Page:EB1911 - Volume 12.djvu/450

Rh regiments). It consists of a red cap with dark blue tassel, a white shirt with wide sleeves, a vest and jacket, sometimes of velvet, handsomely adorned with gold or black braid, a belt in which various weapons are carried, a white kilt or fustanella of many folds, white hose tied with garters, and red leather shoes with pointed ends, from which a tassel depends. Over all is worn the shaggy white capote. The islanders wear a dark blue costume with a crimson waistband, loose trousers descending to the knee, stockings and pumps or long boots. The women’s costume is very varied; the loose red fez is sometimes worn and a short velvet jacket with rich gold embroidery. The more elderly women are generally attired in black. In the Megara district and elsewhere peasant girls wear on festive occasions a headdress composed of strings of coins which formerly represented the dowry.

Greece is a constitutional monarchy; hereditary in the male line, or, in case of its extinction, in the female. The sovereign, by decision of the conference of London (August 1863), is styled “king of the Hellenes”; the title “king of Greece” was borne by King Otho. The heir

apparent is styled , “the successor”; the title “duke of Sparta,” which has been accorded to the crown prince, is not generally employed in Greece. The king and the heir apparent must belong to the Orthodox Greek Church; a special exception has been made for King George, who is a Lutheran. The king attains his majority on completing his eighteenth year; before ascending the throne he must take the oath to the constitution in presence of the principal ecclesiastical and lay dignitaries of the kingdom, and must convoke the Chamber within two months after his accession. The civil list amounts to 1,125,000 dr., in addition to which it was provided that King George should receive £4000 annually as a personal allowance from each of the three protecting powers, Great Britain, France and Russia. The heir apparent receives from the state an annuity of 200,000 dr. The king has a palace at Athens and other residences at Corfu, Tatoi (on the slopes of Mt Parnes) and Larissa. The present constitution dates from the 29th of October 1864. The legislative power is shared by the king with a single chamber ( ) elected by manhood suffrage for a period of four years. The election is by ballot; candidates must have completed their thirtieth year and electors their twenty-first. The deputies ( ), according to the constitution, receive only their travelling expenses, but they vote themselves a payment of 1800 dr. each for the session and a further allowance in case of an extraordinary session. The Chamber sits for a term of not less than three or more than six months. No law can be passed except by an absolute majority of the house, and one-half of the members must be present to form a quorum; these arrangements have greatly facilitated the practice of obstruction, and often enable individual deputies to impose terms on the government for their attendance. In 1898 the number of deputies was 234. Some years previously a law diminishing the national representation and enlarging the constituencies was passed by Trikoupis with the object of checking the local influence of electors upon deputies, but the measure was subsequently repealed. The number of deputies, however, who had hitherto been elected in the proportion of one to twelve thousand of the population, was reduced in 1905, when the proportion of one to sixteen thousand was substituted; the Chamber of 1906, elected under the new system, consisted of 177 deputies. In 1906 the electoral districts were diminished in number and enlarged so as to coincide with the twenty-six administrative departments ( ); the reduction of these departments to their former number of sixteen, which is in contemplation, will bring about some further diminution in parliamentary representation. It is hoped that recent legislation will tend to check the pernicious practice of bartering personal favours, known as , which still prevails to the great detriment of public morality, paralysing all branches of the administration and wasting the resources of the state. Political parties are formed not for the furtherance of any principle or cause, but with the object of obtaining the spoils of office, and the various groups, possessing no party watchword or programme, frankly designate themselves by the names of their leaders. Even the strongest government is compelled to bargain with its supporters in regard to the distribution of patronage and other favours. The consequent instability of successive ministries has retarded useful legislation and seriously checked the national progress. In 1906 a law was passed disqualifying junior officers of the army and navy for membership of the Chamber; great numbers of these had hitherto been candidates at every election. This much-needed measure had previously been passed by Trikoupis, but had been repealed by his rival Delyannes. The executive is vested in the king, who is personally irresponsible, and governs through ministers chosen by himself and responsible to the Chamber, of which they are ex-officio members. He appoints all public officials, sanctions and proclaims laws, convokes, prorogues and dissolves the Chamber, grants pardon or amnesty, coins money and confers decorations. There are seven ministries which respectively control the departments of foreign affairs, the interior, justice, finance, education and worship, the army and the navy.

The 26 departments or , into which the country is divided for administrative purposes, are each under a prefect or nomarch ( ); they are subdivided into 69 districts or eparchies, and into 445 communes or demes ( ) under mayors or demarchs ( ). The prefects

and sub-prefects are nominated by the government; the mayors are elected by the communes for a period of four years. The prefects are assisted by a departmental council, elected by the population, which manages local business and assesses rates; there are also communal councils under the presidency of the mayors. There are altogether some 12,000 state-paid officials in the country, most of them inadequately remunerated and liable to removal or transferral upon a change of government. A host of office-seekers has thus been created, and large numbers of educated persons spend many years in idleness or in political agitation. A law passed in 1905 secures tenure of office to civil servants of fifteen years’ standing, and some restrictions have been placed on the dismissal and transferral of schoolmasters.

Under the Turks the Greeks retained, together with their ecclesiastical institutions, a certain measure of local self-government and judicial independence. The Byzantine code, based on the Roman, as embodied in the  of Armenopoulos (1345), was sanctioned by royal decree in 1835

with some modifications as the civil law of Greece. Further modifications and new enactments were subsequently introduced, derived from the old French and Bavarian systems. The penal code is Bavarian, the commercial French. Liberty of person and domicile is inviolate; no arrest can be made, no house entered, and no letter opened without a judicial warrant. Trial by jury is established for criminal, political and press offences. A new civil code, based on Saxon and Italian law, has been drawn up by a commission of jurists, but it has not yet been considered by the Chamber. A separate civil code, partly French, partly Italian, is in force in the Ionian Islands. The law is administered by 1 court of cassation (styled the “Areopagus”), 5 courts of appeal, 26 courts of first instance, 233 justices of the peace and 19 correctional tribunals.

The judges, who are appointed by the Crown, are liable to removal by the minister of justice, whose exercise of this right is often invoked by political partisans. The administration of justice suffers in consequence, more especially in the country districts, where the judges must reckon with the influential politicians and their adherents. The pardon or release of a convicted criminal is not infrequently due to pressure on the part of some powerful patron. The lamentable effects of this system have long been recognized, and in 1906 a law was introduced securing tenure of office for two or four years to judges of the courts of first instance and of the inferior tribunals. In the circumstances crime is less rife than might be expected; the temperate habits of the Greeks have conduced to this result. A serious feature is the great prevalence of homicide, due in