THE CATHEDRAL OF CURTEA D'ARDGES.
ROUMANIA
PAST AND PRESENT
BY
JAMES SAMUELSON
Of the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law
ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS (BY E. WELLER), PORTRAITS, AUTOTYPE
AND OTHER FULL-PAGE PLATES, AND NUMEROUS PLANS
AND WOODCUTS (BY G. PEARSON), CHIEFLY FROM
PHOTOGRAPHS BY F. DUSCHEK, BUCAREST
Post Tenebras Lux
LONDONLONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.1882
All rights reserved
PREFACE.
There is no country in Europe which at the present time possessesgreater interest for Englishmen than does the Kingdom of Roumania, andthere is none with whose present state and past history, nay, with whosevery geographical position, they are less familiar.
Only about nine years since Consul-General Green, the Britishrepresentative there, reported to his Government as follows: 'Ignoranceseems to extend even to the geographical position of Bucharest. It isnot surprising that letters directed to the Roumanian capital shouldsometimes travel to India in search of Bokhara, but there can be noexcuse for the issue of a writ of summons by one of the superior lawcourts of the British metropolis, directed to Bucharest in the Kingdomof Egypt, as I have known to happen.' The reader may perhaps attributesuch mistakes as these to our insular ignorance of geography, or to thefact that the proverbial blindness of justice prevented her fromconsulting the map before issuing her process; but the fact remains,that notwithstanding the occurrence of a great war subsequent to thedate above specified, which completely changed the map of Europe,wherein Roumania took a very prominent part and England assisted at thesettlement, there are few intelligent readers in this country who couldsay off-hand where precisely Roumania is situated.
And yet, as already remarked, the country possesses an absorbinginterest for us as a nation. Placed, to a large[Pg vi] extent through Englishinstrumentality, as an independent kingdom, of daily increasinginfluence, between Russia and Turkey, for whom she served for centuriesas a bone of contention, she is now a formidable barrier against theaggressions of the stronger power upon her weaker neighbour, and it issatisfactory to reflect that, so far, the blood and money of Englandhave not flowed in vain. Then, again, the question of the freenavigation of the great stream that serves as her southern boundary isat present occupying the serious consideration of many leading Europeanstatesmen, and the solution of the Danubian difficulty will materiallyaffect our trade with the whole of Eastern Europe; whilst the peaceablecreation of a peasant proprietary in Roumania about sixteen years since,and the advantages which have accrued to her from this social andpolitical reform, present features of peculiar interest for those whofavour the establishment of a similar class of landholders in Ireland.
In treating of these two questions, I have laboured under the greatdisadvantage of not being able to follow current events. It isunderstood that the Danubian difficulty will be settled on the plan,referred to in the text, suggested by Austria for her own advantage,with certain modifications, having for their object the limitation ofher preponderance. My readers will be able to judge for themselves,after r