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M O L 



Moldavia. It was lately computed that the principality contains 

 V T"*-' 3,248,000 sheep and goats ; a large proportion of which 

 are carried to Constantinople; for the Turkish govern- 

 ment sends a company hither every spring to purchase 

 domestic animals and provisions, in an oppressive man- 

 ner, at a low and arbitrary price. The horses are es- 

 teemed for their spirit and docility, and are bought for 

 the use of the Austrian and Prussian cavalry. Some of 

 the wealthy proprietors have 400 or 500 ; and it is said 

 they allow them to remain always unsheltered in every 

 season. Beyond the river Pruth there is a particular 

 breed, superior to the rest. 



The government is nearly absolute, in the person of a 

 prince, waivode or hospodar, appointed by the Turkish 

 emperor, and selected from the Greek families at Con- 

 stantinople. He purchases his appointment, and its du- 

 ration is dependent on the Turkish government. A 

 divan, or supreme council, consisting of twelve members, 

 assembles at least twice weekly to decide on judicial and 

 other matters ; but its authority is rather nominal than 

 real, almost every thing being conducted at the plea- 

 sure of the prince. The laws of the province have been 

 lately revised and published by command of the present 

 prince of Moldavia, who was appointed in the year 

 1812. Capital punishment is very rarely inflicted; but 

 the prince has absolute power of life and death through- 

 out his government. 



The prince of Moldavia is responsible to the Porte 

 for a yearly tribute of a million of piastres, or 33,333 

 Sterling; and the total revenue of the country'is said to 

 amount to 46,66'6. The sources of revenue are a ca- 

 pitation-tax from the peasantry, and small landholders, 

 salt mines, customs ; a tax on tobacco, wine, bees, and 

 the pasturage of sheep and cattle. 



The chief trade of Moldavia consists in the export 

 of timber, grain, yellow berries, live stock, wool, wine, 

 wax, and honey ; and in the import of coffee, sugar, 

 pepper, rum, fruit, foreign wines, furs, cotton and 

 woollen cloths, glass and earthen ware. Timber for 

 shipbuilding and staves is floated down the smaller 

 rivers into the Danube; wheat is contraband, but 

 Turkish vessels come to carry away about 1,500,000 

 bushels from this and the neighbouring principality by 

 the authority of Government. Wax is carried to Ve- 

 nice, and honey to Constantinople : and the other arti- 

 cles, most of them loaded with improvident restric- 

 tions, are exported elsewhere. About 1120 tons of 

 coffee, and 1260 of sugar, are imported at Galatz year- 

 ly ; and manufactures of different kinds from Germany, 

 which are offered as English, meet a ready sale. The 

 fur and leather trade is mostly conducted by Russians, 

 the silk and woollen by Greeks, the morocco-leather, 

 spiceries, and aromatics by Turks, and jewellery by 

 Jews. 



The total population of Moldavia was computed in 

 1791 1 at 420,500 souls, of whom 20,000 were supposed 

 to be ecclesiastics. At present the population is cal- 

 culated at 500,000. The greater part is dispersed in 

 the country, inhabiting miserable villages, where the 

 huts are fashioned of wood, daubed with clay, having 

 doors that scarcely close, paper windows, and the roof 

 open to the winds. In winter their tenants descend 

 to subterraneous cells, which are easily heated, where 

 both sexes and all ages mingle promiscuously together, 

 sleeping on a coarse rug, which serves them equally 

 for bed and coverlet. They subsist for the most part 

 on a kind of thick porridge or dough, called mamalinga, 

 made of the flour of Indian corn. During a famine in 

 1795, they were compelled to live on acorns and the 

 bark of the elm, ground and mixed with meal ; yet 

 many, deprived of even this wretched fare, died of want. 



ance. 



There are few towns of considerable size or import- Moldavia, 

 ice. The capital, Jassy or Yassi, is situated on the Moliore.' 

 lake and river Baklui, running into the Pruth, and oc- ^ "/"' 

 cupies a vast extent of ground, from the houses being 

 detached, and surrounded by yards and gardens. The 

 cathedral, churches, and convents, the palaces of the 

 boyars, or nobles, and that of the prince, form the most 

 conspicuous features. The last is very spacious, fitted 

 up partly in the European style, and is capable of accom- 

 modating 1000 persons. In general the houses consist 

 of only one storey, built of brick, and whitewashed both 

 without and within, and are roofed with wood ; but 

 there are many of a different construction, and after 

 the best style of European architecture. Yassi con- 

 tains seventy churches, public hospitals and schools for 

 about 200 pupils, who are instructed in the national 

 language, ancient and modern Greek, writing, and 

 arithmetic. Education nevertheless is very much ne- 

 glected throughout the principality. Many coachma- 

 kers are established here, from the custom among the 

 better classes of never going out on foot. The streets, 

 instead of being causewayed, are floored with thick 

 beams of the finest oak, which must be renewed every 

 five or six years. In rainy seasons they are covered 

 with deep liquid mud, and in dry weather with thick 

 black dust, which, added to the stagnation and accu- 

 mulation of putrescent substances below, are produc- 

 tive of numerous diseases. Hence Yassi is esteemed an 

 unhealthy residence, and the inhabitants are constantly 

 afflicted with intermittent, bilious, and putrid fevers. 

 Its population is computed at 40,000. Galatz, the 

 sea-port and chief emporium of the province, is situ- 

 ated on the Danube, 65 miles from Yassi, where that 

 river is navigable by vessels of 300 tons burden. Here 

 there are public granaries for wheat, and many large 

 warehouses belonging to private merchants. A num- 

 ber of vessels frequent the harbour, among which are 

 some from the Ionian islands, of late under British 

 colours. The stationary population of this town 

 amounts to 7000, but there is a great resort of strin- 

 gers engaged in commercial pursuits. 



Moldavia is part of the ancient Dacia, whose inha- 

 bitants resisted the progress of the Roman arms. The 

 King of the Visigoths being compelled to retreat hither 

 in the fourth century, erected a wall between the 

 Pruth and the Danube, where various antiquities of a 

 remote era, as described by Count Marsili and other 

 authors, are still to be recognised. In the thirteenth 

 century it was occupied by a new tribe, under their 

 leader Bogdan, who assumed the Sclavonic title, way- 

 vod or voivode, equivalent to reigning prince, and from 

 him the country received the name, Bogdiana. It 

 became tributary to Turkey in 1536, and since, having 

 been the theatre of sanguinary wars between that em- 

 pire, Russia, and Austria, each has alternately held 

 the sovereignty. At length the growing power of 

 Russia obtained the cession of the best portion of the 

 province, betwen the Pruth and Deneister, in the year 

 1812, which may perhaps be anticipated the precursor 

 of the rest, on the commencement of the first hostilities 

 between the empires. 



MOL1ERE, (JEAN BAPTISTE POQUELIN,) the most 

 celebrated author of French comedy, was born at Paris 

 in 1620. His father and grandfather were valet-de- 

 chambre upholsterers to the Royal household of France. 

 Young Poquelin remained in his father's house till the 

 age of fourteen, receiving no other education than was 

 conformable to the employment which it was intended 

 that he should follow ; but having acquired a taste for 

 reading, he was, by his own earnest desire, and at the 

 instance of his grandfather, sent as a day-scholar to the 



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