An account of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia / with various political observations relating to them

by William Wilkinson

Public schools have, since several years, been established both at Bukorest and Yassi. They are supported at public expense, and attended by masters for the Wallachian, ancient and modern Greek languages, writing, and arithmetic. The number of students at each school amounts at the present moment to about two hundred. They are the sons of inferior Boyars and tradesmen. The children of the principal Boyars receive their education at home from private tutors, commonly Greek priests, who are not natives of the principalities.

The education of the women is not more carefully attended to than that of the men; sometimes it is inferior, on account of the prevailing custom of marrying them at a very early age.

Neither sex is regularly instructed in religion, and it is by the mere intercourse of life that they derive their notions of it, and by the examples of their elders that their principles in it are regulated.

These circumstances, naturally arising from the discouragement given by the government to every improvement in civilisation, keep the state of society very backward, and are productive of the most pernicious influence over its moral character.

The Boyars, indeed, although so little susceptible of great virtues, cannot be taxed with a determined propensity to vice. Established prejudices, which the general state of ignorance has rooted in the two nations, and a universal system of moral corruption, render them, however, familiar with it.

Money is their only stimulus; and the means they generally employ to obtain it are not the efforts of industry, nor are they modified by any scruples of conscience. Habit has made them spoliators; and in a country where actions of an ignominious nature are even encouraged, and those of rapacity looked upon as mere proofs of dexterity and cunning, corruption of principles cannot fail to become universal.

The prodigality of the Boyars is equal to their avidity; ostentation governs them in one manner, and avarice in another. They are careless of their private affairs, and, with the exception of a few more prudent than the generality, they leave them in the greatest disorder. Averse to the trouble of conducting their pecuniary concerns, they entrust them to the hands of stewards, who take good care to enrich themselves at their expense, and to their great detriment. Many have more debts than the value of their whole property is sufficient to pay; but their personal credit is not injured by them, neither do they experience one moment’s anxiety for such a state of ruin.

The quality of nobility protects them from the pursuits of the creditor; and the hope of obtaining lucrative employments, by the revenues of which they may be able to mend their affairs, sets their minds at ease, and induces them to continue in extravagance. Some bring forward their ruin as a pretext for soliciting frequent employment, and when the creditors have so often applied to the prince as to oblige him to interfere, they represent that the payment of their debts depends upon his placing them in office. The office is finally obtained, and the debts remain unpaid. When a sequester is laid upon their property, they contrive to prove that it came to them by marriage; and as the law respects dowries, they save it from public sale.

The Wallachian or Moldavian language is composed of a corrupt mixture of foreign words, materially altered from their original orthography and pronunciation. Its groundwork is Latin and Slavonic. For many centuries it had no letters, and the Slavonic characters were used in public instruments and epitaphs. The Boyars, whose public career rendered the knowledge of a few letters most necessary, knew merely enough to sign their names. The Bible was only known by reputation. In 1735, Constantine Mavrocordato,who had undertaken the task of replacing barbarism by civilisation in both principalities, made a grammar for the jargon that was spoken, in characters which he drew from the Slavonic and the Greek. He caused several copies of the Old and New Testament in the new language to be distributed, and he ordered the Gospel to be regularly read in the churches. He encouraged the inhabitants to study their language according to the rules of his grammar, and in a few years the knowledge of reading and writing became general among the higher orders.[^[41]]

The modern Greek, introduced by the Hospodars, is the language of the court, but it is perfectly understood by the Boyars, with whom it has become a native tongue. It is spoken in Wallachia with much greater purity than in any other country where it is in use. In many parts of Greece, different dialects have been adopted, some of which have but little affinity with the Hellenic, whilst in others the greater part of the words have been so disfigured as to render their origin difficult to trace. The Greek spoken in Wallachia differs but little from the Hellenic. The Moldavians are less in the habit of making use of it; and the study of French and other foreign languages is more general among them.