GREECE. (KINGDOM OF THE HELLENES.) Georgios I., born December 24, 1845, the second son (Wilhelm) of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-SonderburgGlücksburg, present King of Denmark; elected King of the Hellenes by the National Assembly at Athens, March 18 (30), 1863; accepted the crown, through his father the King of Denmark, acting as his guardian, June 4, 1863; declared of age by decree of the National Assembly, June 27, 1863; landed in Greece November 2, 1863; married, October 27, 1867, to Queen Olga, born August 22 (September 3), 1851, the eldest daughter of Grand-duke Constantine of Russia, brother of the late Emperor Alexander II. Children of the King. I. Prince Konstantinos, heir-apparent, born August 2, 1868; married, October 27, 1889, to Princess Sophia, Princess of Prussia. II. Prince Georgios, born June 24, 1869. III. Princess Alexandra, born August 30, 1870. IV. Prince Nicolaos, born January 21, 1872. V. Princess Maria, born March 3, 1876. VI. Prince Andreas, born February 13, 1882. VII. Prince Christopheros, born August 10, 1888. By decision of the Greek National Assembly of May 15, 1863, a civil list of 1,125,000 drachmai was settled on King Georgios I., to which the Governments of Great Britain, France, and Russia added 4,000l. each, making the total income of the sovereign of Greece about 52,000l. per annum. An annuity of 200,000 drachmai is allowed to the heir-apparent since he came of age in August 1886. Greece, a province of the Turkish Empire since the commencement of the 16th century, gained its independence in the insurrection of 1821-29, and by the Protocol of London, of February 3, 1830, was declared a kingdom, under the protection of Great Britain, France, and Russia. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg having declined the crown of Greece, on the ground that the boundaries proposed were insufficient, and especially excluded the island of Crete, it was offered to, and accepted by, Prince Otto of Bavaria, CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT 637 who ascended the throne January 25, 1833, being under the age of eighteen. He was expelled the Kingdom, after a reign of 29 years, in October 1862, which event was followed by the election, under the directing guidance of the three protecting Powers, of the present sovereign. The King, according to Art. 49 of the Constitution of 1864, attains his majority upon completing his eighteenth year. Before he ascends the throne, he must take the oath to the Constitution in the presence of the ministers, the sacred synod, the deputies then in the metropolis, and the higher officials of the realm. Within two months at the most the King must convoke the Legislature. If the successor to the throne is either a minor or absent at the time of the King's decease, and no Regent has been appointed, the Legislative Chamber has to assemble of its own accord within ten days after the occurrence of that event. The constitutional royal authority in this case has to be exercised by the ministerial council, until the choice of a Regent, or the arrival of the successor to the throne. The present sovereign is allowed, by special exception, to adhere to the religion in which he was educated, the Protestant Lutheran faith, but his heirs and successors must be members of the Greek Orthodox Church. Constitution and Government. The present Constitution of Greece was elaborated by a Constituent Assembly, elected in December 1863, and adopted October 29, 1864. It vests the whole legislative power in a single chamber of representatives, called the Boulé, elected by manhood suffrage for the term of four years. The elections take place by ballot, and each candidate must be put in nomination by the requisition of at least one-thirtieth of the voters of an electoral district. At the election of 1881 there were 460,163 voters on the list, being 1 voter in every 4:3 of the population; the number who voted was 306,957, or 66 per cent. of the voters. The Boulé must meet annually for not less than three, nor more than six months. No sitting is valid unless at least one-half of the members of the Assembly are present, and no bill can pass into law without an absolute majority of members. Every measure, before being adopted, must be discussed and voted, article by article, thrice, and on three separate days. But the Legislative Assembly has no power to alter the Constitution itself; particular provisions may be reviewed after the lapse of ten years, with the exception of 'fundamental principles.' The Chamber of Deputies, unless specially convoked at an earlier date, for extraordinary occasions, must meet on November 1 (old style) of every year. By a law passed in August 1886 the total number of deputies has been reduced to 150, and the electoral colleges from eparchies have been extended to nomarchies. The deputies are paid 2,000 drachmai each per session, and an extra 1,500 drachmai each for an extra session. The executive is vested in the King and his responsible Min isters, the heads of seven departments. They are the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Marine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Area and Population. Greece, at the census of 1889, had a total population of 2,187,2081,133,625 males and 1,053,583 females-living on an area of 25,041 English square miles. The territory detached from Turkey, consisting of most of Thessaly and a strip of Epirus, was added to Greece by a treaty with Turkey, executed-under pressure of the Great Powers-June 14, 1881. The Kingdom, excluding these, is divided into 17 nomarchies. In 1879 and 1889 the area and population were as follows: Nomarchies NORTHERN GREECE:- Area: : English Population Population Pop. per sq. mile, 1889 The increase of the population of Greece from 1870 to 1879 was at the rate of 1.87, and from 1879 to 1889 1.05 per cent. per annum. The number of foreigners living in Greece in 1879 was 31,969, of whom 23,133 were Turks, 3,104 Italians, 2,187 English, 534 French, 364 Austrians, 314 Germans, 101 Russians. The following table shows the number of births, deaths, and marriages, AREA AND POPULATION-RELIGION 639 with surplus of births over deaths, in years from 1880-82 and 1884, exclusive of the recently annexed provinces : The chief occupations of the people are the following, in percentages of the population in Greece and Ionian Islands (census 1879):-Agriculture, 40 per cent.; shepherds, 9 per cent.; industries, 6.37; servants, 7.75: labourers, 8-11; commerce, 6·37; landed proprietors, 6·10; seafaring, 3.05; army and navy, 4.86; priests, 1·50. In the ceded provinces (1881): Agriculture, 41.95; labourers, 12:32; industries, 10-21; shepherds, 8.18; servants, 7.24; commerce, 6-47; priests, 1.61. From a linguistic point of view, at least, the nationality of Greece is Hellenic. Most of the Albanians who have, at various dates during the last 400 years, migrated into Greece, have become Hellenised. At present there are not more than 90,000 or 100,000 of distinct Albanian nationality in the whole of Greece. These are scattered in small communities chiefly over Attica; northwards, as far as Thebes; then across the Isthmus of Corinth, throughout the ancient Argolis, in the southern districts of Euboea, and a few of the neighbouring isles. On the other hand, there are large numbers of Greeks in the Ottoman Empire, raising the whole Greek nationality to over 8,000,000, as under:-Greece, about 2,200,000; Asia Minor, 2,000,000; Crete, Cyprus, and other Ottoman islands, 400,000; European Turkey, 3,500,000; total, 8,100,000. About one-half of the total population of Greece is agricultural, living dispersed in villages. The principal towns are the following, with populations, 1889: The great majority of the inhabitants of the Kingdom are adherents of the Greek Orthodox Church. Before the census of 1889 there were 1,902,800 belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church; 14,677 other Christians, mainly Roman Catholics; 5,792 Jews; and 24,165 Mohammedans. By the terms of the Constitution of 1864, the Greek Orthodox Church is declared the religion of the State, but complete toleration and liberty of worship is guaranteed to all other sects. Nominally, the Greek clergy owe allegiance to the Patriarch of Constantinople, though he now exercises no governing authority; he is elected by the votes of the bishops and optimates subject to the Sultan; his jurisdiction extends over Thrace and other countries, including Bosnia, as well as the greater part of Asia Minor. The real ecclesiastical authority, formerly exercised by him in Greece, was annulled by the resolutions of a National Synod, held at Nauplia in 1833, which vested the government of the Orthodox Church, within the limits of the Kingdom, in a permanent council, called the Holy Synod, consisting of the Metropolitan of Athens and four archbishops and bishops, who must during their year of office reside at the seat of the executive. The Orthodox Church has nine archbishops and eight bishops in Northern Greece; six archbishops and six bishops in the Peloponnesus; one archbishop and five bishops in the islands of the Greek Archipelago; and five archbishops and ten bishops in the Ionian Islands. There are 161 monasteries and nunneries, with 2,620 monks and 485 nuns. Instruction. All children between the ages of five and twelve years must attend school, but the law is not well enforced in country districts. According to the census of 1879, 86-06 per cent. of males and 23.08 females could read and write. The following are the educational statistics of Greece for 1884: For primary education, the communes spent, in 1885, 2,225,000 drachmai, and the Government 700,000 drachmai. The budget of 1885 contained 3,000,000 drachmai as the Government contribution to higher and middle education. Finance. The public revenue and expenditure of the Kingdom were as follows in the years from 1884 to 1889, according to official returns (the figures for 1888 and 1889 are only estimates) : The following table gives the budget estimates for 1890: |