Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/1252

 896 RUMANIA

are electors, and are divided into three Electoral Colleges. For the Chamber of Deputies, electors who are in possession of property bringing in 501. or upwards per annum vote in the first College, Those having their domicile and residence in an urban commune, and paying direct taxes to the State of 20 fr. or upwards annually, or being persons exercising the liberal profes- sions, retired officers, or State pensioners, or who have been through the primary course of education, vote in the second College. The third College is composed of those who, paying any tax, however small, to the State, belong to neither of the other colleges ; those of them who can read and write and have an income of 300 lei (12/.) from rural land, vote directly, as do also the village priests and schoolmasters, the rest vote indirectly. For each election every fifty indirect electors choose a delegate, and the delegates vote along with the direct electors of the Colleges. For the Senate there are only two Colleges. The first consists of those electors having property yielding annually at least 801. ; the second, of those persons whose income from property is from 321. to 801. per annum. Both Senators and Deputies receive 25 lei (francs) for each day of actual attendance, besides free railway passes. The King has a suspensive veto over all laws passed by the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The executive is vested in a council of eight ministers, the President of which is Prime Minister, and may or may not have a special department.

Local Government,

For purposes of local government Wallachia is divided into seventeen, Moldavia into thirteen, and the Dobruja into two districts, each of which has a prefect, a receiver of taxes, and a civil tribunal. (The chief difference between the Dobruja and the other districts is that it does not elect senators or deputies. ) In Rumania there are 119 arrondissements (plasi) and 2,977 communes, 71 urban and 2,906 rural. The appellations 'urban' and 'rural' do not depend on the number of inhabitants, but are given by law.

Area and Population.

The area and population of Rumania are only known l)y estimates. The total actual area is 48,307 sc]^uarc miles, and the estimated popula- tion (1893), including the Dobruja, is 5,800,000. The Rumanian is a Latin dialect, with many Slavonic words ; it was introduced by the Roman colonists who settled in Dacia in the time of Trajan. The people themselves, though of mixed origin, may now be regarded as homo- geneous. Rumanians are spread extensively in the neighbouring countries — Transylvania, Hungary, Servia, Bulgaria ; their total number probably is be- tween 9 and 10 millions. Included in the poimlation of Rumania Proper are 4^ million Rumanians, about 300,000 Jews, 200,000 Gipsies, 50,000 Bulgarians, 20,000 Germans, 37,400 Austrians, 20,000 Greeks, 15,000 Arme- nians, 2,000 French, 1,500 Magyars, 1,000 English, besides about 3,000 Italians, Turks, Poles, Tartars, &c. The total pojiulation of the Dobruja is estimated at 200,000, comprising about 77,000 Rumanians, 30,000 Bul- garians, 30,000 Turks, 10,000 Lipovani (Russian heretics), 9,000 Greeks, 3,000 Germans, and 4,000 Jews, in 1889-90.

The number of l)irths, deaths, and marriages, with surplus of births over deaths, was as follows (inrludiiig the Dolnnija) in oar:h of the last five years : —