There was one last hope left to Rumania:  that the Congress which met in Berlin in June 1878 for the purpose of revising the Treaty of San Stefano, would prevent such an injustice.  But Bismarck was anxious that no ‘sentiment de dignite blessee’ should rankle in Russia’s future policy; the French representative, Waddington, was ‘above all a practical man’; Corti, the Italian delegate, was ‘nearly rude’ to the Rumanian delegates; while Lord Beaconsfield, England’s envoy, receiving the Rumanian delegates privately, had nothing to say but that ’in politics the best services are often rewarded with ingratitude’.  Russia strongly opposed even the idea that the Rumanian delegates should be allowed to put their case before the Congress, and consent was obtained only with difficulty after Lord Salisbury had ironically remarked that ’having heard the representatives of Greece, which was claiming foreign provinces, it would be but fair to listen also to the representatives of a country which was only seeking to retain what was its own’.  Shortly before, Lord Salisbury, speaking in London to the Rumanian special envoy, Callimaki Catargiu, had assured him of England’s sympathy and of her effective assistance in case either of war or of a Congress.  ’But to be quite candid he must add that there are questions of more concern to England, and should she be able to come to an understanding with Russia with regard to them, she would not wage war for the sake of Rumania.’  Indeed, an understanding came about, and an indiscretion enabled the Globe to make its tenor public early in June 1878.  ‘The Government of her Britannic Majesty’, it said, ’considers that it will feel itself bound to express its deep regret should Russia persist in demanding the retrocession of Bessarabia....  England’s interest in this question is not such, however, as to justify her taking upon herself alone the responsibility of opposing the intended exchange.’  So Bessarabia was lost, Rumania receiving instead Dobrudja with the delta of the Danube.  But as the newly created state of Bulgaria was at the time little else than a detached Russian province, Russia, alone amongst the powers, opposed and succeeded in preventing the demarcation to the new Rumanian province of a strategically sound frontier.  Finally, to the exasperation of the Rumanians, the Congress made the recognition of Rumania’s independence contingent upon the abolition of Article 7 of the Constitution—­which denied to non-Christians the right of becoming Rumanian citizens—­and the emancipation of the Rumanian Jews.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Rumania only partially gave way to this intrusion of the powers into her internal affairs.  The prohibition was abolished; but only individual naturalization was made possible, and that by special Act of Parliament.  Only a very small proportion of the Jewish population has since been naturalized.  The Jewish question in Rumania is undoubtedly a very serious one; but the matter is too controversial to be dealt with in a few lines without risking misrepresentation or doing an injustice to one or other of the parties.  For which reason it has not been included in this essay.]