Roumania Past and Present | Page 2

took the matter in hand, that an efficient remedy was
applied. Then, as the reader will find detailed in the following pages,[1]
more than four hundred thousand heads of families amongst the
peasantry came into peaceful possession of a large proportion of the
land on equitable terms; and whilst the industrious agriculturist is now
daily acquiring a more considerable interest in the soil, the landlords,
who were merely drawing a revenue from the labour expended upon it
by others, are gradually disappearing. That the prosperity and stability
of the country have increased through the change is shown in many
ways, but more especially by the enhanced value of Roumanian
Government securities, of which I have been able to append a short
statement in contrast with those of Russia and Turkey.[2]
What has occurred and is passing in Ireland the reader need not be told
here. Possibly the consideration of the Roumanian land question may
have given a bias to my views on the whole subject, and the excited
state of the public mind causes me to hesitate in the expression of an
opinion which may appear to be dogmatic. Still, looking at all the
circumstances--at the partial resemblance between the former condition
of Roumania and the present state of Ireland, at the past history of Irish
reforms (such as the abolition of the Irish Church), at the rising land
agitation on this side of the Channel, and at the recent recommendation
of the Canadian Parliament that autonomy should be extended to
Ireland--I have been able to arrive at no other conclusion than that the
measures at present before Parliament may bring temporary relief to the
peasantry, and temporary, nay let us hope permanent pacification, but
that the question will be reopened, coupled probably with that of 'Home
Rule,' and that at no distant period.

There are many other circumstances which warrant us in seeking to
obtain a better knowledge of Roumania, but these were the chief
considerations which induced me last year to visit the country and
some of its leading institutions, and to collect the materials which I
now venture in the following pages to lay before my readers.
No one knows so well as I do how imperfectly my task has been
performed, nor the difficulties with which it has been surrounded, and
there are one or two matters of which I should like to unburden myself
to the reader. He will probably enquire why I have put the cart before
the horse, giving a sketch of the present condition of the country before
treating of its past history. The answer is that it was not originally my
intention to deal with the latter at any length; but when I came to read
and study the works which have appeared on the subject in French and
German (of which a tolerably full list is appended to this treatise), so
many topics of interest presented themselves for the historical student
that I determined to publish a connected history of the country,
however imperfect it might be, from the earliest times down to the
present day. And in this I was further encouraged by the fact that the
attempt has not yet been made in English, excepting in a very
perfunctory manner in Consul Wilkinson's work, published by
Longmans in 1820, which is now quite out of date. That such a review
of Roumanian history, condensed as it necessarily is, was sure to be
considered very dry by many readers, seemed to be certain; I therefore
placed it after the description of the country as it exists to-day, and for
those readers the perusal of the last chapter of that part of the work,
dealing with the notabilities of the day, will probably suffice. But I
believe that some matters relating to the Roman conquest of Dacia, the
character and movements of the barbarians (of which I have prepared
and appended a tabular statement), the subsequent history of the
country, its struggles for freedom, and the condition of the inhabitants
at various periods, will be new to the general student of history and
sociology, and if my share has been badly done, it need not prevent him
from prosecuting enquiries, for which he will find ample materials in
the works of the continental writers to whom I have referred. As
regards the controverted questions of the descent of the modern
Roumanians and the foundation of the Principalities, I would direct his

attention more especially to the recent publications of Roesler and Píc,
the first an Austrian and the second a Slav writer, where he will find
those subjects fully and warmly debated.
The only other matter on which I desire to give an explanation is my
reason for not entering more minutely into what is called 'the Eastern
Question,' nor attempting, as