the minds of most naval readers of these pages, how many localities they have visited which have never been more than roughly surveyed, how many inaccuracies are found in charts, and how often it would have been in their power to furnish correct plans of different harbours they have visited, or to fill in an imperfectly known coast-line, had they only known how to set about it. The very limited knowledge of our naval officers of the two subjects we have just mentioned, is a standing reproach to the service; yet the blame does not rest with them, as we have endeavoured to show.

The system of study, therefore, for the senior officers, requires a careful revision. There should be different courses of study established, besides that of steam, for other branches of science-viz., the higher mathematics, mechanics, and hydrostatics, nautical astronomy, marine surveying, naval architecture, practical astronomy, field fortification, and optics. An elementary knowledge of mathematics would of course be necessary before any of these could be entered upon; but according to even the present system of educating cadets, they acquire this; and were such a plan adopted as those we have sketched out, officers, when they came to study at the senior College, would have previously been thoroughly well grounded in many of these subjects also during their three years' instruction as cadets. The officers joining the senior College, according to this arrangement, should be at liberty to select any of the above subjects, for each of which, there should be an examination to go through at the termination of the course, and certificates of proficiency given, a certain time being allowed for each subject. Some distinguishing mark might be put against an officer's

name in the Navy List who had obtained first-class certificates in any of these branches of science: and if the Admiralty wished to put their hand upon an officer for any special service, they would at once be able to select one who, by the nature of his studies, bad qualified himself for that particular duty.

We have thus endeavoured to show what are the requirements of the naval service with respect to the education and training of its officers, and how these requirements may be provided for. We have entered fully into the subject, for two reasons; first, because it is one of the very greatest national importance, and also because since it has been resolved to abolish the present system, and to establish a College for the naval cadetsthis is the especial time to take these matters into careful consideration. We earnestly hope that the Admiralty will look upon this question in a broad and liberal light, and permit no paltry motives of economy, or no narrow-minded prejudices, to stand in the way of the development of some scheme which may be worthy of this great country, and the first Navy of the world. And we trust that naval officers themselves, fully sensible of the neglect under which their education has suffered, will one and all, whenever opportunity shall offer, raise their voices in favour of some such system for the future as shall in every respect atone for the shortcomings of the past. To them we would recall the words of the late Sir James Graham:* "Icannot express in adequate terms my admiration of the naval character; I think it decidedly the very flower of British society. I think that a naval officer, trained from his youth in his profession, and master of his profession, is one of the noblest and finest characters that the history of this country can produce."

habitants, Piatra owes alike its prosperity and its misfortunes to the capricious river on the banks of which it is situated. It is the centre of the wood trade, and the Bistritza is, up to this point, the mode of conveyance from the densely-wooded valleys of the Carpathians. Not merely does it afford water-carriage for wood, but the rafts in their turn are made use of by travellers as the most convenient way of descending the river. These rafts are of necessity comparatively small, but they are fornished with comfortable little log shanties; and I regretted, as I saw them come spinning down the rapids and being moored to the wreck of shattered cottages, that I had not found time to explore the headwaters of the river, and descend it in this exciting fashion.

We were most hospitably entertained at Piatra by the prefect, whose house of only one story, with verandahs all round, was not unlike an Indian bungalow; it was nevertheless one of the most sumptuous mansions in the place. As a rule, the town was little better than a collection of huts, and, to judge from their outward appearance, the people did not seem to thrive very much on the wood trade. The disaster which had so recently overtaken them, and which had reduced thousands to ruin, was, however, without doubt, one chief cause of the squalid and poverty-stricken aspect of the place. We met at dinner the few intelligent and educated men who lived here, and spent the evening, as is usual on such occasions, in political discussions. The policy of Prince Couza always afforded a fruitful topic. Unfortunately, there was never a sufficient divergence of opinion about him individually to make an argument possible. During the whole term of my residence in Moldavia and Wallachia, I did not find a soul who defended him. Indeed, the only man who did not virulently abuse him was the then Prime Minister. As, a week or two after I saw this functionary for the last time, he

was summarily ejected from office, I have little doubt that he is not now exceeded by his fellows in bitterness.

We went into

We paid a very early visit to the Monastery of Bistritza, situated in the gorge of the valley, and distant only about an hour from Piatra. The scenery at this point becomes really fine, and we regretted that we were prevented from pushing our explorations into the tempting region beyond. Here, instead of a collection of separate cottages inhabited by hundreds of monks, there was only a large house and a church. The house contained the Igoumen, a fine-looking man, who received us hospitably, and informed us that he, together with two or three exiled priests, composed the whole establishment. the church-an old building, decorated with some quaint frescoes, and in which service was being drawled over by one of the exiles to three or four old men and women. One of the latter startled me by suddenly prostrating herself before the officiating priest as he was carrying the host, and thus obliging him to step over her body. The monk who had accompanied us from the Monastery of Nyamptz informed me that the peasants profoundly believed in the efficacy of this process for healing purposes whenever they were afflicted with any malady; and he went on to say that his experience confirmed this popular superstition, and that he had himself cured people by stepping over them with the host in his hands.

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Bistritza was as good a specimen of a Dedicated monastery as could have selected. The abuses of a system which could foster such an establishment were apparent at a glance; and I am bound to say that the Igoumen himself, with whom we discussed the matter, scarcely attempted to defend it. In order, however, to make clear the distinctions between the various ecclesiastical endowments in these Principalities, it will be necessary to define shortly the conditions under which they exist. It may be said, at a rough computation, that as

nearly as possible one-fifth of the soil of Moldavia is in the hands of the Church. This Church property may be divided into four categories -that belonging to Government monasteries, to Cenobitic monasteries, to Dedicated monasteries, and to secular churches. The Government monasteries are small endowments, scarcely worth mentioning. The whole annual rental of the secular churches is only £3000. It is probable, therefore, that their State endowments do not involve greater abuses than ecclesiastical endowments in other countries. We have left to consider the Cenobitic and the Dedicated monasteries. The first category I described in a former article. Nyamptz, Seku, Agapia, and Veratica all belonged to it. They are not nearly so wealthy as the Dedicated classand have a great deal more to do with their money. They are people of the country, who spend at home the wealth they derive from the produce of the soil, and who, as a rule, approve rather than otherwise of Prince Couza's wholesale measure of confiscation. It may hit them hard in some respects, but it hits their bitter enemies the Dedicated monasteries mach harder. The Cenobitic convents and monasteries derive their riches either from the legacies of wealthy boyards, or from members of the fraternity who have thrown their property into the common lot. The revenue of Nyamptz, for instance, was nominally £20,000 a-year, derived from land; this maintained nine hundred monks, and a large Fan was set aside for hospitality; for it was the fashion for strangers to quarter themselves for an indefinite period upon the monastery; and at the time of the annual pilgrimage the guests were reckoned by thousands; added to this, many of the most powerful boyards are heavily indebted to the monasteries for rents of land, and in other ways; as it is not the fashion in the Principalities to pay one's debts, and courts of law exist only as channels of injustice, the monasteries were invariably victimised,

and had large sums owing to them which they never saw the least chance of obtaining. Meantime the Government denies that it has actually appropriated property which does not belong to it; on the contrary, Prince Couza maintains that all convent property is in reality Government property, and that he has a right to take it, with its obligations. Without following him into the special pleading by which he endeavours to prove this, the fact remains that he has poured an enormous sum of money into the Government coffers, and at the same time put the Cenobitic establishments on a footing which they prefer, and which is likely to diminish existing abuses. The monks will no longer be oppressed and victimised by boyards, or eaten up by pilgrims and strangers. They get their three piastres a-day apiece for board, besides about £125 a-year pocket-money for each man, and have no further trouble with the administration of their large revenues. The nuns in the same way get two ducats a-day from the Government, with which they are very well satisfied, and admit the propriety of the new regulation prohibiting women from taking the veil until they are forty-five. For ten years to come no novice at all is to be admitted to either convent. The only objection I heard made by themselves to this rule was, that when the convent contained nothing but old women, there would be no one to chant or perform the service. Altogether, it is evident that the Government is doing what it can to discourage such establishments. It opposes the institution of schools by either monks or nunstoo much knowledge, in the opinion of Prince Couza, being a dangerous thing; and it equally opposes the accumulation of wealth for the support of hives of male and female drones, who do nothing but discuss politics and grumble.

We now come to the next category, of Dedicated monasteries. They are upon an altogether dif ferent foundation from the estab

lishments we have just been discussing, and derive their wealth from property acquired by the Patriarch of Constantinople for the Church of which he is the head, under various pretexts. It was only natural that, when the Ottoman rule was more directly operative in the Principalities than it is at present, everything should be managed by intrigue throngh Constantinople; and the boyards repaid the Patriarch for any jobs with the Turkish Government they wished done, by making over, or dedicat ing," at their death, their property to the Greek Church. While the monks of the Cenobitic monasteries owe allegiance to the Greek Metropolitan at Jassy, the monks of the Dedicated monasteries owe aliegiance only to the Patriarch at Constantinople. They are, in every sense, intruders and interlopers; are seldom natives of the country; and form, in fact, a portion of that vast ecclesiastical system which swallows up, for Church purposes, an immense proportion of the wealth of European Turkey and the Levant. These Dedicated monasteries are affiliated to Mount Athos and other Greek convents abroad, and the Turkish Government has an interest in the question, because they are, in a sense, as appertaining to a Church whose head is at Constantinople, under Turkish protection. So that we have the positions reversed; and while, in Turkey, Russia is perpetually agitating upon the ground of a protectorate in favour of the Christian Church, in the Principalities Turkey is agitating, upon the same pretext, in favour of the same sect. So little has real religion to do with it in either case.

Altogether, the revenue of these Dedicated convents in Moldavia alone amounted to an annual rental of £200,000. When it is remembered that almost every farthing of this sum is sent to Constantinople, and, instead of finding its way back into the pockets of Moldavians, to be used in developing the resources of the country, goes to enrich the

drones of Athos, Sinai, and other monasteries, or else is appropriated by the Patriarch at Constantinople, who is accountable for it to no one, one cannot wonder at the head of the State casting covetous eyes upon it for the exigencies of his Government. It would be too much to expect of any man, much less of Prince Couza, who is not much troubled with the devotional sentiment, to nourish in his bosom the ecclesiastical vampire which has fastened upon the vitals of the country, and is sucking its lifeblood. Even Mr. Gladstone, were he Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Principalities, notwithstanding the marks of affection which he has lavished, on more than one occasion, upon the Greek priesthood, would scarcely be able to resist proving by argument the superior claims of the State over a Church the head of which in a foreign country acts as the receiver of stolen goods, while his clergy perform the functions of robbers and exporters of the same.

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It was a curious thing to see this solitary man in his large empty house, standing over against a large empty church, without a congregation, without priests, without schools, without paupers to cour, with no other earthly occupation except to collect the rents of the monastery, which amount to £12,000 a-year, and to send then to Constantinople. Though called Igoumen, and invested ostensibly with sacred functions, he really was nothing more than a land-steward on a salary of £125 a-year, kept there, with long hair and a long robe and a sacred character, to gather in the rents and see that the peasants who belonged to the monastery did the right amount of service for the lands they held. Poor man! be himself protested that it made very little difference to him whether the lands were confiscated or not; under no circumstances did he make money, he alleged, so strict was the account he was compelled to render to Constantinople; and he was rather glad than otherwise that the