ia. He abolished the old form of slavery, but
unfortunately political considerations still caused the retention of the
peasantry in servitude; for, in order to weaken the native boyards, a
large number of serfs, it is said 60,000 in all, were transferred as
labourers from their old masters to the Crown, and to the newly created
Greek boyards. Whilst their bodies were nominally freed, these poor
creatures were required to render such an amount of feudal service to
their new masters, that their wretched condition was rather aggravated
than improved. The Greek or Phanariote boyards who were created, found
it politic to intermarry with the native boyard families in order to
improve their position in the land of their adoption, and the servile
Wallachian nobles deemed it to their interest to encourage such
alliances; indeed it was necessary to save themselves from extinction.
New officers of State were appointed in the supposed interests of the
Porte, but, as we shall see presently, the ruling prince, or, as the
reader will find him called, voivode or hospodar,[155] managed to turn
these changes to account and make them serve for his own aggrandisement.

The new hospodar was always appointed by the Porte with great ceremony.
'The kukka or military crest,' says Wilkinson, 'is put on their heads by
the Muzhur Aga; the robe of honour is put on them by the Vizir himself.
They are honoured with standards and military music, and take the oath
of allegiance in the presence of the Sultan, to whom they are introduced
with the ceremonies usual at a public audience.'[156] They were
appointed by 'Beratt,' an imperial diploma, of which Wilkinson gives a
formula, and wherein the Sultan commands the Wallachian and Moldavian
peoples to acknowledge and obey the bearers of it, as the sole
depositaries of the sovereign authority. As soon as the prince was
appointed, he at once sent an _avant-courrier_, a Kaimakam, to make
preparations for his arrival; and this one, who was practically the
chief of the State for a period of two months, generally managed, whilst
he was carrying out his mission, to do a little profitable business on
his own account. The prince followed in great state, accompanied by a
number of dependants and hangers-on who had succeeded, by means of
presents or otherwise, in ingratiating themselves in his favour. The
bribes, flatteries, and meanness of which these sycophants were guilty,
either before the departure of the prince