masters and serfs, and even the good qualities of the Rumanian—his
energy, his generosity, and friendliness—were turned into evil. The
nobles lived far away from their estates, spending the income forwarded
by their Greek bailiffs in debauchery and gambling. The peasants
worked but little, for they had no share in the produce of the soil;
they were mistrustful and full of deceit, as are all slaves; they were
ignorant and superstitious, for they depended for their education upon
illiterate and fanatical priests. Their _popes_ were magicians, and
cured maladies by incantations and holy philtres. As to the monks, some
of them were rich proprietors, as rapacious as the temporal lords;
others lived on alms, having exchanged a life of slavery for mendicity.
Not long ago the Rumanians, deprived of all education except that
supplied by their _doinas_, or ancient songs, were lost almost in
mediæval darkness. Even now some of the ancient customs of their
ancestors survive in the rural districts. Funerals are attended by
hired weeping women, whose shrieks accompany the farewell of relatives.
Into the coffin they place a stick upon which to rest when crossing the
Jordan, a piece of cloth to serve as a garment, and a coin as a bribe
to St. Peter for opening the gate of heaven. Nor are wine and bread
forgotten for the journey. Red-haired people are suspected of returning
to earth in the guise of a dog, a frog, or a flea, and to penetrate
into houses in order to suck the blood of good-looking young girls. In
their case it is as well to close the coffin-lid tightly, or, still
better, to pierce the throat of the defunct with a stick.
The peasantry will doubtless no longer be haunted by these
hallucinations, for the {167} moral and intellectual progress of the
nation has kept pace with its material prosperity since the peasant
has cultivated his own land. Officially made a freeman in 1856, but
held for several years afterwards in a kind of limited bondage, the
peasant now owns at least a portion of the land. By a law passed in
1862, each head of a family is entitled to a plot of land from seven to
sixty-seven acres in extent, and ever since that time the peasants have
gained immensely in self-respect. His land, though still cultivated
with the ancient Roman plough, and deprived of manure, produces immense
quantities of cereals, the sale of which brings wealth into the country
and encourages progress. Rumania is now one of the great corn-exporting
countries of Europe, and in favourable years, when the crops are
neither eaten up by locusts nor destroyed by frosts, its exports exceed
those of Hungary. In less than ten years the export of wheat, maize,
barley, and oats has doubled, and the sum annually realised varies
between £4,000,000 and £8,000,000 sterling.
Unfortunately the peasants eat but little of the corn they grow. They
are content with the maize, from which they prepare their _mamaligo_
and the detestable spirits which cheer their hearts on a hundred and
ninety-four annual fête days. The cultivation of the vine, which was
altogether neglected formerly, is likewise making progress, and the
produce of the foot-hills of the Carpathians is justly esteemed.
The time is past now when “Wallachian” and “herdsman” were synonyms
throughout the East. Still, nearly one-fourth of the area of the
country remains uncultivated, and the soil is allowed to lie fallow
every third year. Moldavia is better cultivated, upon the whole, than
Wallachia, and this is principally owing to the fact of the Moldavian
boyards residing upon their estates, and taking a pride in their
management. Progress, however, is apparent throughout the country, and
there is hardly a large estate without its steam threshing-machine.
Even the small proprietors are gradually introducing improved methods
of cultivation, and in many villages they have formed co-operative
associations for the cultivation of extensive tracts of country.[49]
Rumania is essentially an agricultural country. The ores of the
Carpathians are not utilised, for there are no roads which give access
to them. The petroleum wells only supplied 3,810,000 gallons in 1873.
Four of the principal salt-works are carried on by Government, partly
with the aid of convict labour, and yield annually 80,000 tons of salt.
The fisheries are of some importance. The inhabitants on the Lower
Danube salt the fish which abound in the river and the neighbouring
lakes, and prepare caviare from sturgeons. There are no manufactories
excepting near the large towns, and the country is noted only for its
carpets, embroidered cloth and leather, and pottery. The housewives are
famed for their confectionery.
Commerce is annually on the increase.[50] Its only outlet in former
times was {168} the Danube. Nearly the whole produce of the country
was carried to Galatz, at the bend of the river, upon which the
principal routes of the country converge. For many years to come the
Danube will remain the great commercial highway of the country; the
Pruth, too, is navigable for small steamers as far as Sculeni, to
the north of Yassy; whilst the numerous rivers descending from the
Carpathians will always prove useful for the conveyance of timber. New
outlets have been created by the construction of railways. Rumania
is now joined to the railway systems of Austria and Hungary, and the
proposed bridge across the Danube will place it in direct communication
with Varna, on the Black Sea. The level nature of the country
facilitates the construction of railways, but its inhabitants look upon
their extension with a feeling of apprehension, for they fancy that a
commercial invasion may bring in its train a military one.[51]
The Rumanians complain much about the left bank of the Sulina branch
of the Danube not having been ceded to them by the treaty of Paris. In
former times the whole of the delta of the Danube belonged to Moldavia,
as is proved by the ruins of a town built by the Rumanians on the
southern bank of the river, opposite to Kilia. Up to the close of last
century the jurisdiction of the Moldavian governor of Ismail extended
to the port of Sulina, and he was charged with keeping the mouth of the
river free from obstructions. The Western powers, in spite of this,
allowed Turkey to occupy the whole of the delta, whilst they confined
the Rumanians to the left bank of the Kilia branch. The country,
consequently, has no direct access to the Black Sea, except by means
of small vessels, for the mouth of the Kilia branch is obstructed by a
bar. M. Desjardins and other engineers who have devoted some attention
to the subject propose to construct a ship canal, about eight miles
in length, which will connect the Danube with the Bay of Sibriani. In
the meantime Rumania is at liberty to make use of the Sulina mouth,
which is kept open at the expense of the Western powers, and a canal,
therefore, hardly appears to be called for.
Bucharest (or Bucuresci, pron. Bukureshti), the capital of Wallachia
and of the whole of Rumania, already numbers amongst the great cities
of Europe. Next to Constantinople and Buda-Pest, it is the most
populous town of South-eastern Europe, and its inhabitants fondly
speak of it as the “Paris of the Orient.” The town not very long
since was hardly more than a collection of villages, very picturesque
from a distance on account of numerous towers and glittering domes
rising above the surrounding verdure, but very unpleasant within. But
Bucharest has been transformed rapidly with the increasing wealth of
its inhabitants. It may boast now of wide and clean streets, bounded
by fine houses, of public squares full of animation, and of well-kept
parks, and fully deserves now its sobriquet of the “joyful city.”
Yassy (Jasi, or Yashi), which became the capital of Moldavia when
Suchova was annexed by Austria, occupies a position far less central
than does Bucharest, but the fertility of the surrounding country, the
proximity of the navigable {169} Pruth and of Russia, with which it
maintains a brisk commerce, and its position on the high-road joining
the Baltic to the Black Sea, have caused it to increase rapidly
in population. It is a flourishing town now, though no longer the
seat of an independent government. Built upon the foot-hills of the
Carpathians, the city presents itself magnificently from afar, and
its exterior is not belied by its finer quarters. Jews, Armenians,
Russians, Tsigani, Tartars, and Magyars are numerously represented
amongst its population, which is semi-Oriental in type. We may almost
fancy ourselves standing upon the threshold of Asia. The church of the
Three Saints is distinguished for its originality, and is a masterpiece
of ornamentation in the Moorish style.
[Illustration: Fig. 47.—VIEW OF BUCHAREST.]
All the other towns of Rumania are indebted for their importance
to their position on commercial high-roads. Botosani, in Northern
Moldavia, lies on the road to Galicia and Poland, and the same may be
said of Falticeni, whose international fairs are always well attended.
Commerce causes the towns on the Danube to flourish. Vilkof is a
great mart for fish and caviare; Kilia, the ancient Achillea, or city
of Achilles; Ismail, where the Russian Lipovani are numerous; Reni;
Galatz, said to be an ancient colony of the Galatians, now the {170}
most important commercial emporium on the Lower Danube, and seat of
the European commissioners for its regulation; Braila, a poor village
as long as the Turks held it, but now important on account of its grain
trade, and the literary centre of the Bulgarians. All these towns,
though situated on the banks of the Danube, may be looked upon almost
as ports of the Black Sea, through which the produce of the country,
and especially its grain, finds an outlet to foreign markets. Giurgiu
(Jurjevo) is the port of Bucharest on the Danube; Turnu-Severinu is the
gateway of Wallachia, below the great narrows of the river; Craiova,
Pitesci, Ploiesti, Buzeu, and Focsani form the terminal points of the
roads descending from the high valleys of Transylvania. Alecsandria,
a town recently built in the centre of the plain which extends from
Bucharest to the Olto, has become a depôt for agricultural produce.
Formerly, when incessant wars rendered a strong strategical position
of greater importance than commercial advantages, the capital of the
country was established in the very heart of the Carpathians. In
the thirteenth century it was at Campu-Lungu, in the midst of the
mountains, and subsequently it was transferred to Curtea d’Argesia,
founded by Prince Negoze Bessaraba in the beginning of the sixteenth
century. Of this ancient capital there remain now only a monastery and
a wonderful church: the walls, cornices, and towers are covered with
sculptures, like the work of a jeweller. Targu-Vestea, or Tirgovist,
on the Yalomitza, was the third capital, but of the fine palace built
there by the _domni_ there remain now only blackened walls.[52]
Rumania includes the two ancient principalities of Wallachia and
Moldavia, and forms a semi-independent state under the protection
of the great powers, and paying an annual tribute of about £40,000
to the Porte. The country has placed a member of the Hohenzollern
family at the head of the State. The constitution of 1866 confers upon
this prince the right of appointing all public functionaries and the
officers of the army, of coining money, and of pardoning. All laws
require his signature before they can be enforced. He enjoys a civil
list of £48,000.
The legislative powers are vested in two chambers, the members of which
are elected by a process designed to favour the interests of the rich.
All Rumanians above twenty-one years of age, except servants in receipt
of wages, are inscribed in the electoral lists. They are divided into
four “colleges,” or classes, having widely different privileges.
The first college includes all those electors of a district whose
income from landed property amounts to £132 a year; electors having
an income of between £44 and £132 form a second college; merchants
and {171} tradesmen of the towns paying a tax of 23_s._ annually,
Government pensioners, half-pay officers, professors and graduates
of universities, form the third college; and the remainder of the
electors belong to the fourth college. The first two colleges elect a
deputy each for their district; the third college elects from one to
six deputies for each town, according to its size; the fourth college
elects delegates by whom the representatives are chosen.
The Senate represents more especially the large landed proprietors.
Senators must have an income of £352, and are elected by the landed
proprietors whose income amounts to at least £132 a year. The
universities of Bucharest and Yassy are represented by a senator each,
elected by the professors, and the crown prince, the metropolitan, and
the diocesan bishops are _ex-officio_ members of the Senate. Senators
are elected for eight, and deputies for four years.
The Rumanian constitution grants all those rights and privileges
usually set forth in documents of that kind. The right of meeting is
guaranteed; there is liberty of the press; the municipal officers and
mayors are elected, but the Prince may intervene in the case of towns
inhabited by more than a thousand families; the punishment of death is
abolished, except in time of war; and education is free and compulsory
“wherever there are schools.” There is liberty of religion, though
there is a State Church, and Christians alone can be naturalised. No
marriage is legal unless it has been consecrated by a priest. The
Rumanian Church, as far as dogmas are concerned, is that of the Greeks,
but it is altogether independent of the Greek patriarch residing
at Constantinople, and is governed by its own Synod. Most of the
monasteries have been secularised.
The country is divided into four judicial districts, each having a
court of appeal, whilst a supreme court sits at Bucharest. The French
codes, slightly modified, were introduced in 1865.
The army is partly modelled upon that of Prussia. All citizens are
called upon to serve sixteen years, eight of which are passed in the
standing army or its reserve, and eight in the militia. The National
Guard includes all men up to fifty not belonging to either of the other
categories. By calling out all its men, Rumania can easily send an army
of 100,000 men into the field. There are likewise a few gunboats on the
Danube.
The finances of Rumania are in a more satisfactory condition than those
of most other states of Europe. The Government has certainly been
living upon loans, for which eight per cent. has to be paid, and nearly
the whole of the annual income is spent upon the payment of interest,
the army, and the revenue services. The credit of Rumania is, however,
good, for the loans are secured upon vast domains, the property of the
secularised monasteries, several thousand acres of which are sold every
year. The sale of salt and the manufacture of tobacco are Government
monopolies.[53]
Rumania is divided for administrative purposes into 33 departments and
164 districts, or _plasi_. There are 62 towns and 3,020 rural communes.
{172}
[Illustration]
SERVIA AND MONTENEGRO.[54]
SERVIA.
Servia, like Rumania, was until recently a semi-independent state,
paying a tribute of £25,000 a year to the Porte, and submitting to
the presence of a Turkish garrison at Mali-Zvornik, on the Bosnian
frontier. But even these vestiges of ancient oppression irritated the
national pride to an inconceivable degree, and the moment when a blow
might be struck on behalf of Servia and the neighbouring countries
inhabited by Slavs still groaning under the Turkish yoke was looked
forward to with impatience. The blow has been struck, and were it not
for the support extended to it by the great powers, Servia would ere
this have ceased to exist as a semi-independent state.
Servia, within its actual limits, includes only a small portion of the
northern slope of the mountains rising in the centre of the Balkan
peninsula. It is separated from Austro-Hungary by the Save and the
Danube, but no natural boundary divides it from Turkey; and the valleys
of the Morava, the Drina, and the Timok, the former in the centre, the
others on the eastern and western frontiers of the country, afford
easy access to a foreign invader. The difficulties to be surmounted by
the latter would begin only after he had entered the vast forests, the
narrow valleys, and unfathomable _klisuras_ amongst the mountains.
The only plains of any extent are on the banks of the Save. Everywhere
else the country is hilly, rocky, or mountainous. The most prominent
mountain range is that which extends from the “Iron Gate” and the
defile of Kasan, on the Danube, through Eastern Servia, and forms a
marked continuation of the Transylvanian Alps, with which it agrees
in geological structure. In the northern portion of these Servian
Carpathians, in the angle formed by the confluence of the Danube and
Morava, where masses of porphyry have burst through limestones and
schists, we find ourselves in the great mineral region of Servia.
Copper, {173} iron, and lead ores are being worked here, especially
at Maidanpek and Kuchaina, but the old zinc and silver mines have
been abandoned. The valley of the Timok, in the southern portion of
this mountain range, is likewise rich in minerals, and gold dust is
collected from the sand of the river. There are few valleys which
can rival that of the Timok in beauty and fertility, and the basin
of Knyashevatz, where the head-streams of the river unite, is more
especially distinguished by its rural beauty, sparkling rivulets
flowing through the meadows, vines covering the hills, and forests the
surrounding mountains. A narrow defile immediately below this basin
leads into the valley of Zaichar, near which, at Gamzigrad, there still
exist ruins of a Roman fortress, its walls and towers of porphyry in a
capital state of preservation. Looking northward from this position we
perceive the Stol (3,638 feet), whilst in the south-west there rises a
huge pyramid of chalk, which might almost be mistaken for the work of
human hands. This is the Rtan (4,943 feet), at whose foot burst forth
the hot springs of Banya, the most frequented and efficacious of all
Servia.
The valleys of the Morava and of its main tributary, the Bulgarian
Morava, divide Servia into two parts of unequal extent. The valley of
the Morava forms a natural highway between the Danube and the interior
of Turkey, passing through the frontier town of Alexinatz. A Roman road
formerly led along it. Krushevatz, the ancient capital of the Servian
empire, occupies the centre of a plain in the valley of the Servian
Morava, not far above the defile of Stalaj, where the two Moravas
unite at the foot of a promontory crowned with ruins. The remains of
the palace of the Servian tsar are still shown there, and it is stated
that Krushevatz, at the height of Servian power, had a circumference of
three leagues. It is only a poor village now.
The wildest mountain masses of Servia rise between the two Moravas,
their culminating point being the Kopaonik (6,710 feet), which attains
a greater height than any other summit between the Save and the
Balkans. A wide prospect of incomparable beauty opens from its base and
rocky summit, extending southwards over plains and mountains to the
pinnacles of the Skhar and the pyramidal Dormitor. In itself, however,
the Kopaonik is quite devoid of beauty, and where its slopes have been
deprived of the forests which once covered them, the bare rocks of
serpentine present a picture of utter desolation. Its valleys are far
from fertile, their inhabitants are sulky and poor, and many amongst
them suffer from goître.
The mountains which extend to the north of the Kopaonik, along both
banks of the Ibar, are for the most part still clothed with oaks,
beeches, and conifers. The broad valley of the Servian Morava,
rivalling in fertility the plains of Lombardy, penetrates into these
mountain masses. But they rise again to the north of that river,
attaining a height of 3,622 feet in the mountain mass of Rudnik.
Cretaceous rocks predominate, frequently surmounted by granitic peaks.
The valleys are narrow and tortuous. This is the famous Sumadia, or
“forest region” of Servia, which during the rule of the Turks offered
a safe asylum to the persecuted rayas, and in the war of independence
became the {174} citadel of Servian liberty. The little town of
Kraguyevatz, in one of its narrow valleys, was chosen to be the seat of
government, and it still retains a gun foundry, supplied with coal from
the basin of Chupriya. A secluded capital like this may have suited
a people constantly engaged in war, but when Servia entered upon a
career of progress the seat of government was removed to Belgrad. This
city—the Beográd, or “white town,” of the Servians, the _Singidunum_
of the Romans, and the _Alba Græca_ of the Middle Ages—is delightfully
situated upon a hill near the confluence of the Danube and Save, and
overlooks the swampy plains of Syrmia. Belgrad, from its favourable
geographical situation, has become a place of much trade, and is
likewise an important strategical position.
[Illustration: Fig. 48.—CONFLUENCE OF THE DANUBE AND SAVE.
Scale 1 : 1,420,000.]
To the west of Belgrad we merely meet with hills, and with the fertile
plains watered by the Kolubara. It is only towards the south-west,
on nearing the Drina, that we again find ourselves in the midst of
calcareous mountains, attaining a height of 3,630 feet, and connected
with spurs of the Kopaonik in the south. This is one of the most
picturesque portions of the country. Ruins of houses and fortresses
abound, amongst which those of Ushitza are the most extensive. These
fortresses have, however, failed to protect the country, and no portion
of Servia has more frequently been laid waste by ruthless invaders.
[Illustration: BELGRADE.]
In former times Servia could boast of some of the most extensive
oak forest in Europe. “To kill a tree is to kill a Servian,” says
an ancient proverb, dating probably from the time when the forests
afforded shelter to the oppressed rayas. This proverb, unfortunately,
is no longer acted upon. In many parts of the country the forests have
disappeared, and the naked rock obtrudes itself as in {175} Dalmatia
and Carniola. A peasant in need of a branch cuts down an entire tree,
and the herdsmen are not content to feed their bivouac fires with
dry sticks, but must needs have an oak. The greatest enemies of the
forests, next to herdsmen, are goats and hogs, the former browsing upon
small trees and leaves, the latter laying bare the roots. An old tree,
thrown down by a tempest or sacrificed to the woodman’s axe, is not
replaced. Laws for the protection of the forests have certainly been
passed, but they are not enforced, and the wood required for fuel has
to be imported, in many instances, from Bosnia. The destruction of the
forests has naturally been attended by a deterioration of the climate.
Mr. Edward Brown, who travelled in Servia in the seventeenth century,
tells us that the Morava was then navigable for the greater part of its
course; but at the present time, owing to its irregularities, it is no
longer available as a navigable channel.