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  REMINISCENCES OF THE
  KING OF ROUMANIA

[Illustration:

  _F. Mándy Bucharest._      _Art Repro Co. London._

Carol]




  REMINISCENCES OF THE

  KING OF ROUMANIA

  EDITED FROM THE ORIGINAL WITH

  AN INTRODUCTION BY

  SIDNEY WHITMAN

  WITH PORTRAIT

  _AUTHORIZED EDITION_

  NEW YORK AND LONDON

  HARPER & BROTHERS

  1899




CONTENTS


                                                   PAGE.

  INTRODUCTION                                       vii

  I. THE PRINCIPALITIES OF MOLDAVIA AND WALLACHIA      1

  II. THE SUMMONS TO THE THRONE                       11

  III. STORM AND STRESS                               32

  IV. MARRIAGE AND HOME LIFE                          83

  V. FINANCIAL TROUBLES                              129

  VI. THE JEWISH QUESTION                            143

  VII. PEACEFUL DEVELOPMENT                          155

  VIII. THREATENING CLOUDS                           218

  IX. THE ARMY                                       250

  X. THE WAR WITH TURKEY                             265

  XI. THE BERLIN CONGRESS AND AFTER                  311

  EPILOGUE                                           355




INTRODUCTION

    Volk und Knecht und Ueberwinder,
    Sie gestehn zu jeder Zeit;
    Höchstes Glück der Erdenkinder
    Sey nur die Persönlichkeit.

  GOETHE (_West-Oestlicher Divan_).


It is said to have been a chance occasion which gave the first
impetus towards the compilation of the German original[1] from which
these "Reminiscences of the King of Roumania have been re-edited and
abridged." One day an enterprising man of letters applied to one
who had followed the King's career for years with vivid interest:
"The public of a country extending from the Alps to the ocean is
eager to know something about Roumania and her Hohenzollern ruler."
The King, without whose consent little or nothing could have been
done, thought the matter over carefully; in fact, he weighed it in
his mind for several years before coming to a final decision. At
first his natural antipathy to being talked about--even in praise
(to criticism he had ever been indifferent)--made him reluctant
to provide printed matter for public comment. On the other hand,
he had long been most anxious that Roumania should attract more
public attention than the world had hitherto bestowed on her. In
an age of universal trade competition and self-advertisement, for
a country to be talked about possibly meant attracting capitalists
and opening up markets: things which might add materially to her
prosperity. With such possibilities in view, the King's own personal
taste or scruples were of secondary moment to him. So the idea
first suggested by a stranger gradually took shape in his mind, and
with it the desire to see placed before his own subjects a truthful
record of what had been achieved in Roumania in his own time. By
these means he hoped to give his people an instructive synopsis of
the difficulties which had been successfully overcome in the task of
creating practical institutions out of chaos.

  [1] "Aus dem Leben König Karls von Rumänien. Aufzeichnungen eines
  Augenzeugen." Stuttgart: Verlag der J. G. Cotta'schen Buchhandlung.

As so often happens in such cases, the work grew beyond the limits
originally entertained. But the task was no easy one, and involved
the labour of several years. However, the result achieved is well
worth the trouble, for it is an historical document of exceptional
political interest, containing, among other material, important
letters from Prince Bismarck, the Emperor William, the Emperor
Frederick, the Czar of Russia, Queen Victoria, and Napoleon III.
It is, in fact, a piece of work which a politician must consult
unless he is to remain in the dark concerning much of moment in the
political history of our time, and particularly in the history of
the Eastern Question. "The Reminiscences of the King of Roumania"
constitute an important page in the story of European progress. Nor
is this all. They also contain a study in self-revelation which, so
far as it belongs to a regal character, is absolutely unique in its
completeness--even in an age so rich in sensational memoirs as our
own.

The subject-matter deals with a period of over twenty-five years
in the life of a