"My only fear is lest the Jews[15] should continue to agitate and petition the guaranteeing Powers for the concession of political rights to their brethren here, until the Powers at last comply with their wish, and force our hand. This would lead to the overthrow of the present, or, indeed, any other Ministry. [15] Shortly after this was written, a Jewish Congress assembled at Brussels with the avowed intention of obtaining political rights for the Jews of Roumania by pressure from abroad. "A few months ago the Jews here received some sympathy from certain circles, but since they have raised such a cry throughout Europe, and since the Jewish Press in every State has attacked this country in so unworthy a manner with the object of forcing the equality of the Jews upon us, the latter have nothing to expect here for the present...." Another letter of Prince Charles also refers to this point: "The newspapers again accuse us of persecuting the Jews, because the recent licensing law forbids a Jew to keep a public-house in a village. This is a reasonable measure; and we are determined to repel any representations or interventions in this matter. One must know the villages of Moldavia to be able to judge the noxious influence exerted on the rural population by the Jew with his adulterated brandy. In Poland and Hungary the Jew is to this day forbidden to keep a village public-house--and very rightly too! On the other hand, it is a pity that Roumania has excluded Jews from holding licences for the sale of tobacco, as they will now become the most arrant smugglers." Russia replied to the Note, addressed by England to the Great Powers, referring to the persecution of the Moldavian Jews, with a circular to its representatives abroad directing them to defend the Roumanian measures. The struggle so briefly touched upon in these pages affected the welfare of Roumania in its young days very keenly, as the great Jewish capitalists supported the demands of the Jewish population for the franchise by refusing to aid the young State in its financial troubles. Incalculable harm was done by the Press in giving a too-ready credence to the alarming reports of wholesale expulsion of Jewish families from Roumania and the confiscation of their property. The anti-Roumanian feeling thus caused in England, France, and in part of Germany was for many years a serious stumbling-block to the development of the Danube Principalities. CHAPTER VII PEACEFUL DEVELOPMENT