Another lady of the first rank separated her daughter from her husband, with whom she had lived six years, and caused a sentence of divorce to be pronounced. She gave for reason, that her daughter’s constitution suffered considerably by frequent pregnancy. The husband, who was by no means inclined to the separation, and who knew his wife to enjoy the best health, made remonstrances to no effect: and he was condemned by government to give back the dowry, and to pay damages to a considerable amount, for having spent a part of it, although he proved to have employed the deficient sum for the use of his wife and family. These three instances of the degraded state of morals in these countries are selected from numerous others that occur daily. They are such as to excite astonishment, and appear almost incredible; yet they created no other sensation at the time than other common news of the day, deserving but little notice. It is customary in Wallachia for parents to interfere in their married children’s family concerns, and to exercise nearly the same authority over them after marriage as before. They are often seen as busy in intriguing to bring on a separation, as they had been active in seeking husbands or wives for them. The absurdities of superstition, which form so great a part of the fundamental principles of the present Greek faith, have gained equal strength in Wallachia and in Moldavia: even the most precise doctrines of the Christian religion are there corrupted by the misconceptions or selfish views of low-bred and ignorant priests, a set of men, indeed, who have here made themselves a manifest disgrace to the sanctity of the Christian name. A celebrated writer has said that ‘Climate has some influence over men; government a hundred times more, and religion still more.’[42] This observation is particularly applicable to these countries, and its truth illustrated by their present condition. Either of the two last-mentioned causes, separately, would have acted with force upon the morals of their inhabitants. Intimately connected as they are, the evils that result are most deplorable. The mode of instructing the Wallachians and Moldavians in the precepts of religion, is not, however, calculated to animate them with excessive zeal and to propagate fanaticism. They are merely taught to plunge headlong into all the ridicules of superstition, the inseparable attendant of ignorance; and it is probably owing to the total absence of fanaticism that the priesthood exercise a less powerful influence here, than they do in other Greek countries. All the ecclesiastical dignitaries being of obscure origin, and mostly of the lowest extraction, they are personally despised by the Boyars. Their spiritual power is alone respected. The rites ordained by the established church are the same as those of the patriarchal church. Persons who have not received baptism in it, are not considered as Christians, nor even honoured with the name of such.