nian statesmen are permitted to enjoy their _reflections_ on
these interesting political topics, they know that it would be unsafe to
publish them, for, as we have seen, if they venture even, to cry too
loudly 'Roumania for the Roumanians,' some hectoring neighbour instantly
takes the alarm and threatens to withdraw its ambassador; and in case of
a fracas between any two such neighbouring States, even the rights which
she at present enjoys would hardly be respected. Her policy is therefore
tolerably well defined, and it was ably set forth in the royal speech
which contained that dangerous reference to Austrian pretensions. Peace
is requisite for her, in order that her Parliament may occupy itself in
developing the riches of the soil and the economic interests of the
country; but the organisation of a strong defensive army is equally
necessary to protect those interests from grasping and despotic States
in her vicinity, and because, 'by the development of all the forces of
the nation, Roumania will become an element of order, peace, and
progress in Eastern Europe.' In fact, she must make herself, by peaceful
measures, what Michael the Brave succeeded for a very short time, and
from motives of personal ambition, in making her by the sword in his
day, the arbiter of surrounding nations, the Belgium of the East, which
no aggressive despot would dare to assail; and she must become
sufficiently strong to resist not only inimical but friendly foreign
occupations, which have such a demoralising effect upon her people.

On this undertaking her Government has already for some years past been
embarked. It has secured railway property for the State which was in the
hands of aliens, has begun to improve watercourses, created national
credit institutions, reduced the interest upon the national debt,
increased the value of Roumanian securities, and has generally followed,
as it still pursues, the ways of 'peace, retrenchment, and reform.'[201]

We have no wish to patronise Roumania even in words, for her best friend
is he who tells her to depend entirely on her own resources and develop
those herself; to carve her fortunes, and to shape her ends. But when we
look upon her sufferings, reflecting how for ages she has lain beneath
the claws of savage enemies, quailed under despots who sucked the
lifeblood of the nation, and then compare her constitutional democracy
with ours--nay, if alone from a material point of view we weigh the
inter