discharge, and left but a miserable pittance for the support of the unfortunate husbandmen ;* whilst the contempt and barbarity with which they were treated by their own Boyars, broke down every feeling of self-respect, and reduced them to all the unresisting imbecility of slavery.f

* "Le tarif des redevances auxqu'elles ces laboureurs sont soumis est tellement surchargé, qu'ils travaillent toute l'année pour le fisc, et qu'il leur reste à peine de quoi satisfaire leur extrême frugalité."-Zalloni, p. 54. See Eton, c. viii.

†There does not, perhaps, exist a people labouring under a greater degree of oppression from the effects of despotic power, and more heavily burthened with impositions and taxes, than the peasantry of Wallachia and Moldavia, nor any who would bear half their weight with the same seeming patience and resignation. Accustomed, however, to that state of servitude, which to others might appear intolerable, they are unable to form hopes of a better condition; the habitual depression of their minds has become a sort of natural stupor and apathy, which render them equally indifferent to the enjoyments of life, and insensible to happiness, as to the pangs of anguish and affliction.-Wilkinson, c. viii. p. 155.

Under such oppressions, when every one is forced to contribute in proportion to his profits, they naturally avoid labour of which they cannot hope to reap the fruits; they exert no ingenuity, and apply themselves to no new branches of industry; they scarcely even retain those arts of which the practice is eventually necessary; the mechanical arts are left to foreigners from the neighbouring states, who are protected from injustice by the influence of their own Governments. The natives become indolent, because they cannot ameliorate their condition by exertion, as they become treacherous, because treachery is employed to discover and to extort their

The defects of their constitution were, however, the original causes of these flagrant abuses: an overgrown and ignorant aristocracy were not likely to exercise any efficient control over a governor, on whom they were themselves dependent for advancement, and who, were they disposed to thwart him, could always procure from Constantinople a firhman to sanction his proceedings; and on the other hand, the brief duration of the Government of the Hospodar was an effectual bar to the establishment of any reformation originating with him, which, ere it had time to gain a firm footing, might be overthrown by his successor. It was thus that the amendments introduced into the judicial code of the two countries, by Ypsilanti, Gkika, Caradza, and others, though adopted by the Divan, were never acted upon by succeeding Hospodars, who, in their decisions, followed each the dictates of his own will, or the measures suggested by the expediency of the moment. The crime of oppression, in fact, lay

scanty savings. Their features are contracted by care and anxiety, their bodies are debilitated by idleness and deficiency of nutriment, and drunkenness, as it lightens the immediate pressure of misery, completes in them the debasement of the distinguishing faculties of rational nature.Thornton.

* Rizo, p. 229. Zalloni, p. 76.

+ Wilkinson (p. 48) says, "It is in conformity to these

rather with its agents, than with those who were in some degree compelled by the nature of their situation to overlook it; and when, on the flight of Caradza, in 1818, the Boyars offered to submit to any amount of tribute which the Porte might think fit to impose on them, provided the government of the provinces were restored to themselves, the imprudent petition was made less perhaps from an aversion to the Phanariots, than an experience of their own abilities and success in extortion.*

The rapacity of the Greeks whilst in power, was mainly attributable to the uncertain tenure by which they held their authority. No sooner did a Hospodar set out from Constantinople, than his competitors in the Phanar exerted every energy for his overthrow; and he had at once to commence a war against calumny, ambition, bribery, and intrigue.† These were, however, in the end invariably successful; and when the aid of the bow-string was not employed to terminate his reign, the firhman of the Sultan recalled him to obscurity, or perhaps disgrace. As these cabals assumed a threatening aspect, and

laws, that all suits are said to be judged, and the sentences framed; but the prince interprets them his own way; and his will, in fact, is the only predominating law."

* Walsh, p. 219. Wilkinson, p. 122.

+ Eton, c. viii. p. 287.

his approaching deposition was ascertained with certainty, he had, in general, a timely warning of his fate from his Bachi-kapi-kiahaya, an officer appointed to keep watch over his interests and enemies at Constantinople. With all expedition his wealth* was now concentrated and transmitted by secure agents to the place of his future residence. This important point secured, he awaited with resignation the arrival of the Khatt'y Sherif which commanded his return. When at length the fatal document reached his capital, and its contents were announced to the Divan, he resigned into their hands the insignia of his office and the keys of the imperial chest, and without waiting the arrival of his successor, set out instanter for Constantinople. Here, retiring into private life,† or

The property of the Hospodars usually consisted of specie alone; or if the produce of their governments happened to be vested in lands, the purchase was always completed in the name of another. So lucrative were these princely appointments, that some deposed governors have been known to return to Constantinople with a fortune of 10,000,000 francs, amassed during a viceroyalty of only two years.

The residence of the Ex-hospodars is usually near the arsenal, beyond the walls of Constantinople; since, having been invested, on their installation, with the standard of three tails, and the Grand Vizier enjoying the same distinction, the constitution of the Ottoman does not permit two individuals so highly honoured to reside in the interior of the same city.

again commencing the profession of intrigue, he was distinguished in no degree, save by an empty title, from the rest of his colleagues, and was honoured with no consideration except that which he could derive from his riches.

From this detail of the objects and ambition of the inhabitants of the Phanar, it is easy to conceive the leading features by which the entire body must have been characterised. Without nobility to entitle them to distinction, and in general without hereditary wealth to purchase it, each had to achieve his own elevation to power, by means for which he was indebted less to education than to nature. The single qualification (a knowledge of European languages) which was nominally requisite for the discharge of the first duties to which he aspired, was one so easy of attainment, that amid such a crowd of rivals, mere proficiency in it, without some farther recommendation to notice, could scarcely have been said to contribute to the advancement of its possessor. Patronage, under these circumstances, became absolutely essential; and the earliest study of the young Phanariots was the art to render themselves useful or agreeable in the eyes of those whose protection and support were essential to their future success.

Thus, after an interval of nearly two thousand years, a similar coincidence of political cir