The Express.
London, England, 1853-10-18 00:00:00

HOW THE RUSSIANS KEEP FAITH.

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When the Russians obtained possession of Bes-
sarabia it was justly reputed one of the most fertile
and productive provinces of the Black Sea. From
Ismael, Reny, and Ackerman its cereals, fruit., and
animal provisions were distributed to all the import-
ing countries of the East; the pastures of the low
country were covered with innumerable flocks, which
furnished wool to Italy, and each year Austria alone
received thence 80,000 head of cattle. On the union
of Bessarabia with the Russian empire, the Nogais,
who, under the protection of the Porte, hadcultivated
the steppes, marked their opinion of the change by
withdrawing across the Danube, at the sacrifice of
their old possessions, and there remained in Bessarabia
only the Moldavians, a Christian population belonging
like the Russians to the Greek Church. The conduct
of the Muscovite government to its new subjects ,
was as bland, as accommodating, as liberal, as can
well be imagined. They were promised the main-
tenance of their laws, their language, their courts of
justice, and all the administrative machinery of their
country. Their governors were to be chosen from
the native magnates, and the province was to keep
intact those commercial liberties and franchises
which formed the basis of its agricultural prosperity.
It soon became apparent that this freedom would be
got rid of by those
.peculiar means in the use of
which Russian ministers have long been skilled. The
local government was discredited by intrigues nou-
rished by agents from the imperial capital, and
Alexander got rid of his original pledges when he
promised the people of the province an entirely new
constitution. A commission was nominated to frame
the new instrument,which when completed was found
to be of a liberal character. thanks to the coura-
geous ability of M. Proukoul, one of the Boyards who
co-operated in drawing it up. In 1818, when the
labour, of the commission were scarcely terminated,
the Emperor Alexander visited Bessarabia. He was
received with grateful enthusiasm and the most
costly entertainments. Bessarabia made him a spon-
taneous present of 5,000 cavalry horses, and he was
struck with astonishment at the prosperity and in-
exhaustible resources of his new conquest. It war
thought that while in the province he would sanction
and confirm the new constitution, but he politely de-
clined to do any such thing, merely giving the
people a temporary permission to live under its pro-
visions. According to this constitution, Bessarabia
was to preserve its nationality, the governor
and vice-governor might be Russians, but all
other ministers and officer, were to be Molda-
vians. The old commercial franchises were to be
retained, and the finances were to be controlled by
natives. The liberals of the day grew ashamed of
themselves for ever suspecting the Autocrat of
despotism, and learned to regard him as a monarch
yearning to put off more and more of that excessive
authority which a hard fate had forced upon him.
But they were destined to be enlightened. The
imperial government of that day knew the value of
a creditor's position : by a calculated negligence it
encouraged the province to get deeply into its debt.
Bessarabia thus came into a position like that of an
Irish cottier loaded with a hopeless arrear of rent.
The Russian government declared its own resolute
intervention to be indispensable to put an end to the
situation which it had helped to create. Accord-
ingly, in 1822, the commercial franchises of
the country were suppressed and replaced
by the Russian prohibitory customs system.
At the same time, the payment of all the sums in
arrear was imperiously demanded. This last measure
gave rise to interminable judicial suits, and execu-
tions without number. The principal families were
ruined, and at the same time all their political in-
fluence was destroyed. The government could, from
that day, choose its own time for completing its
work and carrying its ideas of political unity into exe-
cution. The constitution thus mutilated continued
in existence until the death of Alexander, but at the
advent of Nicholas its destinies were accomplished—
it was completely suppressed, and Bessarabia, de-
spoiled of all its privileges, was assimilated in all its
administrative forms to the other provinces of the
empire. The material condition of the province
naturally followed the decline of its free commerce.
The national pursuit of grazing for its wool the
Zigais sheep, once so profitable to the country, was ,
ruined when the possessions of the former hospodars
were divided among nobles from Russia, and is not
replaced by the establishment of a few unremunc-
rutive folds of merinos. The trade of breeding
horses and horned cattle received a heavy blow when
the government ordered all proprietors of entire
horses to become Russian subjects or renounce their
business, and hampered the entrance and sojourn of
foreign merchants by a thousand vex we forma-
lities. In 1839, seventeen years from Me Pappreasion
of the commercial franchises of Bessarabia under
Alexander, the export of horses was only 2,385,
while formerly Austria alone took from twelve to
fifteen thousand per annum for its cavalry service.