The bishops of Argis, Rimnik, and Buzéo, are the next ecclesiastical dignitaries in rank, and the only qualified candidates for the metropoly among their numerous colleagues. They reside at Bukorest, and they form the supreme council of the church under the presidency of the archbishop. This council is the most corrupted tribunal of any in the country, and its acts and decisions, which proceed from any motives than those of moral tendency, would seem calculated for no other purpose than the encouragement of profligacy, and other disorders in the society. The will of the metropolitan, or that of the prince, is the only rule by which its concerns are conducted. The constitution of Moldavia does not permit the prince to interfere with the affairs of the ecclesiastical council, nor with the financial concerns of the metropoly. The archbishop is elected by the nobility, and must be a native. The bishop of Romano, next in rank, is usually chosen to that dignity. The same regulations ought to exist in Wallachia, but a series of abuses have there rendered many evils irremediable. Both principalities abound with monasteries originally established by different Voïvodes, and it was a long time customary with the inhabitants to consider as great acts of piety bequests of lands, houses, shops, or sums of money, made to them, insomuch that hardly any rich man died without having allotted a portion of his property to such a purpose. These voluntary gifts had so accumulated, and the value of land has so increased, that some of the monasteries are now the richest establishments in the country. The greater number are in the gift of the reigning princes, who let them out for a space of time to the highest bidders. Others, being dedicated to the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, are disposed of by them; but although the princes cannot appropriate to their own profit any part of their revenues, as they have the right of imposing taxes on them upon certain occasions, they frequently put them under contribution. Besides the various important branches of revenue hitherto specified, the reigning princes possess many other means of raising money. The two principalities are an inexhaustible source of riches to them, and their proverbial appellation of ‘Peru of the Greeks’ is verified by experience. CHAPTER IV. GOLD AND SILVER MINES, &c.—PRODUCTIONS.—RESTRICTIONS ON THEIR EXPORTATION.—NAVIGATION OF THE DANUBE.—TRADE OF IMPORTATION.