ROUMANIA. 



T55 



The post office in 1898 transmitted 19,344,470 

 letters, 11,150,715 postal cards, and 37,577,317 

 newspapers and circulars. The receipts were 

 6,679,245 lei; expenses of both postal and tele- 

 graph services, 8,276,183 lei. The telegraph re- 

 ceipts were 2,975,378 lei. The length of telegraph 

 lines in 1898 was 4,254 miles, with 10,942 miles 

 of wire. The number of dispatches in 1898 was 

 2,586,534, of which 1,799,262 were internal, 600,113 

 foreign, 107,829 service, and 79,330 transit dis- 

 patches. 



Politics and Legislation. The rejection by 

 the Senate of a bill passed by the Chamber for 

 the creation of an agricultural bank to enable 

 the land to be allotted among the peasantry on 

 easy terms of payment caused a peasant revolt 

 in the district between the Olt and the Danube. 

 Two regiments that were sent to the scene of 

 the disturbances were overpowered and compelled 

 to beat a retreat in the beginning of February. 

 The encounter took place in the neighborhood 

 of Krajova. Other troops w y ere concentrated at 

 Bucharest and dispatched to suppress the rising. 

 The insurgents were imbued with Socialist ideas, 

 and conceived the notion that the Czar of Rus- 

 sia \vas ready to intervene so as to secure them 

 the land to which they felt entitled. Socialism 

 spread rapidly in the country after the las.t mu- 

 nicipal elections, when the Liberals coalesced in 

 many places with the Socialists, and thus se- 

 cured a large majority over the Conservatives. 

 The agrarian uprising was suppressed by ener- 

 getic military measures. The troops that were 

 called, out to disperse the assembled peasants and 

 members of Socialist associations met with con- 

 siderable' resistance in numerous places. The rig- 

 orous action of the authorities caused the move- 

 ment to extend rapidly among the country people, 

 who were already embittered by distress that they 

 attributed to governmental injustice and denial 

 of their rights. When they sent deputations to 

 the Government in Bucharest to complain of the 

 action of the officials in the country districts the 

 members of the deputations were taken into cus- 

 tody, and only released after being searched and 

 the papers found upon them being confiscated. 

 Some of the newspapers of the capital denounced 

 this proceeding, which strengthened the feeling 

 anijong the peasants that only by fighting could 

 they gain their rights. After the military quelled 

 the revolt numbers of persons were arrested. The 

 Minister of the Interior ascribed the Socialist 

 movement among the peasantry to the activity 

 of foreign agitators, and about 30 foreigners were 

 marked for expulsion. In villages inhabited by 

 Roman Catholic Hungarians the priests restrained 

 the people from joining the Socialist associations. 

 In other districts the village mayors and school- 

 masters took the lead in founding the associa- 

 tions. The Greek Orthodox clergy also in numer- 

 ous places took part in the agitation. The rules 

 of these agrarian societies contained a provision 

 that the members should jointly defray the ex- 

 penses of litigation between any of them and 

 their landlords and their trial \vhenever any of 

 them were prosecuted by the authorities. An- 

 other provision stipulated "for the intervention of 

 the societies with the central and communal au- 

 thorities on behalf of the peasants through mem- 

 bers of Parliament and communal councilors be- 

 longing to the Socialist party, also by means of 

 petitions, public meetings, and other courses au- 

 thorized by law. The primary aims were to 

 secure a reduction of taxation, the modification 

 of the form of agricultural contracts between 

 laborers and farmers, and equal justice for the 

 poor as for the rich. 



In the beginning of April the parliamentary 

 Opposition began a policy of obstruction, and 

 would allow no bill to be passed or proceeded 

 with except the one providing for the annual mili- 

 tary contingent. The ground for the attack, 

 which was directed against the Prime Minister, 

 was that M. Sturdza was believed to have made 

 a secret arrangement with Baron BanfFy, the late 

 head of the Hungarian Government, having in 

 view the suppression of the Roumanian national 

 movement in Hungary. The assailants of the 

 Premier carried on a fierce agitation out of doors 

 and convened a mass meeting, which ended in a 

 collision with the troops and the killing of 2 per- 

 sons and wounding of 11 others by bayonet 

 thrusts. These incidents brought about a min- 

 isterial crisis, which ended in the formation of a 

 new Cabinet on April 23, composed as follows: 

 Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, 

 Getrge Cantacuzene; Minister of Finance, Gen. 

 G. Mano; Minister of War, Gen. Jacob Lahovary; 

 Minister of Education, Take Jonesco ; Minister of 

 Justice, C. G. Dissesco; Minister of Domains, N. 

 Fleva; Minister of Foreign Affairs, J. N. Laho- 

 vary; Minister of Public Works, Dr. C. I. Istrati. 



An extraordinary session of Parliament, con- 

 voked for the passing of several urgent measures, 

 began on June 24. The Chamber voted to in- 

 crease the spirit duties 50 per cent., which was 

 expected to yield a revenue of 20,000,000 lei. Pro- 

 posals for new sources of revenue were kept back 

 for the autumn session. The Government decided 

 to put into force a law passed in 1895 respecting 

 mines, which the Sturdza ministry refused to 

 carry out. The embarrassments of the landlords 

 and the privations of the peasantry were matters 

 that many representatives of the people were anx- 

 ious to relieve and were made the study of the 

 ministers, as well as measures for providing rev- 

 enue and preserving the credit of the state. In 

 July the agricultural laborers in several districts 

 went on a strike like the one that caused trouble 

 in Hungary two years before. They refused to 

 carry out the stipulations of their agricultural 

 contracts in regard to reaping unless the condi- 

 tions of the contracts were changed, and left the 

 ripe harvest to spoil. In the Jassy district they 

 set fire to the crops. 



The ordinary session of Parliament was opened 

 on Nov. 27. The principal measure in the Gov- 

 ernment programme was a comprehensive scheme 

 of taxation reform designed to distribute the 

 burdens more equally among all classes of the 

 population. 



The European Commission of the Danube. 

 The international commission charged with re- 

 moving the sand bars and keeping open for navi- 

 gation the mouths of the Danube, created by the 

 Treaty of Paris in 1856, was endowed with larger 

 powers by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, and by 

 a treaty concluded in London in 1883 these were 

 prolonged till April 24, 1894. The commission, 

 composed of delegates of Germany, Austria-Hun- 

 gary, France, Great Britain, Italy, Roumania, 

 Russia, and Turkey, exercises police powers and 

 issues regulations that have the force of law on 

 the Danube below Braila. The receipts in 1898 

 amounted to 3,239,722 francs, of which 2,040.502 

 francs were derived from tolls, 61,266 francs from 

 various sources, 805,784 francs surplus from the 

 preceding year, and 332,170 francs the value of 

 material and collectable assets. The expenditures 

 were 2,650,727 francs, including 874,336 francs for 

 administration, 500,457 francs for technical serv- 

 ices, 202,023 francs for various expenses, 782,929 

 francs for special purposes, and 290,982 francs 

 for material and current liabilities, leaving a sur- 



