Now as to the boyards, or old landed aristocracy.  There are many wealthy landowners, and those who manage their own estates are the most prosperous.  A large proportion, however, contract with sub-tenants to farm the land for a fixed sum (fermage).  Amongst these many are poor and involved.  When we were at Bucarest the ‘Credit Foncier’ held titles of land to the extent of fifty millions of francs, and that probably represented about one-third of the whole known mortgages of the country.  Since about 1870, when the rate of wages began to rise in consequence of the formation of railways and the resulting increase in the demand for labour, a momentous change has taken place.  Improvidence and fermage have sounded the knell of the old landed gentry.  Their estates have in many cases been bought up by the fermiers, their sub-tenants; the peasantry have purchased considerable quantities of land in addition to that allotted them by the State, and merchants and traders have also obtained possession of a portion by purchase, thus laying the foundation of an influential middle class, which at the present time can hardly be said to exist in the country.  The consequences of this change cannot fail to be the development of agriculture, provident landowners, and the general prosperity of the entire nation.

We hesitate somewhat to draw any further comparisons between the past land reforms of Roumania and those in progress in Ireland or impending in Great Britain; but certain striking contrasts force themselves upon our attention.  In Roumania a portion of the soil was taken from the boyard at a fixed price and sold to the peasant, without delay or litigation:  the results being, first, an immediate improvement in the condition of the peasant, and his ultimate independence and prosperity; secondly, an exposure of the uselessness and helplessness of the indolent boyard landlord so soon as he was forced to attend to his duties and pay for his labour; in many cases his rapid decadence and extinction.  For Ireland, under similar conditions, an Act is passed by which, to some extent in the direct interest of the Irish landlords, and indirectly for the protection of those in Great Britain, the old conditions of landlord and tenant are sought to be retained and amended, or the land to be transferred by sale, involving what are practically lawsuits with their appeals and all their delays, or an interminable period (about thirty-five years as against fifteen) for repayment.  In Roumania the people, through their parliament, fixed the conditions of transfer, and the boyards were forced to submit after centuries of exaction and tyranny; in Britain the Parliament, consisting largely of landowners and persons opposed to all reforms, and from which the representatives of the aggrieved parties were almost entirely excluded, has groped about for a remedy, thwarted and threatened at every step by an irresponsible body of legislators, who have for the time being resolved themselves into a trades union of landowners; and masses of the peasantry have been driven into the roads.  What the future result of the Irish land reform will be it is impossible to predict.  We can only hope for the best.