and 2,270 nuns, 6,550
churches and 173 monasteries and nunneries. The priests or 'popes' marry
and follow secular occupations in the country; in the towns they are
'non-productive' so far as labour is concerned. The services of the
Greek Church are not impressive; but although much has been written
concerning their superstition, the Roumanians do not differ greatly from
the people of other Catholic countries in that respect. There is great
indifference to religion, if not absolute atheism, amongst the higher
classes, which no doubt results from the great ignorance of the
priesthood. The thing most to be regretted, however, is that whilst
there are thousands of 'religieuses,' as they are called, in the
country, all the nurses in its excellent hospitals should be paid
servants, and the Church does nothing whatever towards maintaining the
efficiency of those institutions.]

CHAPTER V.

TOPOGRAPHICAL--COMMERCIAL.

Tramways in Bucarest--Other efforts at improvement--Galatz--Its
position on the Danube--Quays, streets, buildings, &c.--Importance
as a seaport--Languages requisite for trading there--Almost entire
absence of English firms--Reports of the Consul-General, Mr. Percy
Sanderson--The quality of British manufactures--(Note: The author's
experience)--Causes of preference for foreign over British
manufactures--Commercial treaties--Austrian pressure to the
detriment of Great Britain--Statistics of our import and export
trade with Roumania--Infancy of her manufacturing
industries--Difficulties hitherto existing--War and uncertainty of
investments--The new port of Constanta (Kustendjie)--Other
Roumanian towns--Jassy--Its position and institutions--(Note:
Conflicting estimates of its population)--Ibrail, Craiova,
Ploiesti, &c.

If many of the streets of Bucarest are badly paved and the city
imperfectly sewered, it is at least striving hard to keep pace with
other European towns in regard to modern conveniences. Its main streets
are well lighted with gas, and it boasts a good line of tramways round
and through various parts of the city. But when we come to consider what
is now the second town of importance in Roumania, Galatz, we have to
step back a few decades before we can realise its condition. It is
situated on the left bank of the Danube about ninety miles from the
Sulina mouth, and to the east of it is Lake Bratish, which is only
separat