all the sacred ceremonies attendant on the inauguration of the Greek emperors.* During the period which elapsed between his appointment† and his arrival at his government, the province was committed to the care of his Kaimacam, or deputy, whilst the Prince remained at the capital to inhale the incense offered by the crowds of flatterers and parasites who surround his palace; his merchants and tradesmen came in oriental style to lay all their worldly wealth at his feet; his bankers to entreat with earnestness his acceptance of every mahmoudi in their treaand the haughtiest suitors of the Phanar to bow themselves before him and pay their early homage to the rising sun.‡ sury, He departed from the capital preceded by his Conakzi or avant-courier, accompanied by one of his horse-tails, who was deputed to arrange the commissariat and order of his progress. The Prince followed with a guard of five hundred attendants surrounding his equipage; and his march, conducted with all the state and pageantry of a Pacha, was divided into easy stages, and generally occupied about thirty days ere he reached the capital of his future domi • Wilkinson, p. 46. Thornton, vol. ii. p. 340. Rizo, p. 226. Usually about two months. Zalloni, p. 29. ↑ Zalloni, 28, 35. nions. Here he made his entry in state, surrounded by his Peiks and Solaks;* and being received by the assembled Boyars and prelates, amidst the ringing of bells, the firing of cannon, the din of military music, and all the paraphernalia of kingly pomp, he was conducted to the metropolitan church, when the Archbishop again performed the ceremonies of inauguration, and conferred on him the title of " God's anointed."+ Assuming with his new dignity a becoming proportion of Oriental effeminacy and hauteur, his court was characterised by extravagance and profusion; his costume differed but in few particulars from that of the Grand Seignior, and his palace was surrounded by hosts of Albanian guards, Wallachian Boyars, and Phanariot dependents. The latter, emerging from the restraints and despotic restrictions of the capital, here revelled in all the luxury of official arrogance and long-stifled pride. Affecting an extreme of enfeebled refinement, their slightest wants were watched by a crowd of domestics; and, lounging in motionless luxury on their splendid sofas, they exacted from their dependents an excess of that respectful homage which * Officers of high rank, who form in state processions the immediate body-guard of the Sultan. + Wilkinson, p. 47. Thornton, vol. ii. p. 341. they had themselves been so long taught to pay their Ottoman masters.* Freed from the trammels of sumptuary laws, their dress vied in magnificence with the richest subjects of the Sultan; and the splendour of their retinues, and richness of their equipages, evinced the extravagant avidity with which they embraced the first opportunity of gratifying a passion. which tyranny had before obliged them to suppress, The Boyars, or native nobility, who formed from a fifteenth to a twentieth part of the entire population,† enjoyed a reputation scarcely more exalted than that of the Greeks. The order being degraded, in consequence of the right of creating its new members resting with the Hospodar, whose choice did not always light on the most worthy objects; their rank arose chiefly from their wealth and landed possessions, and the number of those who could boast a Sclavonic, or even a moderately remote extraction, was limited in the extreme. Without education or knowledge of the world, and perpetually exposed to the contagion of * Thornton, vol. ii. p. 370. + The population of the two provinces is estimated at one million, and Wallachia alone contains thirty thousand Boyars, -Thornton, p. 334, vol. ii. Wilkinson. ↑ Carrel, p. 142. vices whose example was the more seductive because associated with power, they imbibed all the depraved propensities without being possessed of the redeeming qualities of the Greeks, and their days were consumed in one unvaried round of luxury, frivolity, and dissipation. To the Phanariot princes their devotion was abject in the extreme; they trembled at their look, and sought no higher gratification than their smile of complacency or glance of approval.* A court composed of personages such as these, naturally presented a glowing picture of vitiated despotism and crouching subserviency; whilst its leaders were distinguished by no one redeeming trait of dignity, and its minions were totally divested of those refinements, or that urbanity, which occasionally characterise the sycophants of European royalty. Uncertain as to the duration of his government, the first care of the Hospodar on arriving at his capital was the organization of his reve "The Boyars, in their individual capacity, tremble before the authority of the prince; they cross themselves when they enter the palace, in order to avert the dangers which beset them; on approaching the presence-chamber, they compose their features and attitude into the expression of servile respect; few among them are permitted to kiss the prince's hand, and many esteem it an honour to be allowed to touch his robe or his feet."--Thornton. nue, so as to secure an ample fund for the feeing of his friends or enemies at Constantinople, for the support of his suite and establishment at Bucharest or Yassi, and as a resource against the event of his sudden deposition.* Independent of the imposts allotted him by the Porte,t he exercised an almost arbitrary right of levying taxes, since their assessment rested chiefly with the Divan of the native Boyars, who, either through corruption or fear, were blindly "Le génie du fisc est le seul génie qu'il invoque."Zalloni, 54. + "Cependant la Sublime Porte, d'où relève ce prince, a posé des limites à ses droits; elle lui a concédé seulement la perception de l'impôt du personnel, la capitation des moutons, celle des abeilles, l'exploitation des mines de sel, la perception des droits de douane, etc. etc. qu'elle à évalués à quinze cent mille francs environ."-Zalloni, ib.-(See following note.) ↑ Under the Greek Hospodars, the constitution of the two provinces differed but in a slight degree from that which they enjoyed under their native Vaivodes. The ostensible form of their government was that of a limited monarchy, the prince being represented by the Hospodar, and the Senate by the Divan of native Boyars. The only control, however, which the latter possessed over the acts of the former, was in the financial affairs of the province; and even here their influence was a shadow, since they were in almost every case the mere creatures of the prince. The power of the Hospodar was in fact absolute, and his judgments, not only in civil but in capital cases, admitted of no appeal to a higher tribunal. The Divan, or national |