The Sun.
London, England, 1821-09-05 00:00:00

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

(No. XXXVIIL)

A REVIEW of the different WORKS on WALACHIA
and MOLDAVIA, by 31. MALTE-Buux.
[Continued from Monday's Paper.]
The English Consul-General, Mr. WirariN'So3t,
pays particular attention to the Political Econo-
my of the Country, which he was required to
observe in his official capacity. He thinks that
the population of Walachia amounts to a million
of souls, and that .of 600,000; this
is more than any other'previous statement admits.
and yet it is not one half of, the numbers these
two principalities could maintain, if they were
to enjoy from 10 to 15 years peace under a tole-
rable administration. For the natives marry
early in life, and have many children ; but dis-
tress and misery carry off the greater portion of
the population in the cradle ; and they could
grow twice as much corn, and feed. double the
number of cattle, without any very extraordinary
exertion on their parts; but the precarious state
of the country arrests the arm of the farmer, and
Makes the shepherd indifferent respecting his
flocks and herds. . .
.
A sixth part of the soil is 'cultivated in Wa-
lachia ;it produces. ten million bushels-of corn,
one million and a half of which are• taken by the
Ottoman Porte for the consumption of the capi-
tal. The Porte also levies a contribution of 3000
horses and 250,000 sheep for the . capital ;
so we may easily conceive that the invasion
of Ypsilanti would enrage the Captain-cook of
the Janissaries, who carries a soup-ladle five feet
long likea musket; and that.. in his passion he
would upset his sauce-pans and break his spits.
The furnishing these supplies,- however, does not
exonerate these two principalities from paying
the pecuniary tribute, or the miri,•which drains
Walachia of two miilion.of Turkish.piastres, and
Moldavia of one million. ... 7
The following are the different sources of pub-
lic revenue in Walachia.. 'The .. tributary pea-
sants are distributed into loods. or classes of 5 or
10 each as is most convenient; each lood pays an-
nually a poll-tax of 600 Turkish piastres, and in
1817 there were, according to the' different-regis-
ters, 18,000 loods paying 10,800,000 piastres, or
360,0001.. sterling. A poll-tax is also .levied on
nearly a hundred thousand shopkeepers, Jews, Ar-
menians, Teluganes, and other foreigners.- The
Royal imposts produced annually 2,730,000
piastres, viz. 600,000 from the
.duty‘ on salt,
380,000 from the Customs. 420;000 ,from the
pogtage of letters, and the post-horse duties ;
and 1,380,000 from the vinurit, the °yard and
the dysmarit ; that is, the duty on wine, sheep,
and pigs. These sums would. appear scarcely
credible, if Mr. Wilkinson did not assure us that
he saw them paid six years in advance by a corn-
piny of Farmers-general, or Contractors. To
these sums we should add the exactions of the
Ispruvink, or Receivers-General, who are.allow-
ed 6000 piastres, but who manage 'to triple their '
salaries. Besides which, the Bishopricks -and
Abbeys are almost openly sold for the benefit of
the Hospodar, who even occasionally levies
contribution on the rich monasteries. With rea-
son therefore is Walachia denominated the Peru,
of the Greeks ; and it is indisputable that the
honest gentlemen residing in the quarter of
Fanar, have carried the science-of Finance to as
high a pitch as the most civilized Europeans.
The lands of the Boyars and Clergy.pay no
legal- contribution. The' Clergy possess a third
of the country, and *the revenue of the Metro-
politan is equal to 400,000 piastres; Every
Boyar when he dies leaves a legacy to the
church. The. peasants are no longer the serfs
of the Boyars, Prince Constantine aurocordato
having abolished servitude in 1735 ; and to in-
demnify the Boyars, he assigned to each of them
a number of tributary peasants, called Sokotel-
raki, who are bound to pay their master twenty
piastres every year, or give him an equivalent to
that amount in labour. This point is not suf-
ficiently explained by Mr. Wilkinson ; and it
seems, by M. Recordon's account, that the Boyars
have still the right to make the peisantry work
for them, and likewise retain many other feudal
prerogatives. There is a class of peasants who
are exempt from all personal labour; it consists
of the postuiniki, or new colonists from Bul-
garia, Servia, and the Austrian provinces.
We expected much information concerning the
trade of these provinces, and were not disap-
pointed, for this subject is admirably treated by
Mr. Wilkinson. The woollens of Germany,
English•muslins, and French cambrics, are_the
chief articles of importation. They export among
other things five hundred thousand bare-skins,
six hundred okas* of the seed of the rhainnus
infectorius, used in dying yellow, and forty thou-
sand quintals f of wool of excellent quality.
The Consular gravity of Mr. Wilkinson relaxes
a little, when he speaks of the fair sex. The
women of Bucharest imitate the fashions. of Con-
stantinople, covering their heads with cac,hemires
and diamonds like the Sultanas, and passing their
time in conversation, seated after the manner of.
the Turkish ladies.

Marriages are contracted here without the
least regard to personal airections. Young girls
are offered, as it were by auction, to the persons
who are willing to accept them with the smallest
portion : this may bear some analogy to the prac-
tice of other countries, but there is no parallel
for the scandalous facility with which, says our
Consul, divorces are obtained, or more properly
speaking, declarations of nullity of marriage,

.
* The oka is equal to two pounds and four-fifths.
1, The qui4.tal weighs about. 44 okay. .

merely to promote the pecuniary interests of
families.
The discipline of the Greek Church of Wa-
lachia on this point is very loose. Mr. *Wilkin-
son saw several extraordinary instances of it,
from which we extract one :—A-young couple
had 'married from inclination : it was quite a
wonder, and the whole town did nothing but
talk of this singular-union ; however, at-the ex-
piration of a few months, the llushand- was at-
tacked by a pulmonary complaint, and was ad-
vised by his physicians to leave the place for a
short time, and to travel ; the parting scene was
heart-rending, and a tender and sentimental cor-
respondence was for a,short time carried on, but
soon the letters of the wife became very scarce,
and the enamoured husband _flies back on the
wings of love from Vienna to Bucharest. What
a fate awaited him.!, His solitary dwelling .had
lost its mistress, and a cold message informs Win
that his wife is applying for a divorce: he enters
his house in a fury, and makes every inquiry to
find out his rival ; but there was no rival, the
young and chaste spouse had only listened to the
prudent advice of her parents, who had found an
opportunity of marrying her again in a more ad-
vantageous manner, so as to bring a large fortune
into their family. The husband in despair ap
peals to the laws, the ; Government, and the
Church, but all in vain; the marriacre is declared
null and void. Such is the astonishing tale re-
lated by Mr. Wilkinson., We wish there was
no truth in it, for it displays greater depravity
than libertinism, and more criminality than infi-
delity; yet it exhibits nothing but the natural
result-of the 'facility -with which divorces are
granted.
Mr. Wilkinson,
.after giving a most elaborate
account of the Statistics of these provinces, then
enters into some political specglations. He pro-
poses, that Walachia shall be given to Austria,
and Moldavia to Russia, in the hope of preserv-
ing Turkey from the attacks of the power she
has most to dread ; but a single glance over the
map shews that there would still remain a point of
contact between the empire of- the Czars and
that of the Sultans; the small district of the
Tartar-Dubroudges, with the isles at the north of
the Danube, ought to share the fate of Walachia;
to complete the system of Mr. Wilkinson. But,
on the other hand, how is the Porte to be con-
vinced of the expediency of these new boundaries?
Who will indemnify the imperial treasury for the
loss of the miri from Walachia ? and..who wilt
furnish the CaptainLcook of the Sanissaries'with
mutton chops ?
The appendix on the Nizam-y-Dgedid, or the
new regiments of Turkish infantry, formed by
Selim 111, afterwards reduced, and re-organized
in 1817, is very -interesting. His Excellency
Tchlebi Effendi, the author of this:memoir, would
not be out of his•place in the. most polished di.
plomatic circle, nor would -he be at all ernbaras.
sed at a Congress ; but he displays, when neces.
sary, some indications of Mussulman energy. Ile
addressed the following parable to the Janissaries,
the enemies of the new militia : 6 4 Souleyman el
Kanouny is admitted by all to have been a great
Monarch : he formed the illustrious corps of Janis-
saries, but he found many opposers and censors.
They exclaimed in the coffee and sherbet houses
that this institution was an innovation and a vio-
lation of old customs. How did he act to.restore
tranquillity ? You know it well : he- ordered
the malcontents to be seized, directing the
-tongues of the spo.kesmen to .be cut Out, and con-
demning the listners*. to lose their ears. From.
that time no person found fault with the institu-
tion of the Janissaries*. In order that the same
effect may attend the Nizam-y-Dgedid, it is ad-
visable that the Sultan should folloW the-example
of the glorious Souleyrnan-el-Kanouny." -
The translator of Mr. Wilkinson's work gives
a very complete and accurate_ account of the ar-
ticles of the treaties which establish the right of
Russia to interfere-in the affairs of -Walachia and
Moldavia. These kinds of stipulations are al-
ways followed by serious evils. Those which
have reference to the two Principalities, being
guaranteed only by . the two contracting parties,
a disagreement between these two guarantees
naturally Produces a war. If it is absolutely
necessary to enter into these embarrassing and
precarious arrangements, the. introduction of a
third power as an arbiter seems pointed out by
common sense; and this third power and arbiter
can only* be Austria, because there is no other
neighbour since the diSmemberment of Poland.
The name of Austria is held in great. venera-
tion at Bucharest; the Boyars frequently visit
Vienna, and more than a million Walachian pea-
sants live free and happy under the Austrian
Sceptre .in Transylvania and the Bannat of
Temeswar. It is in the Austrian States, also,
that works have appeared for the purpose of dif-
fusing a knowledge of the Walachian language,
or, as the natives love to call it, the Daco-Roman.
The learned and indefatigable Jesuit Hervas is
one of the first who remared that this language
deserved the notice of philologists, as. being the
eldest daughter-of the Latin. Thumnann, in his
researches respeCtio.„o. the Eastern nations of
Europe, has treated on the koutzo-Walachian
dialect, spoken in- Thrace and Macedonia ; this
dialect *appears to have adopted many Albanian
words. Constantin Rosha published at Pesth in
Hungary in 1808, his inquiries relative to the
ditie)-ent tribes of Roinanirins;commonly called
Walachjank;, south of the, Danube ; these rem-
nants of the Latin. colonies extend as far -as
Epirus: • A Dacia-Roman grammar, by Sinkay,
.appeared at Festh in 1805; it shews the transfor-

J: RICE SEVEN ENCE.

=Lion of Latin words,by the Walachians, whilst
the four Latin conjugations haye been retained.
In 1812, a dissertation in the Walachian lan-
guage on the origin of the Romans of Dacia. was
published at Buda, in Hungary, in which the
author; Mr. Mayor; maintains that the Walachians
descend without any intermixture from the-
Roman colonists ; this is, iu my opinion, carrying.
his patriotic zeal a little too far. Mr. Vatter, in.
his Collection of Languages (Leipsic, 1816), pub-,
fished some specimens of an Italian poem; trans-
lated into Walachian; word for word; in which
only words di purely Latin roots were used.—
Lastly, a dictionary of this language has been
recently printed in. Hungary, compiled from va-
rious manuscript vocabularies. We are, therefore; '
beginning to poiSess the means of studying the
history of the foundation of a langtidp derived
from the Latin, and which bad its birth in the
earliest Ages of the Christian wra : this is evi-
dently a study which sound criticism*" dernands
from those who; -like M. Raynouard and M.
Schlegel, are desirous of writing on the origin of
the Romanvulgar tongue in the middle ages,—
the source of the Italian, the Provencal, Lim-.
cousin, French, Castillian, and 'Portuguese : all
these researches are connected with the history
of the Daco-ROman idiom, as with a first link.

REMARKABLE AFFAIR.---All article from Vienna
of the 19th. August contains the particulars of 'a,
very remarkable affair, which took place near
the convent of Statina, between the Greeks and
the Turks, to the great disadvantage.of the lat-
ter. The. Convent, inhabited by only- seven'
Greek monks, is surrounded by a very high wall.
Ninety-seven Greeks, under the orders of a.
Servian Captain
_of their own choice, had throWn .
themselves into the Convent, where they were:
attacked on the 21st July by 1,500 Turks, un-
der the orders of a Bimbacha (chief of 1000 men),'
to -Whom three- Jews acted as guides: The
Greeks placed behind the 'battlements the- most-
expert marksmen, to Whom' the rest 'supplied
loaded 'muskets without 'ceasing... In' the mean
while the JeWs set fire to baskets of corn which
were placed near the wall, and the Wind soon.
spread the flames into the Court of the Convent,
and the Convent being constructed of wood, was,
soon consumed. The Greeks, however, did not,
relax in their defence. In the wall of the Con-.
vent there was a small old door which was not_
observable from the outside, and throuzh which,
one of the monks escaped:: The Turks seeing
this aperture, penetrated by it into the Court.—
The Chief then collected his followers into the
chapel, and barricadoed the door, while an
incessant fire was kept up from the roof, which
was partially enveloped in flames; but all who
remained in the court were overpowered and put
to the sword. The Bimbacha then summoned
the Greeks to surrender, promising a pardon,
Which was rejected with disdain ; at the same
instant a ball from the roof laid the Bimbacha
dead on the spot. A Turk immediately cut off
his head, and-carefully wrapped it in-a piece of'_
cloth, to shew that he had fallen in battle.
Meanwhile, the flames, which gradually spread
over the roof of the chapel, forced the .Greeks to
come down. The Turks entered the chapel
they fought round the high altar, and the Greets
continued their fire with such effect' that 'the'
Mussulmans demanded an armistice, which was
only granted them on condition of instantly re-,
tiring. The Turks lost 372. killed, and 13
wounded. The seven monks were killed. The '
Three Israelite guides fell into the hands of the .
Greeks, who nailed them to the cross, after
having torn their skin from their bodies, and sub-
jected them to other cruelties. 'The 80 victo-
rious Greeks, after having laid dOwn their arms,
passed the frontier of the Bukowina, and were
sent by an-officer of the Austrian guard to Bo-
zance, where they fortunately arrived on the
28th of July. . .

' FRIGHTFUL EVENT.—The conversation of all
Paris turns on a frightful event which took place
two days since at the house of M. M. Mouttier,
a money-changer, in the street de la Feuillade.
At a late hour of the evening, a person Who it
has been since ascertained had just left a gam-
bling-house, where he had lost all his property,
entered the house. There was only a young female
servant at the counter. Madame Mouttier and her
nephew were in the back shop. The man, when
he entered, closed the door, stabbed the servant.
with a poniard, and seized a basket full of gold.
Madame Mouttier and her nephew rushed for-
ward, and were both stabbed by the assassin,
who escaped from the house and reached- the
street de la Vrilliere. Two young men endea.
vouring to seize the miscreant, were both wound-
ed, one of them dangerously. An old man, who
was going quietly along, was also stabbed by
the furious wretch. • lie was at length seized by,
apatrol of gendarmes; but even in the moment
of his arrest, he made an ineffectual attempt to
wound one .of the military. He was conducted
to the guard-house at the Bank, but he had
hardly entered, when he suddenly drew a pistol
from his pocket and blew out his brains. 'No-
thing was found on his person which might lead
to a. discovery of the monster.—(Constitutiohncl.)
—The Moniteur states, that three of the persons
wounded- are since dead, and it is feared two.'"_
others will not survive.

A day and Sunday School has been established.
at Liverpool; `for.the instruction of the children:
of .Seiii-en and others connected with the ship.:
ping of tlie Port ; •for which purpose a large room.
has beenfitted up which Will accommodate 400,
children; who
,are to pad penny per week.
each for their instruction.