ROUMAXIA. 



719 



with 11,911 kilometres, or 7,397 miles, of wire. 

 The paid internal messages transmitted in 1887 

 numbered 880,829; private international mes- 

 sages, 281,264; total number of dispatches, 

 private and official, 1,256,696. The receipts 

 from the postal and telegraph service amounted 

 to 5,049,218 francs, and the expenses to 3,702,- 

 567 francs. 



The European Commission of the Danube. The 

 International Danube Commission, created by 

 the Treaty of Paris in 1856 and confirmed by 

 the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, exercises certain 

 sovereign powers over the Danube river below 

 Galatz. When the powers deputed to the com- 

 mission expired by limitation of time, on March 

 13, 1883, a new commission was constituted. 

 The financial statement for 1885 shows a total 

 expenditure for the year of 1,805,824 francs, 

 and receipts amounting to 2.627,358 francs, of 

 which 1,430,958 francs were obtained from tolls, 

 and the remainder from special sources. The 

 number of steamers that passed the Sulina 

 mouth of the Danube on tlie outward voyage 

 in 1886 was 872, of 866,763 tons, of which 564, 

 of 622,201 tons, were British ; 61, of 63,140 

 tons, Greek; 81, of 62.826 tons, Austrian; 49, 

 of 55,772 tons, French ; 26, of 20,585 tons, 

 Italian ; 60, of 19,736 tons, Russian ; and 28, of 

 22,493 tons, were Norwegian, German, Dutch, 

 and 1 of them Spanish. The Greek sailing- 

 vessels numbered 201, of 39,459 tons, and the 

 Turkish 257, of 33,001 tons, while 49, of 11,- 

 344 tons, belonged to other countries. The 

 grain exports from the ports of the lower 

 Danube in 1886 were 6,461,889 quarters, as 

 against 6.070,157 quarters in 1885, and 4,441,- 

 039 quarters in 1884. 



Political Crisis. The Conservative ministry of 

 Lascar Catargio, constituted in 1871, made the 

 first attempt to create a Government party and 

 set the national needs and interests above per- 

 sonal and sectional rivalries. Lacking the 

 courage of an energetic initiative, Catargio 

 failed to unlock new financial resources for the 

 growing requirements of the state until he 

 was confronted by a deficit of 80,000,000 lei, 

 and had no money in the treasury to pay sala- 

 ries and other current expenses. The Con- 

 servatives succumbed to the attacks of the Lib- 

 erals, who, owing to their French sympathies, 

 had been under a shadow since the Franco- 

 German War. Joan Bratiano, the most prom- 

 inent among thoe Liberals to whom the 

 King would intrust the Government, formed a 

 ministry in 1876, and with the exception of a 

 few weeks in tlie spring of 1881, he has guided 

 the policy of the Government for twelve years 

 with the aid of his colleague, Demeter Sturdza. 

 By securing to the state the revenues of the salt 

 and tobacco monopolies, establishing the bank- 

 ing and credit system of Roumania, and com- 

 pleting the railroads, he placed the finances on 

 a solid basis, and developed the economical re- 

 sources of the country. On the eve of the Russo- 

 Turkish conflict he obtained from Russia the rec- 

 ognition of Roumanian independence, telling 



Gortchakoff that without a treaty Russian troops 

 could not march through Roumania except over 

 the bodies of the Roumanians, and in May, 

 1876, he issued tlie proclamation of Roumanian 

 independence. He adopted, in opposition to 

 the Radical section of his party, the policy of 

 subservience to German and Austrian wishes 

 to gain protection against Russian aggression, 

 and through this course and the successes of 

 his internal administration drew to his side 

 some of the ablest of the Moderate Conserva- 

 tives, and built up the National Liberal party, 

 which was supported by the great majority of 

 the voting population. Gradually, however, 

 the reluctance of Bratiano to embrace new re- 

 forms, and still more the dictatorial methods of 

 personal government into which his energetic 

 character betrayed him, alienated the strongest 

 men in the Liberal party. Some retired from 

 public life and others formed a Liberal Oppo- 

 sition, of which the brother of the Prime Min- 

 ister was one of the leaders. These politicians 

 joined forces with the Junirnini or Young Con- 

 servatives, a group that sprang from a literary 

 society founded in 1867 by Theodor Rosetti, 

 P. Carp, and T. Majoresco, which had for its 

 object the cultivation of German ideas in op- 

 position to the French tendencies of the Lib- 

 erals. The Young Conservatives were equally 

 removed from the ideas of class rule repre- 

 sented by the Old Conservative or Boyar party, 

 which disappeared from the political field to a 

 great extent after the advent of the Liberal 

 Cabinet. They contributed their money and ef- 

 forts when the United Opposition was formed, 

 and to their aid was added that of Russian in- 

 triguers, who paid liberally for assaults on the 

 German prince and his Philo-German Cabinet. 

 Such was the unbridled license of the Opposi- 

 tion press and orators that a revolutionary 

 spirit pervaded the community in the early 

 part of 1888. There were strong grounds for 

 the charges made against Bratiano's adminis- 

 tration that undermined his popularity. De- 

 serted by the best of his fellow -workers, he was 

 obliged to rely more and more on servile and 

 selfish instruments, with no one to aid him in 

 watching and checking abuses and corruption. 

 When the Opposition grew strong enough to 

 threaten the continuance of the ministry, the 

 officials resorted to oppressive expedients to 

 control the elections. The attacks of the press 

 led them to take unusual measures for silencing 

 criticism. Thus the editor of the "Lupta" 

 was sentenced and imprisoned for lese majeste 

 until the Government was constrained by popu- 

 lar clamor to pardon him in February, 1888. 

 The chief accusation against the official clique 

 that Bratiano had gathered about him, with 

 more regard to ability than to uprightness, was 

 that they enriched themselves at the public ex- 

 pense by all kinds of corrupt methods. No sus- 

 picion of personal dishonesty attached to Bra- 

 tiano himself; but against officers, high and 

 low, in various departments charges were made 

 in the press, and were generally believed. At 



