"I consider it a very fortunate and cleverly managed turn of events that your Highness's relations to the Porte should have improved. I am convinced that if the Porte believes that it has nothing to fear for its possessions from the Roumanian Government, it will be a more useful and perhaps a more sincere friend to your Highness than the majority of the European Powers, who can hardly interfere with your Highness so long as you are on good terms with the Porte. Turkey has much less to fear from a strong government in Roumania which maintains peace and quiet—than from a weak and revolutionary state of affairs in the Principalities. I therefore consider, if your Highness will graciously permit me to give expression to my long and active political experience, that the first requirement of your Highness's policy is the establishment of your authority in the interior, and the maintenance of confidential relations with the Porte. The means by which such relations can be promoted by personal intercourse with influential men in Constantinople will doubtless be known to your Highness's agents there. The maintenance of your Highness's authority at home rests principally upon the maintenance of an absolutely reliable force of a couple of thousand men able to enforce obedience wherever they are assembled. The result of such obedience will then render possible a regular administration and a certain execution of the law. If your Highness achieves this result, the glory and practical success of your Government will be greater and more lasting than any extension of the Roumanian rule in the East could make it. The ideal for Roumania appears to me to be the title de la Belgique des bouches du Danube, and for your Highness the glory and the gratitude of Europe such as King Leopold left behind him. The Roumanians, as we judge them from this distance, are neither essentially warlike nor ambitious to rule other nations....
"If this conception meets with your Highness's approval, amicable relations with Hungary would arise spontaneously. I by no means advocate the cooling of the entente with Russia; nor need it suffer through Roumania's friendly feeling for Hungary, if your Highness only succeeds in cultivating relations with the Czar and Chancellor in St. Petersburg, without employing the channel of excited and exciting consular agents. The Imperial Government itself is far more liberal and moderate than its agents in the East....
"The present demands of all nations and most of the Governments of Europe are secure conditions of peace, and everything that your Highness may do to maintain these, if you announce at the same time that it is done for the sake of peace, will receive the applause of Europe, though at first the hired papers of the intriguers for war may decry your action. But if your Highness believes that there is no power to render innocuous those who for foreign money endanger the peace and the stability of your Highness's rule, I cannot divine the motives which persuade a scion of so illustrious a house as that of your Highness to persevere in so ungrateful a task...."
Prince Charles described the motives which led to the dissolution of the Chamber as follows to his father:
"The conflict between the Chamber and the Ministry—sought by the former in the appointment of General Macedonski to the command of the Bucharest Division—shows clearly how the Chamber endeavoured to prevent the consolidation of the present Ministry in the hope of undermining all authority. I considered this a great danger, and the greater the danger, the more rapidly and energetically must one intervene. Europe desires peace; and it is not for us, a little State, which has such an endless labour of development yet before it, and so much to do before it can become strong—it is not for us to seek and agitate for war. I hope that in the next Chamber the quiet and reasonable element of the country will be represented, for this alone can ensure its future. The election struggles will, however, be hotly contested, as the opposition will employ every means to victory. Two days before the dissolution of the Chamber I had a five hours' conversation with Bratianu.... He thought that the situation at home was most serious, and that a catastrophe was imminent. I replied that I feared nothing. 'Un Hohenzollern ne se laisse pas si facilement renverser comme un prince parvenu.'"
Amongst other rumours, that of an intended abdication gained much credence at this time, whilst several letters were received threatening assassination. Prince Charles declined to pay the least heed to these menaces, and to show his confidence in his adopted country rode long distances daily in all directions. It was only natural that Prince Charles Anthony's paternal anxiety should be aroused by the gloomy picture of the affairs of Roumania and their effect on the Prince's health. He wrote:
"I have seen Krenski and learnt from him much that is new and interesting, but find that he regards matters in too gloomy a light and views everything with ultra-Prussian eyes. It is a real calamity that the Prussians, despite their qualities of spirit, character, and knowledge, are frequently deficient in objective conception and judgment!
"Krenski draws a gloomy picture of your situation, and I had to restrain him from painting the matter too darkly to your dear mother. You were looking ill, had no appetite, little sleep, and your exhaustion was patent to every one!...
"I consider it absolutely necessary that you should come here as arranged in April. It is of the utmost importance for two reasons: first of all, it will give the lie to the current reports that you dare not leave the country for a moment owing to imminent dangers. It is politically most important that it should be seen that you can safely venture, in spite of all, to be absent for a short time. Secondly, you will never be able to think of marriage unless you take steps personally in the matter....
"There is no news at all. I do not know whether I shall be able to go to Berlin for the birthday. My foot is better, but it is not completely cured, and the greatest caution is necessary. It is depressing for me to feel myself an invalid when otherwise in perfect health.
"After a spring-like winter we are now having a winter-like spring. It is to be hoped that April will bring us the inexpressible happiness of a reunion with you!"
Prince Charles replied to this letter as follows:
"I hope you are not angry because I have not complied with your urgent invitation to come to Germany. I do not think it can be necessary to assure you how much my heart draws me to my deeply loved parents, my dearest possessions on earth. But he who assumes so great a responsibility as I have must not be ruled by his heart, but by his head. I fear Krenski has described the situation here in too gloomy a light—it is not so serious as he thinks. With patience, endurance, and energy everything can be attained, and I am convinced that I shall reach my appointed goal. It is true that during the time Krenski was here I had an enormous amount of work, little peace, and much annoyance. This, however, did not discourage me for a moment, whilst Krenski, who has much too soft a heart for a man and a soldier, often despaired. It was only natural that I should have no appetite or sleep, as the many wearisome tasks, without any distraction, exhausted and excited me. At present I am in excellent health, and await the result of the elections with calmness and less excitement than my entourage, for I know what I have to do, if it should come to a serious conflict. Most decidedly I shall not draw the shorter lot...."
The news of the death of the former Hospodar of Wallachia, Barbu Stirbey, was received from Nice in April 1869. Only a few weeks before he had written to the Prince, thanking him for some photographs of his native country. "God will bless the labours of your Highness and will grant you the glory of being the founder of a new Roumania. Nobody knows better than I the difficulties in the path of a Roumanian Prince who endeavours to attain what is right; they will not discourage your Highness, though they may defer the realisation of your hopes. To conquer all these difficulties at once would be impossible...."
Prince Charles spent his thirtieth birthday (April 20, 1869) on a tour in Moldavia, where he inspected the progress of the railways. Thanks to the initiative of the Prince, the great bridge over the Buseu, 550 yards long, had been completed, and communication between the two great provinces was no longer exposed to interruption by bad weather or floods. No less than five bridges in all had been constructed for the line to Fokschani, and it was with the greatest pleasure that the Prince noticed the expression of the gratitude of Moldavia in the inscription on the triumphal arch at Bakau: "Welcome to the founder of the Roumanian railways."
A report from Paris informed the Prince that an intrigue was on foot there to instigate a revolution in Bucharest, and that this project was also known at Vienna. A suitable pretender had been sought for in the Roumanian capital, ever since the recall of the French military mission, and a son of a former Hospodar was now said to have been selected to replace Prince Charles. The alleged reason for this Parisian intrigue was the complaint that since Bratianu's resignation Prussia practically ruled the Principality through the North German Consul-General.