GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



GREECE. 



369 



Government from whose misrule they had 

 fondly hoped to escape for ages. After their 

 manful resistance to the crimes bill, they re- 

 laxed the intensity of their efforts, recognizing 

 the need of Ireland for a repose from agitation 

 in the fruition of the results already attained, 

 especially the substantial benefits of the arrears 

 bill which averted instant distress. The schism 

 of Davitt was only one additional sign of the 

 exhaustion of their mandate. The decisions of 

 the Land Commissioners at the same time be- 

 came less favorable to the tenants, the judg- 

 ment in Adams versus Dunseath marking the 

 turning-point. 



On August 16th, E. Dwyer Gray, High-Sheriff 

 of Dublin and member of Parliament, was sen- 

 tenced to three months' imprisonment, by Jus- 

 tice Lawson, for contempt of court. The of- 

 fense consisted in the publication of a letter in 

 the influential "Freeman's Journal," of which 

 he was the responsible editor, charging the 

 jurors in a political murder trial with intoxi- 

 cation, and of an editorial comment calling for 

 an investigation. Several witnesses testified 

 to the misconduct of which the jury was ac- 

 cused, when an inquiry was held later. The 

 arrest of Mr. Gray provoked an outburst of 

 indignation throughout Ireland, and was de- 

 nounced by a portion of the Liberal press in 

 England ; and when the sentence had half ex- 

 pired, the judge made repairs for the odium 

 his hasty act had brought upon the Govern- 

 ment by releasing him again. 



On the 22d of March, Queen Victoria, while 

 passing from a railway-train into her carriage, 

 at Windsor, was again subjected to one of those 

 attempts or feints to assassinate her, seven of 

 which in all it has been her strange fate to 

 experience.* It is, perhaps, because no pre- 

 cautions are thought necessary to protect the 

 person of a constitutional sovereign whom 

 no one can have any motive in wishing 

 dead, that Victoria has been set upon so many 

 times by crack-brained desperadoes. The last 

 assailant was a demented person named Rod- 

 erick Maclean, who had been a clerk. His 

 trial for high-treason took place with much 

 pomp and circumstance on April 19th. A 

 single day was sufficient to establish his insan- 

 ity in the minds of the jury, and he was ac- 

 quitted on that ground. 



The youngest of the royal princes, Leopold, 

 Duke of Albany, was married April 27th, to 

 the Princess Helen, daughter of the reigning 

 Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, and sister to 

 the Queen of the Netherlands. The usual 

 grant of 10,000 a year in addition to the an- 

 nuity of 15,000 voted to the younger sons of 



* The first and most determined attempt on the Queen's 

 life was made by Edward Oxford in 1840. In 1842 John 

 Francis fired a pistol at her, and later m the same year Beau 

 took aim at her, with a pistol, but did not succeed in dis- 

 charging the weapon. In 1849 an Irish bricklayer named 

 Hamilton fired a pistol at her, but it was charged with pow- 

 der only. In 1850 an ex-lieutenant of hussars struck the 

 Queen with a cane. In 1872 a boy thrust before her a petition 

 for the release of Fenian prisoners, and with the other hand 

 presented an unloaded pistol. 

 VOL. xxii. 24 A 



the Queen upon coming to age was opposed 

 by a radical faction in the House of Commons, 

 of which Mr. Labouchere was this time the 

 spokesman. A working-class member, Mr. 

 Storey, created an unpleasant sensation by re- 

 peating, in direct terms, the arguments which 

 are familiar to the democratic classes outside, 

 against the cost of royalty, and of sinecures 

 provided in the royal household and in the 

 state departments for members of the aristoc- 

 racy. 



GREECE, a kingdom of Southern Europe. 

 The present Constitution was elaborated by a 

 Constituent Assembly in 1864. The legislative 

 power is exercised by a simgle Chamber of 

 Deputies elected for four years by direct vote. 

 George I, King of the Hellenes, is the second 

 son of the King of Denmark, born December 

 24, 1845. He was offered the crown by the 

 National Assembly in accordance with a proto- 

 col providing for the annexation of the Ionian 

 Isles, signed June 5, 1863, at London, by the 

 three protecting powers, France, England, and 

 Russia, and began his reign October 31st of 

 that year. 



The Ministry, which was formed March 15, 

 1882, is composed as follows: Tricoupis, Presi- 

 dent of the Council and Minister for Foreign 

 Affairs, also of the Interior ad interim; Rallis, 

 Minister of Justice ; Kalligas, of Finance ; Lom- 

 bardos, of Worship ; Karaschakis, of War ; and 

 Rufos, of Marine. 



AREA AND POPULATION. The population, 

 according to the census of 1879, was 1,679,470, 

 of which number 880,952 were males and 798,- 

 518 females. The area was 51,319 square kilo- 

 metres. The new territory in Epirus and Thes- 

 saly, acquired by the convention of May 24, 

 1881, has an area of 13,369 square kilometres 

 and a population of 299,953 persons, making 

 the total area of the Hellenic kingdom 64,688 

 square kilometres, or 24,880 square miles, and 

 the total population 1,979,423. Of the popu- 

 lation given in the census returns of 1879, 

 20,523 were soldiers and seamen, and 5,180 

 sailors abroad. The rest were divided as to 

 religion into 1,635,698 Greek Orthodox, 14,677 

 other Christians, 2,652 Israelites, and 740 of 

 other faiths. The number of foreigners resid- 

 ing in Greece was 31,969, of whom 23,133 

 were Ottoman subjects, 3,104 Italians, 2,187 

 English, and 534 French. The population of 

 the principal towns was as follows : Athens, 

 63,374; Patras, 25,494; Hermoupolis, 21,245; 

 PiraBa, 21,055; Corfu, 16,515; Zante, 16,250; 

 and Tripolis, 10,057. The number of marriages 

 in 1878 was 8,603, births 44,921, and deaths 

 30,588,not including still-born; excess of births, 

 14,333. The population has increased since 

 1870 at the annual rate of 1'69 per cent. The 

 Albanian race forms a large part of the popu- 

 lation, furnishing the greatest number of culti- 

 vators, and a large and active section of the 

 maritime population. 



The special commerce in 1875 amounted to 

 114,486,000 drachmas of imports (about $20,- 



