338 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



GREECE. 



Bimetallic Conference. An International 

 Bimetallic Conference was held in London in 

 the beginning of March. Sir David Barbour, 

 ex-Secretary of Finance in India, stated that the 

 result to India of attempting to introduce a gold 

 standard in India had been to disturb the trade 

 with silver-standard countries, to increase the 

 sterling debt, the expenditures, and the taxation, 

 and to cause the abandonment of public works. 

 Others who took part in the proceedings were W. 

 Lidderdale, ex-Governor of the Bank of England, 

 M. van den Berg, President of the Bank of the 

 Netherlands, Arthur J. Balfour, Henry Chaplin, 

 Samuel Montagu, Brooks Adams, several Aus- 

 tralian bankers and public men, and the men, 

 like Henri Cernuschi, who have long been iden- 

 tified with the bimetallic movement. Lord-Mayor 

 Tyler presided. A message was received from 

 John Sherman, W. B. Allison, Calvin H. Brice, 

 Henry Cabot Lodge, and other members of the 

 Unite'd States Senate, declaring for the free coin- 

 age of both metals at a fixed ratio by interna- 

 tional agreement. 



British Possessions. The total area of the 

 British Empire, including colonies, protectorates, 

 and dependencies, is nearly 11,000,000 square 

 miles, more than one fifth of the whole land sur- 

 face of the globe. The total population is esti- 

 mated to be nearly 372,000,000. The population 

 of the colonies and dependencies is 240,587,167, 

 of which number British India contains 221,- 

 434,862. The population of protectorates and 

 spheres of influence is estimated at 93,505,155. 

 Including the 66,908,147 inhabitants of the In- 

 dian protected states, 1,092,634 in other Asian 

 protectorates. 3,012,224 in Ceylon, and 740,199 

 in other Asian possessions, the total in Asia 

 amount to 293,188.066. The population of the 

 British colonies and dependencies in Africa is 

 4,035.869, and the estimated population of Afri- 

 can protectorates and spheres of influence is 25,- 

 504,374, making the total in Africa 29,540,243. 

 The American colonies have a total population 

 of 6,737,654, of whom 5,054,449 are in North 

 America, 1,361,617 in the West Indies, 288,328 

 in British Guiana, 31,471 in British Honduras, 

 and 1,789 in the Falkland Islands. The Aus- 

 tralasian colonies and protectorates have 4,275,- 

 305 inhabitants. The European colonies and 

 dependencies, besides the Isle of Man and the 

 Channel Islands, are Gibraltar, with 25,755 in- 

 habitants, and Malta, having 177,457. 



The movement for imperial federation, though 

 only in the theoretical stage, made some prog- 

 ress in 1894, especially in the Intercolonial Con- 

 ference at Ottawa. The Imperial Government, 

 as well as the colonies, is disposed to be liberal 

 in subsidizing the new lines of Atlantic and Pa- 

 cific steamers, and the projected Pacific cable. 

 The question of imperial defense has given rise 

 to but little friction between the British Govern- 

 ment and the self-governing colonies, which can 

 not be coerced, and have made temporary ar- 

 rangements that are of the nature of treaties 

 between independent powers. Some colonies 

 with representative government, such as Ja- 

 maica is or as formerly Natal was, have been 

 treated with special favor, for while the colonies 

 that govern themselves entirely under their own 

 constitutions and responsible governments main- 

 tain military organizations and build fortifica- 



tions for their own and the imperial defense, in 

 these the Imperial Government keeps troops to 

 guard against intestine or external dai. 

 The treatment of colonies that are still governed 

 from Downing Street is different. When ihe 

 Imperial Government decided to strengthen 

 the maritime defenses of Hong-Kong at an ex- 

 pense of 325.000 that colony was called upon 

 to contribute 116,000, which it did willingly. 

 with the result that it has had to pay since I'sjio 

 the sum of 40,000 for the cost of the gam>ou. 

 instead of 20,000 as before. The Straits Set t !<- 

 ments with equal willingness gave i'si.ooo 

 toward the cost of the fortification of Singapore 

 as a coaling station for the British navy ; but 

 when in December, 1889, it was announced that 

 the annual contribution of 50,000 from the 

 colonial revenue for military expenses would be 

 increased to 100,000, there were strong pro- 

 tests from the colonists, and even from the Gov- 

 ernor, Sir Cecil dementi Smith. The sum has 

 been voted annually under instructions from the 

 home Government by the official members alone 

 in the council. The feeling of the colonists that 

 a wrong was done to them continued unanimous 

 and increased in intensity. The Imperial Gov- 

 ernment had entered into a solemn engagement, 

 when the colony was constituted in 1866, that 

 the payment of the colony for military defense 

 should not exceed 50,000. In 1894* they re- 

 newed their protests, for with the decrease in 

 the revenue from 4,409,927 in 1889 to 8,<>:!5.- 

 000 in 1893 the burden had grown too heavy to- 

 bear. For three years the accounts had closed 

 with a deficit, public works were stopped, and 

 education was starved, while the home Govern- 

 ment continued to add to the military charges, 

 which for 1894 were 136,000. The resentment 

 abated in no degree when, in October. 1894, the 

 home Government agreed to reduce the military 

 contribution for 1895 by 10,000, and at the 

 same time announced that the colony would be 

 compelled to spend 20,000 on new barracks. 

 All these defenses, the colonists argue, are impe- 

 rial, and they should not be required to contrib- 

 ute except in proportion as trade is benefited. 



The currency question has engaged the atten- 

 tion of colonials everywhere. Since the policy 

 was adopted by the Government of India of 

 closing the mints to silver, petitions have come 

 from Ceylon and other colonies for the introduc- 

 tion of the single gold standard. In America, 

 British Honduras asks for a gold currency on 

 the ground that its trade is with gold countries, 

 though the only money there is Guatemalan 

 dollars and Peruvian sols. In British Guiana 

 the gold fields above the rapids of the Cayuni, 

 Mazaruni, and Essequibo rivers have attracted 

 much attention, and the colonial authorities are 

 discussing the advisability of building a railroad 

 to that district, for without means of transport 

 the fields can not be developed. Gold has been 

 discovered more recently in the Barine country. 

 in the western part of Guiana, and in the neigh- 

 borhood of the Kiaeteur Falls. 



GREECE, a constitutional monarchy in south- 

 eastern Europe. The legislative authority is 

 vested by the Constitution of 1864 in the I'.oiile. 

 a single chamber, in which there are 207 dele- 

 gates, elected for four years by universal man- 

 hood suffrage. 





