occupations, which have such a demoralising effect upon her people. On this undertaking her Government has already for some years past been embarked. It has secured railway property for the State which was in the hands of aliens, has begun to improve watercourses, created national credit institutions, reduced the interest upon the national debt, increased the value of Roumanian securities, and has generally followed, as it still pursues, the ways of 'peace, retrenchment, and reform.'[201] We have no wish to patronise Roumania even in words, for her best friend is he who tells her to depend entirely on her own resources and develop those herself; to carve her fortunes, and to shape her ends. But when we look upon her sufferings, reflecting how for ages she has lain beneath the claws of savage enemies, quailed under despots who sucked the lifeblood of the nation, and then compare her constitutional democracy with ours--nay, if alone from a material point of view we weigh the interest we have in her prosperity, we cannot fail to see that in the East is rising up a Power, in part of our creation, young and weak as yet, but full of hope and promise; and therefore, in concluding this imperfect record of her 'past and present,' we heartily commend her future to the earnest watchfulness of every English friend of liberty. [Footnote 200: According to some, there are more.] [Footnote 201: Although we have endeavoured as much as possible to avoid burdening this popular treatise with statistics, one set of figures which have been kindly supplied to us by friends at Bucarest and in London is so significant, and indeed of such general interest, that we must claim the reader's indulgence for giving it _in extenso_. It comprises the values of Russian, Turkish, and Roumanian securities from 1870 to 1880, which are as follows:-- TURKISH. RUSSIAN. General Five per Cent. ROUMANIAN. Six per Cents. Debt. Oppenheim. 1870 83-1/2 to 94-1/2 45 to 51 75 to 98 1871 88 " 97 44-1/2 " 52-1/2 86 " 96-1/2 1872 95 " 100 46-1/2 " 55 91 " 104 1873 96 " 100-1/2 45 " 47 98 " 104 1874 97 " 103 45 " 46-1/2 98 " 108 1875 95 " 104-1/2 23 " 45 100 " 109 1876 74 " 100-1/2 11-1/2 " 23 74 " 106 1877* 71 " 93 6-1/2 " 11-1/2 58 " 91 1878* 74 " 91 8-1/2 " 12 87 " 105 1879 84 " 93 10-1/2 " 12 93 " 110 1880 85 " 96 10 " 12-1/2 102 " 112