The revolutionary movement of 1848 extended from the Roumans of Hungary and Transylvania to their kinsmen of the Transalpine regions, In Moldavia the agitation was mostly confined to the boiars, and the hospodar Michae] Sturdza succeeded in arresting the ringleaders. In Walachia, however, the outbreak took a more violent form. The people assembled at Bucharest, and demanded a constitution, The prince Bibescu, after setting his signature to the constitution submitted to him, fled to Transylvania, and a provisional government was formed. The Turks, however, urged thereto by febatir diplomacy, crossed the Danube, and a joint Rugso-Turkish dictatorship restored the “Organic Law.” By the
according to property and professional qualifications. For the house of deputies each constituency is divided in this way into four colleges, each of which elects a member. The two highest of these colleges also elect the senators, each senator being elected for a term of eight years. The senate also includes ex officio certain high officials and ecclesiastics, and members for the universities. The senate consists at present of 120 members, the chamber of deputies of 178. The sovereign has a right of veto reserved to him onall measures. The judicial system is based on the Code Napoléon, with some modifications.
On the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war in 1877 Roumania Roumania
Balta-Liman convention ot 1849 the two Governments agreed to the appointment of Barbi Stirbeiii as prince of Walachia, and Gregoriii Ghika for Moldavia.
found herself once more between hammer and anvil. Yielding to in Russo- Sorce majeure the Government of Prince Charles consented to the Turkish passage of Russian troops across Roumanian territory, on the under- War.
ussian On the entry of the Russian troops into the principalities in | standing that the scene of hostilities was as far as possible to be
d 1858, the hospodars fled to Vienna, leaving the government in felpral outside the limits of the principality. The Porte, how-
ustrian the hands of their ministers. During the Danubian campaign that | ever, refusing to recognize that Roumania had acted under
upa- now ensued great suffering was inflicted on the inhabitants, but | constraint, proclaimed the Roumanians rebels, and the prince’s jon, in 1854 the cabinet of Vienna induced the Russians to withdraw. | Government accordingly resolved to offer active assistance to the (853-54. Austrian troops occupied the principalities, and the hospodars | Russians. A Roumanian division of 32,000 men under General Rou- ' returned to their posts. Cernat, took part in the siege of Plevna, and the Roumanian manian freaty of By the treaty of Paris in 1856 the principalities with their exist- | soldiers distinguished themselves in the opinion of the most com- feats at
ing privileges were placed under the collective guarantee of the contracting powers, while remaining under the suzerainty of the Porte,—the Porte on its part engaging to respect the complete in- dependence of their internal administration. A strip of southern Bessarabia was restored to Moldavia, so as to push back the Russian frontier from the Danube mouth. The existing laws and statutes of both principalities were to be revised by a European commission sitting at Bucharest, and their work was to be assisted by a Divan or national council which the Porte was to convoke ad hoc in each of the two provinces, and in which all classes of Walachian and Moldavian society were to be represented. The European com- mission, in arriving at its conclusions, was to take into considera- tion the opinion expressed by the representative councils; the Powers were to come to terms with the Porte as to the recommen- dations of the commission ; and the final result was to be embodied in a hattisherif of the sultan, which was to lay down the definitive organization of the two principalities. In 1857 the commission arrived, and the representative councils of the two peoples were con-
petent judges alike for their heroism and endurance. assault by the Roumanian troops on the ‘‘indomitable redoubt ” of Grivitza formed in fact the turning point of the siege and of the war. In the peace of St Stefano, however, Russia insisted on the retroces- sion of the strip of Bessarabia that had been restored to Moldavia by the treaty of Paris, giving Roumania ‘in exchange ” the islands of the Danubian delta, and the Dobrudja, which had been ceded by the sultan. of Berlin (1878). consented by Art. xliii. to recognize the independence of the prin- cipality subject to the provision (Art. xliv.) that all the inhabitants should enjoy complete religious freedom, a clause inserted on account of the Jewish persecutions that had previously taken place, and that foreigners in the country should be treated on a footing of perfect equality. All Danubian fortresses were to be razed, and the jurisdiction of the European commission to regulate the Danubian navigation, on which Roumania now acquired the right of a sentation, was extended from the mouth to the Iron Gates. e
The successful Plevna.
This territorial readjustment was ratified by the treaty Berlin The high contracting powers at the same time treaty.
inion of voked. On their meeting in September they at once proceeded to he two vote with unanimity the union of the two principalities into a inci- single state under the name of Romania (Roumania), to be governed
coping-stone to Roumanian independence was set by the proclama- Prince tion on March 26, 1881, of Prince Charles as king of Roumania, Charles and on May 22 of the same year his coronation took place with the crowned The crown placed on King Carol’s head was king.
Ly a foreign prince elected from one of the reigning dynasties of
Europe, and having a single representative assembly. The Powers
decided to undo the work of national union. By the convention
concluded by the European congress at Paris in 1858, it was
decided that the principalities should continue as heretofore to be
governed each by its owu prince. Walachia and Moldavia were to
have separate assemblies, but a central commission was to be
established at Fokshani for the preparation of laws of common
interest, which were afterwards to be submitted to the respective
assemblies. In accordance with this convention the deputies of
Moldavia and Walachia met in separate assemblies at Bucharest and
Jassy, but the choice of both fell unanimously on Prince Alexander
John Cuza, thus ensuring the personal union of the two principali-
ties (January 1859). A new conference was now summoned to
Paris to discuss the affairs of the principalities, and the election of
Prince Cuza finally ratified by the Powers and the Porte. The two
assemblies and the central commission were preserved till 1862,
when a single assembly met at Bucharest and a single ministry was
formed for the two countries. The central commission was at the
same time abolished, and a council of state charged with preparing
bills substituted for it. In May 1864, owing to difficulties between
the Government and the general assembly, the latter was dissolved,
and a statute was submitted to universal suffrage giving greater
authority to the prince, and creating two chambers (of senators
and of deputies). The franchise was now extended to all citizens,
a cumulative voting power being reserved, however, for property,
and the peasantry were emancipated from forced labour.
In 1865 a conflict broke out between the Government and the people in Bucharest, and in February 1866 Prince Cuza, whose
ersonal vices had rendered him detestable, was forced to abdicate.
he chambers chose first as his successor the count of Flanders, but on his declining the office proceeded to elect Prince Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who was proclaimed hospodar or Domnu of Roumania April 29, 1866. A new constitution was at the same time introduced. Its provisions secure the universal suffrage of tax-paying citizens, ministerial responsibility, trial by jury, freedom of meeting and petition, of speech and of the press (except as regards breaches of the canes onde): gratuitous and compulsory primary education, and the right of asylum for political exiles. Legislative power is shared between the prince and chambers, but bills relating to the budget and army must originate with the chamber of deputies. There are two chambers— the senate and the chamber of deputies. Both houses are elective, and the election is carried out by means of electoral colleges classified
European sanction. inade from the captured cannon of the Plevna redoubts.
Authorities.—As the questions regarding the first appearance of the Roumans north of the Danube are reserved for the article VLAcns, it may be sufficient here to refer the reader to the works of Roesler, especially Romédinische Studien; J. Juug, Anfange der Romdnen, and Roemer und Romanen; Lad, Pit, Abstam- mung der Rumdnen; A. D. Xenopol, Les Roumains au Moyen Age. For the history of the principalities down to the end of the last century J. C. Engel’s works, Die Geschichte der Walachei and Geschichte der Moldau, are still the most trustworthy authorities. J. A. Vaillant, La Romainie: Histoire, Langue, &c., and A. T. Laurianu, Jstoria Romaniloru, &c., may be consulted for the later his- tory, but a really critical history of the principalities has yet to be written. The materials for it are, however, being rapidly amassed—thanks to the publica- tions of the Roumanian Academy and the documents collected by native scholars; cf. especially Hurmuzaki, Documente privitore la Istoria Romanitor, and Hasdeu, Publications istorico-filologice, &c. For a useful account of the present state of Roumania, see James Samuelson, Roumania Past and Present, 1882. For views of Walachia and Moldavia, as they existed from the 15th century onwards, reference has already been made to the works of Verantius and Del Chiaro, and Cantemir’s Descriptio Moldaviz. (A. J. E.)
ROUMANIAN LITERATURE. See Vlachs.
ROUMELIA. The name of Roumili, “the land of the
Romans,” was applied from the 15th century downwards
to all that portion of the Balkan peninsula westwards
from the Black Sea which was subject to Turkey. More
precisely it was the country bounded N. by Bulgaria, W.
by Albania, and S. by the Morea, or in other words the
ancient provinces, including Constantinople and Salonica,
of Thrace, Thessaly, and Macedonia. The name was ulti-
mately applied more especially to an eyalet or province
composed of Central Albania and Western Macedonia,
having Monastir for its chief town and including Kesrie
(Castoria), Ocri (Ochrida), and Scodra (Scutari) ; and at
length it disappeared altogether in the administrative
alterations effected between 1870 and 1875. Eastern
Roumelia was constituted an autonomous province of the
Turkish empire by the Berlin treaty of 1878, to be
governed by a Christian governor-general appointed by the
sultan for a term of five years. In 1879, in obedience
to an international commission, it was divided into six.
departments and twenty-eight cantons, the departments
being Philippopolis (187,095), Tatarbazarjik (117,063),
