vinces under a foreign prince had been put forward, and was ardently advocated and agitated by persons who imagined that they saw in its realisation_the_regeneration of their country. To this project the Austrian government was understood to be decidedly opposed; the Austrian political agent at Bucharest declared his disapproval of it in the most public and contemptuous manner, and with that overbearing insolence of tone which the subserviency of the hospodar emboldened him upon all occasions to assume; the Austrian officers, including a body of engineers and their assistants, then occupied in making a trigonometrical survey of the country, were generally accused of inciting the lower orders against the Union. Such opposition to a plan which they somewhat hastily believed would prove a panacea for all the many griefs they have so long suffered under, greatly increased the irritation of the Moldo-Wallachians.

Their minds

were set upon the Union, and dazzled by visions of the prosperity and power it was to bring in its train. They already beheld Rouman nationality restored and established on a firm basis, and an agricultural Belgium arising in the East, which should rival that of the West in good government, tranquillity, and wealth. They beheld the men of their race, of whom several millions now dwell in Transylvania, Bukovina, the Banat, and Bessarabia, and also in Podolia, Hungary, and Macedonia, flocking back to the provinces whence many of them originally emigrated, and supplying the labour which alone is wanted to make Moldo-Wallachia the granary of Europe. There can be no question that the Roumans have preserved their nationality to an extent that is surprising, when we consider the bloody struggle they have had to maintain against Turks and Tartars, Poles and Magyars, and the numerous races amongst which they have been scattered, often in far inferior numbers. There seems to be an innate sentiment of nationality amongst the lower orders, of which they themselves have not the intelligence. In emigration (and, owing to the oppressions of foreign armies and

native chiefs, emigrations have been frequent and extensive) they preserve their native usages, often even when bad, sooner than adopt foreign ones. The same is the case with their language. In Bulgaria, Transylvania, and elsewhere, they still speak the Rouman. One of the most intelligent and distinguished of living Wallachians, John Ghika, now governor of Samos, estimates the Rouman race (in an interesting pamphlet, published at Paris under the anagrammatic pseudonyme of G. Chainoi) at nearly twelve millions. Of these, barely five millions dwell in Wallachia and Moldavia, where there is not only room for, but need of, at least double the population. In presence of these facts and figures, the chiefs of the national party in these provinces built up a scheme, of which the principal heads were the union of the two Principalities into a constitutional monarchy, under a foreign prince not belonging to the royal family of any one of the countries bordering on Moldo-Wallachia,- that is to say, neither Austrian nor Russian; the independence of the new kingdom to be guaranteed by the European powers; a standing army sufficiently strong to defend the frontier in case of foreign aggression, at least until such time as succours might arrive from the guaranteeing powers. And that the rights of Turkey might not wholly be lost sight of, it was proposed to continue paying her the tribute to which she is entitled, or to buy it off by a sum once paid down. Thus constituted, it was argued, Moldavia and Wallachia would form a much more solid bulwark for Turkey against Russian aggression, than they do in their present unsettled dependence.

This is the rose-colour view of the question of the Union taken by the politicians of the Principalities, and especially by a knot of ardent young men who would fain apply political theories imbibed during their education and residence in foreign countries, and for which they do not perceive that their own is not yet ripe. Nearly a year ago they had gone so far as earnestly to discuss what prince should be placed over them, and warmly to debate whether

intrigue and bribery was introduced which gave rise to continual changes in the government of the Principalities, and accustomed the Porte to look upon them as farms to be let to the highest bidders. The Greek farmers were deposed and recalled whenever the offers and promises of others of their countrymen appeared more advantageous.

"From the period at which this system was introduced, to the beginning of the present century," says Wilkinson (whose work, although now of old date, will be found valuable by persons desirous of tracing from an early period the not uninteresting history of the Principalities),* "being a space of ninety years, Wallachia alone has passed through the hands of forty different princes, independently of the time it was occupied by the Russians, from 1770 to 1774, by the Austrians and Russians from 1789 to 1792, and by the Russians, again, from 1806 to 1812. The evils which naturally arose from such a state of things weighed so heavily on the two nations, that the court of Russia, already authorised by the treaty of Kainardjik+ to interfere in their behalf, insisted at the peace of Jassy, in 1792, that the Porte should engage to maintain the princes of Moldavia and Wallachia in their respective stations for the space of seven years, and should not molest them in any manner previously to the expiration of that term."

In the sequel this agreement was by no means regularly observed, and its frequent infractions by Turkey led to continual remonstrances from Russia. The former power had long completely lost sight of the obligations imposed upon her by her treaties with the Principalities, and no stronger proof of this can be adduced than her cession to Rus sia, by the treaty of Bucharest, in 1812, of nearly half Moldavia, from the Dniester to the Pruth, now forming the Russian province of Bessarabia, a portion of which has been restored by the recent treaty of Paris.

According to the capitulations, which to this very day are legally in force, the Porte had no more right to dispose of that territory than it had to grant the temporary sovereignty of the provinces to the greedy and venal Greeks of the Fanar. But the stipulated immunities and autonomy of the Moldo-Wallachians had long been disregarded and trodden under foot; they could do nothing against the power of Turkey; and Russia, whilst seeming to sympathise with them, joyfully beheld, in the oppressive and illegal conduct of their suzerain, a means of herself acquiring influence amongst them, and perhaps of eventually bringing them under her own rule. To do this she reckoned upon the services and assistance of her party amongst the boyards, the majority of whom, although claiming to be old nobility, are of mushroom origin and Greek descent. For the last 150 years the services of the boyards are to be sought, not in the patriotic annals of their country, but in the archives of the Fanar or of St Petersburg. It was from those amongst them devoted to Russia, and including Bibesco and Stirbey, upstart names now held in abhorrence in Wallachia, that were selected the members of the commission appointed, at the close of the war that commenced in 1828, to draw up, under the superintendence of Kisseleff, the Organic Regulations or new Constitution of the Principalities. This constitution professed to vindicate and insure the rights of the peasantry; but, although plausible enough in the letter, the manner in which it practically worked may be inferred from the new and extensive emigration that quickly followed its promulgation, and from the wholesale departure of rich Bulgarian colonies, which, encouraged by the just rule of Gregory Ghika, had settled in Wallachia previously to

1828.

From the date of the treaty of Adrianople until the commencement of the late war, Russia was all

powerful in the Principalities, and that period, of nearly a quarter of a century, is marked by repeated acts of base submission on the part of Turkey, humiliating to herself, and treacherous to the provinces to which she had promised protection and the maintenance of their rights. In 1839 a firman granted to Russia the right of controlling the acts of the Rouman National Assembly. In the same year Alexander Ghika was dismissed from the hospodariat, because he was displeasing to Russia. In 1844, the Wallachian Assembly was suspended for having rejected a project of law by which the monopoly of working the mines of the province would have been secured to a Russian company. Finally, in 1849, the Porte subscribed the Sened of Balta Liman, by which she upset all the institutions of the Principalities, and made a Russian commissioner their legislator and administrator.

For a period extending far beyond the memory of the oldest man amongst them, the Moldavians and Wallachians have thus been the sport of rival and intriguing powers. They have been deceived and oppressed by the Porte, and sold again and again to the best bidder; they have been the prey of the vilest Greek adventurers, who have done their best to introduce amongst them their own principles of falsehood and corruption; they have been taxed and squeezed by successive foreign rulers, who saw in their brief period of power only a favourable opportunity of filling their pockets; they have been harassed and impoverished by foreign military occupations, which ceased only to be renewed. Russia, whilst affecting, with crocodile tears, to commiserate and deplore their unhappy condition, has secretly fomented their vexations, griefs, and miseries, in hopes of their ultimately throwing themselves into her arms. The triumph of the Allies has at last delivered them, at least for the time, from these conflicting and noxious influences, and given them hopes that Europe will do something to secure their future welfare. Something ought to be, and it is to be hoped will be, done for them; but important considerations may render it impossible to

grant them all that they, carried away, after long suffering, by the prospect of a brighter future, desire and demand. There should be secured to them the opportunity and means of moral and material improvement, and as much liberty and self-government as they are fitted to enjoy and able to make good use of. Their sudden elevation, after they have so long been sunk in degradation and almost in slavery, into a constitutional kingdom on the model of Belgium or Piedmont, whilst the most sagacious amongst them possess as yet scarcely the rudiments of political education, would be at best, and setting apart considerations of European policy that oppose themselves to it and demand due weight, a hazardous experiment, and one which for their own sakes it may be thought hardly advisable to try, since it is of a class that has hitherto been found more fertile in failures than in successes. It is one which the majority of the powers who are to decide upon the question are not likely to risk. Russia is understood to be favourable to the project, but that alone is a sufficient reason for regarding it with mistrust. She doubtless reckons on the powerful influences and successful intrigues she might bring to bear on a young kingdom adjoining her own frontier. France has somewhat ostentatiously put herself forward as an advocate of the Union under a foreign prince; but it is now more than suspected that Russian arguments have had undue weight with certain prominent members of the French government and advisers of the French Emperor. England, Austria, and Turkey, and also Sardinia, will oppose the dangerous scheme, and with good reason; for although the Moldo-Wallachians, who have an abundantly high opinion of their own capacities and merits, imagine that, were their wishes complied with, they should within a very short time offer to Europe the edifying example of an Oriental Belgium, it is feared by those who know them best that there would be at least as

great a chance of their scandalising it by the deplorable spectacle of a second Greece.

MY DEAR EBONY,-If you still retain in your composition one drop of the milk of human kindness, the reappearance of an old contributor, whom doubtless you long ago considered as irretrievably lost or strayed, must impart to you a thrill of pleasure. At all events, it ought to do so: for, though I say it, there seems to have been a sad falling-off in power and stamina since I withdrew from the literary ring. Nine years ago, when I regularly stained paper in your service, the world was brisk and bustling. All of us had drunk more or less deeply of the Circean cup of speculation; and though the hour of retribution, or rather of paying up calls, was nigh at hand, we had not yet been summoned to partake of the soda-water of repentance. The political game was fast and exciting. There was a clear, distinet, and obvious contest of principles; and it was a real gratification to see how valiantly men on either side would stand forth and fisticuff their opponents. The forehead of the Manchester Goliath was a firstrate mark for the sling of the Conservative David; and many a time have I groaned with pleasure over the prostrate carcass of a Quaker Philistine. All things seemed flourishing, when a heavy shadow passed over me and my fortunes. Don't be alarmed. I have no intention of troubling you with details which I did not think it necessary at the time to divulge to a Court of Bankruptcy. I have no creditors now. The misfortunate creatures who arrogated to themselves that absurd and empty title, have long since bolted also. In fact, if I had not been an ass, I might easily have got rid of the whole of them by adopting the simple expedient of tarrying incognito for the space of a twelvemonth at Dalnacardoch, where a friend of mine, a duiniewassail of the house of M'Tavish, who was largely engaged in the process of illicit distillation, would willingly have afforded me shelter. However, I committed the grievous mistake of

outrunning, not the constable, but my creditors. I shall never forget the kind manner in which you acceded to my request for an advance of an hundred pounds, on the strength of future articles. Your liberality was not thrown away, for the money you gave me materially facilitated my departure, and enabled me to take my leave with that calmness, decorum, and equanimity which become a gentleman. I mention this for the purpose of showing you that I am not oblivious of such favours, though I should be the last man in the world to insult you by hinting at repayment after the lapse of so much time. Indeed you will not expect to receive any such paltry proposal, as the debt must be long ago prescribed. But what is friendship, if not based upon gratitude and confidence? Therefore understand, that, if you print this letter or any other lucubration of mine, I shall consider myself your creditor (at a short date) on the same terms as before; unless, indeed, you have raised the literary tariff since the period of our former connection, in which case I shall gladly avail myself of any reasonable increment.

Business first pleasure afterwards. That was always my motto; and I already feel that I can write more easily, and express myself more felicitously, now that I have discharged this debt upon my conscience. I have been, it is true, a little out of practice; for amongst the various kinds of thirst which affected the Californian diggers and the Norfolk Island whalers, with whom respectively I sojourned for considerable periods, I did not observe that for literature exorbitantly developed. Neither were the Bashi-Bazouks, in which honourable corps of irregulars I held an honourable commission, and whom I might, could, would, or should have led on to glory, had they not preferred devoting their energies to the expiscation of hen-roosts, the discovery of secret cellars, and such-like baubles

neither, I say, were the Bashi-Ba