Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/462

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BUC—BUC

BUCHAREST, Bukhorest, Bukorest, or, as it is called by the inhabitants, Bucuresci (that is, according to their own etymology, City of Joy), is the capital of Roumania, the residence of the prince and the seat of a bishop. It is situated in a hollow on the River Dimbovitza, a tributary of the Danube, in 44 25 30" N. lat. and 26 5 24" E. long., and occupies an area of more than 20 English square miles, The number of its cupolas and minarets, and the profusion of acacia, poplar, and other trees that fill the numerous spaces of unoccupied ground, give it a picturesque appearance from a distance. The arrangement of its streets is very irregular, and in many districts it cannot be said that there are streets at all. In general the roadways are cither unpaved or only laid with rough blocks of different sizes. A few streets, indeed (and notably the Podo Mogo- choi, which is the most important), have been paved with Aberdeen granite. The city is lighted with gas produced from English coal ; and a considerable but far from satis factory supply of water is obtained from the river and distributed partly by water-carts and partly by iron pipes. Of the public buildings few are of much architectural importance ; the national theatre is one of the largest, and the " academy " one of the finest. The latter is occupied by the university, a library of 2G,000 volumes, a public museum of antiquities and natural history, and a large theatre, which is used by the senate during the parlia mentary session. The palace, an insignificant building, was founded by the Golesco family in the 18th century. There are 116 Greek churches in the city, of which the most remarkable are the Metropolitan, St George, St Spiridion, and Sarindar. The Roman Catholics have a parish-church in the centre of the town and several chapels ; there are Lutheran and Calvinistic churches, with schools attached for both boys and girls ; and the Jews, who number about 15,000, have ten synagogues. There are about a score of conventual establishments, the majority belonging to the Greek Church. The Brancovano hospital, founded by the family of that name, has accommodation for between 200 and 300 patients, the military hospital for 300, the Culza for 200, the Philanthropic for 100, and the Pantelemonu for 120. The Marcutza insane asylum can receive 220; and the Helena asylum, founded by the Princess Helena in 1862, has room for 220 orphan girls. There is also a children s hospital for 100 patients, and a lying-in hospital for 40. In Bucharest there is always a numerous garrison, and the arsenal and barracks on the plateau of Dealu and the cavalry and infantry barracks at St George are both extensive establishments. -Cafes and coffee- gardens abound, and are allowed to remain open all night. There are two public gardens, the Cismegiu in the centre of the town, about a mile in circumference, and the Kisilev on the outskirts, which is traversed by the fashionable promenade known as the Chaussde. Public locomotion is facilitated by about 500 droshkas in summer and as many sledges in winter ; and a tramway has recently been laid down by an English company. The monetary business of the city is extensive, its principal establishments being the Bank of Roumania, founded in 1865, with a capital of one million sterling, and the Socitte Financiere de Eoumanie, with a capital of six million francs. The manufacturing industry is slight, the principal article being Turkish cloth ; but the trade both in foreign and native goods is of very considerable extent. The mercantile portion of the community is largely composed of foreigners Germans, Greeks, Frenchmen, Swiss who keep themselves very much apart from each other. Division into classes and nationalities is a marked feature of the whole Bucharest population. The Boyards, though their aristocratic pretensions are no longer recognized by law, are as exclusive as ever. There are about 20,000 Transylvanians who fill subordinate positions; the.droshka- drivers are mainly Russians of the Lipovani sect ; and Bul garians, Armenians, gypsies, and many others swell the motley multitude. In spite of the fact that the number of deaths is frequently in excess of the number of births, the increase of the population is rapid, and house-rents have become very high ; and that it is more the habits of the people than the unhealthiness of the city that is to blame for the death-rate is shown by the steady internal increase of the Jewish community. About eighteen newspapers are published in the city three daily and the others twice or thrice a week. The railway system, begun by the opening of the line to Giurgevo on the Danube in 1869, is rapidly extending, and there is direct communication with Western Europe by the line to Lemberg. The population, which was 121,754 in 1859, had increased by 1870 to 200,000, and is now stated at 251,000.

Bucharest owes its foundation in the 13th century to Radel the Black of Wallachia. Burnt in 1595 by Sinan Pusha it was soon afterwards restored, but it was not till the 18th century that it appeared much in European his tory. It was frequently of importance in the contests for the neighbouring provinces, which so often broke out between the Turks and their northern rivals Austria and Russia; and in 1812 it gave its name to the treaty by which Bessarabia and a third of Moldavia were ceded to the latter power. In the war of 1828 it was occupied by the Russians, who made it over to the prince of Wallachia in the following year. A rebellion against Prince Bibesko in 1848 brought both Turkish and Russian interference, and the city was again held by Russian troops from 1853 to 1854. On their departure an Austrian garrison took possession and remained till March 1857. In 1858 the international congress for the organization of the Danubian principalities was held in the city; and in 1861 the union of Wallachia and Moldavia was proclaimed. Prince Couza, the first ruler of the united provinces, was driven from his throne by an insurrection in Bucharest in 1866.

BUCHEZ, Philippe Joseph Benjamin (1796-1865),

French outhor and politician, was born at Matagne-la-Petitc, in the department of the Ardennes. He finished his gene ral education in Paris, and afterwards applied himself to the study of natural science and medicine. Hatred of the Government of the Restoration, and enthusiasm for demo cratic ideas, were at that time widely diffused among the young men of the schools of Paris, and these passions gained full possession of the mind of Buchez. With his friends Bazard and Flotard he founded, in 1821, a secret associa tion a system of French carbonarism which spread rapidly and widely, and displayed itself in repeated attempts at re volution. In one of these attempts the affair at Belfort which cost General Berton, Colonel Caron, and four soldiers of Rochelle their lives, he was gravely compromised, although the jury which tried him did not find the evidence sufficient to warrant his condemnation. In 1825 he gra duated in medicine, and soon after he published, along with M. Trelat, a Precis elementaire dllygiene- About the same time he became a member of the Saint-Siinonian Society, presided over by Bazard, Enfantin, and Rodriguez, and contributed to its organ, the Producteur. He left it in consequence of aversion to the strange theological dogmas of its spiritual chief, M. Enfantin, and began to elaborate what he regarded as a Christian socialism. For the expo sition and advocacy of his principles he founded a periodical called UEuropeen. In 1833 he published an Introduction a la Science de VHistoire, which was received with con siderable favour, and of which a second edition, improved and enlarged, in two volumes, appeared in 1842. Notwith standing its prolixity and discursiveness, this is both an in teresting and a meritorious work. The part of it which

treats of the aim, foundation, and methods of the science