esco, 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
means in their power to give security to the national industry.

But the unfortunate geographical position of the Principalities, which
made them the battle-field of the two contending powers of the Orient,
still militated against the complete liberation of Roumania, and her
efforts at regeneration were watched with jealousy by both her powerful
semi-barbarous neighbours. The period soon arrived, however, when, for a
time at least, the intrigues of emperors, sultans, and courts were
unavailing, and when crowns were at a decided discount--the great
European convulsion of 1848. Then, when the French monarchy fell and the
rulers of other European States fled from their dominions into a more or
less abiding exile, the awakening of nationalities extended to
Moldo-Wallachia, and caused a patriotic rising far more hopeful and for
a time more successful than the revolt of 1821; and the Principalities
would no doubt have been permanently freed from foreign domination had
not disunion amongst the national leaders once more prevented such a
desirable issue. In the year of revolution, Nicholas I. being the Czar,
and Abdul Medjid (the 'Sick Man') Sultan, simultaneous risings took
place in the Principalities. The one in Moldavia was headed by a number
of leading boyards, who at first contented themselves with petitioning
for the restoration of their liberties. They w