"Two weeks ago we announced to our readers the arrival of a wealthy Israelite from London, Sir Moses Montefiore, and now this personage, who is in possession of the keys to all the doors of the Cabinets of Europe, actually arrived yesterday in our capital. We understand that M. Crémieux is to follow (if he has not arrived already). Need we tell our Roumanian brethren what these people want in our beautiful country? Is it possible that the Roumanians should be so simple, so foolish, so led away by the friends of the Hebrews, so betrayed by those who secretly sell the soil of our ancestors? Can our brethren be indeed so indifferent to their natural interests, so blinded by some Jewish journals written in the Roumanian language, as not to penetrate into the real intentions of these persons amongst us? What they strive at just at a time when anarchy prevails in the land, and the ministers are ignorant of their mission, and resign just at a moment when the Hebrews enter the land? No! No! No! Ye Roumanians; ye descendants of those who knew how to preserve this beautiful land in all storms, who knew how to defend and rescue it from the claws of the Goths, the Huns, Turks, Poles, Hungarians, Germans, &c.; ye descendants of these noble ancestors, you know as well as we what these Hebrews want here, and who has brought them here. You will indeed still have in your veins sufficient of the blood of your ancestors not to permit that the land should fall into the hands of the Hebrews! There will yet be found in Roumania patriotic voices, whose echo will carry the cry of despair of this poor and betrayed nation into the Cabinets which are occupied with the future of Roumania, and which are engaged in rescuing this land from the hands of the enemies of civilization, that have no other design than money—money—and again money! and thus the ruin of the simple Roumanian people.
"We have watched the steps of the enemies, who mean to surprise us, and to transform our land into a Palestine; we have watched all their steps and traces, and followed them without intermission, and to-day we call to all Roumanians: sleep not! and more especially it is the commercial classes, who daily suffer grievous wrong, and are brought near their ruin—and indeed only through these bloodsuckers, the Hebrews—to those we call, sleep not, assemble, consult—hasten, all ye commercial men of Roumania, to the common consultation as to what is to be done, in order that we may not awake one fine morning and see the crown lands, to the value of hundreds of millions, bought by the Hebrews, as is to be expected from the measures taken by the present Government.
"The unfortunate Roumanian peasants, who have defended and preserved this sacred soil with rivers of their blood, and have maintained it by their language, religion, and sweat, in what cries and lamentations would they burst forth when seized by the claws of the Hebrews, as the innocent bird cries out when caught by the teeth of the poisonous serpent of India. 'Awake ye Romans,' was lately sung in the Halls of the Athenæum, on the field of literature and nationality. Awake ye Roumanians! let us all awake and assemble on that field upon which the sentiment of all political, social, national, and patriotic duty calls, the duty not to allow the naturalization of the Hebrews, of those outcasts, which even our Redeemer Jesus Christ has cursed, that they should possess no country, no home; were we to allow their naturalization, then all Crown domains now exposed to sale, to the ruination of the country, this sacred treasure of our fathers would fall into the hands of the Hebrew bankers! ... and then! ... Roumania would become a Palestine, and the free Roumanian, the Christian Roumanian would become the slave of those outcasts! ... and Roumania will be the land of the Hebrews and not of the Roumanian.
"Merchants and Brethren of Bucharest! Merchants and Roumanian Brethren of the Mountains! (Wallachia). Do you not see in what net our brethren beyond the Milkor (Moldavia) have been caught? Do you not hear the cries and lamentations of those brethren who have been sold to the Jews, by the protection of some Ciokois? ... Shall you suffer political privileges to be given to the Hebrews, so that nothing will be left in your hands wherewith to carry on your commerce; neither the meat, nor the egg, nor the fruit of the tree, nor the berry of the vine, nor the fruit of your garden, nor the onion, nor the maize, ... not even the drop of wine which the Christian stands in need of for preparing the Lord's Supper—as is done in Moldavia? Shall you suffer any longer the groans of your brethren beyond the Milkor (Moldavia), and their sighs under the lacerating claws of the Hebrews, without raising your powerful voice—powerful, for it is the voice of God! without demanding that the rights and the soil of Roumania remain intact? No! Oh no! You will not suffer that! The God of our Fathers will be with us, will assist us in cutting the thread of those machinations by which our land is to be bartered away to the Hebrews! ... May God be with us!
"Citizens of the Capital! and especially ye merchants and brethren of Bucharest, ye who in common with us have welcomed our brethren of the literary society, it is incumbent upon you to take the initiative, and through your example to call out all Roumanians for a common action, as a welcome to the noble Israelite, Montefiore; that Hebrew—whom even our Minister of State, Mr Stefan Golesku, is said to have received at the gates of the capital with great splendour.
"Let this action consist in our signing this day three petitions: one to His Serene Highness, the Prince, a second to the House of Deputies, and a third to the Senate, in which we demand the fulfilment of the following four points:—(1) That of the Crown domains nothing be sold, but vineyards and small fields situate at a distance, which prove only injurious to the State; (2) All Hebrews who have come into the land since 1848 provided with passports, and who have no industrial occupation, shall be sent by the Government to the land from whence they have come; (3) All Hebrew proprietors of factories, where Roumanian workmen are employed, as also those who carry on a trade, as tinmen, tailors, &c., all men of the higher sciences—shall be tolerated in the land; provided, however, that they enter upon the path of civilisation, for which the Government will take the necessary measures. As to the privileges of these Jews, they will be limited to those prescribed by the civil law; (4) Henceforth no Hebrew shall have permission to enter the land for the purpose of settling in it.
"This is the policy and wish of the journal Natiunea, in respect of the Hebrews, and we believe it is the wish of all true patriots of Roumania, who have at heart the welfare of their country.
"The signature of the above petitions takes place from to-day at the office of this Journal; let all Roumanians hasten to sign them! For the facility of citizens, lists for signature will be laid out before the Theatre and in St George's Place.
"We hope the communities of the united and indivisible Roumania will send, within a few days, thousands of signatures to the office of the Natiunea, a committee will then be formed to send the petitions to their respective places.
"To work! to work! ye Roumanian Brethren! and may God be with us!"
CHAPTER XXVI.
1867.
RESULT OF APPEALS TO ROUMANIAN BIGOTRY—PERILOUS POSITION OF THE MISSION—COURAGEOUS CONDUCT OF SIR MOSES—AN ENTERPRISING CONTRACTOR—SATISFACTORY END OF THE MISSION.
THE Natiunea having given notice to the Prefecture of its intention of publicly securing signatures to the above petitions, the following reply was received:—
"In reply to your notice, No. 3915, without date, I hasten to inform you that in Roumania, no lists for signatures may be laid out in the streets and public places, except on the occasion of the plebiscite, and I do not believe that it is permitted to a private gentleman to open such plebiscites. The right, however, of petition and meeting in houses is granted to every Roumanian. If Government were to allow any one to place subscription tables in public places or streets it might easily occur that adversaries, entertaining opinions differing from those expressed in the lists, might come forward, and the police might hardly suffice to maintain public order. The leading article of your last Journal has already found many adversaries, and these could avail themselves of the opportunity to disturb the public peace, which the Government could by no means suffer, more especially as your ideas rest upon no sound basis, and the Government feels itself, without your assistance, sufficiently powerful to protect the right of the land."
The editor of the Journal Speranta called to say that he was told in the Public Garden, "we should run away, as the people were now going to kill Sir Moses."
Reverting to the Diary I find the following entry:—"I feel very weak and poorly to-day, the air is excessively hot, and I am vexed with sinister reports and intended outbreaks against the Jews.
"About two o'clock I received, as did likewise Dr Loewe, Captain Moore, and Mr Daniel, the honour of a card of invitation from His Serene Highness the Prince, to dine to-day at the Palace.