which prohibited foreigners from holding lands. The bill was carried by the government in April 1895, as well as another important measure favouring the construction of local railways by private contractors. The Liberal opposition protested, retired from the chamber, and took no further part in legislative proceedings. The Liberal party had been out of office for eight years, the Conservative-Junimist coalition had practically carried out its complete programme, and legislation was at a deadlock owing to the abstention of the Liberal opposition. As the electorate showed itself in favour of a change of ministry, Catargiu resigned, and a new Liberal government was formed by D. Sturdza.
The advent to power of a statesman who had recently been making such violent attacks on the Hungarian government The Liberal administration of 1895-99. caused some anxiety in Austria-Hungary. When once office was obtained, it was to the interest of the new government that the agitation should subside. The official opening by the emperor of Austria of the new channel through the Iron Gates of the Danube, on the 27th of September 1896, was the means of bringing about a great improvement in the relations between the two countries. It led to an exchange of visits between the emperor and King Charles, who also visited the tsar Nicholas II. in August 1898. The visit was the symbol of a reconciliation between the Rumanians and the Russians, the relations between whom had been the reverse of cordial since 1878. As regards home politics, the overwhelming majority of the Liberal party at the elections of 1895, instead of being a source of strength, proved the very reverse. It caused the party to split up into factions—Sturdzists, Aurelianists and Flevists, so called after the names of their respective chiefs. Sturdza himself soon had to retire. The head of the Orthodox Church, the metropolitan Gennadius, had for some years past, as head of the philanthropic establishments founded by the princess Brancovan, desired to obtain the entire management of these wealthy foundations, and had made violent attacks on the two administrators, Prince George Bibescu and Prince Stirbei, both members of the Brancovan family. In the quarrel that ensued the prelate was openly accused of simony, of heresy, and other matters more suitable for a criminal court. After a public trial before the Holy Synod, he was found guilty of certain canonical offences, and sentenced to be deposed. The same night, he was seized by the police, and removed by force to a neighbouring monastery. This harsh treatment of the head of the Church led to an attack on Sturdza. On the 3rd of December 1896, the president of the council, M. Aurelian, was called on to reconstitute a Liberal cabinet, with the principal object of calming public opinion by the settlement of this question. Aurelian then appealed to the patriotic sentiments of the Conservative party to help to solve the difficulty, and with the aid of Lascar Catargiu and Tache Ionescu the following decision was reached: the Holy Synod was to reverse its judgment, and the metropolitan was to be restored to his ecclesiastical rank; but, after holding it for a few days, he was voluntarily to resign and to receive as compensation a handsome pension. Calm was thus restored, but Aurelian and his colleagues were not inclined to hand over their portfolios to Sturdza and his partisans. The struggle terminated in the success of Sturdza, who in April 1897 returned to power and remained president of the council until 1899. Few of the important measures promised in the Liberal programme were passed, one for the reform of public instruction being the most noteworthy. Sturdza's government, which had risen to power mainly on the national question, was also destined to fall on it. A popular agitation was raised on the subject of certain subsidies made by the Rumanians for the support of the Rumanian schools at Kronstadt in Transylvania, and Sturdza was accused of too great subserviency to the Hungarian government. The agitation culminated in street riots at Bucharest. On the same evening that Sturdza tendered his resignation to the king (April 1899) the veteran Conservative statesman Lascar Catargiu suddenly died.
The Conservatives, led by G. G. Cantacuzene, returned to office with an overwhelming majority. They were immediately The financial crisis of 1899-1901. confronted by an acute economic crisis. The financial position of the country had hitherto on the surface been very satisfactory. The public debt, mostly placed in Germany, amounted to about £51,000,000. The interest had been regularly paid. But the facility with which money had always been borrowed gave rise to great extravagance. Expenses which ought to have been defrayed out of the ordinary budget, such as the erection of magnificent public offices at Bucharest, were frequently defrayed out of the loans; and the custom had arisen when money was scarce of issuing treasury bonds. When the Conservatives came into office they found that the payment of 2½ millions of these bonds would shortly become due, and there were no resources in the treasury to meet them. Owing to the Transvaal War and other causes, the money market was most unfavourable, especially in Germany; and there was an almost entire failure of the harvest. The value of cereals exported in 1898 was about 9 millions sterling, in 1899 only 3½ millions. The government managed to extricate itself from its immediate difficulties in the autumn of 1890, by raising a loan of £7,000,000 in Berlin, but on very stringent terms. Besides paying a much higher rate of interest than heretofore, it bound itself not to contract any further loans until this one was paid. The Conservatives were united in wishing to meet the financial crisis by a moderate reduction of expenditure and a large increase of taxation, while the Liberal opposition advocated the permanent reduction of the annual expenditure of £800,000, which would necessitate the raising of £200,000 only by fresh taxation. The Conservative programme was naturally unpopular; Carp and the Junimists were unwilling to co-operate with the government, and, on the 26th of February 1901, D. Sturdza again became premier.
His administration lasted until the 31st of December 1904, and averted the impending bankruptcy of Rumania by a policy Financial reform, 1901-5. of strict retrenchment. In 1904 Sturdza was able to exceed the proposed limit of annual expenditure, £8,740,000, owing to a great increase in the value of the tobacco monopoly. Even a recurrence of agricultural depression during the same year left the national credit intact. Another financial reform was undertaken by the Conservatives, who returned to power on the 4th of January 1905, with G. G. Cantacuzene as prime minister, and in May floated the conversion loan, already described.
The chief causes of the agrarian insurrection in March 1907 have been outlined above (under Land Tenure). But Agrarian rising of l907. an additional cause was the harsh treatment of the peasants on the state and communal lands leased to Jewish middlemen. At first an attack on the Jews alone, the rising soon became a jacquerie directed against all the large landowners. Numerous towns and villages were sacked and partly burned, and 140,000 soldiers were employed to suppress the revolt. On the 24th of March the Cantacuzene ministry resigned and was succeeded by a Liberal government under the leadership of D. Sturdza, who completed the restoration of order by strong military measures and afterwards initiated remedial legislation. He abolished the system by which public lands were leased to middlemen, reduced the land tax on small holdings, and granted new facilities for obtaining credit to the peasants. After a general election in June 1907, Sturdza remained in office with an overwhelming majority. To meet the cost of agrarian reform, and of the reorganization of the army (1908), he introduced various fiscal changes, notably an alteration in the budget system, by which the total revenue and expenditure were shown for the first time (see Finance, above).
Rumania was little affected by the political changes in the Balkan Peninsula (1908-10) coincident with the Turkish Rumania and the Macedonian question. revolution, the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Dual Monarchy, the proclamation of Bulgarian independence and the erection of Montenegro into a kingdom. South of the Danube its chief political interest centred in the Kutzo-Vlach communities in Macedonia, which were the object of a Panhellenic
