| BY THE DANUBE.—IMPORTS. | ||||
| 1838. | 1839. | |||
| NAMES OF PLACES. | Goods. | Cash. | Goods. | Cash. |
| rubles. | rubles. | rubles. | rubles. | |
| Ismael | 253,697 | 1,632,996 | 238,996 | 820,035 |
| Reny | 50,193 | 797,497 | 85,429 | 553,174 |
| Total | 303,890 | 2,430,493 | 324,425 | 1,373,209 |
| EXPORTS. | ||||
| Ismael | 3,913,494 | 9,915 | 2,793,244 | |
| Reny | 718,040 | 50,773 | 609,541 | 77,745 |
| Total | 4,631,534 | 60,688 | 3,402,785 | 77,745 |
| BY LAND.—IMPORTS. | ||||
| Novo Selitza, Austrian frontier | 221,324 | 1,939,604 | 245,198 | 3,048,064 |
| Skouleni on the Pruth | 222,507 | 497,209 | 195,088 | 721,015 |
| Leovo on the Pruth | 52,336 | 29,932 | 55,664 | 26,291 |
| Total | 496,167 | 2,466,745 | 495,950 | 3,795,370 |
| EXPORTS. | ||||
| Novo Selitza | 1,978,172 | 163,868 | 3,277,660 | 81,868 |
| Skouleni | 829,692 | 525,638 | 737,462 | 540,618 |
| Leovo | 96,832 | 60,537 | 59,906 | 36,709 |
| Total | 2,904,696 | 750,043 | 4,075,028 | 659,195 |
Total of the customs and other duties realised in 1838, in the five localities above-named, 360,332 rubles, and in 1839, 319,134 rubles.
From some scattered details we have already given, the reader may conjecture that the population of Bessarabia is exceedingly mixed. The Boudjiak numbers among its inhabitants, Great Russians, Cossacks, Germans, Bulgarians, Swiss vine-dressers, gipsies, and Greek and Armenian merchants. The northern part of the province, on the contrary, is occupied almost exclusively by the Moldavian race, whose villages extend even along the Dniestr to the vicinity of Ackerman. Jews abound in the northern part; there are very few in the towns of the Boudjiak; leaving them out of the account the Bessarabian population may be divided into four great classes: the nobles, the free peasants who possess lands, the newly emancipated peasants, and the gipsies. The nobles consist of the ancient Moldavian aristocracy, the public functionaries, retired officers, and a great number of Russians, who have become landowners in the province. To this class we must join the Mazils, who are descendants of the ancient boyars, but whom war and the numerous revolutions that have desolated the land have reduced to penury. They form at present an intermediate class between the new nobles and the peasantry, and differ from the aristocracy only in not taking part in the elections of the judges and marshals of the nobles. The free peasants are those, who, having been emancipated in times more or less remote, possess lands, and depend neither on the great landlords nor on the crown, though subject to ordinary imposts and corvées. The newly liberated peasants consist of those who are settled, by virtue of a contract or agreement, on lands belonging to individuals or to the crown; they form the majority of the population. The Bohemians are still subjected to the laws of slavery. Some of them, to the number of 900 families, belong to the crown, and the rest to Moldavian landowners, who usually employ them as servants, workmen, and musicians.
In Bessarabia, as throughout Russia and the principalities of the Danube, the new generation of nobles have completely renounced the habits of former days. They have of course adopted the straight coat, trousers, cravat, and all the rest of our Western costume; there is nothing striking in their outward appearance. The old boyars alone adhere to their ancestral customs; a broad divan, pipes, coffee, dolces, and the kieff after dinner, are indispensable for them; and to some of them shampooing is a delicious necessity. I know a certain nobleman who cannot fall asleep without having his feet rubbed by his Bohemian. But what above all strikes and delights every stranger, especially a Frenchman, is the eager and cordial hospitality and kindness he encounters in every Moldavian house. One is sure of meeting everywhere with men who sympathise heartily with every thing great and useful to mankind which our civilisation and our efforts have produced in these latter times. It is only to be regretted that these brilliant qualities are often tarnished by the corruption which administrative venality and rapacity, supervening upon long military occupations, have insensibly diffused through all classes of the population.
The Bessarabian of the lower class is by nature a husbandman; he very rarely plies a trade. To know his real worth he must be seen in the interior of the country, far from the towns. The Moldavian peasant is brave, gay, and hospitable; he delights to welcome the stranger, and generally would be ashamed to receive the slightest present from him. The Russians accuse him of excessive sloth, but the charge appears unfounded. The Moldavian peasant seldom, indeed, thinks of accumulating money, but he always works with zeal until he has attained the position he had aspired to, the amount of comfort he had set his heart on; and, in reality, it is not until after the fulfilment of his desires that he becomes lazy, and that his efforts are generally limited to procuring his family the few sacks of maize necessary for its subsistence. But increase his wants, make him understand that there are other enjoyments than those in which he indulges so cheaply, and you will infallibly see him shake off his natural apathy, and rise to the level of the new ideas he has adopted.
The most charming thing in the Moldavian villages is the extreme cleanliness of the houses, which are generally surrounded by gardens and thriving orchards. Enter the forest dwelling, and you will almost always find a small room perfectly clean, furnished with a bed, and broad wooden divans covered with thick woollen stuffs. Bright parti-coloured carpets, piles of cushions, with open work embroideries, long red and blue napkins, often interwoven with gold and silver thread, are essential requisites in every household, and form a principal portion of the dowery of young women.
In general, the women take little part in field labours, but they are exceedingly industrious housewives. They are all clever weavers, and display great art and taste in making carpets, articles of dress, and linen. The great object of emulation among the women of every village, is to have the neatest and most comfortable house, and the best supplied with linen and household utensils.
Such was Bessarabia, when I visited it in detail, on my return from my long journeys in the steppes of the Caspian. I visited it a second time when about to quit Russia for the principalities of the Danube; and when I crossed the Pruth, I could not help reiterating my earnest prayers that the inexhaustible resources of this province may at last be duly appreciated, and that effectual measures may be taken to put an end to that languor and depression in which it has been sunk for so many years.
[85] Bessarabia now includes nine districts, the capitals of which, beginning from the south, are Ismael, Ackerman, Kahoul, Bender, Kichinev, Orgeiev, Beltz, Soroka, and Khotin. Kichinev is the capital of the government; it was formerly a poor borough on the Bouik, a little river that falls into the Dniestr; the preference was given it on account of its central position. Its population is now 42,636, of whom from 15,000 to 18,000 are Jews. It is to the administration of Lieutenant-general Fœderof that the town owes the numerous embellishments, and the principal public edifices it presents to the traveller's view.
[86] The Bulgarian colonies, the most prosperous of all those that have been established in the Boudjiak, numbered in 1840, 10,153 families, comprising 32,916 males, and 29,314 females. The surface of their lands has been estimated at 585,463 hectares, of which 527,590 are fit for tillage and hay crops, and 57,873 are waste. The Bulgarian colonists pay the crown 50 rubles per family. The corn harvest amounted, in 1839, to 211,337 tchetverts. They have contrived to preserve among them the breed of zigai sheep, the long strong wool of which is in demand in the East, and formed, previously to the Russian occupation, the chief wealth of the Bessarabians: they now possess about 343,479.
[87] The German colonies include nineteen villages and 1736 families. They are in a very backward condition.
[88] After the destruction of the celebrated Setcha of Dniepr, the Zaporogue Cossacks withdrew in great numbers beyond the Danube, and settled with the permission of the Turks on that secondary branch of the Balkan which runs between Isaktchy and Toultcha. During the wars of 1828 and 1829, the Russian government contrived to gain the allegiance of many of the descendants of these Zaporogues who served it as spies. Their number was so considerable that after the campaign Russia formed them into military colonies in the Boudjiak. These colonies increased greatly in consequence of the asylum they afforded to all the refugees and vagabonds of Russia, and presented, in 1840, an effective of two regiments of cavalry of 600 men each, with a total population of 3000 families, having eight villages and 50,000 hectares of land.
[89] We have no exact data respecting these villages, the situation of which is wretched enough. Their population consists entirely of fugitives, to whom the government had for many years granted an asylum in Bessarabia to the detriment of the neighbouring government.
[90] The gipsies have three villages containing 900 families. The establishment of these colonies was not effected without difficulty, and it required all the severity of a military administration to make them sow their grounds.
[91] Since our departure, the Russian government seems disposed to interest itself on behalf of Bessarabia. We are informed that it is at present turning its attention to the navigation of the Dniestr, a matter of the more importance since the Dniestr washes Bessarabia throughout its whole length, and there is not yet in that province any means of communication practicable at all seasons.
To complete our author's account of Sevastopol, we subjoin an abstract of a paper by Mr. Shears, C.E., which was read at the meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, January 12, 1847.
"Sevastopol is very peculiarly situated, amidst rocky ground, rising so abruptly from the shore, that there was not space for the buildings necessary for a dockyard. On account of the depth of water close in shore, and other natural advantages, the emperor determined to make it the site of an extensive establishment, and as there is not any rise of tide in the Black Sea, and the construction of cofferdams would have been very expensive and difficult in such a rocky position, it was decided to build three locks, each having a rise of ten feet, and at this level of thirty feet above the sea to place a main dock with lateral docks, into which vessels of war could be introduced, and the gates being closed, the water could be discharged by subterranean conducts to the sea, and the vessel, being left dry, could be examined and repaired, even beneath the keel. A stream was conducted from a distance of twelve miles to supply the locks, and to keep the docks full; this, however, has been found insufficient, and a pumping-engine has since been erected by Messrs. Maudsley and Field, for assisting.
"The original intention was to have made the gates for the docks of timber, but on account of the ravages of a worm, which it appears does not, as in the case of the Teredo navalis or the Tenebranes, confine itself to the salt water, it was resolved to make them with cast iron frames covered with wrought iron plates.
"There are nine pairs of gates, whose openings vary from 64 feet in width and 34 feet 4 inches in height for ships of 120 guns, to 46 feet 7 inches in width, and 21 feet in height, for frigates.
"The manipulation of such masses of metal as composed these gates demanded peculiar machines; accordingly, Messrs. Rennie fitted up a building expressly, with machines constructed by Mr. Whitworth, by which all the bearing surfaces could be planed, and the holes bored in the ribs, and all the other parts, whether their surfaces were curved or plane. The planing was effected by tools which travelled over the surface, backward and forward, cutting each way; the piece of metal being either held in blocks, if the surface was plane, or turned on centres, if the surface was curved. The drilling was performed by machines, so fixed, that the pieces could be brought beneath or against the drills, in the required direction, and guided so as to insure perfect uniformity and accordance between them.
"Travelling cranes were so arranged, as to take the largest pieces from the wharf, and place them in the various machines, by the agency of a very few men, notwithstanding their formidable dimensions; the heelposts in some cases being upwards of 34 feet long. Each endless screw, for giving progressive motion to the cutting tools, was 45 feet long. Some idea may be formed of the manual labour avoided by the machines, when it is stated, that the surface planed or turned in the nine pairs of gates equals 717,464 square inches; and in some cases a thickness of three-quarters of an inch was cut off. The surface in the drilled bolt holes equals 120,000 square inches."
The paper gave all the details of the construction of the gates, and the machinery for making them; and was illustrated by a series of detailed drawings.