neutrality of the
Danube--Pending negotiations.

There is perhaps no question of greater real moment to the newly erected
kingdom than the free navigation of the Danube; for whether its
possessions are limited on the southern boundary by that river, or
whether at some future time they should extend beyond it, the reader
cannot fail to see from what has preceded that the Danube is the great
artery through which, so to speak, the industrial life-blood of the
nation circulates. But if it be a matter of primary importance to
Roumania, it is hardly less so to ourselves. The greater part of the
external trade of the countries bordering on the Danube which passes in
and out of the Sulina mouth, the only navigable embouchure, is carried
on in British bottoms, as the following figures will show:--

_Tonnage entering and leaving the Danube in 1880._
____________________________________________________________________
| | | | | | | |
| |Steamers|Tonnage| Sailing |Tonnage|Total| Total |
| | | | Ships | |Ships|Tonnage|
| |________|_______|________ |_______|_____|_______|
| | | | | | | |
|British flag | 479 |408,492| 15 | 4,214| 494|412,706|
|All other nations| 242 |150,536|1,526[25]|238,312|1,768|384,848|
| |________|_______|_________|_______|_____|_______|
| | | | | | | |
| Total | 721 |559,028| 1,541 |238,526|2,262|797,554|
|_________________|________|_______|_________|_______|_____|_______|

Thus it will be seen that the carrying trade of Great Britain to and
from the Danube amounts to nearly 30,000 tons more than that of all
other nations put together. And now as regards the nature of the goods
carried. They consist outwards (from Roumania, &c.) of cereals, and
inwards of a great variety of manufactured goods. Of the former
5,394,729 quarters were exported in 1879; and it may be said generally
that Roumania receives in return almost every article of consumption in
the way of manufactured productions, and notably from this country
cottons and cotton yarn, woollens, coals, and iron.

In any year of scarcity our importations of feeding stuffs from the
Danube would become a most important factor, for in 1881 the Board of
Trade returns show the follow