our readers; but the penal system is somewhat unique, and is well worthy of a closer study and consideration.  Of the miserable accommodation for the exercise of judicial authority in Bucarest we have already spoken in describing the capital.  Lawsuits are very tedious; whether more so than in England we are unable to say.  Great complaint exists of patronage in the appointment of judges, most of whom are comparatively young men and political partisans.  This it is proposed to remedy by what would practically be popular election; whether the cure would be any better than the disease is questionable.  The penal system, as we found it carried out in Roumania, is mild, utilitarian, and slovenly; and if all that was told us be true, we fear we must add that it is by no means free from corruption.

The chief points of interest to Englishmen are the absence of capital punishment and the substitution of forced labour for life, or for a long term of years, and the utilisation of penal labour in the salt mines and elsewhere.  Capital punishment ceased de facto in 1852; for although it was not legally abolished, neither the then ruler, Prince Stirbey, nor his successor, Prince Couza, who governed the joint Principalities, would sign a death-warrant.  It was legally abrogated in 1865, and the Constitution of 1866 declares that it cannot be re-established, excepting for military offences.  No increase, but rather a diminution, of capital crimes has taken place since the change was effected; for although the population has doubled in the towns, where homicidal crime is most frequent, the number of offences has not materially increased.  The following figures[71] prove this statement:—­

Total Committals and Convictions for Homicide.

+------+------------+-------------+------+------------+

-------------+
| Year | Committals | Convictions | Year | Committals | Convictions |
+------+------------+-------------+------+------------+-----

--------+
| 1869 |    248     |     185     | 1874 |    258     |    167      |
| 1870 |    249     |     154     | 1875 |    236     |    169      |
| 1871 |    267     |     140     | 1876 |    386     |    250      |
| 1872 |    327     |     204     | 1877 |    307     |    187      |
| 1873 |    455     |     258     |      |            |             |
+------+------------+-------------+------+------------+-----

--------+

The punishment for murder with malice aforethought is now penal servitude for life, other phases of homicide five to twenty years, in both cases mine labour.  In cases of infanticide, if the offspring is illegitimate it ranks as manslaughter.  The following is a condensed summary, with brief comments of our own in parenthesis, of a report on the prison system which was kindly furnished to us by the Roumanian Inspector of Prisons, a zealous, well-meaning, and most courteous official, as are all Roumanian officials.

[Footnote 71:  Reports on Laws of Foreign Countries, presented to the House of Commons, 1881.]