Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/91

 in the main square of Jassy demanding the deposition of King Ferdinand who, he declared, he would deliver to Russia in fetters. By the irony of fate it was in that same Russia that he himself was raised to eminence and power, later to meet the exile which he, like many others, was not skilful enough to escape. Today he has become almost a cypher. Nor had he found in the material elements of Roumanian society or in its moral habits that support he had desired.

Now, however, the peasant, the only important member of the community in Roumania, is part-owner and individually proprietor of the soil. What can he gain by dividing it with his fellows?

Because of this, Roumanian communism has some hundreds, even thousands of young Jew adherents, mostly from Bessarabia. They assemble frequently, behave noisily and are dispersed by the police called to protect them from the violence of the public. A fervid but little-gifted apostle, son of a celebrated critic of Russo-Israelitish origin, and an old maid who sought permanent refuge in a Moscow club can hardly be said to have been capable of imbuing with life and inspiration so mean a mob of ignorant people and fools.

I cannot be certain that Bolshevism will not reach London or New York, but I am sure that it will not be by way of Roumania.