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5 UN DEBAT : LES mentalitEs collectwes 561

Tower in Bucharest to crush. Few private or public buildings were left untouched. External exploitation, a systematical one in Transylvania and an ever morę disorganized in the Danubian Principalities, was the reason why the improrement of living standards was not continuous. Achievements in these fields were obtained mainly towards the end of the century after the introduction of the Josephinian reforms and after the outstart of the evident decay of the Ottoman Empire, especiaUy after the Khiciuk-Rainardji peaee. That was a period in which the cultmal levels were particularly well-defined. In the mental representations new elemcnts were cohabiting with the old ones. Social attitudes were fore-telling the solidarities which had to offer a base to the national State to be.

Cidtural letels. Works written by Romanian men of letters, as well as foreign travellers reports depict a society which in the Danubian Principalities did not yet display a deep discrepancy between the way of thinking and feeling of the boyars and that of the peasants. Things weref rather different in Transylvania : the distance between the Magyar aris-tocracy and the German bourgeoisie, on the one hand, and the Romanian, Magyar and Szeckler peasantry, on the other, was quite obyious. This discrepancy was cver deepened by the different living standards and sometimes by the hindrances raised by different languages and beliefs.

We can reconstitute the climate of the Court in the Danubian Principalities, although the Court was less active in the cultural field than it used to be in the previous century, due to the Phanariots’ instability. 2fevertheless, a series of innovating initiatives were issued which were followed by fruitful conseąuences mainly in education and administi ation. This milieu comprised boyars -with important political positions and with an active róle in politics. Some of them were remarkable in their opposition to Phanariot abuses and their efforts to limit the absolute power of the princej they also tried to reform socia lrelations. Among them were participants in conspirations, such as Manolache Bogdan and Cuza, who lost their lives and were transformed into heroes by the rhymed ehronicles of the period. The boyars belonging to the metropolitan Leon Gheuca group, in Iaęi, were nurturing a resistancę and reform spirit. As we can infer from their memoires and projects these boyars were interested in changing the State system and in the reyision of the relations with the Ottoman Porte. They were interested in new ways of cultivating the ground and in commerce and showed no less concern for ideas found in Western works. To prove this they supported the translations and adaptations of European literaturę and subscribed to periodicals issued in the most important capitals of the continent. To educate young people was of utmost importance for them. The foundation of Romanian, high schools in Bucharest and Jassy by the beginning of the 19th century was their achievement. Enlightened cleries joined in their efforts (such were the metropolitans Iacov Stamate and Veniamin Costache in Iaęi, pr bishop Chesarie of Rimnic) and thus changed the pilnting houses into centers of Romanian culture and encouraged the modernization of education. A new intellectual movement madę itself conspicuous at the end of the century. It was a moyement that relied on the boyars’ and Clerics’ spirit of reform and deyeloped their efforts and their political and social claims. With them these efforts were turned into a way of swaying national