Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/32

Rh 20 EOUMANIA in Cantemir's opinion superior to Tokay. The excellence of the Moldavian horses is attested by a Turkish proverb ; and annual droves of as many as 40,000 Moldavian oxen were sent across Poland to Dantzic. Moldavia proper was divided into the upper country or T'erra de sits, and the lower country, or Terra dejosu. Bessarabia had been detached from the rest of the principality and laced under the direct control of the seraskier. It was divided into >ur provinces : that of Budzak, inhabited by the Nogai Tatars ; that of Akierman or Cetatea Alba, the Greek Monkastron, a strongly fortified place ; and those of Ismaila and Kilia. The voivodes Officers owed their nomination entirely to the Porte, and the great officers of state, of the realm were appointed at their discretion. These wore the Great Logothete (Marele Logofetu) or chancellor ; the governor of Lower Moldavia Vomiculu de terra, de josu; the governor of Upper Moldavia Vomiculu de t'erra de sits ; the Hatman or commander in chief ; the high chamberlain Marele Postelnicu ; the great Spathar, or swordbearer ; the great cupbearer Marele Paharnicu ; and the treasurer, or Vistiernicu, who together formed the prince's council and were known as Boiari de Svatu. Below these were a number of subordinate officers who acted as their assessors and were-known as boiars of the Divan (Boiari de Divanu). The high court of justice was formed by the prince, metropolitan, and boiars : the Boiari de Svatu decided on the verdict ; the metro- politan declared the law ; and the prince pronounced sentence. The boiars were able to try minor cases in their own residences, but subject to the right of appeal to the prince's tribunal. Of the character of the Moldavian people Cantemir does not give a very favourable account. Their best points were their hospitality and, in Lower Moldavia, their valour. They cared little for letters and were generally indolent, and their prejudice against mercantile pursuits left the commerce of the country in the hands of Armenians, Jews, Greeks, and Turks. The pure-blood Rouman population, noble and plebeian, inhabited the cities and towns or larger villages ; the peasantry were mostly of Little Russian and Hungarian race ana were in a servile condition. There was a considerable Gipsy population, almost every boiar having several Zingar families in his possession ; these were mostly smiths. Continua- From this period onwards the character of the Ottoman domina- tion of tion in Moldavia is in every respect analogous to that of Walachia. Fanariote The office of voivode or hospodar was farmed out by the Porte to regime, a succession of wealthy Greeks from the Fanar quarter of Con- stantinople. All formality of election by the boiars was now dispensed with, and the princes received their caftan of office at Constantinople, where they were consecrated by the Greek patriarch. The system favoured Turkish extortion in two ways : the presence of the voivode's family connexions at Stambonl gave the Porte so many hostages for his obedience ; on the other hand the princes themselves could not rely on any support due to family influence in Moldavia itself. They were thus mere puppets of the Divan, and could be deposed and shifted with the same facility as so many pashas an object of Turkish policy, as each change was a pretext for a new levy of " backshish. " The chief families that shared the office during this period were those of Mavrocordato, Ghika, Callimachi, Ypsilanti, and Murusi. Although from the very conditions of their creation they regarded the country as a field for exploitations, they were themselves often men of education and ability, and unquestionably made some praiseworthy attempts to promote the general culture and wellbeing of their subjects. In this respect, even the Fanariote regime was preferable to mere pasha rule, while it had the further consequence of preserving intact the national form of administration and the historic offices of Moldavia. Gregory Ghika (1774-1777), who himself spoke French and Italian, founded a school or " gymnasium " at Jassy, where Greek, Latin, and theology were taught in a fashion. He encouraged the settlement of German protestant colonists in the country, some of whom set up as watchmakers in Jassy, where they were further allowed to build an evangelical church. Carra, a Swiss who had been tutor to Prince Ghika's children, and who published in 1781 an account of the actual state of the principalities, speaks of some of the boiars as possessing a taste for French literature and even for the works of Voltaire, a tendency actively combated by the patriarch of Constantinople. The Russo-Turkish War, which ended in the peace of Kutshuk Kaimardji, was fatal to the integrity of Moldavian territory. The house of Austria, which had already annexed Galicia in 1772, pro- fited by the situation to arrange with both contending parties for Cession the peaceful cession of the Bukovina to the Hapsburg monarchy, of Buko- This richly-wooded Moldavian province, containing Suciava, the vina. earliest seat of the voivodes, and Cernautii or Czernovitz, was in 1774 occupied by Hapsburg troops with Russian connivance, and in 1777 Baron Thugut procured its formal cession from the sultan. The Bukovina is still an Austrian province. Walachian and Moldavian History from the Treaty of Kutshuk Kaimardji in 1774 to the Establishment of the Roumanian Kingdom. Russian The treaty of Kutshuk Kaimardji was hardly concluded when protec- it was violated by the Porte, which refused to recognize the right tion. of the Walachian boiars to elect their voivode, and nominated Alexander Ypsilanti, a creature of its own. In 1777 Constantino Murusi was made voivodo of Moldavia in the same high-handed fashion. The Divan seemed intent on restoring the old system of government in its entirety, but in 1783 the Russian representative extracted from the sultan a hattisherif defining more precisely the liberties of the principalities and fixing the amount of the annual tribute for Walachia 619 purses exclusive of the bairam and other presents amounting to 130,000 piasters, and for Moldavia 135 purses and further gifts to the extent of 115,000 piasters. By the peace of Jassy in 1792 the Dniester was recognized as the Russian frontier, and the privileges of the principalities as specified in the hattisherif confirmed. In defiance of treaties, however, the Porte continued to change the hospodars almost yearly and to exact extraordinary installation presents. The revolt of Pasvan Oglu in Bulgaria ;is the cause of great injury to Walachia. The rebels ravaged Littlo Walachia in 1801-2, and their ravages were succeeded by those of the Turkish troops, who now swarmed over the country. Exaction followed exaction, and in 18D2 Russia resolved to assert her treaty rights in favour of the oppressed inhabitants of the principalities. On the accession of Constantino Ypsilanti the Porte was constrained to issue a new hattisherif by which every prince was to hold his office for at least seven years, unless the Porte satisfied the Russian minister that there were good and sufficient grounds for his deposi- tion. All irregular contributions were to cease, and all citizens, with the exception of the boiars and clergy, were to pay their share of the tribute. The Turkish troops then employed in the princi- palities were to be paid oft', and one year's tribute remitted for the purpose. The boiars were to be responsible for the maintenance of schools, hospitals, and roads ; they and the prince together for the militia. The number of Turkish merchants resident in the country was limited. Finally, the hospodars were to be amenable to repre- sentations made to them by the Russian envoy at Constantinople, to whom was entrusted the task of watching over the Walachian and Moldavian liberties. This, it will be seen, was a veiled Russian protectorate. In 1804 the Serbs under Karageorge rose against the Turkish dominion, and were secretly aided by the Walachian voivode Ypsilanti. The Porte, instigated by Napoleon's ambassador Sebastiani, resolved on Ypsilanti's deposition, but the hospodar succeeded in escaping to St Petersburg. In the war that now ensued between the Russians and the Turks, the former were for a time successful, and even demanded that the Russian territory should extend to the Danube. In 1808 the Russians, then in occupation of the principalities, formed a governing committee consisting of the metropolitan, another bishop, and four or five boiars under the presidency of General Kusnikoff. The seat of the president was at Jassy, and General Engelhart was appointed as vice-president at Bucharest. By the peace of Bucharest, however, in 1812, the principalities were restored to the sultan under the former condi- tions, with the exception of Bessarabia, which was ceded to the czar. The Pruth thus became the Russian boundary. The growing solidarity between the two Rouman principalities " Hetser- received a striking illustration in 1816, when the Walachian and ist" Moldavian hospodars published together a code applicable to both move- countries, and which had been elaborated by a joint commission, ment. The Greek movement was now beginning, and in 1821 Alexander Ypsilanti entered Moldavia at the head of the Hetserists, and pre- vailed on the hospodar Michael Sutzu to aid him in invading the Ottoman dominions. To secure Walachian help, Ypsilanti advanced on Bucharest, but the prince, Theodore Vladimirescu, who repre- sented the national Rouman reaction against the Fanariotes, repulsed his overtures with the remark " that his business was not to march against the Turks, but to clear the country of Fanariotes." Vladimirescu was slain by a Greek revolutionary agent, but Ypsilanti's legion was totally routed by the Turks at Dragashani, and the result of his enterprise was a Turkish occupation of the principalities. In 1822 the Turkish troops, who had committed great excesses, were withdrawn on the combined representations of Russia, Austria, and Great Britain. The country, however, was again ravaged by the retiring troops, quartern of Jassy and Bucharest burnt, and the complete evacuation delayed till 1824, when the British Government again remonstrated with the Porte. By the convention of Akierman between the Russians and the Turks in 1826 the privileges of the principalities were once more confirmed, and they were again ratified in 1829, under Russian guarantee, by the peace of Adrianople. By this peace all the towns on the left bank Peace of of the Danube were restored to the principalities, and the Porte Adrian- undertook to refrain from fortifying any position on the Walachian ople, side of the river. The principalities were to enjoy commercial free- 1829. dom, and the right of establishing a quarantine cordon along the Danube or elsewhere. The internal constitution of the countries was to be regulated by an "Organic Law," which was drawn up by assem- blies of bishops and boiars at Jassy and Bucharest, acting, however, under Russian control. The Organic Law thus elaborated was by no means of a liberal character, and amongst other abuses maintained the feudal privileges of the boiars. It was ratified by the Porte in 1834, and the Russian army of occupation thereupon withdrew.