devoted to his interests; his profits on all levies of corn or provisions for Constantinoplet

*"Il est arrivé que des Boyards indigènes, seuls defenseurs de leurs malheureux compatriotes, ont osé élever la voix contre ces révoltantes rapines; mais l'exil a bientôt vengé l'Hospodar de cet acte de témérité.

"Si par contre, un Boyard facilite au prince le moyen de réaliser d'autres bénéfices par de nouveaux impôts, il est sûr d'être honoré de ses bonnes graces, et de n'être oublié ni dans ses largesses ni dans ses faveurs."-Zalloni, p. 58.

+ Zalloni, p. 71.

council, was composed of the principal Boyars, naturalized as well as native, whose election (with the exception of the archbishop, who held his seat in virtue of his office) was renewed every year by the Hospodar. This body, with the prince as president, composed the high justiciary court of the province, and its decisions in cases of appeal from minor tribunals were final. In the event of the death or sudden deposition of the Hospodar, it was likewise authorized to assume the temporary administration of the province. Its judgments were guided by usage or the will of the president, though a system drawn from the laws of Justinian and the Basilics had been adopted as the national code in the reign of Matthew Bessaraba 1733, and improved by several of his successors. Minor tribunals existed at Bucharest and Yassi, chiefly for the protection of commerce, besides separate departments for police, the treasury, and criminal cases, and

A Greek who had held office under three successive Hospodars, and married the daughter of a Boyar, was entitled to a right of naturalization.

were excessive; and his gains by angaria, and Government "jobs," were usually estimated at one third their entire expense. Local monopolies were another fertile source of revenue;* and as

* Almost every article of consumption was extravagantly taxed at the several Douans; and Zalloni states, that the

a number of provincial courts, whose decisions were liable to revision by the Divan.+

All offices and places of trust were in the gift of the Hospodar, with a nominal responsibility to the Porte for the conduct of those on whom he conferred his appointments. Of these the principal were given to his immediate Phanariot followers, a few were reserved for the native Boyars, and some sinecures were allotted to Mahomedans. The principal military forces were the Delhis and Albanian Touphaickdgis of the Hospodar, who had been introduced to supplant the native militia of the provinces.§ The entire amount of these did not exceed in each principality 6000 men, who were scattered throughout the villages and districts, under the command of captains appointed by the Hetman, or Spathari of the Hospodariat. The reduction of the national military force commenced early in the last century, and its final accomplishment seemed to annihilate amongst the people all hope or aspiring for independence, since the country was thus, without resource or protection, completely abandoned to the authority of the Porte.

+ Wilkinson, p. 51.

Zalloni, 26, 27, 36.

Lists

to be found in Wilkinson, c. ii.

vol. ii. p. 344, 355.

of the principal officers are Zalloni, p. 24. Thornton, § Carrel, p. 142.

|| The former name is used to designate the commander of the forces in Moldavia, the latter in Wallachia.

he possessed likewise a power of altering, from time to time, the standard of the current coin, he contrived that its depreciation should always take place at a moment when tributes were to be levied, whilst there was an instant advancement in its value on every occasion when popular disbursements were to be made. He had a share of the income derivable from all the public offices in the principality; and every individual who was raised to the rank of a Boyar, as well as every prelate who received from him an appointment, was expected to deposit a handsome present at the treasury of the Hospodar.*

There is no tyranny, says M. Carrel, so galling as that of a political renegade under a foreign enslaver; and such, in its fullest extent, was the Government of Wallachia and Moldavia: a system of pillage rather than protection,† which, so far from cherishing the capabilities, or ameliorating the condition of the subjugated inhabitants, regarded the provinces only as Hospodar was frequently the most extensive smuggler in his own dominions; as he could afford, even after bribing his own officers, to sell the contraband articles at a rate far below the exorbitant impost at which he permitted them to be introduced at the frontiers.-Zalloni, p. 61.

* Wilkinson, p. 68.

+ Eton, c. viii. p. 288. Thornton, vol. 2. p. 308. Walsh, c. xiii. p. 288.

fertile fields for spoliation, as portions detached from the body of the empire, in whose general prosperity they had no participation, but were solely devoted to the enriching and aggrandizement of imperial favourites.

It must, however, be admitted, that this political degradation existed in even a more oppressive form under the native princes, and that the Greek Hospodars, instead of aggravating the evil, exerted themselves occasionally, so far as circumstances would permit, for its removal. Previously to their introduction into the principalities, the peasantry were the absolute slaves of the Boyars; possessed of no privileges beyond the temporary concessions of their masters, tributary to the entire extent of their property, and totally deprived of all means or opportunities of education. The improvement of such a state of society was, under any circumstances, an Augean task, and must seem almost an impossibility, when we take into account the precarious influence of those with whom the amend

"Les principautés étaient dites detachées + par la chancellerie Ottomane parce qu'elles payaient un tribut déterminé, et séparé de celui qui devaient les autres provinces de l'empire."-Rizo, p. 226.

+ Mefrouzoul-kalem vè Maktonoul Kadem.

ments were to originate, and the opposition likely to arise on the part of the class most deeply interested in the continuance of the evil -the Boyars. Still there were found some individuals sufficiently enterprising to undertake it; and though their efforts may not have been crowned with signal success, justice demands, at least, a tribute to the uprightness of their intentions. To Nicolas Mavrocordato, the first Phanariot Vaivode, belongs the honour of having established at Bucharest and Yassi institutions for the education of the people; and though, under subsequent rulers, their effects have been impeded, they still survive, a monument to the memory of their founder. By his successor, Constantine, the feudal system was abolished in Wallachia, and the Rumuns, or peasants, were emancipated from the dominion of the nobles. Such a measure, had it been followed by acts of corresponding benefit, could not fail to have produced an important amelioration in the condition of the people; but, unfortunately, here the reformation stopped, and the tyranny of succeeding Hospodars effectually neutralized, though it did not revoke, the concessions of Constantine. Taxes and imposts were levied on the peasantry, till the labours of the entire year barely sufficed for their