We refrain from criticising these figures, for they do not represent the present state of education.  Many of the village schools, we were told on undoubted authority, are closed, and the attendance at others is largely increased.  Besides collecting the most authentic information, we visited schools of every kind, some more than once, sometimes alone and unexpectedly, at others accompanied by persons in authority, normal, primary, secondary, commercial, and district schools, and the conclusion arrived at was by no means favourable to the present general state of education, although there is no doubt that there are many schools, well conducted by able and zealous teachers, and that the system will become developed and improved in the course of time.  A few facts will suffice to confirm this statement.  In regard to higher education, there are said to have been in 1878 in the two universities 61 teachers and 508 students.  The Roumanian youth do not, however, as a rule receive their higher education in their own country, and it is computed that from seven hundred to a thousand of them are always being educated abroad, and chiefly in Paris.  This is not to be wondered at, for there are no suitable facilities at home, and amongst thoughtful men it is a source of great anxiety for the future welfare of the country.  Looking at the matter first in a pecuniary light, and taking the lowest estimate, the cost of educating seven hundred young men such as those who are sent abroad must be at the least 80,000_l._ or 90,000_l._ annually—­we are sure this is considerably below the mark—­whilst the total expenditure of the two universities in Roumania was, in 1878, about 22,000_l._!  If, instead of sending this large sum of money to Paris and other educational centres, it were expended at home, it would be the means of attracting to Roumania a class of teachers very different from many of those who are at present dignified with the title of professors.  This was the opinion expressed to us by men of sound judgment and discrimination in the country, and we are not prepared to differ from them.  But there is another and a still graver danger to the country arising out of the system.  To send a youth from home, withdrawing him from the watchful care of his parents at the most dangerous period of his life, namely, between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one, is of itself a doubtful proceeding; to send him to Paris is in many cases certain ruin.  This is not a mere hastily formed opinion, and probably the expression of it may not find a welcome in every quarter.  But it is historically true.  No one has written a more flattering account of the Roumanians than Edgar Quinet.[64] Writing in 1857, he touches with as much delicacy as possible upon their defects and shortcomings, and hints that their vices are copied from the French; and he goes on to say:[65] ’The sons of the boyards come to complete their education with us....  The danger for these young minds, which are exposed