literature of France, for models. Often the genuine manifestations of the nations called to a new life were endangered by the powerful influence of this splendid foreign model.
What were the reasons for this unexpected fact?
First, in a period when French literature and the French mode predominated all over Europe, and when America separated itself from the British commonwealth, it was due to the presence of French teachers, if not in such countries as Serbia, Bulgaria and such territories as these which were under Turkish domination, in Constantinople and in the Roumanian principalities. To them was often confided the education of the future « grand interpreters » of the Porte, whose first duty it was to know French, the new language of diplomacy, i. e. the future princes of the Danube. The nobles, court officials and others naturally followed their example.
But not only for certain of the Roumanians, but also for a good number of Greeks, the centre of French influence in Vienna was highly important.
In that imperial city the French mode was introduced by the mere fact of the Emperor, Francis of Lorraine, the husband of the Austrian and Hungarian heiress, Maria-Theresia, being a Frenchman by language and education. His role, often much underestimated, was by no means a small one. In his house and at his court, the French language was always to be heard and was sympathetically received. But these French customs could only be of use to the Greeks, as well as to many Orientals, and to some Roumanians too, by cooperation with the factors of French influence. This was also due to the existence of an oriental trading company, formed at the end of the 17th century to strengthen relations between the Austrian States and all provinces of the Orient — the so-called
