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, bere 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

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.†

* "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.