In Rumania Dr. Maniu, the leader of the National Peasant
Party, has formed a Government amidst almost universal good will. It is a remarkable fact that the. Peasant Party, which seemed at one time to be in danger of choosing unconstitutional ways and even of calling to its aid the highly undesirable Prince Carol, has reached the end of its appointed journey by a legitimate route. The whole country was tired of the so-called Liberalism of M. Bratianu, who did indeed achieve something faintly resembling M. Poineares financial reconstruction, but who did it by means that reduced the nation to a painful state of scarcity and suffering. The Rumanian peasants to-day are small-holders, and they are the majority of the nation. What they want is not a financial rectitude which makes it impossible for them to live, but a reason- able amount of credit to develop their holdings. Dr. Maniu has at least a better prospect than M. Bratianu had of getting a tolerably easy foreign loan. He talks of removing the galling censorship and even of freeing the elections from military control. One might say that his horoscope is good were it not that the harvest has been very poor. In spite of all that Dr. Maniu may do for them, the small-holders will have to struggle hard to avoid sinking deeper into the power of the Rumanian gombeen men.
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