bartered every real consideration for the hope of some distant dignity, and sacrificed every enjoyment, social or domestic, to ambition.

But the chief importance of the Phanariots arose from the power of those who acted as bankers and financiers at Constantinople, and whose influence, under a government where money was the chief momentum in every state transaction, was almost unbounded. The purchase of every office, from that of a Pacha to a Cadi, was negotiated through them; and if the reports of members of their own body are to be credited, the Phanariots were in numerous instances the real rulers of the provinces, whilst the Turkish authorities were little better than their salaried agents.* Places of trust under the Porte were always conferred on those who, besides the stipulated purchase, (equal in general to the revenue of two years,) furnished to the Vizier, or minister, the most costly present on the occasion of their nomination. The wealthy Greeks, though incapable of holding office in their own person, ranged themselves in the list of these competitors; and as their offers were not only the most advantageous, but,

"C'est un fait tout récemment établi, &c. que partout où les Fanariotes ne commendaient pas par eux-mêmes, les Turcs commendaient pour leur compte."-Carrel, p. 134.

owing to their submitted rank, the best secured, they were generally preferred to the more haughty and less affluent Turks. As the Phanariots were thus the monopolists of almost all employments, it was to them that an applicant, foiled in his negotiation with the Vizier, next addressed himself. The Greek in possession of the requisite firhman, (a blank being left for the name of its bearer,) concluded a bargain on his own terms, either sharing the profits of the appointment between them, or allowing the Pacha, or Vaivode, as the case might be, a stipulated sum from the annual revenue of his jurisdiction. As a check upon his punctuality, the banker had always the appointment of the secretary to each officer; and with him rested the administration and internal direction of his government; whilst the duty of his principal consisted chiefly in keeping the Moslems in subjection, and inflicting summary vengeance on the refractory Rayahs.*

Carrel, p. 147. The appointment of Cadis, in like manner, was almost exclusively in the hands of the Phanariot financiers. These petty officers are all nominated by the Sheik Islam, or chief expounder of the law, from whom their blank commissions were purchased, by the hundred, by wealthy Greeks. These were again transferred to subaltern agents, who, hawking them through the various provinces, disposed of them to some individuals for large sums, or received bribes

Nor was it merely to the higher offices of the empire that the attention of the Phanariots was confined; no one department of the external or internal policy of the Ottomans was totally free from their interference. They alone possessed the knowledge requisite to oppose by its own weapons the policy of European cabinets: they or their emissaries were the spies of the Sultan in every capital in Christendom; and by means of their own employés, or the agency of the priesthood, they maintained a perpetual surveillance over the affairs of the Greeks. The latter body, owing to their early corruption, were almost from the conquest of Mahomet II. devoted to the interest of the Porte, whose protection was requisite to authorize the extortion which they exercised towards their flocks; and after the eighteenth century, when the power of the Phanariots had acquired a firm footing in the empire, the prelates of their church were almost invariably elected from the ranks of that privileged order.§ Attached to these as their

from others to suppress them, lest the corrupt Cadis, then in office, and in whose hands they had causes pending, should be superseded."

Zalloni, pp. 109, 119.

See vol. i. p. 354.

+ Ibid. p. 149.

"Ces privilèges maintenus par les Fanariotes regar

patrons, the clergy were unresistingly bound to second their views, and opposition or remonstrance to the Porte was certain to be followed by the ruin of the refractory prelate.* Their instructions were to preach to their flocks interminable hatred to the Latins, and due submission to the Divan, as gentle masters, who exacted from them no military service, and for whose occasional acts of tyranny they were bound to feel grateful to Heaven, as entitling them to that ultimate comfort which is promised to all who mourn. They were to re

daient surtout le clergé, et par-là même étaient très essentiel à la conservation de la nation Grecque. Le Patriarche et les archevêques ne pouvaient être élus qu'avec les suffrages du synode, et des chefs de la nation, qui residaient à Constantinople."-Rizo, Cours, p. 84.

"Ils (the Phanariots) disposaient aujourd'hui de notre existence; car si quelqu'un d'entre nous s'oppose ostensiblement à leurs projets, à leur politique, il est sûr de perdre son rang et sa fortune; heureux s'il n'est qu'exilé au Mont Athos ou Chypre !"—Zalloni, p. 138.

+ Zalloni represents the archbishops (from whom he derived his information regarding the connexion between the Church and the Phanar) as stating to him, that it was one of the charges given by them to their curates, to point out to their people the superiority which they enjoyed over the Moslems in being exempt from military enrolment, and represent the slavery under which they groaned a blessing vouchsafed by Providence. "Car malheur, dit l'Evangîle, malheur à ceux qui ont ici leur consolation; mais heureux ceux qui pleurent

present independence as a word without an import, and liberty a dream which existed only in the theories of European visionaries.* Still, this system was not without its advantages in one point of view; it served to check apostacy. But, on the other hand, it operated as a sedative to the aspirings of the Greeks after liberty, it solaced them for the moment under their miseries, and in some degree reconciled them to their lot, by removing the sense of shame attendant on servitude;-their superiors gloried in their chains, and why should humbler individuals blush for the degradation?

From this intimate connection possessed by the Phanariots with every district of their illfated country, coupled with their extended influence at Constantinople, it may naturally be

et qui gémissent, et heureuses les nations qu'affligent l'humiliation et l'esclavage."-Conversations with the Archbishops of Nicomedia, Derchon, Sophia, and Thessalonica, p. 141.

In the Διδασκαλία Πατρικὴ of Anthemius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, which was printed at Constantinople in 1798, the author, after alluding to the happiness of the Greek nation in being submitted by Providence to the power of the Turks, whose coercion served to protect them from spiritual heresy, whilst their arms secured them against political enemies, strongly inculcates subjection to the powers that be, and anathematises as diabolical in its origin, and ruinous in its effects, the spirit of liberty which pervaded the West of Europe. See quotations from his vol. in Leake's Researches.