CHAPTER VII.TENURE OF LAND.Three Classes of Lands in Turkey—VakoufLands, their Origin and Growth—Turkish Equivalent of Mortmain—Privileges of Tenants onVakoufLand—Maladministration—Corruption of Charity Agents and Government Inspectors—General System of Embezzlement—Sultan Mahmoud’s Attempted Reform—Insufficiency ofVakoufRevenues as administered; Supplemented by State—General Decay ofVakoufProperty, Mosques, Medressés, and Imarets—Misapplication ofVakoufFunds intended for the Support of the Public Water-supply—MiriéLands, Government Grants, Military Proprietors, Growth of a Feudal System—Miserable Condition of the Rayahs—Anxiety of the Porte—Destruction of the Feudal System by Mahmoud and Abdul-Medjid—Reduction of the Bosnian and Albanian Beys—Present Condition of the Country Beys—MiriéLands reclaimed from the Waste—Title-Inspectors—A Waste-Land Abuse—Similar Difficulties in Connection with OrdinaryMiriéTenure—Mulkor Freehold Lands—Their Small Extent—Difficulty of Establishing Safe Titles—Descent and Transfer of Land—Tenure of Land by Christians and by Foreign Subjects—Commons and Forests—The Inspectors of the Forest Department.
Three Classes of Lands in Turkey—VakoufLands, their Origin and Growth—Turkish Equivalent of Mortmain—Privileges of Tenants onVakoufLand—Maladministration—Corruption of Charity Agents and Government Inspectors—General System of Embezzlement—Sultan Mahmoud’s Attempted Reform—Insufficiency ofVakoufRevenues as administered; Supplemented by State—General Decay ofVakoufProperty, Mosques, Medressés, and Imarets—Misapplication ofVakoufFunds intended for the Support of the Public Water-supply—MiriéLands, Government Grants, Military Proprietors, Growth of a Feudal System—Miserable Condition of the Rayahs—Anxiety of the Porte—Destruction of the Feudal System by Mahmoud and Abdul-Medjid—Reduction of the Bosnian and Albanian Beys—Present Condition of the Country Beys—MiriéLands reclaimed from the Waste—Title-Inspectors—A Waste-Land Abuse—Similar Difficulties in Connection with OrdinaryMiriéTenure—Mulkor Freehold Lands—Their Small Extent—Difficulty of Establishing Safe Titles—Descent and Transfer of Land—Tenure of Land by Christians and by Foreign Subjects—Commons and Forests—The Inspectors of the Forest Department.
Regarded from a conveyancer’s point of view, land in Turkey is of three kinds:mevkoufé(orvakouf), “church” property;mirié, crown property; andmulkormemlouké, freehold.
1.Vakouflands are those set aside for the support of the religious establishments, the mosques,medressés(or mosque-colleges) and other religious schools, and theimarets, or institutions for public almsgiving. The appropriation of a just part of a man’s wealth for purposes of religion and charity is one of the most constantly reiterated principles of Islam, and, to the credit of Moslems be it said, it is a principle very regularly reduced to practice. It is not surprising, therefore, that on the conquest of European Turkey a large share of land was set apart “for God.” But this original grant was not the only source of the present large extent of vakouf lands. Private munificence has constantly added to the original foundation. The piety of some Moslems and the vain-glory of others has ever been displayed in the erection and endowment of mosques, with their attendant medressés and imarets. In the one case it was a sure key to heaven; in the other, it was the best way to get the praises of men of one’s own generation and the admiration of posterity. Formerly ordinary people used frequently to indulge in this architectural luxury; but, during the present century, only Sultans and Grand Vizirs have found the practice convenient.
Besides the original grant and the private additions which each century contributed, vakouf lands have been greatly increased from a third source. The people of Turkey seem to have duly appreciated those privileges against which our own mortmain laws were directed. The parallel is not indeed strictly accurate, but there are strong points of resemblance. A Moslem (or, for that matter, a Christian) sells his land to a mosque for about one-tenth of its real value. The land is now the property of the mosque, but the seller has the right of lease, and may retain his tenancy on payment of a fixed rent. During his life he may sell the lease, or at his death it passes on to his heirs; but in default of direct descendants the lease reverts absolutely to the mosque.[5]By this transaction both parties are the gainers, and only the Government and its corrupt officials the losers.
The mosque receives a large interest for a comparatively trifling expenditure of capital; and has besides the reversion in the event of default of heirs. The tenant, though he has to pay a rent where formerly he paid none, is not burdened by this slight charge, and sets against it the immense privileges he has acquired; for, as a tenant on vakouf land—that is, holding direct of Allah—he pays no taxes; he is safe from confiscation by the Government, extortion from its officials, and persecution from private creditors. It is the most profitable and secure tenure to be met with in Turkey, and it is a matter of congratulation that the mosque authorities place so high a value upon money that they are willing to accept it even from dogs of Christians who wish to avail themselves of the protection afforded by vakouf leasehold.
No official report of the extent of the vakouf lands has, so far as I can learn, been published; but it is easy to understand that their extent and value must be very great. It is even estimated at two-thirds of the whole land of Turkey. It is therefore remarkable that the revenues derived from them do not nearly suffice for the purposes for which they were intended. The expense of maintaining the services of the mosques and of keeping up the extremely economical system of religious education would not seem to be excessive, though the charitable imarets would of course require considerable support. But these are not the real reasons why these rich revenues are not sufficient. One reason is, that they are expected to maintain a large class of Ulema, whose numbers are altogether disproportionate to the educational results they produce. The other and far more disastrous cause is that the revenues are corruptly administered.
At first the management of the funds lay in the hands of agents appointed by the pious founders. When an agent died, his successor was named by the Roumeli Kadisi (or Anadoli Kadisi if in Asiatic Turkey). The agents were under the supervision of inspectors, whose business it was to verify the mosque accounts. These inspectorships were generally given to high functionaries of the Porte, and so lucrative were they that they excited keen competition (in the Turkish sense), and eventually came to be regarded as the fixed appendages of certain offices. It may easily be imagined that between the agents and the inspectors there was not much of the vakouf revenues left for the right purposes. As a matter of fact, most of the money found its way into the pockets of the inspectors of the Sublime Porte.
Among the many schemes that engaged the attention of the Reformer-Sultan Mahmoud there was of course a place for vakouf reform. He wished to amalgamate the vakouf lands with the mirié or crown lands, but had not the boldness necessary to the carrying out of so revolutionary a measure. He contented himself with clearing away some of the more obvious abuses of the administration of vakoufs, and appointed a director, with the rank of Minister, to see to the proper management of the property. Still, however, the revenues did not prove sufficient. The annual budget of vakouf returns reached a total of 20,000,000 piastres; yet in 1863 it had to be supplemented by another 20,000,000 piastres from the Treasury, and is ever in need of similar assistance. The funds are still misapplied; and, as the result, the mosques and medressés have fallen more and more into ruin and decay; the imarets are become instruments of a merely nominal almsgiving; and every charitable or religious intention of the pious founders is daily trodden under foot.
Among the minor objects of vakouf endowments are the construction and maintenance in repair of aqueducts and road fountains. I have often witnessed with regret the manner in which the trust is abused by its holders. In most towns the principal water supply is endowed by vakoufs, the revenues of which were intended to defray all expenses connected with keeping the channels and fountains in repair. In three cases out of four these funds are misapplied. At Salonika, for instance, the water supply is richly endowed, and the town ought clearly to be well furnished with water. Instead of this, a great number of the fountains are dried up, and a serious waste of water is caused by the neglect of the water-pipes. It is painful to see the crowd of miserable Jewish children waiting for hours round the dribbling fountain under a burning summer sun, or pierced with the biting winter winds, till they get a chance of filling their pitchers—too often only to get them broken in the battle that immediately ensues. In summer, when the want of water is most severely felt, many people do not scruple to dig down to the water pipes in some deserted street, stop the current that leads to the fountain, and thus obtain the supply they need. In former times fountains were erectedon all the main roads and in every town and village; but most of them are now dried up or fallen to ruin. Some of those that remain are of solid marble, with a carved frontage inscribed with the name of the donor, the date of erection, and some verses from the Koran. Some are in the form of basins, with jets playing in them, sheltered sometimes by little kiosks, and always shaded by fine old trees. The thirsty traveller and his beast are all the more grateful when they do find a fountain with water running, because the chances are so overwhelmingly against such good luck—thanks to the vakouf administrators, who from this point of view deserve credit for intensifying the virtue of gratitude.
2. TheMirié, or crown-lands, include the private demesnes of the Sultan and the royal family, the lands reserved for the partial support of the administration, the waste lands, together with an enormous extent of land originally granted on condition of military service to the most zealous supporters of the Sultan, with a view to retaining their fidelity and assuring the supremacy of the Government over the native princes. The country was thus given over to the power and license of an army of occupation. It was divided into sandjaks governed by Pashas, Beys, and Beglerbeys. Those last-named were the administrators of the sandjaks. Their duty it was to collect the taxes and furnish the contingents of troops to the Imperial army. The favored officers of the Porte received immense grants of land in return for their zeal; they were exempt from taxation, and only required to find soldiers for the wars of the Porte. Excluding vakouf lands, the greater part of Turkey was thus placed on a sort of feudal tenure, the proprietor holding of the crown by military service. All the evil effects of the system soon developed themselves.
The lands of these military proprietors were of course chiefly tilled by the rayahs, who had formerly held them in freehold. Although these underholdings were supposed, like all mirié lands, to be registered, and thus to enjoy the advantage of a legally fixed rent, they were yet subject to the endless extortions invariably associated with the notion of Turkish officials. Especially heavily did this system press upon the Christian tenants of the military landowners. In principle the conduct of the Turks to their Christian subjects was not greatly blamable; it was in practice, as usual, that the grievances arose. The Christian communities were managed by their Kodja-Bashi, or headman, who had to collect the tribute, proportioning it to the means of each individual; and to gather the kharadj, or poll-tax, and other impositions. A community was allowed to compound for each or all its taxes by a fixed sum. Thus far all appears surprisingly satisfactory. But when the actual condition of the Christian tenants is looked into, a very different impression is produced. Their landlords were ever devising some new extortion; the taxes were levied with ruinous irregularity; fresh impositions were constantly being added; and, in fine, their state became so intolerable that large numbers of them deserted their faith (of which they are generally highly tenacious in spite of ignorance and persecution), and became Moslems, and were at once placed in possession of the privileges of the dominant race. A curious instance of this conversion by necessity was that of the Krichovalis, a lawless race of mountaineers about Vodena. About the beginning of this century they found themselves unable longer to endure the disabilities of their condition. They met in solemn assembly in their old church on a great feast-day, and swore the sacred oath upon the Bible that they became Mohammedans under protest, being compelled to abandon their faith in order to escape the intolerable trammels of their bondage. The Bible on which they swore, containing the signatures of the chief men, still exists, I am told, in the keeping of the Greek priest.
The evils of military tenure bore upon the Porte as well as upon the rayahs. The Sultans were not slow to note with alarm the growing power of the great feudatories. They endeavored to curtail their privileges and to strengthen the hands of the rayahs and attach this class to themselves. But for a long time the efforts of the central government were unavailing. The military landowners made common cause with the Beglerbeys, who had by degrees acquired the supreme control of their sandjaks; and these two united in defying the authority of the sovereign. A great landed aristocracy had grown up, like the baronage of England in Angevin times, and threatened the very extinction of the supremacy of the Porte over its subjects. A great blow must be struck at the country Beys; and Mahmoud II. resolved to strike. He was completely successful, and left to his successor Abdul-Medjid only the task of bringing some of the rebellious chieftains to punishment. Some were beheaded, other banished, and all had their property confiscated. Inoffensive tenants by military service received compensation; but the system was rooted out, and has now ceased to exist.
How the great feudal landowners were crushed will be understood from a few examples. A short time ago I made the acquaintance of one of the dervish sheikhs who followed Ali Pasha when he was dispatched by Abdul-Medjid to reduce the Bosnian rebels. I asked how the reduction was effected; and this was his account: Ali Pasha, with a small but well-organized army of Nizams, on approaching the country, asked permission of the Bosnians to cross into the Austrian territory. The Bosnians unsuspectingly granted leave, and we marched into the country and pitched our camp in its very heart. After a few days the Pasha produced the Iradé of the Sultan, containing a demand for 60,000 recruits from the Bosnians. They refused to furnish them, and began to assemble and arm. The Pasha did not insist upon the enforcement of the Imperial order, but opened negotiations. He was a wily man and knew his business. He managed with soft words and fair promises to entice all the Bosnian grandees into the camp, under the pretext of holding a general council. Having thus collected all the influential persons of the country, he put them under arrest and proceeded to try them. Some were beheaded, and Ali Pasha with his own hand struck down the leading chief. The rest after some further parley were brought to terms, and were then exiled and their goods confiscated. The 60,000 recruits were soon raised, and the general marched triumphantly back to Constantinople at their head.
The Albanian chieftains were dealt with in the same way: when forced failed, treachery prevailed. Their two leaders, Veli-bey and Arslan-bey, were enticed by a friendly invitation to Monastir, where they were received with every mark of consideration and kindness. A few days afterwards they and their friends were invited to a great feast by Reshid Mehemet Pasha. This was to take place in a kiosk outside the town near the head-quarters of the regular troops.
On the appointed day Veli-bey and Arslan-bey proceeded to the rendezvous accompanied by nearly all their beys and retinue; in all about 400 men. The kiosk was hidden from view by a turn in the road till they had almost reached it, and it was only on entering the space in front that they perceived the troops ranged in order of battle. A suspicion crossed the mind of Arslan-bey, who said to his companion in Eastern phrase, “We have eaten dirt!” Veli-bey replied, “It is the regular way of paying honor.” “At all events,” said Arslan-bey, with doubtful friendship, “let us change sides.” This was done, and Arslan-bey found himself screened from view by the imposing figure of Veli-bey and his horse. They had reached the centre of the line, when an order issued from the window of the kiosk, the soldiers raised their pieces, and a murderous fire was opened on the ranks of the Albanians, followed by a bayonet charge. Veli-bey and his horse fell pierced with nineteen balls, but Arslan-bey was unhurt. Followed by those who had escaped the first discharge, he turned his horse and took to flight; but a second fire reached their flank. Arslan-bey again miraculously escaped, and owing to the speed of his horse soon left the place of carnage at a distance. But his flight had been observed from the kiosk from which the Grand Vizir had directed the massacre, and he was pursued; but putting spurs to his horse, he urged it up the precipitous side of the hill, making for the summit with furious speed. The top was almost reached when a shower of balls brought down man and horse; and they rolled down the steep hillside to join the bodies of their fellow-victims below. Such were the last fatal blows aimed at the expiring feudal system; exile and confiscation did the rest.
The once powerful Beys, when thoroughly crushed and impoverished, were allowed a small income, and after many years of expatriation were finally permitted to return to their native districts. Their power is completely gone, although their personal influence is still considerable over the populations among whom they live, and in the local courts in which they sit. It is however of a mutinous nature, and seldom employed either in facilitating the introduction of the new measures attempted by the Government for the improvement of the administration, or in promoting the general welfare of the country.
Some beys in the interior still possess considerable landed property, but with few exceptions their estates are dilapidated and heavily mortgaged; while their owners are so deeply in debt to the Government that if called to a reckoning under a well-regulated administration they would be ruined men. A few, however, whose estates are in better condition are more enlightened, and take a real interest in the welfare of their country.
The country contains extensive areas of mirié kinds reclaimed from the waste, for which of late years there has been a great demand made by the peasants, who reclaim portions of them by paying a small fee of about 1s.an acre. They cultivate or build upon them, and after paying tithes for the space of twenty years get theTapou, or title-deed, from the Porte constituting them legal owners. But although subjected to special laws and restrictions and under government supervision, it is a dangerous speculation, often involving litigation, and liable to usurpation.
Great abuses are occasioned by the corruption of theTapou Memours, or inspectors, who within the last seven years have been intrusted with the supervision and legislation of such lands, and regulate them (irrespective of the rights of Christian or Turkish landholders) in favor of the highest bidder. The consequences are that many persons have been dispossessed of their property, others have had to pay high prices to retain it by obtainingTapous, whilst many are daily being driven out of their lands. An example of this kind presented itself the other day in the local court of the town of L⸺. The claimant was a TurkishHanoum; the disputants, Turkish and Christian peasants. The lady, a widow, had inherited an estate bordering on some waste land upon which these peasants had built a village. TheHanoumin the mean time married an influential person at Constantinople, through whose authority and assistance, she managed to obtain aTapou, including the village of the settlers on the waste land within her own property. The villagersindignantly protested against this act of usurpation, and refused to acknowledge the authority of the lady, who, however, returned, furnished with powerfulEmirnamésfrom the Porte to the town of L⸺ to enforce her claims. The complaints of the peasants were disregarded, and they themselves were seized as criminals and brought to the Konak, driven into it by blows that fractured the skull of one and occasioned severe injuries to others, and then imprisoned.
Disputed claims like this on commons, forests, etc., are innumerable. The estates sold by the crown also labor under the same disadvantages. Among many cases I may relate one in which the purchaser was an English gentleman who bought a large estate in Upper Macedonia, comprising one of the most beautiful lakes in the country. It was an ancient fief, sold for the sum of 2000l.The speculation promised to be a splendid one, and a fortune was expected to be realized. One day, however, as the owner was walking over his grounds, an old Turkish peasant presented himself, and with much natural eloquence, and perhaps some truth, explained to the English bey that the former owner had usurped part of his fields which were comprised in the estate. The proprietor, either convinced of the man’s rights, or out of kindness, ordered that the contested lands should be restored; but the one individual thus righted soon developed into a legion, all presenting equal claims. Subsequently the legion became a band of armed and menacing Albanians, who by their hostile attitude stopped all attempts at culture, and threatened to shoot the tenants and the steward, burn the crops, etc. A long litigation followed, and the affair terminated, after much loss of time and damages amounting to several thousand pounds, in the gentleman re-selling the estate for the amount he had paid for it.
Besides the above-mentioned drawbacks, the holders of mirié lands cannot sell, transfer, or mortgage them without a license from the authorities, nor can they make themVakoufproperty without a specialFirmanfrom the Sultan.
3. TheMemloukéorMulklands are the freehold property of their owner, who can do with them whatsoever pleaseth him well. They do not form a large proportion of the lands of Turkey, and a reason for this is the prejudice entertained against this form of tenure on account of the difficulties encountered in establishing titles. It is unfortunately no unusual thing in Turkey for title-deeds to be forged, substituted, destroyed, and otherwise interfered with.
The descent and division of Mirié and Vakouf lands are regulated by imperial firmans and the special ordinances of the Vakouf laws; but Memlouké land comes under the regulation of theMehkeméor court of the town Kadi. The laws of Moslem inheritance are too complicated to be recorded here, and their complexity is aggravated by the mixture of Christians and the different ways of holding land. In the absence of heirs, mirié and memlouké lands revert to the state; vakouf, as already mentioned, to the administration of pious foundations.
Memlouké land is transferred legally by conveyance; vakouf and mirié by conveyance together with registration. The duty on the sale of memlouké land is five per cent, and the succession duty two and a half per cent; on mirié, five per cent on sale, and the same on succession; on vakouf land, five per cent on sale, and the same on succession. A difference, however, is made if the land is built over.
The division of property among all the children and the reduction of its value by these duties tend constantly to the diminution and deterioration of Turkish estates and lead generally to mortgage. Mortgage on landed property is at an average interest of eighteen per cent. The result is easily imagined. Freehold lands may be legally mortgaged before two witnesses without any further precaution; but crown and “church” lands to be mortgaged must be registered by the registrar of title-deeds, or the directors of vakouf property, for the fee of (nominally) one per cent.
A great number of large estates can be purchased in all parts of Turkey for very small sums. The wealthy native Christians would gladly purchase these, but for the complications that surround the possession of landed property that is not vakouf, and the difficulties and opposition to which a Christian land-holder is exposed. Turks seldom look favorably upon the passing of such estates into Christian hands. Those who purchase them are generally foreign subjects; the rayahs who venture to do so can never enjoy their acquisitions in the same peace and security. Among many instances of encroachment on such estates by hostile beys, Circassians, and other neighbors, I may mention two that have come under my personal observation. The first refers to a wealthy Bulgarian gentleman, whose acquaintance I made ten years ago at R⸺. He was a man of great influence, and a member of the Medjliss, or town council. A large estate owned by him, not far from the town, was twice set on fire by his Mohammedan neighbors, and a large mill he had constructed was pulled down. Neither his influence in the district, nor his wealth, nor his position as member of the council, could protect his estate, which he was finally obliged to abandon.
The second case was that of a wealthy Greek at Baba Eski, a pretty village between Constantinople and Adrianople. Some years ago I passed a night in the house of this Chorbadji. When I talked to him about his property he complained bitterly of the hostility he experienced from his Turkish neighbors, and of the encroachments of the Circassians. The former had attempted to set fire to his mill, and the latter had stolen in the course of one year three hundred and fifty head of cattle from him. “Wealth and prosperity,” said he, “are the sure recompense of every man’s labor in a fine country like this, but it is hard work to keep them when acquired.” Last year I met the unfortunate man at C⸺; he was a complete beggar in appearance, and, with tears in his eyes, told me how the Circassians and other enemies, profiting by the troubles in Bulgaria, had completely destroyed his property. He had come to the town to obtain redress, but I thought that his efforts would be fruitless.
Many gentlemen in Macedonia are owners of large estates. Some of them are Greeks by birth, and all foreign subjects; for foreign subjects are now permitted to hold land in Turkey on the same conditions as the subjects of the Porte. Having capital at their command, and being more intelligent than the Turks, they improve their property, and realize from seven to ten per cent profit; but even their estates are not quite free from the attacks and depredations of brigands, who often prevent them from visiting their farms freely, or introducing all the improvements they are desirous of making. Out of four of these, three sent their sons to Europe, where they were educated for the profession of agriculturists, a proceeding quite unknown among the Turkish proprietors.Bonâ-fideEuropeans are more respected and feared, and consequently are not exposed to the hostilities to which native Christians are subjected. Some English gentlemen possessing farms in Macedonia have had no occasion to complain, even in these disordered times, when perfect anarchy prevails; their property has been respected, and every assistance is afforded them by the local authorities.
Estates can also be rented for a mere trifle, and when restored to good condition are said to yield lucrative returns. Here again, however, great care has to be taken to ascertain that they are not disputed property, and, in the case of their belonging to several individuals of one family, that all are of age, and sign the title-deeds. A case was related to me by a member of the civil court of A⸺ of a rayah who had rented an estate from a Turkish family, consisting of a widow and her three sons, all of whom were of age and had signed the contract together with their mother. The tenant, who was a man of moderate means, set to work to improve the property, and spent £1000 upon it; but just as he was beginning to realize the profits of his toil and outlay, a fourth son of the widow came of age and disputed the validity of the contract. The case was tried before the local civil court, and the rayah was declared to have justice on his side; but as the case was one of heritage, the Turk had the right to transfer it to the Mehkemé, or religious court of the Kadi, which decided it in his favor. The result was that the tenant was driven out of his estate, and lost all the money he had spent upon it.
Almost every village in Roumelia and Macedonia, and in fact all over Turkey, had once its own common and forest, in which the peasant proprietors, under certain laws and regulations, had the right to burn charcoal, cut wood, and let the pasturage in spring to the herdsmen, who brought down their sheep and cattle and kept them there the greater part of summer. This was a great resource for the rural population, who, in bad years, could always make some profit out of it.
After the organization of the vilayet system this privilege was curtailed, and the forests and grazing grounds were placed under government supervision. A Forest Department was established at Constantinople, and a chief inspector appointed in every district, together with agents to superintend the pasturages. The laws that were to regulate these were said to be excellent, and, whilst equitable towards the peasants, promised at the same time to yield considerable revenues to the state. One of these regulations set forth that a portion of forest and pasturage land should be left to the use of each village, securing its provision of fuel and pasturage for its cattle. None of these laws were, however, observed in the interior, and nothing definite was decided with respect to either of these rights.
The beys, through bribery and favoritism, continued to enjoy their ancient privileges over the forests and grazing lands, while the forest inspectors are said to have realized such immense profits that every official was desirous of becoming connected with the Forest Department. The Government at the beginning, no doubt, derived some good receipts from this new source, but the great expense inseparable from it, the robberies that took place, and the destruction of property allowed, could not fail, in the long-run, to be injurious to its interests. The abuses, partiality, and waste that mark the proceedings of this branch of the administration are most prejudicial to the rural population.
But the agents of pasture lands and the forest keepers are still more tyrannical.
The extent of these grounds in the government possession was never defined, nor has a limit ever been drawn. The beys rented the commons to the herdmasters; the contracts were made with the cognizance of the local authorities, and on stamped paper. Some of the villages that possessed pasturage let it to the Wallachian sheep-owners, who, in the early part of spring, migrate annually into Macedonia to pasture their flocks on the commons.
Some herdsmen had made contracts for bringing down 300,000 sheep into the plains, paid the fees for the contract, and the stipulated sum to the peasants. All the arrangements seemed in perfect order until the arrival of the flocks upon the different grazing grounds, when they were driven off with violence and brutality by the forest-keepers and their subordinates, who declared thatthey had no right to the pasturage unless they paid the rent. The poor people produced their contract to show that they had paid the money, and refused to do so a second time; justly observing that, if any illegal action existed in the renting of the pasturage, it regarded the Government and the villagers, and not them, and that the Government should reclaim the money from the peasants. This dispute lasted a week; some of the Wallachians referred it to the local authorities, while others in their distress applied to any person from whom assistance could be expected. Day after day these men, women, and children might be seen in the streets of the town with desponding, careworn faces, anxiously looking out for some of their people who might tell them how the case was prospering. When I saw them no more about the town, I asked one of the principal officials how the affair had terminated; he replied, “Madame, malheureusement le gouvernement n’a pas su encore mettre toutes ces choses en ordre, et il nous arrive souvent de ces cas tristes; mais ça vient d’être arrangé.” He would not enlighten me further on the subject, but I subsequently learnt that a great amount of bakhshish had settled the matter in favor of the Wallachians.