696 



ROUMANIA. 



RUSSIA. 



Communications. The railroads, all of which 

 are state property, had in 1896 a length of 1,830 

 miles, not including 164 under construction, besides 

 which surveys were made for 614 miles. 



The telegraph lines of the state in 1895 had a 

 length of 4,242 miles, with 10,067 miles of wire. 

 There were sent during that year 1,710,524 inter- 

 nal, 485,124 foreign, 4.416 official, and 81,535 trans- 

 it messages; total, 2,281,599. The receipts were 

 3,081,224 lei. The expenses of the telegraph and 

 postal services together were 8,090,383 lei. The 

 receipts from the post office were 5,544,903 lei. 

 The number of letters carried was 12,169,815 ; of 

 postal cards, 7,744,215; of newspapers and circu- 

 lars, 23,438,805. 



European Commission of the l)anule. 

 Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, 

 Italy, Roumania, Russia, and Turkey are repre- 

 sented on an International Commission exercising 

 police and other sovereign rights on the Danube 

 river below Braila and authorized to collect tolls 

 from vessels to meet its expenses. It was created 

 by the Treaty of Paris, signed March 30, 1856, and 

 endowed with fuller powers by the Treaty of Berlin 

 in 1878. The receipts in 1895 amounted to 3,083,- 

 121 francs, and expenses to 2,271,578 francs. The 

 reserve funds at the close of that year amounted to 

 2,448,389 francs. The number of vessels that en- 

 tered the Sulina mouth during 1895 was 1,619, of 

 1,554,698 tons, including 1,152 steamers, of 1,460,983 

 tons, and 467 sailing vessels, of 93,715 tons. Of the 

 total number, 604, of 906,043 tons, were English 

 vessels ; 280, of 258,693 tons, were Greek : 377, of 93,- 

 385 tons, were Turkish ; 83, of 91.009 tons, were Aus- 

 trian ; 55, of 56,146 tons, were Italian ; 121, of 51,933 

 tons, were Russian ; 26, of 30,561 tons, were French ; 

 22, of 26,820 tons, were German ; 14, of 16,376 tons, 

 were Norwegian ; 26, of 8,005 tons, were Roumanian ; 

 3, of 6,041 tons, were Belgian; 3, of 4,704 tons, were 

 Spanish ; and 5, of 4,982 tons, were of other na- 

 tionalities. The export of wheat in 1895 was 5,686,- 

 000 quarters; of rye, 1,388,000 quarters; of maize, 

 1,613,000 quarters ;' of barley, 1,529,000 quarters. 



The international character of the Danube was 

 first recognized by Austria and Bavaria in 1852, 

 and afterward by Wiirternberg, and confirmed by 

 the Treaty of Paris. The Berlin Treaty extended 

 the jurisdiction of the International Commission as 

 far as Galatz. By the decision of a conference held 

 in London in 1871 the execution of projected works 

 for the removal of obstructions at the Iron Gates 

 was intrusted to Austria-Hungary. The powers of 

 the European commission were further extended 

 and confirmed by a subsequent act signed in May, 

 1881, which prolonged its rights till 1904. The 

 Iron Gates were opened on Sept. 27, 1896, render- 

 ing the whole river navigable for vessels of 2,000 

 tons burden up to the town of Passau, on the Aus- 

 tro-Hungarian frontier. 



Political Affairs. In April the Senate passed 

 a bill suppressing two judgeships of the Court of 

 Cassation, an act that the Opposition regarded as 

 an infringement of the Constitution. Strong feel- 

 ings were evoked by the deposition on June 1 of 

 the Roumanian Metropolitan by the Holy Synod, 

 and his condemnation was ascribed to political 

 pressure. Diplomatic relations with Greece, broken 

 off in 1892 because the Roumanian Government 

 raised a claim to a legacy of 5,000,000 lei that the 

 merchant Zappa bequeathed to the Greek nation, 

 were resumed in July, 1896, the Roumanian courts 

 having disallowed the claims of both governments 

 and recognized the rights of Zappa's next of kin to 

 the inheritance. The Roumanian Chamber met on 

 Nov. 27. On Dec. 3 a new Cabinet was constituted 

 as follows : Premier and Minister of Lands, M. 

 Aurelian ; Minister of the Interior, M. Lascar; 



Minister of Justice, M. Pheudre; Minister of Pub- 

 lic works, M. Porumburo; .Minister of Public In- 

 struction and Worship, M. Mazerco; Minister of 

 Finance, M. Cantacuzene; Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs, M. Stoicesco. The ministerial crisis was 

 brought about by popular dissatisfaction aroused 

 by the manner in which the Government had dealt 

 with Mgr. Gennadius, the metropolitan primate, 

 who, after his condemnation by the Holy Synod on 

 charges of grave infraction of the prescriptions of 

 the Orthodox Church and of financial irregularities, 

 was confined in a monastery. The people believed 

 the charges to be fictitious or exaggerated. The 

 Cabinet was forced to retire by popular indigna- 

 tion, but the change involved no change of policy 

 or system, for the new ministers belonged to the 

 same party as M. Sturdza and his colleagues. In 

 accordance with an agreement concluded between 

 the leaders of the Liberal and C9nservative parties, 

 the Holy Synod, on Dec. 17, annulled the sentence 

 passed upon Mgr. Gennadius, who thereupon re- 

 signed his office, according to the arrangement. 



RUSSIA, an empire in northern Europe and 

 Asia. The throne is hereditary in the order of 

 primogeniture in the dynasty of Romanoff-Holstein- 

 Gottorp. The Emperor, otherwise called the Czar, 

 is assisted by a Cabinet of ministers, each having 

 charge of an executive department ; by a Council of 

 State that examines and passes upon projects of law 

 submitted by the ministers; by a Ruling Senate 

 that watches over the general administration and 

 superintends the judiciary ; and by a Holy Synod 

 that directs religious affairs. The Czar is the head 

 of the Russian national Church, which follows the 

 Orthodox Greek Catholic rite and maintains the 

 relations of a sister Church with the Patriarchates 

 of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexan- 

 dria. The Government of Russia is an absolute 

 monarchy, in which the legislative, judicial, and 

 executive powers are united in the Emperor. The 

 reigning Emperor of All the Russias is Nicholas II, 

 born May 18, 1868, who succeeded his father, Alex- 

 ander III, on Nov. 1, 1894. The Committee of Min- 

 isters in the beginning of 1896 was as follows : 

 Minister of the Imperial House and of the Imperial 

 Domains, Count Vorontzoff-Dashkoff ; Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs, Prince Lobanoff-Rostovsky ; Min- 

 ister of War, Gen. P. S. Vannovsky ; Minister of 

 Marine, Admiral Tchikhatcheff ; Minister of the In- 

 terior, J. L. Goremykin ; Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion, Count J. D. DelianofE ; Minister of Finance, 

 S. J. Witte ; Minister of Justice, N. V. Muravieff ; 

 Minister of Agriculture and State Domain, A. S. 

 Yermoloff; Minister of Public Works and Rail- 

 roads, Prince Hilkoff; Minister and Secretary of 

 State for Finland, Gen. von Daehn ; Controller 

 General, T. J. Filipoff ; Procurator General of the 

 Holy Synod, K. P. Pobedonostseff. After the death 

 of Prince Lobanoff Secretary N. J. Stoyanovsky 

 acted as Minister of Foreign Affairs until Count 

 Muravieff was appointed in January, 1897. 



Area and Population. The area of European 

 Russia is 1,902,092 square miles, and the population 

 was estimated at 91,212,888 in the beginning of 

 1893 ; Poland, with an area of 49,157 square miles, 

 had 8,982,253 inhabitants; the Grand Duchy of 

 Finland, area 144,255 square miles, had 2,431,953 ; 

 Northern Caucasia, comprising the provinces of 

 Kuban, Stavropol, and Terek, with an area of 89,497 

 square miles, had 3,081,762; Transcaucasia, area 

 91,346 square miles, had 5,074.614; the Caucasus, 

 area 180,843 square miles, had 8,156,376 ; the Kirghiz 

 Steppe, comprising Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, Tur- 

 gai, and Uralsk, area 755,793 square miles, had 

 2,059,535; Russian Turkestan, comprising Samar- 

 cand, Ferganah, Semirechensk, and Syr Daria, area 

 409.414 square miles, had 3,777,866 ; 'the Transcas- 



