The years 1803–1859
The Crimean War: Parliament never said so much about the Principalities
For half a century Wallachia and Moldavia appear rarely, and almost only as a stake between empires. They were the two principalities on the lower Danube, under Ottoman suzerainty, that united in 1859 and became Romania. The earliest mention found is dated 22 December 1806: a despatch printed among the papers of the House of Commons reports that the Porte, the Ottoman government, has removed their ruling princes. The first peak comes in 1849, when Lord Dudley Stuart asks the Government for papers on the Russian occupation that followed the revolutions of 1848.
Then comes the Crimean War. In July 1853 Russia occupies the Principalities, and for years Parliament argues over who should evacuate them, who should garrison them and who should guarantee them. In 1854 the name appears 443 times, and in 1855 340 times: 108 and 102 mentions per million words printed, the highest values in all the 222 years for which digitised text exists. About two thirds are the bare word “Principalities”. Nobody needed to be told which ones.
The Treaty of Paris of 30 March 1856 places the Principalities under the guarantee of the great powers and promises them assemblies in which the inhabitants can say what they want. In the summer of 1857 the elections in Moldavia are rigged against union. On 14 August W. E. Gladstone, a Member of Parliament and former Chancellor of the Exchequer, reads to the Commons the order received by a Moldavian official:
By virtue of your office I order you to labour without ceasing against the foolish idea of the union of the Principalities, and to use all your efforts in order that the inhabitants of your town may become adversaries of the union.
an order to a Moldavian official, read to the House by W. E. Gladstone, HC Deb, 14 August 1857, vol. 147, col. 1670
On 4 May 1858 Gladstone goes further and asks the House to tell the Queen that the wishes of the Moldavians and Wallachians should carry weight in the negotiations. The debate fills columns 44 to 106 of volume 150 of Hansard and names the country 264 times, more than the rest of that year put together.
You want to place a living barrier between her and Turkey. There is no barrier, then, like the breast of freemen.
W. E. Gladstone, on Russia, HC Deb, 4 May 1858, vol. 150, col. 59
The Government is against. From the opposition benches it is joined by Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister until that February, under whom the Crimean War had ended:
The House may therefore rest satisfied that the union of Wallachia and Moldavia under a foreign prince means nothing less than their union under the sway of the Russian Royal family, or of some one dependent upon Russia.
Viscount Palmerston, HC Deb, 4 May 1858, vol. 150, col. 88
Among those who speak on Gladstone’s side are Lord John Russell and Lord Robert Cecil, the future Marquess of Salisbury, who would be Prime Minister three times. The motion is lost by 114 votes to 292. The following winter the Moldavians and the Wallachians elect the same prince, Alexandru Ioan Cuza, and make the union themselves.
