ROUMANIA. 



703 



The accompanying engraving is from a por- 

 t rait by her brother, and is used here by courtesy 

 of Messrs. Roberts Brothers. 



ROUMANIA, a constitutional monarchy in 

 eastern Europe. The legislative power is vested 

 in a Senate of 120 members, elected by electoral 

 colleges, and a House of Deputies of 183 mem- 

 bers. The reigning monarch is Carol I, born 

 April 20, 1839, a prince of the house of Hohenzol- 

 lern-Sigmaringen, who was elected Lord of Rou- 

 mania "in 1866 and proclaimed King in 1881. 

 The heir to the throne is his nephew, Ferdinand 

 of Hohenzollern, born Aug. 24, 1865. The Cabi- 

 net in the beginning of 1894 was composed as 

 follows : President of the Council and Minister 

 of the Interior, L. Catargi; Minister of Agri- 

 culture, Industry, Commerce, and Domains, P. 

 P. Carp ; Minister of Foreign Affairs, A. Laho- 

 vari; M inister of Finance, M. German! ; Minister 

 of Justice, A. Marghiloman ; Minister of Public 

 Works, C. Olanescu: Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion and Worship, Take Jonescu; Minister of 

 War, Gen. Lahovari. 



Area and Population. The area of Rou- 

 mania is 48,307 square miles. The population 

 is computed to be 5,800,000. The Roumanian 

 nation, including the Roumanians of Transyl- 

 vania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Servia, and Mace- 

 donia, numbers about 9,000.000, one half of 

 whom . live in Roumania. There are 300,000 

 Jews, 200,000 gypsies, and 50,000 Bulgars, to- 

 gether with Germans, Austrians, Greeks, Arme- 

 nians, etc. The capital city is Bucharest, which 

 had a population of 196,372 in 1892. The number 

 of marriages in 1893 was 48,804 ; of births, 222,- 

 652 ; of deaths, 170,251 ; excess of births, 52,401. 



Finances. The revenue for the year 1892-'93 

 was 182,095,596 lei or francs, and the expendi- 

 ture 178,532,003 lei. In 1893-94 the receipts 

 amounted to 219,603,129 lei, and expenditures to 

 199,260,196 lei, leaving a surplus for the year of 

 20,343,932 lei to be added to the surplus of 25,- 

 749,755 lei accumulated during the previous 

 five years. The budget estimate of revenue for 

 1894-'95 is 203,170,765 lei, and of expenditure 

 the same. The principal items of revenue are 

 57,100,100 lei from indirect taxation, 48,700,000 

 lei from monopolies, 31,995,000 lei from direct 

 taxation, 29,187,600 lei from domains, and 14,- 

 207,000 lei from public works. The largest 

 categories of expenditure are 79,263,150 lei for 

 the public debt, 41,391,712 lei for war, 25,555,- 

 325 lei for financial administration, 25,200,648 

 lei for public instruction, and 19,499,467 lei for 

 the interior department. The debts outstanding 

 on April 1, 1894, amounted to 1,076,071.292 lei. 

 A new 4-per-cent. redeemable foreign loan of 

 120,000,000 lei was contracted for railroads and 

 public work in September, 1894. 



The Army and Navy. The peace effective 

 of the army in 1894 was 2,960 officers, 354 em- 

 ployees, and 46,000 soldiers, with 360 guns and 

 10,000 horses. The territorial army consists of 

 70,000 men, with 7.800 horses. 



The fleet consists of 1 deck-protected cruiser, 

 the " Elizabeta," 2 gunboats, 2 river steamers, 3 

 coast guards, 4 sloop gunboats, 4 torpedo gun- 

 boats, and 5 torpedo boats. The Government 

 intends to build 2 more armored ships. 



Commerce and Navigation. The imports 

 for 1893 were 430,489,731 lei in value, and the 



exports 370,651,787. The chief exports are 

 wheat, rye, barley, and Indian corn, 339,400,000 

 lei in value. 



There were 32,385 vessels, of 8,408,551 tons, 

 entered at Roumanian ports during 1893 and 

 33.984 cleared, of 9,415,468 tons. The merchant 

 navy in 1894 consisted of 40 steamers, of 2,797 

 tons, and 287 sailing vessels, of 59,256 tons. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 railroads, belonging altogether to the state, had 

 in 1894, a length of 1,600 miles. There were 328 

 miles under construction and 618 miles more 

 surveyed. The post office in 1893 forwarded 

 16,071,887 letters, 9,012,190 postal cards, and 

 8,348,530 journals, etc. The receipts were 4,098,- 

 143 lei, and the expenses, including those of the 

 telegraph service, were 6,995,460 lei. The tele- 

 graph receipts were 3,180,450 lei. The length 

 of the Government telegraph lines in 1893 was 

 3,624 miles, with 7,997 miles of wire. The num- 

 ber of dispatches in 1893 was 1,653,451. 



European Commission of the Danube. 

 The International Commission created to keep 

 the mouths and channel of the Danube clear of 

 obstructions took in tolls to the amount of 2,879,- 

 186 francs in 1893, and had a revenue from all 

 sources of 4,667,083 francs, including a balance 

 of 1,146,378 francs from previous years. The 

 expenses were 2,691.495 francs, leaving a balance 

 of 1,975,588 francs, which, added to the reserve 

 and pension funds, makes 3,491,942 francs. The 

 number of vessels that entered the Sulina mouth 

 in 1893 was 1,801, of 1,893,506 tons, of which 

 1,400, of 1,808,736 tons, were steamers. Of the 

 aggregate tonnage 1,287,762 tons were British, 

 242,707 Greek, 79.584 Turkish, 62,244 Austrian, 

 43,812 Norwegian, 43,533 Italian, 40,816 Russian. 

 38,845 French, 32,235 German, and 21,968 Span- 

 ish, Dutch, Roumanian, and other. The export 

 of wheat in 1893 was 3,452,000 ; of rye, 728,000 ; 

 of maize, 7,163,000 ; of barley, 2,006,000 quarters. 

 The Sulina Canal was opened on May 18, 1894. 



Internal Affairs. The present Parliament 

 began its last regular session on Nov. 27, 1894. 

 Among the acts of the previous session, which 

 ended April 5, 1894, was the chartering of an 

 agricultural bank having important privileges 

 and the financial support of the Government, 

 which promises in other ways also to help such 

 farmers as have conducted their business on a 

 sound basis. The fall in the price of wheat has 

 not been sufficient to render farming unprofita- 

 ble when there is an average crop. In 1894 

 there was only a two-third crop of wheat, half 

 a crop of barley, five eighths of the average yield 

 of oats, and a general deficiency in the crop 

 of maize. Consequently there was widespread 

 acute distress among the peasants. The fall in 

 prices had been counterbalanced in 1893 by an 

 abundant harvest and an extension of nearly 20 

 per cent, of the area tilled. 



The army has been thoroughly reorganized. 

 An agitation among the officers in consequence 

 of staff changes was checked in February by the 

 retirement on half pay of some of the discon- 

 tented ones. At the end of the month 135 cav- 

 alry officers of all ranks, looking upon certain 

 details of the reorganization of the service as an 

 infringement of their rights, offered their resig- 

 nations. Gen. Lahovari threw up his portfolio, 

 which was given to Gen. C. Poenaro. 



