The cost of the army in the year 1876 was given in the budget estimates at 7,830,500 drachmas, or 279,600l., showing an increase of 5,793 drachmas, or 2077. over the previous year.

The navy consisted, at the commencement of 1876, of fourteen vessels, namely one ironclad, the Basileus Georgios; six screw steamers, the Paralos, Salaminia, Plexaura, Suros, Nauplion, and Afroessa; four shooners, the Methonë, Saffo, Aura, and Kuthnos ; two cutters, the Glaukos and Poludeukes; and the Royal yacht, Amphitrite. The navy was manned at the same date by 71 officers, 198 non-commissioned officers, and 384 sailors. The cost of the navy in the year 1875 was given in the budget estimates at 1,800,348 drachmas, or 64,2981., showing a decrease of 106,228 drachmas, or 3,7941. over the previous year. At the end of 1874, the navy was officered and manned by 71 commissioned officers, 198 non-commissioned officers, and 384 sailors. The navy is manned by conscription from the inhabitants of the sea-coast; but volunteering is greatly encouraged by the Government.

Population,

Greece, at the last census, taken May 2-16, 1870, had a total population of 1,457,894-of whom 754,176 were males and 703,718 females-living on an area of 19,941 English square miles. The kingdom is divided into 13 Nomos or Nomarchies, and subdivided into 59 Eparchies. By the return of the census of May 2, 1870, the area and population of each of the 13 Nomarchies was as follows:

The census of 1870 gives an average density of population of 73 per square mile, being less than that of European Turkey. Previous to the year 1864, there were only 58 inhabitants to the square mile, but the annexation of the Ionian Islands, with a dense population-226 per square mile-served to raise the figure, contributing far more to the population than to the area of the kingdom. The census of 1870, as well as the previous one of 1861, exhibited the existence of a considerably larger male than female population, the former outnumbering the latter by 54,035 individuals in 1861, and by 50,468 in 1870.

About one-half of the total population of Greece is agricultural, living dispersed in villages. The principal towns are Athens, with a population of 46,000, or 52,000 including the Piræus; Syra, with 25,000; and Patras with 25,000.

At the liberation of the country, there were only nine towns which had partly escaped the total devastation of the rest; the principal of them being Lamia, Vonitza, Nauplia, and Chalcis. All the other towns and villages were in ruins, so that the first necessity of the inhabitants of the new State was to get housed. Since that time ten new cities have been founded, and twenty-three old towns, including Athens, Thebes, and Argos, have been rebuilt, besides many villages.

The nationality of the inhabitants of the kingdom is very mixed. The Albanian race occupies a considerable portion of the soil of ancient Greece, both within, as well as without, the frontiers of the new kingdom. With the exception of the two towns of Athens and Megara, it monopolises the whole of Attica and Messenia, and is in possession of the greater part of Boeotia, and a small part of Laconia. The south of Euboea, the north of Achaia, part of Elis, and the whole of Salamis, are also peopled by Albanians. In the Peloponnesus the Albanian element occupies the whole of Corinth and Argolis, the north of Arcadia, the east of Achaia; and stretching into Laconia, down the slopes of Taygetus towards the plain of Helos, it crosses the Eurotas, and holds possession of a large district round Monemvasia. However, in the kingdom its numerical strength, amounting to about 250,000 souls, is less notable than its social and industrial activity. The Albanian race furnishes to the Greek soil the greatest number of cultivators, and to the maritime population of Greece its most enterprising element.

Only one-seventh of the area of Greece is under cultivation; the rest, though in greater part good for agricultural purposes, lies waste. The whole superficies of Greece has been estimated at 45,699,248 stremmas, or about 15 millions of acres. Of these 45,699,248 stremmas, which comprise in extent the whole soil of the kingdom, with the exception of the Ionian Islands, 11,748,000

U

stremmas are said to be unfit for cultivation; 18,599,240 stremmas consist of rock and mountain; 5,419,660 stremmas consist of forest; 833,448 of marsh; and 1,653,000 of rivers, roads, cities, and villages. In all, therefore, there are 38,253,000 stremmas of uncultivated land, leaving 7,435,900 stremmas of land in cultivation. The ground is chiefly in the hands of a few proprietors; but many of the peasants hold small patches of land of their own. Others cultivate farms on the metayer system, the owner of the land providing the farm-house, agricultural implements, and seed; the produce, after deducting the seed, is divided in certain proportions between the cultivator and the owner of the land. A great part of the ground is national property, and the cultivator of it pays to the Government as rent 15 per cent. of the produce. By Article 101 of the Constitution of 1864, provision is made for the disposal and distribution of the national lands.

Trade and Industry.

The con.merce of Greece averaged six and a half millions sterling per annum in the five years 1871-75, the imports amounting to upwards of three millions and a half, and the exports to nearly three millions. About one-half of the imports come from, and three-fifths, in value, of the exports go to the United Kingdom. The principal other countries with which commercial intercourse is carried on are, in order of importance, France, Turkey, Austria, Italy, and Russia. But the value of the imports and exports interchanged with these States is comparatively unimportant.

The commercial intercourse of Greece with the United Kingdom is exhibited in the subjoined tabular statement, showing the value of the total exports from Greece to Great Britain and Ireland, and of the imports of British and Irish produce and manufactures into Greece, in the five years 1871 to 1875:

The staple article of export from Greece to Great Britain is currants, the value of which, in the year 1875, amounted to

1,410,6787. At the head of the other articles of export stand olive oil, shipped to the value of 178,6127. in 1875, and valonia, of the value of 40,200l., the former exported solely from the Ionian Islands. Of the imports from the United Kingdom into Greece, about one-half are manufactured cotton goods. The declared value of cotton goods, imported in the year 1875 amounted to 588,9231., against 619,3351. in 1874. It will be seen from the preceding table that the commerce of Greece with Great Britain has been stationary since the year 1872. Greece is mainly an agricultural country, and the existing manufactures are few and unimportant. Corn is not produced, however, in sufficient quantities to serve for the subsistence of the inhabitants, and a certain amount has to be imported every year, chiefly from Southern Russia. The most favoured and best-cultivated of crops is that of the currant, or the 'papolina.' Immense districts are planted with currants in various parts of the kingdom, particularly along the shores of the Gulf of Corinth, between the towns of Corinth and Patras, and on the islands of Zante and Cephalonia. Almost all trade is carried on by sea, and there is very little inland traffic, owing to want of roads. In 1868 the first, and as yet only, railway, a line of seven miles, connecting Athens with the port of Piræus, was opened in the kingdom.

The telegraphic lines were of a total length of 1,235 English miles, at the end of 1875. They carried 203,500 telegrams in 1875.

Of post offices there existed 131 at the end of 1875. During the year the number of private letters carried was 2,413,000, of official letters 725,000, and of newspapers 1,562,000. The total revenue of the post-office was for several years less than the expenditure, the annual deficit averaging 1,500.

The merchant navy of Greece numbered 5,001 vessels, of an aggregate burthen of 239,135 tons, at the end of 1875. The mercantile navy is officially divided into three classes, namely, first, sailing vessels under sixty tons; secondly, sailing vessels over sixty tons; and, thirdly, steamers. The following was the number of the vessels of each of these classes in 1875:

A considerable amount of the carrying trade of the Black Sea and the eastern parts of the Mediterranean is carried on under the Greek flag.

Diplomatic Representatives.

1. OF GREECE IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Chargé d'Affaires.-John Gennadius, appointed July 1876.

Attaché.-Alexander Ralli.

2. OF GREAT BRITAIN IN GREECE.

Envoy and Minister.-Hon. William Stuart, C.B., born in 1825; Envoy to the Argentine Confederation, 1861-71, and appointed Envoy to Greece, July 29, 1872.

Secretaries. George H. Wyndham; Wm. N. Beauclerk.

Money, Weights, and Measures.

The money, weights, and measures of Greece, and their English equivalents, are :—

MONEY.

Greece entered, in 1875, the Monetary League of the Continental States (see page 39), and by a decree of the Government, dated August 11, 1876, all foreign silver coins with the exception of those of the League ceased to be legal tender in the kingdom.

Statistical and other Books of Reference concerning Greece. 1. OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS.

Πληθυσμὸς τῆς Ἑλλάδος κατὰ ἔτος 1870. (Census of Greece in 1870.) 8. Athens, 1871.

Report by Mr. R. G. Watson, Secretary of Legation, on the Financial Position and the Public Debt of Greece, dated Athens, July 31, 1870; in 'Reports of H.M.'s Secretaries of Embassy and Legation.' No. I. 1871. 8. London,

1871.

Report by Mr. R. G. Watson, Secretary of Legation, on the state of education and the obstacles of material progress in Greece, dated Athens, Jan. 20, 1872; in Reports of H. M.'s Secretaries of Embassy and Legation.' No. I. 1872. 8. London, 1872.