The cost of living is moderate.  Dark bread varies from 1_d._ to 1-1/2_d._ per lb., white from 1-1/2_d._ to 2_d._, almost as dear, therefore, as with us.  Roumania is essentially a stock breeding country, and whilst butcher’s meat varies from 4_d._ to 5_d._, mutton costs 3_d._ to 3-1/2_d._ per lb.  Common wine is 3_d._ to 4_d._ per pint; fruits of all kinds are very cheap, and afford an article of luxury to almost every class of the population.  Tobacco is dear, owing to the monopoly.  We believe there was an attempted revolution over the tobacco question in 1805, which, had to be put down by military force.  All kinds of clothing for the poorer classes are imported, and a suit of best clothes costs about thirty francs, a pair of boots eleven to twelve francs.  This does not, however, apply to the country.  There the women, besides doing field work and managing the household, make all the clothes, the men’s as well as their own; and by that is meant that they spin, weave, and make up the garments.  The custom, already referred to, of wearing the national costume by ladies in the country and on state occasions in Bucarest, gives very lucrative employment to the native women, and such costumes are exposed for sale in the shops of the capital at prices varying from 6_l._ or 7_l._ to anything the wearer likes to pay.  Many of these costumes testify to the exquisite taste of the females by whom they are made; for the combination of silk, wool, and thread, and the beautiful lace-work, the effect of which is heightened by diminutive spangles of gilt and silver, cannot fail to challenge admiration.  These costumes are, however, better adapted for young girls than for ladies of a maturer age.

[Illustration:  FRUIT-SELLER OF BUCAREST.]

Not only the women, but the men also, wear much livelier descriptions of dress than we are accustomed to in the west of Europe; and whilst the frilled unmentionables of some of them would excite ridicule amongst our hardy operatives, the brocaded vests of others would perhaps be regarded by them with envy.

[Illustration:  GIPSY FLOWER-SELLER.]

The preceding remarks concerning the working classes do not, however, apply to common labourers.  These are chiefly gipsies, hundreds of whom, men, women, and children, may be seen carrying bricks and mortar, and performing every kind of drudgery, for which they receive about one or two francs per day.  If they are engaged upon the erection of a building, they work, cook, and sleep in it; otherwise they find shelter where they are able.  They are frequently half-naked, the children sometimes completely so; and their chief, if not their only food, which they eat in common with all the poorest classes, is mamaliga, or maize-meal boiled and flavoured with a little salt.  This is sold at about 2_d._ for 3 lbs., but its price depends upon the maize crop.

[Footnote 34:  It is not so much a question in Roumania of time actually lost; for if we add the longer working hours on the one hand, and deduct the Saturday half-holiday of our operatives, probably there will not be found to be much difference; but it is the recurrence of feast-days and holidays at irregular intervals, as is the case in those trades in England where men go off ‘on the spree’ for a day or two at slated or unstated periods.  In Romania this is, in its way universal.]