungary, and the Sultan caused his brother Bladus to be named in his place. He made a treaty with Bladus, by which he bound the Wallachians to perpetual tribute; and laid the foundations of that slavery, from which no efforts have yet had the power of extricating them with any lasting efficacy. The following is the substance of the treaty:—

1. “The Sultan consents and engages for himself and his successors, to give protection to Wallachia, and to defend it against all enemies, assuming nothing more than a supremacy over the sovereignty of that principality, the Voïvodes of which shall be bound to pay to the Sublime Porte an annual tribute of ten thousand piasters.”

2. “The Sublime Porte shall never interfere in the local administration of the said principality, nor shall any Turk be ever permitted to come into Wallachia without an ostensible reason.”

3. “Every year an officer of the Porte shall come to Wallachia to receive the tribute, and on his return shall be accompanied by an officer of the Voïvode as far as Giurgevo on the Danube, where the money shall be counted over again, a second receipt given for it, and when it has been carried in safety to the other side of that river, Wallachia shall no longer be responsible for any accident that may befall it.”[^[6]]

4. “The Voïvodes shall continue to be elected by the archbishop, metropolitan, bishops, and boyars[^[7]], and the election shall be acknowledged by the Porte.”

5. “The Wallachian nation shall continue to enjoy the free exercise of their own laws; and the Voïvodes shall have the right of life and death over their own subjects, as well as that of making war and peace, without having to account for any such proceedings to the Sublime Porte.”

6. “All Christians who, having once embraced the Mahometan faith, should come into Wallachia and resume the Christian religion, shall not be claimed by any Ottoman authorities.”

7. “Wallachian subjects who may have occasion to go into any part of the Ottoman dominions, shall not be there called upon for the haratsh or capitation tax paid by other Rayahs.”[^[8]]

8. “If any Turk have a lawsuit in Wallachia with a subject of the country, his cause shall be heard and decided by the Wallachian divan, conformably to the local laws.”

9. “All Turkish merchants coming to buy and sell goods in the principality, shall, on their arrival, have to give notice to the local authorities of the time necessary for their stay, and shall depart when that time is expired.”

10. “No Turk is authorised to take away one or more servants of either sex, natives of Wallachia; and no Turkish mosque shall ever exist on any part of the Wallachian territory.”

11. “The Sublime Porte promises never to grant a Ferman[^[9]] at the request of a Wallachian subject for his affairs in Wallachia, of whatever nature they may be; and never to assume the right of calling to Constantinople, or to any other part of the Turkish dominions, a Wallachian subject on any pretence whatever.”

This treaty in many respects advantageous to Wallachia, still forms the basis of its constitution. The first, third, fourth, and latter part of the fifth articles only, have since undergone alterations, which have proved in no small degree detrimental to the liberties of that country. The remainder have been, and are to this day, punctually observed.

The qualification of a mere tributary prince did not, however, appear to the Sultan Mahomet as implying sufficient submission; and, in order to place the person of the Voïvode under a more immediate dependence, he gave him the rank and title of a Turkish Pashah; a dignity, which has ever since been inseparable from that of Voïvode or Hospodar.

The principality remained in a peaceable state several years after its war with Mahomet, and the weakness and incapacity of several of its princes afforded to the Ottoman court the means of ruling over it with increasing power. In 1544 portions of territory bordering on the Danube were ceded to the Turks; the fortresses of Ibraïl, Giurgevo, and Tourno, which have much figured in all the subsequent European wars of Turkey, were raised upon them, and were garrisoned by Turkish soldiers. Having gained so strong a footing in the country, the conduct of the Turks became more and more overbearing: its rights and privileges were no longer respected; and the Porte countenanced, or connived at, every sort of depredation committed by the soldiers of the garrisons beyond the boundaries of the fortresses; and soon treated the principality and its inhabitants as on the same footing with all its other Christian conquests.

This state of things continued to the year 1593, when an individual of the name of Michael was elected to the Voïvodate. He no sooner held the reins of government than he determined to deliver his country from the Turkish yoke, and restore it to independency. Circumstances soon afforded him an opportunity of putting this plan into execution. The Prince Sigismund of Transylvania, also tributary to the Turks, revolted against them towards this period, at the instigations of the Pope and of the Emperor Rodolphus. With him and with the Voïvode Aaron of Moldavia, Michael formed a league against the enemies of Christianity. But in order to give a greater appearance of justice to their proceedings, the allies sent a long list of grievances to the Porte, demanded redress, and insisted that some satisfactory guarantee were given of a change of system for the future. These representations not only remained unanswered, but, shortly after they were made, a troop of three thousand Janissaries came into Wallachia, and went about the country, levying contributions on the villagers, and committing all sorts of outrages. A Wallachian force was at last sent against them, and they were all put to the sword; after which, Michael, at the head of an army composed of his own troops and those of his allies, marched against Giurgevo, and compelled its garrison to retire to the other side of the Danube.

The threatening attitude of Michael and his allies induced the Sultan Amurat to desist from further provocation, and to wait for a more favourable moment of imposing again his yoke on the principalities; but he died suddenly in 1595, and his successor, Mahomet III., no sooner ascended the throne than he resolved to carry that plan into execution by the means of an overpowering army. Forty thousand Turks and twenty thousand Tartars, under the orders of the Grand Vezier, invaded the Wallachian and Moldavian provinces nearly at the same time, and a long war ensued. The invaders suffered a series of defeats: for five years they renewed the campaign with no better success; and the Sultan was finally compelled to relinquish his claims.

In 1600, after the abdication of Sigismund of Transylvania, that principality became tributary to the Emperor Rodolphus; and as the Voïvode Michael, whom the emperor had engaged into his interests, had assisted him in defeating the schemes of Cardinal Battori, pretender to the Transylvanian sovereignty, Rodolphus, to reward him, left him the government of Transylvania. The Voïvode fixed his residence in that province, and appointed a lieutenant in Wallachia. But in the following year the Transylvanians, not satisfied with his administration, revolted, and sent invitations to their former Prince, Sigismund, who was living as a private individual at Clausenburg, to come and resume the supreme authority. An Austrian army, under the command of General Baste, was hastily dispatched to stop the progress of the rebellion; and Michael, who had repaired to Wallachia, returned with some troops, and joined the imperial general. They marched together against the rebels, who had formed an army of equal strength, and an obstinate battle took place, which terminated in the entire defeat of the insurgents, and in the subjection of the whole province. When events had determined the fate of Transylvania, the two allied commanders quarrelled in a discussion concerning the ulterior measures of administration; and Baste, resolved by some means or other to get rid of Michael, whose pretensions appeared to him to have become of a dangerous tendency, caused him to be assassinated. The Wallachian troops were sent back to their country, and they carried away with them the head of the Voïvode Michael, which was buried in the monastery of Dialloluy, near the town of Tirgovist, where the monument that was placed over it at the time, with an inscription alluding to the principal events of his life, and to the circumstances of his death, engraved in Slavonian characters, still exists.

The death of Michael, which took place in 1602, spread great consternation and confusion in Wallachia. The Primates[^[10]] lost time in deliberations on the measures that were to be pursued; and the Turkish Pashahs of the neighbourhood sent a strong body of troops, which, crossing the Danube at different places, occupied the greatest part of the principality, and put it out of the power of the Wallachians to make any effectual resistance. The sultan’s orders for the election of a Voïvode of his own choice were soon obeyed, and the principality resumed its tributary character; the treaty of Mahomet II. was renewed, but the amount of the tribute was fixed at a much higher sum. From this period forward, Wallachia remained under the power of the Ottoman Sultans; and although its inhabitants, in the course of the 17th century, made frequent efforts to throw off the yoke, the success of such attempts always proved momentary, and consequently more injurious than beneficial to them in the sequel.

With regard to Moldavia, the first act of its submission to the Turks was not the effect of conquest, but a voluntary measure of precaution and security.[^[11]] It was only in 1536 that this principality consented to become tributary to the Sultan, and the event is thus explained by all the Moldavian historians.

In 1529 the Voïvode Stephen, being on his death-bed, called to him his son Bogdan, who was likely to succeed him, and his principal nobles: he addressed them at length on the political situation of the country, representing the probability of its being soon attacked by the Turks, and the insufficiency of its means to make any effectual resistance against their power. He dwelt on the ferocious character of the reigning Sultan Suleÿman I., and recommended to them in the strongest manner, rather to seek his clemency by the voluntary offer of a tribute, than expose themselves to his vengeance in resisting his attempts to obtain it.

After Stephen’s death, Bogdan neglected some years his father’s advice, till at last he saw the necessity of following it; and he sent, in 1536, ambassadors to Constantinople to offer the tribute. The Sultan then entered into written engagements with him, by which the same privileges as those of Wallachia were granted to Moldavia; but in which the tribute was merely called a Peshkicsh, or present.

Moldavia was governed on the same plan as the sister province, and frequently shared the same fate in war; sometimes ravaged by the Turks, at other times successful in resisting them. Towards the close of the 16th century, after its successful co-operation with Wallachia, Sigismund of Transylvania seized it, deposed the Voïvode Aaron, his friend and ally, and appointed a man of his own choice, whom he bound to pay him tribute. But in 1597, a Polish army invaded the province, and rescued it from the hands of Sigismund. In 1602 the Poles restored it to the Turks, against whose power the Moldavians never after struggled with any permanent success. Their frequent and fruitless efforts to regain independency, exhausted their means and patriotic ardour; and by degrees they became accustomed to the Turkish yoke. The appointment of the Voïvodes was left to the pleasure of the Sultans, although the formality of the election continued to take place a long time after; but the tribute was no longer called a present, and its amount was increased at almost every new appointment.

As far, however, as the end of the 17th century, intervening political motives still induced the Porte to show some deference to the privileges of the two principalities; but at the early part of the 18th century, the Ottoman Court became less constrained in its policy, and in assuming the right of punishing by death the Wallachian princes, laid the foundations of that system by which both have been governed to the present moment. The event which proved so fatal to the respective constitutions of those states, will show at the same time how far their public spirit must have been subdued, and how rapid appears to have been its decline.

During the reign of Sultan Ahmet, the Porte had, in 1695, declared war against the Emperor; and the Voïvode Constantine Brancovano Bessarabba of Wallachia was directed to form an army, and to march into the Austrian states, in order to second the operations of the Grand Vizier who was to commence hostilities from the frontiers of Servia. The Voïvode partly obeyed; but, either from a secret hatred to the Turks, or from being bribed into the Emperor’s cause, probably from both these motives, he abstained from taking any active part in the campaign, and by that circumstance alone, favoured the operations of the Austrians. At the conclusion of the peace of Carlowitz, the Emperor Leopold rewarded the Voïvode’s services by conferring on him the title of Prince of the Roman Empire, together with the gift of some landed estates in Transylvania. These circumstances could not remain hidden from the knowledge of the Ottoman court, who, however, found it necessary to use dissimulation; and some years elapsed without any notice being taken of them.

In 1710, Bessarabba was drawn into a secret correspondence with the Czar Peter the great, the object of which was to obtain his co-operation in that sovereign’s projected war against the Turks. The Voïvode promised a contingent of thirty thousand men, and an ample supply of provisions and other necessaries for the Russian army.

The purport of this correspondence became known to the Porte, and the death of Bessarabba was immediately determined upon; but at the same time it was deemed adviseable to use stratagem instead of open force, and it was resolved that he should be drawn into a snare by the Prince of Moldavia. Nicholas Marrocordato then governed that province, but he was thought unfit for the execution of the plan; the Porte therefore recalled him, and appointed to the principality Demetrius Cantimir, whose fidelity had been frequently tried both in peace and war. Cantimir set out from Constantinople for Moldavia, having instructions and positive orders to seize Bessarabba under the colour of friendship, alliance, or any pretence which he might think proper, and send him alive or dead to Constantinople.[^[12]]

But Cantimir, who, it seems, had neither the ambition nor the desire of being made Voïvode of Moldavia, having twice before procured that principality to his younger brother Antiochus, accepted it with the express condition that he should not be called upon to pay any tribute, or to make any of the presents customary at the new nominations. But when he reached Moldavia the Grand Vezier wrote to him by the Sultan’s order, not only to send immediately the usual tribute and presents, but also to prepare provisions for a numerous Turkish army, to throw a bridge over the Danube for their passage, and to join the Turks in person with Moldavian troops, besides other intolerable burthens.[^[13]] Cantimir says, that perceiving now how little faith was to be expected from the infidels, and esteeming it far better to suffer for the Christian cause, he resolved to detach himself from the Turkish interest, and sent a faithful messenger to the Czar, with an offer of his services and principality.

With these favourable prospects in Wallachia and in Moldavia, the Czar advanced towards the Ottoman frontiers. In 1711, he arrived with all his forces at Yassi, where he remained some days in expectation of the contingent and provisions promised by the Voïvode of Wallachia. But it seems that Bessarabba, as the rupture between the Sultan and the Czar drew near, alarmed at the great preparations of the Turks, and the approach of their army, composed of two hundred and twenty thousand men, thought it prudent to take no part in the war, and the subsequent disasters of the Russians are in a great measure attributed to the failure of his former promises to the Czar, who had placed too great a reliance in them. The events of this war are too well known to need any further explanation here. When peace was restored, and the Voïvodate of Moldavia had remained vacant by Cantimir’s defection, Nicholas Marrocordato was again appointed to it. Bessarabba remained unmolested, but not without the fear of early vengeance. Eager to regain the favour of the Ottoman government, and to obtain the assurance of oblivion on the past, he sent large supplies of money, and considerable presents to the Turkish ministers, and to the public treasures; he repeated them so often, as to convince the court that he possessed immense wealth, and the Grand Vezier, Ally-Pashah, who was his personal enemy, obtained from the Sultan a formal order for his recall, and for the seizure of his treasures. The Vezier then formed the plan of enforcing this order, and it was carried into execution in the following manner:—

In 1714, at the beginning of April, being the week of the Passion, when the attention of the Wallachians and their occupations were entirely devoted to the long ceremonies of the Greek church, a Capigee-Bashi[^[14]], of the Sultan, arrived at Bukorest with a suite of a hundred men; he sent word to the Voïvode that he was on his way to Hotim upon very pressing business of the state, and that he should only have time to pay him a visit on the next morning, after which he intended to take his departure. Accordingly, he went the next day to the palace, and, on entering the closet of the Voïvode, who stood up to receive him, he placed a black handkerchief on his shoulder, conformably to the then usual method of announcing depositions to persons high in office in Turkey. The Voïvode was confounded by the unexpected compliment, but the moment he recovered from his first emotions, he burst into a long strain of invectives against the Sultan and the Turks, for treating him with so much ingratitude after the many services he had rendered to the Porte. The Capigee, however, placed a guard about his person, and proceeded to the divan chamber, where he read a Ferman, which contained the decree of Bessarabba’s deposition, declared him a traitor, and ordered him to Constantinople with all his family. After the Ferman had been published, the Capigee secured the public treasure, and all the Voïvode’s private property. The frightened inhabitants of Bukorest remained tranquil spectators of all these acts of violence, and made no effort to release the Voïvode from his imprisonment. With a nation more awakened to its own dignity, and to the value of independence, an event of this nature would not, perhaps, have taken place without the support of an army, and the shedding of blood; and, indeed, the circumstances of this very occurrence would hardly appear credible, if they were not almost fresh in the memory of the present generation.

Two days after Bessarabba’s deposition, one Stephen Cantacuzene, of Greek origin, and calling himself a descendant of the imperial family of that name[^[15]], was, by the Sultan’s order, raised to the Voïvodate.

On the 14th April, the Capigee-Bashi left Bukorest with Bessarabba, his wife, four sons, three daughters, and grandson, and escorted by the Turkish guard. They soon reached Constantinople, and the Voïvode, with all his family, was immediately confined in the state prison of the Seven Towers. His treasures not being found so considerable as had been expected, his sons were put to the torture for three successive days, that they might confess where their father had hidden the rest; or that the latter, being a witness to his children’s torments, might come forward and make that confession himself. But as these cruelties did not produce the intended effect, the Sultan, exasperated at the apparent obstinacy of the sufferers, ordered them to be executed in his presence. The prisoners were conducted to a square, under the windows of the seraglio, and a long list of accusations was read to them; it alluded particularly to the treachery of Bessarabba in the Austrian war, and to the indignant expressions he had made use of against the person of the Sultan, when his recall had been signified to him. The four sons were first beheaded, one after the other, and the execution of the father closed this scene of butchery. When the Sultan withdrew, the five heads were put upon pikes, and carried about the streets of Constantinople. The bodies were thrown into the sea, but they were picked up by some Christian boatmen, and conveyed to a Greek monastery in the little island of Halcky, in the Propontis, where they received burial.

As to the unfortunate princess and the remainder of her family, they were shortly after exiled to Cuttaya, in Asia Minor, but three years after they were permitted to return to Wallachia.[^[16]]

The Voïvode Cantacuzene only remained in office two years, and he was the last Wallachian prince, whose nomination was effected through the formality of election. This important prerogative of the inhabitants had been abolished some years before in Moldavia. The Porte found it unnecessary to suffer it any longer in Wallachia, and indeed it had, since more than a century, become merely nominal.

Nicholas Marrocordato was transferred from the government of Moldavia to that of Wallachia, and proclaimed by a Turkish Capigee-Bashi in 1716. At this time the Porte was preparing to carry on a defensive war against Austria; and had the primates of Wallachia felt the courage to protest against so manifest a violation of their privileges, they would, most probably, have succeeded in securing a better observance of them.

Since the commencement of the decline of the Turkish power, the Ottoman court has made it an invariable policy to infringe little by little on the privileges allowed to foreign nations by treaty; and to conduct, by systematic stratagem, an administration which has been constantly falling in vigour and energy. If any infraction is left unnoticed by the party it concerns, and the article of a treaty, in its modified state, is once applied with success to any case to which it may relate, it becomes a precedent which the Porte will obstinately refer to at any other time that the strict interpretation of the article is insisted upon.

Thus, without assigning any satisfactory reason, and without repealing, in a plausible manner, the Wallachian law of election, the Sultan took to himself the exclusive right of appointing to the two Voïvodates. The measure was not opposed, and its repetition became habitual; and if, at the present moment, the inhabitants of the two Principalities were to recall their right to memory, and claim the enforcement of it, the Porte would consider and treat the proceeding as open rebellion on their part.

No prince of Wallachian or Moldavian birth or origin, was ever appointed after the recall of Bessarabba, and the Porte would have been willing to govern the principalities through the means of Turkish Pashahs; but the intrigues of the state-interpreter, Alexander Marrocordato, who was then endeavouring to secure either of the Voïvodates to his son Nicholas, induced at the time the Ottoman government to introduce another system, which subsequent motives have contributed to support to the present day. The Porte selected the new princes from the Greeks of Constantinople, whose long habit of obedience and servile degradation, appeared to render them suitable tools for the new policy adopted, relative to the government of the principalities. From that moment the princes have been appointed by Beratt, an imperial diploma, in which the Sultan, in proclaiming the nominations, commands the Wallachian and Moldavian nations to acknowledge and obey the bearers of it, as sole depositories of the sovereign authority.[^[17]]

They were instructed to pursue the plan, of administration of the Voïvodes, and thus they were suffered to hold a court, to confer dignities and titles of nobility, and to keep up a show of sovereign splendour, circumstances which were most flattering to the vanity of the Greeks, and proved useful to the interested views of the Porte. But they were most strictly forbidden to maintain troops, or to collect any, under any pretence whatever. This precaution was indispensable, as it prevented the princes from acquiring military power, and the natives from aspiring to independency.

In the course of the last century, a variety of Greek princes succeeded to each other in the government of the principalities. One alone, Constantine Marrocordato, appointed in 1735 to Wallachia, devoted himself with zeal to the welfare of the country. Some wise institutions, to which we shall have occasion to advert in the sequel, attest the liberality of his views, and a generosity of character which is not to be traced in any of his successors. But he was twice recalled, because he refused to comply with demands of the Ottoman government, which appeared to him incompatible with duties he owed to the Wallachians. The other princes, less scrupulous, and more careful of their own interests, marked their administration by the most violent acts of extortion, and an invariable system of spoliation. Few of them died of natural death, and the Turkish scymetar was, perhaps, frequently employed with justice among them. In a political point of view, the short reigns of most of these princes offer nothing of sufficient importance or interest to deserve a place in history.

CHAPTER II.
INAUGURATION OF THE HOSPODARS—PRESENT FORM OF GOVERNMENT—LOCAL LAWS—TRIBUNALS OF JUSTICE—MEMBERS OF THE DIVAN AND OTHER PUBLIC FUNCTIONARIES—DISTRICTS—CAÏMACAM OF CRAYOVA—ISPRAVNIKS.

The princes of Wallachia and Moldavia, since the choice of them falls on the Greeks, receive their investiture at the Porte, with the pomp and ceremonies usually observed on creating Pashahs and Veziers. The Kukka, or military crest, is put on their heads by the Muzhur Aga, and the robe of honour is put on them by the Vezier himself. They are honoured with the standards and military music, and make their oaths of allegiance in the presence of the Sultan, to whom they are introduced with the ceremonies usual at a public audience. From the seraglio, they go in solemn and ostentatious procession to the patriarchal church, where prayers and ceremonies are performed similar to those which were formerly observed at the inauguration of the Greek Emperors. They are accompanied to their principalities by the Turkish officers appointed to install them. They make their public entry into the capital of their new sovereignty with a great display of magnificence, attended by the metropolitan and dignified ecclesiastics, the members of the divan, and the chief Boyars. They assume, from the ceremonies which are practised, the title of “God’s Anointed.”[^[18]]

The general form of government in both principalities has undergone little alteration since the exclusion of the native Voïvodes. The prince is invested with absolute authority, and, till lately, was only controllable in his financial operations, by the divan, representing the senate; still, in levying extraordinary contributions, and in fixing the mode of raising them, the signatures of a majority of members are required as a mere formality; and, although the want of these would render such acts illegal, they would not thereby be put with less vigour into execution.

The executive administration is divided into various regular departments. The divan, composed of twelve members, is the supreme council, and is presided by the Prince, who appoints to it new members every year, with the exception of the metropolitan, whose ecclesiastical dignity entitles him to a permanent seat. It is convened at least twice a week, to receive, examine, and decide upon appeals in judiciary matters.

A Voïvode of the name of Mathew Bessarabba, who governed Wallachia from 1633 to 1644, instituted laws which he drew from Justinian’s code, and modified by the customs of the country. His example was soon after followed in Moldavia. Several princes made alterations in the original codes, and the late princes, Caradja of Wallachia, and Callimacki of Moldavia, have made them undergo a new revision, and have published them under their own names.[^[19]] It is in conformity to these laws that all suits are said to be judged, and the sentences framed; but the prince interprets them in his own way, and his will, in fact, is the only predominating law.

The princes’ decisions are without appeal for the natives of the country; and, however irregular or unjust they may be, they cannot be revoked by their successors.

In any case of moment, where the opinion of the members of the divan happens to be unanimous against that of the prince, or contrary to his wishes, the decision of the question is postponed, and the members are privately desired to pronounce according to the views of the prince. As they are aware that non-compliance would be attended with dismissal and disgrace, it is common enough, on similar occasions, that at the next sessions they all declare an opinion directly opposite to the one they had last given.

At Bukorest, and at Yassi, where the princes reside, there are two particular tribunals appropriated to the revision of commercial and other differences existing between the natives and foreign subjects. They are called the Foreign Departments, and are each directed by a Boyar, who has the title of chancellor of foreign affairs, and two other judges. The business that comes before them is examined and discussed in the presence of an officer attached to the consulate, by which the foreign party concerned is protected. The decisions are, conformably to the general sense of the treaties existing between the Porte and foreign powers, made according to the local laws; but they are not valid without the prince’s confirmation, which can be withheld, and a timely appeal made either to the Grand Vezier’s tribunal at Constantinople, or to the prince’s own judgement, should the nature of the department’s decision bear the appearance of partiality or injustice against the foreign party. Cases of this nature are so common, that the consuls are frequently obliged to act the part of attorneys in defending the rights of the individuals who are entitled to their protection.

There are also separate departments for the police, the treasury, and criminal cases, as well as a variety of petty offices for the different business, most of which report directly to the prince, and receive his instructions.

The following is an exact list of the chief dignitaries, and the other officers of state, according to their respective ranks and precedence, beginning with the twelve members of the divan.

The Metropolitan, or archbishop.

The Banno, a title taken from the former Banns of Crayova.

Vornik de Tsara de Suss, or judge of the upper country.

Vornik de Tsara de Joss, or judge of the lower country.

Logothett, or chancellor and keeper of the great seal.

Logothett de Obichëy; his particular business consists in assembling the divan.

Vornik de Couttee, or treasurer for the pensions of the widows of poor Boyars.

Vornik de Polittia, or collector of the capitation tax within the city of Bukorest.

Clutshiar, or keeper of the code of laws.

Clutshiar d’Aria; although he has a seat, he is not allowed to vote. He is a kind of sergeant-at-arms.

According to old custom, an individual, who is not born or naturalised a Wallachian or Moldavian, cannot be admitted member of the divan.

The first Postelnik is principal minister and master of the ceremonies at court. His office is of the most confidential nature, and only given to Greeks, near relations, or intimate friends of the prince.

The Spathar; his office formerly corresponded to that of minister at war. At present he is director-general of the police throughout the principality. In Moldavia he is more properly called Hetman.

The Vestiar, or treasurer of the principality: he must be a native.

The Hetman; in Wallachia his business consists in carrying into execution the prince’s sentences in matters of judicature. He takes 10 per cent. on the value of the objects to which they relate.

Camarash, or first chamberlain; the prince’s private treasurer, and judge over the Jews. He levies a duty upon all merchandise sold by retail for his own profit.

Armash, or judge of criminal causes relating to the lower orders; he has the superintendency of the public prisons, and collects the tribute paid by the gypsies to government.

Agga, or chief of the police within the city of Bukorest.

Portar-Bashi; he directs the correspondence with the neighbouring Turkish Pashahs, and other governors. He also attends upon all the Turks of distinction who visit Bukorest.

All the preceding offices give the rank of Boyars of the First Class to the persons who are appointed to them, and as such they wear their beards; they are all removed every year; but as they retain the titles until promotion, those in activity are distinguished from them by the additional one of “great,”—“maray,”—such as Logothett-maray, the Great Chancellor, &c.

The Boyars of the Second Class are as follows:—

Caminar, or collector of duties upon wine, brandy, tobacco, and snuff, brought to Bukorest for sale.

Paharnik, or cup-bearer. At state dinners he stands behind the prince’s chair, and offers him to drink.

Comisso, or master of the horse.

Stolnik, chief steward at court.

Sardar, chief or colonel of the guards.

Third Class:—

Medelnitsher; he receives the petitions addressed to the Hospodars, and reads all the papers at the divan.

Pittar, superintendent of the prince’s equipages.

Sludgier; he was formerly commissary to the regiment of body-guards: it is now an empty title.

Shatrar, keeper of the prince’s tents.

The renewal of public officers every year naturally creates great confusion in the transaction of public business. The custom arises from the circumstance that the Boyars, whose number in Wallachia amounts to nearly thirty thousand, claim public employment, at least, for a time, as a right to which they are each entitled. The first families, in particular, consider it as their birthright; but as their chief object is gain, they scramble for places with the most indecorous avidity, and never regard their want of capacity for any branch of public service.

As every Boyar has some title or other, he is never addressed by his name in common intercourse, but by his title preceded by the ancient Greek one of “ἄρχον,” such as “Archon-Banno, Archon-Shatrar,” &c.

A certain ceremony is practised at court upon all promotions and nominations. It takes place once or twice every month, when the prince, seated on an elevated throne, verbally notifies to the candidate, who is introduced by the First Postelnik, the rank or office to which he raises him. A robe of honour is then placed on his shoulders, and he advances in the most respectful attitude, and kisses the prince’s hand. He is then conveyed home in one of the state-carriages, or on one of the prince’s horses (according to his new rank) and accompanied by a great number of Chiohadars, or livery-servants of the court, to whom he pays a considerable fee.

The Boyars of the First Class look upon their titles as corresponding to those of Count and Baron in Germany, and their rank to that of Major-general in Russia. It is true that the Empress Catherine, at the period of her first war with Turkey, issued an Ukase to that effect; but her successors have set it aside. Although most of the principal families indulge the idea that none in Europe can boast of more genuine nobility, there are very few who can trace their origin any farther than a century back.[^[20]] The present descendants of Bessarabba and Cantacuzene are amongst this number. A family in Wallachia bear the name of Paleologos, and confidently assert being descended from the race of the last Constantine. It would not be very material to attempt to refute such pretensions; few could be imposed upon by them. They appear, however, the more absurd, as the persons who make them cannot in any manner explain upon what grounds they are assumed.

Wallachia is divided into seventeen districts, including the Bannat of Crayova composed of five. They are called Rimnik, Buzéo, Sakoyéni, Prahova, Yallomitza, Ilfov, Dimbovitza, Vlaska, Telly-Orman, Mousstzello, Argis, Olt, Romanatz, Vultza, Doltz, Gorge, Méhédintz. Each of them is governed by two Ispravniks or deputies, whose appointment is renewed every year by the prince. Their business chiefly consists in collecting the tribute and other contributions, which they send to the Vestiary, from which they are in a great measure dependent. The Ispravniks of the Bannat are under the immediate orders of a lieutenant of the prince, who resides at Crayova, under the title of Caïmacam. The Greek princes have substituted this appointment to that of the Banns, taking the title from that of the Turkish minister who fills the office of the Grand Vezier at Constantinople during the latter’s absence.

The situation of Caïmacam at Crayova is very lucrative, and generally given to some of the Greeks who follow the princes into Wallachia with the hope of enriching themselves.

The Ispravnicates are also given to persons of that description, jointly with the sons of Boyars, who, at a very early age, commonly make their début in public career by those appointments. They receive a salary of five hundred piasters per month, besides which they have perquisites, which, in some of the richest districts, they extend as far as twenty thousand piasters a year.

CHAPTER III.
POPULATION.—TRIBUTE AND TAXES.—OTHER BRANCHES OF REVENUE.—METROPOLITAN DIGNITY.—MONASTERIES.

The exact number of population in the two principalities has never been properly ascertained; but the nearest calculation approaches to one million of souls in Wallachia, and five hundred thousand in Moldavia, since the last peace of Bukorest.

This population is, in each principality, divided into three distinct classes; the Boyars, or nobles, of the different orders; the tradesmen of all descriptions; and the peasants, with others, who are liable to the common taxes and contributions.

All the male peasants are, by their birth, subject to the capitation tax, from the age of sixteen; with the exception of some few who compose a privileged body called Sokotelniki, they are divided into associations called Loods, each of which is composed of a certain number of individuals, from five to ten, according to their respective means, and pays a fixed sum of six hundred piasters every year to the prince. According to the registers of the Wallachian Vestiary in 1818, the total of the loods in the seventeen districts, amounted to eighteen thousand, which, at the rate of six hundred piasters, gave an annual income of 10,800,000 piasters.[^[21]] This amount of revenue is considered as becoming the property of the reigning prince, and not as due by the inhabitants to the Ottoman government, as some writers have represented.

The treaties made by Mahomet II. and Suleÿman I. in leaving to Wallachia and to Moldavia the power of choosing their own princes, bound these alone to pay an annual tribute; the amount of it was at different periods increased; but it is now fixed at two millions of piasters for Wallachia, and one million for Moldavia. The Porte has indeed broken its original engagements by assuming the exclusive right of giving to those countries Greek princes instead of their own; but in doing so, the Ottoman court did not degrade the character of sovereignty inherent in the native Voïvodes; and if the present princes did not bear that character, their decisions would not be, as they are, without appeal for the natives.

The policy of the Porte, and the precarious position of the Greek Hospodars, have, however, for a long time rendered the fixed amount of the tribute due to the Porte merely nominal; and it is perfectly understood that the latter, on receiving their appointments, engage to satisfy any calls of the Turkish government, of money and other necessaries.

Besides the loods, there are in Wallachia about one hundred thousand individuals, and a proportionable number in Moldavia, who do not belong to the class of peasants, but who pay taxes at an equal rate. These are the tradesmen, Ottoman Jews, and other Rayahs.

The privileged class called Sokotelniki is composed of fifteen thousand individuals taken from among the peasantry, and who were, till lately, perfectly exempted from every kind of contribution levied by government; but within a few years the greater number of them have been made liable to an annual capitation tax of twenty piasters each.

Their institution dates its origin from a remarkable reform made by Constantine Mavrocordato, in 1736, when he had the government of both principalities at the same time.

Until that period, most of the peasants were slaves of the Boyars: Mavrocordato abolished the system, and no attempt was ever made since to renew it. In order, however, to indemnify in some measure the Boyars for the loss of their slaves, he regulated that each should be allowed to exact from a limited number of his peasants an annual tribute, in any shape whatever; and that this class of peasants, to whom he gave the name of Sokotelniki, should be entirely exempted from the burthen of public imposts.

Every Boyar of the first rank is now entitled to eighty Sokotelniki, each of whom pays him the annual sum of eighty piasters; some few, instead of receiving money, employ their Sokotelniki in the cultivation of their lands, and thus derive a much greater advantage from them.

The privilege, however, is not hereditary either with the possessors, or the private tributary. Every rank had a fixed number; and by the inattention and neglect of many princes, as well as by the unceasing increase of titles of nobility, the Sokotelniki became so numerous, that in 1814 the government in Wallachia determined to allow no longer to private individuals a considerable amount of revenue which could be appropriated to its own use. A new law was therefore made, which formed into government-loods all Sokotelniki who were not attached to the first class of Boyars. The institution of this law was warmly supported by the members of the divan, who, with their equals, had no loss to apprehend; but it created great discontent in all the other classes affected by it, and particularly with the Boyars of Crayova, who being more given to agricultural occupations than the other land-proprietors derived great advantage from the employment of their Sokotelniki; and they unanimously determined to oppose the new regulation, as far as it related to themselves; they threatened to complain to the Porte through the channel of the Pashah of Widdin, who appeared willing to second their representations with all his influence. The ferocious Haffiz-Alli[^[22]] had at that time the government of Widdin; and as he was the prince’s personal enemy, he would have profited with eagerness of any opportunity to do him injury. The prince therefore modified the law relating to Sokotelniki, and those of the Bannat of Crayova were excluded from it. The following year he succeeded in compelling them to submit to a tax of twenty piasters each.

Another privileged class exists in both principalities, and is called Poslujniki; its number, however, is far inferior, and it is composed of some of the foreign peasants who come from Bulgaria, Servia, and Transylvania, to settle in the principalities.

The Poslujniki are given to the Greek Boyars, and to foreign residents of distinction; a custom which has become habitual since upwards of fifty years. They pay no money to the persons to whom they are attached; but it is their business to supply them with provisions of wood, barley, hay, poultry, eggs, butter, and game, in consideration of which they are exempted from government imposts, and receive some protection from their chiefs when they experience any vexations from the Ispravniks, or their subalterns.

Constantine Mavrocordato did not include the gypsies in the abolition of slavery; we shall place our remarks on this curious people in a more appropriate chapter.

At the last peace concluded at Bukorest between Russia and the Porte, it was stipulated that, in consideration of the two principalities having borne all the weight of the war, they should not, during the first two years after the day of their restitution, pay any tribute. The agreement was in the sequel merely observed with regard to the lood-system, through which it had been always customary before the war to collect the imposts; and, under a variety of other forms and denominations, contributions were paid to the Ottoman authorities of an amount proportionable to the present rates.

The most important regular revenues of the princes, after the loods, are derived from, the following branches:—

The administration of these branches of government is always sold to private speculators; and the above-specified sums have been paid by them in advance the last six years. Some merchants, and others possessed of considerable fortunes in the country, have acquired their riches by these speculations.

In Wallachia it has become customary that most of the public officers give a share of their profits to the prince, who, according to the estimate of their amount, receives it in anticipation; the whole together, with the value of the presents made to him on conferring titles of nobility, secure to him a private income of about two millions of piasters.

The metropolitan dignity, and all other sees, are in his gift. The former is usually granted for life, or for the time of the giver’s reign. Its revenues amount to four hundred thousand piasters. They are derived from landed property bequeathed to the metropoly by deceased boyars and others, and from an annual capitation tax of fifteen piasters levied on the priests of the lower order, whose number amounts to fifteen thousand. The claims of the prince on this important revenue are not so openly avowed as on the civil offices; but they are understood with the person who is raised to the situation, or is confirmed in it by the successor.

The bishops of Argis, Rimnik, and Buzéo, are the next ecclesiastical dignitaries in rank, and the only qualified candidates for the metropoly among their numerous colleagues. They reside at Bukorest, and they form the supreme council of the church under the presidency of the archbishop. This council is the most corrupted tribunal of any in the country, and its acts and decisions, which proceed from any motives than those of moral tendency, would seem calculated for no other purpose than the encouragement of profligacy, and other disorders in the society. The will of the metropolitan, or that of the prince, is the only rule by which its concerns are conducted.

The constitution of Moldavia does not permit the prince to interfere with the affairs of the ecclesiastical council, nor with the financial concerns of the metropoly. The archbishop is elected by the nobility, and must be a native. The bishop of Romano, next in rank, is usually chosen to that dignity. The same regulations ought to exist in Wallachia, but a series of abuses have there rendered many evils irremediable.

Both principalities abound with monasteries originally established by different Voïvodes, and it was a long time customary with the inhabitants to consider as great acts of piety bequests of lands, houses, shops, or sums of money, made to them, insomuch that hardly any rich man died without having allotted a portion of his property to such a purpose.

These voluntary gifts had so accumulated, and the value of land has so increased, that some of the monasteries are now the richest establishments in the country. The greater number are in the gift of the reigning princes, who let them out for a space of time to the highest bidders. Others, being dedicated to the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, are disposed of by them; but although the princes cannot appropriate to their own profit any part of their revenues, as they have the right of imposing taxes on them upon certain occasions, they frequently put them under contribution.

Besides the various important branches of revenue hitherto specified, the reigning princes possess many other means of raising money. The two principalities are an inexhaustible source of riches to them, and their proverbial appellation of ‘Peru of the Greeks’ is verified by experience.

CHAPTER IV.
GOLD AND SILVER MINES, &c.—PRODUCTIONS.—RESTRICTIONS ON THEIR EXPORTATION.—NAVIGATION OF THE DANUBE.—TRADE OF IMPORTATION.

The chain of Carpathian mountains which separates the two principalities from the Austrian dominions, abounds in a variety of minerals. Gold, silver, quicksilver, iron, copper, pitch, sulphur, and coals, are to be traced in many places; but although there is strong reason to believe they exist in abundance, no attempt is made to render them available, and this neglect is attributed to various motives, some of which would appear sufficiently justifiable.[^[23]] The inhabitants maintain, that to undertake a work of a similar magnitude, the employment of a considerable capital and of a great number of men would be requisite, and consequently the country would have to support many heavy burthens long before it would begin to reap any advantage from their intended object; and that even after consenting to any necessary sacrifices, as the fruits of them would only serve to benefit the coffers of the Grand Signior, it is thought prudent to abstain altogether from creating so powerful an attraction to the leaders of the system of rapacity already too prevalent in the country.

On another hand, it is supposed that the precarious position of the Greek Hospodars, who live under the incessant apprehension of sudden recall and disgrace, induces them to bestow their whole attention to such resources only as are most immediately within their reach, and to neglect any plan that merely offers a remote prospect of gain.

The Porte then seems to be the only party much interested in this affair, as the only one capable of setting it properly on foot, and reaping a lasting advantage. Yet the Turks evince the same indifference, and political reasons are given in explanation, which, however, are by no means satisfactory; for surely no such considerations could prevent them from availing themselves of treasures which they have certainly assumed in every way the right of calling their own.

From all these conjectures, however, this conclusion can be drawn,—that as long as the principalities remain under Turkish influence, their mineralogic riches will be buried in obscurity and oblivion. The rivers Dimbovitza and Argis, taking their sources in the Carpathians, and crossing Wallachia to fall into the Danube, carry along a considerable quantity of grains of gold. The gypsies that belong to government are employed in picking them out of the sand when the waters are low; and they are allowed to pay their tribute partly from the fruits of this labour.

The trade of Wallachia and Moldavia, notwithstanding that it labours under a variety of restrictions and partial prohibitions, is one of their most important sources of opulence. Its details are little known, and less noticed beyond the neighbouring countries, although they are by no means deserving of inattention.

Of the common productions of the soil, the most abundant is wheat, of which the two principalities are supposed to give an annual return of ten millions of killows,[^[24]] although hardly one-sixth part of their extensive and fertile plains is cultivated, and that a certain space of this is sown by Indian corn, barley, and hemp.

The other productions, proportionably important in a commercial point of view, are the bees-wax, honey, butter, cheese, hides, timber, staves, and ship-masts of all sizes and descriptions; and an annual supply of five hundred thousand hare-skins, six hundred thousand okes[^[25]] of yellow-berries, and forty thousand kintals[^[26]] of sheep’s wool.

The three last-mentioned articles are alone perfectly free of exportation; the remainder are kept at the disposal of the Turkish government; and it is only in times of abundance, after the usual supplies have been fixed upon for the granaries and arsenal of Constantinople, that leave can be obtained to employ in foreign trade any portion of them. The exportation of wheat alone is considered as under a permanent prohibition; it is not in the power of the Hospodars to suffer any of it to be taken out of the country on private speculation; they must be authorised so to do by Ferman, a permit which is never granted to Rayahs, and very seldom to other Europeans, as the foreign ministers accredited at the Porte, aware of the difficulty of obtaining it, and the value that the Ottoman government would set in the gift of it, prefer abstaining altogether from applications on the subject, more especially as their success would only be profitable to some individuals, without being productive of any permanent good to the trade at large.

The quality of the Wallachian wheat is inferior, but it is far from being bad; that of Moldavia is better, and not differing much from the Polish wheat. Their ordinary price stands between 2 and 2½ piasters per killow. As an article of general trade, the charges upon it from the Danube to Constantinople, would hardly amount to one piaster more. The Turkish government send their own ships every year to transport their share of it, which is each time fixed at 1,500,000 killows, as well as the other articles necessary to their use, the quantity of which is not fixed, though generally very considerable.

The Moldavian timber is far better than that of Wallachia; it is of the finest oak, and perfectly well calculated for the construction of vessels. A great number of ships in the Turkish fleet are built of it, and fitted out with masts and ropes of Moldavian growth and origin. In the two provinces, these articles are sold at the lowest possible prices, and indeed the same thing may be said of all the prohibited articles; which, restricted as they are, from the monopoly arrogated by the Porte, have but little demand, except for the local consumption.

The hare-skins commonly stand at 35 paras[^[27]] each, in large purchases, and the yellow-berries may be had at 40 or 45 paras per oke. The usual method of securing any quantity of these two articles at the lowest prices, is by bespeaking them at the different villages, and paying something in advance; the villagers engaged in such contracts never fail to fulfil them in proper time.

The hare-skins are of the first quality, but the yellow-berries are inferior to those of Smyrna, and only demanded when the crops in Asia Minor have proved deficient.

The sheep’s wool is considered to be very good: cleaned and washed, it is sold at about 60 paras per oke, or 66 piasters per kintal, when in its original state, it is offered at 35 to 40 paras.

The principalities abound also in cattle and poultry of all descriptions. Every year they supply Constantinople with 250,000 sheep, and 3000 horses. They send, besides, a great number of these, and oxen, into the surrounding provinces, where they are usually sold at great profit.

All the productions and commodities that are employed for the exigencies of the Ottoman capital, are bought by the local government for about one-fourth of the prices current in the market, and one-sixth of their value in Turkey. They are paid for by a deduction from the common tribute, and, sometimes, by an extraordinary imposition of an amount equal to their cost.

Before we proceed to any remarks on the import trade, it is necessary we should say a few words on the town and harbour of Galatz, which may be called the seaport of the two principalities.

Galatz is in Moldavia, but nearly touches the frontier of Wallachia: it is situated at the beginning of the broadest and deepest part of the Danube, distant sixty miles from the Black Sea, sixty-five from Yassi, and seventy-two from Bukorest. The river is so far very navigable for ships not exceeding three hundred tons burthen. Its principal entrance from the sea is not very easy to make, owing to the islands which divide it into three great channels, two of which are very shallow and dangerous. But ships bound hither take pilots on board, and with this precaution, very few accidents take place, particularly in the fine season.

The navigation of the Danube closes in the month of November; and in the severest winters, even this part of the river is completely frozen over for the space of five or six weeks. In the month of March, ships begin to make their appearance again, and as they have not the inconveniency of a tide against them, they are enabled to come up close to the wharfs, and to remain there until their business is finished.

Galatz is the great market for the produce of the two principalities, and the only landing-place for some principal articles of importation. Having all the resources of a seaport, it is apparently a very flourishing town. Its market is always well stocked with the productions of the interior. The timber, masts, and staves are conveyed to it along the small rivers, that come from various parts of the country, and fall into the Danube nearest to it. There are public granaries for the wheat, and a great number of large warehouses, belonging to private merchants, for all articles. It is chiefly inhabited by commercial men, who, notwithstanding the rigour of the prohibitive measures, often find the means of exporting some quantity of wheat, and other contraband articles; but their principal trade is that of importation. The town and its dependencies are governed by two deputies of the Prince of Moldavia, called Percalabi. The number of the fixed inhabitants does not exceed seven thousand, but the great concourse of people occasioned every year by commercial pursuits, gives it the appearance of being very populous, and all the bustle of a place of great trade. The presence, in particular, of a great number of commercial vessels, increases considerably that appearance.

Although Galatz is the general depôt for many goods of importation, it is not the principal market for them: they are conveyed to those of Bukorest and Yassi. Coffee, sugar, pepper, rum, lemons, oranges, and foreign wines, are the principal articles of this description. The local consumption of the first, in both provinces, is calculated at 800,000 okes every year; of the second, 900,000 okes; and of the third 35,000 okes; that of the others is merely eventual. Their importation, however, surpasses this quantity, and might be still carried to a greater extent, as the provinces of Galicia, Boukovina, Transylvania, Temesvar, and Servia are partly supplied with those articles by the markets of Bukorest, Yassi, and Galatz.

The general system of this import trade is ill contrived, and it is subject to many inconveniencies. The purchasers have recourse to the markets of Smyrna and Constantinople, where, of course, they buy at high prices. The goods, which have already paid custom-house duty in Turkey, are taxed with a new duty of the same kind, of three per cent., on being landed or brought into the principalities, as well as with other charges of an arbitrary nature, which amount to as much more. The latter are not, indeed, established by the local governments, but merely exacted by their officers, and as they are tolerated, they become unavoidable, unless the proprietors of the goods happen to be subjects of European courts, and as such, receive protection and assistance from the consuls residing in the country.

Wallachia and Moldavia are at present supplied by Germany with all kinds of cotton and woollen manufactures and hardware, either by land or by the Danube.

The plain and printed calicoes, the chintz, glass and earthenware, brought to their markets, are, without exception, German; but they are called English, and as such sold at higher prices than they would fetch were their origin made known.

The consumption of the woollen cloths is very extensive; that of the superfine qualities alone is valued at 200,000l. sterling every year. Some French cloths are brought into the country, but as their prices are considerably higher than those of Germany, they do not meet with much demand. French cambrics and English muslins are always profitable articles to speculators, and never remain long on hand.

As furs of all kinds form a part of the national costume, and are, besides necessary, owing to the natural rigour of the climate, they are an article of vast importation. Russia supplies the principalities with it, and takes in return brandy and wine, and imperial ducats.

Most of the merchants carrying on trade in these countries, are natives, or Greeks. Some have been naturalised in Russia or in Austria, and receive protection from those powers; an advantage which is of no small consequence to their affairs. Of late years, some natives of the Ionian islands have began to trade in the principalities, and the English flag, borne by their vessels, is now frequently displayed on the Danube.

Some overland expeditions of goods coming from Smyrna, are now and then made by way of Enos and Adrianople; but they are attended with risk and difficulty; besides which, the amount of charges surpasses by eight per cent. those incurred by way of Galatz.

The natural richness, and the various resources of Wallachia and Moldavia, are such, that if those countries could enjoy the important advantages of a regular government and a wise administration, under which industry and agriculture should receive their due encouragement, the trade of exports laid open, the commercial intercourse with foreign nations set upon a proper footing, and finally, the mines explored, they would in a short time become the most populous and most flourishing provinces of Europe. The harbour of Galatz would soon stand in rivalship with all the ports of the Black Sea, not excepting Odessa.

The fertility of the soil is such as to procure nourishment for ten times the number of the present population, and leave wherewith to supply other countries besides; the common return of cultivation being sixteen-fold, and in more favourable seasons, twenty-five.

Nature has furnished them with every possible means of becoming prosperous; men have ever proved themselves the determined enemies of their prosperity.

CHAPTER V.
BUKOREST AND TIRGOVIST, THE CAPITALS OF WALLACHIA.—YASSI, THE CAPITAL OF MOLDAVIA.—A DESCRIPTION OF THEM.—MODE OF TRAVELLING.—BREED OF HORSES.

Bukorest, the present capital of Wallachia, is an extensive dirty town, situated on a low and marshy ground, and containing eighty thousand inhabitants, three hundred and sixty-six churches, twenty monasteries, and thirty large hanns or caravanserays.

About four hundred years back it was but a small village, belonging to a person called Bukor, from whom it derived its name, and retains it to the present day. By degrees it became a town, and it continued increasing, until it surpassed the former capital, Tirgovist, in size. The Voïvode, Constantine Bessarabba, made it in 1698, the permanent seat of government; abandoning with all his nobles the city of Tirgovist, most delightfully situated further in the interior, having on one side a beautiful range of hills, and the other a very fine and extensive plain.

The Greek princes having continued to reside at Bukorest, probably on account of its being nearer to the Turks, Tirgovist was by degrees deserted by the remaining part of its inhabitants, and it is now reduced to a mere village. It contains many ruins of ancient edifices, amongst which those of the Voïvodes’ palace are the most conspicuous. The river Dimbovitza runs alongside of it.

Yassi,the capital of Moldavia, is a smaller but better-built town, containing many elegant houses built in the most modern style of European architecture, forty thousand inhabitants, and seventy churches. One part of it stands upon a fine hill, and the other is situated in a valley. The prince’s palace is the most extensive edifice in the whole town, and is surrounded by gardens and yards. It is furnished in a style which is half Oriental and half European, and has room enough to lodge conveniently more than a thousand people.

The palace of Bukorest was formerly a large building, standing on an eminence at one extremity of the town, and commanding a full view of it. In 1813 it was accidentally burnt down, and it has not been rebuilt. The late prince had, since that time, resided in two private houses joined into one.

Both capitals occupy a great extent of ground, the houses being separate from each other, and surrounded by yards or gardens, and trees. All the buildings are made of brick, and their walls, outside as well as within, are plastered and whitewashed. Tiles are seldom used, and the roofs are generally covered with wood.

The streets of the two capitals, and indeed of all the provincial towns, are, without exception, paved with thick pieces of timber, thrown across, and made tight to each other. In some, the surface is made smooth and even, whilst in others, the logs of wood are almost left in their natural state. In the rainy seasons they are constantly covered over with a deep liquid mud, and in the summer, with a thick black dust, which the least wind renders excessively injurious to the eyes and lungs; besides these great inconveniences, a complete renewal, at least once in every six years, is absolutely necessary.

At Bukorest, under the wooden pavements, to which the natives give the more appropriate name of bridges, there are large kennels, which receive the filth of the houses, and are meant to convey it to the river Dimbovitza, which runs through the town. Hardly any care is taken to keep the different passages open, and the accumulation of dirty substances frequently stops them up; in this state they sometimes remain for months in the hot season, during which they produce the most noxious exhalations, and occasion fevers of a putrid and malignant nature,—diseases to which the natural position of the town must alone dispose a great part of the inhabitants.

It has been long supposed, and it is still considered impossible to pave the streets with stone, not so much on account of the scarcity of the material, as owing to the ground being of a soft clay, which offers no hold to it. This idea, very prevalent among the natives, is certainly erroneous, and there cannot exist a more convincing proof of it, than the stone pavements constructed by Trajan and the Romans, which have so firmly withstood the destructive hand of time.

From a certain distance, and on elevated ground, the city of Bukorest offers itself to the view with great advantage; the mixture of the houses and trees give it a peculiar beauty; but it is like the fine scenery of a theatre which charms the distant eye, and on being approached is found to be a coarse daub.

As late as thirty years back, the Boyars were in the habit of visiting each other, and going to court on horseback, and the women of the most opulent only, went in coaches. Within that period, the fashion of riding in coaches has so increased, and it is now so universal, that no person of either sex, who has claims to respectability, can pass the gates of his house otherwise than in a coach, even in the finest weather. The Boyars consider it derogatory to their dignity to make use of their legs, and leave to the mob the vulgar practice of walking. The consequence is, that the streets, about seven or eight yards wide, are always full of carriages, and frequent accidents happen to the unfortunate pedestrians.

The kind of carriage most in use, is the German calèche; and the Boyars have introduced the fashion of having theirs ornamented in the most gaudy manner; but as they do not so much regard the beauty of the horses and harness, nor the dress of the coachman, it is very common to meet in the streets a carriage glittering with gold, drawn by a pair of miserable hacks, and driven by a gypsy in rags.

There are many coachmakers, both at Bukorest and at Yassi; but the carriages sent from Vienna are preferred to theirs, and much higher prices are paid for them. The Boyars are indifferent as to their solidity, and buy any old vehicle that is made up to deceive the eye, and is offered as new; fine ornaments being the only quality in estimation, every twelve or eighteen months they are obliged to purchase a new carriage. On another hand, their own inattention, and the lazy, slovenly, and careless habits of their coachmen, render this annual expense indispensable.

No coaches of any kind are to be hired, so that travellers, and other non-residents, must submit to the necessity of going on foot. Private lodgings are also seldom to be had, and it was but very lately that a public hotel was set up at Bukorest, which, being well furnished, and provided with every requisite commodity, has become very useful to travellers. A German is the proprietor and director of it.

The mode of travelling in the two principalities is so expeditious, that in this respect it is not equalled in any other country. Their post establishments are well organized; there are post-houses in all directions, and they are abundantly provided with horses. Every idea of comfort must, however, be set aside by those who are willing to conform themselves to the common method of riding post. A kind of a vehicle is given, which is not unlike a very small crate for earthenware, fastened to four small wheels, by the means of wooden pegs, and altogether not higher than a common wheel-barrow. It is filled with straw, and the traveller sits in the middle of it, keeping the upper part of his body in an erect posture, and finding great difficulty to cram his legs within. Four horses are attached to it by cords, which form the whole harness; and, driven by one postilion on horseback, they set off at full speed, and neither stop nor slacken their pace, until they reach the next post-house. Within the distance of half a mile from it, the postilion gives warning of his approach by a repeated and great cracking of his whip, so that, by the time of arrival, another cart is got ready to receive the traveller.

The Boyars, and other people of respectability in the country, travel in their own carriages, and at their own pace. In winter, as the snow lies about two months on the ground, sledges are generally used, as well in town as in the country.

The Wallachian breed of horses is of a peculiar kind. Their stature is very small, and they have no spirit; but they are strong, active, and capable of enduring great fatigue. Those of Moldavia differ only in being a little larger in size. Some of the richest people have their horses sent them from Russia and Hungary; but they are merely meant for their coaches, as, from an aversion to every exercise that occasions the least fatigue, hardly any of them ride on horseback. Handsome saddle-horses, consequently, are seldom seen in the country; the prince is the only person who keeps any; but they are chiefly used by his Albanians, or body-guard.

CHAPTER VI.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE GREEKS IN GENERAL.—THEIR INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINCIPALITIES.—THEIR POLITICAL SYSTEM.—CAUSE OF THE DECLARATION OF WAR BETWEEN TURKEY, RUSSIA, AND ENGLAND IN 1806.—THOSE WHICH OCCASIONED THE FAILURE OF THE ENGLISH EXPEDITION TO CONSTANTINOPLE.—SUBSEQUENT CHANGES OF POLICY OF THE OTTOMAN GOVERNMENT.—PEACE WITH ENGLAND.—PEACE WITH RUSSIA, AND CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH MOSTLY CONTRIBUTED TO IT.—HOSPODARS CALLIMACKI AND CARADJA.—PRINCE DEMETRIUS MOUROUSI’S DEATH.—CARADJA’S FLIGHT FROM WALLACHIA.—REFLECTIONS ON THE CONDUCT OF THE PORTE RELATIVE TO THE TWO PRINCIPALITIES.

None of the events that had influenced the political existence, and undermined the public spirit of the Wallachian and Moldavian nations, proved more ruinous to them than the system of policy introduced by the Greeks of the Fannar[^[28]], when they were placed at the head of the principalities.

Humiliated, degraded, and oppressed as the Greeks were, since they had ceased to be a nation, civilisation degenerated among them, in proportion to the weight and barbarism of the yoke that had been imposed on them, and they had insensibly contracted those habits of corruption, and servile obedience, which must be inseparable from a state of slavery similar to theirs. Dissimulation and falsehood became the most prominent features of their character; and, in short, the force of the causes which acted upon them incessantly, familiarised them, by degrees, to every thing that could be degrading and humiliating to man.

The ambition of certain Greeks, leading an obscure life at Constantinople, was, however roused, when the office of state-interpreter at the Porte, assumed an important appearance under the direction of their countryman, Alexander Mavrocordato, who, from a petty merchant at the island of Scio, rose by degrees to that station, and was sent in the quality of Ottoman plenipotentiary to the congress of Carlowitz, where he distinguished himself as an able negotiator. He caused his son Nicholas to be raised to the governments of Moldavia and Wallachia, and he suggested to the Porte a new mode of appointment to those principalities, after the elective right had been entirely set aside. The Ottoman court thenceforward appropriated those two dignities to individuals who had once served in the quality of state-interpreter to its satisfaction, not so much as a reward for their services, as on account of the knowledge obtained of their personal character and extent of abilities.

On another hand, the repeated demonstrations of servitude on the part of the Greeks, and the apparent impossibility of their ever becoming a nation again, seemed to render them the fittest tools of the Porte’s new system of government in the principalities; for, although it could not trample upon the whole of their privileges at once, yet, in giving them princes who should be entirely devoted to its interests, and slaves to its will, the existence of those privileges was rendered nugatory.

No sooner was the possibility of sharing in the public administration manifested to the Greeks, than such as were versed in the Turkish and European languages, abandoning all other pursuits, formed themselves into a distinct class, which assumed the title of nobility, and the exclusive right of being called to the service of the state.

In a short time, however, the number of competitors increased considerably; all equally eager and impatient to reach the same objects, they introduced a system of intrigue and bribery, which gave rise to continual changes in the government of the principalities, and accustomed the Porte to look upon these as farms which were to be let out to the highest bidders; the farmer-princes were therefore deposed and recalled, whenever the offers and promises of others of their countrymen appeared more advantageous.

From the period at which this system was introduced, to the beginning of the present century, being a space of ninety years, Wallachia alone has passed through the hands of forty different princes, independently of the time it was occupied by the Russians, from 1770 to 1774; by the Austrians and Russians, from 1789 to 1792, and by the Russians again, from 1806 to 1812.

The evils which naturally arose from such a state of things, weighed so heavily upon the two nations, that the court of Russia, already authorised by the treaty of Kaïnargik[^[29]], to interfere in their behalf, insisted at the peace of Yassi in 1792, that the Porte should engage to maintain the princes of Moldavia and Wallachia in their respective stations, for the space of seven years, and not to molest them in any manner previous to the expiration of that term. This agreement was then legally entered into by the Ottoman plenipotentiaries, but in the sequel it was not regularly observed by the Porte, whose frequent infractions of it became the subject of continual remonstrance on the part of the court of Russia. In 1802, however, Prince Ipsilanti was appointed to the government of Wallachia, and Prince Alexander Mourousi to that of Moldavia, with the express condition which was obtained through the negotiations of the Russian minister at the Porte, that neither of them should be removed from office previous to the term stipulated in the treaty, if they were not proved guilty of an offence that the Russian minister should allow to be of a nature which justified their deposition.[^[30]]

In 1805, the intrigues of Buonaparte, who sought to involve Turkey in his continental system, prevailed upon the Porte to adopt a line of conduct which Russia could not otherwise interpret, than as a systematic violation of its existing engagements, and an approaching alliance with France, notwithstanding that a public audience of the Sultan was given to the Russian envoy, Mr. d’Italinsky, in which a formal exchange of ratifications took place of a late treaty of defensive alliance concluded between the two powers.

The Hospodars, Ipsilanti and Mourousi, were suddenly recalled, without the participation of the Russian embassy; the latter was replaced by Charles Callimacki, and the former by Alexander Sutzo, a man who was looked upon as a partisan of Buonaparte, and who had always been obnoxious to the interests of Russia.

Previous to this circumstance, a certain degree of coolness already existed between the courts of St. Petersburgh and Constantinople; it originated in the Porte’s sudden resolution of suppressing foreign protections, in abolishing all letters-patent, until then granted to individuals, natives of Turkey, who were authorised by such letters to place themselves under the protection of foreign courts, although residing and trading in the Ottoman dominions. More particularly in carrying that resolution into effect, by forcibly and publicly compelling all such individuals, protected by Russia, to give up their titles, without paying the least regard to the representations of the Russian embassy.

Ipsilanti’s and Mourousi’s deposition brought things to a crisis. A Russian army was immediately sent to the frontiers to enforce the treaties, and having occupied the fortresses of Bender and Hotim, the Porte looked upon the measure as a declaration of war, and the Mufti issued his Fetvaa[^[31]], which declared it legal to repel force by force.

The rupture was soon followed by another with England, who had joined Russia to oppose the increasing influence of Buonaparte over the Porte. When, in 1805, the English ambassador, Mr. Charles Arbuthnot, arrived at Constantinople, the Porte expressed a wish of renewing the treaty of accession made in 1799, the term of which (eight years) was drawing to its end. That treaty, framed upon the wisest principles, completed the triple alliance between England, Russia, and Turkey, from which so many important advantages have accrued to the common cause.

Mr. Arbuthnot not being invested with full powers for that particular object, wrote home for instructions, and received them a short time after; and when on their arrival an offer was made to the Turkish ministers to commence the work, they very unexpectedly began to draw back, and an actual recantation took place, which naturally created the greatest surprise.

The intrigues of the French ambassador, and Buonaparte’s progressive encroachments in Europe, had made on the minds of the Sultan and his ministers such an impression, that no remonstrance, no threat could now induce them to perform what they themselves had shown so much wish for before.

On the other hand, the British embassy could not remain indifferent to the recall of the Hospodars, and to the manner in which the foreign protections had been suppressed.

From an impulse of official regard to the complaints and interests of those individuals who were patentees under the English protection, and in consequence of the Russian envoy’s solicitations that their efforts might be joined for the purpose of resisting the violent measures pursued by the Turkish government, the British ambassador made many representations to the Porte against its proceedings, and although impartial in principle as to the practice of granting protection to natives of the country, he, at all events, recommended moderation, and a less offensive mode of carrying the new system into execution. But having soon discovered and ascertained beyond a doubt, that all interference was of no avail, that the resolution of the Turkish cabinet was such as to hazard all, sooner than withdraw from the adopted plan, he deemed it expedient to advise the British patentees to proceed, as if from their own accord, and give up their titles to the Porte, and in the mean time recommended in a private manner, the property and personal safety of such individuals, who, by this means, not only avoided the resentment of the Turkish government, but were all well treated, and some taken into favour.

The British ambassador, however, showed less disposition to compliance with regard to the other proceedings of the Porte, and having insisted with Russia on the immediate reinstatement of the Hospodars Ipsilanti and Mourousi, the subject was discussed at the divan, where the general opinion inclined to a firm resistance of those pretensions; but the Sultan finally declared, that however humiliating might be the alternative of ceding to them, he was resolved to recur to it rather than break with England.

This decision was at the time carried into execution, to the extreme disappointment of the French ambassador, Sebastiani, whose great object was to kindle the fire he had raised. But very soon after, advices being received that the Russian troops had already entered the Moldavian territory, affairs underwent a total change; the Russian envoy was dismissed, and the Grand Vezier took the field.

To represent these events in a more proper point of view, it is necessary to observe, that it was neither the intention of England, nor the wish of Russia, to engage in a serious war with Turkey. Their object was to bring the Porte to a sense of its true interests, in diverting it from a line of conduct which bore every appearance of a change in its political system, and was every way calculated to confirm the suspicion that the Sultan was contracting an alliance with Buonaparte.

In order to separate the Porte from the French party, and induce it to return to the connexions which had formerly existed with the allies of Turkey, a plan of coercive measures had been found necessary; and, to give them a greater weight, it had been determined that Russia should send an army from the north, and England a fleet from the south.

When the English fleet appeared before Constantinople, it naturally occasioned the greatest confusion and alarm. The Sultan lost no time in sending on board to offer terms of peace, and negotiations were commenced with Mr. Arbuthnot, who was in the flag-ship, the Royal Sovereign. But they were carried on with much less vigour than it was necessary to give them, and left time to the French intrigues to gain the advantage. Buonaparte’s active agents, General Sebastiani and Franchini[^[32]], were the more anxious to counteract the operations of the English plenipotentiary, as they were aware that the first result of his success would have been the expulsion of the French embassy from Constantinople. They employed for that purpose every means in their power, and they succeeded by the following stratagem.

The chief of the Janissaries, Pehlivan-Aga, had formerly been colonel of a regiment, which had acted once as guard of honour, given to a French embassy at the Porte. Having remained some time in that station, he had contracted a lasting connexion with the French, to whose party, since that period, he devoted himself. When General Sebastiani saw that peace with England was on the point of being concluded, he sent Franchini to him to suggest a plan which the Turkish officer carried into immediate execution. He went to the seraglio[^[33]], as if in great haste, and having obtained audience of the Sultan, he thus addressed his imperial chief:—

“May God preserve your sacred person and the Ottoman empire from every possible evil. A pure sense of duty brings me before your Royal Person, to represent that so strong and general a fermentation has arisen amongst my Janissaries since the appearance of the infidel’s fleet before your royal palace: they express so great a discontent at the measures pursued by your ministers in negotiating with the English, from a shameful fear that the appearance of that fleet has thrown them into; that a general insurrection is on the point of breaking out, unless the negotiations be laid aside, and all offers of peace be rejected with scorn. They declare that it is beneath the dignity and fame of the Ottoman empire, to submit to such an act of humiliation, as to sign a treaty, because a few ships have come to bully its capital, and dictate their own terms to the Ottoman sovereign. Your brave Janissaries will not suffer so disgraceful a stain to tarnish the splendour of the Ottoman arms. They are all ready to sacrifice themselves in defence of your residence, and in vindication of the honour and faith of the Ottoman nation. But they can never consent to stand tacit witnesses of a submission so ignominious to the Turkish name.”

Sultan Selim, a prince naturally timid and credulous, no sooner heard a message of this sort delivered in the name of the Janissaries, then in good understanding with the chiefs of government, and apparently united with the troops of the Nisam-y-gedid[^[34]], than he ordered all communications with the English fleet to be suspended, and immediate preparations of defence to be made, in the event of its commencing hostilities.

This manœuvre, unknown at the time, and with which very few persons are yet acquainted, was the true cause of the failure of the negotiations which, at the commencement, bore so sure a prospect of success.

The fleet returned without even having made a show of hostile intentions, and left to the triumphant French party the most decided influence in the Seraglio.

Before we enter into further observations on the events which followed, it may not be amiss to make a few remarks on the character of those who were then at the head of the Turkish administration, as it is to them that the whole change of system of the Porte is to be attributed.

Haffiz-Ismaïl Pashah, Grand Vezier, appointed early in 1805, was a low-bred, ignorant man, so poor and thirsty after money, that the moment he was elevated to his station, he formed the plan of operating a change in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, although the time prescribed by the treaties was not yet near, with a view of getting a subsidy, and securing to himself an income which the candidates, who took no small advantage of the Vezier’s inexperience and selfish views, had promised to allow him when the appointment should have taken place.

Ibraïm-Aga, Kiaya-Béÿ, or minister of the interior, a man of little experience and great ambition, under the idea of ingratiating himself with his master, and rendering, as he thought, a signal service to the state, undertook the affair of protections which he treated in a manner so insulting and provoking, that it was impossible for any foreign power, jealous of its own dignity, to suffer it to remain unnoticed.

The Mufti, Sheriff-Zaadé-Attaa-Effendi, and the chief of the Janissaries, Pehlivan-Mehmet Aga, were entirely devoted to the French party. They willingly seconded the adoption of any measures which tended to alienate the Porte from England and Russia, and appeared calculated to promote Buonaparte’s scheme of overthrowing the triple alliance.

Galib Reïs-Effendi, minister of foreign affairs, and Yussuf-Aga, Validay-Kiayassi or chancellor to the Emperor’s mother, were the only two men in power friendly to the common cause. They disapproved of the measures pursued, but their opinion was over-ruled, and they both thought it prudent to retire from business, in order to screen themselves from responsibility with respect to the consequences they foresaw.

The military operations on the Danube be between the Russians and the Turks, which followed the first acts of hostility, were not more successful with regard to the object that brought them on, than the threats of the English fleet.

The peace of Tilsit took place; and the Porte, which had reason to expect an effective interference on the part of Buonaparte in behalf of its differences with Russia, gained no other advantage than the conclusion of a long armistice, the first condition of which was the retreat of the Russian armies from the principalities, whence, however, they did not remove. Negotiations for peace were, notwithstanding, set on foot; and the great revolutions, which overthrew the Sultan Selim, and consigned him to death, finally established a new order of things at Constantinople, and operated a complete change in the political system of the Turkish cabinet. The Porte remained no longer blind to the equivocal conduct of Buonaparte since his reconciliation with Russia, and began to look upon its state of hostility with England not only as useless, but even injurious to the interests of the country.

In 1808, an English[^[35]]plenipotentiary had been for the second time[^[36]] sent to treat at the Dardanelles, and peace was definitively signed in the month of December of the same year.

At the same time the Turkish plenipotentiaries, sent to Bukorest during the armistice, were endeavouring to adjust the differences with Russia; but the interview of the Emperor Alexander with Buonaparte took place at Erfurth, and the failure of their joint proposals to the court of London[^[37]] was followed by instructions to Prince Prosoroffsky, commander-in-chief of the Russian armies in Moldavia and Wallachia, to signify to the Ottoman plenipotentiaries that, as the Emperor Alexander had acceded to the Continental System, the chief object of which was a continual state of warfare with England, he could no longer enter upon terms of peace with Turkey, unless the English ambassador, lately admitted at Constantinople, were sent out of the Ottoman dominions.

The Turkish ministers expressed astonishment at the versatility of the court of Russia, which, having made the first overtures for a negotiation, had not then in any manner alluded to England; they demanded time, however, for the arrival of instructions which were necessary to regulate their official reply to a communication so unexpected. They dispatched a messenger to Constantinople for that purpose, and he was accompanied by an aide-de-camp of Prince Prosoroffsky, Colonel Bock, who, on his arrival, signified to the Porte the Emperor’s ultimatum, through the channel of the French minister Latour Maubourg.

The Ottoman government, without much hesitation, recalled the Turkish plenipotentiaries from the congress of Bukorest, and hostilities were renewed.

A plan of partition had been formed at Erfurth between the emperors Alexander and Napoleon, by which the Turkish provinces were to fall to the share of Russia, and Spain to that of France. It was after this understanding between the two sovereigns that overtures were made to England. The English negotiation took time, and before it came to a decided issue, Buonaparte declared to his senate that the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia were annexed to the dominions of his friend and ally the Emperor Alexander. When, however, Buonaparte found England determined to treat upon no basis which did not expressly admit of the evacuation of Spain, and that by entering into such terms he left a decided advantage to Russia with respect to Turkey, without reaping any benefit to himself from the political bargain made at Erfurth, he changed his views. The continental system, which he endeavoured to justify in attributing the general calamities of Europe to a tyrannical perseverance in war on the part of England, furnished him with a sufficient pretext for engaging Russia to continue her war against Turkey, who had just entered into terms of friendship with England. On the other hand, he prevailed upon the Turkish government to insist on the restitution of the principalities occupied by the Russian armies, and to continue hostilities so long as the Russian court should withhold its consent to that measure. His desire of keeping these two powers at variance with each other could not but increase when he had subsequently formed the plan of invading Russia, who, molested on one side by the Turks, and on the other by the Persians, was thus forced to employ considerable armies on distant frontiers.

The exhausted state of Turkey, the mediation of England, and the impatience of Russia, who was pressed by the hostile preparations of France, evidently intended against her, hastened the conclusion of peace in 1812 between the Mussulman powers and the Russians; but, critical as the circumstances were, the Court of St. Petersburgh signed a most advantageous treaty with both.

Galib Effendi, who, since the great changes of government at Constantinople, had resumed the functions of minister of foreign affairs, was chief plenipotentiary at the congress of Bukorest in 1811 and 1812; but the Greek prince Demetrius Mourousi, who, in his quality of state-interpreter, was present at the negotiations, conducted the greatest part of them, and was indeed intrusted with extensive power. He had, with his two brothers, been invariably attached to the Russian party since the beginning of his public career, and his hopes of being appointed to one of the principalities, the greatest objects of his ambition, after the restoration of peace, appeared grounded upon the best foundation. His office, his services at the congress, and the support of the court of Russia, were, in fact, considerations which appeared to render his nomination certain.

The cession of Wallachia and Moldavia could not, therefore, by any means, suit his views, and he combated it with energy and success; but, in rendering so important a service to the Porte, some proof of attachment to Russia was also necessary on his part; and although by insisting on the entire restitution of the principalities, no doubt but the Russian plenipotentiaries, who were instructed to hasten the conclusion of peace upon any terms not beyond that restitution, would have consented without hesitation, Mourousi, who was aware of it, finally settled the conditions by ceding to Russia the finest part of Moldavia, that which is situated between the rivers Dniester and Pruth, thus fixing the future line of demarcation of the Russian frontiers by the direction of the latter river.

The vigilant agents of Buonaparte at Constantinople did not suffer the conduct of Mourousi to remain unnoticed. When, after the signing of the treaty, they saw themselves frustrated in the hope of inducing the Porte to continue the war, they sought to bring the Mourousi family into disgrace, that they might, at least, prevail upon the Ottoman government to place at the head of the principalities persons of their own choosing. They represented the Prince Demetrius as a traitor who had been bribed by the Russians to serve their interests, at a time when it was in his power to obtain the most advantageous terms of peace.

Meanwhile hostilities commenced between France and Russia, and the Porte having evinced a resolution of remaining neutral, unwilling to give umbrage to either of the contending powers in the choice of the new Hospodars, resolved to fix upon two individuals whose political principles had never been connected with foreign parties. A great number of candidates offered their services, but none of them being qualified for the appointments, their claims were rejected. Halett-Effendi, intimate counsellor of the sultan, was instructed to make a choice, and he fixed it on the prince Charles Callimacki[^[38]] for Moldavia, and Yanco Caradja for Wallachia. Halett-Effendi had been several years before Turkish secretary to Callimacki’s father, whilst at the head of the Moldavian government, and on terms of intimate friendship with Caradja, who had also a subaltern employment under the same prince. Being perfectly acquainted with the personal character of both, he recommended them to the sultan as the fittest persons in those circumstances, and they were appointed in August 1812.

Demetrius Mourousi, who, with Galib Effendi, had not yet departed from Wallachia, received the news of the nominations at a time that he expected with confidence that of his own. He was at the same time secretly informed that his return to Constantinople would expose him to the greatest dangers, and advised to retire into a Christian country. Offers were made him of an asylum in Russia, with a considerable pension from the government; but, fearful that his flight might direct the vengeance of the Porte on his family, who had remained in the power of the Turks, and in the hope of justifying his conduct, since the whole responsibility of the transactions at the congress ought properly to have fallen on Galib Effendi, he made up his mind to accompany that minister back to the capital. He little suspected, however, that the Turkish minister, whose conduct had been disapproved of, had removed every unfavourable impression relative to himself from the mind of the Sultan, by attributing the conditions of peace to which he had subscribed, to the intrigues and treachery of Mourousi; and that he had, in consequence, received secret orders to arrest the Greek prince the moment they crossed the Danube together, and send him prisoner to the Grand Vezier, who had not yet removed his head-quarters from Shumla.

Mourousi, still more encouraged by the friendly assurances of Galib Effendi, left Bukorest in September, and from Rustehiuk was conveyed under an escort to Shumla, where, on entering the gates of the Vezier’s dwelling, he was met by several Chiaoushes[^[39]] who fell upon him with their sabres and cut him in pieces. His head was sent to Constantinople, where it was exposed three days at the gates of the Seraglio, with that of his brother Panayotti Mourousi, who, during the absence of Demetrius had filled his place at the Porte, and was accused of having been his accomplice in betraying the Ottoman interests.

The Hospodars Caradja and Callimacki took possession of their respective governments on the 3d of October, 1812, the day fixed for the restitution of the principalities; and the Porte, whose present security on the side of Russia, in a great measure depends on the strictest adherence to its treaties with that power, has made no attempt of removing the princes previous to the expiration of the seven years.

The Hospodar Caradja, however, having in the course of six years’ residence in Wallachia, amassed immense wealth, apprehensive of being called to account on his return to Constantinople for laying aside so many riches for his own use, judged it prudent to make a timely retreat, and to settle in some Christian country of Europe beyond the reach of Turkish influence. He remitted all his money to European banks, and one day in October, 1818, he assembled some of the principal Boyars, consigned to them the reins of government, and left Bukorest with all his family for Kronstadt in the Austrian dominions, where he arrived in safety after a short journey.[^[40]]

After his departure, the Boyars petitioned the Sultan that he would no longer appoint Greek princes to govern Wallachia, but confide the administration to the members of the divan, who engaged to accept and maintain any tributary conditions that he would think proper to prescribe to them. The Ottoman cabinet, however, did not conceive it prudent to listen to the proposal; and after communicating with the Russian ambassador, appointed to the principality the same Alexander Sutzo, who had been so strongly opposed by the Russian Envoy in 1805.

Russia had no longer reasons to object to his nomination; and no doubt but the Prince Sutzo, who is an enlightened and well-thinking statesman, will acquit himself of his charge as well as the circumstances in which he is situated, will permit. But the harassing and ruinous system of government, still maintained in the principalities, offers, it must be confessed, no small matter of regret on the indifference of the Porte with regard to the adoption of measures better calculated for their welfare and prosperity.

The Ottoman court has often witnessed the consequences of the dread with which the Greeks employed in its service are impressed, and has felt on various occasions how much its policy must tend to alienate from the Turks every sentiment of good-will of the inhabitants of those provinces, and make them desirous and ready to throw themselves into the arms of the first nation whose armies approach their territory to make war on Turkey; and yet it continues in the same system. Greek princes, however devoted to the interests of the Porte, would certainly do little without armies, in the event of an unexpected revolution in Wallachia and Moldavia. Their presence alone is by no means sufficient to maintain in them the Turkish authority. The fortified places on the Danube, are the only guarantees of the fidelity of the principalities. In suffering the two nations to be governed entirely by their own natural authorities, would the Ottoman supremacy incur the least diminution of power? and would it not continue to maintain the same commanding advantages?

The inattention of the Turkish cabinet is not to be exclusively ascribed to the general system of governing the empire, but chiefly to the selfish views and personal avidity of the ministers who compose it. They have accustomed themselves to look upon Wallachia and Moldavia as two rich provinces over which they have but a momentary authority; and, instead of seeking the means most calculated to secure a permanent possession of them, they shorten the possibility by a systematic devastation of all their resources.

The Sultan himself, who takes a much more active part in the affairs of state than many of his predecessors have done; whose talents and liberal sentiments would claim equality with those of any other sovereign, were they not so much restrained by the religious prejudices and stubborn ignorance of his Mahometan subjects: and whose chief attention has of late years been directed to a new organization of the empire, unfortunately seems equally averse to any changes which might tend to improve the condition of Wallachia and Moldavia.

CHAPTER VII.
CLIMATE.—ITS INFLUENCE.—EDUCATION OF THE BOYARS.—SCHOOLS.—WALLACHIAN TONGUE.—MODERN GREEK.—NATIONAL DRESS, MUSIC, AND DANCE.— AMUSEMENTS.—HOLIDAYS.—MANNERS OF SOCIETY.—MARRIAGES.—DIVORCES.—RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION.—AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH.—ITS INDEPENDENCE OF THE PATRIARCHAL CHURCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

The proximity of the Black Sea and of Mount Hæmus on one side, and that of the Carpathian Mountains on the other, render the climate of the principalities variable, and subject to sudden changes from heat to cold.

When the wind comes from the north-east, even in the middle of summer, it cools the atmosphere to such a degree, as to force the inhabitants to cover themselves with additional clothing. The southerly wind brings heat and fine weather; but it seldom lasts any length of time.

A great quantity of rain falls during the summer, and in the months of June and July it is always accompanied by storms of wind and thunder, which regularly return every day at the same hour towards the evening.

The winter is almost always long and tedious, and the summer heats set in all at once at the beginning of May, so that the beauties of a regular spring are little seen or known.

The severest part of the winter begins early in December, and the same degree of cold, with little variation, lasts until the middle of February, when a damp and unhealthy temperature succeeds, and continues until May. The Danube and all the rivers that fall into it from the principalities generally remain frozen for six weeks, and the ice is thick enough to bear with perfect safety the heaviest artillery. The snow lies on the ground the whole of January and February, and communications with every part of the country are carried on with sledges.

From the latter part of September to the middle, and frequently to the end of, November, the days are the finest in the year. But the nights are excessively cold, and the night air particularly unwholesome. Travellers who do not take care to guard against its influence by flannels and thick clothing, are exposed to the danger of various kinds of fevers, and of the pleurisy.

The irregularity of climate, the damp quality of the soil, and an abundance of marshy places throughout the principalities, produce a visible influence over the animals of the various sorts which are common to them, as well as over the vegetation. The bears, wolves, and foxes, are of the most timid nature; hardly any danger is to be apprehended from them, unless they are met in numerous flocks, as is common enough during the coldest winter nights.

The domestic animals are also remarkable for mildness. The beef, pork, mutton, poultry, and game, have rather an insipid taste; the vegetables an inferior flavour, and the flowers little perfume.

Finally, man, the chief work of nature, is here of a dull and heavy disposition: with weak passions, no strength of mind, and betraying a natural aversion to a life of industry or of mental exertion. Moral causes may indeed produce such effects upon the human frame; but here, those of a physical kind evidently act in unison with them, and with equal force.

The education of the Boyars is usually confined to the mere knowledge of reading and writing the language of the country, and the modern Greek. Some few add to this superficial stock of learning, a few of the rudiments of the French language, which has been introduced by the Russian officers among them. Many more understand and speak it without the least knowledge of its letters or grammar. If any are able to talk familiarly, though imperfectly, of one or two ancient or celebrated authors, or make a few bad verses that will rhyme, they assume the title of literati and poets, and they are looked upon by their astonished countrymen as endowed with superior genius and abilities. An early propensity to learning and literature receives but little encouragement; and, at a more advanced period in life, the allurements of public employment, the petty intrigues at court, and the absence of every obstacle to pursuits of gallantry and pleasure, induce even the best disposed to set aside every other occupation.

Public schools have, since several years, been established both at Bukorest and Yassi. They are supported at public expense, and attended by masters for the Wallachian, ancient and modern Greek languages, writing, and arithmetic. The number of students at each school amounts at the present moment to about two hundred. They are the sons of inferior Boyars and tradesmen. The children of the principal Boyars receive their education at home from private tutors, commonly Greek priests, who are not natives of the principalities.

The education of the women is not more carefully attended to than that of the men; sometimes it is inferior, on account of the prevailing custom of marrying them at a very early age.

Neither sex is regularly instructed in religion, and it is by the mere intercourse of life that they derive their notions of it, and by the examples of their elders that their principles in it are regulated.

These circumstances, naturally arising from the discouragement given by the government to every improvement in civilisation, keep the state of society very backward, and are productive of the most pernicious influence over its moral character.

The Boyars, indeed, although so little susceptible of great virtues, cannot be taxed with a determined propensity to vice. Established prejudices, which the general state of ignorance has rooted in the two nations, and a universal system of moral corruption, render them, however, familiar with it.

Money is their only stimulus; and the means they generally employ to obtain it are not the efforts of industry, nor are they modified by any scruples of conscience. Habit has made them spoliators; and in a country where actions of an ignominious nature are even encouraged, and those of rapacity looked upon as mere proofs of dexterity and cunning, corruption of principles cannot fail to become universal.

The prodigality of the Boyars is equal to their avidity; ostentation governs them in one manner, and avarice in another. They are careless of their private affairs, and, with the exception of a few more prudent than the generality, they leave them in the greatest disorder. Averse to the trouble of conducting their pecuniary concerns, they entrust them to the hands of stewards, who take good care to enrich themselves at their expense, and to their great detriment. Many have more debts than the value of their whole property is sufficient to pay; but their personal credit is not injured by them, neither do they experience one moment’s anxiety for such a state of ruin.

The quality of nobility protects them from the pursuits of the creditor; and the hope of obtaining lucrative employments, by the revenues of which they may be able to mend their affairs, sets their minds at ease, and induces them to continue in extravagance. Some bring forward their ruin as a pretext for soliciting frequent employment, and when the creditors have so often applied to the prince as to oblige him to interfere, they represent that the payment of their debts depends upon his placing them in office. The office is finally obtained, and the debts remain unpaid. When a sequester is laid upon their property, they contrive to prove that it came to them by marriage; and as the law respects dowries, they save it from public sale.

The Wallachian or Moldavian language is composed of a corrupt mixture of foreign words, materially altered from their original orthography and pronunciation. Its groundwork is Latin and Slavonic. For many centuries it had no letters, and the Slavonic characters were used in public instruments and epitaphs. The Boyars, whose public career rendered the knowledge of a few letters most necessary, knew merely enough to sign their names. The Bible was only known by reputation. In 1735, Constantine Mavrocordato,who had undertaken the task of replacing barbarism by civilisation in both principalities, made a grammar for the jargon that was spoken, in characters which he drew from the Slavonic and the Greek. He caused several copies of the Old and New Testament in the new language to be distributed, and he ordered the Gospel to be regularly read in the churches. He encouraged the inhabitants to study their language according to the rules of his grammar, and in a few years the knowledge of reading and writing became general among the higher orders.[^[41]]

The modern Greek, introduced by the Hospodars, is the language of the court, but it is perfectly understood by the Boyars, with whom it has become a native tongue. It is spoken in Wallachia with much greater purity than in any other country where it is in use. In many parts of Greece, different dialects have been adopted, some of which have but little affinity with the Hellenic, whilst in others the greater part of the words have been so disfigured as to render their origin difficult to trace. The Greek spoken in Wallachia differs but little from the Hellenic. The Moldavians are less in the habit of making use of it; and the study of French and other foreign languages is more general among them.