When the country fell into this state of exhaustion, the boyars were not slow to remonstrate: and they did so with such vehemence, on the occasion of the journey of the Emperor Nicholas, in 1827, that he resolved to have a commission appointed, to report to him at St. Petersburg, on the grievances of the province. The election of the commissioners took place immediately; but as the boyars revived their old pretensions, whilst the government strenuously adhered to its system of political unity, it was not possible to come to an understanding respecting the ameliorations to be introduced into the administrative regimen. The elections, after being frequently annulled and recommenced, produced no result, and the last commission named was finally dissolved without having been able to repair to St. Petersburg.
All these long altercations necessarily produced asperity in the relations of Bessarabia with the superior administration, and at last the imperial government, weary of these discussions, was ready to take any measure to reduce the Moldavians to the most absolute political and administrative nullity, even to the prejudice of the national prosperity. To this end it was determined to cut off the last means of influence which serfdom afforded to the boyars, by issuing an ukase, by virtue of which all serfs were declared free, with the right of residing where they pleased. The consequences of this abrupt emancipation were, of course, disastrous to agriculture. Urged by intrigues, or by the chimerical hope of bettering their physical condition, the serfs abandoned their old abodes to settle elsewhere, and chiefly on the lands recently acquired by the Russians. In this way many villages were left deserted, the lands remained untilled, and the landowners found themselves suddenly deprived of the hands necessary for their work.
Putting aside all political considerations, this measure of the government was unquestionably premature. Nothing in the moral or physical condition of the Bessarabians could as yet justify so radical a destruction of all that belonged to the old system. The state of the serfs was in fact very tolerable, and quite in harmony with the civilisation of the country. The peasants were no further bound to the soil, than inasmuch as a certain portion of it was placed at their disposal. Their duties to their lords were defined by rule, and consisted generally of eighteen days' labour in the year, some haulages, and the tithes of their produce. The landowners, no doubt, occasionally abused their power in a cruel manner; but these abuses were not without remedy. A resolute and conscientious administration might easily have put an end to them. Under the present system, the peasants possessing no lands appeared to us in reality much more enslaved, and in a far less satisfactory physical condition. Formerly, the interests of the lords and the serfs were closely united, the prosperity of either necessarily inferred that of the others; but now that the emancipated serfs, possessing no means of subsistence of their own, cultivate the land only in virtue of a contract, the landowners think only how to get as much profit out of them as possible, during the time the engagement lasts, and care nothing what becomes of them afterwards. The peasants, it is true, have a right of appealing to the tribunals; but in consequence of the venality of the latter, their complaints generally serve only to put them to expense, and make their condition worse. A rich boyar said very naïvely to me on this subject, "How do you suppose the husbandman can obtain justice, when for every egg he gives we give a silver ruble?" Again, the frequent changes of abode are very pernicious, from the loss of time and the expense they occasion. Other dwellings must be built, new habits must be contracted; the peasant is soon reduced to destitution, and finds himself obliged to accept whatever terms are offered him. In this way the dependence of the rural population is but the more grievous for being limited, and their situation towards the landlords is without security for the present, or guarantee for the future. Nor have their duty labours undergone any modification, and the abuses are exactly the same as under the old régime. Without exceeding the limits of the regulations, a peasant pays his master tithes of all agricultural produce, besides 1r.20 for every head of large cattle, 0.16 for each sheep, and one hive of honey out of every fifty he possesses. He takes upon himself, moreover, all repairs of buildings, enclosures, &c., supplies night watchers, executes annually at least three haulages over thirty-eight miles of ground, and seldom works less than twenty-eight or thirty days for his landlord, often as much as fifty or even sixty. In point of physical welfare, therefore, the results of emancipation are quite illusory, and the more so as the peasants enjoy no political rights, and support all the burdens and corvées. In fine, the new system has as yet produced only loss, trouble, and embarrassment, both to large and small fortunes. As to hopes for the future, none can be seriously conceived, except for very distant times. It will require many years even for a wise and enlightened administration to rectify the state of a country whose population consists of a scanty body of landowners, and a mass of peasants without fixed domicile, possessing no other resources than the chance of a limited engagement, and the labour of their hands.
We will not go into details of all the measures adopted by the Russian government with reference to the agricultural and commercial affairs of Bessarabia: they were as contradictory and as irrational as those we have noticed in our account of the Crimea. The immigrations of the Bulgarians[86] and Germans,[87] it is true, were favoured, and they were granted the most fertile lands of the Boudjiak; several villages of Cossacks[88] and of Great Russians[89] were settled in the same regions; and attempts were even made with some success to colonise a few nomade tribes of gipsies.[90] But all these excellent creations, the first idea of which belongs to the head of the state, were largely counterbalanced by the mischievous measures of the local boards. Thus, for instance, in consequence of the division among the great landlords of all the immense meadows formerly possessed by the hospodars, and which they used to rent out in pasture, the national business of rearing zigai sheep was destroyed, and gave place to some ruinous attempts to introduce the merino breed. Extreme injury was done at the same time to the breeding of horses and horned cattle, a business which the government had already seriously damaged by forcing the proprietors of such stock to become Russian subjects or give up their employment, and by impeding by countless vexatious formalities the entrance of foreign merchants into the province, and their sojourn in it. In 1839, Bessarabia sold only 2365 horses, whereas formerly Austria alone drew from it from 12,000 to 15,000 every year for her cavalry.[91]
The following general table of the exports and imports of Bessarabia by the Danube and by land is drawn up from official documents. It cannot, however, indicate precisely the commercial situation of Bessarabia, since a considerable portion of the goods declared in five places named belongs only to the transit trade through the province, which, moreover, receives a quantity of manufactured and other goods from Southern Russia that are not mentioned at all in the table. Our figures would require a certain reduction to make them accurately represent the true state of the case.
| BY THE DANUBE.—IMPORTS. | ||||
| 1838. | 1839. | |||
| NAMES OF PLACES. | Goods. | Cash. | Goods. | Cash. |
| rubles. | rubles. | rubles. | rubles. | |
| Ismael | 253,697 | 1,632,996 | 238,996 | 820,035 |
| Reny | 50,193 | 797,497 | 85,429 | 553,174 |
| Total | 303,890 | 2,430,493 | 324,425 | 1,373,209 |
| EXPORTS. | ||||
| Ismael | 3,913,494 | 9,915 | 2,793,244 | |
| Reny | 718,040 | 50,773 | 609,541 | 77,745 |
| Total | 4,631,534 | 60,688 | 3,402,785 | 77,745 |
| BY LAND.—IMPORTS. | ||||
| Novo Selitza, Austrian frontier | 221,324 | 1,939,604 | 245,198 | 3,048,064 |
| Skouleni on the Pruth | 222,507 | 497,209 | 195,088 | 721,015 |
| Leovo on the Pruth | 52,336 | 29,932 | 55,664 | 26,291 |
| Total | 496,167 | 2,466,745 | 495,950 | 3,795,370 |
| EXPORTS. | ||||
| Novo Selitza | 1,978,172 | 163,868 | 3,277,660 | 81,868 |
| Skouleni | 829,692 | 525,638 | 737,462 | 540,618 |
| Leovo | 96,832 | 60,537 | 59,906 | 36,709 |
| Total | 2,904,696 | 750,043 | 4,075,028 | 659,195 |
Total of the customs and other duties realised in 1838, in the five localities above-named, 360,332 rubles, and in 1839, 319,134 rubles.
From some scattered details we have already given, the reader may conjecture that the population of Bessarabia is exceedingly mixed. The Boudjiak numbers among its inhabitants, Great Russians, Cossacks, Germans, Bulgarians, Swiss vine-dressers, gipsies, and Greek and Armenian merchants. The northern part of the province, on the contrary, is occupied almost exclusively by the Moldavian race, whose villages extend even along the Dniestr to the vicinity of Ackerman. Jews abound in the northern part; there are very few in the towns of the Boudjiak; leaving them out of the account the Bessarabian population may be divided into four great classes: the nobles, the free peasants who possess lands, the newly emancipated peasants, and the gipsies. The nobles consist of the ancient Moldavian aristocracy, the public functionaries, retired officers, and a great number of Russians, who have become landowners in the province. To this class we must join the Mazils, who are descendants of the ancient boyars, but whom war and the numerous revolutions that have desolated the land have reduced to penury. They form at present an intermediate class between the new nobles and the peasantry, and differ from the aristocracy only in not taking part in the elections of the judges and marshals of the nobles. The free peasants are those, who, having been emancipated in times more or less remote, possess lands, and depend neither on the great landlords nor on the crown, though subject to ordinary imposts and corvées. The newly liberated peasants consist of those who are settled, by virtue of a contract or agreement, on lands belonging to individuals or to the crown; they form the majority of the population. The Bohemians are still subjected to the laws of slavery. Some of them, to the number of 900 families, belong to the crown, and the rest to Moldavian landowners, who usually employ them as servants, workmen, and musicians.
In Bessarabia, as throughout Russia and the principalities of the Danube, the new generation of nobles have completely renounced the habits of former days. They have of course adopted the straight coat, trousers, cravat, and all the rest of our Western costume; there is nothing striking in their outward appearance. The old boyars alone adhere to their ancestral customs; a broad divan, pipes, coffee, dolces, and the kieff after dinner, are indispensable for them; and to some of them shampooing is a delicious necessity. I know a certain nobleman who cannot fall asleep without having his feet rubbed by his Bohemian. But what above all strikes and delights every stranger, especially a Frenchman, is the eager and cordial hospitality and kindness he encounters in every Moldavian house. One is sure of meeting everywhere with men who sympathise heartily with every thing great and useful to mankind which our civilisation and our efforts have produced in these latter times. It is only to be regretted that these brilliant qualities are often tarnished by the corruption which administrative venality and rapacity, supervening upon long military occupations, have insensibly diffused through all classes of the population.