Romania -- Description and travel; Romania -- History
Another of the results of the Greek insurrection was the inevitable
Russo-Turkish war. Then followed the occupation of the country by the
Russians; what Carlyle might have called the hand-shaking of
incompatible tyrannies; and eventually the Peace of Adrianople, to which
city the Russian arms had penetrated (1829). The stipulations of that
treaty may be summed up in a few words. A large indemnity to Russia,
with continued occupation until it should be liquidated, and a Muscovite
protectorate of the Principalities; the suzerainty and an annual tribute
for the Porte, and complete autonomy with the appointment of life-long
hospodars for the Principalities. By a subsequent ukase known as the
'Reglement Organique,' the Court of St. Petersburg further expressed its
wishes in regard to the internal government of the Principalities; and
this document having been confirmed by the Porte after great
procrastination, the Russian forces were withdrawn from the
Principalities in 1834, and two princes of the houses of Stourdza and
Ghika were again appointed hospodars.
[Footnote 165: P. 44.]
IX.
We have said that two phases in the history of this period are
interesting to the historian--the gradual encroachments of Russia on the
one hand, and on the other the patriotic efforts of the nationalists to
secure independence. With the Greek rising of 1821-2, and the prospect
of complete liberty, a new spirit was awakened, which took the form
first of a national intellectual regeneration, and then of what proved
to be an unsuccessful struggle for independence. With both these
movements the name of John Heliad Radulesco (known in history as Heliade
or Eliad) is inseparably connected as _littérateur_ and patriot. His
name first appears conspicuously about the year 1826, when, in
conjunction with Constantine Golesco, a returned exile and friend of the
unfortunate Vladimiresco, and with the concurrence and support of the
reigning hospodar, Gregory Ghika, he endeavoured to revive the national
language, which had been displaced by Greek in consequence of the
long-continued Phanariote rule. He was himself a poet of no mean order,
and by his national songs he stirred the hearts of the people. But
poetry did not absorb his whole attention. An able man of science, for
that day, he himself imparted instruction in geography, logic, and
mathematics, in the colleges of which he promoted the
establishment.[166] Of these one was founded on the remains of an
ancient convent at St. Sava, the other at Craiova, and concurrently with
this effort, to promote collegiate education primary and normal schools
were also established. But the march of enlightenment did not end here;
national journals and a national theatre were included in the scheme of
the patriots. The hospodars, too, performed their share of the general
advancement. They founded hospitals, promoted agriculture, welcomed back
those who had emigrated before the scourge of war, and sought by every
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