682 



ROUMANIA. 



in the year 1899. The happier relations existing 

 between the Papal See and the governments of the 

 various republics of South America, and especially 

 the fortunes of the Church in Brazil, which has 

 steadily advanced since the abolition of the em- 

 pire, created a hope, said the brief, that a new and 

 far greater future might be reserved for the Latin 

 American churches during the twentieth century. 

 The conferences of the bishops and archbishops 

 is to be directed toward a preparation for this 

 future. 



Syria. Mgr. Ephraim Rahmani, Archbishop of 

 Aleppo, was elected in October by the Synod of 

 Mardin to the patriarchate of Antioch, to succeed 

 the late Patriarch Cyril Behnam Benni. His elec- 

 tion revived the hope of an extension of the move- 

 ment for reunion in the Jacobite Church. 



Foreign Missions. All countries occupied by 



Saganism, schism, and heresy are under the imme- 

 iate direction of a cardinal "prefect of the Sacred 

 Congregation of Propaganda. They are divided 

 into 400 dioceses, vicariates, or prefectures apostol- 

 ic, whose chiefs are nominated by the cardinal 

 prefect. The missionaries are recruited from 32 

 seminaries, of which 15 are at Rome. About 30 

 religious societies also contribute missionary priests 

 and the missions are further assisted by the services 

 of numerous orders of teaching brothers and sisters, 

 and Sisters of Charity. The whole number of mis- 

 sionary laborers in 1898 was as follows : 



Priests, 13,314; brothers, 4,503 ; European sisters, 

 42,345 ; native sisters, 12,419. The receipts of the 

 various missionary collecting societies for 1898 

 were: The Propagation of the Faith, $1,228,736; 

 the Holy Infancy, $679,500 : the schools of the East, 

 $54,270. The two last named are for the education 

 of pagan and schismatic children, and their receipts 

 are divided among 181 missions. 



The French Societe des Missions Etrangeres re- 

 ported as the number of adult heathen baptized in 

 1898, 70,942, as against 46,826 in 1897. The mis- 

 sions covered by these returns were Indian, Chinese, 

 Indo-Chinese, and Japanese. Of the 1,651 priests 

 engaged in this work under the direction of the so- 

 ciety, 581 were natives. In China 6 priests of the 

 society were killed in the course of the year, and 

 more than 20 others were cast into prison where they 

 were at the end of the year. An embassy was sent 

 to Pckin to secure their release, but had not suc- 

 ceeded up to Dec. 31. 



The report of Indian missions showed a total 

 of 1,925,992 Catholics in that country, with 2,395 

 priests, of whom 1,599 were natives. There were 

 32 ecclesiastical seminaries, with 926 students. 

 The proportion of Catholics to population through- 

 out India was 1 to 145 ; in Ceylon, 1 to 17. In 

 August a Eucharistic Congress for India was held 

 at Madras, at which were present 8 bishops and 60 

 priests. 



The Bishops of Meliapur and Trincomalee in De- 

 cember settled the question of the delimitation of 

 their respective dioceses, the former of which lies 

 under the Portuguese Padroado. 



A mission station was established in May by the 

 Marist fathers in the Solomon Islands, the last 

 stronghold of cannibalism. Father Brmillon, the 

 curate of the new diocese, barely escaped forming 

 part of a cannibal feast on one of the islands of New 

 Georgia, at which there were 10 victims. 



ROUMANIA, a monarchy in eastern Europe. 

 The legislative power is vested in a Senate of 120 

 members, elected for eight years by two classes 

 of property holders, and a Chamber of Deputies 

 consisting of 183 members, elected for four years by 

 all the taxpayers, divided into three classes. The 

 heir to the throne, six bishops of the Greek and 

 two of the Roman Church, and two representatives 



of the universities have seats in the Senate. The 

 reigning King is Carol I, born April 20, 1839. a 

 son of Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, 

 elected Domn of Roumania in 1860 after the abdi- 

 cation of Prince Alexander Cuza, and proclaimed 

 King on March 26, 1881. The ministry at the be- 

 ginning of 1898, constituted in April 12, 1897, was 

 composed as follows : President of the Council and 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs, Demeter Sturdza ; 

 Minister of Agriculture, Industry, Commerce, and 

 Domains, A. Stolojian ; Minister of the Interior, 

 M. Pherekyde ; Minister of Finance, G. M. Cantacu- 

 zino ; Minister of War, Gen. A. Berendei ; Minister 

 of Public Instruction and Worship, Spiro Haret ; 

 Minister of Justice, Alexander G. Djuvara: Min- 

 ister of Public Works. I. I. C. Bratiano. M. Dju- 

 vara early in 1898 gave up the portfolio of Justice to 

 M. Parrani. On Oct. 14, G. M. Cantacuzino resigned 

 the Ministry of Finance, and was succeeded by M. 

 Parrani, whose place was taken by ex-Minister Sto- 

 icescu. 



Area and Population. The area of the king- 

 dom is 48,307 square miles, with a population esti- 

 mated at 5,478,800. Of these about 4,950.000 belong 

 to the Orthodox Greek, 150,000 to the Roman 

 Catholic Church, 15,000 are Armenians, 13,800 

 Protestants, 10,000 Lipovani, 300.000 Jews, and 

 30,000 Mohammedans. There are 3,618 primary 

 schools, with 5,411 teachers and 298,253 pupils, out 

 of a total school population of 731,780. The uni- 

 versities of Bucharest and Jassy have 1,650 students. 

 The Government in 1896 expended 9,140,527 lei on 

 primary and 5,970,942 lei on secondary education. 

 Of the total population about 70 per cent, are de- 

 pendent on agriculture. Nearly all the cultivators 

 own their farms. The number of marriages in 1897 

 was 41,387; of births, 247,814; of deaths, 171.071; 

 excess of births, 76,743. 



Finances. The budget for the financial year 

 1899 makes the total receipts 222,095,000 lei, or 

 francs, of which 33,800,000 lei come from direct 

 taxes, 66,570,000 lei from indirect taxes, 51,650.000 

 lei from monopolies, 24,922,000 lei from domain:-, 

 16,745,000 lei from public works, 10,174.000 lei from 

 the Ministry of the Interior, 4,690,000 lei from the 

 Ministry of Finance, 1,415,000 lei from the Ministry 

 of War, 160,000 lei from the Ministry of Foreign 

 Affairs. 229.000 lei from the Ministry of Education 

 and Worship, 229.000 lei from the Ministry of 

 Justice, and 11.450,000 lei from various sources. 

 The total expenditures were estimated at the same 

 figure as the revenue, comprising 81,807,073 lei for 

 public debt. 71,300 lei for the Council of Ministers. 

 6,612,490 lei for the Ministry- of Domains. 5.612.4HO 

 lei for the Ministry of Public Works, 18,407.465 lei 

 for the Ministry of the Interior, 26,621,167 lei for the 

 Ministry of Finance. 45,380,325 lei for the Ministry 

 of War, 1.662.281 lei for the Ministry of Forcigii 

 Affairs, 27,868,709 lei for the Ministry'of Education 

 and Worship, 6.677,836 lei for the Ministry of Jus- 

 tice, and 1,344,284 lei for supplementary credits and 

 extraordinary expenditures. 



The public debt on April 1, 1898. amounted to 

 1,244.849,525 lei. The interest payable in the year 

 1899 is 70,910,178 lei. 



Commerce and Production. The production 

 of wheat in 1896 was 25,088,700 hectolitres ; of corn, 

 23,056,700 ; of barley, 11.201,700 : of oats. 5.187,300 ; 

 of rye, 4.305,100; of tobacco, 40.5110 quintals; o. ! 

 wine, 4,627,800 hectolitres : of prunes. )>(i7.250hectu. 

 litres. Other crops are colza, flax, and hemp. The 

 total value of the imports in 1897 was :>.V>.?s:5.00(> 

 lei, and of the exports 224.180,000 lei. The import- 

 of cereals were 5,400,000 lei in value, and export-. 

 179,800,000 lei; imports of fruits, vegetables, etc., 

 23,800,000 lei and exports, 14,800,000 lei ; imports of 

 animals and animal food products, 1,000,000 lei. 



