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OREBCE, KINGDOM OF. 



OBBBMLAND. 



tlie ooasU and mpproaaiog piraoy. The roykl iuitkI sUtion, dock- 

 jTBid, anaaal, &a, are at Pons, At Athens u a military ooUege. 



nie eiril oode of the Idngdom of Oreeoe ii stitl in the main an 

 atsidgemant of the Baellioa drawn up in the 14th oentuiy by the 

 Byauline Armenopouloa, and known as the ' Manual of the Laws ;' 

 bat the oommeroial, orimioal, and oorreotional codes are founded on 

 the Code NapoMon. The chief oonrt is the Areopsgns, or court of 

 appeal and cassation, at Athens. There are besides courts of assise 

 and primaiy jurisdiction in the chief towns of the ten nomes, and 

 Tarioos inferior courts. Trial by jury has been introduoed, but it 

 does not work rery satialaotorily. 



The religion prof eased by the people generally is that of the Oreek 

 Church, but|full religious toleration is guaranteed by the constitution. 

 The church in Greece acknowledges no superior external authority, 

 while preserring unbroken dogmatic unity with all the eastern orthodox 

 churches ; in other words, it declares itself independent, or autooephi^ 

 lous, as regards its former head, the Pntriarch at Constantinople. The 

 King of Greece is supreme head in the administration of the church. 

 The chief eceleeiastitatl authority in the church is a perpetual aynod 

 consisting of five bishops at fint selected by the king, but now taken 

 in order of seniority of consecration, and assisted by a royal commis- 

 ■iooer and a secretary. The church is at present presided over by 24 

 bishops, but their number is to be eventually raised to 36. The 

 clergy are generally miserably ill paid, and as an almost uecessary 

 consequence very insufficiently educated ; they are however on the whole 

 not unexemplary in conduct. There are only about 100 monasteries in 

 the kingdom, their number having been greatly reduced since the war of 

 independence ; and they are much fewer than the Oreek monasteries 

 in the Ionian laUnds and Turkey. Besides the members of the Oreek 

 Church there are about 15,000 Roman Catholics and 4000 Jews in 

 the kingdom : the members of other religious bodies are quite 

 insignificant in number. 



In the early part of the reign of Otho a law was passed directing 

 the establishment of elementary schools in every deme in the kingdom. 

 Like many other of the most useful edicts it has not been carried 

 into execution ; but popular education is widely diffused, and its 

 advantages are generally appreciated. The principal educational 

 institution is the University of Athens, which occupies one of the 

 finest modem buildings in that city, and has 39 professors, an average 

 of UOO students in the faculties of theology, law, philosophy, medicine, 

 and pharmacy, and a library of 80,000 volumes. There are besides 

 7 gymnasia, or colleges, in the principal towns, with 43 professors, 

 and about 1100 students (the gymnasium of Athens having about half 

 of that number) ; an ecclesiastical seminary, a polytechnic school, and 

 a ladies' ooUege at Athens, and an agricultural school near Nauplia; 

 about 80 secuudary Bchools with nearly 4000 scholars ; 340 common 

 sehools for boys with 34,000 scholars, 31 common schools for girls 

 with 4400 scholars ; a normal and an infant school ; and several 

 private and semi-private establishments, among which may be named 

 the excellent American female schools at Athena — the first schools 

 eetablished in Greece for the education of females. There are also 

 several scientific, artistic, and antiquarian institutions, with museums 

 and libraries, chiefly seated in the capital. About 120 political, 

 religious, and literary newspapers and magazines are now published 

 in the kingdom of Greeoe, 



HUtory. — The Greeks, who had long cherished the hope of throw- 

 ing off the Turkish yoke, and with a view to facilitate their object 

 had formed a powerful secret society, with a well-organised agency 

 spread throughout the whole Ottoman empire, saw in the outbreak 

 of war between the Porte and one of his most powerful vassals, Ali 

 Pasha, in 1821, the long-desired opportunity. A general rising was 

 accordingly solemnly proclaimed on the 6th of April 1821 by the 

 archbishop of Patras, and universally responded to. The Oreeka 

 were at first successful, but disasters quickly followed, which their 

 character, on which centuries of slavery had wrought their sure 

 effects, did not enable them to retrieve. For seven long years the 

 struggle was protracted, marked on both sides by the most atrocious 

 omeltiea, but relieved somewhat on the part of the Greeks by deeds 

 of heroism worthy of their ancestors. The Oreeks had suoceeded in 

 clearing the Peloponnesus of their enemies and defeating them by 

 ■aa. The Porte, unable to subdue them, called to its assistance the 

 diMiplined forces of the pasha of Egypt, which invaded the Pelopon- 

 nesos, and the cause of Greek independence hod again become pro- 

 blematical. The feeling of the Christian nations was however at 

 length fairiy arouseil, and the three powcn, Great Britain, France, 

 and Russia, reaolve<l to put a stop to this war of extermination. The 

 ▼iotory of Navarino, gained by the allied fleets in October 1827, 

 obliged the Egyptian forces to evacuate the Morea. The Conference 

 of London, in March 1 829, established the principle of the independ- 

 ence of Oreeoe as a state, and the successful campaign of the same 

 Eat the Russians against the Turks induced the Sultan to acknow- 

 it by an article of the treaty of Adrianople in September 1829. 

 nuary 1880 the total indrpendrnoe of Greeoe was settled by the 

 Cooferaooe of London. Meantime the internal government of Oreeoe 

 had uodargone many ridasitudea, and the country was in a very dis- 

 ofgaaiaed oondition. When the independence of Qieece was secured 

 by the interference of the three allied powen, the congress of deputies 

 bma the Tarioua disti icts of Greece appointed oonnt John Capodistria, 



a native of Corfu, who had been employed with distinction as a diplo- 

 matic agent of Russia, to be the head of the executive uf the new 

 state of Greece, with the title of President, for seven years, and with 

 very extensive powers. His measures however were very unpopular 

 with the national party, an insurrection broke out, and the country 

 seemed to be again falling into anarchy, when, on October 8th, 1831, 

 Capodistria was mtirdcred at Nauplia iu open day, on the threshold of 

 the church of St Spiridion. His brother Augustin Capodistria sue- 

 ceeded him in the presidency, but the civil war continuing, he was 

 obliged to resign. At last the allied powers offered the crown of 

 Greece, which had been refUaed by Prinoe Leopold of Saxe Cobnig, 

 to the King of Bavaria for his younger son Otho, and the offer was 

 accepted. In June 1835 king Otho, being of age, assumed the direc- 

 tion of the affairs of state. Otho refused to establish a representative 

 system of government, and continued to govern absolutely till Sept. 

 1845, when an entire change of system was brought about by a revo- 

 lution, which has hardly its parallel for the skill and success with 

 which it was designed and executed. The leaders of the constitutional 

 party, having matured their plans and gained over the army and a 

 large portion of the people, surrounded the palace with troops, and 

 presented to the king a charter, granting representative government 

 among other popular objects, and enforcing the dismissal of the 

 obnoxious Bavarian and other foreign ministers. The alternative was 

 offered to the king of signing this charter, or of quitting Greece at 

 once and for ever in a vessel which had been prepared, and waa then 

 lying ready for the purpose. After some indecision the king, finding 

 himself wholly in the hands of the constitutionalists, signed the 

 charter. 



The only subsequent events of general interest are the interven- 

 tions of foreign powera, which the duplicity of the government has 

 rendered necessary. The first of these was in 1S50, when, in conse- 

 quence of the refusal of Otho's ministry to liquidate the claims of 

 certoin British subjects to compensation for various injuries inflicted 

 on them, a British fleet blockaded the Oreek ports for three months 

 before the Oreek government assented to the payment of the sums 

 in question. The other intervention is that which has occurred within 

 the last two or three months. The war between Turkey and Russia 

 seemed at the commencement of the present year (1854) to afford to 

 certain self-styled Greek patriots — but in reality, there con be little 

 doubt, mere tools of Russia — a favourable opportunity for exciting 

 the turbulent spirits of the less civilised portion of the community 

 to make an inroad upon the neighbouring provinces of Turkey. A 

 large number of the idle and profligate, attracted by the prospect of 

 pillage — ever an irresistible lure to a modem Oreek — was soon col- 

 lect^ ; and their numbers were largely swelled by bodies of soldiers 

 who joined them, in many cases with their officers, without even the 

 semblance of an attempt at prevention on the part of the authurities. 

 The feeble miud of Otho was unable to resist the visions which had 

 been artfully displayed before it, of a widely-extended Grecian empire, 

 with himself at its head, and he lent the marauders every possible 

 countenance and encouragement, while with characteristic disingenu- 

 ousness he issued protests and proclamations against them. At first 

 the invaders were able to overcome the resistance of the weak and 

 unprepared Turkish garrisons, and a considerable tract of country 

 was subjected to the lust and rapine of the ' liberating army.' At 

 the same time Greece itself, all restraint being removed, began to 

 swarm with brigands and the Oreek seas with pirates. But a check 

 was promptly put upon these proceedings. The remonstrances of 

 the allied powers being unheeded, a few British ships of war were sent 

 into the .^gean, and a few French soldiers landed in the PirtBus; and 

 the king, awakened thus rudely from his dreams, accepted at once the 

 proffered ultimatum^Kiismiased his ministry, recalled his officers, 

 issued proclamations commanding the misguided adventurers to return 

 to their homes and duties, and agreed on his own part to carry on the 

 government for awhile under British and French surveillance. 



Otho married in 1886. He has no issue; and it is settled that his 

 successor is to be another prince of Bavaria, who has engaged to enter 

 the comniuuion of the Oreek Church on his accession to the throne. 



(Thiersch, i)e tilatActwl de la Orice; Travdt, <tc., in Oreece of 

 Leake ; Mure ; Bowen ; Fiedler ; and Ross ; HUloriet, <tc., e/ tlie War 

 of Independence, by Gordon, Keightlcy, Stanhope, and Blanqui6re ; 

 Sir J. Emerson Tennent, Hittory of Modem Greece ; Murray, Hand- 

 hook for TravdUrt in Oreece, 1854.) 



GREENLAND is on extensive island situated between Iceland and 

 the continent of America, and forming a colony of Denmark. Its 

 southern extremity, Cope Farewell, is situated on an island, in 5U° 49' 

 N. lat, 43° 64' W. long., consequently nearly iu the imralli/l of the 

 southem extremity of the Shetland Islands. Its northern districts ore 

 buried under masses of eternal ice. The most northern points which 

 have been observed are near 78° N. lat., namely, Edam Land on 

 the eastern coast, ami the entrance to Murchison's Sound on the 

 western coast. The whole western coast-line has been visited and 

 mostly surveyed by British, Dutch, and Danish seamen; but much 

 of the eastem side remains unexplored. 



The entire country may be considered as an enormous mass of rocks. 

 The outline of this mass, forming the sea-coast, is high, rugged, and 

 barren ; close to the water's edge it rises into tremendous precipices 

 and lofty mountains, crowned with inoocessiblo cU£b, visible from the 



