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JOURNAL 
 
 OF A 
 
 EESIDE]^CE IN THE 
 
 DAMBIAN PRINCIPALITIES, 
 
 3e tliE atttttmn nui Wiuitx 
 
 or 1853. 
 
 By PATEICK O'BRIEN. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 
 Publisl)tr in ©rtrinare to T^cx Jttajests. 
 
 1854. 
 
 [The Author and Publisher reserve to themselves the right of 
 Translating this Wm-Jc] 
 
 / 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET 
 AND CHARING CROSS. 
 
PREaii^'«TION 
 
 COPY ADDED 
 
 ORiGiNAL TO Be f) fZ I ^ 
 
 RETAINED ^^*^ 
 
 
 JOUENAL OF A EESIDENCE 
 
 IN THE 
 
 DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES, 
 
 SfC. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 Last September I left Constantinople in the 
 Austrian steamer, ' Fernando I./ for the 
 mouth of the Danube. A northerly wind 
 was blowing fiercely down the Bosphorus, 
 and the sea was breaking furiously over the 
 Seraglio Point. On the way from Tophana 
 to the steamer, the caique into which I got 
 was more than once nearly swamped, and it 
 was only after considerable difficulty that I 
 succeeded in getting on board. It was late 
 in the afternoon when we reached the Bay 
 of Buyukdere, where we stopped for some 
 minutes to take on board the despatches of 
 
 B 2 
 
 !via0f^586 
 
4 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 the Austrian Internuncio. From where we 
 then were we could see the Egyptian squad- 
 ron anchored before the Sultan's Yalley, and 
 on the heights above it the green tents of 
 Abbas Pasha's soldiers. From the centre 
 of the Bay of Buyukdere, stretching away 
 in an obhque line as far as the entrance of 
 the Black Sea, was the Turkish fleet. The 
 trim frigate close beside us, and the first in 
 the line, was that commanded by Captain 
 Slade, of the British navy, and at present a 
 Pasha in the Turkish service. It was the first 
 day of the Courban Bairam, and the Turkish 
 and Egyptian ships were gaily dressed out 
 with flags. We passed close to the ' Mah- 
 moudia,' one of the largest ships in the world, 
 carrying 120 guns, and bearing the flag of 
 the Capaudan Pasha, or Turkish Lord High 
 Admiral. Nothing could look more warlike 
 or statelier than the Sultan's fleet ; and it is to 
 be presumed that in action the ships would be 
 well handled and gallantly fought by oflicers 
 and men. From the Sultan's Valley on the 
 Asiatic side, and Therapia on the European 
 side, strong batteries had been erected at 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 5 
 
 intervals as far as the entrance of the Black 
 Sea. Within the straits the guns are gene- 
 rally planted close to the water's edge, but 
 at the mouth of the Bosphorus the batteries 
 are more elevated. After struggling for some 
 hours in the Euxine against the northerly 
 wind and a heavy sea, we were forced to put 
 back and anchor for the night off Buyuk- 
 dere. The wind having fallen a little 
 towards morning we again started, and on 
 the evening of the same day we reached the 
 small port of Bourgas, and some twelve 
 hours later anchored before Yarna. Both 
 are open roadsteads, affording no shelter 
 whatever against the north-easterly wind. 
 We landed considerable sums in specie at 
 both these ports, sent by merchants in Con- 
 stantinople to their agents there, for the 
 purchase chiefly of grain and hides, which 
 are the principal articles of trade at both 
 Bourgas and Yarna. All purchases in the 
 interior of Tui'key must be made in specie, 
 the holders of merchandize resolutely re- 
 fusing to accept the Kaimes, or paper money 
 in cumulation at the capital. Grold and 
 
6 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 silver have of late risen considerably in 
 value at Constantinople. The gold piece 
 issued at 100 piasters is now worth 115, 
 and the silver piece of 20 piasters has risen 
 to 22. But no Turk is allowed by the law 
 to take advantage of the fluctuations in the 
 rate of exchange ; and if he offers the gold 
 or silver money of the country for more 
 than the value at which it has been origi- 
 nally issued, he exposes himself to summary 
 punishment. We found ten thousand men 
 encamped in the neighbourhood of Yarna. 
 The fortifications looked respectable, but the 
 guns did not seem to be very efficiently 
 manned ; for whilst we lay in the harbour, 
 three men-of-war, apparently Egyptian, which 
 were under sail in the offing, saluted the 
 town in passing, and it was fully three- 
 quarters of an hour, and when the ships 
 were possibly out of hearing, before the salute 
 was returned. The majority of the inha- 
 bitants are Christian, who seemed to live in 
 constant fear of their lives and property 
 since the arrival of Abbas Pasha's Arabs in 
 their neighbourhood. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 7 
 
 On the morning following our departure 
 from Varna, we anchored at about a mile 
 from the mouth of the Danube. There 
 being only six feet of water above the bar, 
 we could not approach nearer. The expanse 
 of muddy water before us was strewed with 
 wrecks. There was something fearfully de- 
 solate in the scene. Where the water was 
 shallow, the dark hulls of ships were peering 
 above the yellow^ tide, like half-covered 
 corpses, and in other places, the masts alone 
 of the sunken vessel were seen rising up 
 from the water, like the outstretched arms 
 of a drowning man. Stranded on the shore 
 was the large hull of a Dutch-built vessel, 
 rotting in the sun, and close to us were some 
 men in boats, trying to fish up the cargo of 
 a vessel which had gone down the day be- 
 fore. Within the bar was another steamer 
 waiting to convey us up the Danube. We 
 crossed to it in a barge, with her sails set, 
 for the wind was fair; she was, moreover, 
 pulled by six men, and towed by another 
 six-oared boat, with sails also set. In about 
 an hour, we reached the steamer waiting for 
 
8 JOURNAL or A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 US in the Danube, and having breakfasted on 
 board, we landed for the purpose of looking 
 at the town of Sulina. 
 
 Sulina belongs to Russia. It is composed 
 of a double row of one-storied wooden houses, 
 straggling along the river- side, with a dreary 
 marsh behind them. Most of the houses 
 are built upon piles^ in the midst of pools of 
 putrid water, which oozes out from the 
 neighbouring marsh. The place is reeking 
 with fevers in the summer months, and is 
 almost uninhabitable from the cold in winter. 
 Pilots, fishermen, tavern-keepers, and lighter- 
 men, with a few Russian soldiers and a Grreek 
 priest or two, form the population of the town 
 of Sulina. I counted more than two hun- 
 dred vessels of different sizes at anchor in 
 the river. Some had been there for three 
 months, unable to get over the bar ! almost 
 every attempt to get to sea had proved fatal 
 since the beginning of the month of June ; 
 and all efforts to cut a channel tlirough the 
 bar, appear to have been abandoned. A 
 Russian dredging-vessel was lying idle at the 
 mouth of the river, and judging from the 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 9 
 
 mud with which it was encrusted, and its 
 otherwise filthy and neglected appearance, it 
 must have been unemployed for a longtime. 
 Close to the dredging- vessel was a Bussian 
 gun-boat. The only person on her deck was 
 a long marine, in a mud-coloured great coat, 
 hanging over the bulwark, and dropping bits 
 of straw into the tide. According to the 
 treaty of Adrianople, the island of St. George, 
 on which Sulina is built, as well as the other 
 islands of the Danube, ought to be unin- 
 habited. The Russians, however, built a 
 quarantine station at the south-eastern point 
 of Lati Island, and shortly after they raised 
 the little town of Sulina, of which they con- 
 stituted themselves the masters. At the 
 opposite point of St. George's island, at the 
 entrance of the channel, the Russians have 
 also built a quarantine station. The rest of 
 the island of St. George is a desolate swamp. 
 Independent of other causes, the lowness 
 of the water over the bar, at the mouth of the 
 Danube, since last June, would have been 
 sufficient to stagnate the commerce of Ibraila 
 and Galatz. And yet it seems to me, that 
 
 B 3 
 
10 JOURNAL or A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 with a little good will on aU sides, nothing 
 would be easier than to keep a passage open 
 through the bar, of from fourteen to sixteen 
 feet deep. It will be seen from the hard 
 pull which we had from the steamer to 
 Sulina, that the current must have been very- 
 strong ; it must have been running at least 
 five knots an hour. All, therefore, that is 
 required, would be to rake up the sand, of 
 which the bar is composed, and the force of 
 the current would carry it away. A dredg- 
 ing-vessel constructed with rakes, and not 
 buckets, would easily effect this. Driving 
 piles on either side would, of course, keep 
 the channel permanently open ; but without 
 going to this expense, the dredging-vessel, 
 properly worked, could make a safe passage 
 for ships, drawing even twelve feet of water, 
 during the summer months. 
 
 The St. George's Channel, which runs 
 between the other side of the island and the 
 Bulgarian bank of the river, might also be 
 made navigable. In the shallowest parts 
 there are twelve feet of water ; and the 
 water over the bar, which is at the mouth of 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 11 
 
 this cliannel, varies at different points from 
 seven to fourteen feet. Ko regular sound- 
 ings have, however, yet been made, and 
 no buoys laid down ; no vessels, therefore, 
 can attempt that passage. The Kilia 
 Channel, which runs between the island of 
 Lati and Bessarabia, is navigable tln^ough 
 its whole length ; but being in the power of 
 Russia, it is never entered by ships of any 
 other nation. . 
 
 There is no country more deeply in- 
 terested in rendering the Danube navigable 
 at its mouth than England, and it is Eng- 
 land alone that has shown a sincere and con- 
 stant desire to effect that object. In 1851, 
 the exports from Ibraila by sea amounted to 
 778,157/., and its imports up the Danube 
 to 334,078/. The exports from aalatz by 
 sea in the same year amonted to 496,368/., 
 and the imports up the Danube to 374,233/., 
 making in all a sum for imports and ex- 
 ports of 1,982,836/. British subjects and 
 British ships have the principal share in 
 this trade ; it is, therefore, the duty of Her 
 Majesty's Grovernment to exert its influence 
 
12 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN ;' 
 
 i 
 
 to remove, as far as possible, all obstructions ] 
 
 to the free navigation of the entrance of the l 
 
 Danube. . ' 
 
 In about twelve hours after leaving ^ 
 
 Sulina we reached Glalatz ; and after landing s 
 
 a portion of our cargo, and a few passengers, j 
 
 we proceeded to Ibraila, which is about ten \ 
 
 miles higher up the river. i 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 All persons arriving in Moldavia or Wal- 
 lachia from Turkey are obliged to perform 
 four days' quarantine. This is simply a 
 measure of police, for European Turkey has, 
 for some years past, been in as healthy a 
 state as any other country in Europe. 
 Between Constantinople and Malta there is 
 at present but a nominal quarantine ; and 
 between the former port and Trieste there is 
 none. The quarantine in the Principalities 
 is a polite incarceration of four or five days, 
 during which the police have ^very neces- 
 sary facility for making inquiries into your 
 political opinions and your object in visiting 
 the country. 
 
14 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 On landing at the quarantine-ground at 
 Ibraila, a police officer asked me for my 
 passport. I showed a teskere, or order from 
 the Turkish authorities at Constantinople to 
 admit me, without let or hindrance, into 
 Moldo-Wallachia. This he waved aside 
 with contempt. I then showed him my 
 English passport, properly vised. To this 
 latter document he made no objection ; and 
 accompanied by the other passengers, who 
 had landed at the same time as myself, and 
 a guard of Wallachian soldiers, I made my 
 solemn entry into the quarantine of Ibraila. 
 Everybody confined in this quarantine is 
 supposed to have brought with him his bed 
 and all other necessary domestic utensils. 
 Luckily for me, a Greek merchant, going to 
 Bucharest with his family, came into qua- 
 rantine at the same time as myself, and he 
 was so kind as to lend me a bed, and from 
 the guardiano I hired a half barrel, which I 
 saw before the door, and in that I performed 
 my daily ablutions. The guardiano brought 
 me my food at stated intervals dming the 
 day. As he did not hke making more than 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 15 
 
 one journey from the kitchen to the den 
 where I was immured, he brought all the 
 materials for whatever meal it might be at 
 once. At dinner hour, for example, he 
 appeared with a basin in one hand and an 
 earthen dish in the other. In the basin 
 was soup, and on the dish boiled meat or 
 pilaff, or both together ; and about his 
 person he carried the rest of the dinner, and 
 at times some small article which he did not 
 find room for in his pockets he held between 
 his teeth. After he had laid the basin and 
 the dish on the table, he drew forth a little 
 plate, with a very small iron fork, a spoon 
 of the same metal, and a rusty knife. Off 
 the same httle plate I ate the soup, slowly 
 and painfully, as well as the pilaff and meat, 
 or whatever else there might be. I made no 
 attempt at having my convert changed with 
 each dish; for on the first day, when I 
 asked the guardiano to clean the plate after 
 I had eaten my soup, I saw that he was 
 preparing to do so with a cloth which he 
 drew out of his pocket. 
 
 On the morning after my arrival in the 
 
16 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 quarantine a police officer appeared at the 
 door of my cell with a large book under 
 his arm, and followed by a man bearing a 
 gigantic wooden inkstand, into which was 
 stuck a great clumsy pen. " What is your 
 name ? '' said the officer, opening his book. 
 I had told it to him the evening before, but 
 he seemed to think that it might have 
 undergone some change during the night. 
 Every morning during my stay in the 
 quarantine, he made the same inquiry about 
 my name, as if it had a distinct existence, 
 and was subjected to a separate sanitary law. 
 I told him my age, and the place where I 
 was born. " Are you married?" asked 
 the officer. I answered that I was not., 
 " Then," he said, as if it were the con- 
 sequence of my reply, " how many shirts 
 have you?" He then went through all the 
 articles of my wardrobe, counted my money, 
 looked through the papers in my writing- 
 desk, and finally asked me why I was going 
 to Bucharest, and who were my friends in 
 that city. 
 
 At length the four days of quarantine 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 17 
 
 were ended, and the guardiano brought me 
 the welcome news that I was free to go 
 forth whither I hsted. At the same time 
 he handed me the bill of expenses during 
 my imprisonment. For the food, served in 
 the way I have described, I was charged ten 
 francs a-day, and I had, moreover, to pay 
 the rent of my cell and the wages of my 
 intelKgent guardiano. 
 
 What is called the town of Ibraila I 
 found to be an extensive dusty plain, dotted 
 with houses. Close to the river-side is a 
 long line of shops and stores. The stores 
 were all filled with grain, and there were 
 great mounds of corn lying in the open 
 street for want of store-room. In this part 
 of the town, I met at every turn with men 
 cleaning wheat, or piling it up in heaps in 
 the open air, or carrying it down to small 
 vessels lying in the river. The place was 
 literally running over wdth corn. It was 
 lamentable to think that a great portion of 
 it must perish for want of the means of 
 transporting it to other markets. 
 
 The only accommodation for travellers at 
 
18 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 Ibraila are khans. The one said to be the 
 least dirty is the Locanda Bossa. It is a 
 quadrangular wooden building, with a court- 
 yard in the centre. It is one story high, 
 and the doors of the rooms open into a 
 gallery, which is about three feet from the 
 ground, and runs round the court. The 
 place was chiefly inhabited by Russian offi- 
 cers and some other well-dressed people, 
 who seemed quite contented with their place 
 of abode, though they must have had a 
 constant struggle for possession with the 
 myriads of small inmates with which every 
 crevice and corner of the old khan abounds. 
 Outside each room is a tin box, hung 
 against the wall, and filled with water ; and 
 from this a tiny thread of fluid issues, with 
 which the guest performs his ablutions. In 
 this charming abode I passed a night. The 
 only preparations made for my repose were 
 a straw mattress and a rug. I rose at day- 
 break, and filling a carpet-bag with a com- 
 plete change of dress, I went to a Turkish 
 bath in the neighbourhood, from which, an 
 hour later, I issued forth clean and con- 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 19 
 
 tented. I went and breakfasted with the 
 EngHsh Yice-Consul, who, the night before, 
 had arrived from Galatz, and in his house I 
 j'emained during the remainder of my stay 
 at Ibraila. Out of the desert, I had never 
 seen a place so filled with dust as Ibraila. 
 You breathed, you ate, and you slept in 
 dust ; whilst it turned the water in your 
 glass into mud, and in that form you drank 
 it. Biting the dust must appear a mild fate 
 after a lengthened residence in such a place. 
 In an open wicker carriage, without 
 springs, drawn by two spirited Httle horses, 
 I left Ibraila to return to Galatz by land. 
 These carriages are the best public convey- 
 ances in the town, and as the road was every- 
 where covered with a thick carpet of dust, 
 I did not feel the absence of springs so 
 much. Outside the town, we passed a 
 Eussian camp of two thousand men. After 
 about an hour and a-half quick driving, we 
 reached the banks of the Sereth, the boun- 
 dary between WaUachia and Moldavia. 
 Here I had to show the pass which was 
 given me by the police of Ibraila. We 
 
20 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 crossed the river over a bridge of pontoons, 
 made about two months before by the 
 Russians ; and on reaching the opposite 
 side I had again to show my pass to the 
 Moldavian police-officer. The river is about 
 two hundred feet wide, and is of the same 
 muddy tint as the Danube. About a 
 quarter of an hour before reaching the river, 
 we had passed through a village, in which 
 were stationed five hundred Russian soldiers. 
 They were turning out for parade as we 
 went through. They appeared, in general, 
 well made, soldierly-looking fellows, espe- 
 cially the non-commissioned officers, who 
 were mostly men between thirty and forty 
 years of age, with a stern veteran look. 
 The uniform was a green coatee, with white 
 painted cross-belts and white trousers. 
 They wore helmets, something like those of 
 the London fire-brigade. The point, which 
 rises to about four inches from the top of 
 the helmet, is made of brass, and on the 
 front is the eagle of Russia, of the same 
 metal. The muskets had percussion locks, 
 and the barrels were polished and had brass 
 
THE DANUBIAX PRINCIPALITIES. 2i 
 
 rings round tliem, and seemed altogether to 
 be modelled on the common French firelock. 
 They carried their greatcoats in a round 
 leather case on the top of their knapsacks, 
 which were made of cow-hide. I observed 
 that they did not wear highlows like our 
 soldiers, but Wellington boots. The uni- 
 form worn by these men I have since 
 learned to be that of nearly all the Eussian 
 infantry of the line. When the Eussian 
 soldier returns to his quarters, he instantly 
 puts aside his helmet, coatee, cross-belts, 
 and trousers, and turns out in his drawers, 
 which reach below the knee, till they are 
 met by the Wellington boot, and he wears a 
 flat foraging cap of dark cloth, and a fawn- 
 coloured great coat, which is gathered in at 
 the waist and comes down to his ankles. 
 It is in this dress that he performs all 
 fatigue duty. I am sorry to say that the 
 bright clean appearance of the Eussian 
 soldier when on parade is confined to the 
 surface, for his shirt, drawers, and other 
 under-garments are generally in an alarming 
 state of dirt. 
 
22 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 Before entering Galatz, we visited an 
 establishment for preserved meat whicli for- 
 merly belonged to the well-known Mr. 
 Goldener, but which is now in the hands of 
 Messrs. Powell. There are twenty English 
 butchers in this establishment ; the re- 
 mainder of the workmen employed are 
 natives. The buildings are of wood, situ- 
 ated within a large enclosure, in one part of 
 which several hundred pigs, with wild 
 bristUng manes, were penned up together. 
 The great demand for the preserved meat 
 prepared in this establishment is of itself a 
 sufficient proof of its excellence. I think it 
 right to say, as the question of these pre- 
 served meats has been so much before the 
 public, that I found on inquiry that the 
 present proprietors purchase for their manu- 
 factory the very best beef, pork, and mutton, 
 they can find in the country. 
 
 On the heights above Gralatz, we came 
 upon a camp of 2500 Eussians, and I saw 
 that sentries were posted along the points 
 overlooking the Danube. No general rule 
 for public cleanliness seems to be followed 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 23 
 
 in the Bussian encampments, as I every- 
 where ohserved that the air in their neig-h- 
 bourhood is tainted with pestilential odours. 
 This I think to be one of the chief causes of 
 disease amongst the Eussian troops. 
 
 Galatz looked to great advantage after 
 leaving the dreary town of Ibraila. The 
 streets are in general of a good width and 
 tolerably well paved. In the principal 
 street are some handsome shops, and there 
 is everywhere a pleasing appearance of bustle 
 and prosperity. Running along the river- 
 side, through the whole length of the town, 
 is a very handsome, well-built quay, pro- 
 vided with commodious wharfs and large 
 storehouses. Only a few years ago this 
 quay did not exist, and this part of the town 
 was traversed on planks, which scarcely kept 
 one out of the black mud and putrid water 
 underneath the exhalations from which 
 poisoned the atmosphere. A great deal of 
 credit is due to the authorities of Galatz for 
 the pains they have taken to render their 
 town commodious and healthy. UnHke 
 Ibraila, there is here a handsome hot^l, 
 
24 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 where travellers may be comfortably lodged, 
 and the place has altogether the appearance 
 of a thriving European toAvn. If the impe- 
 diments to the navigation of the Danube 
 were removed, Galatz would inevitably rise 
 to be a place of great importance. As to 
 the authorities of the neighbouring town of 
 Ibraila, all their time seems taken up in 
 embroiling themselves in quarrels with the 
 Consuls of the foreign powers. Whilst 
 I was in quarantine there, a Wallachian 
 went one day to water his horse at the 
 Danube, and horse and man were carried 
 away by the force of the current. The poor 
 man was drowned, though the horse got 
 safely on shore. An Ionian who was on 
 board a small vessel, near to which the acci- 
 dent took place, attempted, at the risk of his 
 own life, to save that of the drowning man. 
 He failed, however, in his good intentions. 
 When this event was reported to the 
 Grovernor of Ibraila, that sagacious indivi- 
 dual decreed that the Ionian should be 
 thrown into prison for not having succeeded 
 in saving the drowned man. It is impos- 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 25 
 
 sible to say for what length of time the un- 
 fortunate Ionian would have remained thus 
 confined as a felon, had not the matter 
 reached the ears of the English Vice -Consul, 
 at Galatz, who not only had the Ionian 
 released, but also forced the authorities to 
 pay him an indemnity for false imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 Since the occupation of the Principalities 
 by the Eussian troops, the police regulations 
 have, by order of the Russian authorities, 
 been increased m severity, and strangers 
 coming to the country who are suspected of 
 any sinister political object are not admitted, 
 whilst refagces, who attempt to enter^ are 
 instantly seized. Lately three men arrived 
 at nightfall at the barrier at Galatz. When 
 questioned by the police, their answers did 
 not appear satisfactory, and they were de- 
 tained. They said they were Englishmen ; 
 but as only one of them could produce an 
 English passport, he alone was brought to 
 Mr. Cunningham, the Yice-Consul, and the 
 other two were put in prison till further 
 orders. The man given up to Mr. Cunning- 
 
 c 
 
26 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 liam said his name was Shaen. His pass- 
 port was from the Foreign Office, signed by 
 Lord Palmerston, properly vised, and was 
 made out for " Mr. Shaen, a British subject, 
 travelling on the Continent." On being 
 questioned privately, however, by the Vice- 
 Consul, he confessed that he was a Polish 
 refugee, and that the other two men were 
 his brothers. Mr. Cunningham, from a 
 feeling of humanity, succeeded in getting 
 Shaen safely out of the country ; but the 
 other two men he was forced to abandon to 
 their fate. Both Shaen 's brothers were 
 shortly after sent to Odessa, where one of 
 them, who had been an officer in the Bussian 
 service, was publicly shot ; but the fate of 
 the other remains unknown. 
 
 Whilst writing this page the news has 
 been brought to me that an aide-de-camp of 
 Omar Pasha has arrived at Griurgevo with a 
 summons to Prince Gortschakoff, the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the Bussian troops, to 
 retire from the Principalities.. The Turkish 
 aide-de-camp's despatches have been forwarded 
 by the police ; but he is detained a prisoner 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 27 
 
 at GrinrgeYO till the arrival of Prince Gorts- 
 cliakoffe's answer. 
 
 After some days passed at Gralatz, under 
 tlie friendly roof of the English Vice-Consul, 
 I embarked on board one of the Danube 
 Company's steamers bound for Grim'gevo. 
 
 The saloon of these steamers is built on 
 the upper deck ; and below, on the main 
 deck, is another large saloon, with an after- 
 cabin for ladies. The saloon on the upper 
 deck of the vessel was a very agreeable apart- 
 ment, in which one was sheltered from the 
 sun, and tlirough the open mndows on 
 either side swept a free current of air. But 
 that on the main deck was, indeed, a dreary 
 den. In the upper apartment the colours 
 were bright and festive, and calculated to 
 keep one in a pleasant train of thought ; but 
 below all was of funereal blackness, and well 
 suited to the long feverish hours that one 
 was doomed to pass there during the night. 
 Breakfast, dinner, and tea were served with 
 something of the cleanliness and precision of 
 Christian countries ; but at night the pas- 
 sengers were abandoned to their own re- 
 
 c 2 
 
28 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 sources, like the bii-ds of the air or the 
 beasts of the field. We might have gone to 
 roost on the cross-trees or beneath the bows, 
 or slept in the bed of the river, for all the 
 waiters cared. We merely knew that either 
 the dingy den beneath, where we might 
 share a narrow sofa with myriads of small 
 vindictive insects, or the clammy deck 
 was to be our place of repose. There are 
 other things besides the troubled sorrows 
 of the brain which murder sleep ; and if 
 any one doubt it let him pass a night on 
 board one of the Danube Company's steamers. 
 There was a niche outside the cabin-door 
 dedicated to the mysteries of the toilette. 
 To this place, with dishevelled hair and 
 bloodshot eyes, the passengers came in dim 
 succession in the morning. In this niche 
 there was a tube through which the troubled 
 waters of the Danube passed, and under its 
 spout we performed our ablutions. I came 
 on deck full of the most unchristian feelings. 
 I am afraid I was rude to the waiters, for 
 when they brought my coffee, it bore a 
 much nearer resemblance to thin mud than 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 29 
 
 to Mocha. They may be very worthy crea- 
 tures, nevertheless, fit possibly to be waiters 
 upon Providence, and all too good to assist 
 the wants of simple mortals. I beHeve, how- 
 ever, that the most gentle and forbearing of 
 men, after such a night, would not have 
 found sufficient of the milk of human kind- 
 ness in his breast to flavour his coffee. 
 
30 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 i 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 At short intervals along tlie Bulgarian 
 bank of the Danube we observed small 
 Turkish encampments, and on all the prin- 
 cipal heights videttes were posted. Occa- 
 sionally emerging from the wooded bank we 
 saw a small body of horse, that stopped to 
 gaze at us as we passed by, and then quickly 
 disappeared. Often, up some sheltered 
 
 dell, we distinguished a rude picturesque- 
 looking hut, with three or four troopers' 
 horses tethered near it, and the lances of the 
 riders stuck in the ground. On the oppo- 
 site bank were the Wallachian watchers, of 
 the cordon sanitaire, standing on platforms 
 before small houses, raised upon poles, at 
 
THE DANUBIAX PRINCIPALITIES. 31 
 
 about six feet from the soil ; but no Eussian 
 troops were anywhere visible. At Hirsova 
 there was a Turkish force. On the heights 
 were several batteries of field artillery, with 
 horses standing near ; and amongst the sol- 
 diers moving about the town and along the 
 river-side I observed the fiistanelle and glit- 
 termg arms of the Albanians. 
 
 The next town above Hirsova is Tcherna- 
 voda. Here there was also a strong Turkish 
 force, somewhat similar to that at Hirsova. 
 Built out into the river were several fiour- 
 mills ; but the current in that part is not 
 very strong, and the wheels turned but 
 slowly. There were fishermen on the bank 
 arranging their nets and repairing their long 
 canoe-like boats, and beside them their half- 
 naked children at play. We saw women 
 passing with burthens on their heads, and 
 labourers working in the fields hard by, and 
 we could hear the drowsy hum of the wheels 
 of the mills. These formed a strange con- 
 trast to the frowning preparations for war 
 visible all around. Close to the fishermen 
 swaggered the fierce Albanian, armed to the 
 
32 JOURNAL OF A EESIDENCE IN 
 
 teeth ; and from behind the moated wall, 
 near which the labourer tilled the soil, peered 
 forth the dread artillery. And the sun was 
 smiling brightly upon all — ^upon the little 
 children playing by their father's side and 
 upon the Arnout, whose trade is strife — upon 
 the signs of gentle rural life, and upon 
 the bristling armaments of the camp. 
 
 About half a mile below Tchernavoda is a 
 river of the same name. Prom the mouth of 
 this river to the Black Sea the distance is not 
 more than thirty -two miles. The idea was 
 at one time entertained of opening a passage 
 from the mouth of this river to the town of 
 Kustendji, and thus avoiding the yearly in- 
 creasing dangers to navigation at the mouth 
 of the Danube. A report was drawn up on 
 this subject not long since, but as it has 
 never come before the public, I think it will 
 not be amiss to introduce it into these pages. 
 The whole of the ground was gone over 
 step by step, and what follows is the result 
 of close and careful observation. 
 
 The Tchernavoda is a rapid stream, rising 
 in the Lake Carasou, and running from its 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 33 
 
 source to the Danube at tlie rate of at least 
 four miles an hour. The valley through 
 which it flows is bounded on both sides by 
 high grounds. Along the summit of these 
 heights, on the eastern side of the valley, a 
 road runs as far as Carasou, where it de- 
 scends to the water's edge. What is called 
 Lake Carasou is more properly a chain of 
 lakes extending for a distance of about ten 
 miles from S.S.E. to N.N.W. In the larger 
 of these lakes the water is deep, but in the 
 straits which connect each, its depth is 
 seldom more than twelve inches. After a 
 little time the road quits the banks of Lake 
 Carasou, and passing over some high ground, 
 again descends to where the stream called 
 Caramourad crosses near Kouziel, and from 
 thence passes over an extent of low ground, 
 which, after rain and the melting of the 
 snows in spring, I should conceive impass- 
 able, to the village of Bourlack. Bourlack 
 is situated at four hours and a half distance 
 from Tchernavoda, and three and a half 
 hours' distance from Kustendji. About a 
 mile above Bourlack the traces of the river 
 
 c 3 
 
34 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 are lost, and the stream must here be sup- 
 plied solely by rain-water, for at the time that 
 I passed it was quite dry. In fact, the springs 
 supplying the lower part of the river must 
 first exist in the Lake of Carasou. Above 
 there is not a spring or trace of anything 
 but collected rain-water. 
 
 At Bourlack, or a httle above it, the valley 
 ceases, it being shut in by hills of some 
 height, on the summit of which extends for 
 a great distance from north to south a suc- 
 cession of downs, affording very fine pas- 
 turage. 
 
 At Bourlack the road ascends one of the 
 hills enclosing the valley of Tchernavoda. 
 This ascent continues for nearly an hour, 
 after which the road passes over the downs 
 to the ruins of the formerly considerable, 
 but now totally uninhabited, town of Dry- 
 anlar. At ten minutes' ride from this is 
 the highest point of the road, and it is 
 from here that the first view of the Black 
 Sea is discernible from the direction in which 
 we came. From this point the Black Sea is 
 distant forty minutes' ride. I looked in vain 
 
THE DAXUBIAX PRIXCIPALITIES. 35 
 
 from this ridge for anything hke an opening, 
 but within the range of my glass none was 
 visible. Having no instruments with me, I 
 could not find the exact height of this point 
 above the level of the sea, but it must exceed, 
 I should imagine, three hundred feet. From 
 this the road descends doAvn to near the Lake 
 Soujial, and thence runs over another succes- 
 sion of downs along the coast of Kustendji. 
 Kustendji itself is situated on a promon- 
 tory jutting out in the sea, the southernmost 
 point of which formvS one side of the bay 
 or small roadstead. The town is in a 
 state of ruin, from the visitation of the IRus- 
 sians, who appear to have exercised unneces- 
 sary severity in their destruction of the 
 place. Kustendji is situated at about one 
 hundred and fifty feet above the level of the 
 sea. The small port formed by the mole, 
 said to have been erected by the Eomans, 
 has at present only about six or seven feet 
 water, it being filled up by the ruins of the 
 mole and the sand brought in by easterly 
 winds from the sea. This port is only ca- 
 pable of containing twelve or fiiteen small 
 
86 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 vessels. The bay or roadstead would be 
 tolerably protected were the mole restored 
 and extended, and the bay cleared of the 
 sand and ruins. It might then give shelter 
 to about fifty or sixty vessels of from one 
 hundred and fifty to two hundred tons bur- 
 then. The facilities for restoring the mole 
 are very great, as hewn stones of all sizes 
 are on the snot. 
 
 Having examined Kustendji I deter- 
 mined on returning to the Danube by 
 the road to Eassova, so as to be able to 
 compare the advantages of the two hues. 
 
 Leaving Kustendji, I proceeded south- 
 wards for a mile to where the line of em- 
 bankment, wliich crosses the country from 
 near Eassova to this place, called Trajan's 
 Wall, ceases, and this is the spot where it is 
 pretended the Danube formerly fell into the 
 sea. I could not see one vestige of a water- 
 course to justify such a supposition. At 
 the termination of Trajan's Wall there is a 
 pretty regular succession of mounds, wearing 
 very much the appearance of some of the 
 Eoman encampments in Scotland. This 
 
THE DAXUBTAN PRIXCIPALITIES. 87 
 
 spot is considerably above the level of the 
 sea, and tlie ridge of cliffs continues unbroken 
 to any extent farther than to afford a passage 
 to the heavy rains of spring and autumn. 
 The road then runs for about two hours 
 parallel to Trajan's Wall, and is one con- 
 tinued though gentle ascent. We then ar- 
 rived at a point commanding a view of the 
 valley of Tchernavoda with Bourlack in the 
 hollow. We descended for about a quarter 
 of an hour to the little Tartar village of 
 Alacap, and from thence our road lay along 
 the face of the hills forming the southern 
 boundary of the valley of Tchernavoda to 
 beyond the town of Carasou, where crossing 
 over two considerable ridges we came upon 
 a small marshy lake below Idris, down which 
 we continued our road till we reached the 
 bank of the Danube half an hour below 
 Eassova, after nine and a half hours' hard 
 riding. This latter road holds out no 
 appearance of anything like a line for a 
 canal, nor offers as a mere road any of the 
 advantages of the line from Tchernavoda. 
 The obstacles, therefore, to the formation 
 
JOLEXAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 of a canal will be seen from the foregoing to 
 be, first, the continued considerable rise from 
 tlie Danube bank to tlie interior, a little 
 above Bourlack. What the amount of this 
 rise may be, I could not tell for want of 
 instruments, but it must far exceed what 
 could be overcome by cutting, even with 
 very numerous locks. Secondly, the ridge 
 of hills running along the sea coast, which 
 is, or appears to be, unbroken by any open- 
 ing connecting the shore of the Black Sea 
 with any of the valleys which lie towards 
 the Danube. 
 
 The road now existing from Tchernavoda 
 is, in most places, excellent, and might have 
 been adopted by the Austrian company if 
 they had followed up their plan of making 
 Kustendji the place of embarkation for 
 passengers and goods for Constantinople 
 by the Danube Steam Company's convey- 
 ance. 
 
 Posting has not been established along 
 either of the above lines, but horses are 
 easily procured, as are also small and con- 
 venient carts for passengers and goods. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 39 
 
 CHAPTEE TV. 
 
 According to the treaty of Vienna the 
 great rivers of Europe are to be open to 
 ships of all nations, but it is evident that, 
 from either apathy or design, the Danube 
 will be very shortly closed altogether. It 
 must be remembered, that not only the 
 channel of SuHna, but that of St. George 
 and of Kilia, are at present actually in the 
 hands of Russia. At the mouth of the 
 Sulina channel, which is the principal, the 
 Russians have on one side, on Lati Island, 
 built a quarantine station, and on the op- 
 posite side they have estabhshed themselves 
 in the town of Sulina. They have also a 
 quarantine station commanding the entrance 
 of the St. Greorge's channel, and a similar 
 
40 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 establishment at the mouth of the Kiha. 
 If the treaty of Vienna be not a dead letter, 
 the Powers interested in keeping the navi- 
 gation of the Danube open should insist 
 upon its not being violated. The more 
 recent treaty of Adrianople, by which the 
 contracting parties agreed that the islands 
 of the Danube should be uninhabited, has 
 been similarly set aside ; but even that vio- 
 lation might be tolerated if Eussia would 
 perform the solemn agreement into which 
 she entered of keeping open the channel of 
 Sulina. It was on the faith of this under- 
 standing that Austria consented that each 
 of her vessels which passed the mouth of 
 the Danube should pay to Russia a toll of 
 two dollars, in consideration of the expense 
 the latter Power was supposed to be at in 
 keeping the passage open. The toll has 
 been regularly exacted from Austrian vessels 
 up to the present hour, but the way in which 
 Eussia has kept her part of the contract will 
 be seen from what I have said of the con- 
 dition of the mouth of the Danube in the 
 foregoing part of these pages. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 41 
 
 N^ot long after leaving Tchernavoda, we 
 passed the town of Silestria. Here the 
 Turkish troops appeared in mnch greater 
 force than at any of the places we had 
 hitherto seen. There was an air of mihtary 
 exactness and scientific skill in the way in 
 w^hich the force was distributed and the guns 
 posted, and one saw at a glance that the 
 place was under the orders of an intelligent 
 soldier. On inquiry I found that this was 
 the head-quarters of a Hungarian General in 
 the service of the Porte. 
 
 About noon of the second day of our de- 
 parture from Galatz, we moved up the muddy 
 channel which leads to Giurgevo. There is 
 here an island which divides the Danube 
 into two branches. On the left stands the 
 town of Giurgevo, and on the right bank of 
 the Danube, about a mile higher up, is the 
 Turkish town of Hutschuck. Giurgevo has 
 the remains of some old fortifications front- 
 ing the river, but otherwise the approach to 
 the town is undefended, except by the mud 
 in which it appears to be embedded. It was 
 a few miles below tliis place that the Eussian 
 
42 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 army crossed the Danube in 1829. In one 
 night the pontoons were silently attached, 
 and then swung across the river by the force 
 of the current, and before the day dawned, 
 the army of the Emperor was on the open 
 road to Stamboul. There is a considerable 
 trade in corn carried on at Giurgevo, and 
 constant traffic is kept up with the opposite 
 town of Rutschuck. There is a post from 
 here to Kutschuck, and thence overland to 
 Constantinople. This is the route generally 
 taken by the couriers of the foreign agents 
 established at Bucharest. 
 
 On landing, our passports were taken from 
 us by the pohce, our baggage was examined 
 by the Custom-house officers ; we were asked 
 a number of questions as to our name, age, 
 social position, prospects in life, where we 
 were going to, and whence we had com e from ; 
 and then we were turned into a stable yard, 
 where there were some men making a feint 
 of getting ready a huge waggon, which it 
 was said was to convey us to Bucharest. The 
 distance from Giurgevo to Bucharest is only 
 about forty miles, and as it was then but one 
 
THE DAXUBIAX PRUSTCIPALTTIES. 43 
 
 o'clock in the afternoon we had a fan- chance 
 of arriving at our destination at a reasonable 
 hour in the evening. It is not pleasant in 
 these out-of-the-way places to amve late at 
 night in a strange town, or even at a friend's 
 house ; for the best of friends and truest of 
 Amphytrions will be sure, in any country, 
 to mingle liis welcome with curses, if you 
 rouse him out of his first sleep, and force 
 him to do the honours of his house in his 
 night shirt. I politely opened my mind on 
 this subject to the youth who was to act 
 as our postihon, and he, being a boy of the 
 world, at once acknowledged the propriety 
 of my reasoning. He called the conductor ; 
 my baggage was quickly hoisted up to the 
 top of the coach, carefully corded down, and 
 then covered with a tarpaulin. The con- 
 ductor jumped on the imperial to see that 
 all was right, the postilion cracked his whip, 
 and eight hours after I found myself stand- 
 ing in the coach yard at Giurgevo, in the 
 very place where I had held my confer- 
 ence with the postilion. The coach had not 
 stirred from the spot when we first discovered 
 
44 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 it on landing. It was not the fault of the 
 postilion, for he was willing to start, and so 
 was the conductor, and so were the passen- 
 gers. It was on the contrary the most ab- 
 surd of obstacles which prevented our going ; 
 it was simply that there were no horses. The 
 horses were all this time in a distant stable 
 waiting the orders of the pohce, and the 
 pohce would not set the horses free till they 
 had deciphered our passports. The giffc of 
 tongues does not appear to be amongst the 
 attributes of the Wallachian police, for it was 
 only after eight hours' incessant labour that 
 they succeeded in understanding the im- 
 portant document which invited the allies of 
 Grreat Britain to admit me freely into their 
 territories. My passport was certainly ren- 
 dered into the vernacular in the most satis- 
 factory way, for I afterwards had the pleasure 
 of seeing my name in the list of arrivals as 
 '' Domnou Richard negoustor,'' or travelling 
 clerk. For my name they had put that of 
 the Ambassador, which was at the head of 
 the passport, but the appended title I beg 
 leave to say is a Wallachian creation. " Tra- 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 45 
 
 veiling on the continent," the words in the 
 passport, was the cause of my being put 
 down as belonging to Mr. Cobden's useful 
 corps. It reminds me of one of the Palais 
 Royal jokes, where a gentleman is coming 
 down stairs at his hotel with the favourite 
 of the Prince of Seltzer- wasser. " What 
 can we do for you ? " says the favourite to 
 his companion. They were just then at the 
 bottom of the stairs, and our friend, turning 
 to the porter's lodge, called out, " Le cordon 
 sil vous plait.'' The next morning, to his 
 surprise, he received from the Prince the 
 cross of the Silver Spoon. 
 
46 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 It was nine o'clock in the evening when 
 the passports were returned to us, and the 
 
 horses set free. But the conductor said it 
 was then too late to start, for the night was 
 dark, and the way bad, and moreover the 
 Cossacks along the road, who are generally 
 a very giddy, thoughtless set of fellows, 
 might in the obscurity mistake us for a body 
 of invading Turks, and not discoA^er their 
 error till after they had cut our throats and 
 rifled our portmanteau. We had there- 
 fore no other alternative than to remain 
 where we were till daybreak. There was a 
 lady amongst the passengers who was very 
 much the worse for drink, and who had 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 47 
 
 passed the afternoon, when she was not oc- 
 cupied in taking refreshment, in weeping 
 and abusing the postiHon. She told us that 
 she and her companion, an emaciated young 
 man, in a rabbit-skin coat, had been waiting 
 in the stable yard, to go by the diligence to 
 Bucharest, since two days before. 
 
 As I had nothing to do but resign myself 
 to my fate, I went into the khan, which 
 forms part of the coach establishment, where 
 I got something to eat, a quiet chibouque 
 and a cup of coffee. I then lay down on a 
 sofa and slept till the postilion called me, 
 and said the coach was ready to start. 
 
 There were eight wild-looking horses at- 
 tached to the waggon driven by one posti- 
 lion, who rode on the near wheeler. We 
 went along at a very good pace, considering 
 the nature of the ground. There are no 
 roads, properly speaking, in Wallacliia. There 
 are merely broad tracks covered with a deep 
 layer of dark-coloured dust in the summer, 
 and which, in rainy weather, or after a thaw, 
 change into rivers of mud, through which 
 the coach labours, sunk in slush to the axle- 
 
48 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 tree. When the road is too much cut up, a 
 new track on either side of it is chosen, 
 which is soon reduced to the same state. 
 But in the winter, when the snow on the 
 ground is frozen over, travelling is performed 
 very rapidly in sledges. It was only four 
 o'clock in the morning when we started, 
 and at seven o'clock we reached the khan, 
 which is situated half way between Giurgevo 
 and Bucharest, and there we breakfasted. 
 
 There were about five hundred Eussians 
 quartered in the neighbourhood of the khan. 
 They had that staid, soldierly look which is 
 the effect of severe discipline. This I ob- 
 served to be the characteristic of nearly all 
 the Eussian soldiers that I have seen in the 
 Principalities. The exceptions are the young 
 recruits, who of course are not yet properly 
 formed. I have never observed any appear- 
 ance of light-heartedness among the Eussian 
 soldiers even when off duty. It is true that 
 at times, in marching, whole battalions sing 
 in chorus either the national anthem, which 
 is a fine, solemn air, or some wild melody, 
 generally of a warlike character, interspersed 
 
THE DAXUBIAX PRINCIPALITIES. 49 
 
 witli sliarp cries and an occasional shrill 
 whistle. These latter songs are particularly 
 animated and spirit-stirring, and the c[uick 
 rattle of the drum, which is the sole instru- 
 mental a(iCompaniment, increases their ex-^ 
 citing character. To the listener there is 
 something sublime in thus hearing thousands 
 of manly voices blended together in chorus, 
 uttering sentiments of devotion to Grod and 
 the Emperor, or of fierce defiance to the 
 enemies of the Czar. But even in these 
 exhibitions the sternness of military rule is 
 seen. Upon the faces of the men thus 
 engaged no trace of emotion is visible ; their 
 tread is measured ; their forms are erect ; 
 they are obeying a command, and not an 
 impulse. The emotions of the heart seem 
 to have been drilled into order, and expres- 
 sions of love or anger, devotion or revenge, 
 are only awakened by the voice of their com- 
 mander. 
 
 The country in this part is remarkably 
 rich and beautiful. It had rained for a 
 couple of hours during the night, and every- 
 thing looked fresh and sparkling in the 
 
 n 
 
50 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 morning light. The habitations of the small 
 farmers and peasants in Wallachia bear a 
 near resemblance to those belonging to the 
 same class in Ireland. The cabins of the 
 labourers are built of mud or half-dried 
 bricks, and covered with thatch, whilst the 
 house of the small farmer is in the same 
 style, but upon a larger scale. There is 
 very generally some attempt at ornament 
 about these dwellings. They are all nicely 
 wliitewashed, and there is often some vine 
 or creeping plant trained round the door or 
 window. The spot, too, where a village 
 stands is almost always sheltered by trees, 
 and where there is not a running stream, 
 there are generally five or six wells from 
 which the water is drawn by a sort of 
 wooden crane. To one end of the trans- 
 verse pole the bucket is attached by a rope, 
 whilst at the opposite end is fastened a 
 heavy stone. With a lever thus constructed, 
 the water is raised from the deepest wells 
 with very little effort. Taken altogether, 
 the villages have an air of picturesqueness, 
 and almost of comfort. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 5L 
 
 At the door of the khan was a comfort- 
 ably dressed man in jack-boots and a broad- 
 leafed hat. He was mounted on a strong^ 
 horse, and was attended by his servant, who 
 rode a similar animal. T^oth carried pistols 
 in their holsters, and had valises fastened 
 behind their saddles. This was one of the 
 factors, or middlemen, who are very nume- 
 rous in Wallachia. These men stand between 
 the Boyard, or great proprietor, and the 
 peasants. Their general system is to enter 
 into a contract with the Boyard, by which 
 they engage to pay him a certain sum annu- 
 ally for a portion of his estates, on condition 
 that the Boyard give them carte blanche to 
 deal as they please with the small farmers 
 and peasants. This is a system in which, 
 as it may be supposed, the middlemen alone 
 have the chief benefit. The Boyard, by 
 thus abandoning his estates, loses a large 
 portion of his revenue, whilst the middleman, 
 who has no interest in view but his own, 
 screws from the unfortunate peasantry their 
 uttermost farthing. Thus the estate, in 
 most cases, becomes gradually impoverished, 
 
 D 2 
 
52 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 the Boyard soon becomes the factor's debtor, 
 and the latter is ultimately the real master 
 of the property. Almost all these middle- 
 men are Grreeks, and some of them are men 
 of considerable wealth, gained in the way I 
 have stated. Notwithstanding this system 
 of middlemen, which is almost generally 
 adopted, and the deplorably bad way in 
 which the land is tilled, some of the Boyards 
 derive from their estates more than 20,000^. 
 a-year. The private property of the present 
 reigning Prince amounts to nearly 30,000^. 
 per annum. There is certainly not in Europe 
 a soil more rich, and scarcely a climate more 
 favoured than that of Wallachia. The 
 country is literally overflowing with grain 
 of every sort, and out of France I have 
 never drank a viii ordinaire so good as in 
 this country. The common white wine of 
 Wallachia, when kept for two or three years 
 in bottle, is equal to anything of the kind 
 produced on the banks of the Ehine. The 
 rich meadow lands afford pasturage to num- 
 berless herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, 
 whilst in the neighbourhood of the forests 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 53 
 
 there are immense herds of swine. It is on 
 account of this great abundance of meat of 
 all kinds that Mr. Goldner's successors have 
 established themselves in the neighbourhood 
 of Galatz, and that another English esta- 
 blishment largely engaged in the pork trade 
 has been formed at Kalafat. The proprietors 
 of both these establishments find, that not- 
 withstanding the high wages they are forced 
 to give their English workmen, and the 
 expenses of transport, that they can sell 
 their merchandize cheaper in England than 
 if they purchased the materials for their 
 trade in any of the markets of Grreat Britain 
 or of Ireland. Game of almost all kinds 
 abound in Wallachia. Wild turkeys are 
 met with in hundreds in the steppes or 
 great open plains. Hares were sold until 
 lately in the market of Bucharest at four- 
 pence each, and a brace of blackcock at 
 about the same price. There is also an al)un- 
 dance of fish in the inland rivers, and some 
 of it of very exquisite flavour. 
 
 In comparing the habitations of the Wal- 
 lachian peasantry to the Irish cabin, I did 
 
54 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 not mention that the interior arrangement 
 of the former was immeasurably superior. 
 On entering the cottage of the Wallachian 
 peasant, you find yourself in a small room, 
 which serves as a kitchen. Here there is a 
 stove, which heats the whole house in the 
 winter months. There is no cabin without 
 a stove of some kind, which is an object of 
 vital importance in a country where the cold 
 at times is so intense. Besides the kitchen, 
 each cottage has two rooms, both used ge- 
 nerally as sleepmg apartments. The walls 
 inside are smoothly plastered and neatly 
 whitewashed, and the whole place has an air 
 of comparative neatness. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 
 
 CHAPTEE YI. 
 
 As we proceeded along the road to Bu- 
 charest, we saw small parties of Eussian 
 soldiers encamped on either side of the way, 
 and in one place we passed a battery of 
 heavy guns, drawn up in Hne, and pointed 
 menacingly down the road towards Giurgevo. 
 At about six miles from Bucharest we saw 
 a large encampment upon our right, and 
 every few minutes we met a mounted Cos- 
 sack, hurrying along as if he were the bearer 
 of despatches. The lance which the Cos- 
 sack carries is not longer than the Enghsh 
 one, and has no flag ; besides this, his other 
 weapons are a heavy carabine, slung at his 
 back, a pistol stuck in his belt, and a long 
 
56 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 sword. His uniform is a blue frock coat, 
 buttoned up to the throat, and wide trousers 
 of the same colour. He wears a high coni- 
 cal-shaped chako, of black oilskin, without a 
 peak, which is kept on his head by a strap, 
 fastened under the chin. The Cossack's 
 horse is generally a wiry animal, of about 
 fourteen and a half hands high. His bridle 
 is a plain snaffle, without side bars, and his 
 saddle is of a very rude construction. When 
 the Cossack trots or gallops, he leans for- 
 ward in his saddle, with the upper part of 
 his body quite straight, an attitude, one 
 would suppose, the least suited for comfort, 
 but he nevertheless sits his horse with extra- 
 ordinary closeness. 
 
 It was about two o'clock in the after- 
 noon when we came in sight of Bucharest. 
 Though near the first of October, it was a 
 bright sunny day, and quite as warm as it 
 is generally in London in the month of 
 July. Seen at a little distance, Bucharest 
 appears a very handsome city. It contains 
 some three hundred churches, and each of 
 these has two or more tall spires. Most of the 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 57 
 
 public buildings are also crowned by turrets 
 or domes. Every spire, turret, and dome is 
 covered with tin. A thin gauze-like vapour 
 hung upon the lower buildings, softening 
 their outhne, and above this waving cloud 
 rose the thousand domes, spires, and turrets, 
 sparkling with almost dazzling brightness in 
 the sun. They crowned the city like a 
 silver diadem. Bucharest covers nearly as 
 great an extent of ground as Paris, but a 
 third of the space is taken up with gardens, 
 so that one saw the bright green fohage of 
 the trees, appearing here and there above the 
 shadowy vapour, and this served to increase 
 the charming effect of the whole scene. I 
 was not so much disappointed as I expected 
 to be, on entering the city. After passing 
 the gate, where, as I need not say, I had to 
 show my passport, and answer the three 
 hundred questions in the Eussian police 
 catechism, we drove through a long faubourg 
 of alternate gardens and one-storied houses, 
 till we reached a broad well-built street, con- 
 taining some fine buildings. This is the 
 part of the city inhabited by the wealthier 
 
 D 3 
 
58 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 Spanisli Jews. We tlien rolled on tlirough 
 three or four streets, with handsome shops 
 on either side, and full of bustle, till we 
 reached the coach office. 
 
 Of the hotels of Bucharest I can say but 
 little, as during my stay in that city, I had 
 the good fortune to enjoy the hospitality of 
 the English Agent and Consul-General, Mr. 
 Colquhoun. The Hotel de France, I have 
 reason to believe, is the best. The master 
 of this hotel and his wife are, I know, re- 
 markably civil and obliging. The charge 
 here for a good room, breakfast, and dinner, 
 is about 12.S. a day, and this is the general 
 tariff throughout all the hotels in Bucharest. 
 The cost of mere living is small, but the 
 rents are high. One cannot have a tolerable 
 bedroom under a dollar a day. 
 
 Except in the principal streets, few of the 
 houses in Bucharest exceed two stories in 
 height. The place was formerly subject to 
 shocks of earthquake, which was the reason 
 for making the dwellings so low. There is 
 a great deal of ornament about most of the 
 newly -built houses, stuccoed friezes, pilasters. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 59 
 
 and brightly -painted or gilded balconies. 
 This taste may be considered tawdry in 
 Prance or England, but after the shaky 
 konaks of Turkey, the effect was very pleas- 
 ing. Some of the small private houses, 
 situated in the less-frequented streets, with 
 their projecting roofs, formed of small squares 
 of wood, and their quaint porticoes, the whole 
 embowered in trees, are very picturesque. 
 The palace of the Hospodars is an unpre- 
 tending building of two stories high, situated 
 in the principal street, with a large court in 
 front. It is at present uninhabited ; the 
 reigning prince had been residing since the 
 commencement of the present crisis, until 
 his exile, in a monastery a httle outside the 
 town. 
 
 The opera-house at Bucharest is as hand- 
 some and commodious a theatre as is to be 
 found in any city in Europe. It is ca- 
 pable of containing from seven hundred to 
 eight hundred people. In front of the stage, 
 on the second tier, is the state-box of the 
 Hospodars, hmig with draperies of crimson 
 velvet, deeply fringed with gold, and sur- 
 
60 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 mounted by tlie arms of the principality. 
 In all the boxes are fanteuills covered with 
 crimson velvet, and not only the stalls, but 
 all the benches in the pit, are provided with 
 cushions of the same material. The mould- 
 ing and carved work on the boxes are richly 
 gilt, and from the roof, which is tastefully 
 painted, hangs a large chandelier, with gilt 
 stands for the lamps, which, with the lights 
 on the stage, is sufficient to illuminate the 
 house. There is here at present a very re- 
 spectable Italian company. I went the other 
 night to hear Yerde's '^ Louisa Miiller." The 
 performance was very good, better indeed, 
 in some respects, than what I had seen in 
 the same opera last May at San Carlo at 
 Naples ; but in that unhappy city everything 
 has of late undergone a mournful degrada- 
 tion. The appearance of the theatre of 
 Bucharest^ when I visited it the other even- 
 ing, was remarkably brilliant. The house 
 was crowded to the ceiling. The ladies in 
 the boxes were gracefully dressed in the 
 Parisian fashions, and I saw that the beauty 
 for which they are so celebrated was not a fie- 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 61 
 
 tion. The pit was almost entirely filled with 
 Eussian officers. In a large box on the left 
 of the stage was Prince Grortschakoffe, in com- 
 pany with M. Kotisbue, son of the cele- 
 brated but ill-fated writer of that name, and 
 ex-Eussian Consul-General at Bucharest. In 
 a box on the right of the Hospodar's were 
 Mr. Colquhoun and Mr. Poujade, the Eng- 
 lish and French Consuls-General. The latter 
 gentleman was accompanied by Madame 
 Poujade, a granddaughter of the Prince 
 Ghika, who some years ago was the reigning 
 Prince of Wallachia. The same good un- 
 derstanding which exists between the French 
 and English governments animates their 
 agents at Bucharest, and both act together 
 in the most perfect harmony in the common 
 cause. 
 
 There is a public promenade outside Bu- 
 charest. It is about a mile and a half in 
 length and bordered with trees. Every 
 afternoon it is crowded with the handsome 
 equipages of the Boyards and foreign agents. 
 At present it is rendered still more animated 
 by the presence of the Eussian generals and 
 
62 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 their staffs. At the comniencenient of the 
 promenade is a triumphal arch, lately raised 
 in honour of the Emperor Nicholas, and at 
 the other end is the unfinished chateau of 
 the late Hospodar. On either side of the 
 road is the public garden, which, for its size, 
 is one of the prettiest in Europe. It is laid 
 out in the English style, with gravel-walks, 
 winding amidst thick foliage and bright par- 
 terres of flowers. In the midst of green 
 spots, here and there are fountains fling- 
 ing their spray into the air, and there is a 
 small lake, on the shore of which is a pic- 
 tm^esque grotto. In the centre of an open 
 lawn is a pavilion, and here, on fete-days, a 
 military band is stationed. This garden was 
 planned and laid out by Prince Bebesco, the 
 late Hospodar. The public promenade is 
 also chiefly his work. In a part of the 
 garden, through an opening in a little grove 
 of acacias, one catches a glim|)se of a very 
 charming villa, the abode of a young lady, 
 who is the ward of the present reigning 
 Prince, and is one of the beauties of Bu- 
 charest. She is a Sicilian by birth, and 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 63 
 
 when a mere cliild was adopted by a Eussian 
 Greneral and his wife, a Wallachian lady, 
 who w^ere then travelhng in Sicily. After 
 some years the Greneral and his wife died, 
 and left their adopted daughter a fortune of 
 30,000/., and confided her to the guardian- 
 ship of the present Hospodar. 
 
 The romance which attaches to the story 
 of this young lady reminds me of another 
 which I heard in Eome. Some twenty years 
 ago there lived in that city a young painter, 
 eking out sufficient with his pencil to sup 
 merrily at the Lepri, or the Gabione, and 
 get his coffee of a morning at the Greco. 
 He w^as happy for the hour, and never 
 thought of the morrow, which is, perhaps, 
 after all, the right way to enjoy existence. 
 One day he was surprised to receive a visit 
 from the curate of one of the villages in the 
 neighbourhood of Rome. The curate had 
 the day before administered the consolations 
 of religion to an old woman who was at the 
 point of death. At her last moments she 
 placed in the curate's hands a packet of let- 
 ters, which she besought him to deliver to 
 
64 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 our young friend the painter without delay. 
 The curate and the painter conned over the 
 letters together, and the result was that they 
 both went instantly to the house of a prince 
 who is known to have a kind honest heart ; 
 and when the prince heard what they had to 
 say, he sent for his advocate, who took the 
 letters before the high tribunal of Rome, 
 and in a little time our young friend the 
 painter was recognised as the rightful heir 
 to a dukedom, one of the oldest in Italy, and 
 he is, at the present day, lord of more than 
 one noble chateau and of many a broad acre. 
 The mother of the young man had, strange 
 to say, taken a dislike to him from the mo- 
 ment of his birth, and she gave the child to 
 one of her women, determined never to ac- 
 knowledge it as her son. The duke, her 
 husband, was then dead, and report said that 
 she had given her love to another. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 65 
 
 CHAPTEE YII. 
 
 Some days ago I went to see Prince 
 Grortscliakoffe review a portion of the Eussian 
 army, wliicli was encamped about six miles 
 from Bucliarest. The vast plains of Wal- 
 lachia are admirably adapted for displays of 
 this kind, or for the more serious operations 
 of actual war. There was not a wall or 
 hedge, and scarcely a tree, to impede the 
 movement of the troops. There w^ere about, 
 eighteen thousand men present. They at 
 first formed in line, with the artillery on the 
 extreme left, and next to them the cavahy, 
 composed of lancers and hussars, and then 
 came the infantry. The infantry, regiment 
 by regiment, then broke into open column 
 
66 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 of companies, and marched past the General. 
 Each company, as it passed before the 
 Prince, cheered, and the Hght troops ran by 
 in double time for about two hundred yards, 
 cheering all the way. The cavalry marched 
 by in squadrons, each squadron cheering 
 when they came in front of the Commander- 
 in-chief; and a body of Hulans, who waited 
 some little time behind, went past at a 
 charge, shouting wildly. The Hght artillery 
 also went past at full gallop. Each regi- 
 ment of infantry then formed in close 
 column, with the cavalry and artillery on 
 their rear. They were in all a magnificent 
 body of troops, and went through the dif- 
 ferent movements with wonderful precision. 
 The effect of the great mass of infantry 
 formed in close column, with the sun spark- 
 ling on their helmets, was very fine. Seen 
 at a distance, it looked like a lake of flame. 
 When the inspection was over, the troops 
 marched off the ground to their respective 
 quarters, each body as it passed singing the 
 national anthem, or some war- song. Prince 
 Gortschakoffe is more than sixty years of age. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 67 
 
 but he is firm and erect, and has all the 
 appearance of a veteran soldier. None of 
 the generals under his orders seem less than 
 fifty years old, and all have the same stern, 
 war-worn look. 
 
 Eiding beside a squadron of hussars was 
 a young officer, mounted on a very spirited 
 Arab horse. He wore the Circassian dress, 
 with the cartouch-boxes on the breast of his 
 coat in silver, richly chased. Tliis seems to 
 me the handsomest uniform I have as yet 
 seen in the Bussian army. 
 
 Shortly after my arrival at Bucharest, I 
 went with Mr. Colqulioun to pay a visit to 
 the French Consul-General, who then resided 
 in a handsome chateau, the property of the 
 Dowager Princess Ghika, and which is situ- 
 ated about two miles from the town. Close 
 to this chateau is a lake, across which the 
 Russians had thrown a bridge of pontoons 
 on the day previous to our visit. On the 
 shores of the lake there had been a large 
 Russian encampment of five thousand men ; 
 but, just before our arrival, the tents had 
 been struck, and the whole force had crossed 
 
68 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 over the bridge of pontoons and marched 
 towards the south-east. The whole of the 
 Russian force was at that moment begin- 
 ning to be put in motion. The encamp- 
 ments in the interior were gradually break- 
 ing up, and the great bulk of the army was 
 moving towards the Danube, along whose 
 banks they are at the moment I write, 
 posted in echelon, awaiting the advance of 
 the Turks. 
 
 On the shore of the lake there still re- 
 mained about a hundred and fifty men. A 
 portion of these were engaged in cooking. 
 Their camp-kettles were arranged in two 
 rows, and at half a-foot apart, with about 
 twenty kettles in each row. When we 
 came up the kettles were all simmering 
 gaily. The cooks, on the present of a few 
 swanzikers, allowed us to taste the contents 
 of some of them, and we found the flavour 
 excellent. In each kettle were meat, rice, 
 and vegetables ; and to these the cooks, as 
 they went round, added pepper, salt, and 
 similar condiments, as they thought neces- 
 sary. Eussians of all ranks are fond of tea. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 69 
 
 The water used in making it they boil in a 
 kind of urn, called a samavar, which is not, 
 I believe, much knowTi in England. In the 
 centre of this urn is a tube, which is grated 
 at the bottom. Into this tube some pieces 
 of lighted charcoal are dropped, which the 
 au% passing through the grated opening 
 below, keeps in a state of ignition, and the 
 heat thus produced soon boils the water 
 which surrounds the tube. Whilst we were 
 looking on at the cooking, a soldier came up 
 w4th a small brass samavar, into the tube of 
 which he dropped some embers from the 
 fire ; and to make them burn more quickly, 
 he took off one of his Wellington boots, 
 which he very adroitly converted into a 
 bellows. He placed the top of the boot on 
 the mouth of the tube, which he pressed 
 tightly, and holding the sole with his other 
 hand, he pumped up and down. The 
 operation was most successful; for, in a 
 little time, the samavar began to sing as 
 blithly as any domestic kettle. 
 
 For some minutes before, we had seen to the 
 westward a dark cloud of dust, throus^h which 
 
70 JOURNAL or A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 were flashing tlie helmets and bayonets of a 
 battalion of infantry. They soon reached 
 the ground- near which we were standing, 
 followed by their baggage-train. The mo- 
 ment they halted, the men piled their arms, 
 on which they hung their helmets and 
 cross-belts. They then took off their 
 coatees and trousers, and put on their great- 
 coats and foraging-caps. In the mean time 
 the baggage-train had been unpacked, and 
 the tents laid on the ground in lines. The 
 men then set to work ; the canvass rose 
 from the ground hke a cloud ; the pegs 
 were driven in, the ropes fastened, and in 
 less than half an-hour from the moment of 
 theii' arrival the officers were lounging 
 quietly in their quarters, the sentries were 
 posted, and the routine of the camp was 
 going on as though the whole party had 
 been there for months before. Almost all 
 the men went down and bathed in the lake, 
 and about an hour later, as we were walking 
 in the avenue of the chateau, we heard their 
 call to dinner. 
 
 The word Bucharest means the city of 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 71 
 
 pleasure. There is a Walladiian proverb, 
 which says that he who has drunk of the 
 waters of the Dimbovitza is loth to leave its 
 banks. How people can be pleasant in a 
 place which is constantly exposed to the 
 inroads of Eussians it is difficult to 
 imagine. If there be any truth in what 
 is said of the waters of the Dimbovitza, 
 both Muscovite and Moslem must have 
 drunk of them deeply. In debating the 
 question at present existing between Eussia 
 and Turkey, no one seems to bestow a 
 thought on the unhappy Principalities. 
 Whichever party gains, they are sure to be 
 the suiferers. They have at present quar- 
 tered upon them a foreign army, which they 
 are obliged to lodge gratis, and to feed to a 
 great extent upon the same terms ; and if 
 this army is forced to rethe, and their place 
 is taken by the Turks, the change will 
 scarcely be for the better. The Turks look 
 on the Moldo-Wallachians as ghours, and 
 would possibly not object to tax them as 
 rayahs ; whilst Eussia, in occupying their 
 territory, affects to regard them as vassals 
 
72 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 of the Sultan, whilst she crushes them 
 beneath her armed hand as if they were her 
 own serfs. 
 
 The population of Wallachia is less than 
 three millions, but the country is capable of 
 feeding five times that number. Its soil is 
 one of the richest in the world. The super- 
 abundance of its produce contributes to the 
 support of thousands who inhabit the 
 British empire. But its resources are far — 
 very far — from being developed. The com- 
 merce of the country is abandoned to 
 strangers, agriculture is neglected, and the 
 more refined arts and manufactures are un- 
 known. Wallachia is intersected by six 
 rivers, whose source is in the Carpathians. 
 These rivers could at a small comparative 
 expense be made navigable for the passage 
 of rafts. The mountains in which they 
 have their source are covered to their sum- 
 mits with magnificent forests. At the base 
 of the mountains are oaks, midway up are 
 beech trees, and above these are pines of 
 extraordinary height and girth. All this 
 wealth of wood lies utterly useless, and trees 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 73 
 
 and branches blown down by tlie storm rot 
 wliere tbey fall for want of the means of 
 transport. In the Moldavian parts of the 
 Carpathians, the case, however, is not 
 exactly the same. The river Sereth, which 
 separates the tw^o Principalities, is larger 
 and deeper than the rivers flowing through 
 Wallachia, and its w^aters are consequently 
 covered during the season with immense 
 rafts of wood, consisting chiefly of oak and 
 pine, both of which are good in building 
 and masting ships. 
 
 In the Carpathians, veins of gold, silver, 
 quicksilver, iron, copper, pitch, sulphur, and 
 coals, have been traced, but are never 
 worked. The Eussians, when in possession 
 of the country in 1811, made an attempt at 
 working some of these mines, but shortly 
 after, peace being proclaimed, the Eussian 
 army retired, and the mines w^ere abandoned. 
 
 The Wallachians are not to blame for this 
 state of things. They are a part of the 
 deplorable consequences of the manner in 
 which the country is misgoverned. A Hos- 
 podar, wdio is chosen to rule for seven years, 
 
 E 
 
74 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 and who is ol)liged to fly at the end of 
 three, who has bought his place from the 
 Porte with two years of his revenue, and 
 who has bartered to Eussia, in return for 
 her support, all his real power as a reigning 
 prince, can scarcely be expected to do much 
 for the development of the resources of his 
 country. It has become a fashion to speak 
 of the Moldo-Wallachians with contempt, 
 to scoff at their institutions, and to depict 
 them as sunk in immorality, profligacy, and 
 ignorance. Some of the loudest in this 
 chorus of calumny are a discontented portion 
 of their own countrymen. There are few 
 things more calculated to favour the ambi- 
 tious desires attributed to Bussia than a cry 
 of this kind. Let Europe be made to 
 believe that these Principalities are bar- 
 barous tracts, inhabited by a set of profligate 
 semi-barbarians, and the crime of seizing 
 upon them will be overlooked in the thought 
 of the good which may be thus done to the 
 cause of civilization and virtue. 
 
 These countries are rarely visited by 
 tourists ; they lie out of the beaten track. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. /O 
 
 The roads are always bad, and may be said 
 to be impassable for seven months of the 
 year. The Englishman who winters in 
 Eome or Naples, or who passes his summer 
 vacation on the Rhine or in Switzerland, 
 could scarcely be tempted to go through the 
 ennui of a Russian police office at the 
 frontier, to be afterwards dragged on a cart 
 without springs, with a wisp of straw for a 
 cushion, across the steppes of Moldo-Walla- 
 chia. There are no ruins to attract the 
 antiquarian ; there is no scenery to attract 
 the poet ; and there are no schools to be 
 visited by the student. It has neither the 
 comforts of western Europe, nor the ro- 
 mance of the East. It is an untrodden 
 corner on the highway of nations. It is 
 this obscurity which is fatal to the Prin- 
 cipalities. The inhabitants may be perse- 
 cuted and oppressed, and maligned and 
 calumniated with impunity. So little is 
 Bucharest visited by Enghshmen, that I am 
 the only one, not estabHshed in the country, 
 that is in this city at present, and the only 
 one that has visited it as a traveller for, I 
 
 beheve, eigrhteen months. 
 
 E 2 
 
76 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 CHAPTEE YIII. 
 
 When an occasional English tourist arrives 
 at Bucharest, it is more generally the effect 
 of accident than design ; and notwithstand- 
 ing the attractive name of the city, and the 
 fascinating flavour of the Dimbovitza, he 
 jolts off to the banks of the Danube, as soon 
 as the soreness occasioned by his previous 
 ride has left his bones. Some years ago a 
 man arrived one morning to the door of the 
 British Consul-General. He was clad in 
 the dress of a Transylvanian shepherd. His 
 beard was untrimmed, and his long hair 
 hung in wild locks from under his broad 
 hat. The sandals which he wore were 
 covered with soil, and his dress was travel- 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 77 
 
 stained as though he had come a long way. 
 'There was in his eyes a look of sombre 
 melancholy, but it seemed the effect of some 
 brooding thought, rather than of any priva- 
 tions he had undergone. The Consul- 
 General invited him into his house, and 
 made him his guest. He had no baggage, 
 not even the bundle which the wayfarer 
 carries on the end of his stick ; but he was 
 heartily welcome, nevertheless, and had the 
 best place at the Consul's table. 
 
 He was an Englishman of rank and large 
 fortune. A wound in the affections had 
 driven him from home, and he wandered on 
 as far as the Carpathian mountains, where 
 for some time he led the rude life of a 
 hunter, hoping that in change of scene and 
 the excitement of the chase he might find a 
 cure. He was disappointed, however, for 
 there was not sufficient danger in bear and 
 wolf hunting to give it the excitement he 
 required, and he left the Carpathian forest, 
 and wandered alone through the desolate 
 steppes of Wallachia, sharing the food of the 
 stray herdsmen he happened to meet, and 
 
78 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 sleeping wherever he was overtaken by the 
 night. Each day that he remained at Bu- 
 charest he grew more and more mihappy, 
 till one morning the Consul-General hap- 
 pened to receive a letter from Constan- 
 tinople, giving the details of a victory which 
 the Circassians had gained over the Eus- 
 sians. The letter was written by an en- 
 thusiast in the cause of Circassian inde- 
 pendence. The description of the fight was 
 animated, and the letter concluded with a 
 glowing panegyric upon the bravery of the 
 Caucasian warriors, and a prediction of the 
 success of the noble cause in which they 
 were engaged. The moment this letter was 
 shown by the Consul-General to his guest, 
 whom I shall call Manly, the latter at once 
 determined to start for Circassia, and volun- 
 teer into the ranks of the mountaineers. 
 
 That very night Manly started for G-iur- 
 gevo, where he crossed the Danube to 
 Rutschuck, and there engaged horses and a 
 guide, and proceeded on to Constantinople. 
 In that city Manly found another English- 
 man ready to join in his expedition, and 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 79 
 
 instantly freighting a Turkish vessel with 
 salt, some ammunition, and arms, he sailed 
 for the coast of Circassia. This was about 
 the time the ' Vixen ' was captured by a 
 Russian man-of-war, and her crew impri- 
 soned. The coast of Circassia was more 
 strictly blockaded than ever ; and it was 
 only after the most hairbreadth escapes that 
 Manly and his friend succeeded in landing. 
 They were well received by the Circassian 
 chiefs, to whom they brought letters of in- 
 troduction ; but what was more highly prized 
 than the letters was the salt, the ammunition, 
 and the arms, which were quickly landed. 
 The vessel in which they came then sailed on 
 her way back to Constantinople, but at a 
 short distance from the Circassian coast was 
 captured by a Russian cruiser, and was 
 brought into the Turkish port of Trebizond, 
 and there burned by the Russians, notwith- 
 standing the objections of the Grovernor. 
 
 The two Englishmen proceeded into the 
 mountains with the Circassians to where the 
 fighting was going on, and they were soon 
 busily engaged in skirmishing, ambuscading. 
 
80 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 and, at times, in hand-to-liand enconnters 
 with the Mnscovites. Manly, mounted on 
 a fiery Tartar horse, clad in chain armour, 
 and with a long lance in his hand, was in 
 the thick of every danger. Pie courted 
 death ; hut for a long time passed unscathed 
 from lance or huUet. At length, in a sharp 
 encounter with a party of Russians, he was 
 struck hy a chance shot, and, though not 
 seriously wounded, he was forced to submit 
 to being carried to the house of one of the 
 chiefs, Vv^here he was recommended to remain 
 till his wound should be healed. The wife 
 and daughter of the chief in whose house he 
 was quartered tended him with care and 
 skill, and he was soon able to move about, 
 but was still too weak to return to the 
 camp. The chief's daughter was about 
 fifteen years old. She was called in the 
 country " The Rose," on account of her 
 beauty. She was gentle and intelligent, 
 and Manly passed many of the houi's of his 
 convalescence in mvino; her instruction in 
 some of those simple accomplishments which 
 form the first rudiments of an education in 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. (SI 
 
 Europe. There is something ineffably win- 
 ning in the manners of the Mahomedan 
 women of the East. They possess a timid 
 gentleness, and a naive grace, which are 
 eminently feminine. They are taught to 
 believe themselves as far inferior to man, 
 as creatures of clay, that have no existence 
 beyond this world, and their manner, 
 therefore, towards our rougher sex is one 
 that woos protection. It is this feeling of 
 inferiority which gives to the face of the 
 Oriental girl, when in repose, that expres- 
 sion of dreamy sadness, and that inward 
 look to her lustrous eyes, for if she is not 
 beloved, the end and object of her life 
 is not fulfilled. Eose made rapid progress 
 under Manly ; and when, after some months, 
 the camp was broken up on the approacli of 
 winter, and her father returned home, she 
 quite astonished the poor chief with her 
 Prankish learning. The winter passed ra- 
 pidly by — the snow and the ice disappeared 
 — the stream was again babbling merril}^ 
 before the door of the Circassian keep — the 
 forest trees were coming into leaf, and the 
 
 E 3 
 
82 * JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 wild flowers and aromatic plants wliicli 
 covered the hills filled the air with perfume. 
 The mountaineers began their preparations 
 for war ; but Manly had found a palliative 
 for the sorrows of his brain, and determined 
 to return to England ; but he would not 
 part from " The Eose/' He knew the fate 
 for which the poor child was destined, and, 
 therefore, had no hesitation in proposing 
 to the old chief to take Eose with him 
 to Frankistaun, and to adopt her as his 
 daughter ; for he said that he had grown to 
 love her as if she were his own child. The 
 chief said that his daughter was beautiful ; 
 and that, moreover, thanks to Manly, she 
 had learned certain accomplishments which 
 increased her value. She would, therefore, 
 he said, fetch a very high price at Constan- 
 tinople, and that it was his intention to take 
 her at once to the slave-market in that city, 
 where she was sure to be bought by one of 
 the great Pashas, or, perhaps, by the Padishaw 
 himself. Manly offered to give any sum the 
 chief named; but it was useless. The old 
 man said he would never permit his child to 
 
THE DANUBIAX PRINCIPALITIES. 83 
 
 live amongst glioiirs, for that she would be 
 much happier and better as an odalich at 
 Stamboul, where she would ride in a gilded 
 araba, and wear a jewelled fez, and have 
 armed kislers to do her bidding. Manly 
 still persisted in his offers ; and the chief at 
 length said that he would give him a final 
 answer on the following morning. At a 
 short distance from the house Manly found 
 Rose seated on the ground, weeping. It 
 was a place at which they had often sat 
 together, and talked of the strange country 
 from which the Enghshman came. Poor 
 Rose had overheard Manly' s proposal and 
 her father's refusal. She was no longer a 
 child ; she had passed rapidly into budding 
 womanhood. If Manly loved her as a 
 daughter, her feelings for him had grown 
 into a timid but passionate love. Manly 
 said that her father would be sure to con-^ 
 sent, and that in a little time they would 
 both be happy together in Frankistaun. {So 
 poor Rose was comforted. She dried her 
 tears, and returned to the house confident 
 and cheerful. 
 
84 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 The sun had been risen for some time 
 wlien Manly awoke next morning. He was 
 astonished to hear none of the usual sounds 
 about the house. There was something- 
 ominous in the silence. He dressed hastily, 
 and hurried into the principal apartment 
 and found it empty. With a beating heart 
 he called Eose ; but there was no answer. 
 He went out and met an armed Circassian 
 coming from the stable where his horse was 
 kept. This man told him that the chief and 
 all his family had left for Battoum in tlie' 
 middle of the night, at which port they in- 
 tended to embark for Constantinople. He 
 was left behind, he said, to wait on the 
 Mousafeer, and to be his guide wherever he 
 wished to go. 
 
 Some months afterwards Manly arrived at 
 Constantinople. He made every inquiry 
 amongst the Circassians at Tophana to try 
 and discover some clue to the old chief and 
 his daughter, but all in vain. 
 
 One day he was coming down the Bos- 
 phorus in a caique. He was passing close 
 along tlie Asiatic shore, and liad reached tlie 
 
TUE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 85 
 
 village of Kandeljee, when an old woman, 
 who was standing on the marble steps^ which 
 led into the yally, or summer residence of 
 one of the great Pashas, called to him to 
 stop. She asked him if he were a doctor? 
 He answered that he knew something of 
 medicine ; so she made him a sign to follow 
 her into the house. She led hmi along 
 silently into one of the small rooms of the 
 harim. The apartment was dimly lighted, 
 for the silken draperies of the lattice were 
 closely drawn. On the divan lay the form 
 of a young girl ; her hands were pressed 
 upon her bosom, and she was moaning 
 feebly. At the noise which Manly made in 
 approaching she raised her eyes, and, sud- 
 denly starting up, she put back the long 
 dark hair which fell loose upon her shoul- 
 ders, and, after staring at him wildly for a 
 few minutes, she fell l^ack upon the divan 
 apparently lifeless. 
 
 It was poor Eose that lay before him. 
 Under his care her senses returned ; but 
 Manly saw, to his unutterable grief, that she 
 was dying. Immediately on her arrival at 
 
86 JOURNAL or A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 Stamboul slie told liim she was bought for a 
 large sum by the Pasha in whose house she 
 then lay. The Pasha made her his favourite, 
 and the other odalichs grew jealous. Find- 
 ing they could not succeed in alienating the 
 Pasha's love from Rose, they determined to 
 poison her, and that very morning she had 
 swallowed the fatal drug in her coffee. She 
 said she did not regret to die, for her life 
 had been one of constant suffering since her 
 separation from Manly. She could never 
 love but him ; and she would take her love 
 with her to the other world that he spoke 
 of, and there wait his coming. And she 
 talked of her native mountains, and of the 
 happy hours they had passed there together ; 
 and, speaking in this way, she laid her head 
 upon his shoulder, and, drawing a long sigh, 
 she died. 
 
 She is buried amongst the cypress trees, 
 upon a height above the Pasha's yally. It 
 was on a summer's evening, years ago, when 
 seated beside poor Eose's grave, that I heard 
 her story. 
 
 Manly went home and entered Parlia- 
 
THE DA>;UBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 87 
 
 ment, and he is at this moment a worthy 
 Member of the House of Commons. He is 
 still unmarried, and I beheve means to die a 
 bachelor. 
 
88 JOURNAL OV A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 As far as the inhabitants of Moldo-Wal- 
 lachia are concerned, a more docile, hard- 
 working, and honest people is not to be 
 found. Such things as drunken riots are 
 unknown, and robbery by a Wallachian is 
 far from being common. Even the gypsies, 
 who here form a comparatively large portion 
 of the population, are not addicted to theft ; 
 a vice which, in other countries, seems to be 
 inherent in that strange people. With re- 
 gard to the upper classes, I have met amongst 
 them men as well educated and as gifted as 
 any of the same rank in England or France. 
 But there is no public career open to them 
 in their own country. There is no incen- 
 
THE DAXUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 89 
 
 tive to lionoiirable ambition, there is no 
 occupation for tlie exercise of the intellect. 
 The Government is an ignoble vassalage 
 under another name, and its public insti- 
 tutions are but a mockery of independence. 
 The office of Hospodar, so far from being a 
 mark of distinction, conferred by the nation 
 upon the most deserving citizen, is generally 
 attained by the person who is most success- 
 ful in ingratiating himself with the Russian 
 authorities, and who has shown most tact in 
 the distribution of bribes at the Porte. 
 
 Humanity demands that something should 
 be done by the great powers of Europe for 
 the amelioration of these Principalities. 
 Under the present system they are exposed 
 to the invasion of a Russian army, on 
 the slightest pretext, and they are after- 
 wards forced to pay the expenses of the occu- 
 pation, and to support, to a great extent, 
 those foreign troops whilst they remain in 
 the country. In the present quarrel between 
 Russia and the Porte, the Moldo - Walla- 
 chians, without a shadow of justice, are 
 made the first victims. Their commerce is 
 
90 JOURNAL or A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 ruined, the industry of the country is sus- 
 pended ; the peasant is dragged from the 
 cultivation of his fields to transport the bag- 
 gage of a foreign army, his house is occupied 
 and his scanty store of food eaten by the 
 soldiers of another nation. The farmers 
 cannot pay their landlords, for the produce 
 of their land is rotting in the open air at the 
 ports of the Danube, for want of the means 
 of transport. The forage and other stock 
 brought to the markets of Bucharest and the 
 other towns of the Principalities, are sold at 
 a price fixed by the Russian Commissariat ; 
 a price which was established in the abund- 
 ant season of last June, and which is less 
 than half what the same produce ought 
 to bring at the present time. It is evident 
 that if this state of things be permitted 
 to last, these Principalities, notwithstanding 
 the immense resources with which they are 
 endowed by nature, must fall to ruin. 
 
 Hospodars, with a divan chosen in the 
 corrupt way T have shown, by Russia 
 and Turkey, are evidently not a proper 
 form of government for these countries. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 91 
 
 Let an end be put to the intrigues by 
 which these princes are elected and after- 
 wards deposed. Let these two Principali- 
 ties, which are capable of supporting twenty 
 millions of souls, be raised into an inde- 
 pendent power. Let a ruler be chosen for 
 them from amongst the royal families of 
 Grermany, or even amongst the meuibers of 
 the Imperial houses of Austria or Russia. 
 Let a regular dynasty be formed, and an 
 end will be put to those wretched plots 
 which thwart the authority of the Prince 
 and lead to his downfall ; plots in which the 
 Boyards, jealous of the head of the State, 
 and anxious to occupy his place, sacrifice 
 the public weal in the hope of gratifying 
 their own ambition. The example of a w^ell- 
 organized Court, with a virtuous and able 
 prince at its head, would do more to era- 
 dicate the remnants of Oriental corruption 
 which still exist in these countries, and to 
 substitute in their place sentiments of honour, 
 of patriotism, and of truth, than all the cen- 
 sures of the Press, or the remonstrances of 
 foreign powers. Let the integrity of tlie 
 
9.2 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 new nation be guaranteed as was that of 
 (jrreece, and the Pruth would be no longer 
 too feeble a barrier against the inroads of 
 Eussia, nor a simple line of boundary, a 
 useless obstacle to the encroachments of 
 Austria. Peace would at length, after long 
 centuries of turmoil and intrigue, visit these 
 unhappy countries. Moldo-Wallachia might 
 then become, in reality, the granary of 
 Europe, and, under an independent govern- 
 ment, with rational institutions, would share 
 in all those advantages of progressive civili- 
 zation which have been hitherto denied to it 
 by its deplorable position. You cannot ex- 
 pect the virtues of patriotism from men who 
 have in reality no country, that is to say, 
 where the aggregate of the people of whom 
 they form a part is not bound together 
 by equitable social laws ; nor can you expect 
 that the higher moral and intellectual qua- 
 lities of a nation will develop themselves 
 under a government which is too corrupt to 
 appreciate such qualities or to give them en- 
 couragement. 
 
 The following is the treaty which Bladus, 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCJPALITIES. 93 
 
 Yaivode of Wallachia, made with Sultan 
 Mahomet IT., m 1460. This treaty is the 
 fact upon which the Turks found their 
 right of suzereinty over the people of this 
 Principality. Its spirit has never been 
 altered by any subsequent act, and it is 
 the groundwork of all the ulterior arrange- 
 ments which have been made between the 
 Principalities and the Porte, and between 
 Eussia and Turkey, for the government of 
 Moldo-Wallachia : — 
 
 1st. ^' The Sultan engages for himself and 
 his successors, to give protection to Walla- 
 chia, and to defend it against all enemies, 
 assuming nothing more than a supremacy 
 over the sovereignty of that Principality, the 
 Vaivodes of which shall be bound to pay to 
 the Sublime Porte an annual tribute of 
 10,000 piastres. 
 
 2nd. " The Sublime Porte shall never in- 
 terfere in the local administration of the said 
 Principality, nor shall any Turk be ever per- 
 mitted to come into Wallachia without an 
 ostensible reason. 
 
94 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 3rd. ^' Every year an officer of the Porte 
 shall come to Wallachia to receive the 
 tribute, and on his return shall be accom- 
 panied by an officer of the Vaivode, as 
 far as Griurgevo, on the Danube, where 
 the money shall be counted over again, a 
 second receipt given for it, and when it 
 has been carried in safety to the other side 
 of that river, Wallachia shall no longer 
 be responsible for any accident that may 
 befall it. 
 
 4th. " The Vaivodes shall continue to be 
 elected by the archbishop, metropolitan, 
 bishops and boyards, and the election shall 
 be acknowledged by the Porte. 
 
 5th. " The Wallachian nation shall con- 
 tinue to enjoy the tree exercise of their own 
 laws ; and the Vaivodes shall have the right 
 of life and death over their own subjects 
 as well as that of making war and peace, 
 without having to account for any such pro- 
 ceedings to the Sublime Porte. 
 
 6th. " All Christians, who having once 
 embraced the Mohammedan faith, should 
 come into Wallachia and resume the Christian 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 95 
 
 religion, shall not be claimed by any Ottoman 
 autliorities. 
 
 7 til. " Wallacliian subjects wlio may have 
 occasion to go into any part of the Ottoman 
 dominions, shall not be there called upon 
 for the haratsh, or capitation tax, paid by 
 other r ayahs. 
 
 8th. " If any Turk have a law-suit in Wal- 
 lachia, with a subject of the country, his 
 cause shall be heard and decided by the 
 Wallachian divan, conformably to the local 
 laws. 
 
 9th. " All Turkish merchants coming to 
 buy and sell goods in the Principality, shall, 
 on their arrival, have to give notice to the 
 local authorities for the time necessary for 
 their stay, and shall depart when that time 
 is expired. 
 
 1 0th. " No Turk is authorized to take away 
 one or more servants of either sex, natives of 
 Wallachia, and no Turkish mosque shall ever 
 exist on any part of the Wallachian ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 1 1th. " The Sublime Porte promises never 
 to grant a Firman at the request of a Wal- 
 
9G JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 lacliian subject, for his affairs in Wallachia, 
 of whatever nature they may be ; and never 
 to assume the right of calHng to Constanti- 
 nople, or to any other part of the Turkish 
 dominions, a Wallachian subject, on any 
 pretence whatever." 
 
 The Wallachians had been at war with 
 the Turks, and having met with reverses, 
 they were forced to conclude a peace, and the 
 foregoing treaty contains the terms on which 
 that peace was established. 
 
 The Danube often proved an inefficient 
 barrier between the Christians of Moldo- 
 Wallachia, and their fanatical neighbours. 
 After the death of Mahomet 11. , the Turks 
 made frequent inroads into the Principalities, 
 and at one time seized upon the fortresses of 
 Ibraila, Giurgevo, and Tourno. In 1598, 
 however, the Yaivode Michael put to the 
 sword a body of three thousand janissaries, 
 who were committing horrible ravages in the 
 country, and finally di'ove the Turks across 
 the Danube. Mahomet III. invaded Moldo- 
 Wallachia, with an army of sixty thousand 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 97 
 
 men, and after a five years' struggle, the 
 Maliommeclans were completely routed, and 
 again driven across the Danube. On the 
 death of Michael, in 1602, the Turks taking 
 advantage of the confusion which followed 
 that event, crossed the Danube at different 
 points, and forced the Wallachians to elect a 
 Yaivode named by the Sultan. The treaty 
 of Mahomet II. was then again put in force, 
 and the amount of the tribute raised, and 
 from that period, up to the present time, the 
 position of the Principahties with regard to 
 the Porte has virtually remained the same. 
 
 It was not tin 1536 that Moldavia be- 
 came a tributary of the Porte. Tliis, how- 
 ever, was a voluntary act on the part of the 
 Vaivode, who, as a measure of prudence, 
 offered to pay an annual tribute to Sultan 
 Suleyman I., in exchange for that monarch's 
 protection. The same treaty as that exist- 
 ing between the Porte and Wallachia was 
 then concluded between Suleyman and the 
 Vaivode of Moldavia, but the word ' tribute ' 
 was omitted, and ' peshkiesh,' or ' present,' 
 substituted in its stead. 
 
 1 
 
98 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 It was in 1710 that the Russians first 
 entered into correspondence with the Princes 
 of Moldo-Wallachia. Bessarabha, then Yai- 
 vode of Wallachia, secretly agreed to furnish 
 Peter the Great with a contingent of thirty 
 thousand men, to aid him in his war against 
 the Turks, and to furnish, moreover, the 
 Russian army with provisions and other ne- 
 cessaries. This arrangement became known 
 at Constantinople, and the Porte determined 
 to put Bessarabba to death, by luring him 
 into a snare. Demetrius Cantimir, the his- 
 torian, was chosen by the Porte to be the 
 organ of its vengeance, and he was accord- 
 ingly sent as Vaivode to Moldavia, and 
 Nicholas Mavrocordato, the reigning Vai- 
 vode, was deposed. Cantimir, however, so 
 far from complying with the instructions of 
 the Porte, had no sooner arrived at Yassy, 
 than he sent to the Czar, offering him his 
 services. Peter, seeing matters so favour- 
 able, entered Yassy at the head of a large 
 army, in 1711 ; but Bessarabba, alarmed at 
 the approach of 220,000 Turks, failed in his 
 promise to the Czar, and it is to this conduct 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 99 
 
 on the part of tlie Wallachian Yaivode, that 
 is to be chiefly attributed the reverses of the 
 Eussian arms in that campaign. When 
 peace was conckided, Bessarabba was sent, 
 with all his family, to Constantinople, where > 
 he and his sons, after being tortured, were 
 put to death, and Stephen Cantacuzene, a 
 descendant of the imperial family of that 
 name, was appointed Yaivode in his stead, 
 and Nicholas Mavrocordato was reinstated 
 in the place left vacant by the defection of 
 the Yaivode Cantimir, in Moldavia. 
 
 It was after Cantacuzene's short reign of 
 two years, that the Porte determined to take 
 exclusively into its own hands the nomina- 
 tion of the Hospodars of Moldo-Wallachia, 
 and to abolish the system of election. This 
 determination was come to at the instigation 
 of Alexander Mavrocordato, then chief dra- 
 goman to the Turkish government ; and it 
 was also at his suggestion that the Sultan 
 ordered that, for the fature, the Hospodars 
 for Wallachia and Moldavia should be chosen 
 from amongst the Fanariot Greeks of Con- 
 stantinople. The Turks, at that time, re- 
 
 F 2 
 
100 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 posed great trust in the Greeks of the Fanaar, 
 and it was, therefore, easy to persuade them 
 to choose from amongst them the new Yai- 
 vodes, whom they supposed would be more 
 tractable than those elected from amongst 
 the native Boyards of the Principalities. 
 This system of appointing the Yaivodes by 
 a simple firman from the Porte, continued 
 till after the treaty of Adrianople, in 1S29, 
 when M. de Kisselief, then Eussian Plenipo- 
 tentiary of the Principalities, drew up a form 
 of government for Moldo-Wallachia, known 
 as the *' Reglement Organic." Eussia had 
 then become a protecting Power, and had a 
 voice even more potent than that of Turkey 
 in the internal affairs of the Principalities. 
 By the " Reglement Organic'' the system 
 of electing Hospodars from amongst the 
 native Boyards was restored, but the election 
 was subject to the joint approval of both the 
 Sublime Porte and the Court of St. Peters- 
 burg. A veto from either Power was suffi- 
 cient to annul the election. At the revolu- 
 tion which took place in these provinces in 
 1848, both princes fled, and when order was 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 101 
 
 restored in L849, MM. Stirbey and Grhika 
 were chosen without election by Russia and 
 the Porte, as Hospodars of Wallachia and 
 Moldavia, to govern these provinces, not for 
 life, according to the terms of the '^ Regle- 
 ment Organic" but for a period of seven 
 years. 
 
102 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 Not a treaty has been quoted in these pages, 
 that has not been violated by Russia. Rus- 
 sia, claiming to form one of the great family 
 of the civilized nations of Christendom, has 
 violated the treaty of Vienna, in taking pos- 
 session of the mouths of the Danube, and 
 obstructing their navigation; she has violated 
 the treaty of Adrianople, in occuj^ying the 
 islands in that river ; she has trampled on the 
 treaty of Balta-Liman, by crossing the Pruth 
 with her armies in last July, and even the 
 '' Reglenient Organic,'' drawn up by herself, 
 was flung aside as a dead letter, by both that 
 Power and Turkey, in the irregular nomina- 
 tion of MM. Stirbey and Ghika. It is diffi- 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 103 
 
 cult to say where national faitli and national 
 honour have found a refuge in these days, 
 when we see a great Christian Power, with 
 whom no promise is sacred and no treaty is 
 binding, meeting with only a qualified re- 
 pro val from the other governments of Chris- 
 tendom. Before the Christian subjects of 
 the Sultan call out for the Protectorate of 
 Eussia, let them look first to Moldo-Wal- 
 lachia, and see the baleful effects of that 
 Protectorate in these Principalities. Since 
 1829, the power of the Porte in the Danu- 
 bian provinces has been but a name. The 
 Czar, under the modest title of Protector, 
 has been, since that period, the virtual 
 sovereign of these countries. Not a single 
 appointment, from that of Hospodar, down 
 to the elder of a village, can be made with- 
 out his approval. The Eussian Consuls- 
 General have had the finances under their 
 control, and the chief of the quarantine, 
 which is a police institution, is a Eussian. 
 And has Eussia, since obtaining the Protec- 
 torate of these Principahties, gained the 
 goodwill of the inhabitants ? Was it from 
 
104 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 sympathy for them, as members of the 
 Greek Church, that she interfered in their 
 concerns ? Has the conduct of the Czar to- 
 wards them, as head of their Church, been 
 paternal or kind, or even just ? liussia 
 tolerates serfdom, and has permitted to the 
 Boyards certain feudal privileges, which 
 they can exercise over their own people, but 
 they, themselves, are in their turn but 
 the bondsmen of Eussia. She introduced 
 that fatal scourge, her police-laws and her 
 espionage, and held up to the imitation of 
 a people, emerging from barbarism, the 
 corruption which pollutes her own institu- 
 tions. 
 
 When the Russians crossed the Pruth in 
 last July, they ordered M. Stirbey, the 
 Hospodar of Wallachia, to refuse payment 
 of his tribute to the Porte, and he obeyed. 
 He was their humble servant in all they 
 wished. The other day they ordered him 
 to proclaim martial law, and he did so, and 
 all his ministers signed the document, and 
 when they wanted him no longer they ordered 
 him to be gone. He begged to remain, but 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 105 
 
 the Eussian general was inexorable, so he 
 left Bucharest for Giurgevo, intending to 
 proceed up the Danube to Vienna by the 
 Austrian packet. But when he arrived at 
 Giurgevo, the captain of the Austrian steamer 
 refused to receive him on board, and he was 
 forced to come back to Bucharest. Here at 
 the gate of his capital he was stopped by 
 the poHce, who would not allow him to 
 enter, and he was obliged to make a circuit 
 outside the town to get on the road to Her- 
 mandstadt, whither he was commanded to 
 proceed. At Hermandstadt he was arrested 
 by the Austrian authorities till permission 
 came from Vienna for the exiled Hospodar 
 of Wallachia to proceed to that city. When 
 Stirbey was gone. Prince Gortschakoffe sum- 
 moned the members of the Wallachian mi- 
 nistry before him, and addressed them fti the 
 following terms : — 
 
 " Messieurs, vous etes restes charges de 
 Tadministration du pays, mais ma position 
 vous place naturellement sous ma direction. 
 Je vous recommande I'armee Imperiale. Je 
 n'ai pas a me plaindre de la maniere dont 
 
 F 3 
 
106 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 les soldats sent traites, mais j'appelle sur 
 eux toute voire solicitude. II faut qu'ils ne 
 manquent de rien, et que vous ailliez au 
 devant de leurs besoins. Soyez zeles dans 
 raccomplissement de vos devoirs. M. de 
 Khaltcliinsky servira d'intermediare entre 
 vous et uioi. 
 
 " Vous etes sous un gouvernement mili- 
 taire ; tachez de vous eonduire de maniere 
 a ne pas en subir les rigueurs. 
 
 " Defendez severement a vos employes de 
 s'occuper de politique quelconque. 
 
 " Quiconque entretiendra une correspon- 
 dence avec la Turquie sera pendu debout 
 dans les vingt-quatre heures. Je dis cela pour 
 tout le monde, depuis le Grrand Bano, 
 jusqu'au plus petit Percalabe. Je sais 
 qu'il-y-a parmi vous des Boyards qui ont 
 ecrit pour devenir Prince et Postelnic, mais 
 sachez qu'on sera pendu avant d'etre Hos- 
 podar ou Postelnic." 
 
 Such is tlie paternal tone in which the 
 agents of the Czar speak to the ministers of 
 the Christian people of this country ; in 
 dealing with the lower classes they employ, 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 107 
 
 as may be supposed, something strongei" 
 than words. 
 
 Within the last month war has been pro- 
 claimed by the Porte, and has been accepted 
 by the Czar, and numbers have fallen on 
 both sides. From the very commencement 
 of Prince Mentschikoff's mission to Constan- 
 tinople, the Emperor Nicholas had foreseen 
 that such would be the result of his demands. 
 He must have known full well that the Sultan 
 would never have consented to place under 
 the Protectorate of Russia so many millions 
 of his subjects, and he must have also known, 
 that in this resolution the Porte would be 
 supported by the great Western Powers. 
 
 The Czar pledged his word that war was not 
 his object, and his professions were believed. 
 Negotiations were opened, but so complicated 
 did they become, that diplomacy was at 
 length bewildered, and the Porte, driven to 
 desperation by the contradictory counsels of 
 her advisers, declared war, but gave an in- 
 terval of a fortnight before commencing 
 actual hostihties. The Czar was then at 
 Olmutz, and openly made professions of 
 
108 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 peace. He was again believed, and the 
 Cabinets of the other four great Powers 
 again set to work to try and prevent blood- 
 shed. Before any light could dawn upon 
 the blundering obscurity which enveloped 
 the plans of the different diplomatists, the 
 fifteen days allowed by the Porte expired, 
 and Turks and Eussians were at once en- 
 gaged in deadly strife on the Danube. On 
 Sunday, the 23rd day of October, the delay 
 allowed by the Sultan expired. On that 
 very day orders were given to the Russian 
 flotilla to advance up the Danube. The 
 cannon on board the steamer and gun-boats 
 were ready shotted, and the vessels were 
 cleared for action. The fort of Issactche 
 was the first formidable point which the 
 flotilla had to pass. On the left bank op- 
 posite to Issactche, General Luders hastily 
 threw up some works beliind which he placed 
 his mortars. When the hostile flotilla ad- 
 vanced the Turkish fortress opened its fire, 
 which was returned by the gun-boats and 
 steamer, whilst General Luder's battery from 
 the opposite bank threw shells into Issactche, 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 109 
 
 which finally burned the town. It is evi- 
 dent then that the Eussians in this provoked 
 hostilities, and that they had determined, 
 though negotiations for peace were going 
 on in Europe to force Turkey into war. It 
 will be seen from the Russian bulletin, that 
 it had been at first intended to send up the 
 flotilla during the night, under cover of the 
 darkness, but that the commander and officers 
 begged that the movement should take place 
 in open day. The conflict therefore was 
 foreseen, and Greneral Luders, having thrown 
 up a battery on the right bank, showed that 
 the Russians determined to make the most 
 of the conflict. When the telegraphic des- 
 patch of the French Consul-General at Bu- 
 charest, announcing this event, was published 
 in Paris and London, few would give it 
 credit. It was natural enough, that in the 
 face of the solemn protestations of peace 
 made by the Emperor a few days before, 
 scarcely any one would credit that he had 
 privately ordered his generals on the Danube 
 to commence hostihties. The sanguinary 
 affair of Oltanitza rapidly succeeded that of 
 
110 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 Issactche. The horrors of war have begun ; 
 negotiations are now useless, and notes and 
 protocols may be flung to the wind. 
 
 The great Powers of Western Europe 
 now know what they have to expect from 
 Eussia, how insincere are her professions, 
 and how great her contempt for interna- 
 tional rights. AU the attempts of France 
 and England at an arrangement have failed, 
 and their counsels and remonstrances have 
 been treated with contempt by the govern- 
 ment of the Czar. 
 
 Eussia can overwhelm Turkey, if the latter 
 power be not assisted. Eussia has continued 
 to occupy the Danubian Principalities in 
 spite of our remonstrances. WiU we allow 
 her to take possession of Constantinople ? 
 The Czar is driving Europe into a general 
 war, but the bloodshed and the horrors which 
 attend such a calamity will be laid at his 
 door. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. ill 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 It is impossible to suppose tliat tlie inha- 
 bitants of the kingdom of Grreece believe that 
 the sympathy professed for them by Eussia 
 is either sincere or disinterested. One fact 
 alone will be sufficient to show what are the 
 real views of the cabinet of St. Petersburg 
 with regard that country. 
 
 In 1843 a conspiracy was got up m 
 Grreece, which had for its object to force 
 King Otho to abandon his throne, and fly 
 from the country, that a Hospodar appointed 
 by Eussia might be placed in his stead. At 
 the head of this conspiracy was the then 
 Eussian charge d'affaires at Athens, and the 
 chief instrument in carrying on his schemes 
 
112 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 was General Kalergi. About three years 
 ago I was staying at the island of Hydra, 
 where General Kalergi then resided with his 
 relative, M. Conduriotis. We were thrown 
 a good deal together, and it was then that I 
 learned the original object of the revolution 
 which took place in Greece in 1843. 
 
 General Kalergi told me that for some 
 time previous to the month of September, 
 1843, he had been in constant secret com- 
 munication with the Eussian Minister at 
 Athens. He was then, he said, devoted 
 heart and soul to Eussia, and was determined 
 to carry out her designs even at the risk of 
 his life. Kalergi has a great and well de- 
 served reputation for bravery, and he is 
 moreover an excellent officer. These quali- 
 ties had given him great influence over the 
 whole Greek army, but he was particularly 
 beloved by the cavalry, of which he was the 
 immediate chief. It was on account of this 
 influence which Kalergi possessed over the 
 Greek troops, and his known devotion to 
 Eussia, that he was chosen as a proper in- 
 strument by the Eussian agent. A little 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 113 
 
 before midnight on the 3rd September, 1843, 
 Kalergi placed himself at the head of the 
 cavalry, which had been kept under arms, 
 and sent his aide-de-camp to order the artil- 
 lery and infantry to join him without delay. 
 The aide-de-camp, who was accompanied by 
 a detachment of Lancers, was instructed to 
 put under arrest any officer who refused to 
 obey Kalergi' s command. Only a few officers 
 devoted to Kalergi were aware of the object 
 of the movement, the mass of the army knew 
 nothing of the reason of their being called 
 out, but they obeyed Kalergi as he was the 
 officer commanding in the town. As to the 
 citizens, they were, one and all, kept in the 
 most profound ignorance with regard to the 
 plot or its objects. When the troops were 
 assembled, Kalergi appealed to their love for 
 their country, for which they had fought and 
 bled, and he then excited their resentment 
 against the present order of things, by show- 
 ing them that the court was filled by 
 foreigners, and that honours and favours 
 were daily showered upon strangers, whilst 
 the Greeks, who had purchased their coun- 
 
114 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 try's independence with tlieir blood, were 
 treated with neglect. He then called on 
 them to follow him, and that he would ob- 
 tain redress. His speech was answered by a 
 cheer, and he at once marched to the palace, 
 which he surrounded with his troops, whilst 
 he planted his loaded cannon at the gates. In 
 the early part of the evening an order had 
 been sent to the commander of a Greek war 
 steamer lying at the Piraeus, who was in the 
 plot, to have his steam up at about midnight, 
 to be ready to convey King Otlio to Trieste 
 the instant His Majesty arrived on board. 
 The conspirators naturally concluded that 
 the King, terrified by the revolt of his troops, 
 would at once fly from Grreece. In this, 
 however, they were mistaken. His Majesty 
 is a man of undaunted courage, and he was 
 determined that if he could not remain on 
 his throne, that he would at least die in its 
 defence. Thus the main object of the con- 
 spirators failed. In this dilemma Kalergi 
 sent his aide-de-camp for instructions to M. 
 Katakasi, the Eussian minister. M. Katakasi, 
 however, had already received information 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 115 
 
 of the state of things at the Palace, and of 
 the King's determination to defend his crown 
 to the last extremity. The Russian minister 
 saw at once that his plot had failed ; and to 
 save himself and his government, if possible, 
 from the stigma of being the instigators of 
 the treason, he determined to abandon 
 Kalergi to his fate, and therefore loading the 
 Greneral's aide-de-camp with abuse, calling 
 him rebel and villain, he drove him out of 
 his house. When the aide-de-camp returned 
 to Kalergi, and told him of the reception he 
 had met with from M. Katakasi, " I felt my 
 head," the Gleneral said to me, " tottering 
 on my shoulders ; I was in a state of rage 
 and despair, but I was determined to make a 
 bold attempt to try and save the lives of 
 those who, like myself, had been seduced 
 into the undertaking. I therefore sent my 
 aide-de-camp to Sir Edmund Lyons, to tell 
 him of the position in which I was placed, 
 and to beg his advice and protection. Sir 
 Edmund at once sent me back word, to re- 
 main where I was, to keep the troops quiet, 
 and that he would go and see the King." 
 
116 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 The people had followed the troops into 
 the open place before the palace. When 
 they heard the movement was to get rid of 
 the foreign employes, they joined in the cry, 
 and they shouted out that the King should 
 give them a constitution. Sir Edmund 
 Lyons had not been long in conference with 
 the King, when he came out and announced 
 to the soldiers and the people, in the name 
 of his Majesty, that the foreign employes 
 should be all sent out of Grreece, and that a 
 constitution would be given to that country. 
 This announcement was received with wild 
 enthusiasm, the soldiers returned to their 
 quarters, and the citizens carried Kalergi in 
 triumph thi'ough the streets of Athens. 
 Thus, as it sometimes happens, out of evil 
 comes good. 
 
 Kalergi, after these events, became the 
 devoted friend of Sir Edmund Lyons. He 
 went to England shortly after as the patriot 
 who had obtained a constitution for Greece, 
 and he was presented with 3,000/. and a 
 costly sword, by his countrymen who are 
 established there as merchants. So con- 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 117 
 
 fident was the Eussian Government of the 
 success of this conspiracy, that they had 
 abeady appointed a Eussian governor for 
 Greece, and had made all the arrangements 
 for placing the country under the exclusive 
 protection of the Czar. 
 
US JOURNAL or A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 It has been the fashion for some years 
 past to decry the kingdom of Greece, its 
 government, and its laws. I have been well 
 acquainted with that country since 1843, for 
 I arrived there in that year on board the 
 same British frigate which brought Mavro- 
 cordato, who after the revolution was ap- 
 pointed prime-minister. I could never dis- 
 cover any but a very flimsy basis for all this 
 abuse. The evils which do exist in the 
 country spring entirely from its poverty 
 and its weakness, and the only remedy for 
 them is to find some measure which would 
 render the country stronger and more pros- 
 perous. In these days tlie power and 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 119 
 
 wealth of a nation depend chiefly on its 
 commerce. The commerce of Greece is very 
 limited, and for this reason — that its soil is, 
 for the greater part, unproductive, and its 
 population small, and, generally speaking, 
 poor. Patras and Syra are the only towns 
 of any commercial importance. Patras has 
 an export trade in currants ; and Syra owes 
 its comparative prosperity to its position, 
 which is admirably adapted for transit 
 trade. It cannot be said that the Greeks are 
 either idle or ignorant ; they make the most 
 of the few local advantages which they 
 possess. The trade of Patras and Syra have 
 been developed to their utmost limits since 
 the independence of the country has been 
 established. Those Greeks who could not 
 find an opening in their own country have 
 carried their talents and their spirit of 
 enterprise elsewhere. Within the last few 
 years they, by their unwearied activity, 
 have absorbed the whole trade of the 
 Levant ; and the millions which are yearly 
 exported from Great Britain to the Medi- 
 terranean pass through their hands. One 
 
120 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 of the richest banking-houses in the world 
 at the present day is that of Baron Sina at 
 Vienna, who is a most patriotic Greek, and 
 Consul- General and Agent for King Otho in 
 Austria. The house of Mr. Ealli, Consul- 
 General for Greece in London, holds a very 
 high place amongst the commercial esta- 
 blishments of Great Britain. Mr. Ealli has 
 large commercial houses in Constantinople, 
 St. Petersburg, Odessa, and Calcutta, and at 
 different ports of the Mediterranean. There 
 are no people who have so strong a spirit of 
 national union amongst them as the Greeks. 
 Their general prosperity and success in 
 foreign countries is almost entirely owing to 
 this sentiment. They mutually assist each 
 other, and this is the reason why in most of 
 the commercial crises the Greek houses have 
 remained intact, whilst many of greater pre- 
 tensions, both British and foreign, became 
 bankrupt. When a Greek is prosperous in 
 the world he extends his assistance to all 
 his relations, and never denies a claim made 
 upon him in the name of his country. 
 
 It cannot be said the Greeks are ignorant, 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 121 
 
 for the university of Athens is at present 
 the fu'st seat of ancient Greek learnino- in 
 Euro]3e. Modern Greek, which only a few 
 years ago was studied solely by some Fana- 
 riot families, is now spoken with purity by 
 millions of the Greek race. There is not 
 a town or village throughout Greece that 
 has not a college or a school paid by the 
 nation. I remember visiting, not long ago, 
 a little village about twelve miles from 
 Naupha, on the sea- shore. The inhabitants 
 were very poor — some of the poorest in all 
 Greece — but they had a school. The wretched 
 people toiled at the meagre soil from morn- 
 ing till night to keep the wolf from the 
 door ; and though their children might have 
 aided them in their labour, yet they thought 
 it their first duty to send their little ones to 
 school. I visited this school, where I found 
 some thirty children assembled. They were 
 supplied with slates and books by the com- 
 mune, but writing-paper was an expensive 
 luxury which was only given to the more 
 advanced pupils. The beginners learned to 
 write upon the sand. There was a long 
 
 G 
 
122 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 board, with a ledge round it, strewed with a 
 thin layer of fine sea-sand, and before this 
 eight or ten little creatures were standing, 
 and with their chubby fingers were drawing 
 ujDon the sand their alphas and omegas 
 under the direction of a monitor. They all 
 pulled oft* their red caps when I entered, and 
 laying their little hands on their breasts, 
 they made me a grave bow. The head boy, 
 who had nothing on but a loose shirt and 
 very wide pair of breeches, recited for me, 
 with a great deal of fire, a warlike passage 
 out of Homer, which was applauded by all 
 the little fellows as soon as he had finished. 
 
 Arithmetic, geography, and general his- 
 tor}^ are taught in all these small schools. 
 Besides the university at Athens, there are 
 two royal colleges ; one at Patras, the other 
 at the Piraeus ; and there are large public 
 schools in all the principal towns. I was 
 present once at the midsummer examination 
 which took place at the public school of 
 Tripolitza, where the pupils answered ex- 
 ceedingly well in mathematics, literature, 
 and history. There is an extensive military 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 123 
 
 college at the Piraeus, and judging from 
 what I saw at the public examination there, 
 it is conducted as well as any estabhshment 
 of the kind in Europe. There is, also, a 
 school of agriculture near Nauplia, which 
 has done a great deal of good by introducing 
 improved machinery into the husbandly of 
 the country, and by the excellent system 
 taught there for the cultivation of tobacco 
 and of the vine. The exportation of tobacco 
 from Xauplia has of late become pretty con- 
 siderable. It is almost all shipped from that 
 port to Marseilles. 
 
 After having shown that the Grreeks are 
 an industrious and well-educated people, I 
 think it will be very easy to prove that they 
 are lovers of freedom. In Greece there is a 
 limited monarchy ; there is a parliament com- 
 posed of a senate and chamber of deputies, 
 and there is universal suffrage. The press is 
 free, and the expression of individual opinion 
 is uncontrolled. There are no passports, no 
 spies, no tortures, and no condemnation 
 without a legal trial. People are found who 
 assert that King Otho is opposed to a po- 
 
 G 2 
 
124 JOURNAL OY A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 pular form of government, and that he has 
 with him a party whose constant efforts are 
 to try and overthrow the constitution. Such 
 assertions are totally unfounded. The only 
 enemies of the constitution in Greece are the 
 Russians. It is with them that originate all 
 the accusations against King Otho, his go- 
 vernment, and his people. It is they who 
 are most active in trying to vilify Greece in 
 the eyes of Em^ope, that they may hold it 
 up as a model of the evil effects of constitu- 
 tional freedom. I defy the enemies of Greece 
 to point out a single unconstitutional, arbi- 
 trary, or cruel act that was ever sanctioned 
 by King Otho. His Majesty accepted the 
 constitution in 1843, because it was the will 
 of the nation, and he has remained conscien- 
 tiously faithful to the pledge he then gave. 
 In this his example has been followed by his 
 brother King Maximilian of Bavaria. King 
 Maximilian ascended the throne in 1848, and 
 swore allegiance to the constitution, and he 
 is the only sovereign of central Europe that 
 has not broken a similar engagement. The 
 Emperor of Austria is the first cousin, and 
 
 I 
 J 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 125 
 
 has again been nearly allied to the King of 
 Bavaria, and what account did the Austrian 
 government set upon the constitution or tlie 
 oaths by which it was made sacred? The 
 King of Prussia is also the relative of King 
 Maximilian, and where are the popular 
 rights which that monarch swore to give to 
 his people ? Uninfluenced by the example 
 of his powerful neighbours, and unswayed 
 by their remonstrances, the King of Bavaria, 
 in the midst of the despotic states by which 
 he is surrounded, has kept his honour unsul- 
 lied and his word unbroken. 
 
 The same rehgious toleration which exists 
 in Bavaria exists also in Grreece. In Ba- 
 varia the large Protestant population enjoy 
 equal rights with their Catholic fellow-citi- 
 zens. The king is a Roman Catholic, but 
 Queen Marie of Bavaria is a Protestant. 
 The majority of the Grreek people belong to 
 the orthodox faith, but their king is a Ca- 
 tholic, and the Queen of Greece is a Pro- 
 testant. Grreeks of all religions are equal 
 before the law, nor is one religion favoured 
 in the slightest degree more than another. 
 
126 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 There is a cliapel in the palace of Athens in 
 which, when mass has been said in presence 
 of the king, the Protestant chaplain performs 
 the service of his church for the queen. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 127 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 There is a very handsome Protestant 
 church in Athens, near the AcropoHs, dedi- 
 cated to St. Paul. There is also a large 
 Catholic church in the city. The congrega- 
 tions which frequent both churches are very 
 Hmited. In the Peloponnesus, the islands of 
 the ^gean sea, and the interior of Attica, 
 the population is entirely of the Grreek faith. 
 I remember that in my first visit to Nauplia 
 I was wandering through some of the re- 
 mote streets in search of the remains of that 
 proud repubhc of Venice whose winged lions 
 are still over the gates of the town, when 
 I found myself before what had once been a 
 Turkish mosque. Wliilst looking at this 
 
128 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 relic of a people that had at one time 
 triumphed over the fleets and armies of Ve- 
 nice and the militant church of Christendom, 
 a door of the old mosque opened, and there 
 came out a Catholic priest. The mosque 
 had been converted into a chapel this gen- 
 tleman told me, and was confided to his 
 care. We entered the old mosque toge- 
 ther. Over the altar was a handsome paint- 
 ing of the Holy Family, which was a present 
 from the late Queen of the French. He told 
 me that he was all alone ; that he had not 
 even a clerk. He said that in Nauplia there 
 was not a single Catholic, but that there 
 were a few Bavarians employed in the ar- 
 senal, and that on Sundays and feast-days 
 they came to assist at the sacrifice of the 
 mass. He said that until that day, for a 
 long time, he had not spoken Italian, which 
 was his native tongue. He spoke Greek 
 well, but he said it was pleasant to him to 
 hear the language of his childhood. He 
 leaned his head pensively on one side as he 
 said this. I saw that he was thinkino- of his 
 convent- garden in the Alban hills. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 129 
 
 Nessuii magg-ior dolore, 
 Che recordarsi del tempo felice, nella miseria, 
 
 says poor Francesca, and this is a very touch- 
 ing truth, even though written in less beau- 
 tiful words than those of Dante. 
 
 Early the next morning I came back to 
 the chapel and waited on the priest whilst 
 saying mass. It was a duty I had done in 
 times gone by with a lighter heart. We 
 were alone, and there was sometliing more 
 than usually solemn and mournful in the 
 words of the sacrifice, as they echoed under 
 the domed roof of the old mosque. 
 
 In the dominions of King Otho the 
 Grreek race have the means of obtaining a 
 refined and useful education, as well as a love 
 for constitutional freedom. It is impossible 
 then to suppose that, possessed of these ad- 
 vantages, they would ever wiUingly consent 
 to become the serfs of Eussia. In Greece 
 the peasantry are almost in general proprie- 
 tors of the portion of land on which they 
 live, and they pay no other tribute than 
 the taxes due to the government, which are 
 legally assessed. Here, in Moldo-Wallachia, 
 
 G 3 
 
130 JOURNAL OV A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 which is nnder the protection of Eussia, the 
 peasants are little better than slaves. I 
 have seen them struck, and even crnelly 
 beaten by those above them in rank, without 
 murmuring, or even dreaming of seeking re- 
 dress. The Greeks have a traditional hatred 
 to the Turks ; but I have never met one 
 amongst them who would aid Eussia in 
 making war against the Porte if he thought 
 that, on the overthrow of the Sultan, he 
 should fall under the yoke of the Czar. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 131 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. ; 
 
 i 
 At the end of October I started one eveninof i 
 
 at about ten o'clock from Bucharest for the ' 
 
 town of Griurgevo. I was in a light open 
 
 carriage, drawn by four horses. There was I 
 
 only a place for one person inside, and my ; 
 
 servant sat upon a seat in front. It was a i 
 
 sharp, frosty night, but I was well wrapped i 
 
 in furs, and I lay at full length in the bottom ' 
 
 of the carriage, for I had the seat removed, 
 
 with a thick layer of hay beneath me, and a ■ 
 
 bag of despatches under my head. I beguiled 
 
 the way in looking at the stars, which were 
 
 shining wdth solemn brightness in the clear 
 
 sky above me, and I soothed my spirits by 
 
 smoking some excellent cigars, which a ; 
 
132 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 thouglitful friend had bestowed upon me 
 before parting. Smoking the chibouk, with 
 which I always travel in these countries, was 
 out of the question, for going at full speed, 
 as we did, over the uneven ground, it would 
 have been impossible to hold it steadily to 
 one's lips. At about twelve miles from 
 Bucharest our headlong career was brought 
 to a sudden check by two Bussian sentinels, 
 with fixed bayonets. The terrified postilion 
 pulled up his horses in a twinkling, and the 
 soldiers, seizing them by their heads, led us 
 ofi* the high road into the midst of an en- 
 campment. Here we were questioned by 
 an officer, who seeing, I suppose, our harm- 
 less appearance, and that our passports were 
 in order, permitted us to proceed. Though 
 the encampment was large the silence was 
 profound, and we certainly should have 
 passed it by without knowing we were near 
 so formidable a force, had we not been 
 stopped by the sentries on the high road. 
 The men's arms were piled before each tent, 
 and suspended from the fixed bayonets were 
 the helmets and cross-belts all ready to hand. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 133 
 
 There was only one watch-fire, and that was 
 at a little distance beyond the camp. There 
 were some eighty or ninety men standing 
 round it, dressed in their long great-coats. 
 They stood there like statues, not speaking 
 a word. Grrim and fierce they looked in the 
 flickering light of the fire, and so profound 
 was the silence around them, and so motion- 
 less their attitudes, that they seemed as if 
 engaged in some unholy rite. The moment 
 we were clear of the camp we scampered 
 away quicker than ever. Every ten miles 
 we got fresh horses, and by giving a small 
 present to the chouch, or stable-keeper, we 
 got the best of his steeds. 
 
 A little before dawn we entered the town 
 of Giurgevo. The dispatches which I had 
 with me were to be sent across the Danube 
 to Butschuck to Said Pacha, who had orders 
 to forward them by a Tatar to the British 
 Ambassador at Constantinople. The case 
 was one of great difficulty, for martial law 
 had been proclaimed and all communications 
 with the Turkish bank of the river was 
 forbidden under pain of death. We, how- 
 
134 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 ever, succeeded in getting the despatches 
 across to Eutscliuck, and they were at the 
 proper time duly received hy Lord Stratford 
 de Eedchffe. 
 
 There are two small islands lying opposite 
 to Giurgevo, one of these is called in 
 Wallachian Mokan. The whole surface of 
 this island is thickly covered with stunted 
 trees, under which a large body of men might 
 easily remain unseen. The other island, 
 which lies a little higher up the river than 
 Mokan, is an open marsh on which there is a 
 watchhouse raised upon poles, which at 
 the time I visited Giurgevo, was occupied 
 by Cossacks. At dawn, on the 2nd of No- 
 vember, eleven boats filled with men were 
 discovered coming down the river from the 
 direction of Eutschuck and making towards 
 Mokan. The fog was very thick, so that 
 the boats were half way through when the 
 alarm was given. There was only one point 
 at Giurgevo from which artillery could reach 
 these boats, and from this point the Eussian 
 guns were distant about half a quarter of a 
 mile. Before these guns could be brought 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 135 
 
 up, eight of the boats had reached Mokan 
 and landed their men, but three still re- 
 mained, and upon these the Eussian artillery 
 opened their fire. No sooner had the first 
 gun been fired than a Turkish war steamer 
 came out from Eutschuck and sweeping 
 bravely down the river took the boats in 
 tow and returned the fire of the Eussians. 
 Giurgevo at the point where the guns were 
 stationed is about thirty-five or forty feet 
 above the level of the river. The steamer 
 was on the outside of the first island, she had, 
 therefore, to fire over the island and on to 
 the height where the artillery was stationed. 
 This the people on board the steamer per- 
 formed with a scientific skill difficult to 
 surpass. One shot from the steamer killed 
 a Wallachian sentry, another struck a house 
 in the town at about three feet from the 
 ground, making a breach in the front wall, 
 and then recochetting, broke its way through 
 a second wall, and a third shot killed a woman 
 in one of the streets, whicli is about a hundred 
 yards from the bank of the river. I mention 
 these details to show that the Turkish 
 
136 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 artillerymen know their business, for firing, 
 as they did by parabole, is not a thing to 
 be learned in a day. All this time the men 
 in the boats, taken in tow by the steamer, 
 were standing up and firing their muskets, 
 as if in defiance, though the shots were 
 dropping aromid them. The three boats 
 finally reached the island and landed their 
 men, and the steamer anchored close in on the 
 Turkish bank of the mainland. As far as I 
 could see of the men on the island of Mokan, 
 through a very good glass, and of the others 
 who came to reinforce them on the following 
 days, they must have been all irregular troops. 
 The Turks are still (19th November) in pos- 
 session of Mokan, though various attempts 
 have been made to dislodge them, one of 
 which was ofiicially announced as being suc- 
 cessful. When I left; Giurgevo, the Eus- 
 sians had two thousand infantry, a regiment 
 of hussars, and twenty pieces of cannon in 
 the town and the immediate neighbourhood. 
 My intention on leaving Griurgevo was to 
 go by the road along the river to Oltanitza, 
 the head-quarters of Greneral Daniijenberg. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 137 
 
 We knew that the Turks had landed in 
 force near Oltanitza, and that a battle at 
 that point was inevitable, if it had not al- 
 ready taken place. The governor of 
 Grim-gevo, however, advised me not to go 
 by the bank of the river as I would thus 
 run the risk of being picked off by a stray 
 shot, but recommended a road higher up 
 which was quite as short and much safer. 
 As I have always had a great objection to 
 being killed by mistake, I followed the 
 governor's advice. I know nothing more 
 exhilarating than after a good cup of coffee 
 in the morning to get into one * of these 
 little Wallachian carriages, and with four or 
 six horses to dash off at full speed across 
 the wild shrubless steppes. I had four ex- 
 cellent horses going out of Griurgevo with a 
 gipsy boy as postilion. I promised him 
 an additional swanzaker if he drove fast. 
 He grinned at this, and tightening the sash 
 he wore round his waist, shrieked at his 
 horses, and cracking his long-thonged whip 
 over his head, we started off at full speed. 
 The little T\Tetch seemed delighted with his 
 
138 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 work, for he would lean forward in liis saddle 
 uttering piercing cries, at which the horses 
 would lay down their ears and gallop away 
 faster, if possible, than before. When at times 
 he turned round, laughing, with his flashing 
 eyes, and glittering white teeth, and his 
 elfin hair streaming in the wind, he looked a 
 perfect imp. 
 
 It was a more serious thmg than I 
 thought, that of entering the Russian lines ; 
 for those pleasant fellows, the Cossacks, have 
 a habit of firing at strangers ; but I think 
 it right to say that if they do not succeed in 
 killing you at the first shot, they often enter 
 very willingly into conversation, and are 
 ready to receive anything you have to give. 
 I had, therefore, to keep up the road as high 
 as Dobrene, a distance of five posts, and then 
 take the road by Negoyesti to Oltanitza. 
 At Dobrene we came upon a brigade of 
 infantry and a strong body of sappers and 
 miners, marching in the same direction as 
 ourselves. Whilst we were changing horses 
 at Dobrene a crowd of young girls, dressed 
 out in their finery, for it was a holiday, were 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 139 
 
 standing near, looking at the soldiers as they 
 passed. Some of them were very pretty ; 
 and one in particular, though she wore no 
 stockings, and her poor legs were quite pink 
 from the cold, was really beautifrd. Their 
 pleasant smile and odd curtsy, when I bade 
 them good evening, made me forget the 
 horrible Cossacks. 
 
140 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 We made a detour to get ahead of the 
 soldiers, and as night was setting in we 
 reached the banks of the Ardgish. At every 
 few paces along the road we met with bag- 
 gage waggons, detachments of soldiers and 
 stragglers of different kinds. But these 
 were all staid regular troops, and not practical 
 jokers, like the Cossacks. The Cossacks 
 prefer playing off their pranks about the 
 advanced posts of the army, where skirmish- 
 ing is going on, and where there is a little 
 pleasant license. 
 
 At nightfall the postilion struck into 
 another road to avoid the stragglers, and to 
 get on, as he thought, more rapidly. It 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 141 
 
 soon, however, became very dark, and he lost 
 his way. The sky was covered with heavy 
 dark clouds, large drops of rain began to 
 fall, and a strong wind which was against 
 us, blew the coarse dust into my eyes, as we 
 galloped along, which made them smart 
 severely. Occasionally the postilion stopped 
 and called out, but no one answered. As 
 far round as I could see, there was not a 
 sign of a human habitation. Sometimes we 
 got off the road altogether and went career- 
 ing through the fields. I like very much to 
 follow a pack of hounds when well mounted, 
 but I am forced to confess that crossing the 
 country in a carriage is not pleasant. I 
 was cold and wet, and out of temper, and 
 forgot all about the pretty faces I had seen 
 at Dobrene. At length, we suddenly stum- 
 bled in some unaccountable way, into the 
 midst of a little village. Here the postilion 
 learned his road, and about two hours later 
 we arrived at Boudesti. We were stopped 
 at the barrier ; but the sentries finding I was 
 going on to the Commander-in-chief, we 
 passed through. 
 
142 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 It was late at night when I arrived at 
 Negoyesti where I intended to sleep. Here 
 there is a khan which professes to give dr}^ 
 lodging to belated travellers. It is in a 
 damp position on the bank of the Ardgish 
 and at about two hours distance from 
 Oltanitza. The postmaster of Negoyesti 
 was absent, and the landlord of the khan 
 gave me the room which that functionary 
 generally occupied, and which he said was 
 the best in the house. It was a very dirty 
 room, containing a stove in which there was 
 no fire, a deal table, and a chair, and two 
 divans, which at night were converted into 
 beds. There was no wood to be had to make 
 a fire ; the Russians, the man said, had 
 carried it all away. So I bought two chairs 
 and had them broken up for fuel, and I soon 
 had a tolerable fire in the stove. I had 
 brought with me from Giurgevo two roast 
 fowls, a couple of bottles of wine, and some 
 bread, which was lucky, for there was little 
 to eat in the khan but onions. 
 
 For about seven hours we had been travel- 
 ling in a cloud of dark dust, or rather sand. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 143 
 
 It had not rained sufficiently to penetrate 
 the thick layer of coarse, gritty dust with 
 which the road was covered, and the horses, 
 as they galloped along, kicked it up in a 
 mass, and the strong wind, joined to the 
 speed at which we were going, kept it whirl- 
 ing round us in a cloud. My face was as 
 black as if I had come out of a coal-pit, and 
 to my dismay I found that the roast fowls, 
 when unpacked, were covered with a coating 
 of dirt, as if they had been rolled in the 
 ashes. The dust had penetrated through 
 everything. It got into the tube of my 
 chibouk, it incorporated itself with the 
 tobacco, and become a component part of 
 the bread, meat, and wine. The rain had 
 converted the dust on my hat and cloak 
 into a thick coating of stucco, and my hair 
 and beard, from the same cause, had become 
 of the colour and consistency of a tile. 
 
 As soon as I had finished my gritty meal, 
 I was preparing to lie down as comfortably 
 as I could on one of the divans, and try and 
 get to sleep, when I received a visit from an 
 aide-de-camp of the Commander-in-Chief, who 
 
144 JOURNAL or A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 told me he had been sent by the General to 
 say that it would be dangerous for me to 
 move about the advanced posts of the army, 
 for that the Cossacks, who are a wild and 
 barbarous race, had little respect for any 
 one who did not wear the Bussian uniform, 
 and the General had therefore directed that 
 an officer should accompany me, whose 
 presence would save me from molestation. 
 Thereupon the aide-de-camp introduced a 
 young officer, who spoke French very well, 
 and who turned out a very good-tempered, 
 agreeable companion. I agreed fully with 
 the aide-de-camp that even knouting the 
 Cossack to death who might l)ring me to an 
 untimely end, could scarcely do me much 
 good as I lay stark and cold on the banks 
 of the Ardgish. I therefore accepted the 
 companionship of the 3^oung officer with 
 lively gratitude, and I begged of the aide-de- 
 camp to express my acknowledgments to the 
 Prince and to General Dannenberg for their 
 thoughtful kindness. 
 
 The town of Oltanitza is situated near the 
 confluence of the river Ardgish and the 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 145 
 
 Danube. N^early opposite to Oltanitza, on 
 the right bank of the Danube, is the Turkish 
 town and fortress of Tartukai, and about 
 equidistant from both banks, is a small 
 island. At the extreme point where the 
 Ardgich falls into the Danube, is a large 
 stone building which serves as a quarantine, 
 and near it are the ruins of a fort. The 
 Turks, advancing from Tartukai, first took 
 possession of the island, where they erected 
 batteries, and then crossed over to the qua- 
 rantine point. Here they cut a ditch from 
 the Ardgich to the Danube, which enclosed 
 the quarantine and the old fort. They also 
 constructed a masked battery of nine guns. 
 The Turks were allowed to pursue their 
 operations quietly without molestation from 
 the Russians, and this I observe to have 
 been hitherto the constant tactic of Prince 
 Gortschakoff and his generals. His idea 
 seems to be to concentrate the Turkish 
 troops as much as possible at one point, and 
 then fall upon and crush them at a single 
 blow. If this be the Prince's idea, he has 
 
 H 
 
146 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 certainly underrated tlie courage and skill of 
 his adversaries. 
 
 When about ten thousand Turks were 
 concentrated about the quarantine of Olta- 
 nitza, a body of Russian cavalry were sent 
 forward to make a reconnaissance. The object 
 of this movement was evidently to draw the 
 Turks out of their entrenchments, and it 
 naturally enough succeeded with troops ex- 
 cited as are those of the Sultan. At the fire 
 which the Tm^ks opened upon them the 
 cavalry fell back, and the former, think- 
 ing them routed, tlirew planks across the 
 ditch, and, crossing over, advanced into the 
 open country. The main body of the Ras- 
 sians then pushed forward under the fire of 
 the artillery which was posted on the heights 
 behind. When within a short distance of 
 the Turks, the Russian infantry formed in 
 Une and charged. The Turks met them 
 bravely, and for a few minutes it was a 
 hand-to-hand fight. Grenerally speaking, 
 the Russian infantry soldier is a taller and a 
 1:)rawnier man than the Turk, and in a 
 
THE DAXUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 147 
 
 struggle which bone and muscle must decide, 
 supposing the courage and skill of the com- 
 batants to be equal, the Russians naturally 
 had the advantage. The Turks gave way, 
 and retreated within their works, and were 
 hotly pursued by their adversaries. The 
 Russians poured down in mass, thinking the 
 day their own, and were swarming across 
 the ditch cut by the Turks from the Ardgich 
 to the Danube, when suddenly the guns of 
 Tartukai, the batteries on the island, and 
 the seven gun-boats anchored near it, opened 
 a tremendous fire of round shot and shells, 
 whilst the masked battery near the Quaran- 
 tine belched out its grape and canister. 
 General Dannenberg said subsequently, that 
 since Borodino, he had not seen so well sus- 
 tained a fire ; and another of the Generals 
 told a friend of mine, that since the siege 
 of Warsaw, he had not seen so destructive a 
 cannonade for the time it lasted. The Rus- 
 sians were completely paralyzed at this 
 unexpected reception. There were a few 
 moments as if of stupefaction, no command 
 was given, and the men stood still under the 
 
 H 2 
 
148 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 fire of their adversaries. Luckily for tlie 
 Russians, this confusion lasted but an in- 
 stant. Suddenly the order to retire was 
 given, and the troops fell back steadily 
 beyond the range of the Turkish guns. 
 One thousand and five men of the Russians 
 were put hors de combat on that day, and 
 on an average, eight out of every ten of the 
 wounded sent into hospital have since died. 
 The Turks had a body of about eight hun- 
 dred sharpshooters armed with the Minie 
 rifle, under cover within their works, whose 
 sole duty was to shoot the Russian officers 
 whenever they came within range. This 
 accounts for the number of officers killed 
 and wounded. 
 
 In the night the Turks destroyed their 
 works, and retired across the Danube to 
 Tartukai, taking with them their killed as 
 well as their wounded. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 149 
 
 CHAPTEE XYI. 
 
 The sight of death on a field of battle, 
 does not produce the same feehng of awe 
 that is caused even by the view of a passing 
 funeral. You ride over the field the day 
 after the fight, and you thread your way 
 amongst the dead with a strange indifference 
 at the sight of so much carnage. Whilst 
 listening to the roar of battle, to the clash of 
 arms, and the cries of the combatants, your 
 mind is being prepared for the spectacle 
 which awaits it, when the smoke will have 
 cleared away and the opposing ranks have 
 ceased their work of slaughter. Then tlie 
 free wind is blowing freshly over the bodies 
 of the slain ; the sky above is bright and 
 sunny, birds are singing on the neighbour- 
 
150 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 ing trees, and the broad Danube is flowing 
 calmly on to the sea. And close to where 
 the soldier lies dead, his comrades are busy 
 with their camp-kettles cooking their morn- 
 ing meal or are going through the routine of 
 their duties. Nothing around you is in har- 
 mony with feelings of mourning or regret. 
 And so you continue your way over the 
 ground till you have satisfied your curiosity 
 as to the state of the living and the number 
 of the dead, and then you too look anxiously 
 after your morning meal, and as you are 
 sipping your coffee and smoking your pipe, 
 you speculate calmly upon the chances of the 
 war. 
 
 How different is this from the feeling of 
 depressing awe with which you look on 
 death in cities, in the sick chamber, in the 
 midst of quiet, daily avocations. In the 
 house where there is death, you walk noise- 
 lessly and hold your breath, for perhaps you 
 hear stifled sobs. It may be, a child, 
 that is weeping beside her dying father, or a 
 mother's heart that is breaking, for the boy 
 who was her pride and hope, lies dead. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 151 
 
 Some years ago I was delayed at Mar- 
 seilles, waiting the arrival of the steamer 
 which was to take me to Malta. It was 
 the merry vintage-time, when the fields 
 resound with cheerful cries ; the colleges and 
 schools are closed, professor and schoolboy 
 are free, and for some weeks at least, the 
 former bids good-bye to headaches, and the 
 latter to the salle de discipline. 
 
 On the first day of my dining at the 
 table d'hote of the hotel where I put up, 
 there was a young collegian present, who 
 told us that he lived near Cannes, and 
 that he was waiting for his father, who 
 was to come and take him home. He said 
 he had passed a good examination, and he 
 showed us the prizes he had won. The 
 sight of these prizes, he said, would make 
 his father very happy, and that was the rea- 
 son he had worked so hard to get them. He 
 worked so hard that he had made himself ill, 
 he told us, and was obliged to go to tlie 
 infirmary for a couple of days before leaving 
 the college. He was not yet well, for he 
 had a great pain in his head. But when he 
 
152 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 got home the pain would go away ; his 
 father and he would be so happy together. 
 
 He was liis father's only child : his mother <■ 
 
 was dead, she had died long ago when he | 
 
 was a baby. He amused us with his talk, \ 
 
 but before dinner was over, the pain in his ; 
 
 head was so bad that he had to go to bed. ] 
 
 His room in the hotel was next to mine, and i 
 
 as I passed it by that night, the door was \ 
 open, and I saw a night-lamp burning on the 
 
 mantel-piece and a woman, a nurse-tender i 
 
 evidently, was preparing a drink at a table on \ 
 
 wliich were some medicine bottles. j 
 
 From my bed I could hear all that passed ; 
 
 in the sick boy's room. He was attacked \ 
 
 with fever, and it was evident that he had i 
 abeady become dehrious. " Oh ! Papa ! 
 
 viens done, mon papa. Papa ! ou est mon I 
 
 Papa?" I heard him call out, and then he j 
 
 would cry and say that his father did not ; 
 
 care for him, and would never come. After 
 
 ! 
 
 some time the nurse seemed to grow angry, ■ 
 
 for I heard her say, " Hold your tongue, I 1 
 can't get a wink of sleep ; ton papa ! ton 
 
 papa! ton papa ne viendra pas." But the | 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 153 
 
 boy still called plaintively upon his father, 
 and then I heard a sound as if the woman 
 struck him. He moaned sadly, but he spoke 
 no more. 
 
 I was awakened the next morning, by the 
 noise of some one running rapidly up -stairs. 
 I heard the door of the collegian's room 
 flung open, and a man's voice say, " Jules, 
 my child, here I am," and there was the 
 sound of an embrace. It was the boy's 
 father. '' Oh ! my father ! " said Jules, 
 " where is my father ? Don't strike me, 
 and I will be very good, but send me my 
 father." " Oh ! mon Dieu ! mon Dieu ! " 
 said the father, " he don't know me," and 
 I heard the man sob convulsively. 
 
 It was late when I stole noiselessly to my 
 room that night. Jules and his father were 
 together ; I heard them speaking. The 
 boy's senses had returned. " Shall we soon 
 go home, father ? " said Jules, in a weak 
 voice, " 1 don't Hke this place." " Cer- 
 tainly, my dear child," said the father, " we 
 shall go home the instant you get a little 
 stronger." Then they talked about a pony, 
 
 H 3 
 
154 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 which Jules was to ride, and of his gun, and 
 the friends they were to visit. Old Theresa, 
 Jules' bonne, would be so glad to see him ; 
 the old woman always cried with joy when 
 he came back from college. She had pre- 
 pared Jules' room. It was quite droll to see 
 the fidget she was in all day long, about this 
 room. It could never be nice enough for 
 her Jules. She had hung a picture of Notre 
 Dame de la Garde at the head of his bed, 
 and every morning she put fresh flowers 
 in his window. The father talked a great 
 deal about " Marie." She had become a 
 grande demoiselle, and prettier than ever. 
 Every Sunday since Jules went to college, 
 she came to the chateau with her mamma, to 
 ask for news about him. They would go 
 and pay her a long visit when they got back 
 to Cannes. I observed that Jules' voice was 
 growing weaker and weaker, and at length 
 it was the father alone who spoke. And 
 Jules would sigh whenever his father spoke 
 of little Marie. 
 
 " Jules, my child," said his father, " you 
 are listening to me," " Oui, mon papa," 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 155 
 
 answered Jules. " Tu es content que je te 
 parle, mon enfant clierie ? " '^ Oh, yes, 
 speak to me always, father," answered the 
 boy. '' Jules !" called out the father after a 
 time, but he called again before Jules 
 answered, and then it was very feebly. 
 After a pause, the old man again called 
 " Jules !" but there was no reply, and he 
 called again and again in a louder voice, but 
 his son did not answer. Then there was a 
 cry of grief from the old man that went 
 through my heart, and I knew that poor 
 Jules was dead. 
 
 I was very glad to leave Marseilles next 
 day ; but despite the bustle of departure and 
 the change of scene, it was a long time be- 
 fore I could shake off the saddening effects 
 of the young collegian's death. 
 
156 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 After the engagement at Oltanitza, there 
 was some skirmishing, of no importance, 
 between the Turks on Mokan and the 
 Russian troops stationed at Giurgevo. On 
 one occasion, the Russians brought some 
 field-pieces down to the water's edge, oppo- 
 site to Mokan, during the night ; and when 
 the fog cleared away in the morning, they 
 opened a brisk cannonade upon the Turks, 
 and then, crossing over, drove them from 
 the island. After having destroyed what- 
 ever trifling works they found at Mokan, 
 the Russians returned to Giurgevo, and the 
 Turks, on the following day, again took up 
 their position on the island. This island 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 157 
 
 is not of the slightest importance to either 
 party, and therefore it does not matter by 
 whom it is held at the present moment. 
 A landing at Ginrgevo by the Turks would 
 be almost impossible, the bank is so high ; 
 whereas, a little lower down or higher up, 
 the country is flat and open. 
 
 The original motive of the Turkish 
 general in occupying Mokan was evidently 
 to cause a diversion, whilst he was sending 
 troops across to Oltanitza. 
 
 In the beginning of November, the Turks 
 occupied two important points on the left 
 bank of the Danube, as well as the island of 
 Mokan, opposite Giurgevo. At that time, 
 the Bussian army in the PrincipaUties did 
 not consist of much more than fifty thou- 
 sand effective men. If from these three 
 points Omar Pasha had made a simultaneous 
 movement, he might have established his 
 head- quarters at Bucharest. It is to be 
 presumed that Prince Gortschakoff supposed 
 that the Turkish general would take advan- 
 tage of the success which he had obtained at 
 Oltanitza and advance towards the capital of 
 
158 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 Wallacliia, which was within Httle more 
 than a day's march; for, immediately on 
 the news of the battle of Oltanit a reaching 
 the Enssian Commander-in-chief, he, for the 
 first time, left his quarters at Bucharest, 
 with the whole of his staff, and joined 
 Greneral Dannenberg at Boudesti, in and 
 around which village he concentrated, with 
 almost incredible rapidity, forty thousand 
 men and ninety pieces of cannon. He sent 
 forward a few battalions towards Giurgevo, 
 but he made no movement in the direction 
 of Kalafat, for he knew that Ishmael Pasha 
 was not in a condition to attempt offensive 
 operations. No army in the world could 
 have stood under the guns of Tartukai ; the 
 Turks, therefore, might safely have remained 
 at Oltanitza, where the quarantine would in 
 itself have furnished excellent quarters for a 
 considerable body of men, and they might 
 have easily, and at their leisure, constructed 
 huts of sufficient solidity to resist the in- 
 clemency of the coming winter. ; for winter 
 had not yet begun, nor was anything like 
 severe weather felt in Wallachia till the 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 159 
 
 29tli of November. Up to that date the 
 nights were cold, but the days were gene- 
 rally bright and sunny. It was therefore 
 absurd to say that the inclemency of the 
 weather had induced Omar Pasha to with- 
 draw his men from Oltanitza. I can bear 
 witness to the astonishment with which the 
 Russians found that the Turks, during the 
 night, had blown up their works at Oltanitza 
 and retired across the river to Tartukai. 
 Prince Gortschakoff, who hurried out from 
 Bucharest with the idea possibly of seeing 
 some fighting the morning after his arrival 
 at Boudesti, rode down to Oltanitza, and, 
 after ordering his staff to retu'e, went alone 
 over the dismantled works at the quarantine 
 point, and having finished his survey, gal- 
 loped back to his comfortable quarters in the 
 capital of WaUachia, perfectly easy in his 
 mind, doubtless, on the subject of surprises 
 from his Moslem adversaries. The Russian 
 Commander-m-cliief evidently considered the 
 campaign as closed till the spring, unless, 
 perhaps, a chance ofiered itself of efiecting a 
 coup-de-main at Kalafat. The Russians saw 
 
160 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 with satisfaction that the Turks were 
 coming over in large numbers to Kalafat, 
 and their hopes were consequently greater 
 that they would gradually spread themselves 
 over Little Wallachia. One of the first ob- 
 jects of Prince Gortschakoff, on the breaking 
 out of the war, seemed to be to induce the 
 Turks to occupy that part of the Princi- 
 palities. For that purpose, he withdrew his 
 troops from Little Wallachia, leaving but a 
 very small force in the neighbourhood of 
 Cray ova. Had his object been to prevent 
 the Turks from taking possession of Kalafat, 
 he might have fallen upon them in detail as 
 they landed, for they came over in boats ; 
 or he might have attacked tliem before they 
 commenced their works of defence. Such, 
 however, was not his plan. He hopes, evi- 
 dently, to make short work of the campaign, 
 to fall upon the Turks when tliey have 
 assembled in sufficient numbers on the left 
 bank of the Danube, so that, if the river is 
 to be crossed next spring, it can be effected 
 with but little difficulty. I can only infer 
 from all that I have seen that this is Prince 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 161 
 
 Gortscliakoff's plan; whether it will turn 
 out successful or not is, of course, another 
 question. 
 
 Shortly after the battle of Oltanitza, the 
 winter festivities began at Bucharest, and 
 dinner-parties, balls, and concerts, succeeded 
 each other with rapidity, as though the 
 hospitals were not filled with the wounded 
 and the sick, and there were not hundreds of 
 newly-dug graves on the banks of the 
 Ardgish. Oltanitza was forgotten ; a new 
 topic had taken possession of the town — an 
 English prima donna was announced for 
 the Itahan opera of Bucharest. We natu- 
 rally felt anxious for the success of our 
 countrywoman, appearing at such a moment 
 before an audience almost entirely Eussian. 
 We feared that she might be badly received 
 because of her country, and therefore it 
 was with considerable anxiety that we took 
 our places in the Consul-Greneral's box to 
 witness her appearance in Beatrice di Tenda. 
 
 Singing, as I have already mentioned, is 
 taught in every regiment in the E-ussian 
 army ; and amongst Russian officers I have 
 
162 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 met some very good mnsicians. The ma- 
 jority of our prima donna's audience might 
 therefore be supposed to possess a certain 
 amount of critical talent. The English- 
 woman's success was decided after the first 
 scene. The Eussian officers, who crowded 
 the pit, applauded uproariously, and brought 
 our countrywoman three times curtseying to 
 the foot-hghts. She had a good voice, of 
 considerable compass ; but, above all, she 
 showed herself a thorough musician, who 
 had been properly educated for her profes- 
 sion. She sang the composer's music faith- 
 fully and correctly, a thing which no one 
 had ever heard before at the Opera of Bu- 
 charest. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 168 
 
 CHAPTEE XYIII. 
 
 An occasional steamer still plied between 
 Constantinople and Gralatz, and by one of 
 these Her Majesty's Agent at Bucliarest de- 
 termined to send despatches to Lord Strat- 
 ford de Eedcliffe. Mr. Colqnhomi had two 
 Albanians in his service, named Greorgie and 
 Yanni. These men wear the fustanelle and 
 turban, and carry arms in their belt accord- 
 ing to the custom of their country. Greorgie 
 has been employed in the consulate for nine- 
 teen years. He is a staid, solemn- visaged 
 man, very chary of his words, and prefering 
 to convey his ideas by signs. Georgie is of 
 the Greek Church, and a native of Philip- 
 opoHs ; where he lived amongst the Turks, 
 and acquired from them his grave oriental 
 
164 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 deportment. To Georgie the despatches 
 were entrusted, with orders to dehver them 
 to Mr. Cunningham, Her Majesty's Vice- 
 Consul at Gralatz, by whom they were to 
 be forwarded by the steamer to Constan- 
 tinople. We were seated after dinner, smok- 
 ing our evening chibouks, when Georgie came 
 to tell us that the little mail-cart, which was 
 to take him to Ibraila and Galatz, was at the 
 door. He received the despatches and in- 
 structions with his usual unmoved solemnity, 
 and, getting into the narrow kish, called a 
 mail-cart, drove off for the Danube. Know- 
 ing that Georgie would be exposed to a cer- 
 tain risk on his way to Galatz, I proposed to 
 take the despatch myself. Fortunately for 
 my comfort, I was dissuaded from the idea 
 by Mr. Colquhoun, and the Albanian went 
 instead. When more than a week had 
 elapsed, and there were no tidings of him, 
 we began to feel uneasy about his fate. Mr. 
 Colquhoun, who is naturally one of the most 
 kind-heated of men, became painfully anxious 
 about poor Georgie, who had been in his ser- 
 vice so long. At length one evening an 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 165 
 
 employe of the Vice-Consurs at Ibraila ar- 
 rived post from that town, with the news 
 that Georgie on his way back to Bucharest 
 had been arrested by the Eussian General 
 Inglehardt, and thrown into prison. 
 
 Georgie, whilst waiting at Ibraila to have 
 fresh horses put to his mail-cart, left his 
 despatches at the Vice-Consul's office, and 
 went into a coffee-house to get something to 
 eat. Whilst there he, as well as a servant 
 of the Vice-Consulate, who was with him, 
 was arrested by some Eussian soldiers, and 
 carried before General Inglehardt, who was 
 reposing, after the fatigues of the day, in a 
 neighbouring tavern. 
 
 " Who are you?" asked the General, when 
 Georgie was brought before him. 
 
 " I am a messenger in the service of the 
 British Consul-General at Bucharest," an- 
 swered Georgie. 
 
 " This is not true," said the General; 
 " you are a Turk." 
 
 '' I am a Christian," said Georgie, " and 
 belong to the orthodox faith." 
 
 " A Christian does not dress as you do. 
 
166 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 You are a Turk, I say. Off with liim to 
 prison, and the other fellow who is in his 
 company," cried out the General; and Greorgie 
 and his companion were locked up. 
 
 Mr. Cunnino^ham is Vice-Consul at Tbraila 
 as well as Galatz ; but he happened just then 
 to be at the latter town. His Chancellier, 
 however, apphed to the Wallachian Grovernor 
 of the town to have Georgie released ; but 
 the Governor rephed that he could not in- 
 terfere, and referred the Chancellier to the 
 Eussian General. Since the occupation of 
 the Principalities by the Eussians, all British 
 Agents have received strict injunctions to 
 abstain from official communication with the 
 Eussian military authorities, and not in any 
 way to recognise their right to interfere in 
 the internal administration of the country. 
 The Chancellier, therefore, refused to apply 
 to the Eussian General, and said that he 
 would hold the Governor responsible for 
 Georgie 's arrest. 
 
 Mr. Cunningham arrived at Ibraila next 
 day, and he wrote a very moderate but firm 
 note to the Wallachian Governor of the 
 
 V 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 167 
 
 town, in which he simply stated that the 
 messenger of the British Consulate-General 
 at Bucharest, whilst in charge of despatches 
 from the Earl of Clarendon to Her Majesty's 
 agent in the capital of Wallachia, had been 
 arrested by General Inglehardt, and thrown 
 into prison. Fortunately, Mr. Cunningham 
 added, the despatches in the messenger's 
 charge had been left at the Vice-Consular office 
 whilst he went to get some refreshment. 
 The despatches, therefore, were not in liis 
 possession when he was taken to prison, and 
 an employe of the Vice-Consulate had started 
 with them for their destination. 
 
 Luckily General Inglehardt had discretion 
 enough to see that the matter, as it stood, 
 was very serious, and that if he persisted in 
 keeping Georgie in prison it might become 
 much more so ; he, therefore, after some 
 delay, gave orders for his release. 
 
 When Mr. Colquhoun wrote to the Wal- 
 lachian Secretary of State U230n his mes- 
 senger's arrest, he was refused all satisfaction. 
 Tlie Russian Consul-General said that aU he 
 knew of Mr. Colquhoun was, that he had 
 
168 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 hauled down his flag some time before, and 
 that, therefore, he was then but a private 
 person, and he ordered the Wallachian Go- 
 vernment to take no notice of his commu- 
 nication. Mr. Cunningham, as well as the 
 other English Yice-Consuls in the Princi- 
 palities, had not hauled down his flag at 
 the same time as the British and French 
 Consuls-General at Bucharest. He was, 
 therefore, at the time of Georgie's arrest in 
 the full exercise of his official functions ; 
 and his application could not, therefore, be 
 treated in the same way as Mr. Colqahoun's. 
 Georgie remained but twenty-four hours in 
 prison ; but his long absence from Bucharest 
 was caused by his having received orders 
 from Mr. Cunningham to wait at Galatz 
 for the arrival of a steamer from Constan- 
 tinople, which, it was expected, would bring 
 despatches from the Foreign Office for Mr. 
 Colquhoun. When the expected despatches 
 came, they were confided by the Yice-Consu- 
 to Georgie ; and it was whilst on his wa^ 
 to Bucharest in charge of them that he wat. 
 arrested by General Inglehardt. 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. l69 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 After the affair of Oltanitza the Eussian 
 soldiers who had suffered from sickness or 
 wounds, were removed from the hospitals 
 when they became convalescent, and were 
 billeted upon the inhabitants. As there 
 was not sufficient accommodation for my 
 servant in the house where I was Hving, he 
 hired a room at a neighbouring khan, where 
 he slept. One night, on his arrival at the 
 khan, he found all the rooms in the building 
 occupied by Eussian soldiers, his own 
 amongst the number. He complained to 
 the keeper of the establishment, but that 
 fanctionary told him he could do nothing, 
 and showed him rooms where whole families 
 
 I 
 
170 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 slept together, and amongst wliom the 
 Eussian soldiers had insisted upon quarter- 
 ing themselves. My servant was an Ionian, 
 a native of Itheca, and consequently under 
 British protection. His room, according to 
 treaty, was therefore inviolable. This the 
 countryman of Ulysses knew, and he accord- 
 ingly went and laid a complaint before the 
 nearest police magistrate, whom he forced 
 to find another billet for the soldier. The 
 Ionian was the only person in the khan who 
 got rid of his disagreeable guest ; the rest 
 of the inmates, who were Russian subjects, 
 Eayah Greeks, and Wallachians, were obliged 
 to submit to their fate. 
 
 Wlien this circumstance was told me by 
 my servant next morning, I thought it a 
 good opportunity of giving him a lecture 
 upon the predilection which he, in common 
 with all his countrymen, entertained for 
 Eussia. I asked if British soldiers had ever 
 been quartered by force upon families in the 
 Ionian Islands ? if they had ever seized upon 
 the property of the citizens by force ? or if 
 English of&cers could with impunity mal- 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 171 
 
 treat the humblest Ionian ? And I asked 
 him if lonians, when wronged, had ever ap- 
 pealed to British laws for redress, or to the 
 agents of Her Majesty's Government in 
 other countries for protection without effect ? 
 
 lonians have been amongst the most 
 active agents of the Eussian propaganda 
 since the commencement of the present 
 question. They hope that when the Czar 
 will have taken Constantinople, he will 
 then lend his benign protection to the Seven 
 Islands. The lonians may, at times, have 
 to complain of their Lord High Commis- 
 sioner and his government ; but that they 
 should desire to exchange the protectorate of 
 a free nation Hke Great Britain for the serf- 
 dom of Bussia appears incredible. 
 
 Another project entertained very generally 
 by the lonians is, to unite their country 
 with Greece ; and they hope to effect this 
 tlirough the agency of Bussia. It seems 
 strange that an intelligent people, such as 
 they are, should for a moment suppose that 
 the Emperor of Bussia, if he were to suc- 
 ceed in rendering himself predominant in 
 
 I 2 
 
172 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 the East, would permit the kingdom of 
 Grreece, with its free institutions, to main- 
 tain its independence, or that he would in- 
 crease the extent of that little constitutional 
 power by annexing to it the Ionian Islands. 
 It is to be presumed, however, that Russia 
 will soon be placed in a position which will 
 render it impossible for her to put her am- 
 bitious designs into execution, and that the 
 lonians and other fanatical admirers of the 
 Czar will then take a more rational view of 
 their position. 
 
 Late on the afternoon of a day in last 
 December, and in the midst of a violent 
 snow-storm, I left Bucharest for Vienna. 
 Though six horses were harnessed to the 
 carriage in which I travelled, our progress 
 was but slow, owing to the badness of the 
 roads and the inclemency of the weather. 
 Towards midnight we stopped at a khan, 
 where it was deemed advisable to remain till 
 daylight. As usual, there were no beds in 
 this khan, and nothing to eat. After some 
 difficulty, we succeeded in lighting a fire, 
 and with the provisions which we had taken 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 173 
 
 the precaution to bring witli us from Bucha- 
 rest we made a tolerable supper. I sat by 
 the fire and smoked till the first streak of 
 dawn appeared, when we again renewed our 
 journey. The country being entirely covered 
 with snow, presented everywhere the same 
 uniform aspect of desolation. We passed 
 tlnrough a village here and there at long 
 intervals upon the road, and about sunset 
 we reached the foot of the Carpatliian moun- 
 tains. Though the faihng light increased the 
 dangers of the ascent, we determined to at- 
 tempt it, for it was impossible to remain 
 till daylight in the desolate spot where we 
 then were. The road over this part of the 
 Carpathians is merely a rude gallery cut out 
 of the side of the mountain, with a precipice 
 on one side and a perpendicular wall of rock 
 or sandy soil upon the other. There was 
 barely room for the carriage to pass, and 
 the deviation of a couple of feet from 
 the usual track would have precipitated 
 us into the abyss. The postilions got ofi" 
 and led the horses, whilst some peasants 
 walked after the carriage, placing stones 
 
 I 3 
 
174 JOURNAL OF A UESIDEKCE IN 
 
 behind the wheels every time we were forced 
 to stop, to prevent the carriage from rolling 
 back. When we had succeeded in gradually 
 ascending for about two miles, one of the 
 horses became restive and plunged violently. 
 It was now night and we had no other light 
 to guide us than that of the stars. It was a 
 white horse that became restive, and from 
 where I sat in the carriage I could see him, 
 but indistinctly, as he reared and plunged. 
 In the faint light of the stars he looked of 
 monstrous size, as he attempted to spring 
 to the side of the mountain, and then came 
 trembling back upon the other horses. Our 
 position was critical. It was impossible to 
 get out of the carriage, for on one side, 
 within a foot's breadth of the wheels, was 
 a precipice, and on the other side was the 
 perpendicular face of the mountain. One 
 of the postilions at length succeeded in 
 cutting the traces of the restive horse, and 
 once freed, he dashed forward and disap- 
 peared in the gloom. We then began again 
 to move on, but slowly and cautiously till 
 we reached an open table-land. Here there 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 175 
 
 was a large barn-like building, and in it we 
 determined to remain till daylight. We 
 made a good fire, got our provisions out of 
 the carriage, and made ourselves as com- 
 fortable as we could till dawn. The next 
 morning we found that our way lay through 
 one of the most dangerous passes in that 
 part of the mountain. The postilions would 
 not allow us to get into the carriage for 
 fear of accident, so we started forward on 
 foot. We walked on for about seven hours, 
 when the road became slightly improved, 
 and we began to descend again into the 
 plains. At the foot of the mountain over 
 which we had passed we found a small khan, 
 where we got a very good dinner of broiled 
 fowls and some tolerable wine. We were 
 nearing the Austrian frontier, and the 
 country was evidently getting more civil- 
 ized. We were several miles in advance 
 of the carriage, and we were not at all dis- 
 pleased to have a httle time to appease our 
 hunger and get some rest after a sleepless 
 night and a weary walk. 
 
 It would be difficult to describe the mag- 
 
176 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 nificence of the scenery tlirough which we 
 had just passed. Mountain upon mountain 
 towered above us covered with snow, and 
 beneath us was a dark narrow glen, on the 
 edge of which lay our path. Shortly 
 after leaving the hovel in which we had 
 passed the night, the sun began to rise. 
 We were then on the summit of one of the 
 lesser peaks of the Carpathians, and looking 
 back we could see tlirough an opening in 
 the mountain the plains of Wallachia all 
 white with snow. Up the sun rose slowly 
 and majestically. First came masses of 
 dusky-red clouds, which grew gradually 
 brighter and brighter at their edges till 
 suddenly bursting, they melted away into 
 rose-coloured vapour. Then the glittering 
 beams of the sun fell upon the mountains, 
 and as he rose the shadows crept away from 
 their snowy sides, till gradually the scene 
 around us became one of the most wonderful 
 sublimity and beauty. Instinctively we 
 knelt in the snow and prayed. • This I 
 believe is a common feeling in those who 
 witness for the first time a scene like that 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 177 
 
 I have attempted to describe. Opening 
 one's heart to God is an instant rehef to our 
 over-wrought sensations. 
 
 About four o'clock that afternoon we 
 crossed the Wallachian frontier, and late in the 
 evening we entered the town of Cronstadt. 
 I would advise all English travellers visiting 
 Cronstadt to ask the master of the hotel 
 where they stop for a Hst of his prices 
 beforehand, for anytliing so absurdly exor- 
 bitant as the charges made me at the hotel 
 where I put up in that town I had never 
 seen before. 
 
 Cronstadt is a charming httle town in the 
 midst of a great frowning mountain. The 
 inhabitants seem to have nothing of that 
 oriental apathy that one sees on the Wal- 
 lachian side of the frontier, but are an 
 active, hard-working, and prosperous people. 
 From Cronstadt we proceeded to Herman- 
 stadt, and from thence took the road to 
 Arad. On our way to the latter town we 
 had to stop for the greater part of a day 
 on the- bank of the river Marosh, till a 
 passage was cut through the ice for the raft 
 
178 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 which was to transport us and our carriage 
 and horses to the other side. After some 
 hours' rest in an excellent inn at Arad, we 
 started for Szolnok. At Szolnok the Vienna 
 railway begins, but between that town and 
 Arad there is no road whatever. The car- 
 riage in which we travelled from Arad had 
 no springs, and the jolting as we galloped 
 along over the broken ground was so great 
 that at times I was afraid of having a limb 
 fractured or put out of joint. When we 
 arrived at Szolnok, the day after our de- 
 parture from Arad, I could scarcely move, 
 I was in such pain from the jolting. 
 
 Between Szolnok and Pesth, a gend'arme 
 came into the train, and took the passports of 
 all the passengers, and gave us receipts in 
 return. When within about an hour's dis- 
 tance from Presbourg, a pohce-officer entered 
 the carriage where I was, and asked me for 
 my ]3assport. I handed him the receipt 
 which his colleague had given me between 
 Szolnock and Pesth. This, he said, was not 
 sufficient, and that I could not go on without 
 my passport, which I ought to have got back 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 179 
 
 from the police-office at Pesth. Wlien the 
 train stopped at Presbourg, a gend'arme 
 accompanied me into the waiting - room, 
 where he told me I must remain, for that I 
 was under arrest, and would not be allowed 
 to continue my journey. He said this in a 
 loud voice, and was heard by most of the 
 other passengers in the room. Nearly all 
 eyes were instantly turned towards me, and 
 in general with a sympathetic expression, for 
 we were in Hungary, and I was looked upon, 
 I suppose, as some political victim. As I 
 have a great horror of noisy altercations, I 
 waited till the gend'arme had left the room, 
 and then following him, I took him quietly 
 aside, and showed him an official paper, writ- 
 ten in German, and vised by the Austrian 
 authorities at the frontier, which stated who 
 I was. It was not a passport, but a paper 
 addressed to the chief of the custom-house, 
 near Cronstadt, stating that despatches of 
 which I was the bearer contained nothing 
 contraband. The gend'arme on reading this 
 document became remarkably civil. He told 
 me I was free to continue my journey, and 
 
180 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE IN 
 
 that I should meet with no further annoy- 
 ance on my road to Vienna. Previous to 
 that he had not asked me what countryman 
 I was, or where I had come from, or whither 
 I was going. 
 
 I was not sorry to find myself next morn- 
 ing comfortably installed at Munsch's hotel, 
 wliich, by the way, is one of the best hotels 
 in Europe in every respect. It was the 
 unusual comfort which I found there that 
 mainly restored my strength after the shat- 
 tering journey I had had from Bucharest. 
 
 English travellers have often had to com- 
 plain of the treatment which they received 
 from the subordinates of the Austrian pohce. 
 This, however, is now no longer the case, and 
 an Englishman who conducts himself pro- 
 perly, may travel as freely through the whole 
 of the Austrian empire as through any other 
 continental country. This is entirely owing 
 to the representations made upon the subject 
 to the Austrian Government by the Earl of 
 Westmorland. It is satisfactory to think 
 also that Lord Westmorland's concihatory 
 policy has, at the present crisis, placed Her 
 
THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. 181 
 
 Majesty's Government on friendly and eordial 
 terms with the cabinet of Vienna. 
 
 It is very possible that before these 
 pages come before the public, Europe will be 
 plunged into war. The British Government, 
 however, will have the consolation of feelino- 
 that they have done all that they could, con- 
 sistent with the honour of England, to save 
 us from that calamity ; and that if they 
 have at length adopted extreme measures, 
 they have been forced to do so by the blind 
 obstinacy of the Emperor of Eussia. Though 
 a cry has been raised against the policy of 
 Her Majesty's ministers, as weak and vacil- 
 lating, it has only proceeded from a fraction 
 of the nation, whilst the great mass of the 
 educated and well-disposed classes of the 
 community have given their warm approba- 
 tion to the wise and Christian -like conduct of 
 the Government. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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