348 



GREAT BRITAIN. 



GREECE. 



was unconstitutional and that an ordinance that 

 it had passed to raise the duty on tobacco was 

 of no effect. 



British Guiana includes the settlements of 

 Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice. The area is 

 said to be 109,000 square miles ; the population 

 in 1890 was 282,066. The East Indian coolies 

 have increased from 65,161 in 1881 to 107,424 at 

 the end of 1890. The number of immigrants 

 during the year was 4,575. The present Gov- 

 ernor is Viscount Gormanston. The number 

 of registered voters is 1,596. The question ot 

 changing the Constitution so as to conform to 

 the English model is under discussion. The 

 boundary dispute with Venezuela, which has 

 lasted half a century, has recently become acute, 

 and actual collisions have occurred on the front- 

 ier. The Venezuelan Government offered to 

 make compensation to the widow of an English- 

 man who was shot by the Venezuelan police on 

 the border, a holder of a British mining grant 

 named William Campbell. Campbell had crossed 

 the Amacuro to prospect for gold and open the 

 land for British colonists. He refused to take 

 out a mining permit from the Peruvian authori- 

 ties, and was shot in resisting arrest. A force 

 of British soldiers was then sent to take posses- 

 sion of the whole district. The northwest dis- 

 trict, claimed by Venezuela, but held by Eng- 

 land, contains rich placer mines. Early in 1891 

 diamonds were discovered in the same district. 

 The output of the gold mines has been doubling 

 year by year. In 1889 the exports of the metal 

 were valued at 109,234. The line claimed by 

 the British is the one drawn by Sir Robert 

 Schomburg in 1842, which was based partly on 

 the supposed extent of the ancient Dutch posses- 

 sions and partly on the idea of establishing a 

 natural frontier following ranges of mountains 

 and rivers. The Venezuelans protested that 

 Spanish dominion actually extended far to the 

 north of the Amacuro river, fixed on as the 

 boundary by Schomburg, reaching to Essequibo 

 river, and that it embraced the undeveloped 

 northern part of the British colony and included 

 the recently discovered mineral districts in the 

 west and the entrance to Orinoco river. 



Guzman Blanco, when President of Venezuela, 

 as a retaliatory measure, imposed a differential 

 duty of 30 per cent, on imports from the British 

 West Indies, injuring the trade of Trinidad es- 

 pecially ; and this has not yet been taken off. 

 Venezuela's offer to arbitrate the boundary dis- 

 pute was rejected by Lord Salisbury. When 

 British military posts were established in the 

 disputed territory, Venezuela appealed to the 

 United States and to the other powers to use 

 their good offices to prevent British encroach- 

 ments. Mr. Lincoln, the United States minister 

 in London, in June, 1890, secured the renewal 

 of diplomatic relations between Great Britain 

 and Venezuela. The revenue of British Guiana 

 in 1889-'90 was 522.862, and the expenditure 

 500,962. The public debt in 1890 was 737,- 

 399. The total vahie of the imports in 1889 was 

 1,803,776, the chief items being flour, rice, 

 machinery, fertilizers, and pork. The value of 

 the exports was 2,310,141. The chief articles 

 were sugar, of the value of 1,914,143, and rum, 

 of the value of 165,854, after which came gold, 

 molasses, and timber. 



GREECE, a constitutional monarchy in south- 

 eastern Europe. The legislative power is exer- 

 cised by a single chamber called the Boule, hav- 

 ing 150 members, who are elected by universal 

 suffrage for four years. It meets on Nov. 1 of 

 the Greek calendar, and remains in session for 

 not less than three and not more than six 

 months. The executive authority is exercised 

 by the King through his ministers, who are re- 

 sponsible to the Assembly. The reigning King- 

 is Georgios I, son of King Christian of Denmark, 

 elected by the National Assembly at Athens on 

 March 30, 1863. He married Olga, daughter of 

 the Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, and has- 

 seven children, the oldest of whom, Prince Kon- 

 stantinos, born Aug. 2, 1868, is the heir-apparent. 

 The ministry at the beginning of 1891 was com- 

 posed as follows : President of the Council, Min- 

 ister of the Interior, and Minister of War, P. T 

 Delyannis, appointed Nov. 5, 1890 ; Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs, L. Deligeorgis ; Minister of Jus- 

 tice, A. T. Zaimis ; Minister of Finance, C. Ka- 

 rapanos ; Minister of Worship and Instruction, 

 C. Gerokostopoulos ; Minister of Marine, C. A. 

 Koumoundouros. 



Area and Population. Greece has an area 

 of 25,041 square miles, and a population, as as- 

 certained by the census of 1889, of 2,187,208 per- 

 sons, of whom 1,133,625 are males and 1,053,583 

 females. In European Turkey there are sup- 

 posed to be about 3,500,000 people of the Greek 

 race, language, and religion ; in Crete and the 

 other Ottoman Islands, 400,000 ; in Asiatic Tur- 

 key, 2,000,000. In Greece there is an infusion of 

 Albanian blood, though not more than 100,000 

 Albanians have retained their nationality. 



Finance. The estimate of revenue for 1891 

 is 96,971.000 drachmai or francs, while the ex- 

 penditure is estimated at 99,253,000 drachmai. 

 The mobilization of the army and the deficits of 

 1885 and 1886 added 120,000,000 drachmai to the 

 public debt, and compelled the Government to- 

 abandon the recently restored metallic currency 

 and reissue paper. To balance the budgets of 

 1887 and 1888 a loan of 135,000,000 drachmai 

 was raised at 4 per cent., guaranteed on the salt, 

 petroleum, and match monopolies. By means 

 of a loan of 30,000,000 drachmai obtained in 1889- 

 and a part of the former loan, debts bearing 7 and 

 9 per cent, interest were paid off. For the con- 

 struction of the Athens and Larissa Railroad to 

 bring Greece into communication with the Con- 

 tinental network a new loan of about 90,000,000 

 drachmai was contracted in June, 1890. The 

 burdens imposed by the reorganization of the 

 finances effected by Tricoupis so improved the 

 credit of Greece that, whereas in 1886 she could 

 not borrow at a lower rate than 7| per cent., the 

 last loan was raised at the net rate of 5-jV per 

 cent. The fall in the rate of exchange to 17 per 

 cent, below par increases the expenses of the 

 debt more than half the amount of the interest 

 saved by the conversions, and the cost of main- 

 taining the three new ironclads adds as much 

 more to the budget. The total debt on Jan. 1, 

 1890, was 737,885,415 drachmai, comprising 448,- 

 887,647 drachmai of terminable loans, 202,469,- 

 298 drachmai of consolidated rentes, 12,662,513 

 drachmai of floating debt, and 73,865,957 drach- 

 mai of forced paper currency. Minister Kara- 

 panos, failing to obtain a further loan in 1891, or 



