in 1854. In 1883, he had obtained a compensation of 500 thousand lei and interest, which he found unsatisfactory. An appellate court in Iași eventually ruled that his dispossession had been an act of war, and therefore that he could only be compensated by a parliamentary vote. Despite his lifelong conservatism, the Beizadea was being courted by the PNL's conservative wings. In 1884, he and the PNL's Eugeniu Stătescu sought to introduce a law whereby acts of lèse-majesté would be tried in ordinary courts—a polemic ensued between them and C. A. Rosetti, who supported complete freedom of speech. During the final days of 1885, "a political rally was held in prince Gr. Sturdza's salon at Iași", which confirmed that he and his followers "adhered to the policies of the prime minister [Brătianu]." In November 1887, rumors began surfacing that Sturdza was offered chairmanship of the PNL's Iași section. In the following decade, however, the BZD sought to reaffirm its independence. In the by-elections of May 1895, held for the 2nd-College seat in Iași, it scored a surprise win for its candidate, Nicu Catargiu. According to the left-wing newspaper Lupta, in July 1895 it branched out in Bucharest, counting on support from Constantin Creangă and his rolling paper factory. The same source reported that the Bucharest club merely intended to defraud the Beizadea, who had pledged them a 1-million-lei sponsorship. Sturdza was finally attracted into the PNL during the general elections of November 1895—at the time, the group was turning right-wing under the chairmanship of a relative, D. A. Sturdza. Sturdza and his BZD partisans presented themselves on the PNL list for the Assembly, which effectively ended their prospects of ever returning into the Conservative fold. With 171 votes, he was the third winner on the PNL list for Iași's 1st College, behind Ștefan C. Șendrea and Toma Stelian. In early 1896, Sturdza and his followers tried to mediate between PNL leaders and the breakaway faction of Nicolae Fleva: "The Beizadea keeps pleading for reconciliation, since he is very much keen on maintaining his prevalence at Iași." As reported by the opposition newspaper Epoca, by early May 1898 the PNL majority had pledged 1.5 million lei to Sturdza, as compensation for his 1854 expropriation. Epoca noted that this was in fact a "baksheesh". The same source also reported that, later that month, the Beizadea was attempting to rejoin the opposition, since