EOUMANIA. 



729 



principle therein asserted. The French mem- 

 ber of the Danube Commission, Barrere, of- 

 fered a substitute for the Austrian proposal for 

 a commission to regulate the navigation of the 

 Danube between the Iron Gates and Galatz, 

 under the presidency of Austria. Barrere's 

 project was, that instead of Austria retaining 

 the presidency and casting vote in the new 

 commission, the delegates of each of the pow- 

 ers participating in the Danubian Commission 

 should exercise them in turn, alternating annu- 

 ally in alphabetical order, according to the 

 French nomenclature. This proposition was 

 opposed by Roumania, for the same reason 

 that the original avant projet was opposed, 

 since for the first two years Germany and 

 Austria would have the presidency of the new 

 commission. A counter-project was proposed 

 by Roumania, according to which a supervis- 

 ing commission should be created, to be com- 

 posed of two delegates appointed by the Danu- 

 bian Commission, and one each from the ripa- 

 rian states, Bulgaria, Roumania, and Servia; 

 the delegates of the Danube Commission to be 

 changed half-yearly, and to be taken from the 

 states participating in the commission in al- 

 phabetical order. 



Another Danubian question arose in the lat- 

 ter part of the year, in which the Roumanian 

 Government had to defend itself against the 

 pretensions of Russia, as it had against those 

 of Austria-Hungary, in the question of a mixed 

 commission, to control the navigation between 

 the Iron Gate and Galatz. When the Da- 

 nubian Commission were preparing to have 

 soundings made in the Kilia outlet, the Russian 

 Government proposed to send engineers to 

 participate in the surveys, on the ground that, 

 as a riparian power, Russia was interested in 

 plans for rendering navigable the Kilia branch. 

 This branch of the Danube is the boundary 

 between the Bessarabian provinces, ceded 

 back to Russia by the Berlin Treaty, and the 

 territory acquired by Roumania from Turkey. 

 The Russian authorities ordered soundings to 

 be taken independently of the operations of 

 the commission, but the season was too far ad- 

 vanced for anything to be done before spring. 

 The Roumanian Government protested at once 

 against having the Kilia branch placed in an 

 exceptional position, basing its protest upon 

 the existing treaties which give the Danubian 

 Commission jurisdiction over all three mouths 

 of the river. The matter at issue is of tech- 

 nical as well as of political importance. The 

 Kilia branch is as large as the Sulina branch, 

 both being smaller than St. George's Channel. 

 Operations which would make the Kilia branch 

 navigable might interfere with the navigation 

 of the Sulina branch, which was chosen as the 

 international route of communication by the 

 commission, and upon which they have ex- 

 pended their funds. 



Both the Kilia question and the difficulty 

 with Austria were postponed till the meeting 

 of plenipotentiaries at London, in 1883, at 



which the question of renewing the powers of 

 the Danubian Commission was to be decided, 

 and all matters relating to the Danube reviewed 

 and resettled. 



POLITICS AND LEGISLATION. In the begin- 

 ning of the year the Bratiano-Rosetti Cabinet 

 was broken up. The opposition of the land- 

 lords, who form the majority of the Senate, to 

 Rosetti's projects of agrarian reform, led to the 

 dissolution of the Liberal combination, as much 

 as the external cause of the recantation of the 

 brave words in the royal address respecting 

 the sovereignty of Roumania over the Danube 

 within her borders. The Minister-President 

 succeeded Rosetti in the Interior Department, 

 being relieved of the portfolio of Military Af- 

 fairs, of which he had charge ad interim, by 

 General Anghelesco, while G. Lecca took charge 

 of the Department of Finance. Chitzu became 

 Minister of Justice, the other ministers remain- 

 ing in their places. 



Rosetti's reform was intended to place the 

 peasantry on a similar footing with the labor- 

 ers of other countries in regard to their labor- 

 contracts with the land-owners. When serfage 

 was abolished in 1864, the lands apportioned 

 to the emancipated serfs formed only a small 

 portion of the tillable soil, and were far from 

 sufficient to support them. The peasantry were 

 not particularly well disposed to their former 

 lords. Measures were adopted for the purpose 

 of compelling them to work on the land, which 

 gave the landlords almost the same powers 

 over laborers who entered into contracts with 

 them as those which they had exercised over 

 these laborers as serfs. Rosetti resigned his 

 seat in the Cabinet, in order to press his agra- 

 rian reform more effectively. The measure 

 passed the Chamber of Deputies in the form 

 in which it was brought in by the Govern- 

 ment. In the Senate it was considerably al- 

 tered by amendments, which secured it the 

 support of the land-owners belonging to the 

 Government party, and which were accepted 

 by the Chamber. 



According to the old law, the contracts, into 

 which the peasants were obliged by their neces- 

 sities to enter, could extend over several years, 

 and could be enforced by stripes as well as by 

 fines. The new law abolishes whipping and 

 money-fines, and reduces the number of days 

 which the peasant can be compelled to labor. 

 It also limits the duration of such labor-con- 

 tracts to two years. 



Rosetti introduced a supplementary bill, 

 which also became law, by which the state as- 

 sumed the debts of the peasants which they 

 had engaged to discharge by future labor, and 

 is to be repaid by the peasants in annual pay- 

 ments extending over a series of years. 



The Jewish question in Roumania was a sore 

 one before it became acute in other parts of 

 Eastern Europe. The heedlessness of the landed 

 gentry in money matters, and their repugnance 

 to affairs, made them peculiarly dependent upon 

 the Jews, who monopolized the mercantile 



