Much, perhaps too much, has been written concerning Roumanian funerals.  That they are showy, almost to irreverence, and that the exposure of the face of the corpse in its glazed coffin is repulsive, there can be no doubt, but they are not one whit worse than the lugubrious processions with their ‘arrangements’ in black and feathers which are still to be seen in England; and there, as here, it is to be hoped that with improving national taste these exhibitions will be discontinued.

Very different, however, is the old-fashioned system of octroi, of which the poorer classes complain bitterly, still in vogue not only in Bucarest but in all the other large towns of Roumania, and the still more iniquitous poll-tax.  The latter amounts to eighteen francs per head, and is levied on rich and poor alike.  It is, however, needless to say more on that subject; for the ‘Romanul,’ a daily journal, owned by M. Rosetti, and published by him whilst he was Home Secretary (August 27, 1881), contained a most effective leading article against the tax, from which it is clear that its injustice is recognised in the highest quarters.  As to the octroi system, it is bad beyond all conception.  A municipal tax, sometimes of so much per 100 kilos (4 to 44 francs), at others ad valorem, or again upon each article, is levied upon almost everything required by the inhabitants as it is brought into the city, from food, clothing, and the necessaries of life, to such luxuries as wine, artificial flowers, and carriages.  And what aggravates the evils of the system is that the municipality farms these duties to men (usually Jews) who evade the authorised schedule by giving credit to needy persons and then compelling them to pay exorbitant rates of interest (if it can be so called) for the accommodation they receive.  It is for such practices as these, resulting in part from the want of good government combined with the improvidence of the people, and from the readiness of the Jews to turn these and similar circumstances to favourable account, that the latter have been subjected to persecution which formerly took the shape of violence and outrage, and which is now confined to bitter invective and national ill-will.

The Jews, said ‘Romania Libera’ (a very inappropriate title for the exponent of such views), are masters of the trade of the country and poison everything economically.  Joint-stock establishments are recommended by it for the sale of clothes, shoes, and linen.  The Government must regard it as its sacred duty to foster this movement with all its influence.  ’The Jews need have no apprehensions.  We will not pitch them into the Danube, nor requite them with a Sicilian Vesper as they deserve.  Preventive economical regulations are much more effective than the above-named measures.’[40] It is needless to remark what a pernicious influence such an article as this would have upon an excitable people who had been the victims of usury and oppression; and whilst