408 



GREECE. 



panic occasioned by the breaking out of a fire 

 in the Colosseum theatre in Liverpool. The 

 German mail steamer Pomerania, from Ham- 

 burg to New York, was run into by the iron 

 bark Moel Eilian, November 25th, and 58 of 

 her passengers and crew were lost. 



GliEECE,* a kingdom of southeastern Eu- 

 rope. Reigning King, George I., born De- 

 cember 24, 1845, second son of the reigning 

 King of Denmark ; elected King of the Hel- 

 lenes by the National Assembly at Athens, 

 March 18 (30), 1863 ; accepted the crown June 

 5, 1863; declared of age by a decree of the 

 National Assembly, June 27, 1863; married 

 October 27, 1867, to Olga, daughter of the 

 Grand Duke Constantino of Russia, born Au- 

 gust 22, 1851. Their children are : Constan- 

 tinos, Duke of Sparta, born August 2, 1868 ; 

 George, born June 25, 1869 ; Alexandra, born 

 August 30, 1870; Nicholas, born February 9, 

 1872 ; Maria, born March 3, 1876. 



The area of the kingdom amounts to 19,353 

 square miles ; the population, according to the 

 census of 1870, to 1,457,894 persons. 



The war excitement which had pervaded 

 Greece during 1877 grew as it became appar- 

 ent in January that the Porte intended to ne- 

 gotiate for peace. It finally led to a ministe- 

 rial crisis, and on January 22d the Ministry re- 

 signed, and a new one was formed, composed 

 as follows: President of the Council and Min- 

 ister of the Interior, Kumunduros; Foreign 

 Affairs and Public Worship, Delyannis ; Ma- 

 rine, Pumbulis ; Finance and Justice, Papami- 

 chalopulo; War, Sotfros Petmezas. The war- 

 like demonstrations continued in all the prin- 

 cipal cities, and on January 26th a conflict 

 occurred between the troops and the populace 

 in Athens. The Chamber in consequence held 

 its sittings with closed doors. On January 31st 

 the Chamber in a secret sitting passed a vote 

 of confidence in the Ministry by 121 to 6 ; that 

 is to say, it empowered the Government to 

 take military measures against Turkey. M. 

 Kumunduros indicated that his action would 

 be the armed occupation of Thessaly, Epirus, 

 and part of Macedonia, in order, as he said, to 

 protect the Greeks of those provinces from the 

 outrages of the Turks driven into them by the 

 Russian advance. He said that, when outrages 

 occurred previously, the Government sought the 

 assistance of Europe, but Europe did nothing 

 beyond making inquiries. This time Greece 

 would take the matter into her own hands. 

 In accordance with this declaration, the Greek 

 army on February 3d crossed the frontier, but 

 was recalled within a week upon the represen- 

 tations of the Powers. (See TURKEY.) But, 

 though the Greek Government abandoned all 

 hostile actions against the Turks, large num- 

 bers of volunteers crossed the border to assist 



nnnnhXn^r* 1 C cl p(edla " of 1874 for statistics on the 



lation of large cities, on nationalities, on relipious rtenomi- 



*$i fiw d f onedu f tion : of 1876, for commercial statistics; 



and naly ' Pt *' ex P endltu S Public debt, and army 



their countrymen in Turkey. In the begin- 

 ning of March the Minister for Foreign Affairs 

 addressed a circular to the Greek representa- 

 tives at the courts of the signatory Powers, 

 in which the Hellenic Government asked to be 

 represented at the Congress, which was then 

 spoken of. The Ministry resigned on July 1st, 

 on account of military promotions having been 

 made by the Minister of War contrary to the 

 budget scheme settled by them. The King, 

 however, refused to accept the resignation, 

 declaring that the Cabinet possessed his confi- 

 dence. 



The recommendations made by the Berlin 

 Congress as to the rectification of the Greek 

 frontier (see EASTERN QUESTION) excited great 

 hopes in Greece. The Greek Government in 

 August addressed a note to the Powers, asking 

 them to use their influence to bring about a 

 settlement, and various propositions having 

 that end in view were made, but nothing defi- 

 nite was arrived at. On October 14th the 

 Chamber began a discussion on the past policy 

 of the Government, which ended on the 18th 

 in a vote of confidence of 69 to 63. On the 

 29th the Chamber rejected by a majority of 

 four votes the bill introduced by the Govern- 

 ment, providing for the calling out of the third 

 and fourth classes of the military reserves. In 

 consequence of this the Ministry tendered its 

 resignation, which was accepted. A new Cabi- 

 net was formed by M. Tricupis, but resigned 

 within a week, as they were defeated on a test- 

 vote in the Chamber. A new Ministry was 

 then formed as follows : Kumunduros, President 

 of the Council, Minister of the Interior and 

 Justice; Bubulis, War and Navy; Augerinas, 

 Public Instruction and Worship; Delyannis, 

 Foreign Affairs and Finance. It was thought 

 that this Ministry could not maintain itself, but 

 M. Kumunduros brought about a compromise 

 with the Opposition, by which a bill was passed 

 increasing the army by 20,000 men. On the 

 13th of November a motion was accepted pro- 

 posing the appointment of a committee of in- 

 quiry into abuses said to have been committed 

 by the Minister of War who held office at the 

 beginning of the year, in connection with sup- 

 plying food and clothing to the army. The 

 Government opposed the motion, but finally 

 yielded, and the resolution was adopted unani- 

 mously. 



An agreement of a very satisfactory char- 

 acter, which is intended to effect the conver- 

 sion of the Greek stock of 1824-'25, has been 

 entered into between the Government and the 

 representatives of the bondholders, and was 

 ratified by the Chamber of Deputies in Decem- 

 ber. Under it the old bonds and coupons will 

 be exchanged for new stock, upon which an 

 annual payment of 75,000 to the bondholders 

 will be secured. This sum will be guaranteed 

 by the actual hypothecation of the stamp du- 

 ties and the customs of Cephalonia, which to- 

 gether yield about 180,000 a year. The new 

 stock will be redeemable in thirty-three years 



