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ROUMANIA. 



1881. The legislative authority is exercised by 

 the Senate, consisting of 120 members, and the 

 Chamber of Deputies, numbering 183, elected by 

 the direct suffrage of the property-owning and 

 intelligent classes and the indirect suffrage of the 

 illiterate class. 



Finances. The receipts for the year ending: 

 with March, 1889, were 164,869,000 lei or francs, 

 of which 27,800,000 lei were obtained by direct 

 and 38,705,000 lei by indirect taxation, 42,250,000 

 lei were the produce of state monopolies and 28,- 

 301,000 lei of domains, and 12,750,000 lei were 

 the earnings of public works. The total ex- 

 penditures were 164,869,000 lei, the largest items 

 being 36,417,134 lei for war, 21,713,975 lei for 

 financial administration, 16,579,502 lei for pub- 

 lic instruction, and 61,574.180 lei for the public 

 debt. ' The capital of the debt on April 1, 1891, 

 amounts to 891.296,041 lei, and the year's inter- 

 est to 56,926,950 lei. In October, 1890, by means 

 of a new 4-per-cent. loan, 230,960,000 lei of 6-per- 

 cent, bonds were converted. 



Commerce. The total value of the imports 

 in 1889 was 367,944,099 lei, as compared with 

 310,378,320 lei in 1888 ; the value of the exports 

 was 274,167,146 lei, as compared with 256,788,- 

 642. The exports of cereals in 1889 were valued 

 at 239,500,000 lei. 



Communications. The railroads, which all 

 belong to the state, had in 1889 a total length of 

 2,543 kilometres, while 345 kilometres of exten- 

 sions were in progress and 659 kilometres more 

 were projected. 



The post-office in 1889 handled 9,873,520 in- 

 ternal and 5,223,434 international letters, 3,294,- 

 970 postal cards, 6,252,164 papers and circulars, 

 and 262,897 postal money orders. 



The telegraph lines in 1889 .were 5,307 kilo- 

 metres long, with 13,181 kilometres of wire. The 

 total number of telegrams for the year was 1,- 

 321,420. The revenue of the post-office and tele- 

 graphs was 5,200,297 lei, and the expenditure 

 4,012,191 lei. 



The Army. Every Roumanian is liable for 

 service in the active army for three years from his 

 twenty-first year. Those who are not drawn for 

 the permanent army are enrolled in the territo- 

 rial army for four years in the cavalry or five in 

 the infantry. The peace effective in 1890 was 

 2,666 officers and 48,500 men, with 8,124 horses 

 and 573 cannons. The war effective was 4 army 

 corps of 32,000 each and a division in the Do- 

 brudja, making about 150,000 men. 



The frontier fortifications designed by Gen. 

 Brialmont are completed on the Russian border 

 at Galatz, and the armament and garrisons were 

 expected to be in place in the spring of 1891. 

 Of the 18 detached forts that are to defend Bu- 

 charest, 10 were also to be armed with Krupp 

 guns before summer. These forts will protect 

 an area of 40 square miles, so that the entire Rou- 

 manian army can be concentrated behind them. 

 When they are finished the defensive works on 

 the Austrian frontier will be begun. A fifth 

 army corps for the district inclosed in the ring 

 of forts around the capital has been decided on. 



European Commission of the Danube. 

 The receipts of the international Danube Com- 

 mission sitting at Galatz were 3,097,961 francs, 

 and the expenses 2,097,929 francs in 1889; the 

 funds accumulated amounted to 1,501,560 francs. 



The number of steamers that cleared the Su- 

 lina mouth of the Danube was 1,668, of 1,423,- 

 632 tons. The total number of vessels was 1,870, 

 of 1,473,345 tons, of which 842, of 1,000,773 tons, 

 were British steamers ; 240 were Greek steam and 

 sailing craft, of 128,486 tons ; 427, of 78,136 tons, 

 were Turkish; and 109, of 77,062 tons, were 

 Austrian vessels ; next to which came the Italian 

 and French, of 66,322 and 63,884 tons respective- 

 ly. The exports of wheat from the Danubian 

 ports in 1889 were 4,608,000 quarters, as com- 

 pared with 8,599,000 in 1888 ; of rye, 1,458,000 

 quarters ; of maize, 2,502,000 quarters ; of bar- 

 ley, 1,553,000 quarters. 



'The Tariff Question. The commercial trea- 

 ties with Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, and 

 the Netherlands, which expire in June, 1891, 

 were renounced in the summer of 1890, prepara- 

 tory to a rearrangement of commercial relations 

 with foreign countries and a revision of the tariff 

 on the principle of protection for home produc- 

 tion, which is not afforded by the present con- 

 ventional tariff of 1| to 5 per cent, on foreign 

 goods. A scale ranging from 8 per cent, on some 

 articles competing with Roumanian products up 

 to 20 per cent, on certain manufactures is con- 

 sidered requisite. 



Politics. There was a struggle in the Legis- 

 lature in the early part of the year over the 

 proposition to indict ex-Minister Bratiano and 

 his colleagues for malfeasance in having during 

 the twelve years of his ministry given orders and 

 made contracts without competition, and for 

 other irregular acts. The motion was finally 

 defeated on Feb. 12 in the Chamber by a vote of 

 86 to 67. The continuance of the fortifications, 

 which have several times come to a standstill for 

 lack of means to proceed with the work, was op- 

 posed by few except the Russophil Boyar party. 

 In May the credit was voted by 93 against 53 

 votes. The discordant factions of the Liberal 

 party, headed respectively by Joan and Dimitri 

 Bratiano, were reunited in a single organization in 

 April under the leadership of the latter, to whom 

 his more distinguished brother yielded important 

 points, especially in respect to foreign policy. 

 The Chamber passed by 91 to 7 votes the bill to 

 establish the single gold standard, and replace 

 the 40,000,000 lei of silver 5-lei pieces with gold 

 coins at the cost of the state. A law was ap- 

 proved which gives retired officials a pension 

 proportionate to the length of their service in 

 the employ of the Government, being 30 per 

 cent, of their salary if they have served less 

 than fifteen years, 40 per cent, if they have served 

 longer, 60 per cent, if they have been public 

 servants for twenty years, and for those who 

 have served twenty-five years and over the pen- 

 sion is 75 per cent, of their annual pay at the time 

 of superannuation. In October the Government 

 made a beginning in agrarian reform for the 

 benefit of the agricultural proletariat by allot- 

 ting 75,000 hectares of good arable land from the 

 state domains to 15,000 peasant families. When 

 the Chambers reassembled, on Nov. 27, 1890, 

 Peucesco, Minister of Agriculture, resigned, and 

 was succeeded by Marghiloman, from whom the 

 portfolio of Public Works was transferred pro- 

 visionally to Majoresco, . who was appointed at 

 the same time Minister of Education. Rosetti, 

 the Minister of Justice, also retired, and Tri- 



