As the payment for the railways was to be governed by the completed mileage, the Finance Minister instructed the Roumanian Commissary in Berlin, Privy Councillor Ambronn, to control his payments by the certificates of the engineer, countersigned by the chief of the newly created Technical Bureau. This evoked an immediate protest from one of the concessionaries, Dr. Strousberg, who threatened to appeal to the law courts against so unjustifiable a check on the honesty of the contractors. Councillor Ambronn reported that he felt unable to refuse payment, although the engineers' certificates were not countersigned, and further, that the proceeds of the bonds were deposited, partly in cash, partly in stocks bearing interest, at the Berlin Kassenverein. This led to a Parliamentary inquiry into the state of the funds entrusted to Councillor Ambronn, and later on to a unanimous resolution by the Ministry relieving him of his duties. Prince Charles, however, was of the opinion that this measure would only damage the credit of the railways, and declared his willingness to accept the responsibility for the railway construction which was thus thrust upon him by the country. However, a report from the special commissioner, Herr Steege, sent to Berlin in the autumn of 1870, placed the affair in a different light, as it was then discovered that the money realised by the sale of the railway bonds (35,000,000 francs) had been placed in the Joseph Jacques Bank without the consent of the Roumanian Government. This incorrect procedure on the part of the Commissary placed the Prince in a most unpleasant position; for, though he considered it in no way desirable that the money should be left lying idle, he had never intended that it should be invested in a private company, and so exposed to every fluctuation of the market. M. Steege was therefore appointed to relieve Councillor Ambronn of his duties in connection with the railway funds. It seemed that the climax of the railway dispute must have been reached with December 18, when Strousberg informed the Government that he was neither able nor willing to pay the coupon due on January 1, and further maintained that this payment should be made by the State, though, as a matter of fact, he had paid the July coupon himself. The interest, it is true, was guaranteed by the State, but the terms of the concession provided that the interest should be paid by Strousberg _whilst the line was in course of construction_. The entire weight of the blow fell on Prince Charles; the railways were his pet idea, nay, even his consolation, as a passage in one of his letters to his father shows. "I have at least done _something_ for my country--I have given it a railway!" But now even that comfort had been taken away.