Note 20 — Chapter II · INAUGURATION OF THE HOSPODARS—PRESENT FORM OF GOVERNMENT—LOCAL LAWS—TRIBUNALS OF JUSTICE—MEMBERS OF THE DIVAN AND OTHER PUBLIC FUNCTIONARIES—DISTRICTS—CAÏMACAM OF CRAYOVA—ISPRAVNIKS.

In page 416, of the “Present State of Turkey,” Mr. Thornton says, “The Boyars of the most ancient families, indeed, assert that they are the descendants of the Slavi, and are of a distinct race from the people who have sprung from the alliances of the Romans with the original Dacians; but the chief distinction among the nobles is their wealth and possessions. The great majority of the Wallachian and Moldavian nobility owe their creation to the Sultan’s Voïvodes; for even these ephemeral beings, these fleeting shadows of royalty, are presumed to confer by their breath a permanency of dignity,” &c. I perfectly agree with Mr. Thornton as to the latter part of this observation; but at the same time I must beg leave to say, that although I am well acquainted with all the Boyars who are considered to belong to the most ancient families, I never could discover that their claims to antiquity went beyond the period of Raddo Negro’s and Bogdan’s establishment; nor indeed are there many sufficiently conversant with the history of their country, or with any other, to know that the Slaves ever came into it, or even that a nation of that name ever existed. Those who call themselves the oldest families merely date their origin from Voïvodes, who have reigned within the last five hundred years; and upon such origin alone they form their claims to ancient nobility.