418 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



GREECE. 



were to be secured simply by the tenant-right. 

 The refusal of the Government to entertain 

 this proposal elicited a reply from the prelates 

 on the llth of March, in which they declared 

 it to be the duty of the Government then to 

 provide out-door relief, and condemned the 

 resolution, heartlessly avowed in Parliament, 

 to sweep from the land by starvation, which 

 was preferred by the people to the work-house, 

 or by wholesale emigration, the laborers and 

 small tenants. In Oonnaught there were near- 

 ly 2,000,000 acres of rich pasturage from which 

 the fathers of these men had been evicted in 

 famine-years, that, they thought, ought to be 

 restored to their children, whom it was now 

 proposed to transport in a mass. 



On May 1st the time allowed to Irish ten- 

 ants to take advantage of the arrears act ex- 

 pired. About 136,000 tenants altogether made 

 application. The arrears cleared away amount- 

 ed to about 2,500,000, toward which the 

 state contributed 810,000. 



State-aided Emigration. At the end of March 

 the first departure of emigrants aided by the 

 state took place from Belmullet, in Mayo ; 360 

 persons were shipped to Boston entirely at the 

 expense of the Government, while additional 

 assistance was furnished by the Tuke fund. 

 After a number of parties were sent, the in- 

 formation was transmitted to the United States 

 that some of the poor-law unions took advan- 

 tage of the Government grant to ship their 

 paupers to America. The American Irish 

 raised an outcry, and the immigration au- 

 thorities were prompt to act. One family, 

 which arrived by the City of Richmond at 

 New York in the beginning of July, was sent 

 back. The steamship companies were notified 

 that the law against landing paupers would be 

 strictly enforced. The immigrants who ar- 

 rived subsequently were thoroughly examined, 

 and all who were unsuitable were returned, 

 until the managers of the Tuke fund and the 

 English officials took the pains to make the in- 

 vestigation before sending them out, and shipped 

 none who could not legally be received. 



Famine in Skye and the Western Highlands. 

 There was destitution in the western Highlands 

 of Scotland, in the Hebrides islands, and on the 

 coast of Ross-shire, attributable, as in Western 

 Ireland, to the paucity of the productions on 

 which the peasantry depend, and to similar 

 agrarian conditions. The potato-crop and the 

 herring - fishery, from which the inhabitants 

 derive the principal part of their subsistence, 

 both failed entirely in 1882. The grain-crops 

 were also destroyed by hurricanes in the late 

 autumn. The Highlanders formerly held the 

 land in common, but the application of the 

 modern English law gave the fee simple to the 

 chiefs. The land has become more profitable 

 for grazing, and even for hunting preserves, 

 than for agriculture. The peasantry have con- 

 sequently been displaced, and those who did 

 not emigrate crowd each other in these in- 

 fertile western districts. A croft of from four 



to seven acres is made to support the increas- 

 ing family until four or five cotters occupy the 

 original patch. 



Enseaworthy Vessels. The President of the 

 Board of Trade, Mr. Chamberlain, declared his 

 intention of preparing laws to prevent the loss 

 of lives on unsea worthy ships through the 

 culpable negligence of their owners. Of 3,118 

 lives lost in 1882 from foundering, defective 

 machinery, overloading, etc., not including 

 those on wrecked vessels, he considered that a 

 large proportion was chargeable directly to the 

 owners, who, in order to carry more freight, 

 or save expense in repairing, sent vessels to sea 

 in an unsea worthy condition, risking the lives 

 of all on board, while they were insured against 

 loss. In December, a set of rules which Mr. 

 Chamberlain proposed to embody in legisla- 

 tion, establishing a strict official inspection, was 

 submitted for criticism to the bodies represent- 

 ing the shipping interests. 



Blasphemy Trial. The prosecution of George 

 William Foote, George Ramsay, and H. A. 

 Kemp for blasphemy created excitement in 

 February and March. The charge was found- 

 ed on a coarse attack on the Christian religion, 

 holding the Saviour up to ridicule, which was 

 published in the Christmas number of the 

 "Freethinker." They were found guilty, and 

 sentenced to prison for twelve, nine, and three 

 months respectively. 



Rifle-Match at Wimbledon. The annual volun- 

 teer rifle contests at Wimbledon, opening July 

 9th, were favored by fine weather, except on 

 the days on which the international match was 

 contested by twelve picked marksmen of the 

 British volunteers and twelve of the national 

 guard of the United States. The British team 

 won by forty-eight points. Their victory was 

 in a measure due to their greater practice at 

 long-distance firing, in which the element of 

 chance largely enters, and to the 'rainy weather, 

 with which they are more familiar. At the 

 practical military distances the Americans led 

 the score by a few points. The national chal- 

 lenge trophy was won by the Scotch twenty, 

 and the Elcho shield by the Irish team, making 

 the sixth victory for them, to the eleventh for 

 England and the fifth for Scotland. 



GREECE, a kingdom of Southern Europe. 

 (For details relating to area, territorial di- 

 visions, population, etc., see u Annual Cyclo- 

 paedia" for 1882.) The present Constitution 

 was elaborated by a Constituent Assembly in 

 1864. The legislative power is exercised by a 

 single Chamber of Deputies, elected for four 

 years by direct vote. George I, King of the 

 Hellenes, is the second son of the King of Den- 

 mark, born Deo. 24, 1845. He was offered the 

 crown by the National Assembly, in accord- 

 ance with a protocol providing for the annex- 

 ation of the Ionian isles, signed June 5, 1863, 

 in London, by the three protecting powers, 

 France, England, and Russia, and began his 

 reign October 31st of that year. The number 

 of deputies in the Chamber is 187. 



