ROUMANIA. 



703 



school education, while for others the limita- 

 tion is raised to twenty francs direct taxes. 

 The lowest class, which comprises the great 

 mass of the rural population, was subjected to 

 an important change. Every citizen receiving 

 an income from real estate of over 300 francs, 

 if he ia able to read and write, casts his vote 

 directly ; the rest, except clergymen and ten- 

 ants paying 1,000 francs rent, who also vote 

 directly, exercise the franchise through elect- 

 ors as before. The Assembly of Revision also 

 bestowed salaries on members of the Senate. 

 Another modification of the electoral laws fur- 

 nishes a safeguard against arbitrary attempts 

 of the ministers in power to alter the results of 

 elections by requiring a two-third majority of 

 the Chamber or Senate to declare illegal the 

 election of a member returned in due form. 



Other changes of importance were wrought 

 in the Constitution. The alteration in the first 

 article simply adapts the Constitution to the ter- 

 ritorial changes accomplished by the Treaty of 

 Berlin. The article, which declared that the 

 principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia are 

 united in an indissoluble state, constituted un- 

 der the name of Roumania, now says that the 

 kingdom of Koumania is united with its posses- 

 sions on the right bank of the Danube to form an 

 indissoluble state. The Dobrudja is, however, 

 not yet brought under the Constitution. A sepa- 

 rate clause was therefore enacted, which allows 

 the chartered rights to be extended to the new 

 districts by a simple act of the Legislature. A 

 proposal to abridge the rights of the press cre- 

 ated nearly as much excitement as the fran- 

 chise question. The Constitution of 1866, lib- 

 eral in every respect except in its electoral 

 provisions, which were exacted by the Boyar 

 party in return for its concessions on other 

 points, gave a large liberty to the public press, 

 as well as unrestricted rights of speech and 

 public assembly. If the statesmen in power 

 have sometimes laid themselves open to charges 

 of corruption and nepotism, the Opposition 

 press, on the other hand, has been unscrupulous 

 and impudent in its personal attacks on minis- 

 ters. All press derelicts were by constitutional 

 provision tried before juries, who invariably 

 acquitted the accused editors. Civil actions 

 for damages were formerly laid before juries, 

 but a new construction of the law has recently 

 been advanced. The Senate now proposed 

 that the Revisory Assembly should withdraw 

 press actions from the juries and place them 

 under the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals. 

 The majority in the Chamber, on the other hand, 

 insisted on a clear declaration subjecting civil 

 as well as criminal cases to trial by jury and 

 exempting accused journalists from arrest on 

 the charge of offenses against the laws of the 

 press. They carried out their views, accepting, 

 by way of a compromise with the Senate, an 

 amendment of Prince Sturdza, which excludes 

 from jury trial press offenses against the King 

 or members of the royal family, or against sov- 

 ereigns of foreign states. The French institu- 



tion of the National Guard was formally abol- 

 ished, as incongruous in the new military sys- 

 tem. The Liberals carried through an amend- 

 ment guarding against the revival of the 

 Council of State, which was abolished by the 

 Constitution of 1866, in the guise of an ad- 

 ministrative council ; yet they agreed to a pro- 

 vision for the eventual establishment of a per- 

 manent commission with advisory powers for 

 the preparation of legislative bills and adminis- 

 trative decrees. The proposition to appoint 

 nnder-secretaries to represent the ministries in 

 Parliament was also approved. The amend- 

 ment, which prolongs for thirty-two years the 

 period during which the former serfs are for- 

 bidden to sell lands allotted to them by the 

 state, applies likewise to the peasant proprie- 

 tors of the Dobrudja who received their 

 holdings through the intervention of the 

 state. 



General Election. In the beginning of October 

 Parliament was called together for the purpose 

 of receiving the decree of dissolution, in order 

 that the elections for a new Parliament, chosen 

 under the revised electoral law, might take 

 place before Nov. 27, the date appointed by 

 law for the opening of the regular session. 

 The Government party achieved a complete 

 victory. On December 5 the Bratiano minis- 

 try handed in their portfolios, in order that a 

 new Cabinet might be formed which would 

 represent the majority lately returned by the 

 constituencies. In accordance with a resolu- 

 tion passed by Parliament in secret session, 

 they recalled their resignations and continued 

 in office. 



The Disabilities of the Jews. Under the press- 

 ure of the powers at the Berlin Congress, the 

 Roumanian Government undertook to rescind 

 the article of the Constitution of 1866 exclud- 

 ing Jews from civil rights. The Constituent 

 Assembly of 1879 accordingly modified the ar- 

 ticle in such a way as to remove the religious 

 disabilities, and yet leave its provisions still 

 effective against the numerous Jewish popula- 

 tion of Roumania. To do this, it substituted 

 the word "foreigner" for "non-Christian," 

 thus incapacitating the citizens of other states 

 from acquiring land and the other rights that 

 had previously been withheld from the He- 

 brews. This enactment shut out foreign capi- 

 tal from the agricultural development of the 

 country. In certain cases it worked hardship 

 for heirs of Roumanian estates who were citi- 

 zens of other countries. The Jews of Rouraa- 

 nia, though their ancestors for centuries had 

 resided in the country, were legally foreigners. 

 Their petitions for naturalization were not 

 granted, except in the rarest instances. The 

 Jews were worse off than before, because, 

 when they returned from a sojourn abroad, the 

 officials began to demand their passports. Jews 

 who wished to go out of the country were pro- 

 vided with emigration certificates, and prohib- 

 ited under severe penalties from returning. 

 Fresh disabilities were imposed on Jews, or. 



