370 



GREECE. 



GUATEMALA. 



ic order in the country. A new land tax and 

 a more efficacious system of collecting taxes 

 would increase the revenue. In the ballot for a 

 president the candidate of Tricoupis obtained 

 187 votes, while the ministerial candidate re- 

 ceived 50, and Delayannis's candidate 21. There- 

 upon Soteropoulos handed in his resignation, 

 which was accepted, and King Georgios commis- 

 sioned Tricoupis to form a ministry. On Nov. 

 11 the new Cabinet was announced as follows: 

 Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Tri- 

 coupis ; Minister of the Interior and Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs ad interim, Stevenao ; Minister 

 of Public Instruction, Kailfreonas ; Minister of 

 War, Col. Tsamados. 



The Corinth Canal. The canal cut through 

 the Isthmus of Corinth was opened on Aug. 6, 

 1893. It was begun in May, 1882, by a French 

 company, which failed to complete it. A Greek 

 company was afterward formed, and the under- 

 taking was carried to completion under the 

 direction of M. Matsas, a Greek engineer, with 

 the energetic co-operation of its projector, Gen. 

 Tiirr. The canal is 6J- kilometres long, 22 me- 

 tres wide, and 8 metres deep, having the same 

 cross section as the Suez Canal, which is over 25 

 times its length. The voyage between Athens 

 and Cephalonia is shortened by 325 kilometres, 

 and ships are spared the dangerous passage round 

 the southern headlands of Greece. The voyage of 

 steamships plying between the various ports of 

 western Europe and those of Greece, Turkey, 

 and the Black Sea, is made sixteen or seventeen 

 hours shorter. 



Earthquakes in Zante. After a succession of 

 about 300 slight shocks felt during five months, 

 several severe shocks occurred on Jan. 30 that 

 destroyed houses and villages and killed a num- 

 ber of persons on the island of Zante. Two 

 days later the island was shaken by a more vio- 

 lent earthquake, accompanied by a tidal wave. 

 The city of Zante, where 100 houses fell down and 

 many people were killed or injured, was almost 

 deserted by its inhabitants, who went into the 

 fields to sleep, exposed to frosts and storms 

 worse than had been experienced for many 

 years. More villages were destroyed. Further 

 shocks occurred on Feb. 6. A British war-ship 

 and other steamers first brought tents and 

 flour to the shelterless and starving people, to 

 whom the King and Queen soon came to dis- 

 tribute succor. On Feb. 11 occurred further 

 seismic disturbances, and after a period in which 

 only slight tremors were felt and the work of 

 restoration was well begun, an earthquake ex- 

 ceeding in violence all that had gone before, on 

 April 17, laid in ruins almost every building on 

 the island that was still standing. Shocks re- 

 curred during that day and the next two days 

 to add to the terrors of the inhabitants, who be- 

 gan to emigrate from the island. The distress 

 was greater than it would have been at another 

 time because the people had suffered from a 

 partial failure of the currant crop in the previous 

 season, and this is now their only dependence, 

 the groves of olive and almond trees having been 

 cleared away to make room for the currant plan- 

 tations. 



GUATEMALA, a republic in Central Amer- 

 ica. The Constitution, as proclaimed in Decem- 

 ber, 1879. and as amended in October, 1885, 

 November, 1887, and October, 1889, vests the 

 legislative power in a Congress composed of a 

 National Assembly of 69 members, elected for 

 four years by universal suffrage, and a Council 

 of State of 13 members, partly elected by the 

 National Assembly and partly nominated by the 

 President. The executive authority rests with a 

 President, elected for six years by the direct vote 

 of the nation. The President for the term end- 

 ing in April, 1898, is J. M. Reyna Barrios. The 

 Secretaries of State early in 1893 were: Gov- 

 ernment and Justice, F. A. Villela ; Foreign 

 Affairs, E. de Leon ; War, Gen. C. Mendizabal ; 

 Instruction and Public Credit, F. Aguilar. 



Area and Population. The area of Guate- 

 mala is estimated at 46,800 square miles, and 

 the population on Dec. 31, 1890, numbered 

 1,460,017. The number of marriages registered 

 in 1891 was 5,001 ; births, 70,219 ; deaths, 51,197. 

 The returns of deaths are inaccurate, the death 

 rate being considerably higher. Of the total 

 births of the white population nearly 50 per 

 cent, were illegitimate, and 25 per cent, of the 

 Indian children were illegitimate. In 1891 the 

 net immigration was 482. 



Finance. The public debt amounted to 17,- 

 356.768 pesos on March 15, 1892. 



The standing army numbered 3,718 officers 

 and men in 1891. There is a militia numbering 

 67,300 men. 



Communications. The existing railroads 

 connect the city of Guatemala with San Jose, 72 

 miles, and Retalhuleu with Champerico. Vari- 

 ous other lines from the coast to the coffee and 

 sugar growing, cattle-grazing, and forest dis- 

 tricts have been authorized, and the Government 

 promises a subsidy of about $8,000 a mile. 

 There are 2,278 miles of telegraphs. The num- 

 ber of dispatches in 1891 was 505,808. 



Suspension of the Constitution. During 

 the vacation of Congress President Barrios, who 

 had been authorized to remodel the fiscal code, 

 ordered that all duties on imports, which had 

 been paid always in silver pesos, should hence- 

 forward be collected in gold. The Permanent 

 Commission of Congress came to the conclusion 

 that he was overstepping his constitutional 

 limits by practically imposing new duties, and 

 intimated its desire to call an extraordinary ses- 

 sion of Congress, to which no objections were 

 raised by the Administration. The members 

 were summoned accordingly. The opponents of 

 the President came, but not enough others to 

 make a quorum, and he was so advised officially 

 when the Deputies assembled on Oct. 10, 1893. 

 Thereupon he issued a decree dissolving the 

 Chamber, and ordered elections to take place in 

 the same month for a nnw one that shall meet 

 on March 20, 1894. For the meantime he sus- 

 pended the Constitution and assumed a dictator- 

 ship. The members of the dissolved Chamber 

 were ordered not to leave the capital ; and, to 

 make sure of their obedience to this decree, 

 they were commanded to report in person to the 

 authorities every second day. 



