GREECE. 



345 



the dairy-farmers and their friends the land- 

 lords prevailed. 



Sugar Boanties. The British Government in- 

 duced the Continental powers to enter into a 

 conference to consider the question of sugar 

 bounties, which was held in London under the 

 presidency of Baron de Worms. The delegates 

 condemned the system of bounties, and re- 

 ported in favor of a system of refining and 

 manufacturing in London, the Belgian repre- 

 sentatives alone objecting. They all agreed to 

 a protocol, signed in December, 1871, recom- 

 mending their governments to remove the 

 bounties. The governments will inform the 

 British Government before March 1, 1888, 

 whether they accept the proposals and in what 

 manner they propose to carry them into prac- 

 tice. On April 5, 1888, the conference is to re- 

 assemble, and exchange ratifications of the 

 convention that was annexed to the protocol. 

 The first article of the convention requires the 

 contracting parties to take or to propose to 

 their respective legislatures such measures as 

 shall constitute an absolute guarantee that no 

 bounty, direct or indirect, shall be paid on the 

 exportation of sugar. The second article speci- 

 fies the mode in which this principle is to be 

 applied by the imposition of a duty on sugar 

 manufactured in bond. The third article em- 

 bodies the reserves made by the Belgian dele- 

 gates, who prefer to retain, with certain modi- 

 fications, the system in use in Belgium, while 

 making concessions in the direction of an in- 

 crease of legal yield and a lowering of the tax. 

 The Belgian objection is based on the consid- 

 erations that a strict excise supervision is ex- 

 pensive to the state and injurious to the in- 

 dustry. The French delegates recorded re- 

 serves in regard to the Belgian proposals, on 

 the ground that they did not afford a guaran- 

 tee for the total suppression of bounties. The 

 German, Austro-Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, 

 Dutch, and Russian delegates recorded their 

 adhesion to these reserves. 



GREECE, a constitutional monarchy in south- 

 eastern Europe. The present Constitution was 

 framed by a constituent assembly convoked for 

 the purpose in 1864, and was sworn to by the 

 King on Nov. 28, 1864. The legislative au- 

 thority appertains to a single chamber of depu- 

 ties. After Delyannis had plunged the coun- 

 try into debt, flooded it with depreciated 

 paper-money, summoned the citizens from 

 their agricultural and commercial pursuits to 

 take their ranks in the army, and disorganized 

 the entire business of the country to carry out 

 a policy of bellicose menace and bravado that 

 injured, rather than benefited, the international 

 position of Greece, his Cabinet was turned out 

 in order to escape European intervention, and 

 Tricoupis formed a ministry on May 21, 1886. 

 The first aim of the new minister was to pay 

 off the debt, restore the currency to a gold 

 b;tsi>. and still keep up the army in a state of 

 military efficiency. The necessity of economy 

 and reform furnished a reason for important 



changes in the legislative system, which were 

 enacted by the Chamber through dread of an 

 immediate dissolution. The adoption of scrutin 

 de liste has rendered the deputies more inde- 

 pendent of their constituents in respect to 

 patronage, the expenditure of public money 

 on local improvements, and especially the 

 equalization and thorough collection of taxes. 

 The law of June 24, 1886, fixes the number of 

 deputies at 150, instead of 245, as before. 



The ministry is composed of the following 

 members: President of the Council, Minister 

 of Finance, and Minister of War, C. Tricoupis ; 

 Minister of Justice, D. S. Voulpiotis ; Minister 

 of the Interior, C. Lombardos; Minister of 

 Worship and Public Instruction, P. Manetas; 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs, E. Dragoumis; 

 Minister of Marine, G. Theotokis. 



The reigning sovereign is King Georgios I, 

 born Dec. 24, 1845, son of King Christian of 

 Denmark, who was elected by the National 

 Assembly on March 30, 1863, and confirmed 

 by France, Great Britain, and Russia, the three 

 protecting powers. The heir - apparent is 

 Prince Konstantinos, born Aug. 2, 1868. 



Area and Population. The area of Greece is 

 64,689 square kilometres, or 25,014 miles. 

 The population before the annexation of the 

 district of Arta, Trikkala, and Larissa, in Thes- 

 saly and Epirus, under the treaty of June 14, 

 1881, was in 1879, when the last census was 

 taken, 1,679,775. Adding the population of 

 the annexed districts, as ascertained by an 

 enumeration in 1881, the total population of 

 the kingdom is 1,979,561, inclusive of soldiers, 

 seamen, and citizens abroad. The number of 

 male inhabitants is 1.040,526, and of females 

 939,035. The civil population is 1.948,174, 

 which is divided into 1,902,800 Orthodox 

 Greek Christians, 14,677 other Christians, 6,- 

 792 Israelites, 24,165 Mohammedans, and 740 

 others. Athens, the capital, contained 84,903 

 inhabitants in April, 1884. 



Finances. The budget for the year 1887 es- 

 timates the total revenue at 94,656,907 drach- 

 mas or francs, and the expenditure at 93,288,- 

 371 drachmas. The internal debt on Jan. 1, 

 1887, amounted to 385,776,031 drachmas, and 

 the total public debt to 424,429,713 drachmas, 

 not including 89,814,866 drachmas of paper 

 money. The war preparations of 1886 had 

 added more than 100,000,000 drachmas to the 

 debt. The Chamber in June, 1887, authorized 

 a loan of 150,000,090 drachmas for the liquida- 

 tion of the floating debt. 



The Army and Navy. The army in 1887 con- 

 sisted of 1,787 officers, 7,302 non-commissioned 

 officers and musicians, and 18,091 soldiers, 

 making altogether 27,180 men, with 3,509 

 horses and 120 cannon. The strength of the 

 army for 1888 is fixed at 26,340 men, and the 

 military expenditure at 16,938,500 drachmas, 

 against 18,074,069 drachmas in 1887. 



Commerce. The industry of Greece is largely 

 agricultural. There are 250,000 acres devoted to 

 tobacco, cotton, etc. ; 1,000,000 acres to grain- 



