e to ameliorate the wretched
condition of the peasantry on the old lines of feudalism; but it was not
until the country became autonomous and the legitimate representatives
of the people 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 sur